Squiggly Careers

Profilers can help you understand yourself, find words for your strengths and choose where to focus your development. But your results are clues to explore, rather than labels that limit you. In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from three profilers: Lynda Gratton’s Living the 100-Year Life diagnostic, 16Personalities and the Squiggly Skills Profiler. They share their own results, what they found useful and what they questioned, with practical ideas to turn what you learn about yourself into action. 🎯 What You'll Learn– Understand the benefits and common pitfalls of using career profilers– Discover Lynda Gratton's 100-year life diagnostic to assess your life threads– Learn how to use 16Personalities to identify your strengths and blind spots– Find out how to use profiling data to communicate your value on LinkedIn– Explore how to map team profiles to identify gaps in diversity of thought– Try the new Squiggly Careers Skills Profiler to identify your super skill and gap for growth 📚 Resources…

When your week gets busy, do you find yourself dropping the things that help you feel good? It can be easy to put rest, support and time outside work on hold just when you need them most. In this Squiggly Career Shortcut, Helen shares six small actions you can build into your week to support your resilience. Pick one or two that feel useful to you and try doing them regularly, before things start to feel difficult. 🎯 In this episode, you’ll learn how to: – Find something to look forward to, even in a hard week – Work out what help you need and ask for it – Notice and celebrate your wins – Find someone you can talk to when things feel difficult – Protect the rest and recovery that works for you – Make time for your world outside work For more free tools and ideas to support your Squiggly Career, visit https://squiggly.me and sign up for our weekly newsletter. For questions or feedback, email helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is something at work feeling harder than it needs to be? It could be a meeting that takes too long, a decision that goes back and forth, or a process with more steps than it needs. This week, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from The Friction Project by Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao. They explore how to spot the friction that slows you down, what you could subtract to make work easier, and why some friction is worth keeping. 🎯 In this episode, you’ll learn how to: – Spot where friction is showing up in your work – Ask your team what’s making their work harder – Subtract steps, meetings or handoffs that aren’t helping – Add useful friction through better questions and saying the hard thing For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, email helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com. More Squiggly Career support: 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.squigglycareers.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.squigglycareers.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our weekly Squiggly…

In this shortcut, Helen, talks about a matrix that can help you to understand where your ambition is right now and what is the most effective action to take to support your development. 🎯 What You'll Learn - that ambition is individual - where your ambition in today - what action to take to activate your ambition For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod 4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.amazingif.com/books/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Could putting more constraints on your career actually create more possibilities? In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from David Epstein's book (Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better) to explore how choosing your own constraints can help you think differently and more creatively about your career. They experiment with constraints across six areas of career development, from learning and strengths to confidence and future possibilities. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Why constraints can help you think more creatively – How to experiment with constraints in your career – How to focus your learning, strengths and values – How constraints can help with confidence and networking – How to explore your future possibilities differently 📚Resources mentioned David Epstein – Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better https://davidepstein.com/inside-the-box/ Adam Morgan & Mark Barden – A Beautiful Constraint https://www.eatbigfish.com/thinking/a-beautiful-constraint Squiggly Careers podcast episode…

The people you work with make a significant difference to your development. In this shortcut, Sarah shares 3 ways to learn more from the people around you. 🎯 What You'll Learn - the importance of showing how you work - why volunteering to support somone outside of your day job helps you grow - how next level noticing will support you to succeed in your team For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod 4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.amazingif.com/books/" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Getting ready for a job interview can feel daunting, but what happens when you have to face an AI interviewer or answer tough questions about how you use artificial intelligence? In this episode, Helen puts Sarah on the spot with real AI interview questions shared by the Squiggly Careers community. Together, they explore how AI is changing the interview experience, what interviewers might be looking for in your answers, and how you can prepare to talk confidently about how you're using and learning about AI at work. 🎯 What You'll Learn– How AI is changing the interview experience– The AI questions you could be asked in an interview– What interviewers might be looking for in your answers– How to talk about where AI adds value and its limits– The AI questions you could ask an interviewer 📚Resources mentioned - Claudia Harris on the future of AI and work: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudia-harris-obe-71793374/ - We Are Not Machines by Sarah O’Connor:…

Increasing your autonomy has a proven impact of work wellbeing and fulfilment and in this shortcut, Helen talks through 3 practical actions to help you to earn more autonomy at work. 🎯 What You'll Learn - how to build trust - why working autonomously doesn't mean going it alone - the importance of owning your outcomes For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod 4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.amazingif.com/books/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When things change at work, how good are you at changing how you think or act in response? In the second part of our No Regret Skills mini-series, Helen and Sarah turn their attention to adaptability. Sarah breaks this skill down into eight different dimensions and puts Helen through a real-life scenario to explore where her adaptability strengths are and where she could get better. 🎯 What You'll Learn – The difference between flexibility and adaptability – The eight different dimensions of adaptability – How to spot your own adaptability strengths – Where you could get better at adapting to change – How to explore adaptability as a team For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: [helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com](mailto:helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com) Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers…

The leaders you surround yourself with make a significant difference to your squiggly career. In this shortcut Sarah shares 3 ways to look for leaders to learn from and what you don't need to worry about. 🎯 What You'll Learn - how to look for leaders who get stuff done - why spotting leaders who say I don't know is a good source of learning - the most curious leaders will help you to stay curious For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod 4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.amazingif.com/books/" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With so many skills competing for our attention, how do you decide which ones are worth investing in? In this episode, Helen and Sarah explore the idea of 'no regret skills' – skills that will stay useful whatever the future of work looks like. In the first of this two-part series, Helen borrows brilliance from poker player and author Annie Duke to explore decision-making and shares four practical ways to get better at it. 🎯 What You'll Learn – How confidence scoring can improve your decisions – How a truth group can challenge your thinking – How to decide which decisions deserve more of your time – How back-casting can help you make better decisions – Why a good decision doesn't always lead to a good outcome Next week, Helen and Sarah explore another no regret skill: adaptability. For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: [helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com](mailto:helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com) Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools:…

We spend a lot of our working week in meetings, but how much impact are you having when you're in them? In this Shortcut, Helen shares three simple ways to increase your impact in every meeting: asking a question, making a suggestion and offering a reflection. Whether you tend to stay quiet or want to make your contributions more useful, these small actions can help you show your strengths, add more value and make your presence count. 🎯 What You'll Learn – How to ask better questions in meetings – How suggestions can move conversations forward – How reflections can help people think differently – How to make more impact in every meeting For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: [helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com](mailto:helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com) Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers…

With 88 working days left until the end of the year, how will you choose to spend your time? September can bring a 'new pencil case' feeling – a useful opportunity to reset and refocus on what matters most. In this episode, Helen and Sarah share eight questions to help you use the rest of your working year well and wisely. Exploring priorities, time, people and skills, they reflect on their own answers and the actions they're going to take as a result. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Identify your number one priority for the rest of the year and whether your diary reflects it – Map out the key people who will influence and support your success – Decide what to start or continue saying no to – Identify the boundaries you want to protect so you can be at your best – Explore five-minute favours and ways to borrow brilliance from other people – Choose one skill you want to get 10% better at – Decide what role you want AI to play in your work For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email:…

Setting goals is one thing. Knowing when to let go of them is another. In this Shortcut, Helen explores the idea of productive quitting and why trying to hold on to too many goals can get in the way of making progress. Drawing on research from the Goal Adjustment Scale and a New Scientist article on goal adjustment, she shares a practical way to review your goals so you can focus your time and energy where it matters most. 🎯 What you'll learn -How to use the Goal Adjustment Scale to understand your starting point -How to identify the goals that deserve your time and attention -The difference between goal shielding, goal shifting and goal shelving -How to review your personal and professional goals -Why letting go of the right goals can improve both your progress and your wellbeing Resource mentioned: Why giving up on goals is good for you, and how to know which to ditch by New Scientist: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2501420-why-giving-up-on-goals-is-good-for-you-and-how-to-know-which-to-ditch/ For…

How can you make sure the 80,000 hours you spend at work are truly well spent? In this episode, we challenge the traditional advice to "follow your passion" and look at how to build a career that makes a meaningful difference. This episode of part 4 of 4 in the 'Career Well Spent Series' Drawing on Benjamin Todd's book, 80,000 Hours, and his research on effective altruism and career impact, they explore what it really means to find long-term career satisfaction and how to apply your skills to the world's most pressing problems. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Why "follow your passion" might lead you down the wrong path – The four essential ingredients for long-term career satisfaction – How to identify and evaluate the world's most pressing problems – Why your personal fit matters more than a prestigious job title – How to use a "ladder of tests" to experiment with new career directions – Practical ways to make a difference in your current role or pivot For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please…

Most of us focus on preparing for the questions we'll be asked in an interview, but what we ask at the end is just as important. It is your ultimate opportunity to take control of the conversation and leave a brilliant lasting impression. In this Squiggly Shortcut, Sarah explores how to ask powerful culture and commercial questions, and what the answers reveal about whether a company is the right fit for you. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Why the questions you ask are your best opportunity to take control of an interview – How to use culture questions to find out what it is really like to work somewhere – What a company's response to culture questions reveals about their team dynamics – How to stress-test a business's performance with smart commercial questions – What we can learn from competitors and collaborators to stand out – How to end your interview with high energy and make a lasting impression For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some…

Are you feeling lost in a career fog or facing a major transition? In this special episode, Sarah is joined by legendary author and researcher Jim Collins to explore what it really takes to build a fulfilling life and career. This episode of part 3 of 4 in the 'Career Well Spent Series' Drawing on Jim's new book 'What to Make of a Life', they explore what it really means to navigate life's 'cliffs' and 'fog'. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Discover 'simplex stepping' to make progress when you are lost in a career fog – Identify your unique 'encodings' and how to develop them into super strengths – Flip the arrow of money to align your work with your inner fire – Explore why your biggest and most creative years can happen later in life For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints:…

AI is changing quickly, which can make it hard to know where to start. If you're feeling overwhelmed by everything there is to learn, you're definitely not alone. In this Shortcut, Sarah shares how to use the Squiggly Careers Learning Navigator to turn AI into something practical and personal. Instead of trying to learn everything, you'll identify what matters most for your role, connect learning to your day-to-day work, and create a simple plan you can build on over time. 🎯 What you'll learn - How to decide what's most useful for you to learn about AI right now - How to use the Learning Navigator to prioritise your learning - How to connect AI experiments to your everyday work so learning sticks - How to create a simple, practical plan for building your AI skills over time Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a…

Do you feel constantly defeated by a packed calendar and rushed for time? Reclaiming control of your schedule starts with changing how you view your 168 hours. This episode of part 2 of 4 in the 'Career Well Spent Series' Drawing on Laura’s bestselling books '168 Hours' and 'Big Time', Helen explores what it means to achieve true time abundance, and what your default response to a busy calendar reveals about you. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Understand the difference between time abundance and time scarcity – Apply the 'Would I do this tomorrow?' test to new commitments – Track your time to separate feelings from facts – Establish a weekly planning routine to reduce panic – Build your career capital with four simple actions a week – Reclaim control and autonomy over your daily diary For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our…

Outsourcing your thinking to AI erodes the value of your contribution and means you are less likely to make a distinctive difference. Using AI as a thought-partner is a skill which can help you to refine your thinking, communicate more clearly and spot gaps before you share your perspective with other people. In this shortcut, Helen talks through how you can use AI as a thought-partner for your career, your weekly work and the relationships you build to help you to be at your best. 🎯 What You'll Learn - how to use AI as a squiggly career coach - how to use AI to help you reduce overwhelm and find focus - how to use AI to better understand your stakeholders and adapt your approach For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers…

How do we design a career that lasts a lifetime without running out of energy? In this episode, Sarah talks to world-renowned expert Lynda Gratton about how to navigate a multi-stage, 100-year life. This episode of part 1 of 4 in the 'Career Well Spent Series' Drawing on Lynda Gratton's groundbreaking research and her new book 'Living the Hundred-Year Life', Sarah and Lynda discuss what it really means to design a multi-stage career, and what your balance of productivity and nurture threads reveals about your current career design. 🎯 What You'll Learn – How to manage the tension between productivity and nurture – Why 'calm' is often our weakest thread and how to rebuild it – What the pivotal 40s mean for the future of your career – How to use AI to amplify your human strengths – Why curiosity is your most important career skill – How to run small experiments to test new career paths For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more…

Do you struggle to speak up in meetings or find yourself watering down your ideas? Assertiveness isn't about being the loudest person in the room; it is built through small, daily actions. In this episode, Helen shares simple actions to increase your assertiveness. 🎯 What You'll Learn – How to quash qualifiers like "maybe" and "just" – The power of being the person who creates clarity – How to offer alternative perspectives to stop groupthink – Making a habit of offering a question and a suggestion – How to identify and fix your default assertiveness mistakes For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod 4. Order our new book…

Do you feel like you were never meant to master just one thing? It is time to move beyond the traditional career path and embrace the potential of an M-shaped career. In this episode, Helen and Sarah explore what it means to develop mastery across multiple areas. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Define the M-shaped career model and why it is a competitive advantage – Identify your existing areas of deep expertise – Learn how to connect the dots between seemingly unrelated skills – Use reflective questions to map your own M-shaped development This episode is brought to you in partnership with the Post-it® Brand. If today’s episode sparked an idea, stick it down, find out where to buy Post-it® products at go.3M.com/squiggly For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign…

Do you find yourself constantly checking your phone or email instead of focusing on your most important work? In this squiggly shortcut, Helen shares practical ways to beat distraction and reclaim your attention. Drawing on Nir Eyal's research on becoming indistractable, they explore what it really means to develop this skill, and what your default response to it reveals about you. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Identify your personal distraction downfall – Understand why you are attracted to distractions – Learn why avoidance triggers procrastination – Audit your environment for high-attention work – Master the "not yet" rule to build focus – Find the best timing for your deep work For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers…

Not all problems are created equal, and trying to solve them all the same way is likely to result in frustration. In this episode, Helen and Sarah explore how to identify whether you are facing a tame, critical, or wicked problem and the specific approach needed to make progress on each. Drawing on the work of Keith Grint, they explore what it means to develop this skill, and what your default response to it reveals about you. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Identify the three distinct types of problems you encounter at work – Apply the right process to clear up recurring tame problems – Manage high-stakes critical problems without losing control – Reframe wicked problems to move from stuck to progress – Use 'What if' and 'What would' questions to unlock new perspectives – Prioritize actions to stop overthinking complex challenges For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools:…

Want to achieve your biggest career goals this year? The answer might lie in planning exactly how you could fail first. Drawing on research from New York University on mental contrasting, Helens explore how balancing your biggest career opportunities with your realistic obstacles can significantly increase your chance of success. 🎯 What You'll Learn – What is mental contrasting and why does it build resilience? – How to identify what you want to be true in 12 months – Why optimism blindness might be holding your career back – How to honestly audit the obstacles in your way – What practical actions can reduce your risk of failure – How to take one simple step this week to move forward For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers…

Do you often feel like you are just waiting for your turn to speak, rather than truly listening and learning? In this episode, we explore the power of oracy and how it can change the way you think and work. Drawing on the work of Voice 21, Barbara Oakley, and research from More in Common, they explore what it means to develop this skill. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Define oracy as the essential skill of speaking and listening well to build better conclusions. – Discover why talking out loud helps you spot gaps in your reasoning and critical thinking. – Identify the difference between a standard 121 and an oracy-first approach to problem-solving. – Learn how to facilitate meetings that ensure equal contribution and stop interruptions. – Practice using oracy in team settings to move away from directive leadership. – Apply oracy techniques to your squiggly career story to articulate your value more effectively. For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com…

Is your current way of working holding you back from your next career milestone? Sometimes, the very habits that helped you succeed in the past can become obstacles to your future progress. Drawing on Marshall Goldsmith’s concept of 'What Got You Here Won't Get You There', Helen explores what it means to develop this skill, and what your default response to it reveals about you. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Shift from giving all the answers to asking powerful questions – Implement the 'Now vs. Not For Now' list to prioritize effectively – Replace automatic 'niceness' with a strategic 'if-then' negotiation approach – Discover how to move from a 'getting things done' mentality to doing the right things – Learn how to manage your energy by saying no to unsustainable workloads – Develop the confidence to negotiate your time and resources for better impact For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our…

Ever wondered what sets high-performing 'super teams' apart from those that are stalling? It's not just about talent, but a shared belief in your collective ability to learn, adapt, and succeed together. In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from a feeling and dive deep into one of the most relevant topics in work and careers right now. Drawing on the latest research into high-performing team dynamics and Helen and Sarah's own team-building frameworks, they explore how every team member can influence performance, and what your default response to collaboration reveals about you. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Understand the critical difference between a super team and a stalling team – Learn why collective belief is one of the strongest predictors of real-world performance – Design simple, low-risk experiments to build on what your team already does well – Make curiosity contagious by identifying and filling your collective knowledge gaps – Bring the outside in to swap ideas and accelerate your team's…

Are you a conversational narcissist? In this Squiggly Shortcut, Sarah introduces a deceptively simple idea from Celeste Headlee that will change how you listen, and make you notice everyone else's conversations differently too. 🎯 What You'll Learn – What a shift response is, why we all do it, and why it matters more than you might think – What a support response sounds like in practice, and how it changes the dynamic of a conversation – Why assuming your experience is the same as someone else's can get in the way of really listening – How to notice your own patterns over the next week, and what to do with that awareness 📚 Resources Mentioned Episode 207: Celeste Headlee on the Squiggly Careers podcast: xx For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up…

Uncertainty isn't going anywhere. So what if the goal wasn't to get rid of it, but to get better at holding it? In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from a feeling and dive deep into one of the most relevant topics in work and careers right now. Drawing on Margaret Heffernan's Embracing Uncertainty, Sam Conniff and Katherine Templar-Lewis's Uncertainty Toolkit, and a brilliant HBR article, they explore what it really means to develop the capacity to hold uncertainty, and what your default response to it reveals about you. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Why the goal isn't uncertainty to certainty, but uncertainty to the capacity to hold – How to find your own uncertainty tolerance score (with an AI prompt on the podsheet to help) – Why leaders feel more pressure than most to appear decisive, and what the research says about that – How to use a simple matrix to plot your uncertainty by impact and duration, and respond differently depending on which quadrant you're in – Why patience might be the most…

Your career doesn't need a bigger network, it needs a better one. In this Squiggly Shortcut, Helen shares the four roles that matter most for your career community, and why focusing on just these four makes building your career relationships feel a lot more doable. 🎯 What You'll Learn – What a mentor actually is (and why they don't need to be senior or long-term to be valuable) – Why a peer — someone going through what you're going through right now — can be one of the biggest accelerators for your career – How to spot a sponsor and what you need to do before they'll advocate for you – Why a coach doesn't have to be a qualified one, and what to look for instead – What to do if you're lucky enough to have one person who plays all four roles 📚 Resources Mentioned Episode 215 - How to find a career sponsor with Sylvia Ann Hewlett: https://www.amazingif.com/listen/how-to-find-a-career-sponsor/ For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some…

How close are you to yourself, your team and the people you serve? In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from the concept of zero distance, a philosophy championed by brands like e.l.f. Beauty, and turn it into one of the most honest and practical self-reflection exercises they've done on the podcast. Using Post-it® Notes and a simple scale, they plot themselves live on six different dimensions of distance, from how well they know their own strengths and feelings, to how much feedback they really get from their team, to how close they are to the people they're there to help. This episode is brought to you in partnership with the Post-it® Brand. If today's episode sparked an idea, stick it down - find out where to buy Post-it® products at go.3M.com/squiggly 🎯 What You'll Learn – What zero distance means and why brands like e.l.f. Beauty have made it their entire philosophy – How to use the zero distance framework across three areas: distance from yourself, your team and your customers – Why…

In a world that keeps telling you to learn faster, what if slowing down was actually the smarter move? In this Squiggly Shortcut, Sarah makes the case for slow learning, and shares three questions and three actions to help you get started. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Why slow learning and fast learning aren't competing, they're complementary – Three questions from the beautiful Slow Learning website to help you zoom out and reflect on how you learn – Why asking one "why" question every day is one of the simplest ways to slow down your thinking – How to take a more intentional (and less overwhelming) approach to learning AI – A slow reading idea for Learn Like a Lobster that makes one chapter feel very doable over seven weeks 📚 Resources Mentioned SlowLearning.com Episode 524 - Spaciousness: https://www.amazingif.com/listen/spaciousness-how-to-manage-your-attention-not-your-time/ For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career…

What if the key to navigating uncertainty wasn't a better plan - but a better experiment? In this episode, Sarah borrows brilliance from Anne-Laure Le Cunff, author of Tiny Experiments. Together they explore what it means to have an experimental mindset, how to design a tiny experiment using the PACT framework, and why the only experiments that fail are the ones you don't learn from. If you've ever felt stuck waiting for the perfect plan, this episode will give you possibilities you'll be energised by. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Why a linear mindset is like climbing a ladder, and why an experimental mindset is a loop that keeps moving you forward – What makes a tiny experiment "tiny", and why keeping the duration short is the whole point – How to use the PACT framework (Purposeful, Actionable, Continuous, Trackable) to design experiments that actually teach you something – Why you should only track outputs while running an experiment — and save the outcome reflection for the Plus Minus Next tool afterwards – How…

Most people wait until they're ready to make a career move before having career conversations. In this Squiggly Shortcut, Helen shares the only script you need to make curious career conversations feel less daunting and a lot more useful. 🎯 What You'll Learn – What a curious career conversation actually is, and why having them regularly (not just when you're ready to move) makes a real difference – How to make the ask in a way that's low pressure and easy to say yes to – Three questions to structure the conversation: one to get people talking, one about strengths, and one about future-proofing your skills – What to listen out for in each answer, and how to use it to work out whether an opportunity is actually a good fit for you For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints:…

Emma Grede has some strong opinions about careers, and not everyone will agree with all of them. In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from Start With Yourself, Emma's new book, picking out six of her most provocative statements and asking the question: do we agree? Emma Grede, co-founder of Skims and Good American, is refreshingly unfiltered about what it takes to build a career on your own terms. Helen has curated the statements most relevant to squiggly careers, and Sarah hasn't seen them in advance. What follows is honest, at times uncomfortable, and occasionally results in a rewrite. This episode is brought to you in partnership with the Post-it® Brand. If today's episode sparked an idea, stick it down, find out where to buy Post-it® products at go.3M.com/squiggly 🎯 What You'll Learn – Why guilt might actually be a useful signal (and when it isn't) – What "you can do all things, just not all at the same time" really means for how you prioritise at work – Whether an extraordinary career…

In a world full of words, the people who communicate with clarity, humanity and story will stand out. In the fifth and final episode of this special series, Helen and Aneesh Rahman close out Open to Work with the last of the five Cs, communication, and why it might be the skill that ties everything together. From Martin Luther King to Pixar to the pressure of a TED Talk, this is a conversation about why great communication has never been more human, and what you can do to make yours more so. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Why AI making generic communication universally available raises (not lowers) the value of human storytelling – Why the most important story you'll ever tell is the story of yourself – How clarity fits into communication, and why speaking simply doesn't mean thinking simply – Two practical things you can do right now to make your next presentation more human: add a story or make an analogy – Why the future of communication comes down to four words: speak human, be human 📚 Resources Mentioned Open to…

What if compassion isn't just a nice-to-have, but one of the most important skills for the future of work? In day four of this special five-part series, Helen and Aneesh Rahman explore the fourth C, compassion, and why the new world of work demands something the industrial age actively discouraged. From quietening your inner critic to really listening to a colleague, this is a conversation about what it means to be more human at work, starting with yourself. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Why compassion wasn't valued in the industrial age (and why that's changing fast) – Why compassion for yourself has to come first, and what that looks like in practice – How to show genuine (not performative) compassion for the people you work with – Why phone calls and walk-and-talks might be better than video calls for building real connection – One simple exercise to anchor yourself in your own strengths, without listing a single job title or degree 📚 Resources Mentioned Open to Work: Aneesh Rahman and Ryan Roslansky For…

Creativity isn't a talent some people have and others don't, it's a skill. In day three of this special five-part series, Helen and Aneesh Rahman explore the third C, creativity, and why it's becoming one of the highest-value human skills in an age when AI can generate generic content at scale. From Pixar's science of storytelling to the neuroscience of flow, this is a conversation that will change how you think about your own creativity, and how to bring more of it to your team. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Why AI making generic creative content widely available actually raises the premium on human creativity – What the neuroscience of flow tells us about when we're at our creative best (and what gets in the way) – Why creativity is a team sport, and what that means for how you design your working week – A simple question to ask in your team: when are you at your creative best and what contributes to it? – One practical thing anyone can do right now to build their creative muscle, even if they don't feel creative…

Even if you're not changing jobs, your job is changing. In day two of this special five-part series, Helen and Aneesh Rahman explore the second C, courage, and why it's becoming one of the most important skills you can bring to work right now. From Polynesian wayfarers to Apollo 13 to leaving a high-profile CNN career to become an unpaid intern on a presidential campaign, courage has always been at the heart of how humans do anything worth doing. The good news? You don't have to start with a giant leap. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Why courage is necessary for curiosity (and why being told to be compliant at work has made courage harder than it should be) – Why if you aren't failing, you aren't doing enough in this new world of work – How micro courage compounds over time (and why small, uncomfortable actions build to bigger leaps) – What companies and leaders need to do to create environments where courage is actually possible – One thing you could do tomorrow that feels uncomfortable today 📚 Resources Mentioned…

What if the future of work isn't less human...but more human? In this special episode, Helen kicks off a brand new five-part series borrowing brilliance from Open to Work, a brilliant new book by Aneesh Rahman, Chief Economic Opportunity Officer at LinkedIn, and former Obama speechwriter. Over the next five days, Helen and Aneesh will explore the five human skills that matter most in the age of AI: curiosity, courage, creativity, compassion and communication. Today, they start with curiosity - and why it might be the most important career advantage you can build right now. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Why AI raises the value of human skills rather than replacing them (and what that means for your career) – What real curiosity looks like at work (hint: it's not just reading more, it's finding a thread and pulling on it) – Why outsourcing your curiosity to AI creates cognitive debt, and what to do instead – How to use AI as a starting point for building curiosity, not an ending point – How to create more curiosity in…

Are you a fix-it-fast problem solver? In this Squiggly Shortcut, Helen makes the case for slowing down before you jump to solutions. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Why surface-level fixes create ping pong problems that just keep coming back – How to use two simple questions "why is this a problem?" and "why is this an issue?" to get to the cause – How to turn your answers into better, more targeted solutions rather than sticking plasters – Why solving problems as a team (rather than solo) means people are more bought into what comes next 📚 Resources Mentioned Squiggly Careers Skills Sprint Increasing Your Impact: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the…

Have you ever noticed how much more you get done in the week before a holiday? In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from the goal gradient effect; the research-backed finding that the closer we are to a finish line, the harder and faster we push, and turn it into something genuinely practical for your career. Sarah introduces Finish Line Fridays: a simple way to use the psychology of progress to build momentum towards goals that matter, one week at a time. Helen tests it live with her PhD as the goal, and together they explore whether you're more of a fresh start effect person or a finish line focus person, and why pairing the two might be useful. 🎯 What You'll Learn – What the goal gradient effect is and why it explains so much about how we work (and why rats are involved) – The difference between the fresh start effect and finish line focus (and which one you're more naturally wired for) – How to run your own Finish Line Fridays: from picking your goal to setting your first action before…

Ever sent a reply you immediately regretted, or said something in the heat of the moment you wish you hadn't? In this Squiggly Shortcut, Sarah makes the case for the 24 hour rule, and shares the research that backs up why waiting is almost always worth it. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Why giving yourself 24 hours moves you beyond fight, flight or freeze (and why sleep is doing more work than you think) – 3 things to do in that 24 hours while you're processing: name it to tame it, separate facts from feelings, and ask whether you'll still care about this in 12 months – Why it's okay to say "I'll come back to you tomorrow" (and why people actually find it reassuring when leaders do this) – What to do when you don't have 24 hours and an hour is the best you can get 📚 Resources Mentioned Episode 364: How to improve your judgement: https://www.amazingif.com/listen/how-to-improve-your-judgement/ For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more…

How much of your working week are you spending on things you're genuinely great at, and how much is quietly draining you? In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from Gay Hendricks' Zone of Genius framework, sparked by Emma Grede's book Start With Yourself, and turn it into one of the most practically useful exercises they've tried in a while. They work through all 4 zones live, competence, incompetence, excellence, and genius, sharing their own honest examples (including payroll, passive meetings, and branding). Then Helen shares a surprisingly simple way to use AI to analyse your diary and find out exactly how your time is really being spent. This episode is brought to you in partnership with Post-it® Brand. If today's episode sparked an idea, stick it down. Find out where to buy Post-it® products at go.3M.com/squiggly 🎯 What You'll Learn – What the four zones actually mean, and why spending too much time in your zone of excellence can be just as much of a trap as your zone of incompetence – How…

Does your inner critic get loudest exactly when you need it to be quiet? In this Squiggly Shortcut, Helen unpacks what self-sabotage actually looks and feels like at work, and shares four simple things you can do to start turning the volume down. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Why self-sabotage tends to show up hardest in the moments that matter most (and what that costs you over time) – How to spot the specific situations where your inner critic is having the biggest impact – Why "name it to tame it" is one of the most useful things you can do with a worry – One simple language swap, from "I can't" to "I don't", that shifts you from feeling stuck to feeling in control 📚 Resources Mentioned Episode 283 - How to stop self-sabotage: https://www.amazingif.com/listen/how-to-stop-self-sabotage/ For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for…

Have you ever finished a week at work and wondered what you actually did that mattered? In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from David Graeber's book Bulls*it Jobs...and find it uncomfortably relatable. Helen and Sarah explore what pointless work actually looks like, why it's more common than most of us admit, and, crucially, what you can do if you find yourself in it. 🎯 What You'll Learn – What makes a job "pointless" according to Graeber's definition (and why it's more about your own assessment than anyone else's) – Why high-paid pointless jobs are often more draining than they sound – Five practical strategies for surviving and escaping a job that doesn't feel real (from scanning sideways to pitching yourself a new role) – Why treating your career as a series of experiences rather than an identity makes these moments easier to navigate – When to leave (and why calling it fast is increasingly the right move) 📚 Resources Mentioned Bullsh*it Jobs — David Graeber I Don't Want a Job (Not a Real…

Feeling overwhelmed at work? In this Squiggly Shortcut, Sarah shares three strategies that got her through a particularly full-on week, starting with something most of us don't do nearly enough. 🎯 What You'll Learn – Why signalling early to the people around you is one of the most useful things you can do when you're overwhelmed (and how to tell them what kind of help you actually need) – Why emptying your head onto paper (without worrying about making it make sense) creates more space than any prioritisation system – How to make an honest list of where good enough is fine this week — and where you genuinely need to be great 📚 Resources Mentioned Episode 199: How to cope with overwhelm at work https://www.amazingif.com/listen/how-to-cope-with-overwhelm-at-work/ For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints:…

Could a framework change the way you think about your time, your strengths, or your team? In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from three tried-and-tested strategic models, and put them to the test with AI prompts, Post-it® Big Notes, and a live coaching conversation to see how useful they actually are. From a classic time management matrix to a strengths development tool to a team effectiveness framework that's been around since the 70s, this episode is brought to you in partnership with Post-it® Brand. If today's episode sparked an idea, stick it down, find out where to buy Post-it® products at go.3M.com/squiggly 🎯 What You'll Learn – How to use the Eisenhower Matrix to see where your time is really going (and what to do if it doesn't give you new answers) – How to adapt the Ansoff Matrix to grow your strengths into new contexts and with new people – How the McKinsey 7S framework can reveal surprising gaps in how your team works together – Which frameworks are best done alone, in a pair, or…