139. Introducing my book “Make Work Meaningful: A Practical Guide to Creating a Culture That Leaves a Legacy” with Prina Shah

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Hello and welcome to this episode of Ways to Change the Workplace with myself Prina Char. I love what I do. I'm a global leadership coach, a consultant, a trainer, a keynote speaker, a podcaster. I help you to develop your leaders, your teams, and I help you to optimize your organizational cultures. I'm here to help you find ways to change your workplace. Why? Because we spend more time in our waking day at work than we do with our loved ones. It has to be a good place to be. So in this podcast, you can expect a mix of interviews with amazing thought leaders and then some solo episodes from myself as well. Strap yourselves in. Hello, hello, and welcome to this solo episode of the Ways to Change Your Workplace podcast with me, your host, Prina Shah. And this episode, I want to tell you all about my upcoming book that I am self-publishing. And I would really love for you to be in my book launch squad. So before I tell you more about that, let me tell you more about the book. So as I said, my book is called Make Work Meaningful: How to Create a Culture That Leaves a Legacy. I have purposely written it as a practical guide. So at the start of every chapter, you get uh insight on what the chapter is going to be about. I then launch into the chapter and I'll give you a case study or a story, and then at the end of the chapter, you have a practical application of what I've just explained to you in the chapter. And then there's uh notes sections and notes pages for you throughout the book as well. So, why did I write the book? For so many reasons, for so so many reasons. My own experience. So, my dad has been a huge influence on me in terms of the kind of work that I do and why I do it. He was a migrant from Kenya, and we moved to the UK, and his work experience was the worst. I quickly and early in my life learned that work is not meaningful, and it really impacts people, and they take it home, which then impacts their family, their little society, their little community that they live in, and wider impacts, right? The ripple impact of a job from an individual to the community that they live in is quite something, and it's a huge impact on the family as well. If you are not happy in your job, as was the situation with my dad. If you want to learn more about that, then please tune in to episode number 50 of this podcast. So, my own experience, I then went into the workplace and I got an amazing graduate job. Um, you can look at LinkedIn where that was, and do connect with me on LinkedIn by the way. And early on, I got a laptop, I got lots of perks, including dry cleaning, uh, an in-house hairdryer where I worked as well. Um, it was really interesting. The executives also had a life personal assistant to manage their uh family events, birthdays, to book holidays to remind them of said events. So, in terms of that kind of workplace, I had my bullshit radar on quite early, and I thought, hmm, I'm give being given all of this for a reason to stay at work, and I felt like quite a slave back in the day. But what could I do? I was a graduate, I was young and fresh, and brand new into the workplace. I had to learn the ropes, and I remember in one of my performance conversations with my manager, uh, my first ever manager, she said to me that I need to temper my enthusiasm. I thought, what the fuck's that about? I am an enthusiastic person. What do you mean? So that was really interesting, and while I was trying to contribute to the workplace, there was a lot of politics and whatever else at play as well. So I learned, I learned very well early on. And honestly, I never felt like I fitted into the traditional workplace. Something was always amiss. So I worked my butt off in corporate land to work with the best organizations in a number of industries. I have both generalist and specialist HR skills, culture change and human behavior change skills. I have a Bachelor of Science in Sociology and Social Psychology, and a diploma of professional coaching. So that's all of my credits. I'm accredited in a number of things as well, and I've had the best corporate experiences. I now have my own business as a consultant who helps workplaces to be less shitty. I don't claim to know it all, but I have tried and tested everything that's in the book and I've refined it and refined it. So to the clients who have been my guinea pigs over the last four and five years, thank you for trusting me. So the book, Make Work Meaningful, How to Create a Culture That Leaves a Legacy is my way to make work meaningful. It's all about how to create a culture that leaves a legacy. It is a practical book, as I said, and after each chapter, there's a practical activity in a note section for you. It's your guide through your various careers. So I'd love for you to join the launch squad, which is in the show notes. I need your help. I can't do this without you. So I want to tell you more about the chapters that I've got in the book as well. Well, first off, Ashley, I'll tell you more about the three parts in this book. So part number one of Make Work Meaningful is about discovering your legacy as an individual. Part two about Make Work Meaningful my book is about creating a culture of legacy. And then part three of Make Work Meaningful, it's about sustaining your legacy. So let me tell you some of the chapters that I've got. Uh, chapter number one begins with um the title The Missing Piece, and the Missing Piece is about the fact that many of my clients and you that I'm talking to may well feel this also. You have reached the height of your career at this stage, whatever stage you might be at, and you are from a first world perspective doing really, really well, but you're still feeling that there's something amiss. And in this chapter, I talk to the concept of moving from ambition to meaning. So you've achieved a lot, but now you're searching for meaning. So that's the first chapter. Chapter number two, I've titled Discovering Your Rudder, Your Underlying Purpose, and Staying True to Your Core. So I've got lots of information in there, and then chapter three is designing your legacy goal. So you need to know where you're heading, we're all different, and it's about more than just a career. And I've got a really good case study in that. So, how to design your legacy goal is chapter number three. We then move on to part two, which is creating your culture of legacy, and I help you. So, chapter number four is defining your desired culture, and I really talk to the importance of a desired culture and the missing piece in most organizations and within most people as well. You know, if you don't know where you're heading, you're going nowhere. Chapter number five is once you've defined your desired culture, chapter number five is effectively conveying your desired culture. And in that chapter, I talk to loads of principles from a marketing perspective, and I share lots with you in terms of the no like and trust marketing principles, and I've linked it to culture change as well, so it's pretty cool. I'm really happy with it. And then chapter number six is titled Build a Solid Team, it's all about the importance of teamwork. Um, I also talk about Lone Ranger teams or siloed teams because I've worked with many an executive and a leader to unify such teams. Then we go on to chapter number seven, and that I've titled Building Alliances, and that's the power of the alliances that you have, and the eight people that you need in your professional network to help you to shine. Also, I have a side note in that. Who do you advocate for? How are you going to be an ally? And I've got some real practical examples in that chapter for you. Then chapter number eight is titled Leading with a Head, Heart and a Backbone: The Balance of Leadership. And I've got a self-assessment in there as well, so you can check if you're leading with your head, your heart, or your backbone. And there's a personal story from myself of when I was leading massive, massive teams and the lessons that I learned there. We then go on to part three of the book. It's about sustaining your legacy, and this is chapter number nine. I've titled Culture Optimization Beyond Surveys. So, one thing I've seen with organizations and with people is that they really hold on to these external tools. The issue with that is that it's an external tool, it's not your internal language, it's not your internal way. So I help you to create your own way in chapter number nine. And then life and career are not straightforward whatsoever. I'm very mindful of that. Chapter number 10 covers that, and that I have titled Managing Plot Twists. So our careers have so many plot twists, don't they? And I've um shared with you some navigating the unexpected, some tips on that as well. Um and then chapter number 11, All Good Things Come to an End. And I've titled Chapter 11, Knowing When to Leave and Pass the Pattern. Because you do have to move on eventually, all good things come to an end, as I said. And the final chapter titled The Show Will Go On, I tell you a story about a fictional case study I've um added to this about someone who actually applies every single lesson from the book and the result that comes from it. So, my friend, if you are feeling the funk with work and you want to make work meaningful and learn how to create a culture that leaves a legacy, then come on, join my book launch squad. All of the details are in the show notes, and I can't wait to have you join the movement because I can't do this without you. We have to make work meaningful together, and I can't wait to share my book with you. I will leave it as that for now. I will see you in the next episode. Bye for now. How good was that episode? If you liked it, be sure to share it with a couple of other people. Also, in the show notes are details about my newsletter. Keep in touch. I send a newsletter out around once a month. It won't be spammy, it will be very practical. And if we're not connected on LinkedIn yet, we must be connect with me on LinkedIn. And on Instagram, I am prina.sha. I will see you somewhere else or in the next episode. Until then, goodbye.