In Episode 9 of the Leadership and Wellbeing podcast, Hayden Fricke had the privilege of speaking with Nick McDonald, CEO of Prestige Inhome Care, about his journey of using cognitive psychology to develop self-belief and transform his leadership style. With over 25 years of experience leading a team of 700, Nick’s story is an inspiring testament to the power of mindset, resilience, and growth.

Overcoming Self-Doubt

Despite his success, Nick initially struggled with self-doubt, particularly regarding his capabilities as a leader. His background in nursing led him to question his worthiness to lead a multi-million-dollar business. This lack of self-efficacy—the belief in one’s ability to succeed at a specific task—posed significant challenges. Nick’s journey underscores the distinction between self-worth, self-confidence, and self-efficacy, highlighting the importance of addressing limiting beliefs.

The Role of Cognitive Psychology

Nick’s transformation was guided by principles of cognitive psychology. Leveraging frameworks such as Albert Ellis’ Rational Emotive Therapy (RET), Nick learned to identify and challenge unhelpful thoughts. RET posits that emotions are shaped by our beliefs about events rather than the events themselves. By reframing negative self-talk, Nick reduced anxiety and built a healthier mindset.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) also played a crucial role, teaching Nick to acknowledge and let go of unhelpful thoughts without judgment. These tools enabled him to shift focus from self-doubt to actionable growth, fostering a more positive outlook.

Balancing Professional and Personal Life

At a pivotal point in his life, Nick realized the need to balance his professional responsibilities with his personal wellbeing. He implemented strategies to set boundaries, such as turning off his phone during family time and engaging in activities that brought him joy. These efforts aligned with the Effort Recovery Model by Meijman and Mulder, which emphasizes the importance of psychological detachment from work to maintain emotional and physical energy.

Lessons from Episode 10: Self-Belief as a Superpower

In Episode 10, we reflected on Nick’s journey and explored the broader implications of self-belief for leaders. Using frameworks like the ABC Model (Activating Event, Belief, Consequence), leaders can better understand how their thoughts impact their emotions and actions. Additionally, Jonathan Haidt’s “Elephant and Rider” metaphor provides insights into managing the interplay between emotional and rational decision-making.
Nick also embraced the GROW model (Goals, Reality, Options, Will), which empowered him to coach his team effectively. By setting clear goals and exploring actionable solutions, Nick cultivated a high-performing team rooted in trust and psychological safety.

Key Takeaways for Leaders

  1. Challenge Limiting Beliefs: Use cognitive psychology tools to identify and reframe unhelpful thoughts.
  2. Foster Self-Belief: Build confidence through small, deliberate actions that align with your values and goals.
  3. Balance Work and Life: Prioritise activities that promote recovery and detachment from work-related stress.
  4. Develop Your Team: Apply coaching frameworks like GROW to empower and support your team’s growth.
  5. Embrace Vulnerability: Acknowledge challenges openly to build trust and authenticity within your organization.

Why This Matters

Nick’s journey offers valuable lessons for leaders at all levels. Whether you’re navigating self-doubt or striving to enhance team performance, these insights provide practical strategies for personal and professional growth. Leaders like Andrew, Simone, and Alex can draw on these lessons to foster resilience, drive engagement, and lead with purpose.
For more inspiration, tune in to Episodes 9 and 10 of the Leadership and Wellbeing podcast. Discover how cognitive psychology can transform your mindset and unlock your potential as a leader.

Connect with Hayden:

In Episode 9 of the Leadership and Wellbeing podcast, Hayden Fricke had the privilege of speaking with Nick McDonald, CEO of Prestige Inhome Care, about his journey of using cognitive psychology to develop self-belief and transform his leadership style. With over 25 years of experience leading a team of 700, Nick’s story is an inspiring testament to the power of mindset, resilience, and growth.

Overcoming Self-Doubt

Despite his success, Nick initially struggled with self-doubt, particularly regarding his capabilities as a leader. His background in nursing led him to question his worthiness in leading a multi-million-dollar business. This lack of self-efficacy—the belief in one’s ability to succeed at a specific task—posed significant challenges. Nick’s journey underscores the distinction between self-worth, self-confidence, and self-efficacy, highlighting the importance of addressing limiting beliefs.

The Role of Cognitive Psychology

Nick’s transformation was guided by the principles of cognitive psychology. Leveraging frameworks such as Albert Ellis’ Rational Emotive Therapy (RET), Nick learned to identify and challenge unhelpful thoughts. RET posits that emotions are shaped by our beliefs about events rather than the events themselves. By reframing negative self-talk, Nick reduced anxiety and built a healthier mindset.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) also played a crucial role, teaching Nick to acknowledge and let go of unhelpful thoughts without judgment. These tools enabled him to shift focus from self-doubt to actionable growth, fostering a more positive outlook.

Balancing Professional and Personal Life

At a pivotal point in his life, Nick realized the need to balance his professional responsibilities with his personal wellbeing. He implemented strategies to set boundaries, such as turning off his phone during family time and engaging in activities that brought him joy. These efforts aligned with the Effort Recovery Model by Meijman and Mulder, which emphasizes the importance of psychological detachment from work to maintain emotional and physical energy.

Lessons from Episode 10: Self-Belief as a Superpower

In Episode 10, we reflected on Nick’s journey and explored the broader implications of self-belief for leaders. Using frameworks like the ABC Model (Activating Event, Belief, Consequence), leaders can better understand how their thoughts impact their emotions and actions. Additionally, Jonathan Haidt’s “Elephant and Rider” metaphor provides insights into managing the interplay between emotional and rational decision-making.

Nick also embraced the GROW model (Goals, Reality, Options, Will), which empowered him to coach his team effectively. By setting clear goals and exploring actionable solutions, Nick cultivated a high-performing team rooted in trust and psychological safety.

Key Takeaways for Leaders

  1. Challenge Limiting Beliefs: Use cognitive psychology tools to identify and reframe unhelpful thoughts.
  2. Foster Self-Belief: Build confidence through small, deliberate actions that align with your values and goals.
  3. Balance Work and Life: Prioritize activities that promote recovery and detachment from work-related stress.
  4. Develop Your Team: Apply coaching frameworks like GROW to empower and support your team’s growth.
  5. Embrace Vulnerability: Acknowledge challenges openly to build trust and authenticity within your organization.

Why This Matters

Nick’s journey offers valuable lessons for leaders at all levels. Whether you’re navigating self-doubt or striving to enhance team performance, these insights provide practical strategies for personal and professional growth. Leaders can draw on these lessons to foster resilience, drive engagement, and lead with purpose.

Take the Next Step

For more inspiration, tune in to Episodes 9 and 10 of the Leadership and Wellbeing podcast. Discover how cognitive psychology can transform your mindset and unlock your potential as a leader.


Connect with Hayden:

Recently I was honoured to sit down with Nick McDonald, the CEO of Prestige In-home Care, to discuss the power of using cognitive psychology to develop and enhance self-belief as a leader. Nick Leads a team of 700 people, providing industry leading care services to Australians across New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, and has over 25 years of experience in the industry. Nick holds a Bachelor of nursing, a Graduate Diploma in Children’s Nursing, and a Master of Business Administration.

In our conversation, Nick shares his personal journey of growth and transformation, highlighting the challenges he faced in growing his business

and the strategies he employed to overcome them. From battling low self-confidence and anxiety to finding balance in his personal and professional life, Nick’s story serves as an inspiration for leaders seeking to enhance their own wellbeing and lead with purpose.

One of the key themes that emerges from Nick’s story is the courage to confront and overcome his self-doubt as a leader of a successful business. Despite his success as a CEO and the growth of his business, Nick initially struggled with a lack of confidence in his abilities. This was fascinating, particularly because Nick is generally a confident person and yet his belief in himself as a leader of a big business was a specific area where he lacked confidence. He shares how his previous career as a nurse made him feel like he wasn’t worthy of his title, despite the company turning over millions.

It is worth pausing to understand a few key terms here. I often like to think of three or four elements in this ‘confidence’ equation. At a high level,we have the concept of ‘self-worth’. This is a more general belief that you are a good person. It is about whether you value yourself. That is, do you believe you are worthy as a human being? This is similar to the concept of ‘self-esteem’, which is the ability to succeed and thrive in life normally. It is how you feel about yourself generally. This is different from ‘self-confidence’, which is a general belief in your abilities and skills. A narrower concept is known as self-efficacy (a concept discussed by Albert Bandura in his book Self-Efficacy: The Exercise in Control) which is the belief in your capability to perform a specific task such as playing tennis. Moreover, it is the belief that you have the capacity and skills to achieve a particular goal. With this understanding, Nick’s issues related a little bit to his confidence and more about his self-efficacy in relation to being a leader of a business. This lower level of self-efficacy no doubt related to his view of himself as a nurse who happened to be successful at establishing and running a multi-million-dollar company.

As a client of mine engaging in coaching strategies, Nick was able to challenge these limiting beliefs and recognise his own value as a leader. We discuss his transformation from feeling deeply inadequate to being confident in the value has to offer in episode 9 of the Leadership & Wellbeing Podcast.

One crucial element that supported Nick’s journey towards self-belief, confidence, and efficacy were the principles of cognitive psychology. By understanding the connection between thoughts and emotions, we’re able to reframe our mindset, rewire our brains and cultivate a more positive outlook. A widely used framework within cognitive psychology originated from Albert Ellis in the mid-1950s is known as Rational Emotive Therapy. Essentially this form of therapy posits that the way we feel (e.g. anxious) is mostly influenced by the way we think. If we want to feel better, instead of trying to change the situation, we need to learn to modify our thoughts about the circumstances. For example, if we are feeling anxious just prior to public speaking, we need to understand that it is not the public speaking event that is causing our anxiety but rather our thoughts about this that cause the emotional response. This could be thoughts like “what if I forget what to say? Or what if they don’t like me? Or I’m not interesting and I’ve got nothing of significance to say”. This type of self-talk can create unnecessary anxiety. Cognitive psychology approaches typically help people to change the unhelpful thoughts that we all have. Another form of cognitive psychology is known as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Essentially ACT doesn’t aim to change your thinking but rather to be more aware of your thoughts and let go of the unhelpful ones. Nick successfully challenged his negative thoughts and moved through the anxiety he suffered.

Coming to a point in his life where he struggled to be mentally or emotionally present with his children, Nick recognised the need to balance his professional responsibilities with his personal wellbeing and family life. He shared the strategies he implemented, including setting boundaries with work, turning off his phone during family time, and engaging in activities that brought him joy and relaxation. We used a framework by Meijman and Mulder (1998) known as the ‘Effort Recovery’ model to help Nick think about the areas where he could focus on to recover from his intense periods of effort on a daily and weekly basis. He learned that finding ways to psychologically detach from work is a crucial aspect to emotional recovery daily. Also, participating in activities that provide you with a sense of mastery and engagement helps to recover because these activities mean that you are not thinking about any of your worries from the day. Furthermore, finding ways to relax in the evenings and throughout the day helps us to recharge our batteries to sustain higher levels of performance. This could include meditation techniques or simply listening to relaxing music whilst lying on the couch.

Nick’s humility, willingness to be vulnerable and desire to open himself up to learning to be a better business leader and to enhance his own wellbeing is truly inspiring for those wanting to find balance and wellbeing in their life and work. His success as a high performing leader is testament to his courage in facing the various and inevitable roadblocks of life.

 

Listen to the full podcast: https://haydenfricke.com/leadership-and-wellbeing-podcast/

Connect with Hayden:

Websites:
– 
https://haydenfricke.com/
– https://www.steople.com.au/
– APS College of Organisational Psychologists

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayden-fricke/