Unleashing authentic leadership through self-awareness
Inspiring Connections #4
Anita Cassagne
November 04, 2024
Dear leaders,
Welcome to the November edition! This month, let’s dive into the world of self-discovery, learning from others, and how our experiences shape us as leaders. To kick things off, I’ll share some insights from my time teaching at ISCOM, introduce a handy self-awareness tool that I love using in my work, and spotlight one of my partners, Morgan – his inspiring qualities are a perfect match for our theme.
This month’s nugget
Here, I want to share some easy-to-digest gems for you to read, listen to, or watch..
My Students’ take on leadership
Let’s begin by revisiting the same questions I posed to my ISCOM students last month: what does inspiring leadership mean to you?
When I asked my future leaders, words like bravery, empathy, and resilience popped up as key traits.
Now, let’s dig a little deeper – how do you see yourself in these areas? How can you draw inspiration from others to enhance your skills?
💭 I invite you to grab a pen and notebook and take five minutes to reflect on this. Trust me, it’s worth it!
Leadership nudges
In this section, I encourage you to reflect on your leadership, and to put these tips in practice.
The secret to building high-performing teams?
Knowing yourself – TRULY knowing yourself.
Now, let me introduce #PCM as a practical tool for you to enhance your self-awareness and understand your team members better.
Each person has unique strengths and preferences. Your role as a leader? To fully understand the perspectives and needs of your team members so they can bring their unique talents to shared goals – And that’s where it can sometimes get tricky! 😳
No sweat!
#PCM (Process Communication Model), developed by Dr. Taibi Kahler in collaboration with NASA, offers an effective way to better understand yourself and your team members. It uncovers what motivates us, our conditions of success, what triggers distress, and what enables smoother collaboration.
📣 Do you know yourself well enough? Do you know what motivates each member of your team?
PCM is so powerful that I’ve incorporated it into all of The Laughing Willow’s programs.
Curious and want to know more by attending a #PCM Discovery session?
Portrait of an inspiring leader
Here is a space where you will read about the journeys of leaders who have inspired me, like you. And I hope more people will look forward to hearing from you.
Meet Morgan Nanibet
Morgan was my HR purchasing partner when we were both at Nestlé. What inspired me most about him at that time was his ability to do exactly that: PARTNER.
This is what I believe to be one of his major strengths. Very recently we caught up again (yay! Joy!) as he came back to Paris after having lived and worked in Berlin for two years. And our partnership was still very strong. So strong that even if he has a “full time job” (he has a very impressive career path!) we do partner on client work. Morgan is also a professional coach, a business school teacher, facilitator and mentor!
What I also see in him is his courage, business sense, determination, and a great deal of empathy. He cares about everyone around him. He knows how to challenge. He does it in a way that brings out the best in people. Oh and yes, I forgot to mention his great sense of humour. Inspired? → Get to know him better!
What is inspiring to you? Actually, asking myself that question made me realize that what matters most to me is not really about WHAT is inspiring… but more HOW I get inspired… and HOW I use it to serve my own development. Indeed, I can find inspiration in so many elements such as people, art, nature… even objects!  For instance, lately I discussed with the global head of Marketing of a large company and he shared with me that he lost confidence in himself because of being constantly belittled by his manager. | He had to go through a long phase of introspection to become aware of his own strengths. This story resonated with me about the importance of being able to evaluate yourself, to celebrate your successes and learn from your failures. In another situation, when nature inspired me. I was watching a documentary about eagles (please bear with me while I explain 🙂 …), I saw a female eagle searching for food to the point of exhaustion to feed her chicks, without ever stopping, for fear that they would not be strong enough to fly away and leave the nest. This got me thinking about the extent to which we can sometimes dedicate our body and soul to a person, or a cause… leading us to make choices, guided by this deep-seated desire, which can be misunderstood by the rest of the world. Every time I observe something and I listen to someone, I try to be deeply attentive to the situation, to naturally identify what resonates with my own beliefs. That is the way I find many inspiring situations allowing me to grow in my way of thinking and my way of behaving with myself and with others. |
This month could be one when you’re putting the final touches to your budgets before validation, and you are preparing your end of year reviews, and you are calibrating performance and you are on the end of year home run! Whilst preparing next year’s road map…When I have a lot to do, I like to listen to Morcheeba. |  I hope you enjoy it. And keep dancing like nobody’s watching if you want to! |
 | Any comments, questions, or suggestions? I respond to all messages and would be happy to hear from you. Looking forward to connecting next month! With all my energy, Anita Cassagne, Founder & Coach at The Laughing Willow |