Understanding Our People By First Understanding Loss and the Self, with Karen Chaston

Business Habitat with Sam Dean

In Episode 112 of The Business Habitat podcast, Sam is joined by International best-selling author, speaker and Beyond Loss Expert, Karen Chaston, to talk about understanding loss, the self, and how we can benefit from looking after ourselves first. In this inspiring and through-provoking conversation, Karen shares how a family tragedy was the catalyst for her own journey of self-discovery and the realisation of how few people really understand loss and how to move forward with it. As CFO of a publicly listed company, Karen knew that she was outwardly successful. She had the great salary, the house, the car, the family, and to the casual observer she seemed to have it all. But she was dying inside. She wanted to create a life that she loved, that she felt excited to wake up to every morning. Like so many others, Karen pushed down her feelings of dissatisfaction and compensated with avoidance tactics - too much shopping, too much eating and drinking, too much working - until something happened that changed her life forever. In this deeply personal account, Karen shares how the tragic loss of her 27 year old son in 2011 sent her into a tailspin that challenged every aspect of her life, before leading her to an epiphany and the realisation of her true passion and purpose. Over the course of the last eight years, Karen has come to appreciate how few people truly understand loss and the impact it can have in our lives. In this conversation, Karen explains that the loss of a loved one is not the only type of loss that we are likely to experience in our lifetime. There are more than forty different types of loss, including separation, divorce, financial and perhaps the most debilitating of all, loss of our own identity. Sam and Karen explore how the lack of "loss intelligence" in our society causes flow-on effects in leadership effectiveness, whether it be leadership of our teams, or more importantly, leadership of ourselves. Karen has written multiple books on the topic, most notably the best-selling "Demystifying Loss", and through her business "The Chaston Centre" works with businesses to build stronger team dynamics through improved understanding of their people. Throughout this conversation, Sam and Karen encourage each of us to look deep within, so that we may move past the constant need to merely survive and find the way to thrive. Here at BlueprintHQ, we are here to help. We are super passionate about the professional services industry and supporting you with what you need. We are offering a 30 minute consultation call to help you with this process. Go to https://www.blueprinthq.com.au/consultation