EP 125: Doing More Isn’t the Answer — Rethinking Leadership, Burnout & Capacity with Rachel Edmondson Clark

In this episode of Thriving in Intersectionality, Dr. Lola Adeyemo sits down with Rachel Edmondson Clark to explore how identity, lived experience, and internal patterns shape how we lead—especially under pressure.

Rachel shares a deeply personal journey, from growing up observing human behavior in her mother’s salon to quickly rising through corporate leadership roles—and eventually experiencing burnout that forced her to pause and rethink how she was showing up in her work and life.

Through this conversation, we explore how intersectionality shows up not only in visible identities but also in internal drivers like high standards, people-pleasing, and the pressure to perform.

A central theme in this episode is the distinction between capability and capacity.

Many leaders focus on building skills and doing more—but often overlook the importance of restoring energy, recognizing internal signals, and creating the conditions for sustainable leadership.

Rachel offers a powerful reframe:

"Sustainable leadership isn’t just about what you can do.
It’s about how well you can continue to show up."

🎧 What You’ll Hear in This Episode

• How early life experiences shape emotional awareness and leadership
• The connection between high performance, people-pleasing, and burnout
• What happens when leaders ignore their internal signals
• The difference between capability (skills) and capacity (energy + resilience)
• Why pushing through works—until it doesn’t
• The role of nervous system awareness in leadership
• How small daily practices impact long-term performance
• What leaders can do to create cultures where people feel energized and supported
• How the way people feel at work directly impacts performance and culture

👤 About the Guest

Rachel Edmondson Clark is a UK-based executive coach, facilitator, and founder of Elevar, a leadership development consultancy focused on sustainable high performance that serves people, performance, and the planet.

With over two decades of experience, her work sits at the intersection of energy, identity, and behavior—helping leaders understand how their nervous system, lived experience, and internal narratives shape their leadership.

🎙️ About the Podcast

Thriving in Intersectionality explores how identity, lived experience, and leadership intersect in today’s workplace.

Through conversations and reflections, Dr. Lola Adeyemo uncovers the insights and leadership lessons that help professionals not just survive—but truly thrive.

Each episode invites leaders to reflect on how their layered identities shape how they navigate, lead, and build impact within organizations.

⭐ If This Episode Resonated

• Share with a colleague or leader
• Leave a review to help others discover the show
• Continue the reflection on Substack for a deeper dive

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hello and welcome to the Thriving in Intersectionality Podcast. A podcast that explores the real experiences of professionals navigating the workplace with layered, leaded identities. I'm your host, Dr. Lola Ateemo, the CEO of EQI Mindset and founder of the nonprofit Immigrants Incorporate, Inc. I'm also an author, speaker, and a workplace inclusion strategist. I work with organizations to build communities of belonging through strategy, storytelling, and systems change. This podcast amplifies the voices of professionals from intersectional backgrounds, immigrants, ethnic minorities, first-gen professionals, veterans, working parents, individuals with disabilities, and so many more. Through solo reflections and guest conversations, we'll uncover the eating challenges, celebrate the wins, and offer insights to help you thrive, not just survive, in the corporate world. Because in today's global workforce, belonging isn't just a bonus, it's the catalyst for real growth and impact. Let's dive in. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Thriving in Intersectionality Podcast. Um, my guest today is Rachel Edmondson Clark, and I will introduce her a little bit. First, as always, I'm going to dive into a little bit about the word intersectionality. Uh, if you're new to the word or you're very familiar with it, thank you for being here. What is intersectionality? Intersectionality is a framework that recognizes our multiple aspects of identity, such as background, lived experience, career journey, and different categories like your personal challenges, how all of the things that made us who we are interact to shape how we experience the world and how we lead within it. This framework, um, I came into the work through the work of Kimberly Crensure, and giving that credit to her, she does a lot of work around exploring the intersection of race and gender. And so our research, she coined that term intersectionality, and our research um has really explored the experiences of black women. So if you get a chance, take a look at that. And I love that she really stressed that this is a framework, and so I leverage that to explore leadership, not just as performance, but as something that has been shaped by our individual identities and our lead experience. And so I love to bring guests together and have them reflect on their journey so far and how all of the things that they are, all of who they are, all of the things that they've gone through is showing up in the work and the leadership lens that they have today. So my guest today is Rachel. Rachel Edmondson Clark is a UK-based executive coach and facilitator and the founder of Ellibar, a leadership development consultancy that is focused on sustainable high performance that serves people, performance, and the planet. And I love so much of what Rachel does, and you can already tell that the universe brought me alignment this time. So I love it. Rachel has over two decades of experience studying and applying leadership biology and psychology. She works at the intersection of energy, identity, and behavior, helping senior leaders understand how their nervous system, lived experience, and internal narratives shape the way they lead. I am going to um dive into Rachel's work and some of the insights from our work. But before that, I love to go back to a little bit more about Rachel Beyond our bio. So hi Rachel, thank you for being here today.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Dr. Lola, thank you so much for having me on the show. As you said, I just feel like the universe has brought us together. It's been magic to be chatting to you before we started recording. And just thank you for the space and the purpose that you bring with this show. It's a pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Thank you. All right. So let's dive right in. Um, if you think about the word intersectionality, Rachel, what categories um do you think do you want us to know about that has really impacted how you show up and how you do the work you do today?

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Well, I love this, and I loved how you described it at the beginning of the show as well. I think there's a few things for me. I think one of the earliest was uh growing up in my mum's hair and beauty salon. I spent a lot of time there. It was a very busy salon. I worked there from the age of 12 to 21, earning my pocket money and my beer money later on. And uh, you know, I started sweeping the floor and making cups of tea and ended up working on reception and just being around people and listening to the conversations. And I think the thing that stands out for me from that is how much I learnt to observe and to see and to read others. I would watch them come in to the reception desk and would have to assess very, very quickly where they were at. I might have had five or so people around the reception desk at any one time needing my attention, two telephone lines ringing. This is pre-internet booking, of course. And um and and and to be able to be able to tune into people and where they were at, many who would come in uh a bit hassled, a bit stressed, they'd go through, they'd have their hair done, and then to come out of the salon, or for me then to see them leaving the salon in that state of of calm or just feeling so much better about themselves because they'd had their hair done, they'd had their lovely head massage. And and and I think that really stayed with me, that sort of that transformation of emotional state and being able to to to to read people. So that's probably one of the earliest things that um yeah that comes to mind.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Wow, I have never had a guest make me think about my hair salon experience. That's a new one. I I love it because you're right. You were doing the work before you got the credit for the work. Um, I think a lot, I think a lot about my experience too when I see it getting my hair done. I mean, I talk about all the things. My hair lady probably knows about everything going on in my wall. So but then I live I live empty, I live feeling light and I live feeling beautiful. And um being able to observe that and see the difference and understand why, or maybe think about why why that happens for people is also really important.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Do you know one of the most touching um uh instances that I can remember, so so poignant. I had a lady phone me up one day and she had cancer, and her family had saved a tremendous amount of money to buy her a real hair wig. And the and of course, it wasn't styled for her, you know, her her face or her, you know, how she wanted to look. And of course, to to cut a wig that had cost that much money and had meant so much, she was going to be putting a tremendous amount of faith and trust into the hairdresser. And she was asking me as the receptionist, have you got somebody that could look after me, that could do this request? I'm very nervous about coming into the salon, I don't want to be seen, I've lost all of my hair, etc. etc. And um I remember saying, There's only one person that I want to book you in with. It, you know, it was my mum, of course, you know, at the time, and and um she came in, we kept the salon doors open for her after we would have typically closed, and she came in, and my mum took her away from the window and sat her towards the back of the salon, and she re-cut this this this lady's wig, and uh as she'd finished and she, you know, she was just finishing dress dressing it around the lady's face. You just saw the tears start to roll down this lady's face.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Yeah, I knew that was gonna happen. Yeah, yeah. You have no idea how much that experience transforms people from the inside, and especially with somebody going through that, it's huge. Yeah, it is huge. But um, thank you for sharing that.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Oh no, no, no. And and and there's other things, and and this is what you talk about the intersectionality, don't you? You know, there's there's there's other aspects as well, you know.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

I would say share about it, yeah. I want to know.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

I mean there's I there's there's a high achiever in me, um, and there's a drive and some high standards and a real sense of responsibility. And I think what I've come to understand over time is that there's also a people-pleasing element to that, a desire to be liked and to be loved. And if I'm very honest, I think that goes back to my relationship with my dad. Um, and uh what that did, particularly in my early education and career, is that it it meant that I pushed myself really, really, really, really hard. Um, and that meant that I climbed the corporate ladder pretty quickly. Um, but it also meant that I burnt out. Um and one day it instead of walking out of my office door to go into the boardroom, I found myself lying on the floor staring up and looking up at the ceiling tiles because I'd collapsed and my body had just gone, that's enough time out. Um and you know, looking back, that moment wasn't a sudden thing, um, but it was just the first time that my body had finally gone, you gotta listen, girl, like like stop. Um and I think you know that that was a huge piece for me in my journey and and and learning. Um you know, and then we've just been talking about children and being mums, uh, you know, and I know you've got three and I've got two, and they're similar, you know, they're similar ages. And you know, I think that being a mom brings you back to what really matters very, very quickly as well. So uh yeah, lots of a few different things there intersecting that I guess shape my experience.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Yeah, um, and I love that, and and I think that's what I hope people start these conversations with. It's you know, we could read the bios all day, we could find a bio online, and and I love just understanding your perspective as some of the experiences you had growing up, some of the you know, the things that led up to your career changes, and also the mom side of it. These are huge intersections when he talks about how you show up at work today. So um thank you for sharing that.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

It's my absolute, it's my absolute, it's my absolute pleasure. And I think, you know, those um those high standards, I think uh I I I still hold them, but I hold them and I have a different relationship to them. Um, and all of these moments, I think it's we don't always realize how they're shaping us in the moment, but I think when we look back, it kind of starts to make sense.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Yeah, and I I was I was thinking about one of my recent guests I was chatting with, and one of the things we ended up doing was sitting in this part of the conversation and really allowing her to bring out different things and comparing notes about these. Um, because I realized I don't want to rush through this part. That is probably the most important part of this podcast, is talking about what are the intersections that shape the way we live and lead in the world today. And a lot of times we don't have clear-cut answers, we're forced to like sit down and think about it. This is where how I was raised. This is some of the things that shape my perspective, this is where I come from, right? So um, I appreciate you sharing.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

That's my it's it it's it's my pleasure, my absolute pleasure. And apologies if you heard the phone, then it my phone is switched off. I I need to look, I don't know why that went off, but anyway, there we go. We did talk about life earlier, didn't we?

SPEAKER_01 13:32

We we talk about life and technology, and I think as moms of with more than one kid, we kind of agreed that it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

So apologies to everyone for that.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Um, all right, let's talk a little bit about career, career choices, um, career path. So we, you know, for the those listening, they heard a little bit about the work you do and that information. We also have it in the show notes. Um, but I wanted to talk a little bit about walk us backwards through your career path, you know, maybe some of the major milestones and what you studied in school. How did you get here?

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Oh, okay, yes. So um I studied, I went to college and to university. I I studied uh communications and media, and then I did a master's in marketing and management, and I went into corporate, initially into sales and marketing roles. Um, and I think like a lot of people, I followed what felt like the right path at the time. It was the path that made sense, it was the path that looked good, it was the felt, it was the path that felt like progress, and um, and I worked hard and I progressed quite quickly, and I found myself in leadership roles fairly early, fairly early on. And there were parts of it that I really, really loved, uh, particularly working with people, uh, whether that was my clients who I was serving through my sales role or the team and the team development. Um, and it and it always felt like the most meaningful part of the job for me. Um, and as I moved on and I took more senior and senior roles, um, I suppose what ultimately ended up happening was um there was quite a lot of pressure. The organization that I was uh was was working for, there was a lot going on. I felt like at the time the weight and the success of the company was predominantly on my shoulders. Um, and I also think, as I alluded to a bit earlier as well, I think because of the way I was wired, that drive and that sense of responsibility meant that the answer for me was to keep putting the pressure on and just to keep doing more and pushing through and to keep going. I'd um become uh very, very interested in positive psychology by that point, and so positively reframing how I felt and kind of uh pushing on through um my feelings and you know the stress and telling myself that you know I could I I I manage how I feel and I can you know do all that and that and that works that that works for a while until it doesn't, and uh as I said, you know, ultimately um that led to me be to that moment when I was on that on the office floor. Um, and I I mean that moment was that was horrific for me. Um I I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe, I didn't know what was happening to me at the time. Um I later realized that it was a panic attack, um, but I'd never experienced or really heard of anything like that before. So it was an incredibly frightening moment for me. Um, and it had been building for a very long time, and I'd just overridden all of the all of the signals. Um, and although it didn't happen overnight, that really did set me on a very different path, um, you know, which is I suppose what it kind of prompted the transition to where I am today. Um, you know, it led me into coaching, it led me into leadership development because I realized that that part of my role I'd always loved the most, and thinking even back to the salon days was working with people, was helping them to think differently, helping them to grow. And so for the last 10, 11 years or so, that's been the sole focus of my business. Um, and now I work with senior leaders and organizations helping them to build capacity as well as capability to lead well.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Well, thank you. Thank you for sharing that. I'm glad you're okay, and I'm glad you're a long time. Reroute, I know I'm glad you did reroute and take the lessons away from that. I was um I was telling somebody that I wear a feed years now. Like I'm always if my feedback watch gets broken, like I order an overnight replacement, and and um, but one of the things I love about sleep attracts my readiness. Usually I work out like five days a week, and so I tried to work out, and after like 15 minutes, I was feeling exhausted, and then I was like, you know what, it's okay. And I thought, and then I looked at my watch and it was saying, Oh, you pushed yourself out the last three days, your body readiness feels very low. I'm taking a rest day today, but to your point, we ignore the signals, um, depending on the kind of person you are, individuals we have, we push through, we power through, we walk through until the boot breaks down, and and so um I definitely want to hear about um some advice that you have for individuals, high performing leaders in the beat. But um, is there anything else about your career journey that you want to bring in as well and and how you got to where you are today?

SPEAKER_00 19:28

I think um, you know, I think the only other thing that is perhaps notable and maybe interesting to listeners to hear is that when I first got my very first corporate role, it meant everything to me. And it was the company that I had longed to work for. And within several months of working for this organization that I loved, I found myself on a performance improvement plan because I wasn't meeting the targets, despite being incredibly well set up by the organization. Um, and it was a really low and difficult point for me that. And what really helped me at the time was a fantastic manager who, when we sat down for him to start the performance improvement plan process, he asked me one of the most brilliant questions, and he said to me, Rachel, what kind of help do you need from me to succeed at this? And I was able to answer him on that question, and I and I and I knew what I wanted to ask him for, and that was for him to come and spend time with me in my sales territory, in my patch, and work with me once a week, and we do alternate calls. He does a call and I get to watch and model him, and then I get to do a call and he gives me the feedback, and that was very intensive. And this guy lived more than 200 miles away from my territory, so it was a significant ask to ask him to invest that time with me.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Oh, wonderful in person. Yes, this didn't show up.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

He was gonna have to drive and come with me and physically spend that time with me. And he did it, and he did it, and and I turned that around, and ultimately I ended up getting a promotion and becoming the field sales manager for the whole of the UK and Northern Ireland. But I wouldn't have been able to do that had I not asked for what I wanted, and had I not had a brilliant manager that asked me that. kind of question and then followed through on it.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

I love it. Yeah, the power of the right manager. Because you're right. I mean the the default response usually when you get that kind of performance review is oh I'm going to work harder. You know, I can't show any weakness to my manager and I'm just going to keep working. But for him to invite you in in that way um and and I yeah I know we've we've heard the the term people don't leave a bad company the people don't leave a company they leave with a manager right it's it's really about the experience you have with the person that you work with every day that you work with directly. And unfortunately you know not every manager is a leader or a coach. Some of them are just managers.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

So I'm glad you have that correct correct and I trust that anyone out here that does manage other you know that's listening that does manage others um you know may consider how they um continue to empower and ask those questions and lead with that kind of curiosity to um you know to to to support people to be at their best.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Yeah thank you all right so let's let's bring a little bit of your intersections and your insights together now because I think this is where you know if there's anybody listening that maybe some of those intersectionalities that you shared if it resonates with them and maybe their mid-career or they're taking on their they're in leadership roles right now um with maybe some struggles um what what's first what patterns do you see in leaders today that are on the same path that you were on um and and maybe some advice for what they can do differently you know being the high achiever overperforming I I think a lot of the us have that in us especially a lot of women that I talk to I think the overperformance and and we didn't talk about the women intersections but I think that's implied for us is you want to you know you want to do well you want to do a good job and a lot of times the way we try to do that is to work harder like hold the full responsibility for everything. So what advice do you have just from the lessons from your own experience for people that are in that space.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

I I couldn't agree with you more in terms of what you've brought up here and I think that's a a really big pattern that I see and and that is that we've you know leaders they're incredibly capable people they wouldn't be in those leadership positions if they weren't incredibly capable. And the kind of clients that um I work with and I love to work with they do care deeply and they do hold high standards and they do take on a lot of responsibility often not just for themselves but for everyone around them. And because of that they can carry quite a lot and that instinct as we talked about is that when things get pressured or more complex is to lean in further is to do more is to hold more is to keep things you know keep things moving and as we've discussed that works until it doesn't and I think that's the biggest um mistake if I can call it that um is that they ignore their that their own signals along the way the stress the fatigue the frustration and they see those things as something to manage or push through or put to the back um rather than paying attention to them. And over time that creates a disconnect. So um what I've become really interested in and what I support leaders with now is um building their capacity to lead well as well as their capabilities and and in practice that can actually look quite simple I can say this it you know it's simple but it's not always easy. But there maybe come a point when actually it's more beneficial for you instead of doing a hard cardio workout to just get some daylight get some fresh air just spend some time in nature in your garden you know so it's about it's about being aware of what state you're in and noticing when you start to become overwhelmed or reactive and having ways to bring yourself back to a place of clarity and restoring your energy um and and looking after your you you know your mood and your that it will increase your bandwidth to deal with the stress and the things that we've got on our plates.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

And when we're connected enough to ourselves we can make good decisions about how we lead ourselves well and from a place where we are looking after us we put ourselves in the best position to serve our families our communities our organizations in a much much better way I like I like that I like the way you use the two words capacity and capability because I I think it gives me language to kind of yeah we we the capability piece is what we do well right you take the skills training you learn how to do it you figure it out by yourself you do the degree and then the certification right we are capable but what does your capacity process look like right and that's the part a lot of us um I remembered when I had a similar burnout experience a few years back and my first time going into therapy and my therapist that happens about all the things I was carrying and you know I talked about my work I talked about the kids I talked about marriage and it's just and then she's like what does your self-care look like what do you do for yourself I was like oh you know when the kids are off and just like no no no I mean what do you do for yourself regularly and I'm like well you know it's hard to find time and she's like no I'm not asking you for excuses and I was like oh ouch you know and I at that time I realized I I've always been a gym person I have a gym subscription and I had cancelled my gym's subscription for over a year. And that was the first assignment she gave me after that first session she said go get your gym membership I literally drove to the gym that day to sign up yes um because she said no you need to find your own thing that you do for you whether your family has you know recognizes that or not whether you're you need to find your own wellness practice like what do you do for yourself how this is how you can increase your capacity not not just your capability so now I'm gonna love to use those two words because that's that's what we always try to explain right it's you know I can look like I do 20 things but if I'm not taking care of myself I'm killing myself silently and it's up to me to figure that out people can't see that outside right absolutely absolutely and and and I think an another thing that we and I've got this wrong as well before is that I think it's the workload or the individuals that are the problem but actually it's my capacity and it feels counterintuitive sometimes to take time not even to take time to invest the time to restore our capacity so that we can come back to the work and perform at a better level so I work with a you know with a lot of senior leaders and they would explain to me that well Rachel I couldn't possibly go to the go go and play a round of golf on a Friday afternoon you know when I'm I I don't know I'm meant to be at work or doing doing something else or I couldn't possibly go and get out on my bike in the middle of the day and they that and they feel this tremendous amount of guilt attached to that.

SPEAKER_00 30:49

And then we work together over a number of weeks and a number of months and they're all of a sudden they're like oh no hang on a minute that rest and restoration is not the reward for the hard work but it is the prerequisite to being able to sustainably show up and perform at my best yep yep absolutely we need to shift our mindset and that and maybe that's the biggest takeaway from from this is yeah we can do our things we can do a lot of things but how do you prepare to do the stuff that you need to do well um thank you thank you Rachel well go ahead oh sorry we've got we've got a slight delay i it shows up in the in the smallest of things as well just to just a quick story to illustrate this I was working with an executive leadership team recently and two ladies had budded up on that team to work together and one of the things that they'd recognized as a team is that they were very sedatory they weren't doing a lot of movement they weren't getting out and getting daylight and nature and movement into their day and so they were buddied up to help support one another which was great because these two ladies were in the office together and they'd agreed to go for a 20 minute half an hour walk over lunch one phones the other just before they're due to meet I don't think I've got time to do this today. The other one goes no I don't think I have God I'm swamped with everything that's going on. Thankfully they talk each other into doing a well let's just do five minutes round the block they get up somebody else notices that they're going and feels jealous that they've got the time to go but anyway they get up they go walk around the block and they don't come back for half an hour because they recognize that while they're out taking their walk they are more creative they are problem solving they are thinking with greater clarity and they've fixed a whole bunch of stuff that they would have so easily have just stayed at their desk tried to get their head down and kind of force themselves on so it's you know even in those small moments like that that's what can feel counterintuitive I just encourage people to yeah to just take even if it's that moment five minutes of restoration and integrating that into your working day and then if you are role modeling that if you are a leader and you are role modeling that for your team or your family that that again has an enormous positive impact.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

It goes a long way I like that and you just reminded me that I used to do that there was a season when I was in corporate America that I used to like um put 30 minutes on my calendar for walks. Yes and I realized it was also a good time for me to catch up with people outside of work.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

So hey I'm going for a walk do you want to come hey I'm going for a walk at this time do you want to come but even if nobody comes like I just go do some labs and and it's so helpful you are you are very correct yes and once you do it you you you appreciate the value of doing it absolutely absolutely yes yes so so so we've talked about individuals but also maybe a little bit more um advice for leaders um I I think you just give a good one which is role modeling some of these wellness practices but um if you are somebody that is responsible for managing a team as part of your day-to-day job um how can you create a culture that really helps people feel energized and engaged um within the organization I think it can start with a really simple but often overlooked idea and and that is that how we feel as individuals and how we make one another feel doesn't just impact our personal performance as we've been talking about but it impacts culture too. And I think sometimes we can separate those two things and we kind of we talk about you know values and culture over here and then we talk about personal or team performance over there where actually those two are completely intertwined you know people don't think valued included um fairly treated like they belong they feel those things and I I think when we as leaders can consider how we if we can lead if we can lead with how we make people feel when they will think more clearly they will contribute more often they will take more ownership and so for me creating that kind of culture that's not about big initiatives that's about how we as leaders show up every day small moments like the example of those two women going out and going out for the you know for the for the walk or saying to the team hey look let's let's do this as a voice call and we'll all go for a walk while we speak to while we speak to one another and it it's how you it's how you listen it's your presence it's how you respond when someone makes a mistake it's how clear you are it's how consistent you are and all of those moments are shaping people all around us and and how they feel and so I I think the key for me there is that leaders start not just by asking what do I need people to do but how do I want people to feel when they're working with me and and I think when you lead with that you create an environment where people don't just want to perform but they actually thrive.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

Yeah absolutely well for those listening you get to hear a lot more about Ritual's work and and uh in conversations uh on the workplaces that work in the future chats uh but for these as we wrap up Ritual I just want you to share maybe something from your own personal life but also from your work for anyone that kind of they can relate with some of those identity intersections you share, right? Mom, I performer um you know all of the things that you are in your intersections and then uh connecting it to the workplace of today like what is changing if there's anyone who is kind of in their career in a moment right now and is thinking of what do you do next um can you just share a couple of advice and tips of what they can do better moving into the next stage of their career.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

Yeah no and and I think we were we were discussing this a bit before we recorded the show um there's a lot happening in the world right now and and it can feel quite overwhelming even in the sort of the wider landscape let alone what's happening within our own lives and with our own families and situations um but what we do absolutely have influence over is how we how we show up um you know our homes in our teams in our communities um and I think that leadership at its core starts there that you know look after yourself well so that you can show up and report for duty so to speak and serve the people that you care about the most and you can and I think when you look after yourself you can also if you do have um a challenge or a situation or uncertainty you can come home to yourself and to your values and what's important to you and I think you can have a better connection with you when you've listened to those things and trust your heart in those moments is is is is what I would is what I would say. So it's it's not about having all the answers it's about showing up well doing what we can with what we've got and looking after you so that we can remain with our heads held high and our hearts open in spite of what may be going on around us.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

Yeah thank you that's about as political as we'll get here um with awareness and recognition for the fact that there's a lot going on in the world and for everyone to take care of yourself. Yep yeah and then show up and let's let you know let's let's you know do good and be the force for good that we can be around the people that that we you know that we get to touch and that we get to impact the lives we get to impact each day absolutely and and that makes a difference that makes a difference and and we were talking about earlier a little bit too that as practitioners as people that work with individuals and businesses sometimes it gets to be a lot and and and just recognizing that I might not be able to cure all the things going on in the world and instead of letting it get to me know when to put your boundaries and just impact your one your one person in your own circle even if that one is you know even if you have one of those weeks where the one is your kid yes yes but how important is that you know just so significant role it really is it really yeah thank you so much Rachel uh before I ask my final closing question is there anything you want to share with my audience about your work um and where to find you oh that's so lovely of you to ask well I always love to connect with people so if anything here has resonated I would absolutely love for you to reach out and the best place to do that is through my website and that's elevar e-l-lev ar.co dot uk thank you so much Rachel that was great and uh the links will also be in the show notes of the places where you can find Rachel and learn more about our work and stay connected all right my last question is uh feels like a bit of off track but I I promise it's connected it's a food question so Rachel okay if you were to share a meal or a snack with your co-workers what will you pick and why oh okay well I love food I'm absolutely rubbish at cooking my husband does all of the cooking in our house and shopping for food but I love eating it um so what would be the food with co-workers do you know I am gonna pick sushi and the reason that I'm picking sushi with co-workers is because it's kind of it's it it's light it's not too heavy if you know I'm enjoying work it's um nice and healthy we can have you know vegan options if we need to um yes and it won't leave me feeling with that post-lunch slump of uh complete sort of tiredness and uh yeah grogginess going into the afternoon so yes there we go I love it I think you're the second person um that shared sushi with me and and the first time he said sushi and then it's like I love the explosion of different flavors and I'm thinking I don't know I'm not a sushi person but I've never thought of sushi as an explosion of flavors so I was like okay um yeah yeah maybe so maybe maybe really good sushi really good sushi but then that's why I also asked the why behind it because I feel like I'd also get an insight into the person because you shared the same meal as somebody else said but he said that for a different reason and I love the way you described it like it's light it's satisfying because I can tell the sushi you're having is different from the one he's having yes obviously mine's a cheap test one you know well I love it uh I love um food is definitely one that brings people together and and I think it also says a lot about your perspective and and the the way you love to bring people together by the choices that you make so thank you so much for sharing that it's my pleasure all right well thank you Rachel for being here today thank you everyone for joining us as always please share rate review this episode stay connected with Rachel and I and if you are looking to be a part of this uh podcast reach out or go to the website and fill out a form you just might hear your episode on here next thank you Rachel for being here have a good rest of your day evening for you day for me and we will talk very soon thank you so much thank you for being part of today's conversation on thriving in intersectionality if you're an HR or DEI leader and you need employee resource group or business resource group resources let's connect and LinkedIn and help organizations build inclusive cultures through inclusive workplace communities strategy and storytelling immigrants and first gen professionals join our free community at www.immigrantsincorporate.org for career support networking and resources in community with peers who understand your journey tag our podcast page on LinkedIn or connect with me directly to continue the conversation please don't forget to rate and review to help others discover these discussions keep thriving in your intersections your story matters I'm Dr. Lola Adejemo and this has been Thriving in Intersectionality Podcast