About Effective Challenge Podcast
productive, happy & well
The Effective Challenge podcast, hosted by Damian, offers real-world tools and ideas to improve your effectiveness. Drawing on his experience in practical delivery, academic study, and coaching, Damian shares actionable insights on productivity, resilience, and emotional intelligence.
Changes are coming for all of us, whether it's a restructure, a new job, or a mortgage decision. We plan, weigh the options and work out how to communicate, and yet something still feels off.
In this episode I argue that developing the habit of working a feeling out too quickly stops us hearing what it's telling us. There is information in the feeling, and when we leave it unheard it doesn't stay private. It shows up in how we lead change, and how we connect. I explain the difference between working a feeling out and listening to it, why the cleverest people are often the most likely to miss the information as they prioritise logic over emotion, and I provide a one-week experiment: catch the "because". Try it, and tell me what surprised you.
30 Sept 2026
ECP119 The Question Nobody Asked Me at 25
Somewhere right now, someone is beating themselves up over something that isn't even true. In this episode I explore how so many of us end up there.
We're all asked who we want to be when we grow up, and the answer almost always points outside us: a job, a qualification, a next step. That can be a useful north star, but it gives us nothing to check against how it actually feels.
I share my own story, from early career promotions where people told me how I must be feeling and I nodded along, to the point after the 2012 Olympics when I stopped and asked myself properly for the first time. I talk about why the recognition can feel so good, what happens when feelings that arrive from outside are withdrawn, and what changes when you ask how you want to feel instead. This approach isn't consequence free, and it isn't about giving up on achieving things. It's about creating the conditions where you don't need to beat yourself up to get there.
23 Sept 2026
ECP118 Overwhelmed? Slow the internal questions not the work
A listener wrote in feeling overwhelmed by everything on their plate. Most 'advice' starts with the to-do list, priorities, urgency, a 2x2 matrix. I want to start somewhere different: with the body, and the voice that runs underneath the overwhelm. I share what came up when I sat with that feeling myself, it wasn't what I expected and it led me to a distinction that changed how I work: to this day. Tt often isn't the workload creating the pressure, it's the questions we're asking ourselves about it. I walk through what I found, why I didn't land on one "right" interpretation, and an experiment you can try next time overwhelm hits. Importantly before you touch the to-do list.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Spotify
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 24 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
36
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
32
Contact Effective Challenge Podcast
productive, happy & well
Guest appearances
Does not typically book guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of Effective Challenge Podcast
productive, happy & well?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
