Ep 101 – Mental Wellbeing for High-Flying Corporate Women, with guest Sharon Ponniah

How does working in a high-achieving culture affect you? Let’s talk about the proactive steps you can take to protect your wellbeing at work…

 

My guest today is Sharon Ponniah, a public health and policy specialist and Health & Wellbeing Lead at PwC.

Working in a high-achieving culture can be exhausting and operating with a constant heightened sense of emotion isn’t sustainable…

So how do you protect your well-being whilst also keeping up with the pace and delivering results for your company?

In this episode…

• Sharon talks about how to escalate your wellbeing concerns if necessary
• How to identify stress levels and recognise the physiological and emotional symptoms of fatigue
• The value of ‘circuit breakers’, to have a break from conversations (and people!) and to encourage objectivity
• Seeking out alternative solutions to a problem, when current options feel limited
• The essential ingredient of an effective culture: inclusive practices

Sharon says:

For everyone in a corporate environment psychological safety, fatigue and stress are all prevalent. A bit of cortisol is fine but you can’t exist in a heightened state of emotion all the time because when you do, you can’t process things properly.”   (Sharon Ponniah, Partner PwC, guest on Her Ambitious Career podcast)

 

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Links:

• Get Rebecca’s MUST-HAVE Guide: ‘The 7 Habits of Female Execs Who Get Promoted’
• Here is another ep you might like:  Are Your Boundaries Weak? How to Start Setting Boundaries That Stick
• And this:  High Achiever? Why Not Try Underachieving for a Change?
• And: 3 Ways to Be More Self-Kind to Build Rock Solid Self-Worth
• Listen to this too:   Overloaded, Burned Out and ‘Failing’? You’re Not Alone
• Hear From Rebecca’s Client Jaime to Learn The Benefits of Executive Coaching
• See all podcast episodes

 

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About Sharon:

Dr Sharon Ponniah is a public health and policy specialist and has worked in both public and private sectors managing research, evaluation and population health programs at State and National level in Australia and New Zealand.

She has held roles with the Ministry of Health New Zealand, worked for large Crown Entities and the George Institute for Global Health before entering consulting. With a PhD in public health, she is a published academic and continues to review NHMRC grants for public health and policy.

Sharon’s career has been driven by a passion to reduce inequity, increase sustainability and impact social agendas.

Sharon is a Partner at PwC and is part of their Future of Work team, exploring the impacts of mental health and wellbeing from hybrid working. She helped Liz Broderick and the team at Champions of Change Coalition establish the first health group to drive gender equality across the industry and continues in this role as a Special Advisor. She is also a Board Director for Lifeline Australia.

She is a mother of two, of Indian Heritage, with a strong connection to country and place in New Zealand, having grown up in Wellington.

About Rebecca:

Hi, I’m Rebecca Allen and I’m an Executive Coach and Personal Brand expert for corporate women, aspiring to senior levels of leadership. I absolutely LOVE coaching and seeing my fabulous clients exceed their own expectations. I’ve worked for 12 years now as a coach and have helped women at companies including Woolworths, ANZ, J.P. Morgan, PwC, Coca-Cola Amatil, Ministry of Defence and Coles. I live for those phone calls from clients, jumping up and down, telling me they’ve got that promotion, negotiated a seismic pay rise or have moved into a role completely aligned with their mission, values and strengths. I’m a working mum of two wonderful children, adore travel and trying my hand at anything creative. I’d love to connect with you!