Episode 432: Lead Yourself First: Confidence, Control & Self-Belief with Anna Mosley
In today’s competitive business landscape, leaders are tasked with the complex challenge of aligning their mental fitness with high performance to drive their teams effectively.
In this conversation, Adam Stott sits down with Anna Mosley, a leading figure in motivational speaking and leadership coaching, to share her journey from the corporate world to becoming a celebrated speaker and trainer. Anna explores crucial themes of self-improvement and leadership development.
Uncover the insights that have empowered Anna Mosley to work with diverse businesses and develop tailored programs that inspire dynamic and sustainable workforce engagement.
Show Highlights:
- Creating an “evidence list” of small daily wins helps build self-esteem and fosters a growth mindset, essential for personal and professional advancement.
- Emphasizing mental fitness over mental health, Anna highlights the importance of working on one’s ability to manage stress and emotions daily, akin to physical exercise.
- Instead of pursuing perfection, the focus should be on maintaining consistent energy levels, which promotes sustainable high performance.
- Being open about growth and progress as a leader encourages a supportive and innovative team culture.
- Using tools like the STRESSOMETER and making conscious choices about responses to external situations can enhance clarity and decision-making.
Links Mentioned:
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Adam’s website: https://adamstott.com/?el=Pod
Watch the Episode on Adam’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/adamstottcoach?el=Pod
Connect with Adam on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamstottcoach/?el=Pod
Join Adam’s network on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-stott-coach/?el=Pod
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Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
Adam Stott: Welcome back to today’s episode of Business Growth Secrets. I’m very, very excited, and you should be too because we’ve got an incredible guest that is gonna be coming on today. Someone I’ve worked with very, very closely, uh, for a long time. She’s absolutely amazing. She’s an expert in leadership, motivational speaker that speaks all over the world.
[00:00:25] Wows, audiences, done lots of speaking. Us. She’s worked with huge clients like LinkedIn, L’Oreal, boots, and so much more. Um, and she’s someone that’s got an incredible story. As we go through today’s episode, you are going to discover more about how to lead yourself, how to emotionally regulate yourself. You are going to discover.
[00:00:46] How you can start to increase your self-esteem, your belief in yourself, manage yourself better and so much more. It is an incredible episode. I’m very excited for you and I want to introduce and welcome on the one, the only Anna Mosley, who is one of the UK’s leading motivational speakers. And leadership experts.
[00:01:04] Welcome on Anna.
[00:01:05] Anna Mosley: Hi Adam. It’s great to be here.
[00:01:07] Adam Stott: Great to have you on. Obviously know you really well. I’m really pleased to bring you to our audience because some of them will know you too. Yeah. Uh, from being around and, you know, speaking on our stages and being a part of what we do, and you are one of our.
[00:01:22] Highest rated, uh, coaches and speakers that when you come on the stage, people are wowed and they love it. So we’ve meaning to do this for a while, come on, work together, really hear about your journey, uh, which I think is gonna be really cool. So, uh, do you wanna start off by telling us a little bit about you, you know, maybe some of the things, I know you’ve worked with some really high level clients at this stage.
[00:01:43] You know, you’re in demand. Tell us about where you are now as a leadership expert.
[00:01:48] Anna Mosley: I’m in a very exciting place now. Um, Adam, I’m really proud to say I’m a multi award-winning international motivational speaker, as well as a high performance coach and trainer. Um, and you’re right, I specialize in that domain of leadership.
[00:02:02] What I’m really passionate about, Adam, is bridging the gap for businesses between mental fitness and high performance. The bridge is growth mindset. The problem is most business owners and leaders don’t realize that without themselves being mentally fit, they cannot nurture that growth mindset, culture that they need to for the team to thrive.
[00:02:21] And at the end of the day, it’s about getting the results as quickly as possible and a thriving team that you can retain and that is buzzing to come in every day. So that’s what I focus on
[00:02:32] Adam Stott: and what we’re saying is the, the mental fitness of the leader
[00:02:35] Anna Mosley: Yeah.
[00:02:35] Adam Stott: Essentially impacts all of the rest of the organization.
[00:02:38] Yeah,
[00:02:38] Anna Mosley: a hundred percent. I always say that, um, there’s not one culture in every, any business. There is a microculture that sits underneath every single leader within it. I, I’ve worked with some great brands, Adam, including the likes of L’Oreal, LinkedIn. Boots, um, Sackler, Holland, and Barrett. The list goes on with these exciting brands and I’m really fascinated by the culture within each ’cause.
[00:02:58] It’s different for everyone, but. There really is a micro culture under each, underneath each leader. So if we’ve got a leader who is not mentally fit, who for example, is highly stressed, perfectionist, then that can stifle the growth of the team. And as you well know, winning teams and winning businesses need to innovate and you cannot think bigger in order to be able to do that without getting your team mentally fit.
[00:03:20] Adam Stott: Well, awesome. Excited to dive into that and we’re gonna get under the hood of that, but tell us a bit about you. I would love to, obviously I know you really well, um, worked with you for a. You know, quite some time. You’ve done great things with our clients. You’ve also come through our programs as well, which is awesome.
[00:03:36] And, you know, you are, you are obviously very coachable. In fact, one of the most coachable people that I think we’ve ever had in our programs. You, you, you implement things, you take lots of action and, and you, that’s why you’re doing so well, right? Mm-hmm. Um, as well as your natural talent, of course, but.
[00:03:51] Tell us a bit about where did you, where have you come from? Where did you start off? What, how did you get into this? And if you were to go all the way back to the beginning, did you work under some leaders that stifled you, did you see, you know, let’s, let’s try and get under the, under the hood and of, of where all of this, uh, has come from?
[00:04:08] Right?
[00:04:09] Anna Mosley: Sure. Okay. So my, my backstory and I’ll. I’ll cut to the chase with this. I, I’ve spent, I’ve spent 15 years working in the corporate world.
[00:04:17] Adam Stott: Yeah.
[00:04:18] Anna Mosley: And a bit more about my personality. I’ve always been a high achiever. I used to be a massive perfectionist Adam. I always did do well, but there was a very dark, detrimental edge to that.
[00:04:27] And actually in hindsight, I look back. My old personality because by the way, your personality is not fixed. Um, and I was a people pleaser, had limited boundaries. I was inauthentic. Just trying to please everybody all the time and that when you’re in the corporate world is a dangerous place to be. I got good results.
[00:04:45] I ended up leading global teams. I spent most of my time in commercial space, a bit of marketing as well, but. When I have my second child and I’m a very proud mom of two kids, got million daisy 10 and eight, um, that perfectionist nature and that brutal inner voice that I had going on, which was continuously telling me, you need to be top of the leaderboard.
[00:05:05] You’re not good enough. If you’re not, you’re failing as a mom, you’re not present enough. I mean. If any perfectionists are listening here now, which many of you high achievers will be or will be viewing life through some sort of perfectionist lens. You’ll relate to this critical inner a voice that is a constant on a daily basis.
[00:05:21] Unfortunately, after my second child, that took me to a really dark place and I remember I. Driving along one day after months of panic attacks, opening the door to strangers, getting upset for no reason, feeling like a really bad leader, wife, mom, failing in all fronts, expecting 110% across all aspects of life.
[00:05:43] I remember this moment I. The rain was hammering on the windscreen. You know when you are overwhelmed and those noises just are so deafening. I created such anxiety in that moment. I was a 10, outta 10 on the STRESSOMETER talk a lot about the STRESSOMETER, and in that moment I completely forgot where I was driving to.
[00:06:01] I was supposed to be driving to a forecaster meeting at work. The inner voice has got completely outta control. And my body totally gave up on me, and it was in that moment, like a bang. I knew that I was having a full-on breakdown. So the backstory is that at that point I decided that this isn’t what the life I wanted for myself wasn’t the leader I wanted to be, the mom, the wife I wanted to be.
[00:06:22] Got a coach. Really realize the value of mentors and coaches. That’s tra changed my life, especially since joining you guys. But at that point, I decided to step away from the corporate world, that structure, that routine, and did something really brave after upleveling my mindset being present again, recognizing that 80% is actually enough.
[00:06:43] By the way, my business is called 80 Growth Academy. If anyone didn’t know that, that is because 80% is the magic number. It’s all about balance and clarity of thought for high performance. At that point, I became a coach and trainer, but I felt a bit lost, Adam. I’m not gonna lie, I’d come from the corporate space and now I had to be, have this entrepreneurial mentality without the structure and it was a struggle, and that’s when I found you guys who has really helped me.
[00:07:07] Business events have really helped me. Not only with getting the motivation and surrounding myself with amazing people that I look up to that aspire me to be better, but you’ve given me and helped me with the structure that was missing, having stepped outta that corporate world and it’s enabled me to really thrive.
[00:07:23] Adam Stott: Yeah, which is awesome. I mean, I. Love to hear that. Love to hear the, the backstory. I’d love to understand that a little bit more, you know, to help somebody else that might be listening. Hey everyone, hope you’re enjoying the podcast. We’ve got a free training that I’m doing right now online from the comfort of your own home called Stand Out Brand.
[00:07:43] What this does is it shows business owners how to get noticed on social media, stand out. Get more leads and get more sales. So if you want to make more money in your business, head over to adam.com/sob. That’s adam.com/sob and join us on the free three day workshop, standout brand. So when you had that moment, why were you feeling like you were not enough?
[00:08:11] Why were you feeling like you were failing as a mum’s? What was it causing that trigger for you?
[00:08:16] Anna Mosley: Well, the deep answer to that was low self-esteem on the surface as a high achiever and a very po seemingly, positively bubbly person probably. How am I coming across now? Well, this is real. Yeah. I used to always come across like this, but it wasn’t real.
[00:08:29] I was fearful of vulner being vulnerable. I was, there was shame and blame around mistake making. Um, and I was a huge perfectionist, like I say, so I was unrealistic with my expectations, which means you’re set up to fail. That’s the irony with perfectionism in so many high achievers that’ll be listening right now, even if you are already doing a great job, ironically, you could be doing so much better if you got rid of that lens, because when we lean into that gray area into what I call the growth zone, when we realize that version one is better than version none, as you say ad.
[00:09:02] Mm. My goodness, can you drive so much more growth for yourself and your business? And that’s what’s happened ever since.
[00:09:08] Adam Stott: So, so you got to the point, you, you had this, this breakdown. You say you found the, um, you started working with a coach. What were some of the things that got you to make those changes?
[00:09:18] ’cause there’s probably gonna be people on Yeah. That are listening that, you know, they’ve, they’ve been through a lot. Sure. And I know that, you know, we. Work with thousands of, of business owners. Lots of them come from the corporate world. Uh, and a lot of people in the corporate world find that, that corporate life can be, you know, very much, um, take a lot of their time and energy away and, and really consume their life.
[00:09:43] And they struggle right in a lot of ways. So. How did you start making those change? How did you go from I’m in a, I’m in a breakdown moment. My body’s broken down. Yeah, I’m, I’m struggling to just building back up, what were some of the block by block moments? What were the realizations that you, you had that took you back on that journey?
[00:10:03] Anna Mosley: Yeah, so firstly, let’s use the analogy of a house. My foundations weren’t deep enough, and that was the realization, right? So I knew I had to deepen these foundations. Building my self-esteem was step one, and how did I do that? I started. Sitting in the discomfort of daily noticing my wins, my small wins, moving away from this obsession over the end result, which is what perfectionists have.
[00:10:24] Adam Stott: Yeah.
[00:10:25] Anna Mosley: And really recognizing my progress. How far have I already come? What a fantastic question. How did you
[00:10:29] Adam Stott: recognize your wins? What were the. Little, how, how did you make that shift?
[00:10:33] Anna Mosley: So I would have, on my iPhone, I would have a list. I called it the evidence list, because your brain needs evidence to be able to change a belief, right?
[00:10:41] Mm-hmm. Um, I had an evidence, and I still use it to, to this day, and I share this with my clients. At the end of each day, I would add one new small win to the list. Now, this needs to be something ideally qualitative. It’s moving away from quantitative, right? So if I was able to be present and do a jigsaw with my girls.
[00:10:57] I recognize that I recorded that piece of evidence and then I found an affirmation to match what does it say about me that I was able to, despite my crazy busy life, sit and be present with my kids and do a puzzle. I am a great mom. So it’s the evidence mix of the affirmation. That’s
[00:11:14] Adam Stott: interesting because you linked it to being a great mom, which obviously is really super important.
[00:11:18] That’s super important to it, and I didn’t to believe it to be a great, great dad as well. Yeah. So what did you do? Identify first, these are the areas that I feel like I’m struggling in. Yeah. And then you gave yourself evidence on those areas. Is that how you approach that? Absolutely. So
[00:11:31] Anna Mosley: my recommendation to anyone listening is find out.
[00:11:35] Ask yourself, what are the aspira aspirational beliefs that I want to have? And they will be the opposite of the crappy ones. That’s really good. You’ve got right. Good. Something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I believed I wasn’t a good mom, so I knew that that was a belief I wanted to build. It is like setting a sat nav.
[00:11:50] You get what you focus on. So I was focusing on these aspirational beliefs and building a list of evidence that matched that. Yeah. I am not a coach that will say to people, look in the mirror and say, you are attractive. You’re a great leader. Mm. Because your brain’s just gonna go, well, where the F is the evidence for that mate.
[00:12:06] You’ve gotta get the evidence. And then, so that was a huge task that has changed my life. Yeah. And I passionately share that with any leader I work with, or team that I work with as a tip. Great tip. So, so now
[00:12:16] Adam Stott: they’ve, now they go on that journey. So that’s, that’s building the self-esteem. Yeah. Changing the belief with evidence.
[00:12:21] Yeah. What, so they started to do that?
[00:12:23] Anna Mosley: Yeah.
[00:12:25] Adam Stott: Did you have struggles with consistency around that?
[00:12:27] Anna Mosley: Yeah, it’s hard. You need to really expect the discomfort. 68% of the population according to Myers Briggs and negativity, negatively, um, motivated. It’s more likely we’ll go to bed thinking, where did I mess up today?
[00:12:40] I. Especially if you’ve got perfectionist perfectionism in your lens. Mm-hmm. It’s really uncomfortable for us to notice what we’ve done. Well, we, we are really bad as humans at recognizing growth. We recognize the certificates and the gold stars and the promotions. That’s all I’ve done all my life chased for being top of the leaderboard, chased for being head.
[00:12:59] Striving to be head girl, which I was by the way. Yeah. That meant, that meant I was good enough.
[00:13:03] Adam Stott: Yeah.
[00:13:04] Anna Mosley: But it’s about recognizing the small wins of the journey and progress. So progress over perfection is another takeaway.
[00:13:09] Adam Stott: So we’ve got the progress. Yeah. What happens next? So that’s the first thing. Yeah.
[00:13:13] What did you then do to sort of, ’cause you, you go from. Being in a breakdown to changing your life completely. Yeah. We’ve got that one thing that makes a different, what comes next? Yeah,
[00:13:22] Anna Mosley: that was the most important building block. The next thing was really implementing a philosophy that at the beginning was really uncomfortable, and that philosophy, which I’d love to share with any listeners now is 5% of life happens to us.
[00:13:36] That is the stuff out of our control. Traffic, illness, what other people think. I put that in the 5% bucket. Now, 95% of life is how I choose to respond to that. So this is about eq, emotional intelligence. This is about self-regulation. Me recognizing that no matter what is going on around me, no matter matter what the result, what they say, I have got the power to choose my response to that.
[00:13:58] And that was game changing, Adam. And I think that is the best skill you can have as a human. Managing the lens through which you are viewing your life.
[00:14:07] Adam Stott: Okay.
[00:14:08] Anna Mosley: And I wasn’t managing it before. And
[00:14:09] Adam Stott: how, how can somebody adopt that principle, do you think? How, how do you help people to adopt that principle?
[00:14:14] Because that, I think that’s a really quite, I mean, very tactical, what you’ve just been through in terms of making notes and getting evidence and proof. But how do you get a leader to adopt, um, that, that complete change of look. Things are gonna happen to you, but how are you gonna react? How do you, do you educate them on their emotional reactions?
[00:14:32] Yes. Their triggers. What is it that you do to, to make that work? Yeah,
[00:14:35] Anna Mosley: that’s, that is absolutely a foundational element I would focus on, on the first training day of a program. So. I’ll make sure that they understand. ’cause often many leaders don’t understand that it really does start with them. Talked about the microculture earlier.
[00:14:49] Um, but the lens through which they’re viewing their life or responding to a curve ball or a challenge absolutely will be filtering down to their team and influencing their team. So I will coach and train them to be able to recognize an unhelpful thought or feeling. ’cause that’s where, that’s how you know that you’ve got your great tinted last glasses on, let’s say.
[00:15:07] That’s how you recognize it. It’s a thought or a feeling. But then you’ve gotta create this opportunity gap. You’ve gotta take a deep breath step back, and you’ve gotta think what is actually going on here in terms of the bigger picture? Because none of us are experiencing reality. We’re experiencing our own version of it.
[00:15:24] And if we’ve got that negative lens on, yes, we are gonna notice the problems. So we’ve gotta become solution oriented. We’ve gotta go from that victim mentality to the victim mentality. So I share a great framework with leaders, um, which is. Around getting above the line. If you imagine like a metaphorical line in life, when you’re above it, you’re accountable, you’re in your power, you’re taking action.
[00:15:46] This is what any leader wants all their team to be doing, but are they doing it first? So we’ve gotta model, as you’ll know, add and model the behavior that we want our team then to, mm-hmm. To replicate. So self-regulation and thought management is, is a, is a number one skill I address.
[00:16:01] Adam Stott: Okay. So you, you added these two building blocks.
[00:16:05] Yes. Where does that take you to now in your life? How do you get to the point where you sort of chucked the tower in on corporate and what was your role there and what, what kind of roles did you work in the corporate world?
[00:16:15] Anna Mosley: So I was, um, a, a global sales manager, so
[00:16:18] Adam Stott: yeah.
[00:16:19] Anna Mosley: Yeah. Like looking after, I can’t remember any count.
[00:16:22] 75 countries I think it was. Yeah. So looking after a team that. Manage a load of distributors across the world.
[00:16:28] Adam Stott: Yeah.
[00:16:28] Anna Mosley: Um, for, uh, a hair and beauty brand.
[00:16:31] Adam Stott: So that competitive nature is, is definitely gonna be really fundamental to that. Yeah.
[00:16:36] Anna Mosley: Oh,
[00:16:36] Adam Stott: ab absolutely.
[00:16:37] Anna Mosley: And I do share that commercial background that I’ve got when I’m pitching to businesses that I wanna work with or wanna work with me because.
[00:16:44] It’s really important that people realize that when I’m talking so passionately about mental fitness, it is for a commercial result. Mm-hmm. It ain’t this fluffy thing that is just ticking a box and making people feel motivated. It absolutely translates to results. The only drawback we have in life is what is between our two ears.
[00:17:01] So we need to work on it.
[00:17:02] Adam Stott: Brilliant. So we go building block. Yeah. Really start next building block. What happens to get to the point where you go, you know what? I don’t wanna be a global sales manager anymore. I wanna work with people on these things. How do you make that transition and, and what gave you the confidence to go and do that?
[00:17:16] Because I know that a lot of people struggle with that.
[00:17:18] Anna Mosley: Yeah. To
[00:17:18] Adam Stott: take that step backwards.
[00:17:20] Anna Mosley: It was a bold, so then go
[00:17:21] Adam Stott: forwards. Of course. Yeah.
[00:17:22] Anna Mosley: It was a bold move. Um, I have to say, and it was a, I did a values exercise that really helped me lock into what was really important to me in my life. I could think more clearly after doing this work with a coach, I suddenly had the clarity of thought to reflect on my life as a whole.
[00:17:38] Some of my top values are helping others growth and connection. It became. Absolutely clear as day that the world for me to jump into was coaching and training. I’ve always enjoyed motivating people ever since, but even at school, I loved it. Mm. So it felt right. I was able to manage my own time, of course, and, and have the BA balance with family life and work that I’d always really, really wanted.
[00:18:02] And I’m not saying that’s easy. Mm. But. I’m in charge of my own destiny. That’s a good feeling. How,
[00:18:07] Adam Stott: how, I think that’s a really good thing for us to sort of bring up. How do you now manage family life and work? What’s the sort of, uh, your approach to that now?
[00:18:16] Anna Mosley: So I live passionately by this 80% rule. So just to explain that a little bit more.
[00:18:20] Um, for me, 80% is usually enough. At times, of course, we have to tune up to a hundred. Like there’s times when I’m particularly busy at work, of course there is. Or when I’m on a stage, I’m giving it a hundred. Or when my kids are off sick, I need to give it a hundred. But in my mind, I need to pour into all these different cups of life.
[00:18:37] I used to obsess over the work cup and it used to overflow, and I was burnt out completely, couldn’t, didn’t have the time for my family and the things that were important. So I think about pouring into all these different cups of life, nutrition, fitness, my husband, my, my girls work, of course, the business.
[00:18:53] But I don’t try and pour a hundred percent into all of those. I’m very conscious that I should be ideally given 80%. And I’ve learned, and from coaching others, I’ve learned that you get so much more dynamism when you give 80 and not the a hundred. ’cause when you’re given a hundred, you’ve got that perfectionist mindset you hold often, holding yourself back, you’re obsession about the outcome.
[00:19:13] You’ve over preparing, you’re staying up till 2:00 AM for the company meeting or whatever it might be. Your personality and your skillset does not come through in the same way. So it’s living by that 80% rule as much as I can.
[00:19:26] Adam Stott: So by living by that 80% rule, what does it, what does it do for you? How does it, how does it create change?
[00:19:32] Because, yeah. You know, I think that it’s, say. It is an interesting, uh, topic, especially for someone’s high perform. I’m very high performing Yeah. In what I do. Yeah. Um, but I also understand that putting the brakes on occasionally can really help. Absolutely. And, and, and through working with Sarah, um, for many, many years, who’s very high performing, you know, this is, she, she would endorse what you’re talking about here for sure.
[00:19:57] Mm-hmm. Because she really believes in a life path rather than a career path. She wa she wants you to incorporate life. Into business, not business, into like, like I love that to take over the life. Yeah. So she’d definitely be with this, but I think it’s something that people really struggle with. I think like, um, I think people do really, really struggle with it, and almost the concept of not giving a hundred percent to tell a high achiever not to give a hundred percent is almost like.
[00:20:25] Alm almost a bit crazy, right? However, that’s why
[00:20:28] Anna Mosley: that needs explanation.
[00:20:29] Adam Stott: Yeah. Yeah. That’s why I wanna know. So this, this is, because some people will be like, whoops, he’s telling me not to give my best, but maybe you’re not telling me that I’m not. So that, yeah. Yeah. That’s what I’d like to, yeah. Try and dig under the hood of a little bit and understand.
[00:20:40] Yeah. So let’s
[00:20:40] Anna Mosley: talk about the high performance zone. Yeah. I’ve got a great visual, which I’ll just verbally explain now that shows the STRESSOMETER, so imagine a, a rev ter, like a car goes zero to 10. Obviously the higher the number, the more stressed we are, the less clarity we’ve got. We underperform. Yeah, we can’t be productive or be smart.
[00:20:56] All creative. The aim of the game is to get leaders and their teams operating at the lower end of that STRESSOMETER. ’cause there’s no one can argue with me that being up, that STRESSOMETER at the top end for a prolonged period of time isn’t doing damage to you mentally and physically. Absolutely is. You will underperform.
[00:21:13] Getting people to understand the value of bringing that dial down because they’re gonna be more innovative. They’ll have the head space to tailor their communication to their team. They’ll have the head space to lead and not just manage. So something I talk a lot about leaders. Uh, something I talk a lot about with leaders is when they’re at the top end, they’re managing.
[00:21:33] Predictably, they’re in the, they’re in autopilot. ’cause you’ve got tunnel vision. The more stressed you are. We want leaders thinking bigger so they can work on the business, not just in the business. Same for business owners listening in right now, we can all relate to working in the business. Right? Yeah.
[00:21:46] And not on it. So that’s the incentive for. Looking after yourself, regaining that balance, making sure you’re pouring into all the cups. And of course, as I said before, we gotta tune up sometimes, but be mindful of that.
[00:22:00] Adam Stott: Yeah.
[00:22:00] Anna Mosley: You know, I had a really busy January with 10 speaking gigs back to back. That was hardcore.
[00:22:05] But I planned as soon as I got back home to have quality time with my girls. It was literally. Diarized in my diary, allowed me to be present, went for dinner, we played games. Had I not prioritized that and diarized it, time blocked for it, it may not have happened. So you’ve gotta be mindful of how you’re managing your time.
[00:22:23] Adam Stott: So it’s almost like energy management rather than, so that’s what you’re referring to, rather than not giving your best, it’s maybe managing your energy management. Would you agree? Mm-hmm. Could it go that that way? Yeah, I think that’s fair. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think that’s a real, and, and it, when you say it in that way.
[00:22:38] It almost feels like, uh oh yeah, no. Protecting your energy. And maybe bringing your energy down or 80% I can like align with that. You know, where if you say, Adam, don’t give your best, I’m like, ah, panic. It might,
[00:22:51] Anna Mosley: yeah, course you have to give your best in the right moments. Yeah,
[00:22:54] Adam Stott: yeah. You know, so I was trying to understand that, which I think is really, really cool.
[00:22:58] Um, so how do you. W what do you see? So, a couple of things to to ask here, which are important, right? So you’ve worked with these big brands, LinkedIn, L’Oreal, um, you know, all of these big brands, boots, these different things. You done these cool leadership training with big leaders and worked with CS and, and all this cool stuff, right?
[00:23:17] Without naming any, anyone individually. Mm-hmm. Because, uh, certainly, we’ll, we’ll talk more generally. Yes. What’s a, what’s a leader or leadership habits that you feel you’ve seen, um, just across your journey of, of working with hundreds of different leadership organizations that are leadership habits that you see that are common, that cause a lot of issues.
[00:23:39] Anna Mosley: Great question. Well, fixed mindset is a big one. Stuck. They’re stuck in a rut leader. It’s very easy for, as people climb the ladder for them to think, well, I’m getting paid more. I’ve got this job position, I must know what I’m talking about. And then they close off to other people’s ideas. Now I’m very passionate about driving.
[00:23:57] Um. Growth mindset, culture within businesses, and a fixed mindset leader hasn’t got a chance of driving that culture beneath them. They’re not gonna be open to cognitive diversity, which is people sharing their ideas. They’re gonna think it’s their way or the highway. So we get a problem in terms. You see that
[00:24:15] Adam Stott: all the time?
[00:24:15] Yeah.
[00:24:16] Anna Mosley: Oh yeah, that’s a common one. Perfectionism is another. Um. The danger of that one is they’re not praising the small wins. They’re not, they’re not recognizing the journey that their team are going through and their, their team can feel really demotivated. Again, growth is stifled and they’re not modeling good work life balance.
[00:24:33] So that leads to all sorts of problems. People pleasing is another. The people pleaser leader who wants everyone to be their friend. That comes up loads, and that is, um, dangerous. I definitely
[00:24:43] Adam Stott: don’t suffer from that one. You
[00:24:44] Anna Mosley: don’t suffer that one,
[00:24:47] Adam Stott: but you get people. But I know one that does. You know, I, you all know ones of the I?
[00:24:50] Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I used to be one actually. Yeah. Yeah. If you look at Steve, for example, great guy. Mm-hmm. But I’m always saying to him, you know, we’ve got a, uh, he won’t mind me talking about him, I don’t think.
[00:24:59] Anna Mosley: Lovely Blake,
[00:25:00] Adam Stott: lovely, lovely, lovely guy, but toughen up, you know, come on. That’s, uh, but, but lots of boundaries are crucial.
[00:25:05] Great, great qualities as well, like lots of great qualities in other, other areas, right? Yeah.
[00:25:09] Anna Mosley: Yeah. But it’s crucial that a leader has those, has those boundaries you get more respect for, for saying no and having those boundaries than not having them.
[00:25:18] Adam Stott: Okay. And then the flip side of that. Mm. What have you, what, what have you seen in terms of good leadership that you think, wow, you know, you, you’ve seen a lot of high profile people, a lot of people in good leadership positions.
[00:25:29] Are there some specific habits that you’ve seen that you go, okay, actually that’s really cool and I, I like that. And I think that, that, that. That is is really good.
[00:25:38] Anna Mosley: Yeah. Vulnerability in leadership I think is the number one trait and it’s underestimated and misunderstood. When I say vulnerability. This is the growth mindset leader that admits that they are a work in progress.
[00:25:51] You’re brilliant at this, Adam. They admit they are a work in progress to their team, so their teams see a leader that is also willing to learn. Fail forward. And guess what? They’re more comfortable making mistakes as a team. They become more collaborative, more connected because there’s that openness, because a vulnerable leader as a result of their honesty, drives the same within their, with their micro coach coaches.
[00:26:13] That’s powerful. I.
[00:26:15] Adam Stott: So the thing is you’ve just, you’ve, you’ve given some negative traits, you’ve given some positive traits. How often do you see, ’cause you said, Adam, you’re good at this. But then I also, some of the negative traits I often display as well. You know, of course you’re not, and again, that’s the vulnerability, right?
[00:26:27] Yeah. So how often do you see people that have the negatives and the positive? It is almost like a, a mishmash of, uh, of, of good and bad, you know, like in terms of leadership
[00:26:38] Anna Mosley: all the time.
[00:26:39] Adam Stott: Yeah. Um.
[00:26:40] Anna Mosley: I can only think of, I don’t even know if I can think of one, maybe one leader in my entire career before doing my own thing.
[00:26:47] That was a great leader. I think it’s unfortunately very common. I. To find bad leaders, and it’s because they’re not ski, they’re not trained effectively if they have any training at all.
[00:26:58] Adam Stott: Mm-hmm.
[00:26:58] Anna Mosley: And I, it,
[00:26:59] Adam Stott: it true, I say that’s true and, and I believe add
[00:27:01] Anna Mosley: the missing piece is mental fitness. Mm-hmm. It’s not enough.
[00:27:04] Even if someone books a, a training pro, a program, or someone to come in and talk about the skill-based leadership that is gonna fall on its ass if the mentor, if the leader isn’t mentally fit and open and have the clarity of thought to adopt that stuff. And that’s where a 80 Growth Academy is coming in.
[00:27:21] It’s deepening the foundations of that leader first, getting them to truly adopt a growth mindset so that they can fail forward, model the right behaviors for their team, and then the rest just is like a domino effect.
[00:27:32] Adam Stott: Mm-hmm.
[00:27:33] Anna Mosley: That the mental fitness piece is missing.
[00:27:35] Adam Stott: No re really interesting to, to look at those different concepts and I, I think it definitely is a case of when you do see leaders, they have good qualities and sometimes of course they do have bad qualities as well.
[00:27:45] Yeah. Um, you mentioned you’ve seen me vulnerability. Mm-hmm. Is there something that you’ve seen in terms, ’cause you’ve been behind the scenes of, you’ve seen that seem, is there some good that you’ve seen? And then is there a suggestion for me for improvement? I’m always open question. I’m always open to, uh, to hearing that so.
[00:28:02] Maybe do the good one first.
[00:28:04] Anna Mosley: Yeah, no, my, the thing I’ve definitely admire in you the most is, um, growth mindset without, you are always trying to learn and level up despite your success. Yeah. That’s true’s That is really inspirational. And that is again, why I’ve managed to drive my journey so well since joining you.
[00:28:21] ’cause I have been coachable. You
[00:28:23] Adam Stott: have? Yeah. And
[00:28:23] Anna Mosley: I’ll always learn. Mm-hmm. There ain’t no, there ain’t no finish line as Nike says, there is no finish line. Um, what would I give you as a.
[00:28:30] Adam Stott: As a improvement, that’s a one as a leadership improvement.
[00:28:33] Anna Mosley: Um, you’ve got me there. I’m not joking. Adam, you are one of the best leaders I’ve ever worked with, and that sounds like I’m, I’m really sucking up you.
[00:28:43] I don’t. Keep going and I’ll think about it because you, she’ll come
[00:28:47] Adam Stott: up with a, do you know what though? Add an improvement point a little bit. But this is,
[00:28:51] Anna Mosley: but this is a sign of your, but this is a sign of your self development, because any other leader ask me that question, it would just come out my mouth like that.
[00:28:58] This is, this is point. I, I
[00:29:00] Adam Stott: kind of am a bit aware of the weaknesses. Patience being one of, yeah. I’ve seen you improve on that though. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve tried to improve on that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so it’s interesting. Yeah.
[00:29:08] Anna Mosley: So I guess, yeah, you, you know, you are fast paced, you know, you are driven, you know, at times you can be impatient.
[00:29:13] I see You’ve recognized that it’s slowing down sometimes, isn’t it? I suppose it would be. The
[00:29:17] Adam Stott: feedback that’s, it’s interesting enough is your, your kind of 80%, um, energy rule I think is actually, I think that’s a massive lesson for people. Yeah. I see. You’re doing better with, well, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, ’cause I definitely think that’s something that people can learn from.
[00:29:29] Yeah. Um, if they can. Because I’ve, I’m definitely like that. So when you are talking about this as much as I, I certainly don’t wanna make it about me. Yeah. For because, but I’m actually really interested in what you’re saying and I think that that’s definitely something that everyone can kind of pick up a lesson or two from.
[00:29:46] Yeah. Because I think that energy, I definitely go so hard that sometimes my energy drops. Yeah. Um, because you go so hard at a hundred, a hundred, a hundred, a hundred, a hundred, you drop down to 50 or 40 or 30. Whereas actually if you were able to put the brake on and come down to say 80%, it’d be better to be 80% all the time, wouldn’t it?
[00:30:04] Consistent? Yeah. Than it would go 120, 120. You know, because you’re actually burning it too hard, right? Yeah. So,
[00:30:11] Anna Mosley: absolutely. So that’s
[00:30:12] Adam Stott: cool.
[00:30:12] Anna Mosley: I think for you it’s more, um, and hopefully I’m giving this to you now. It’s seeing an even bigger picture with the importance of the mental fitness of your team. Yeah.
[00:30:21] ’cause there’s so much performance potential, like it can shift the dial if they can really understand how
[00:30:26] Adam Stott: Yeah. The
[00:30:26] Anna Mosley: strategy to how to get that clarity of thought.
[00:30:29] Adam Stott: So, so how does somebody that’s listening become mentally fit? How do they, what are the steps of somebody to go on that journey? How do they get to that point where they can say, yeah, okay.
[00:30:38] I. How could they improve their mental fitness? Great question. It’s a big question. Big question. And describe question. Describe mental fitness for us so we understand. Yes. Your, your, your, your interpretation there.
[00:30:48] Anna Mosley: So I’ll probably say, just to frame this, that I’ve spent, um, after the corporate world, I actually spent five or six years in the mental health world specifically.
[00:30:55] So I know a lot about mental health and. Breaking through. Barriers from anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, phobias, the lot. I’ve spent a lot of time in that area. Um, so mental fitness is a phrase that I much prefer to mental health. Just wanna say this first. Mm. Because doesn’t mental fitness imply it’s something you gotta work on every day?
[00:31:12] How brilliant is that? It’s like a muscle. You’ve gotta flex. So. That’s the first thing. Frame it in your head and realize the importance of mental fitness. It is something you wanna work on daily. It isn’t as important as your physical fitness. How can you work on it? Well, I could give you a big long list, but I’ll get to the point.
[00:31:30] The most. The most important thing is what I mentioned before, is building your self-esteem because that’s your foundation that everything else sits upon. When you’re standing up presenting to a team, when you are managing through a bit of conflict at home, your self-esteem will determine how you show up in that situation.
[00:31:46] So. Focus on that. First. I suggested the list earlier. Um, other small things that you can be doing, um, are getting out in hm o recognizing the value of pouring into these different cups. Striving for balance. Um, we’ve got. I would a, a nice suggestion I’ve got, actually, I mentioned the STRESSOMETER earlier.
[00:32:04] That goes zero to 10. Why not every time you make a cup of coffee, ad or tea? What do you like to drink? Coffee. Ask yourself, what number am I at on my STRESSOMETER? And take ownership of that. STRESSOMETER. Let’s not blame the traffic day. This is the funny thing. Stress.
[00:32:19] Adam Stott: Stress is a funny thing because whenever you say to someone you are stressed, they go, I’m not stressed.
[00:32:26] You know, like hundred, a hundred percent. Right. It, it’s a very, very, yeah. Funny thing because I don’t, I don’t think people know when they’re stressed. My dad always, my dad always says to me, he is always like, Adam, you’re stressed. He always says, it’s me. Yeah. And uh, and, and I always quite defensive about it.
[00:32:44] Mm-hmm. You know, as in, because I can handle this, I can do, do you understand why I like all the time? Yeah, I do. I do. And I think that, I think that a lot of people are like that, don’t know that, but do people recognize, could, could somebody actually interpret their stress on, because if, if you said, Adam, go and make a coffee and every time ask about what your stress level is.
[00:33:02] Mm. I’d always say. I’m fine.
[00:33:06] Anna Mosley: Well, this is the, this is the self-awareness piece, right? Yeah. That is so crucial. So if I was coaching any individual, it would always start with building their self-awareness. So you talk a lot at big business. This is
[00:33:16] Adam Stott: good. This is what I mean. Yeah. So it’s how do people become self-aware Yeah.
[00:33:19] Of that type of thing.
[00:33:20] Anna Mosley: Yeah. So you’ve gotta get to know yourself better. ’cause it does show up differently. I, it shows up as anger for me, which is really quite ugly. Yeah,
[00:33:26] Adam Stott: right. Yeah, me too.
[00:33:26] Anna Mosley: When I’m top. Yeah. What do you mean? Yeah. Um, yeah, it shows up as anger for me. I know that about myself for someone who’s more introverted.
[00:33:33] That’s
[00:33:33] Adam Stott: really good. Yeah, I think that’s really good. Because for some people it doesn’t sharp as anger. Yeah. They
[00:33:39] Anna Mosley: go into themselves, introvert. It’s, Sasha
[00:33:40] Adam Stott: goes quiet, right. For example. Yes. She, she goes quiet. Yes. When she’s, uh, stressed, she just goes silent. And, and, and that’s completely the opposite of me, where I would go, go the other way.
[00:33:50] Right?
[00:33:51] Anna Mosley: Yeah. And other people will be emotional, you know? Yeah. It is about getting to know yourself first, but. You definitely can tune in with where you are on your STRESSOMETER, when you build that self-awareness. And the key, Adam, is taking ownership for the STRESSOMETER, and not blaming the external factor, the bad day, the traffic, the person that’s shouting at you.
[00:34:08] We’ve gotta take responsibility for our response. So my tip, going back to the tip, every time you make a coffee, ask yourself, what number am I at? And if you are above a five. You’ve gotta pull your finger out and do something about it. Do you need to take a little break? Do you need to ask for some help?
[00:34:23] Like this is getting back above the line. This is being accountable. And I think self-regulation and management of that stress, soter will get you back down into the high performance zone because it’s all about that clarity of thought. Mm-hmm. That’s how to kind of keep on top of the mental fitness and there’s millions of other tips.
[00:34:39] Hmm. But I’d say let’s focus on self building your self-esteem and managing that stress on as a starting point. Yeah.
[00:34:46] Adam Stott: Well, I, I think, I think that’s pretty awesome, right? I think there’s a lot of good stuff there that, that people can start to build in. And I’m sure there’s gonna be some leaders listening or some people that know, a leader that needs this kind of, uh, needs this kind of help, Anna, where where can people go to find out more about you, more about what you do, um, potentially, and, and start to explore these kind of topics with you.
[00:35:08] Anna Mosley: Connects with me on LinkedIn, so I’m Anna Mosley, M-O-S-L-E-Y. It’s easy to misspell it. Yeah. Um, also my website is at academy. Um, and get in touch book a discovery call. You’ll see the links on there. And I really look forward to hopefully having some great conversations about how I can either help you personally or your team unleash your extraordinary and take that high performance mindset to another level.
[00:35:32] Yeah.
[00:35:33] Adam Stott: Well, look, um, really enjoyed the conversation. I think you’ve. Brought so much of value there. You know, I’ve really enjoyed it. I think the topics are are awesome, and I have no doubt that’s gonna help a hell of a lot of people out there as well. I hope so. Uh, so, so well done. You know, as always, I’ve, I love, um, spending time with you and, you know, the things that you’ve got to add to people are absolutely huge.
[00:35:53] So brilliant stuff. And look, if you’ve been watching, uh, this episode of, uh, business Growth Secrets and you’re feeling inspired or you’ve been listening, it’d be really awesome if you could go and share. This episode with somebody that thinks, uh, somebody you think might need it. And, and when you identify that person who needs to understand more about their stress, oter who needs to understand more about self-esteem, who needs to understand more about how they can lead a team in a better way, and if you can imagine that person in your mind.
[00:36:21] Go and hit that share button and share it with them because it’d be a really great way for them to discover some of the principles that, that Anna and I have have talked about here. And if you know someone, perhaps you’re working with a team for a team or your part of team or a leader yourself, go and get in touch with Anna.
[00:36:38] She’s done some incredible work with this, some huge brands and you know, she can help you without a shadow of a doubt. And, uh, just wanna say a big thank you and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode of Business Go Secrets.