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Dr Bonnie Haden Cheng is an Organisational Psychologist, Associate Professor of Management and MBA programme director at the Hong Kong University Business school.

Bonnie is super passionate about corporate wellness and holds a unique position designing and implementing cutting edge, research backed solutions to help companies deliver impact on real world challenges to create awesome corporate cultures where people thrive.

Her research is dedicated to helping employees achieve and maintain wellbeing in the workplace. This includes understanding how and when workplace anxiety can enhance performance, recovering from daily job demands and maintaining proactivity in the workplace.

Bonnie’s body of work is really about bringing humanity back into the workplace. And so if you find that you can’t bring your humaneness to work, and you struggle with your mental health, your leadership style, and you’re not sure how to best show up at work, then this episode is for you.

In this week’s episode of The Aligned Achiever Podcast with Bonnie Cheng, Bonnie shares more about the return of kindness, why kindness matters, her journey to becoming an Organisational Psychologist, and focussing on a core purpose and passion to navigate your career journey.

The middle of 2024 is fast approaching and whether you feel like everything is going to plan or if you feel like you need to hit reset, this is for you.

It’s not unusual to look back on 3, 6 or 12 months and realise that somewhere along the way life happened and you feel like you haven’t gotten a whole lot closer to achieving your goals, or that things seem to be taking much longer than anticipated.

Whether this relates to your career goals or life goals, putting aside some time to reflect and review is a critical step in getting back on track to making your goals a reality.

In this week’s episode of The Aligned Achiever Podcast, I’m sharing 4 simple questions that you can use to guide your own mid-year review and get back on track with your goals and intentions.

Have you ever had to deal with a “bad” boss, a challenging work culture or felt like you’re not sure if you’re in the right place to work anymore? This thinking is something that a lot of us struggle with (past me included).When you’re in a toxic work environment, we often feel like we can fix the situation on our own if only we could do more. In reality this usually doesn’t work and we end up leaving or being let go which we can take very personally because our identity is tied up in our career. Not only is it draining when you’re stuck in an environment that doesn’t work for you, but company culture impacts our mental health, can result in physical pain and memory problems to name a few .There are some things that you can do to take care of yourself if you’re not in a position to leave right away. In this week’s episode of The Aligned Achiever Podcast, I’m sharing why it’s so important that we talk about terrible bosses and toxic workplace culture and 4 things that are in your control in these situations, as well as how you can handle a painful ending to a job.

Health and fitness matters…we all know that. Multiple studies speak to not just the physical benefits but the mental and emotional ones too. And yet finding the time and motivation to get healthy can be hard. Especially when you’re busy doing all the things at work and at home.

Personally, figuring out a routine to stay healthy and fit has been a journey. I’ve transitioned from team sports (netball) in my twenties and early thirties to needing to shift things up to do something else that fits in around my life with 3 kids and a business to run.

The answer for me was joining a female specific gym: Pherform (here in Hong Kong). My routine has become so much easier after joining a supportive gym environment, focusing on strength training and getting coaching to help me along the way. Not only do I feel physically strong, I feel the effects it’s had on my personal growth, self-awareness, confidence and habits in other areas of my life.

The woman behind Pherform is Steph Poelman.

Have you ever made yourself wrong for being too emotional or sensitive at work?

Maybe you’ve had a difficult conversation, faced a micro-aggression or frozen on the spot…

In your mind you want to let things go but physically you find yourself unable to release the residual emotions that are there?

Emotional dexterity is the capacity to effectively recognise, understand and manage a wider range of emotions both within yourself and in others.

If you’re feeling disconnected from your emotions or your body, or perhaps you’re stuck in your head overthinking or in analysis paralysis, or even if you simply identify with being quite a sensitive person then emotional dexterity is a really important skill for you.

The skill of emotional dexterity is a complex one that encompasses empathy, emotional intelligence and the capability to maintain composure and make thoughtful decisions amidst challenging circumstances.

In this week’s episode of The Aligned Achiever Podcast, I’m sharing all about emotional dexterity and why it’s important for you, as an individual to develop and why I encourage organisations to foster environments where emotional intelligence and psychological safety are a given. I also share how you can start to build emotional dexterity to reap the benefits.

We’re not taught at school how to think about our careers, or even the importance of taking the time to get to know ourselves.

To me, this is a foundational skill that is overlooked until we’re out in the workforce feeling overwhelmed trying to balance our passion and what makes us feel connected alongside the practical components of our career, like financial stability.
This intersection is what I like to refer to as the career sweet spot.

The intersection between passion and practicality that works for you.

If you’re feeling disconnected in your current role, unsure of your next steps or if you feel like you’ve been self-sabotaging and making things harder than they need to be in your career and need a path to feel good again, I’ve got you covered.

In this week’s episode of The Aligned Achiever Podcast, I’m sharing with you the 6 core elements that are required for you to build a roadmap that directs you towards your unique career sweet spot and the 5 steps you can take to step out of the confusion and overwhelm and dealing with your inner critic.

Is the goal to always be productive?

Always being “on” and maximising our productivity sounds good in theory. Like it’s the right strategy that will get you closer to your end goal faster.

The reality is very different though.

We’re human. We need rest. Our brains have a finite attention span and ability to focus.

With that in mind, it’s important for all of us to be aware of what season we’re in. Whether that’s growth, a bit more work/life integration or reinvention. In this way we can ensure that we’re getting the rest we need and being purposefully productive.

In this week’s episode of The Aligned Achiever Podcast, I’m running through a playbook so that you can manage your stress and optimise your energy by beginning with understanding the season of life that you’re in.

If you’re like many of my clients, then I know you have the endurance to keep on pushing through, but I also know that pushing too hard for too long can come back to bite you in the form of burnout. I don’t want that for you, and I’m sure that’s not the outcome you want either. If you’ve been finding yourself juggling a million and one balls in the air, and you’re starting to drop one here or there or maybe you’re at the point that you’re struggling to keep any of them in the air – then you’re not alone. There are reasons that this is happening to you and there are ways that you can reflect and uncover what it is that is holding you back from achieving the life you want – without having to constantly feel overwhelmed and on the edge. These reasons often come from our subconscious programming, and things that we’ve internalised from society about what reasonable expectations are or what success looks like. Ready to uncover yours? In this week’s episode of The Aligned Achiever Podcast, I share the 3 ways that I see high-achieving women making work and life way harder than it needs to be so that you can start to get on the front foot in your life.
It’s easy to feel trapped in our beliefs that we’re failing if we’re not doing enough.

We run a real risk of burning ourselves out if we don’t take a step back to ask whether the standards or expectations we are putting on ourselves are realistic.

Burnout is a silent societal epidemic that we need to address because it robs us of our passion, energy and joy, leaving us feeling exhausted, overwhelmed and disillusioned.

Burnout is so much more than simply feeling tired or stressed. It can have serious consequences on our physical, mental and emotional health even if we don’t realise it during the moment.

In this week’s episode, I discuss the five reasons why we need to address burnout and the actions you can start putting in place today to help you thrive in a culture of overworking.

In a world where hustle culture is glorified and even rewarded, burnout has become an all too familiar companion for many people.

It’s easy to feel trapped in our beliefs that we’re failing if we’re not doing enough.

We run a real risk of burning ourselves out if we don’t take a step back to ask whether the standards or expectations we are putting on ourselves are realistic.

Burnout is a silent societal epidemic that we need to address because it robs us of our passion, energy and joy, leaving us feeling exhausted, overwhelmed and disillusioned.

Burnout is so much more than simply feeling tired or stressed. It can have serious consequences on our physical, mental and emotional health even if we don’t realise it during the moment.

In this week’s episode, I discuss the five reasons why we need to address burnout and the actions you can start putting in place today to help you thrive in a culture of overworking.