 Gemma Bullivant recently featured on the The Live, Learn, Lead Podcast. The podcast series focussed on learning to lead, starting from within. Natalie shares tips on personal growth and the art of leadership alongside interviews with experienced leadership experts from around the world. The podcast series aims to inspire and grow the leader within the listeners so they can lead, inspire and empower others to do the same.
Episode 12 of the podcast focussed on all things grief. For anyone who is going through the process of grief or for people trying to support a friend or family member to feel safe and looked after during that time, this is the podcast for you. This blog is a transcript of the main points covered in the podcast.
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 Bereavement will understandably affect each individual differently. So why use one framework to support employees when there is no one size fits all approach when it comes to the death of a loved one?
The sudden death of my mum came at a time when I was a busy HRD managing a large international team whilst working daily with the CEO and board of directors. My manager was supportive from the beginning.  Traumatic change can impact anyone, both physically and emotionally. How people respond to this change can completely differ from person to person. With the ongoing pandemic hitting the UK, most organisations have had to adjust and adapt their ways in order to support employees to better cope with extreme change.
I recently took part in a London HR Connection webinar to discuss the complex issues of supporting employees through all types of traumatic change, including bereavement, redundancy, divorce and the emotional impact of all the changes we have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Before making a redundancy, you should consider the wellbeing of the redundant employee as well as the wider team. Not only will a redundancy impact their financial status, but it can also have a knock-on effect with those living with your employee, such as their friends, family or children.
 With the last few months bringing very little clarity and certainty, most businesses throughout the UK have been struggling to operate as usual. Unfortunately, some businesses have had to temporarily close, whilst others continue to struggle through the crisis and have been forced to make critical business decisions in order to stay operating.
On 20th March 2020, the Government announced the Job Retention Scheme to provide support for employers who have been experiencing difficulties in paying their members of staff during the crisis, with the scheme paying 80% of employee wages.  Workplace productivity brings a variety of benefits, such as profitability, employee morale and overall job satisfaction. Productivity is key and if your workforce is productive and dedicated to their work, the quality and quantity of their work will also improve. However, having a productive workforce is easier said than done, and it is an aspect that many businesses struggle with.
To improve productivity, we recommend that you should communicate effectively, assign and delegate carefully, train your employees, incentivise your employees and embrace positive results with a form of reward system.  Facing into the Coronavirus pandemic with very little clarity on the future, it is certainly feeling very unsettling. But as each of us focuses on the immediate daily practicalities of our own unique set of circumstances, it's worth also acknowledging that the emotions we are experiencing are much the same as those we associate with different types of grief and traumatic change.
Many of us are familiar with the Kubler-Ross change curve. While it is NOT a linear process (we will yo-yo randomly between some or all of these emotions at some point), it is a useful way to consider the variety of emotions we might be experiencing...  Self-limiting beliefs can be detrimental to your personal and professional development, as well as your self-confidence. They can hold you back from achieving goals and doing what you want. They become self-limiting because they prevent you from trying things or from reaching your full potential. Perhaps you’ve found yourself thinking some of the following:
So, where do they come from, and how can you tackle these ingrained beliefs that you have held onto for a long time?  The growing significance of the employer brand is one of the biggest drivers in HR’s shift from a support function to a key strategic player. In the 21st century, power dynamics between the marketer and the customer and the employee and the employer have shifted, driving accountability and creating a transparent workplace. Now that (thanks to social media) employee engagement is so visible, how can HR professionals future proof their strategy and adapt in order to recruit and retain the best people?
 As an HR leader, it can be tough to be excluded from meetings that you know you should be in, when you know that your role reaches and influences every part and aspect of the business.
How do you articulate the importance of the HR function, and how do you make sure the decision makers understand the value of its role? This article will help you to communicate the contribution of the HR team and why it is critical to involve HR at a strategic level to support the long-term business goals and outcomes of the strategic framework.  Seventeen days. That's how long they reckon it takes most people to ditch their resolutions and revert to old ways. Not long is it? Just over the length of a typical summer holiday, and we all know how quickly that passes by. Apparently 17 January is National Ditch NY Resolutions Day (who thinks these things up?!) Whatever the time of year, if ever you find your commitment halo slipping a bit, don’t beat yourself up. Instead, take a moment to step back, look at why that might be happening and establish a plan to address.  Do you want to actually achieve the New Year’s resolutions you make this year? Do you believe that we should learn from our mistakes? If so, you might need to rethink how you set your goals and your plan to achieve them.
If, like me, you find new year’s resolutions almost impossible to stick to, here are 3 simple steps to making more achievable new year’s resolutions…  Attending a networking opportunity and making the most of it are two very different things.
You score definite points for having the confidence to put yourself out there and showing up in the first place. But to make networking effective, you have to put some additional work in. It shouldn’t be arduous or like pulling teeth, but there is a certain art to networking in the right way. You want to present yourself well and make valuable connections. After all, it never hurts to have contacts in all the right places. So, here are my 5 best tips on how to make networking work for you.  Returning to the workforce from a career break is a daunting prospect in any field. But it can be especially daunting in HR when things are constantly changing and evolving.
There are any number of reasons you might have taken time away from your career. Perhaps you took a couple of years off to raise your children, complete some further study, or travel the world. But now you are ready to get stuck back into your HR career – where do you start? Let’s look at 5 practical steps you can take to get back into the HR swing.  Delegation plays an important part in maximising productivity. As a manager or leader, it can be difficult to begin delegating to members of your team. This could be due to a number of reasons. Perhaps you are concerned about burdening your team with more work, worried that the work won’t get done to your standards, or maybe you just don’t have the time to invest upfront to teach people what you want them to do.
Learning to delegate effectively can really help you and your business to thrive. It gives you back the time you need to focus your skills on the higher priority stuff, while your team gets a chance to develop and learn new things. But there is an art to it. Here is how great leaders use delegation effectively...  Why do some people experience more success than others?
They seem to streak ahead while you are stuck at the starting line. A lot of it comes down to holding onto beliefs that you have acquired over time, that limit your potential. In coaching terms, we call these ‘self-limiting beliefs’. And there are lots of these gremlins lurking in everyone’s subconscious. How do you identify them? Follow this simple three-step exercise.
 Many people would describe strengths and weaknesses as being polar opposites of each other. Some things you are ‘good’ at and some things you are ‘bad’ at, right?
Well actually, there is another way to look at this. There are substantiated theories that challenge this idea. They frame strength and weakness as two parts of the same thing. Strengths and weaknesses have also been described as ‘mirror images’ of one another. Before we look at how you can do that, let’s get a bit more context...  Setting yourself apart from your co-workers can be tricky, especially if you work for a large organisation. A personal brand in the workplace is essentially what people know you for.
Remember, you are your brand and you live it every day. It is your behaviour, your attitude, your skill set, your work history, the way you present yourself, and your social or professional connections. Having a positive and well-known personal brand could make all the difference when it comes to promotion time. If you are in the running for a promotion – or you want to be – building your personal brand is crucial. It’s time to give yourself some personal PR and build a personal brand to get ahead of the rest! Here are my thoughts on where to focus your attention  What happens when you have to stand up in front of a room full of people or give a board meeting presentation? Do your knees shake and your palms start to sweat? With all those eyes on you it can be hard to focus. Are you meant to picture your audience in their underwear? How on earth does that help anyway? Take comfort in the fact very few people escape the fear of public speaking. Some say as many as 75% of people have some form of phobia of it. Unfortunately, needing to give a presentation often come with the territory of a leadership role. And when you have an important presentation to get ready for, it is understandable that you might be a bit anxious or unsure where to start. Hopefully the following tips will help to get you ready for your next presentation:  How often do you get asked to after work drinks when you are the HR Director? I am willing to bet that the answer is… not very often!
How often do your colleagues (including the CEO) come and offload concerns and issues with you? In my experience, frequently. And yet who do you have to turn to as the HR Director shouldering these woes? |
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