Hi everyone, welcome to Episode 157 of The Executive Edge with Naketa Ren Thigpen who is a balance and relationship advisor.

She trained in psychology, sociology, and anthropology as an undergraduate but went on to understand trauma and how this impacts us. Specifically, as a social worker. She understands human behaviour and wants to support people. She’s also found it helped her with her own relationships.

Naketa transitioned into running a personal development company although her primary speciality, that of managing trauma, is still where she supports people. 

So, we began to talk about how people can find balance in their lives and prioritise their relationships, because it’s so easy to let intimacy and time for our loved ones, slip when we are very busy.

Social work is a high burn out field when you consider how much she must have to work with troubles and sadness, but she understands this.

Her main aim is to create a ‘safe space’ for people to talk. This is something we can all do. So, she encourages people to work on tools to decompress before they go home, and to work on how to create calming environments once home.

What else did we discuss?

Emotional management is also a skill she teaches, and I can relate because so many of us need a bit of help with our anger or frustration before trying to connect with our family.

It’s otherwise too easy to let our tension out on our kids or random pieces of technology such as the television when it refuses to work at the worst time!

Often, we then blame ourselves and feel contrite at losing our temper yet the reality is stress is common and many of us need better tools rather than to feel we’re the issue!

Naketa talks about being ‘intentionally selfish’. She calls this ‘doing your own work’ so that you can find time and space to re-set. This may include time for yourself so that you get enough rest, take a nap, or allow extra time to travel, or time to connect with your team so that you delegate better.

Whatever it is, taking a strategic and planning approach pays off. She has written an excellent book called ‘Selfish’ permission to pause, love, live and laugh your way to joy’ which you can find on Amazon 

Our teams are often the solution to stress for a leader because we need them to be smart and productive. But, doing that with help from you as the leader, can be tiring. People vary so much in what they need from us. Self-care is important and often guilt gets in the way.

So, I hope you find this episode interesting and valuable. Naketa offered a great perspective and some really useful tips!