Work Besties Who Podcast
Building a bold community of work besties 💼👯♀️ to bond 🤝💞, banter 😂🎉, and bloom 🌸✨
🎙️ Listen to the Work Besties Who Podcast: where workplace friendships get real! From tea spills to relatable laughs, we’re unpacking everything about work life's ups, downs, and unforgettable moments.
✨ Join us for candid chats, relatable stories, and a sprinkle of chaos—because what’s work without a little drama and a lot of fun?
💼😄 Hit play, and let’s dive into the messy magic of workplace connections together!
Work Besties:-)
Work Besties Who Podcast
Unlocking Career Success Through Relationships with Morag Barrett
You, Me, We: Why Work Besties Are a Career Superpower (with Morag Barrett)
Ready to upgrade your 9–5 relationships from “cordial coworkers” to ride-or-die allies? In this energizing episode, Jess & Claude sit down with leadership expert and author Morag Barrett to chat about why having work besties isn’t just nice—it’s necessary.
Drawing from her brilliant book You, Me, We, Why we all NEED a Friend at Work; Morag shares actionable tips on how to build meaningful connections at work, navigate tricky power dynamics, and bring emotional awareness into every meeting (without the eye rolls). From small talk that actually matters to shifting from a “me” to a “we” mindset, this episode is packed with wisdom, laughs, and a whole lot of heart.
Take a listen if you’re ready to: 💼 Build real friendships at work
🤝 Shift into a culture of allyship
📣 Speak up with confidence in any room
✨ Make your workplace feel more you
Because when you’ve got the right people beside you, work just works better.
Follow or Connect With Morag Barrett here
Website-https://skyeteam.com/
LinkedIn-https://www.linkedin.com/in/moragbarrett/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SkyeTeam
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/moragjbarrett/
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Work Besties! Theme Song Written by Ralph Lentini @therallyband
Hello, my work besties. What if the secret to career successes isn't just what you know, but who you know and how you connect with them? Today's guest, Marag, is here to prove that workplace relationships are more than just a nice to have. We please recommend you stay to the very end so that you can hear some of the tips and tricks and some of the mistakes that people make when trying to build work friendships.
Claude:Hi. I'm Claude and I'm Jess. We are corporate employees by day, entrepreneurs by night and work besties for life.
Jess:Join us as we explore how work besties lift each other up, laugh through the chaos and thrive together in every industry. Work besties Hello, we are so excited to have you on board.
Morag:Marag, why don't you give a background on yourself and how you? My goodness? Well, I saw the name of the podcast. I was thinking that is the place for me and I'm only sorry that my work besties, eric and Ruby, had another commitment and couldn't be here to party on with us all, because that would have been so much fun. But what really caught my eye was, with the work besties theme is here you see, showcased. My latest book with my work besties, eric and Ruby, is called you, me, we, why we All Need a Friend at Work and how to Show Up as One. So I think this is a match made in heaven. So you asked for a little bit about me. So here you go.
Morag:The accent is not from Colorado, where I'm currently based. I'm originally from England. I know, shocking, I do say I'm from Texas, but then people say, oh y'all, no, I can't do it. I've lived here in Colorado for 20 years and my sons, who were seven and four when we arrived, are now all six foot tall and fully grown. And when I am not helping to take the junior high out of the workplace and bring humanity and friendships back in, you will find me ballroom dancing or playing the bassoon for the local symphony orchestra. Not at the same time, because that would be awkward. So there you go. If that doesn't make me an international woman of mystery, I don't know what will all of them. So I was thinking about going to the grizzly rose this week, which is the cowboy country ball dance this week, but I have just off stage here, a wardrobe, a closet full of dresses with sequins and parcels and sparkles.
Jess:I think we have pictures of you in that. I feel like that needs to be.
Morag:I will send you some. I have one that I'm spinning. It makes me look like an old-fashioned car wash. You know, with the big brushes don't judge. Yeah, there you go. I think we've bonded. I think we can class ourselves as friends at work now yes, I mean that's.
Jess:That's stuff that you don't share with just anybody for sure absolutely that's the mistake we make.
Morag:The first mistake is and I made it earlier in my career is we've got to be all buttoned up, stiff, upper lip, british professional at all times. But the reality is, when we share these nuggets, the ballroom dancing, the classical music, the three six-foot suns, etc. Those are moments of connection that move us from being strangers with nothing in common to acquaintances and work colleagues with something or someone in common.
Claude:Definitely. And how did you come about writing this book on work friendship?
Morag:Well, it comes out of my first book. My first book is called Cultivate the Power of Winning Relationships and the second edition of that is about to come out and it's all been updated, post-pandemic. But even with that book Cultivate the Power of Winning Relationships it introduces the relationship ecosystem and this idea of being allies and having allies aka friends at work and having allies aka friends at work. And what we found with the thousands of leaders that we're working with around the world. They were asking this is great.
Morag:It's changed my mindset about how I collaborate with others in the workplace. But how do I show up as an ally, what does that mean, without just becoming a yes person and a doormat? And so Eric Ruby and I went back to the beginning. We interviewed hundreds of leaders. We have an ally mindset profile where more than a thousand leaders from around the world have now provided their input, and that is what created you, me, we, and here we're talking about how do you show up as a friend for others and how do you show up at work as a friend for yourself, so that your own values, your own needs, your own hopes, dreams, aspirations are getting as much care and attention as you're lavishing on your colleagues and the business goals that you might be asked to deliver together. That's fascinating.
Jess:You've hit on a couple of topics that we tend to love to dabble in. You have more of the stats and the facts behind it, which is my forte, so I'm so excited to hear about some of that and the fact that you interviewed people and talked to really get to the root of it. One of the things you bring up is ally method. How do you get leadership to shift from that me first to a me first mindset and approach?
Morag:Can I beat the exam board? Can I graduate in the top X percent of my class Me, me and yet, when we arrive in the workplace, this is the biggest team sport that many of us get to participate in, because my success is dependent on others. Whether I'm a solopreneur, whether I'm working in a small startup organization, or whether I'm working in a 10,000 multi-country company, my success depends on others. We can't hype form alone, and so that's the first mindset shift that we have to make. I have to care as much about you and your success as you do about my own.
Morag:This podcast conversation is a small microcosm of that, because you two can be the fabulist hosts, but if I sit here quietly and looking miserable, then it's not going to be a very scintillating conversation or very interesting for your audience. And vice versa. It doesn't matter how many stats I have, but if I can't bring it alive and show and share the stories of how it's transformed leader reputations or organizational cultures and leave your audience with some pragmatic first steps, none of us are going to be better together, and that's our whole mantra. How can we be better together?
Jess:So, knowing that what would be one simple thing that leadership can do today to get them from that me to we and help foster that encouragement of the environment, Well, firstly, is to start thinking about it as to how do you feel?
Morag:So in you, me, we, we have a three step process Look up, show up, step up, Look up is how do I feel? Am I having fun at work? I'm about to go into this meeting with Jess and Claude. Am I looking forward to it or am I going? Oh, do you remember last month when they were mean to me at lunchtime or whatever?
Claude:We all went to those meetings.
Morag:And so we're all worried about those meetings. Yes, we've all been to those meetings where we're worried about who's going to show up and we're thinking about well, I'm going to say the first smart thing first and go on the offensive. Or, if Jess and Claude do this, I'm going to do that. We're on the defensive, but we're not thinking about the business decision at hand. So the first thing is what am I feeling? Am I having fun? Am I feeling nervous? Am I feeling tired? Am I anxious or stressed?
Morag:Because that energy impacts how we show up. And that brings me to the second point how do I want us to feel at the end of this meeting, this decision, this conversation? Because then that moves to the choice, the intentionality of how do I need to show up. Do I need to bring the quiet, thoughtful reflective more out, which is what I use in my executive coaching, or do I need to bring the energized, enthusiastic, let's bounce ideas off each other, which is probably what you need for an effective podcast conversation. So look up, show up, step up is all about how do I feel, how do I want others to feel, and then making a choice of what is it that I need to do or say or how do I need to be in order to ensure a more successful outcome?
Claude:So I have a question on this, because we all have meetings where we get angry just going into the meeting because we know how it's going to become, how it's going to end up, and there are so many memes where you have, oh, I'm so angry before even going to this meeting. So we know how we are showing up. How can we change that mindset?
Morag:So awareness is the first bit and congratulations on knowing. But there is that I think it's a misattributed quote to Einstein that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting it to be different. And so if we know we're going in frustrated, you can bet your colleagues are thinking, oh God, warwick's going to be frustrated again, and so they're coming defensive. And then we're not having the real conversations, we're not getting to the root cause, and so we're just fueling each other in this downward spiral. The best leaders I've worked with, I've seen them start with a simple pulse check. It might be give me one word to describe how you're feeling as we come into this conversation. And it might be, you know, enthusiastic, curious, overwhelmed, confused. And the idea is not then to poke the finger and blame and say, well, tell me more about that. Now you've got a pulse to understand. Okay, so how do we given that, how do we make this the best use of our time we can To an including? Do we need to reschedule till next week?
Morag:And as leaders, the goal is not to make everybody happy. We're not responsible for other people's happiness. Oh, you get thumbs up. Nor are we trying to necessarily get to everybody saying, yes, it's the difference between buy-in and bought-in. We want everybody to be able to share what's on their mind, what they're excited for, what they're worried for, what might get in the way of success, for them to feel that those concerns are heard and considered and then, whatever the decision is, the bought in is that we can be one voice to the rest of the organization Says yes, we looked at all of the different choices. We realize this isn't perfect and here's what we're doing and why.
Morag:Versus going out and continuing to do what I call BMW bitch, moan and whine, I say that Complainers, oh gosh, you won't believe what Jess has asked us to do. It'll never work. Well, that undermines the team, it undermines confidence in the leadership team and it erodes our relationship. So what do you do if you're consistently feeling frustrated? If it's with a person, then you need to have a conversation with that person. Hey Claude, it feels like we've been butting heads the last three times we got together. Does it feel the same for you? What can we do to move past this and get on with what we need to be able to do together?
Claude:It comes back to again how I'm like working on a relationship. You know any other relationship. It's a work relationship, but it's still a relationship. It is.
Jess:And in some of these instances, though, there's a difference in, say, the level right. So in the particular meetings let's say we're going into, maybe claude and I are the same level and we aren't the ones that have the strife, it's the bosses. So we're seeing them have it. What would be some things as the individual witnessing it, that we could help coach let's assume in this scenario, I am your boss.
Morag:It's a bit like now I'm picturing of star wars I'm your father. Well, I'm not. I'm the boss. And you two are like my goodness, morag, she's not listening when you, if you have an ally, you have each other's back. Here's an opportunity for you two to get together to say, okay, is it just me? You feel like Morag's talking at cross purposes. And then how do we, how do one of you have that conversation with me as your boss? Now, it's scary, and I'm not suggesting that everybody should just pitch in and have that tough conversation from the get-go. There's two things I want you to take away from that message and call to action.
Morag:One is yes, it could be career limiting for you to come to me as your boss and give me bad feedback, so you need to find a way to do it in a way that you feel safe, that you feel like you're likely to be heard. But it's also career limiting for me as the boss if I'm only getting the nods of oh no, everything's lovely, morag, when in fact it's not so. It's in both our interests. It's the we first for us to find a way to have that conversation, and the going to your ally, going to your friend at work and saying, hey, help me think this through, help me role play it. There's a subtle difference between that being gossip and being a meaningful ally conversation.
Morag:The former is all about drama Gosh Maura, can you believe she did that again? All about drama Gosh Morag, can you believe she did that again? And that puts them center stage and usually portrays that person as the villain, whereas when you're having an ally conversation, you can still say, goodness, I can't believe Morag asked us to do it. Now you're on the stage with me and it's all about and how do we get past this? How do we help her to see the other perspectives? And this is the power, and I've seen it happen. It has truly, truly transformed leader reputations from at best being a brilliant jerk, at worst a jerk, to somebody who is inspiring and engaged and we want to work with and it comes out one conversation and one relationship at a time.
Jess:That's a really big, bold message that I hope our work besties take across, because we rely so much on hearing and feeling the culture from your leadership, but it's kind of a cyclical nature. You need the managers under them to also have a role and responsibility too and to know that they should so feel empowered.
Morag:So I think you nailed it there. It's easy to say, well, they need to go first, they need to fix it. But we are all, no matter whether we are the newest entry-level emerging leader that's just joined the organization or the CEO. We're all the they to somebody. And whilst we might not be able to change the organizational culture overnight or fix that team that sits in the UK that keeps driving you nuts, what I can do is fix the relationship, and the next meeting I'm in I can choose, if I'm a people manager, to make a little oasis of calm and a team of allies around my table, and then I'll worry about how we as a team build a relationship with the teams up and downstream of us. So I think there's always more that we can do at an individual and a team level that then starts to affect and pick up momentum at an organizationally wide level.
Jess:I love your Oasis example because it's like the ripple of a puddle right. You are an individual with a maybe small thing that, but then it can really expand. I mean, it happens in the negative so often, but you can do it in the positive.
Claude:You can, yes, and I love also the word ally, right, I think it's a very strong word where it's again that relationship, that understanding each other, hearing each other. Now you said also at the beginning that you interviewed a lot of leaders and were they all very open that how important it is to have allies, to have work bases, because sometimes we do hear that never be friends with your co-workers. So I just want to understand what was their perspective.
Morag:It went for every level of heck. No, it's not personal, it's just business. Got no time for this. Through to those who were role modeling it. And, if I go with stereotypes, we interviewed leaders in oil and gas, gold mining literally life and death. Environments where, if I don't have your back, if we're not taking and following the safety precautions, literally we can lose life and limb. Caring, compassionate, all about helping, making others better, but maybe shied away from the tough feedback and holding each other accountable for the standards and the new ways of working that may be expected. And we interviewed leaders from across 20 countries and on six continents.
Morag:Now, we haven't interviewed everybody. Here's the thing, the language. Whether you choose to call them colleagues, workmates, friends, allies, I don't care. All I want to do is, for the next six weeks that we're working together, for the three years we're going to be on this team, let's have a little fun, let's make life and work a little lighter and let's create an environment where we can all show up and do our best work together. That's the power of having and being an ally or a friend or a bestie.
Jess:So there's a way to do that authentically, but there's also a way to do it inauthentically right. So if I was, let's say, a manager who is just not open, not a very inviting person, and I take this course or training with you or learn from even just reading your book, the next day I show up like okay, now I want to talk about how we have fun. The next day, I show up like okay, now I want to talk about how we have fun.
Morag:How would you help somebody that goes from one persona to this without it being inauthentic? So I have yet to meet anybody who gets up in the morning and thinks, oh, I want to be seen as a brilliant jerk today or as an adversary, which is one of the other relationships dynamics I talk about in the book. We get it because either our styles are misaligned, maybe our goals are in competition this isn't about personality transplants. Nobody needs to do a 180 on who they are but I guess all of us need to round out the edges. So here's an easy way Buy everybody a copy of my book you, me, we and read it.
Morag:Maybe say, hey, I was listening to the podcast Worst Work Besties and I realized that I can occasionally come across as a little directive, telling at that point you don't need to apologize for being who you are. What do you need to promise to be different? Because, let's face it, I'm not going to change. You can say, hey, what's one one tip, what's one thing I could do to just soften that a bit, or to show up a little different, to listen more than I talk, and then just say thank you. So listen and take what works for you, because I guarantee, when we are listening, when we are leaning in, when we can still say no, but do it in a way or disagree in a way that strengthens the relationship and doesn't damage it, the magic happens.
Morag:Because then I stop filtering, I stop anticipating. Well, there's no point saying I'm not even going to bother trying because Jess will say no, how do I know? Because you might have said yes, but I never even asked. I didn't take the informed risk, I didn't innovate because I was worried about getting into trouble. So every time we step away from the relationship, our ability to deliver the business results of what we do and how we organize gets eroded. This is the secret sauce to success. No matter what industry you're in, what level of career you're in, it is all about who you work with and who you work for.
Claude:That's very well said. So, being a little bit personal now, so we know you have worked best team right, eric and ruby. So how did you meet and how did you feel that connection, that suddenly it was like that's it, they are my best or they are my ally it's interesting when I ask leaders, when I think about what it takes to become an ally.
Morag:There are people that you meet in life where you just connect and it's like we are lost deep souls, even though we may never have met in person. In three dimensions, we've only met through Zoom or we've only met for the first time, and those are magical. Now, with Ruby, she will share that. It took several months for us to get to this. I knew from the get-go that I am abundance and generosity. I want you to be successful. And she would email or she would Slack me and she goes can I do this? And what? Do you agree? And I would go, yes, because Ruby, you're fabulous. She is the most amazing executive coach. I adore her. But I didn't tell her that.
Morag:And there came a point when she went to Eric and she goes I'm writing these emails Morag, how was your weekend? And I want to do this and I think it'll help us with that. And she was getting the yes back or the one line of do it. And she was reading into that. Am I in trouble? Does Morag not like me? And so my flex is I'll write the email that says, yeah, go do it. And then I'll go back and say and so how was your weekend? And hugs and kisses. And that's just how I have to adapt.
Morag:I have on my calendar a weekly reminder to reach out to, and each week it's a different list of five or 10 folks, not because I'm cheating, but because I care so much I don't want to forget. And so how do we do it? One conversation at a time, by asking a new team member. So what is it you expect of me as your boss, or what do you expect of me as your peer? Here's what you can expect from me. These are my hot buttons. This is what success looks like. These are my hot buttons. This is what success looks like, For example, when we're going on a client meeting.
Morag:When I say we arrive early for Morag, that means 15 minutes, it does not mean five minutes before. If we don't actually make the implicit explicit, how would anybody know? You'll learn over time, along the way, we're going to butt heads and I'm going to get frustrated because you're arriving seven minutes before instead of 15, all because we didn't take the time to just sit back and say tell me your journey, what excites you, what frustrates you? And here let me share mine. And now, how can your story you, how does my story me, and how do we put that together to make something unique that only we can do together?
Jess:So, margu, with this new kind of work dynamic where so much of it is hybrid or fully remote, are there different tactics or things you would recommend to help, kind of?
Morag:break down? Yes, because when we went out for lunch or let's grab a drink after work, or even walking from one meeting room to another, when I saw you Before the pandemic, we at SkyTeam all of our leadership development programs, our team coaching, was in person. I was of the opinion if you want to be a better human, you have to do it in a room with other humans. Well, the pandemic took that away from all of us, and so one of the choices I made was to lean into these, was to lean into these two-dimensional conversations, and some of my newest, deepest friendships, professional relationships, have been made through the camera. Because we chose to make the time for the small talk before we got down to the big work. We chose to share a little bit more about what's happening. We chose to let you into my office and you can assume I have a thing for Jamie. He does have a thing for me too, he just doesn't know it.
Morag:Yeah, for those who are listening and can't see, I have a display holding a life-size model of Jamie from Outlander, and if you're still not sure, then you either have to call me or get the books are watching. You need to go watch it. Just to stare at that the whole time you do. You can see from this there's a unicorn picture up there, that's an aspiring tattoo I'm thinking of getting. These are the things where you start to say, oh, I wonder what that's all about and ask more, like I'd love to know. I remember making. Behind Jess are some paper rings. I remember making those at elementary school when I was a child, especially in the holidays, and a bit of paper we're celebrating for Lunar New Year.
Morag:So even then, that now tells me that there's an Asian influence here. If it's Lunar New Year, there's something that's driving that and there's a topic potentially for conversation later on. And so, whether we're meeting can actually shake hands and press the flesh in an appropriate HR way, or whether we are just meeting through the camera, our choice is to share more slow down, because genuine connection happens not just in the work that we do together. It happens in the spaces between the work that we do together.
Jess:It's come up a number of times, taking the time, whether it's in the beginning of a meeting or at the end, to just connect and have those conversations about how you're doing or something that you had talked about beforeude, and I chat about like I'm the worst at that. We get together and I'm right into the business of like did you get this, this and this?
Morag:you're like good morning so we start all our sky team meetings with a section called we call Ripples and Joys, and we took that from an organization called City Year and we've been doing it now for 10 years and when we started I thought, oh God, this is hokey Like. Come on down to business. Ripples and Joys are things we've done that have moved a client forward or a project forward or a new document we've created. You know it can be the transactional stuff and then the joys is anything, personally or professionally, that's brought us joy and made us happy. And it is powerful because, as a leader, when you take a few minutes to get your team and share, you learn what motivates people without having to ask. You're learning about the challenges that they may be navigating in their whole lives, that may be impacting how they're showing up in their work lives. So to your point, small talk, icebreakers, it may not come naturally. So what can we do as leaders? Start putting it on the agenda, making it safe, role modeling it, being curious and over time it will create a life of its own and transform it. I'll give you an example.
Morag:We had a leader a defense contractor, I believe, but think about it Very secret work that they can't tell us about, with everybody having to swipe through into secret parts of the office. And, needless to say, when we arrived, the culture was very politics, silos, turf, wars. Nobody really communicated. And the CEO turned to eric and said so are you saying that I've got to start every meeting with five minutes of small talk? And eric went, yes. So this leader and it's in the books literally added the gender item that says marks five minutes of small talk, and it was very structured, a bit like my meeting reminder. Well, it took on a life of its own, such that everybody other leaders started putting Mark's five minutes of small talk on theirs. And that culture yes, they still work in their silos because they have to, but you hear laughter, there's fun, there is a sense of connection in a team and an organization that was disconnected beforehand and all it took was Mark's five minutes of small talk.
Claude:It's so funny because you would think that putting in an agenda is not authentic, right, because it's like it's something I have to do. It's not something that I want to do, but at the end it became life on its own and really everybody embraced it bring more of that humanness to all our conversations.
Morag:So if you go to our website skyteamcom that's s-k-y-e because of the isle of sky off the west coast of scotland, because I'm a mcleod and that's where the clan mcleod from comes from so more nuggets you go to our website. We rebranded the website two years ago. We have unicorns all over the place. It was a throwaway comment that I made 10 years ago that took on a life of its own. I have so many unicorn themed things at home that clients have sent me Unicorn socks, unicorn trotskies it doesn't matter, it's there and we decided to just own it. Now there are still going to be and this goes back to your earlier question, claude, about the people who don't perceive the need for friendships at work the idea of unicorns for those folks are also likely to be.
Morag:Well, that's just ridiculous. That's not professional. You know what? That's fine. Then that means we're not the right partner for you. But for those who lean in, I decided let's bring some humor to our styling and let's put it front and center. And it has been magical, literally magical. And I was going to be an engineer. I spent 15 years in finance. I am that logical business first thinker. But I am having so much more fun even more fun now that we're having a little bit more of the quirky you know, everyday conversations in our lives. You're making me so happy.
Jess:One of the things I was thinking is like so we started this podcast because the relationship that Claude and I have was having that ripple effect in our organization, and I think it was a throwaway comment that someone said to us like oh, maybe you guys should have a podcast to spread this to everyone else. And, typical me, I'd like checklist of staff.
Jess:I quickly ran and was like let's go do it yeah we are doing it and I'm like, yeah, claude's, like, oh my, I thought it was just a joke, I don't know we're moving forward with that, but the the thing that we've loved so much about it is how happy people are talking about their work days and how much it changes their persona and their day knowing that they'll get their work day to yeah or or interact.
Jess:so hearing that this is a helpful tips and tricks for management for any level is just so empowering and giving tools and ways for all organizations, because you've just hit on institutions that felt like they should be more siloed, but even within them you need that level of brevity and element to pause and let people be who they are well, think about.
Morag:We spend most of our working and waking lives at work. If we have no friends at work and unfortunately, 20 of the leaders who've taken the ally mindset profile say they have nobody to turn to. Well, on the best, the best days, that's lonely and isolating. But what happens when your project goes off the rails or you're missing a milestone or you've hit a hurdle? If you've got nobody to turn to talk about stress, anxiety and burnout? And if we find ourselves on the job market, who are we going to turn to to help us land that next opportunity? Who are we going to turn to to help us land that next opportunity?
Claude:So it's in our interest to invest in those relationships today so that we can have fun every day but also that we are better prepared for the inevitable hurdles and knocked knees that we're all going to have on this journey. We spoke at some point or so with Jess, where we spend most of the time at work, like you say, and a lot of time our significant other will not understand what we are going through. So that's why it's so important to have this person, this ally I love that word, I have to say this ally that understands where we are coming from and sometimes it's not to give point of view, but just to listen and to be there. I'm here because that's not what you always have at home.
Morag:You cannot do that no, they listen to our soap opera drama and they perhaps can keep up with some of the cast of characters, but they're not in it. They, they can't help. And we need to have that conversation, either with the ally or with the person with whom we're butting heads, so that we can do different.
Jess:So at the very beginning I made a comment. I'm curious what your thoughts are on this. What would be the number one mistake people are making when trying to establish work friendships?
Morag:Using hope as a strategy. If I'd had a penny, well, if I'd had a penny for every leader that says well, you just do your job and prove that you are trustworthy and worthy of being an ally, in about two years we'll be okay. Well, at the pace of change, none of us have two years to get to that point, and so it is amazing how quickly we can deepen a relationship. One of the ways to do that is if you truly are somebody's ally, if you truly are somebody's bestie at work, even if you've worked together for 10 years, tell them, make the implicit, explicit, say you were listening to this podcast and it got me thinking about you and I just want you to know I'm grateful for the work we've done together and think about the colleague you would jump at the chance to work with again. Who comes to mind? What makes them special and I've asked that question of thousands of leaders and the themes that come through are clear.
Morag:It's rarely about how smart they were. Occasionally that gets mentioned. It is rarely about their technical skills yeah, that does get mentioned. It is invariably all about how they made you feel that they gave you the tough feedback that transformed your approach, that they took a risk on you before you thought you were ready, that they were fun to be around. They coached, they mentored you. It's all about the people, skills.
Morag:And so, as you're listening to this conversation, that colleague that you jump at the chance to work with again, the work bestie that you already know you have but you haven't told I. Dare you, I double dog, dare you Send them a message. Tell them next time you see them. Send them a LinkedIn message, text message that says hey, I was listening to this podcast, work Besties, thinking about best colleagues, colleagues I would love to work with again. And you came to mind. And here's why, when I get leaders to do that in our leadership programs, when we start getting the replies back, it's everything from oh shucks, you've made my day, don't mention it to really profound messages. So don't assume, don't hope that other people know that you are their ally. Tell them and then show them by following through.
Jess:I kid you not, claude can attest because she has it in her hands too. Our challenge for the work besties was to take a moment today to tell a colleague that you appreciate. Reach out to that work bestie who doesn't even know that they're your work bestie and start building that stronger connection. You'll never know until you do it how fitting so thank you and do it.
Morag:I had a leader this is a heartbreaking one. I had one leader who did that and they followed. I'm going to cry as I think about it. But they followed up with me and they said you know, I sent that message because you told me to and you made me. He said, but the person I reached out to and here was the reply they passed away one month later and had you not encouraged us to send that message, I would not have had that opportunity to close that loop. So I'm hoping this isn't the first, you know, the last time you get to do this. But it doesn't matter whether you're the CEO or brand new. We all appreciate hearing that we are seen, we're heard, we're valued. So send that message. I think that's a fabulous call to action.
Jess:I love that. It's a sad reminder of how fleeting life is and important it is to be so open with everybody right away, but very moving.
Claude:Thank you for sharing that kind of that is short and we need to appreciate people, we need to tell them that's where ripples and joys come in every friday at sky team.
Morag:It's a way of celebrating hey, congratulations, player one, you've made it to the next week. But it's a way of celebrating hey, congratulations, player one, you've made it to the next week. But it is a way of recognizing just how far we've come together and just taking a breath, for what are we going to be doing, going forward together.
Jess:This is fantastic. This conversation was so on brand to work besties, who we stand for, what we're trying to create in this movement, and it was just nothing short of inspiring all the way up to the very end. I still have chills. We love how you broke down power of workplace friendships and leaderships. It's all about us becoming from the you, the me to the we. So thank you for sharing that. Do you have any parting words that you'd like?
Morag:to I do. If I've piqued your curiosity, then of course, please get your hands on you, me, we. That's available in audio print, kindle, whatever your poison, whichever your preferred way. But I also invite you all to continue and add to our research by learning about your own ally mindset and the five practices. So you can do that by going to skyteam S-K-Y-E teamcloud forward. Slash you me we and it will take you straight to the ally mindset profile and, of course, connect with me on LinkedIn. Follow our work at skyteamcom and I look forward to being your ally at work.
Claude:Thank you so much, morag, it was so fantastic.
Jess:So to our work besties out there, let's keep that conversation going. Morag has put out a couple of call of attentions, one for all of us, but for you all specifically, to check out Morag's book, her website. Really think about how you can make a difference. So if you loved this episode which we sure you did make sure to like, subscribe and hit that follow button so you never miss an upcoming episode. And please don't forget to leave us a review. And please share this episode. It has been so moving for us. We know others will be inspired by it too. So, with that, keep on supporting each other. Work besties Bye. Remember, whether you're swapping snacks in the break room, rescuing each other from endless meetings or just sending that perfectly timed meme. Having a work bestie is like having your own personal hype squad.
Claude:So keep lifting each other, laughing through the chaos and, of course, thriving. Until next time, stay positive, stay productive and don't forget to keep supporting each other. Work besties.
