Culture & self-compassion w/ Kevin Eyres #87

Culture is the social contract you have with your team. Self-compassion is the social contract you have with yourself! We explore practices to cultivate compassion with Kevin Eyres (Executive Coach & Former MD LinkedIn Europe). We cover practices to eliminate negative self-talk, self-doubt, and increase compassion in your team. Plus bridging the gap from aspirational culture to reality, and how to identify the top 3 behaviors that help you succeed as a leader.

ABOUT KEVIN EYRES

An engineer by background, Kevin Eyres (@kevineyres) spent his early career leading engineering and product development teams for the likes of Compaq, Shopping.com and Alta Vista. Kevin has also been responsible for leading the European divisions of three Silicon Valley companies. He was the General Manager of Alta Vista International spanning 14 countries from 2001. He joined SideStep, now Kayak, as first employee and Managing Director in 2005 and in 2007 was appointed Managing Director for LinkedIn. Starting from his spare bedroom to IPO four years later Kevin lead the global movement at LinkedIn into five countries and the global Irish HQ.

Kevin ranked 22nd in Wired Magazine’s "The Wired 100" in 2010, a listing that features the most influential people shaping the UK’s digital landscape.

Today, Kevin lives in Los Altos and is now enjoying a plural career as an exec coach/board member/ investor / Hoffman Process Teacher.

"If you continue with the negative talk, it just reinforces itself. So stop. Acknowledge it, and stop. And the drop is you drop into your breath.

And the self-compassion mantra is, 'This is a moment of pain. Everybody feels pain. I'm not alone. And may I be kind and gentle to myself.’

- Kevin Eyres   

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SHOW NOTES:

• Kevin’s journey to engineering leadership (1:36)
• What prepared Kevin to become a general manager (4:45)
• Kevin’s transition to executive coaching (6:53)
• Why culture and self-compassion are important themes in Kevin’s career (9:34)
• How to eliminate negative head talk (12:52)
• “Stop, drop & roll” to overcome self-doubt (16:24)
• How to create space from automatic responses of anxiety or shame (19:14)
• Bridging the gap between aspirational company culture and reality (20:54)
• How self-compassion and culture are connected (23:25)
• Increasing self-compassion in your team (24:44)
• How peer groups increase compassion and bring relief (26:24)
• Making self-compassion a habit (29:03)
• How to cultivate the patience to be compassionate (31:02)
• Identifying the top three behaviors that help you succeed as a leader (33:01)
• Rapid Fire Questions (35:13)
• Takeaways (39:10)