Getting Back to and Embracing Your Whole Self with Dr. Britta Bibel

Dr. Britta Bibel, founder of Ensomatic Alliances, joins me to discuss what it looks like to take a holistic approach to caring for your organizational culture and the individuals on your team. Britta discusses practical first steps to approaching and solving common questions and issues when it comes to disconnect, burnout, and low performance. 

Learn more and connect with Britta:
Website: https://www.brittabibel.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/britta-bibel/

Transcript

 Britta Blanski :
Welcome to the LinkedIn Lounge podcast, a space where we dive deep into questions surrounding culture, community, employee engagement, employee experience and what it looks like to help be an active voice to improve our workplaces. Linkedin is an amazing place of connection and opportunity, so when you're willing to dive into that space and be a little bit vulnerable and lean into your authentic, genuine side when it comes to relationship building, you'll be surprised at what you find. So grab those earbuds, find a quiet space and enjoy this conversation. Welcome to the LinkedIn Lounge podcast today we have with us doctor Britta Bibel she is the founder of Ensomatic Alliances, which specializes in corporate cultural trainings as well as also being a holistic, high performance coach. Welcome to the show Britta i am so glad that you are here today with us. Why don't you tell us a little bit more about what you do exactly at Ensomatic Alliances?
 
 

Britta Bibel  :

Hello, thank you so much for having me first of all, yeah, So what is the question what I do at Ensomatic?
 
 

Britta Blanski :

Yes.
 
 

Britta Bibel  :

Yes, so I so I have done this culture transformation work during my corporate career for three four, years actually many years and i have then decided since I basically found out that this is my great passion. That I want to do this for more companies and that's how I first did this as a freelancer and then recently incorporated my own company and i'm working now with mid sized company companies or mid sized to like bigger sized companies in their pursuit of creating and improving their culture.
 
 

Britta Blanski :

So what exactly does enzymatic mean? The word itself?
 
 

Britta Bibel  :

So the word itself stems from the Greek version of the English word embodiment and i chose this name actually, because I truly believe, and this is also part of my work, that we need to embody what we do. And what I mean by that is really. And a wholehearted approach so we cannot just be in our heads or think about what we want to do or think about what the best action is. But we need to live it we need to do it with our full senses and only then, and we need to feel it and only then we can be effective and successful, i think.
 
 

Britta Blanski :

And then would you say that is connected to your a holistic approach to how you coach your clients?
 
 

Britta Bibel  :

Yes, exactly so maybe let me let me give you a little bit more background about this, why I call this holistic and why I believe that it's very important in our work so. I think where I'm coming from and I think i share this journey with many people that work in corporations today is that as a child, I think, you know, we approach life with playing a lot we are moving a lot, we are learning a lot, we are failing a lot. But we always move forward and we kind of grow on the way, you know? And when we get to school and then to university, and then we start our careers and in my case, I started my corporate career, we become more and more one sided because at some point we become so focused on performance and on delivery and on, you know, making a career and also in my case, you know, you want to climb up that corporate ladder you want to build a family and all that at the same time. And I'm sorry and then we what we forget about is really our health, our relationships often times because it's it gets so one sided and then also. We start to do more of what is rewarded and this is where corporations are great at. They reward a certain side of us and be that with good intentions or not it doesn't really matter but so this one sidedness is growing and growing at and sooner or later many of us find ourselves in a kind of exhausted, often burned out status where we have neglected parts of our self. Where we haven't honed our health and relationships and other interests that might really virtualize our us and our perspectives as also as business people. So for me realizing that quite painfully and. Really starting from a point where I was completely disconnected and completely worn out if you want and starting to ask these questions so what is what is success and what is performance actually? And is it enough that I get this next big job and that I get this next promotion and earn more, make more, but. At the end of the day, I'm not a healthy, balanced, satisfied human being and therefore today. So I what also helped me was really on this on this journey, I had spaces that I kind of intuitively created for myself i did my master in Sustainability and Responsibility, which was a program where I had kind of this escape into a different world where. Could meet people like minded people and we had like we could take the time to have different views and perspectives on life and on how we approach our work. I also did then my doctor research and so this all created spaces for me to think about what else is there next to the daily madness right and that also every time I came back. I had, I was full of ideas, I was full of energy and I realised that this is actually what holistic performance is about, because I could bring so much more to the table and I could, you know, be so much more creative and also challenging to others in a good way, in a constructive way. And that's All in all how I came to this idea that. Performance needs to be holistic and if I help people through my coaching work, I need to open their eyes and try to, you know, challenge them in a loving and compassionate way towards finding their own holistic place and their own holistic performance so that they so. For me, this holistic performance is all about, yes, increasing and improving your performance, but. In the long term while maintaining positive relationships and while maintaining a good health because otherwise it's not sustainable and otherwise after a while you will not perform any more.
 
 

Britta Blanski :

Ok, so before I dive into other questions, I just want to define quickly holistic for all our listeners so when you say holistic, what exactly do you mean?
 
 

Britta Bibel  :

I mean with holistic that, so I talk a lot about holistic performance because in organisations this is what we all want but not at all cost so here holistic means it's long term, it's including not just the like, the material or the operational performance. But it is also maintaining good and healthy relationships because that makes us happy and healthy human beings. Being connected in communities and friendships and partnerships. So healthy relationships and watching your health, so your physical and mental health. So all those include holistic.
 
 

Britta Blanski :

Ok, good so going back to something you mentioned earlier, what would be signs or early signs that someone is disconnected because maybe they feel stressed, maybe they can pinpoint and say i think I'm burnt out, I need a change, I need a rest, but what would be other indicators that you're disconnected and then I guess my other question that to take along with that is if someone recognizes that because I think there's a huge step of self-awareness right before you're able to take any type of action, what would be one of the first things that you can do in response to becoming aware that you are disconnected?
 
 

Britta Bibel  :

Oh, that is such a good question and well, I think there are many answers. First of all, unfortunately, when you ask for early signs. We have a huge capacity and talent not to see those first signs, not to feel those first signs because we are kind of trained to push them down also and that and that's a piece which is cultural also in organisations that often it is not regarded professional. If you show that you don't feel well, if you talk about that, you are tremendously tired for weeks now that you feel not safe to voice your ideas or to voice your concerns, Because if you could, you would, right so it's a kind of a downwards spiral to. Yeah, together to become aware of and as you said, it's a huge step if you can locate yourself and say, you know what, I think I'm overworked this is not working anymore i have actually a very dear client at the moment who came to me saying I want to work on my resilience. And the person is doing great and in the beginning I thought, wow, you know, this is really going from great to even greater because there was this awareness already and it's amazing what you can then do to even increase your performance while also increasing your well-being and your serendipity, how you deal with stress, how you deal. So coming back to your questions, early warning signs, So I think there are millions of early warning signs and they are all different for every person. I think what everyone could ask themselves is what's my weak point so weak point is kind of like if you have a material? Or like a like a tool. In German you have the Zoll Brochteller. It's that part which breaks first if it if it's supposed to break, right. So, and I think we all know this, so some people have a very delicate skin and they react with some kind of rushes. Some people have a stiff neck, some people have back pain, Some people have their foot that would say hello, you know, or you have migraines, headaches, whatever it is, I think everyone knows very well for themselves. What kind of little things they have. And you might also have a strategy how to fix it, right there's aspirin, there is alcohol there is many things that are very legitimate to do for some time or for the moment, but they become very soon a habit. And here is the start of this vicious circle where when you go into that habit, you kind of push down those. Warning signs. And you learn you teach your body literally to disregard those warning signs until it needs much bigger and stronger signs from your body to make itself hurt. And this can go on for a long time and this is how do you say that, like chronic diseases also are created? Because you constantly disregard something and you're not listening to what your body is saying and then at some point you don't even know where it's coming from anymore because it's coming full circle, right?
 
 

Britta Blanski :

I love that there is a word for the part that breaks first like it's just so it's perfect. It's the perfect, you know explanation for that. So how would, how would you unravel finding the root cause of one of those problems? Or I mean also coming from the perspective too, Like if you walk into an organization and they realize that they need this holistic approach to help their teams, you know, in order to transform their culture because something's not working right. What would be kind of be the first steps to uncovering What do you need to tackle first? Like what's the top priority of an issue when maybe there's actually hundreds, maybe not hundreds, but there's, you know, dozens of little ones. So knowing how do we really get down to the bottom of this?
 
 

Britta Bibel  :

Yeah oh, great question. So I mean there is not the one starting point. What I often see is that companies are totally overloaded, no. And there are many good reasons for that so for example in a growth scenario which is great, no if the company is growing or even if there is a turn around scenario. Even more so is a good reason for being overwhelmed no, because there are many things that need to be done at the same time. And of course there's overload and overwhelm temporarily, and that's OK too. The question is how? How do we deal with that and how do we approach it and often times in this overload. There is a lack of focus there is a lack of clarity in terms of there are so many urgent issues that need to be done at the same time that easily you can be busy for morning to night and have thousands of people working on different things but not really getting to the bottom of it and not really getting the things done that need to be done. So the first step is really to go through what the biggest or let's say the top five goals are what needs to happen in the next three months, in the next year and in and then in the next three years or starting from the three years and bring it down, but always bringing it down to tomorrow, 9:00 and end of next year. And then really and it's a painful process often because there are so many important things but not all of them are mission critical no. So identifying those mission critical things and really focusing on getting those done because once you have one thing off the table because it is done, it is already relieving and freeing up resources to tackle the next one and this is, this is the surface level, but it is a very good entry point into then discussing OK now that we have these goals, why does half of the organization keep working on that which is not moving the needle And then you come to many other issues of. Maybe some projects that have a political background you know somebody likes it and therefore we do it and different things like that and then what you also find while and this is it's always good to start with the tangible because people work on tangible things and. When they interact, when they collaborate, what shows is their styles know and what their histories their how they get things done, what they expect from others, what they give, how they serve and how they protect themselves. And all these things show why they work working or not working on the right things. And so that gives a lot of good insights and a lot of good food to productively work on. Because if you know, I work on a project because this is the easy project for me and I can profile myself with that project and I can also protect my weaknesses by working on this and not on that. Then that is an issue that needs to be discussed and be put on the table, And this person needs help from their colleagues on OK, how can I focus my talents and my resources also on what is really important? And if I if I don't know how to do it or if I'm afraid how to do it, then we need to talk about that and how we can support these people. So there are, you know, it's like a. The Pandora box, like you start at the surface and you set the like you put the main stakes in the ground and from there you see everything else, What is in the way? And then you put a structure in place how to work with people and teams and across the organization, how to work on these pain points. And it's such a relief, and people love it because it's it makes work so much more joyful and supportive and engaging again.
 
 

Britta Blanski :

Yeah, I think there's something to be said for embracing the uncomfortable in order to have a revelation and discover something that's actually really critical and important to how you work, You know, either as an individual but also as a team. But that doesn't happen necessarily in like a rainbows and butterflies way, right like, it's going to be difficult and you have to be willing to have really hard conversations too, right because I imagine a lot of that process involves giving feedback in a way that's saying, hey, this is working and this isn't working and we need to talk about why it's not. Which you know no one necessarily enjoys receiving negative feedback or critical feedback.
 
 

Britta Bibel  :

There's something that you've kind of, can I say something for that because you mentioned negative feedback. I think that's an interesting expression. I love the word challenging feedback because what we always want to do is be constructive and help to move forward. And I think negative feedback is i mean people i always hear the hear the words and people may may perceive feedback as negative and it might be because it is expressed in a way which is kind of like pushing them down i'm coming back to the embodiment part. So I want feedback to be given for example, if it's what we traditionally would call negative feedback is talking about somebody's weaknesses or talking about what somebody has done wrong, right. I can do that in a way at what like, you know, talking about, OK, what can we learn from the things that have gone wrong? What are the things that we can repeatedly learn and put in place now from the things that went wrong? And if the person who was in that position can think about that, they inevitably make a step forward and towards their learning, towards becoming better in the future. And I think the same is true even if we want to part with a colleague or an employee, we can do that in the very same way without pushing somebody down or destroying somebody's self worth or confidence. I mean, I'm not talking here about legal cases, no, but I'm talking about OK, we see there's no fit anymore, maybe there's a performance issue, but how can I part with somebody by also future and forward oriented thinking and communication so that we walk with part and we both have learned something from it?
 
 

Britta Blanski :

I like the word that you used before did you say challenge feedback or challenging feedback?
 
 

Britta Bibel  :

Yeah, feedback.
 
 

Britta Blanski :

Yeah, I like that because it presents it as a, you know, I could take this as a challenge, right not saying the kind of has a double meaning, right like, it's might be challenging to hear, but it's also an opportunity.
 
 

Britta Bibel  :

Exactly. Yeah, exactly and it should it's not meant as sugar coating it's really meant as what is the movement that we are after and the movement I am after is a forward movement and a growing movement.
 
 

Britta Blanski :

Yeah, absolutely. So there's something that you've hinted at but haven't necessarily said explicitly, and I want to ask you about it because it's something that I saw on your blogs that are on your website as well. When you use a lot of this vocabulary of like smoke and shadows and you've mentioned having this other side or like pushing it down, maybe repressing it, I don't think you've necessarily said that we hide it, but there's certainly this other aspect that's in the dark, OK, the dark side. Would you just go into a little bit more about that and why you're using that language and what it's really referring to? And what I mean, what should we do about it because of course we have it there's also, you know, we all have a side that's not necessarily visible to everyone or maybe even no one knows, right. So what do we do with that? What is it and how do we.
 
 

Britta Bibel  :

Yeah so I mean i'm a psychologist by background. It has always been my big interest and passion because I'm interested in understanding why people behave like they behave. I've also trained with a Jungian analyst for seven years as my coach supervisor where I learned really a lot about the unconscious and you rightly said you don't want to say hiding because it's not about hiding when and it's a it's a Jungian term this shadow it's and it basically describes our what is in our unconscious. And so when we talk about the shadow and this is also big part of my work, both with individuals and with teams because the shadow is everywhere we can think of it as the things that we are not aware of. And we can apply a continuous process to again and again become aware of what is in the shadow because it's impossible not to have one but it's possible to become more aware and then we can work with it because what is in our unconscious and let's talk for a second about how it actually is created so the shadow is and Jung said it's the thing we do not wish to be. It's like we all have that side which is not let's say appreciated as much which is not rewarded as much and that can be in society you know As for example. Yeah, being always polite is rewarded being too loud is not rewarded. In corporations, being very calm and professional all the time is rewarded being emotional is maybe not so rewarded. So you know you can you can continue that list so what gets rewarded gets reinforced and what doesn't get rewarded or this, let's say this discouraged gets pushed into the shadow potentially and we kind of forget about it or don't want to see it ourselves and we develop all kinds of strategies not to show it, you know to show up without that piece. And that is for to a certain extent it's it can be helpful because you know it can there can be situations where it doesn't serve you, but what? So what is also what gets also suppressed is our unique side because this shadow side, also contains a lot of our creativity. It contains a lot of our unique self and if that is pushed down, we just become all the same, you know and that there's also a big problem that I see in organisations that people try so much to be that and to in order to get to that next job, in order to be on that stage. And they actually become less over time because they do not bring their full, authentic being to the table, even not for themselves you know, I lifted through myself that at a certain point, just because of this one sidedness, I also applied for myself. I didn't. I didn't have hobbies anymore, which I found out I need. It's such a big passion of mine. For example, dancing is such a big passion that gives me so much balance in my life and if I don't do it for a long period of time, I'm not the same and I cannot be as creative and as happy and as supportive as I as I would as I could be. And so yeah that's the shadow and that's how I realise how important it is and how important it is to and yeah to help each other to become aware of it because it's really hard to do it yourself it it's you really need somebody to trigger you or to help you dig deeper and yeah and then to work on it.
 
 

Britta Blanski :

Who would you say is the strongest influence within the workplace that's dictating or that's not the right word I want to use, but that's influencing? How their employees show up and that's kind of presenting that this is the one side that we want to see. Would you say that it's, you know, is it always the team manager is it someone higher up? Is it maybe an unspoken of culture that's passed down through the CEO like, where necessarily is that coming from or do you think it's coming more from a cultural standpoint outside of the office? Like maybe it's with your friends or your family?
 
 

Britta Bibel  :

So I think it's it cannot be pinpointed towards one person or one thing i think there is a lot in the culture and the culture is the sum of all our behaviours, all our actions, ways of thinking, assumptions, what we do every day no. And that of course is supported by the systems and processes that are in place because they kind of reinforce those daily behaviours. So therefore what are, what are the biggest influences for your, for your question it's in that culture and when I go in organisations and work on the culture and try to you know define what do we want to change and how do we make that change happen. It's really about well, first of all we always start with the leaders because they have a lot of influence on how people behave in the organization because you know when you when you look at the energy in a company, the CEO and his leadership team already carries probably 20 % of the energy of the organization just because of their presence and how many people they touch every day. Whereas if you think about somebody in the bookkeeping department, they don't have so much influence on the rest of the people so that's why leadership, yes, is important because they have such a big reach into the organization. Now what is important for them to understand is that everything they do, everything they say, even what they think, because what they think is leaking into their behaviours is influencing that space where people bring themselves to the table or not. It is also not just what they say and do, but what they don't say and what they don't do, sometimes even more, and the congruence of all of that so for example, if the company is doing badly or if they do not believe, for example in a strategy that has been decided, it is useless for them to go to their team and say, wow, that is a great strategy and we need to do this now if they don't believe in it is very hard for the team not to recognize that. And one of the biggest destroyer of trust is that incongruence when they see something they feel it, they get the energy but they hear other words that is something that we work on. And you know, there is once people understand that and then you work on the on the communication strategy and also it's not just the strategy and when people hear communication, they often think about the marketing and communication department. That is just one piece of it and everyone is creating communication every day and everything they do and say. And so yeah, to your question, what is the biggest influence it's I would say the culture, but the culture as constructed of what everyone does and the systems behind it. One big thing is always of course the incentives system because it's not just giving a reward in kind of words, but it lands on your bank account, you know. And that, of course, is a big influence, but not the biggest one by far. So the fact that the leader's energy is influencing, you said 20 % of yeah, roughly, roughly.
 
 

Britta Blanski :

Ok so that is really sticking out to me and that's huge and it's just making me ask if a leader's not aware of that or once they do become aware of it, how can they manage that? Because I don't want to cross into a space of you need to show up and be, you know, chirpy, happy, smiley and then lean into this quote unquote toxic positivity environment, right? Because i think it's OK for a leader to be struggling or have difficult moments or have their doubts, right i mean, why wouldn't they especially in the position and responsibility that they have, they carry a lot of weight whether that's. A positive weight or something that that's really difficult to carry. So what can they do about that, being mindful of the energy without leaning into that toxic aspect?
 
 

Britta Bibel  :

Absolutely, absolutely. And yeah. So what they can do is first of all, I guess often when leaders as you describe it have also their weak moments or their doubts and fears. First of all, let that happen and accept it as it is and try not to hide it but work with it in a way that is appropriate I would say because coming back to this congruence, you know if you are in fear, if you have a bad moment and you try to hide it in front of your team, they will 100 % understand that and will not like it because it's they cannot make sense of it, you know because they see something and they feel something else. So I mean it's something if there is a fear you need to work on it anyways and good is that maybe you have a sparring partner a coach or a colleague that you can discuss this first and often times, yeah, often times, I mean more often than than the other way around, I see leaders who are afraid of certain things, who are not really aware of that fear. And they acted out in a way that is, for example, overly criticizing their people or being quite forceful in their, you know, in their decision making with others. And there what helps a lot there is if they become aware of this, of these dynamics of this, what is actually underlying their behaviour sometimes they are not aware themselves. And so it's so helpful to see yeah, it's actually because I want to protect myself that I'm doing this all the time or that I'm asking like the hundred twenty percent % percent would be enough to be asked, right and it's this And the goal of this whole awareness process is not to become perfect, but to become more effective in working with my team. You know, if I and if I'm aware and clear about this is what I want, this is the obstacle. This is what I'm afraid of. I can, you know, make a much better plan also how to communicate this with my people and also how to ask for help. People are really most of the time they are very willing to help and support, especially their bosses and supervisors.
 
 

Britta Blanski :

Yeah, that's so good. And the last question I want to ask you, which also is related to this, because gaining self-awareness definitely takes time. Like you have to be willing to set aside that time to self reflect, to speak with someone, maybe do some exercises or whatever that might be along with your dancing, which of course is wonderful and again takes time and i'm sure most people are like yeah that's great, but I don't have time. So what would be like kind of the last thing that you could tell our listeners to encourage them of where they can find the time? Or to really carve out and just make it possible to so that they can experience the benefit of having that creative outlet and tapping into the other side of them that they're not able to normally show or bring to work.
 
 

Britta Bibel  :

Yeah so I would approach it in a way that look at your holistic life. Look at for example one week, look at the number of days and hours that you have. Look at the number of hours that you spend on working and think about how much does your body need to renew to recover and your mind know. And it starts with, I would say everyone needs every adult who is, you know, full time working and really delivering on a high level needs 7 to 8 hours sleep every night. Of course sometimes that is not possible, but then you need to catch up at a certain point so people that tell me that over a long stretched period of time they sleep four to five hours impossible you get drunk the next day, you know if you if you do that and certainly you cannot perform at a high level anymore for so long. So get enough sleep and then a daily renewal of let's say half an hour or one hour is also, I think, not asked too much. You can spend half an hour walking, 20 minutes, maybe stretching or meditating, and then two times or three times a week you do some more intense training. It could be dancing, it could be running, and a lot of people do much more i know a lot of people that do marathon running. Some people do boxing, some people go to the gym. Whatever is good for you, whatever makes you feel more physically balanced, is what we need. What we just need to factor in as much as we factor in sleeping, going to the bathroom or seeing our kids and mothers and fathers with kids, of course they have an even higher demand also spending time with their children. I have two, they are 19 and 15 now, so I know very well that and I have always given them first and then me last. And it is a struggle yes, I know, but if we want to be balanced in the long run, we have to really watch to give us these two hours a week is not too much. In fact, if you're not able to do 2 hours a week for yourself for your physical health, there's something profoundly wrong.
 
 

Britta Blanski :

Yeah, I was going to say, I think it's safe to say everyone can find at least 20 to 30 minutes a day like if you really look at your schedule and how you're managing your time, like it's there.
 
 

Britta Bibel  :

It's just oftentimes we have great excuses, absolutely. I know all of them for myself as well.
 
 

Britta Blanski :

Yeah, likewise, we too. Well, Berta, this was so amazing and fantastic i might just have to have you back on for another conversation, 'cause I definitely have more questions but if someone liked what they heard and they would like to connect with you or work with you and learn more, where can they find you what's the best way to get in touch?
 
 

Britta Bibel  :

Yeah, I would love to so you can find me on LinkedIn. Berta Beebel it's my and then my website isbertabeebel.com Please visit me there and there are all the details about my work and my contact and I'm super happy to hear from you.
 
 

Britta Blanski :

Wonderful.
 
 

Britta Bibel  :

Thank you so much for all your valuable insight today. Thank you it was a pleasure. Thank you. Bye, bye None.