This Episode: Thriving Talent with Aoife O’Brien
Lucinda reunites with leadership and culture specialist Aoife O’Brien to explore how organisational thinking has shifted over the last five years.
Moving beyond the foundational concept of “belonging,” Aoife introduces her Thriving Talent framework—a holistic temple model built upon psychological safety and supported by three critical pillars: Workplace Culture, Individual Drivers, and Organisational Capabilities.
They dive deep into the nuances of psychological safety, the dangers of toxic cultures, and the essential role of self-awareness in leadership.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Organisational success is structured like a temple: Psychological Safety is the foundation, Culture, Drivers, and Capabilities are the pillars, and Leadership is the capstone that holds it all together.
- True psychological safety is not about being nice or avoiding conflict; it is the ability to engage in candid, constructive conflict and admit failure without fear of retribution.
- While 95% of people believe they are self-aware, research suggests the actual figure is closer to 15%. Effective leadership requires bridging this gap by seeking external feedback to understand the impact we have on others.
- A toxic culture often stems from a mismatch between stated values and actual behaviours (how people are rewarded or treated). Authenticity requires total alignment between the two.
BEST MOMENTS
“Psychological safety is not the answer to everything; it is the means to the end.”
“Silence is a clear sign that you have not created psychological safety.”
“We don’t set out to create a toxic work environment; it just accidentally happens. But it takes acknowledging the elephant in the room to change it.”
“Leadership starts with leading ourselves first before we ever think about leading other people.”
Valuable Resources
Download the Burke Litwin Model of Change Resource
The HR Uprising Podcast | Apple | Spotify | YouTube
The HR Uprising LinkedIn Group
Mastering Motivation with Rob Lion (The HR Uprising)
How To Be A Change Superhero – by Lucinda Carney
HR Uprising Mastermind – https://hruprising.com/mastermind/
If you liked this episode, try these
- Podcast Episode 107: Belonging at Work with Aoife O’Brien
- Podcast Episode 4: Evidence-Based with Rob Briner
Find out more about Actus solutions:
Appraisal Info-book: Rethinking Performance Appraisals
Performance Management Software
About The Guest, Aoife O’Brien
Aoife O’Brien is a workplace culture and leadership expert, founder of Happier at Work, and author of the bestselling book ‘Thriving Talent’. After spending 20 years in corporate roles, Aoife experienced first-hand both high-performing cultures and deeply dysfunctional ones, which led her to leave corporate life and focus on fixing the systems that cause disengagement and underperformance. Drawing on evidence-based research, her own Master’s work, and hundreds of conversations with leaders, she helps people-first leaders build psychologically safe, engaged, and productive teams where performance and wellbeing go hand in hand.
Connect with Aoife
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aoifemobrien/
Thriving Talent: https://thrivingtalentbook.com/
About The Host
Lucinda Carney is a Business Psychologist with 15 years in Senior Corporate L&D roles. Lucinda, for over 10 years as CEO of Actus Software has worked closely with HR colleagues helping them to solve the same challenges across a huge range of industries. Certainly, it was this breadth of experience that inspired Lucinda to set up the HR Uprising community. In order to facilitate greater collaboration across HR professionals in different sectors, helping them to ‘rise up’ together.
“If you look up, you rise up”
How To Be A Change Superhero – by Lucinda Carney
Contact Method
- Join the HR Uprising LinkedIn community: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13714397/
- Email: Lucinda@advancechange.co.uk
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucindacarney/
- X / Twitter: @lucindacarney
- Instagram: @hruprising
- Facebook: @hruprising
- YouTube: Channel
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