Unprofessionalism

Thirty years ago, in a room full of blue suits with padded shoulders, pearls, and red ties — all competing for one of the most prestigious academic scholarships in the world — Michael Bungay Stanier walked in with long blonde hair, earrings, and a pink tie-dye tie.
He was in his mid-twenties, in Australia, competing against people he knew might be sharper than him. His logic was simple: if I try to beat them on their terms, I lose. So he placed a different bet. One where he'd either come last by a long way, or come first.
He came first. It wouldn't be the last time betting on himself paid off. You might be familiar with The Coaching Habit, a best-seller book he self-published a decade ago and has over a million copies sold around the globe.
Sometimes knowing who you are comes with a price-tag. Michael lost a $300.000-a-year contract because a CEO hated the name of his company ‘Box of Crayons’. Instead of changing, he went looking for clients who loved it instead. We talked about what it costs to hold that line, and what happens when you stop making decisions to preserve a reputation almost nobody was tracking in the first place.
Links to learn more about Michael Bungay Stanier:
The Coaching Habit 10th Anniversary
LinkedIn
Newsletter
Podcast
YouTube
Website
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While working in Vietnam, the uni president, once told me I was getting away with a lot — working from home, teaching with comic books, skipping the standard slide show — because I was young, female, pretty, and white. As harsh as it might sound, I know my Vietnamese colleagues would indeed never have had the same latitude.
The freedom to show up unpolished isn't equally available. Sometimes is contextual. Sometimes we are born closer to that permission than others.
Maybe that's why it's been harder than I expected to find female guests for the podcast. Being unprofessional, in the corporate world, it's often a verdict. Putting your name next to a show celebrating not following the script might be risky.
This episode is me thinking out loud, as someone who still hasn't fully dropped the mask, about what it actually costs to be yourself at work and how to make this space safer for those who have more to lose
Links to learn more about me:
Website
LinkedIn
Substack
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If you miss the "workshops work" podcast, join us on Substack, where Myriam builds a Podcast Club with monthly gatherings around old episodes: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

Roi Ben-Yehuda was one dissertation away from finishing his PhD when he realised he didn't want what was waiting on the other side. He walked away. Then years later, settled into a good job he liked, with a new mortgage and two small babies at home, he felt that pull again and walked away from that too, right in the middle of a pandemic. 
Both times, the "thou shalt” voice telling him to stay on course was very loud. Both times, he ignored it. But the last one he gave himself nine months to make it work or face the consequences.
In less time than that, he built a company centred around the virtue behind his "unprofessionalism". One he believes to be the source of all virtues: courage. 
He even has a mathematical formula: courage = power x purpose ÷ dragons. The dragons are the doubt, the fear, the inner voice that tells you the risk isn't worth it. And his whole work is about shrinking them — not by ignoring them, but by naming them, auditing them, and asking one simple question: what is the cost of doing nothing?
He also makes the case that we celebrate courage only when it works out. And that this is exactly how companies train people out of trying.
Links to learn more about Roi Ben-Yehuda:
LinkedIn
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Leanne Hughes wrote the name of a podcast she didn’t have on a blue Post-it note, dropped it in a hat, and when her name was called — walked on stage and described the show as if it existed. It didn’t. A few months later, the First Time Facilitator was born. That’s also how she landed a Wiley publishing deal, and sold out a 50-person consulting conference in eight days.
The pattern is always the same: claim it first, build it second. Resourcefulness shows up after commitment, not before it. Waiting until you’re ready is the riskier move.
In this episode: why tight deadlines are a gift, what happens when you fuse your identity with your work, and why disliking failure and fearing it are two very different things.
Links to learn more about Leanne:
Website: https://www.leannehughes.com
Work Fame Substack: https://workfa.me
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leannehughes/
Instagram: https://www.youtube.com/@LeanneHughes
YouTube: https://www.instagram.com/leannehughes/
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If you miss the "workshops work" podcast, join us on Substack, where Myriam builds a Podcast Club with monthly gatherings around old episodes: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/

When Martin Frederik Garbers’ company was acquired, he was handed the unenviable job of letting twenty-five people go. His own days were numbered too, but he chose to spend them sitting through the hard conversations, one by one, as a human being first – a CFO second.
As he walked the Camino after redundancy, his body told him with every fibre of his being, that he wasn't going back to corporate life. Now he lights a candle in the early hours of the morning, takes executives for long walks in nature, and asks his coaching clients to slow down long enough to hear what their inner tutor would tell them.
We talk about why the unspoken rules often do the most damage, what gets buried when leaders aren't allowed to feel, and why two hours walking in nature will do far more for your business than a back-to-back calendar full of big, important meetings.
Links to learn more about Martin:
Linkedin
Website
Book
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If you miss the "workshops work" podcast, join us on Substack, where Myriam builds a Podcast Club with monthly gatherings around old episodes: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/