Really Useful Conversations

Welcome to the Really Useful Conversations podcast. My name is Andrea Newton, and I'm looking forward to sharing with you lots of practical tips, techniques, and insights to help you have conversations that matter. For the last 26 years, I've been helping organizations to develop the skill and competence to have seven significant conversations. And over the years, across many different industry sectors, I've seen how conversations can change organizations, how conversations develop relationships, increase results, improve standards, and even save lives. But I've also seen how, when a conversation is done badly or avoided completely, the negative impact that can have, even years later. And so we should never underestimate the importance of really useful conversations and the difference they can make. So please do subscribe and join me every week when I'll be sharing with you some very practical down to earth, no nonsense learning and advice so that you too can have conversations that matter.

What can we learn from a woman who took a wrong turn and had a bloke pull a gun on her, but eventually sorted and paid for a taxi to take her back to her hotel? Well, she might be a black belt in 4 Martial Arts, but she only ever went because her mate did, and she still cannot catch a bullet in her teeth - even though both her sons are stuntmen in the movies! This can only be the wonderful (and hilarious!) Heather Wright, talking to me about the session she will be running for us at "Actually, she can!" next February in Cheshire. Heather is a seasoned expert in neuropsychology and will help us delve into the science behind self-discovery to unblock our true potential. She promises and enlightening and inspiring speech where we can learn strategies to overcome the barriers to confidence and authenticity and build the "us" that we really want to be. At "Actually, she can!" Heather will be bringing the day to a close with valuable insights that blend science with personal empowerment and set us up to use the learning to break habits that no longer serve us and help us develop new habits that will help us to be the version of ourselves that we want to be. It promises to be a powerful conclusion to an amazing day, and if you haven't got your ticket yet, you really need to get a wiggle on before they sell out! ActuallySheCan.co.uk is a great place to check out the whole line up and follow the link to get your tickets but please, run don't walk! Time is ticking!

In a world where everything moves at pace and where twists and turns are around each corner, organisations who take care of their people and truly value and invest in wellbeing will triumph in this competitive labour market. Whether they are upskilling their managers to have conversations that matter about subjects such as mental health, wellbeing, menopause or investing in appointed persons as Wellbeing Champions or First Aiders for Mental Health, it is easy to understand why such organisations will be more attractive to potential employees and how they will retain talent and expertise from within. This week we have had menopause awareness day here in the UK and it's great to see organisations engaging in this - but will it be "business as usual" next week once the date on the calendar has passed?

In the most recent CIPD report it shares that sickness absence levels in the UK are currently at a 10 year high, and this is despite the number of organisations who now have appointed Wellbeing Managers and subscribe to various initiatives. Surely if all the employers who talk about the importance of wellbeing are doing these things, consistently and well, we should be seeing sickness absence figures drop? In this week's podcast episode I am exploring why this might indeed be the case and what businesses might need to have on their agenda for 2024 if they want to get, grow and retain staff, and have them rock up regularly, healthy and well, to do their job. Oh and by the way, Happy New Year!

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!"