Squiggly Careers is a weekly podcast that helps you take control of your career development. Hosted by Sarah Ellis and Helen Tupper, founders of Amazing If, the show covers topics like managing stress, overcoming confidence gremlins, micro-aggressions, and discovering your strengths. Each episode provides actionable ideas, hints, and tips. The podcast also features interviews with experts such as Dame Stephanie Shirley and Bruce Daisley.
Episodes
#610 How to get rid of bad friction at work
We’re trying something new with our Squiggly Shortcuts. Every Thursday, we’ll share a short clip from a past Squiggly Careers episode with a practical idea you can try in your working week.
This week’s clip comes from episode 599, where Helen and Sarah explored how friction can work for or against you. For this Shortcut, they focus on one part of that conversation: how to get rid of the friction
#609 How to Learn More in Meetings
Meetings might not be everyone’s favourite part of the working week, but they can be a great opportunity to learn.
In this episode, Helen and Sarah share five ways to learn more from the meetings already in your diary. From borrowing brilliance from your colleagues to trying a different question, these ideas help you add learning into your working day.
🎯 What You'll Learn
How to spot and borrow b
#608 How to respond to feedback you don't agree with
How do you respond to feedback you don’t agree with? It can be hard to know what to say in the moment. You might feel you need to defend yourself or rush to work out what to do differently.
In this Squiggly Careers Shortcut, Helen shares the ‘multiplier effect’ from our book, Learn Like a Lobster. It’s a practical way to stay curious, explore different perspectives and work out what you can learn
#607: Accountability: How to Take Ownership at Work
What does it mean to take accountability at work, and how can you get better at it?
In this episode, Helen and Sarah explore how taking ownership of your actions, decisions and outcomes builds trust and creates more freedom in your career. They assess their own accountability across six everyday work moments, share feedback with each other and suggest practical actions to help you spot where yo
#606 How to find more focus
How often do notifications interrupt your working day?
In this Squiggly Careers Shortcut, Sarah shares five practical ways to reduce notifications and find more focus. Learn how switching between tasks steals our attention, and how small changes can help us spend more time doing just one thing at once.
🎯 What You'll Learn
- Choose which notifications you need and which you just want
- Use Do N
#605 Career magnetism: how to attract what you want at work
What if you could pull the right career opportunities toward you while pushing away the work that drains you? In this episode, Helen and Sarah explore how the physics of magnets can help you shape a more intentional squiggly career.
Through three questions, they share practical ways to make new connections, rethink what’s in your diary and move from ‘either/or’ to ‘and’ thinking.
🎯 What You'
#604 5 ways to have a more confident day at work
Building self-belief into your working day can help you feel more confident. In this Shortcut, Sarah shares five ways to have a more confident day at work, practical ideas to try if something feels missing, and two watch-outs that can get in your way.
🎯 What You'll Learn
- Spot and use your strengths to help your team
- Find five-minute favours to experience the helper's high
- Zoom in and zo
#603 Ask the Expert: Vibe and Building Better Connections with Adam Grant
What helps us connect with the people we work with, and what happens when that connection is missing?
In this episode, Sarah is joined by organisational psychologist and bestselling author Adam Grant to explore his new book, Vibe, and what the science of connection can teach us about our Squiggly Careers.
From seeing someone else’s ‘snow globe’ to sharing what brings out your worst, Adam shares
#602 High performance habits for your Squiggly career
What’s one small thing you could do today that your future self would thank you for? In this squiggly shortcut, Helen shares four high performance habits that compound over time to build a resilient and successful career.
Drawing on the time-tracking insights of Laura Vanderkam, Adam Grant's research on the power of giving, and Helen and Sarah's own 'Learn Like a Lobster' framework, learn how sma
#601 How to use profilers for your career development
Profilers can help you understand yourself, find words for your strengths and choose where to focus your development. But your results are clues to explore, rather than labels that limit you.
In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from three profilers: Lynda Gratton’s Living the 100-Year Life diagnostic, 16Personalities and the Squiggly Skills Profiler. They share their own results, wh
#600 Everyday actions for everyday resilience
When your week gets busy, do you find yourself dropping the things that help you feel good? It can be easy to put rest, support and time outside work on hold just when you need them most.
In this Squiggly Career Shortcut, Helen shares six small actions you can build into your week to support your resilience. Pick one or two that feel useful to you and try doing them regularly, before things start
#599 Friction: Why making things harder can make you better
Is something at work feeling harder than it needs to be? It could be a meeting that takes too long, a decision that goes back and forth, or a process with more steps than it needs.
This week, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from The Friction Project by Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao. They explore how to spot the friction that slows you down, what you could subtract to make work easier, and why s
#598 How to understand and take action with your ambition
In this shortcut, Helen, talks about a matrix that can help you to understand where your ambition is right now and what is the most effective action to take to support your development.
🎯 What You'll Learn
- that ambition is individual
- where your ambition in today
- what action to take to activate your ambition
For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenands
#597 How thinking inside the box will lead to more opportunities for your squiggly career.
Could putting more constraints on your career actually create more possibilities?
In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from David Epstein's book (Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better) to explore how choosing your own constraints can help you think differently and more creatively about your career. They experiment with constraints across six areas of career development, fro
#596 3 ways teams can learn when they are not together
The people you work with make a significant difference to your development. In this shortcut, Sarah shares 3 ways to learn more from the people around you.
🎯 What You'll Learn
- the importance of showing how you work
- why volunteering to support somone outside of your day job helps you grow
- how next level noticing will support you to succeed in your team
For questions about Squiggly Careers
#595 How to Answer AI Questions in Job Interviews
Getting ready for a job interview can feel daunting, but what happens when you have to face an AI interviewer or answer tough questions about how you use artificial intelligence?
In this episode, Helen puts Sarah on the spot with real AI interview questions shared by the Squiggly Careers community.
Together, they explore how AI is changing the interview experience, what interviewers might be lo
#594 How to increase your autonomy
Increasing your autonomy has a proven impact of work wellbeing and fulfilment and in this shortcut, Helen talks through 3 practical actions to help you to earn more autonomy at work.
🎯 What You'll Learn
- how to build trust
- why working autonomously doesn't mean going it alone
- the importance of owning your outcomes
For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: hele
#593 No Regret Skills: How to Get Better at Adaptability
When things change at work, how good are you at changing how you think or act in response?
In the second part of our No Regret Skills mini-series, Helen and Sarah turn their attention to adaptability. Sarah breaks this skill down into eight different dimensions and puts Helen through a real-life scenario to explore where her adaptability strengths are and where she could get better.
🎯 What You'l
#592 How to look for leaders you can learn from
The leaders you surround yourself with make a significant difference to your squiggly career. In this shortcut Sarah shares 3 ways to look for leaders to learn from and what you don't need to worry about.
🎯 What You'll Learn
- how to look for leaders who get stuff done
- why spotting leaders who say I don't know is a good source of learning
- the most curious leaders will help you to stay curio
#591 No Regret Skills: How to Make Better Decisions
With so many skills competing for our attention, how do you decide which ones are worth investing in?
In this episode, Helen and Sarah explore the idea of 'no regret skills' – skills that will stay useful whatever the future of work looks like. In the first of this two-part series, Helen borrows brilliance from poker player and author Annie Duke to explore decision-making and shares four practica
#590 How to increase your impact in every meeting
We spend a lot of our working week in meetings, but how much impact are you having when you're in them?
In this Shortcut, Helen shares three simple ways to increase your impact in every meeting: asking a question, making a suggestion and offering a reflection. Whether you tend to stay quiet or want to make your contributions more useful, these small actions can help you show your strengths, add m
#589 How to use the next 88 days at work wisely
With 88 working days left until the end of the year, how will you choose to spend your time? September can bring a 'new pencil case' feeling – a useful opportunity to reset and refocus on what matters most.
In this episode, Helen and Sarah share eight questions to help you use the rest of your working year well and wisely. Exploring priorities, time, people and skills, they reflect on their own a
#588 How to Decide Which Goals to Give Up
Setting goals is one thing. Knowing when to let go of them is another.
In this Shortcut, Helen explores the idea of productive quitting and why trying to hold on to too many goals can get in the way of making progress. Drawing on research from the Goal Adjustment Scale and a New Scientist article on goal adjustment, she shares a practical way to review your goals so you can focus your time and en
#587 80,000 hours with Benjamin Todd (A Career Well Spent Series)
How can you make sure the 80,000 hours you spend at work are truly well spent? In this episode, we challenge the traditional advice to "follow your passion" and look at how to build a career that makes a meaningful difference. This episode of part 4 of 4 in the 'Career Well Spent Series'
Drawing on Benjamin Todd's book, 80,000 Hours, and his research on effective altruism and career impact, the
#586 Questions to ask in an interview
Most of us focus on preparing for the questions we'll be asked in an interview, but what we ask at the end is just as important. It is your ultimate opportunity to take control of the conversation and leave a brilliant lasting impression.
In this Squiggly Shortcut, Sarah explores how to ask powerful culture and commercial questions, and what the answers reveal about whether a company is the right
#585 What to make of a life with Jim Collins (A Career Well Spent Series)
Are you feeling lost in a career fog or facing a major transition? In this special episode, Sarah is joined by legendary author and researcher Jim Collins to explore what it really takes to build a fulfilling life and career.
This episode of part 3 of 4 in the 'Career Well Spent Series'
Drawing on Jim's new book 'What to Make of a Life', they explore what it really means to navigate life's 'cliff
#584 How to Create Your AI Learning Plan
AI is changing quickly, which can make it hard to know where to start. If you're feeling overwhelmed by everything there is to learn, you're definitely not alone.
In this Shortcut, Sarah shares how to use the Squiggly Careers Learning Navigator to turn AI into something practical and personal. Instead of trying to learn everything, you'll identify what matters most for your role, connect learning
#583 Big Time with Laura Vanderkam (A Career Well Spent Series)
Do you feel constantly defeated by a packed calendar and rushed for time? Reclaiming control of your schedule starts with changing how you view your 168 hours.
This episode of part 2 of 4 in the 'Career Well Spent Series'
Drawing on Laura’s bestselling books '168 Hours' and 'Big Time', Helen explores what it means to achieve true time abundance, and what your default response to a busy calenda
#582 How to use AI as your thought partner
Outsourcing your thinking to AI erodes the value of your contribution and means you are less likely to make a distinctive difference. Using AI as a thought-partner is a skill which can help you to refine your thinking, communicate more clearly and spot gaps before you share your perspective with other people.
In this shortcut, Helen talks through how you can use AI as a thought-partner for your
#581 The 100 year life with Lynda Gratton (A Career Well Spent Series)
How do we design a career that lasts a lifetime without running out of energy? In this episode, Sarah talks to world-renowned expert Lynda Gratton about how to navigate a multi-stage, 100-year life. This episode of part 1 of 4 in the 'Career Well Spent Series'
Drawing on Lynda Gratton's groundbreaking research and her new book 'Living the Hundred-Year Life', Sarah and Lynda discuss what it real
#580 Small actions to increase your assertiveness
Do you struggle to speak up in meetings or find yourself watering down your ideas? Assertiveness isn't about being the loudest person in the room; it is built through small, daily actions.
In this episode, Helen shares simple actions to increase your assertiveness.
🎯 What You'll Learn
– How to quash qualifiers like "maybe" and "just"
– The power of being the person who creates clarity
– How to
#579 How to build an M-shaped career
Do you feel like you were never meant to master just one thing? It is time to move beyond the traditional career path and embrace the potential of an M-shaped career.
In this episode, Helen and Sarah explore what it means to develop mastery across multiple areas.
🎯 What You'll Learn
– Define the M-shaped career model and why it is a competitive advantage
– Identify your existing areas of d
#578 How to overcome your distraction downfall
Do you find yourself constantly checking your phone or email instead of focusing on your most important work? In this squiggly shortcut, Helen shares practical ways to beat distraction and reclaim your attention.
Drawing on Nir Eyal's research on becoming indistractable, they explore what it really means to develop this skill, and what your default response to it reveals about you.
🎯 What You'll
#577 How to solve tame, critical and wicked work problems
Not all problems are created equal, and trying to solve them all the same way is likely to result in frustration.
In this episode, Helen and Sarah explore how to identify whether you are facing a tame, critical, or wicked problem and the specific approach needed to make progress on each.
Drawing on the work of Keith Grint, they explore what it means to develop this skill, and what your defa
#576 Set yourself up to fail, so you're more likely to succeed
Want to achieve your biggest career goals this year? The answer might lie in planning exactly how you could fail first.
Drawing on research from New York University on mental contrasting, Helens explore how balancing your biggest career opportunities with your realistic obstacles can significantly increase your chance of success.
🎯 What You'll Learn
– What is mental contrasting and why does it b
#575 Oracy: How to improve your speaking and listening skills
Do you often feel like you are just waiting for your turn to speak, rather than truly listening and learning? In this episode, we explore the power of oracy and how it can change the way you think and work.
Drawing on the work of Voice 21, Barbara Oakley, and research from More in Common, they explore what it means to develop this skill.
🎯 What You'll Learn
– Define oracy as the essential ski
#574 How to Adapt Your Skills for Career Growth
Is your current way of working holding you back from your next career milestone? Sometimes, the very habits that helped you succeed in the past can become obstacles to your future progress.
Drawing on Marshall Goldsmith’s concept of 'What Got You Here Won't Get You There', Helen explores what it means to develop this skill, and what your default response to it reveals about you.
🎯 What You'll Le
#573 How to build a super team
Ever wondered what sets high-performing 'super teams' apart from those that are stalling? It's not just about talent, but a shared belief in your collective ability to learn, adapt, and succeed together.
In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from a feeling and dive deep into one of the most relevant topics in work and careers right now.
Drawing on the latest research into high-p
#572 The Listening Habit That Changes Every Conversation
Are you a conversational narcissist? In this Squiggly Shortcut, Sarah introduces a deceptively simple idea from Celeste Headlee that will change how you listen, and make you notice everyone else's conversations differently too.
🎯 What You'll Learn
– What a shift response is, why we all do it, and why it matters more than you might think
– What a support response sounds like in practice, and how i
#571 How to Get Better at Holding Uncertainty at Work
Uncertainty isn't going anywhere. So what if the goal wasn't to get rid of it, but to get better at holding it?
In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from a feeling and dive deep into one of the most relevant topics in work and careers right now.
Drawing on Margaret Heffernan's Embracing Uncertainty, Sam Conniff and Katherine Templar-Lewis's Uncertainty Toolkit, and a brilliant
#570 The Four People Every Squiggly Career Network Needs
Your career doesn't need a bigger network, it needs a better one. In this Squiggly Shortcut, Helen shares the four roles that matter most for your career community, and why focusing on just these four makes building your career relationships feel a lot more doable.
🎯 What You'll Learn
– What a mentor actually is (and why they don't need to be senior or long-term to be valuable)
– Why a peer — som
#569 Why zero distance will make you better at your job
How close are you to yourself, your team and the people you serve? In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from the concept of zero distance, a philosophy championed by brands like e.l.f. Beauty, and turn it into one of the most honest and practical self-reflection exercises they've done on the podcast.
Using Post-it® Notes and a simple scale, they plot themselves live on six differe
#568 Why Slowing Down Makes You a Better Learner
In a world that keeps telling you to learn faster, what if slowing down was actually the smarter move?
In this Squiggly Shortcut, Sarah makes the case for slow learning, and shares three questions and three actions to help you get started.
🎯 What You'll Learn
– Why slow learning and fast learning aren't competing, they're complementary
– Three questions from the beautiful Slow Learning website
#567 How to use Tiny experiments to make progress at work | Tiny Experiments
What if the key to navigating uncertainty wasn't a better plan - but a better experiment?
In this episode, Sarah borrows brilliance from Anne-Laure Le Cunff, author of Tiny Experiments. Together they explore what it means to have an experimental mindset, how to design a tiny experiment using the PACT framework, and why the only experiments that fail are the ones you don't learn from. If you've
#566 The Only Script You Need for Curious Career Conversations
Most people wait until they're ready to make a career move before having career conversations.
In this Squiggly Shortcut, Helen shares the only script you need to make curious career conversations feel less daunting and a lot more useful.
🎯 What You'll Learn
– What a curious career conversation actually is, and why having them regularly (not just when you're ready to move) makes a real differen
#565 Networks, Progression and Guilt: Six Career Opinions From Emma Grede | Start With Yourself
Emma Grede has some strong opinions about careers, and not everyone will agree with all of them. In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from Start With Yourself, Emma's new book, picking out six of her most provocative statements and asking the question: do we agree?
Emma Grede, co-founder of Skims and Good American, is refreshingly unfiltered about what it takes to build a career o
Communication and how to use it to create opportunity in your career (Day 5) | Open to Work
In a world full of words, the people who communicate with clarity, humanity and story will stand out.
In the fifth and final episode of this special series, Helen and Aneesh Rahman close out Open to Work with the last of the five Cs, communication, and why it might be the skill that ties everything together.
From Martin Luther King to Pixar to the pressure of a TED Talk, this is a conversation
Compassion and why being more human is becoming a career advantage (Day 4) | Open to Work
What if compassion isn't just a nice-to-have, but one of the most important skills for the future of work?
In day four of this special five-part series, Helen and Aneesh Rahman explore the fourth C, compassion, and why the new world of work demands something the industrial age actively discouraged.
From quietening your inner critic to really listening to a colleague, this is a conversation about
Creativity and the human skill AI can't replicate (Day 3) | Open to Work
Creativity isn't a talent some people have and others don't, it's a skill. In day three of this special five-part series, Helen and Aneesh Rahman explore the third C, creativity, and why it's becoming one of the highest-value human skills in an age when AI can generate generic content at scale.
From Pixar's science of storytelling to the neuroscience of flow, this is a conversation that will chan
Courage and why playing it safe in your career is becoming riskier (Day 2) | Open to Work
Even if you're not changing jobs, your job is changing. In day two of this special five-part series, Helen and Aneesh Rahman explore the second C, courage, and why it's becoming one of the most important skills you can bring to work right now.
From Polynesian wayfarers to Apollo 13 to leaving a high-profile CNN career to become an unpaid intern on a presidential campaign, courage has always been
The Careers Skills AI can't replace (Day 1) | Open to Work
What if the future of work isn't less human...but more human? In this special episode, Helen kicks off a brand new five-part series borrowing brilliance from Open to Work, a brilliant new book by Aneesh Rahman, Chief Economic Opportunity Officer at LinkedIn, and former Obama speechwriter.
Over the next five days, Helen and Aneesh will explore the five human skills that matter most in the age of A
#564 Why Slowing Down Makes You Better at Solving Problems
Are you a fix-it-fast problem solver?
In this Squiggly Shortcut, Helen makes the case for slowing down before you jump to solutions.
🎯 What You'll Learn
– Why surface-level fixes create ping pong problems that just keep coming back
– How to use two simple questions "why is this a problem?" and "why is this an issue?" to get to the cause
– How to turn your answers into better, more targeted solut
#563 Finish Line Focus: How to Build Momentum Towards Goals That Matter
Have you ever noticed how much more you get done in the week before a holiday?
In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from the goal gradient effect; the research-backed finding that the closer we are to a finish line, the harder and faster we push, and turn it into something genuinely practical for your career.
Sarah introduces Finish Line Fridays: a simple way to use the psych
#562 The 24 Hour Rule: Why Waiting Makes You Better at Work
Ever sent a reply you immediately regretted, or said something in the heat of the moment you wish you hadn't?
In this Squiggly Shortcut, Sarah makes the case for the 24 hour rule, and shares the research that backs up why waiting is almost always worth it.
🎯 What You'll Learn
– Why giving yourself 24 hours moves you beyond fight, flight or freeze (and why sleep is doing more work than you think
#561 How to Spend More Time in Your Zone of Genius at Work
How much of your working week are you spending on things you're genuinely great at, and how much is quietly draining you?
In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from Gay Hendricks' Zone of Genius framework, sparked by Emma Grede's book Start With Yourself, and turn it into one of the most practically useful exercises they've tried in a while.
They work through all 4 zones live, c
#560 4 Ways to Stop Self-Sabotage at Work
Does your inner critic get loudest exactly when you need it to be quiet? In this Squiggly Shortcut, Helen unpacks what self-sabotage actually looks and feels like at work, and shares four simple things you can do to start turning the volume down.
🎯 What You'll Learn
– Why self-sabotage tends to show up hardest in the moments that matter most (and what that costs you over time)
– How to spot the s
#559 What to Do When Your Work Feels Pointless
Have you ever finished a week at work and wondered what you actually did that mattered? In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from David Graeber's book Bulls*it Jobs...and find it uncomfortably relatable.
Helen and Sarah explore what pointless work actually looks like, why it's more common than most of us admit, and, crucially, what you can do if you find yourself in it.
🎯 What You
#558 Where to Start When You Feel Overwhelmed at Work
Feeling overwhelmed at work? In this Squiggly Shortcut, Sarah shares three strategies that got her through a particularly full-on week, starting with something most of us don't do nearly enough.
🎯 What You'll Learn
– Why signalling early to the people around you is one of the most useful things you can do when you're overwhelmed (and how to tell them what kind of help you actually need)
– Why emp
3 Frameworks That Could Change How You Work (And How to Use Them)
Could a framework change the way you think about your time, your strengths, or your team? In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from three tried-and-tested strategic models, and put them to the test with AI prompts, Post-it® Big Notes, and a live coaching conversation to see how useful they actually are.
From a classic time management matrix to a strengths development tool to a team
Should You Stay or Should You Go? A Simple Matrix to Help You Decide
Should you stay or should you go? In this Squiggly Shortcut, Helen shares a simple matrix to help you think more clearly about one of the most common career questions she gets asked, and move beyond gut feeling alone.
🎯 What You'll Learn– How to use a two-by-two matrix to work out where you are right now in your career– What to do if you love where you work but aren't learning (and why this isn't
Could Gamifying Your Work Week Make You Better at What You Do?
Are you a "track everything" person or a "just do the thing" person? In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from the world of gamification — and have a genuinely fun debate about whether it actually works for your career.
Helen comes in as a convert (she gamifies her sleep, her deep sleep, her exercise, her steps, and possibly her vegetables). Sarah comes in as a sceptic. What unfolds
Mentor with Your Talents, Not Your Title
What if mentoring had nothing to do with seniority — and everything to do with strengths? In this Squiggly Shortcut, Sarah makes the case for a more inclusive, more accessible approach to mentoring that every team can make happen straight away.
🎯 What You'll Learn
– Why strengths-based mentoring is more useful than traditional senior-to-junior mentoring
– Three ways to make it work: one way,
Draw Your Way to a Better Workday
When did you last draw something at work? In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from the science of drawing — and make a surprisingly strong case for why picking up a pen (or a Post-it® Note) could be one of the most useful things you do this week.
From boosting your mood to supercharging your memory, drawing does things for your brain that writing simply can't. Helen and Sarah put t
3 Ways to Be More Persuasive at Work
How do you get people to actually listen — and say yes — more often? In this Squiggly Shortcut, Helen shares three simple, research-backed ways to become more influential at work. Whether you're trying to get an idea across, shift an outcome, or build stronger working relationships, this episode will give you practical things you can do both in the moment and over time.
🎯 What You'll Learn
Why
The Difference Between Working Hard and Getting Better | Big Think
What does it actually take to go from good to great at work — and is "mastery" even the right word for it?
In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from The Big Think's collection of articles on mastery, and make it feel a lot more relevant to everyday squiggly careers than the word itself might suggest.
They explore two big ideas: how to master your response to tricky situations (th
Squiggly Shortcut: Listen Like You Mean It (5 Ways to Improve)
90% of us think we're good listeners — but we retain about 20% of what we hear. In this Squiggly Shortcut, Sarah shares five practical ways to close that listening gap, starting with the one thing most of us never even notice.
🎯 What You'll Learn
– Why listening isn't just about words — and what to pay attention to instead
– How the pressure to respond is the biggest enemy of good listening
– Why
How to read with a learning mindset
What if the way you read could transform how much you actually learn, remember and use? In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from Ryan Holiday's video How to Read Like a Pro — and add a few rules of their own.
From building an anti-library (the books you'd never normally pick up) to treating your books like they're meant to be used, not preserved, this is a practical and personal exp
Squiggly Shortcut: 3 Ways to Feel Less Stuck When Work Feels Uncertain
Does work feel a bit knotty right now? In this Squiggly Shortcut, Helen shares three practical ways to find your footing when everything around you feels uncertain — whether that's a restructure, a shifting role, or just the general noise of a complicated economic moment.
🎯 What You'll Learn
– Why focusing on what you do know is the best antidote to feeling overwhelmed by what you don't
– How to u
Kaizen: The Japanese Method That Turns 1% Improvements into Career Growth
In this episode, Helen and Sarah explore how to 'Kaizen your squiggly career', borrowing brilliance from the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement.
They discuss why big career changes can feel overwhelming and how focusing on small, manageable improvements can help you build momentum without triggering fear or overthinking. Along the way, they introduce four key Kaizen ideas and translate
Squiggly Shortcut: Small Ways to Make Play Part of Your Team Day
In this Squiggly Shortcut, Sarah shares how to bring small, low-pressure moments of play into team days, without falling into the trap of forced fun. She shares why play matters for learning, connection, and wellbeing, and offers simple, practical ideas that teams can try in just a few minutes.
Episode 546
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How to Stop Cynicism from Stalling Your Career Growth
In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from a talk by Lord Michael Hastings at the London Interdisciplinary School about leading responsibly in an uncertain world. The conversation sparks the question: what happens when cynicism creeps into our careers?
They explore how everyday thoughts like “there’s no point applying", ” “the system is rigged,” or “nothing will change anyway” can qui
Squiggly Shortcut: How to Boost Your Motivation in a Knotty Career Moment
In this Squiggly Shortcut, Helen shares three simple ways to boost your motivation when you’re stuck in a “knotty moment” at work. Whether it’s unexpected feedback, a tricky project, a difficult relationship, or even feeling stuck in the wrong role, these situations can quickly drain your energy and momentum. This episode gives you practical, in-the-moment ideas to help you reset, regain a sense o
The 4 Attachment Styles and How They Show Up at Work
In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from the psychology of attachment styles and explore what this concept can teach us about working relationships. Sparked by a Harvard Business Review article on managing insecure leaders, they unpack the four main attachment styles and what they might look like in the workplace: secure, anxious, avoidant-dismissive, and fearful-avoidant.
If you’ve
Squiggly Shortcut: How to ask for feedback in a way that puts learning first
Asking for feedback can feel uncomfortable. What if you hear something you don’t agree with? What if it confirms your worst fears? And how do you ask without it feeling formal or awkward? In this Squiggly Shortcut, Sarah shares 3 simple ways to ask for feedback that actually helps you learn and grow.
Episode 542
🦞 Learn Like A Lobster:
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A Practical Guide to Prototyping at Work
This week’s episode comes to you from a very snowy New York, where Sarah and Helen are launching the US edition of Learn Like a Lobster - in the middle of the biggest blizzard in ten years. Despite battling icy steps and snowy conditions, they’re diving into a topic that could transform how you approach ideas at work: prototyping.
Borrowing brilliance from Nesta, Sarah and Helen explore a practica
Squiggly Shortcut: Give to Gain - The Career Strategy Nobody Talks About
If networking feels awkward or transactional, this Squiggly Shortcut offers a simpler starting point: give to gain. Helen explores why focusing on what you can contribute, rather than what you can get, makes building relationships easier and more effective. Generosity strengthens connections and creates reciprocity, a concept backed by research from Adam Grant. To make it practical, she shares thr
How to Change Behaviour at Work
In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from a powerful Harvard Business Review article by James Elfer, Siri Chilazi, and Edward Chang on the science of behaviour change at work.They unpack the “Four T’s” model, a practical framework used in big organisations to drive measurable behaviour change. But instead of keeping it theoretical, they apply it to real team challenges like:
- Reduci
Squiggly Shortcut: How to Influence People Who Disagree With You
If influence sometimes feels uncomfortable or awkward, this is a fresh take that reframes it as collaboration rather than persuasion. In this Squiggly Shortcut, Sarah shares a practical, three-step approach to influencing with curiosity rather than control. Using the example of someone challenging the idea of squiggly careers, Sarah explores why pushing harder rarely works and why listening first
3 LinkedIn Top Voices to Follow for a Smarter, More Future-Proof Career
How do you make your LinkedIn feed work harder for your career instead of just scrolling past the same ideas on repeat? In this episode, Helen and Sarah are Borrowing Brilliance from LinkedIn’s Top Voices list. They share three people worth following right now and why. This episode is all about curating smarter inputs, breaking out of echo chambers, and learning faster from the right voices.
Episo
Squiggly Shortcut: 3 Self-Awareness Habits That Increase Your Career Growth
In this Squiggly Shortcut, Helen shares why self-awareness is one of the most important skills for your career and how to build it in small, practical ways. Rather than relying on reflection alone, she explains how self-awareness also means understanding how others experience you and offers three simple exercises to help you spot blind spots, manage your energy, and support your growth.
Episode 53
