One Heart at a Time: Angie's story of 'letting go'

Initially, Angie Clarke, a Field Training Manager at KFC Sydney, was a Heartstyles non-believer as she doubted whether it would have an impact on her and her leadership style. In the video, she shares how going through the programme gave her an insight into her leadership style which at the time was very much rooted in dominating and controlling behaviours. As an Australian, Angie admits to using sarcasm as part of her default communication style as this kind of humour is common in Australian culture so she worked on understanding these behaviours better and the actions that drove those behaviours at work and in her home life:

‘At work, your triggers are very clear, you know what they are. But at home it could be lack of sleep or someone else in your family is in a bad mood, so for me, it’s just being self-aware at home as well, asking myself ‘how does what I’m doing impact what’s going on around me?’ I feel like I’ve become more self-aware at home. My need for control resulted in my family being scared of me at some points. Things had to be done the ‘right’ way or in a specific way so I’ve been trying to focus on letting things go a little bit more at home.’

The programme has led her to let go of her desire for control and focus on the bigger picture; putting the theory into action: ‘If it’s something where I would normally think that it has to be done in a specific way but someone else has done it, the biggest thing for me at home is to just be grateful that they’ve done it rather than focusing on that’s not how I would do it.’

Angie has found that it’s been really important to take a step back every time she finds herself in a more controlling space than she’d like, whether she’s under pressure or has a lot going on. She now takes the time to apply her learnings across the board is more aware of how small changes can make a big difference:

‘What would I say to myself five years ago? I’d say don’t underestimate the little stuff. I think everyone, especially our restaurant managers, we’re all operators. We go in from a work point of view and we’re focused on work. So I think it’s important to think ‘big picture’ and use the Heartstyles learnings as life tools as opposed to just focusing on it from a work point of view.’

Angie thinks it’s also important to acknowledge the impact that the Heartstyles programme can have on people and prepare their team for the fact that the programme will lead them to face their fears and understand that while they might find the programme challenging, it will have a positive impact on their lives in the long run:

‘The programme can be a bit confronting at times. Even as a Champ, delivering the course, it’s confronting delivering feedback to people who are getting it for the first time. They’re getting feedback that they’re not 100% prepared to receive so it’s just being aware of that as well.’

This is why she encourages herself and her colleagues to acknowledge the behaviours that they want to change without forgetting about their strengths and keep an open mind about the whole experience:

‘Heartstyles is a learning curve every time. Every time you do it there’s something new that you’ll learn and at each level of the programme as well, they go in a little bit deeper but the basics are still the same and the principles are still the same, which I think is fantastic because that’s how you can truly embed a programme by not changing it at every level, it’s actually the same thing that you do the whole time, which I think is what’s working well for us.’