Really Useful Conversations

Menopause isn’t just hot flushes and night sweats - in fact the majority of women report that the cognitive, emotional and psychological symptoms are often far more debilitating. Anxiety, depression, lingering sadness and even an increased risk of suicidal thoughts. This is a Really Useful Conversation we need to be having and information that needs to be better known and understood. If you’re a Well-being Champion or First Aider for Mental Health, or an MHFA trained person, this is an episode you really do need to tune into and perhaps consider the add-on learning module too.

If you are a manager or leader, self-awareness and the impact that you have is critical to success. So if I asked you the question "Does the room light up when you enter or when you leave?" - what would YOU say and more importantly, what would your PEOPLE say? As a manager or leader your style and behaviour is the single biggest influence on the performance of your team and can affect levels of motivation, engagement, performance, attendance even staff retention (or not!) So much of what YOU do and how YOU behave will impact that – positively or negatively. This brisk and pacy episode is an opportunity for that all important mirror-moment amongst the busy-ness of business to give you chance to consider “Am I doing all the right things?” and consider whether your intentions are delivering the impact and outcome you desire, or whether there are things that you might choose to do differently. I hope you will find it useful as a reflection and to increase self-awareness, it might even inspire a conversation with your team where you ask them for some feedback too!"

We know that if conflict arises in the workplace it can cause stress, tension, anxiety. Relationships can be damaged, grievances raised, performance dips and the atmosphere affected. We also know that the longer issues are left and not tackled, the wider and the more difficult the problem becomes. Sometimes both parties get so stuck in their own perspective of the issue that it feels like there is nowhere to go - and people can even fall out over a banana! Our interview with Pete Colby, expert mediator and trainer, from Pragmatism UK, helps us understand the issues, how mediation can help and when we need to use it - if we want to minimise stress, time lost and significant cost to the business. Contact Pete via his website

I never intended to be away from podcast land for so long but projects, work, life got in the way - but I am delighted to be back, bringing more opportunities for people to get comfortable with the uncomfortable and have conversations that matter. I believe there are Seven Significant Conversations that all managers, leaders and business owners need to be able to have yet we sometimes shy away from them, avoid difficult or challenging conversations, sweep sensitive subjects under the carpet - and this series is all about putting your big girl pants on and saying what needs to be said! In a way that is appropriate and achieves the desired outcome, of course!

If you are looking for ways in which to make sure your business has long-term sustainable success and you recognise the importance of a diverse and inclusive workplace that allows your people to flourish and thrive, then you will want to tune into this week’s podcast. My conversation with Toby Mildon, Diversity and Inclusion Architect, and author of “Inclusive Growth” is all about how he helps his clients to strategically align diversity and inclusion to organisational growth, change the culture and motivate senior leaders to ‘walk the talk’ for inclusivity, He helps clients to design and implement a sustainable inclusivity infrastructure so that it is not just a HR responsibility, and in our conversation we explore why this matters and the first steps to get you moving in the right direction. You can find out more about Toby and the work that he does around this important topic at and his book “Inclusive Growth” is available from all good book sellers! I hope you will enjoy our conversation and that you will also consider joining me on 22nd May to “Mind the Gap – the difference between Intention and Impact” – full details at Hope to see you there!