Amidst a global awakening spurred by the Black Lives Matter movement, this episode explores the transformative power of personal action. It’s a testament to how a spark of courage to speak out can leave an enduring legacy.

Join Meena Sebastian, a British senior sales leader with Mauritian roots, as she unveils her life’s learning curve. She delves into the subtle yet significant impact of micro-aggressions, the enlightening path of understanding others’ experiences, and the pivotal role of safety and support in the workplace. It’s a story of reflection, change, and the everyday acts that foster a culture of security and inclusion.

About Meena

Meena is a sales leader known for driving double-digit growth across diverse sectors, including Edtech, Healthcare data and analytics, media, and healthtech.

Show Notes
The music you hear in the background at the beginning of the episode is Black Lives Matter, by Dax.

Join the conversation and make connections by joining The Manager's Moment Club on Linkedin. And connect with me, Belinda Brummer, there too. For bonus bits, show notes and episode transcripts, click here.

Standing out from the crowd comes with its own burdens and insights, especially when the weight of expectations meets perceptions of what is possible.

This is the second of a two-part episode, with Michael - Mick - Arkins. We pick up our conversation just as he was encouraging his L&D peers to do better and it is no surprise that he ends this second part of our conversation with a similar call to his HR peers.

In between these nudges, Mick shares how mental health challenges in the family, a succession of great managers and being from the inner city (of Dublin) shaped the person and the professional he continues to become

About Mick

Mick has over 15 years of experience in International HR within a diverse range of industry experience within SaaS and B2C eCommerce environments. He has held senior HR roles in MindLeaders ThirdForce, Fleetmatics, Verizon Connect and currently heads up HR EMEA for Shein.

Join the conversation and make connections by joining The Manager's Moment Club on Linkedin. And connect with me, Belinda Brummer, there too. For bonus bits, show notes and episode transcripts, click here.

Join us on a boundary breaking journey with Michael 'Mick' Arkins as we trek through his global experience and international HR career.

How does Mick balance his belief in agility and innovation with the constraints of a risk-averse cultural context? What does it mean to navigate American, European and Chinese perspectives in the workplace? And how does he grow from the discomfort he actively seeks out?

Tune in as Mick shares his insights, challenges, and triumphs, inviting us to question our own boundaries and embrace the richness of our shared humanity.

About Mick

Mick has over 15 years of experience in International HR within a diverse range of industry experience within SaaS and B2C eCommerce environments. He has held senior HR roles in MindLeaders ThirdForce, Fleetmatics, Verizon Connect and currently heads up HR EMEA for Shein.

Join the conversation and make connections by joining The Manager's Moment Club on Linkedin. And connect with me, Belinda Brummer, there too. For bonus bits, show notes and episode transcripts, click here.

If having to work with someone you don’t like resonates, or ‘don’t take it personally’ is something you hear or say often, tune in.

In this episode, Damien DeBarra, a leader of talent and development design teams, reflects on some of the mistakes he has made as a manager and how he grew from these. He shares his thoughts on the link between anxiety and workplace behavioural issues, and how he has navigated these when dealing with difficult clients. His key takeaway is that managers cannot assume that the people they hire or engage with have developed core life skills, like how to get on with people. Damien also distinguishes between over-management and micro-management, shedding light on their impacts.

Join the conversation and make connections by joining The Manager's Moment Club on Linkedin. And connect with me, Belinda Brummer, there too. For bonus bits, show notes and episode transcripts, click here.

Self-sabotagers. Internalisers. The quiet people. The nay-sayers. People are people. What is the job of the manager when people don't show up as we expect them to?

This is the second of a two-part episode and in this part, Brenda McGuirk zooms in on the individual in the team. She reflects on the tyranny of having to be a team player and warns against the manager, through their behaviours, demonising somebody in the team.

She offers a way for the manager to create an environment that facilitates, not isolates, the quiet or dissenting voices in a team.

If part 1 was about teams in moments of change, this part of our conversation is about the person in the team. And of course about Brenda herself and why she is very happy at this stage in her career not to be managing people.

Join the conversation and make connections by joining The Manager's Moment Club on Linkedin. And connect with me, Belinda Brummer, there too. For bonus bits, show notes and episode transcripts, click here.

How does where, when and into which community you are born shape you? Dublin woman, Brenda McGuirk, chats about starting a career in the 1980s in Ireland (before contraception and divorce became an option for women), where her efforts took her and how these early experiences influenced what she pays attention to as she goes about managing products, programmes and people.

This is the first of a two-part episode and in this part, Brenda talks us through an example of what she means by "a process or team that wants to change itself" and her role in making that change happen.

Join the conversation and make connections by joining The Manager's Moment Club on Linkedin. And connect with me, Belinda Brummer, there too. For bonus bits, show notes and episode transcripts, click here.

What is a mentor, can mentoring programmes really 'force' this kind of relationship and is there such a thing as an anti-mentor?

This is a short bonus quickcast, following Mike Curran's episode titled The Accidental Mentor'. Here, Mike provides his definition of what a mentor is, cautions against the anti-mentor and expresses his doubts about formalised mentoring programmes.

Join the conversation and make connections by joining The Manager's Moment Club on Linkedin. And connect with me, Belinda Brummer, there too. For bonus bits, show notes and episode transcripts, click here.

How surprising it must be to, four decades into a life and for the first time, begin a new type of relationship. One that radically changes things.

Mike Curran, the CEO of XLVets Ireland, reflects on the mentor he gained unexpectedly, how this relationship propelled him into new things and how to be, and to find, a mentor. He also reveals how he safeguards himself against the ravages of stress and high demands. Along the way, Mike makes a case for the value of doing service sector jobs, despite the associated low rates of pay, early in one’s working life.

Join me, Belinda Brummer, for this episode of 'The Manager's Moment’, and discover how time management, generous conversations, and resilience shape a career and a person.

Join the conversation and make connections by joining The Manager's Moment Club on Linkedin. And connect with me, Belinda Brummer, there too. For bonus bits, show notes and episode transcripts, click here.