Tag: Management

How To Be #Assertive And Enjoy Your Weekend

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No one wants their supervisor or Big Boss to take liberties.

You can protect your free time by saying No and offering an alternative suggestion to get the job done.

That’s true, even if you are new to the team and the Big Boss wants you to work over the weekend, to meet an unexpected but high priority target.

It doesn’t matter whether you and your family want to enjoy the #Coronation events, or go and see your team #play, you can say No to work unscheduled requests.

If in any doubt check with your supervisor about the policy on working in your free time.

How To Be A Better Manager When It Comes To #Diversity

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Story time – How We Can Manage Diverse Relationships Better By Listening

The first step to managing in diverse spaces involves listening.

If we know the people around us well enough, we can tell when something isn’t right.

That’s when we can step up and ask how are things going?

Showing we are ready to listen and to support goes a long way to improving tricky situations.

The story in the video shows how this principle works in the real world.

Why not share what works for you when you manage diversity in your team (and don’t forget to leave a Like on the video)!

Managing #Diversity Means Improving Results

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My latest YouTube video to help you think about how to achieve a Simpler Life

Diverse leadership produces great results. That isn’t a slogan, experience tells me that’s true.

For instance, when I led an initiative to improve engagement with local educational, health and environmental opportunities it was brilliant to draw on the wisdom from project workers who weren’t all the same.

Tapping into the minds of people of different ages, faith backgrounds, sexualities, and social classes made a difference.

Having many voices in the conversation, offering different perspectives, kept the ideas flowing and the creative solutions coming.

The result? A successful set of outcomes, within a tight timeframe, which improved on previous results and achieved greater value for money.

Who could argue against better results?

If you want to start thinking about the advantages of diversity for your team, network or service users you can check out the video.

Feel free to leave a Like, or Comment and check back for more ideas later on.   

What Are The 3 Key #Leadership Strengths?

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Let’s hear it for the leaders!

They are the ones who inspire others to try their best, even in tough times.

If you work for long enough, you will see examples of Good, Indifferent and Poor leadership.

Judging by the personal development conversations I’ve had, over time, people like being led by:

Human beings, not controlling by-the-book types.

People who can smile, even after the plan goes wrong.

Bosses who want their teams to learn from what went wrong. Then try again.

So, who is the best leader you have come across? Which of the three qualities in the YouTube video below did they get right?

https://youtu.be/GEaKgLEdDLY

(Don’t forget to Like and Subscribe).

How To Use Out of Office To Keep #CustomerRelationships Healthy

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I hope you get to enjoy your well-deserved rest and relaxation this summer. Remember though that our out-of-office messages can help build good relationships with service users and make our life simpler.

Here are 3 lessons I’ve learnt over time, that have helped keep contacts updated (the ideas expand on themes in the video above). It is important to:

  • Identify who will engage with incoming messages, so contacts can stay connected
  • Make sure that colleague has the capacity to manage incoming email
  • Say who will manage email, in the absence of the alternative contact

Making time to manage our contacts in this way should help simplify our life and keep our relationships healthy.

Feel free to Like, Share and Comment if this reminder is useful (and Subscribe to the YouTube channel for more ideas to simplify your life)!

3 Tips For Improving Your Next Zoom or Teams Call

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Joining A Zoom Or Teams Call – Photo by ANTONI SHKRABA: via http://www.pexels.com

Like it, or not, the Covid pandemic has changed the way we communicate. I mean, how many of us had regularly used Zoom or Teams before 2020?

We learnt a lot about videoconferencing software can do (and what its limitations are, especially for users with disabilities).

However, one of my main take-aways is pretty simple, it involves being camera-aware.

No one is saying we should all be as skilled as a television presenter, but now and again you see people being interviewed and blunting their message, due to their camera technique.

Here are my 3 favourite tips:

  • Make use of daylight – ideally use morning or late afternoon rather harsh noon light
  • Speak at eye level – this is a natural way to engage and to avoid up the nostril shots
  • Avoid the built-in Microphone – A clip on microphone, or one attached to earphones will cut down unwanted sounds from the surroundings.

What is your video call secret?

Public Health: What Problems Are #Preventable ?

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Cover – Preventable How a Pandemic Changed the World & How to Stop the Next One by Devi Sridhar

Mental health charity Mind says spending time in nature is good for our mental health.

And they are right.

Being outdoors means: slowing down; breathing deep and feeling the sun on your face.

How many office-based headaches, neighbourhood tensions, or bereavement blues could be lessened by some outdoors therapy?

Of course it is privilege to simply take a long walk outdoors, after months of lockdown. But it is a privilege that 174,000 British people can never again enjoy (they are the ones who have died of Coronavirus since March 2020).

There is a story behind each of those deaths, whether they happened at home; in a hospital ward; or in a care setting.

Many deaths will have been preventable, had there been more inspired public health leadership in place, before the pandemic arrived.

No one can say for sure how many lives might have been saved if hospital patients had been tested before returning to their care homes, (or if there had been effective protective rings around those homes).

In her new book (cover shown above) Professor Devi Sridhar does ask some searching public health questions about how society can be reimagined to help reduce the impact on society of future pandemics. Taking action now might reduce the number of parents, friends and neighbours we lose in the next pandemic, whenever it occurs.

Take a look at her book, it is worth your time.

What Happens When We #ChooseToChallenge ?

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A Black Woman Working In A Laboratory
Picture credit CDC at Unsplash.Com : Women Work In Science Technology Engineering Mathematics

My Mum and Women like her lived through incredible times

During the late 1960s and early 1970s the Race Relations Act and the Equal Pay Act arrived.

Legislation meant that Black women could not be excluded from the job market by employers.

 Which meant access to greater job choice.

Jobs with prospects.

Jobs which paid Women equally for their labour.

These changes didn’t happen by chance. They didn’t make everything perfect.

They did come about because Women and Men chose to challenge inequality.

Great journeys begin with the first important step.

Happy International Women’s Day!

(Picture credit CDC at Unsplash.Com)

What Do You Want From #2021 (And Who Stands In Your Way) ?

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(Feel free to like and share if you enjoy this post)

This is the time of year when we make changes. Getting healthier; making savings grow; changing our job: these all feature on people’s To Do lists.   

Maybe you made a 2021 Resolution yourself (if so, how is it going)?

The hardest part of making change happen is taking a first step, having stood still for a while (weeks / months / even years).

The biggest obstacle to getting started can be other people, especially when they are important or influential figures in our lives. There are ways around people who want to block our growth.

Take a look at my video on the subject via Youtube if you need to think about working around the people getting in your way. What strategies do you use to keep moving forward? Don’t forget to comment, like, share and subscribe if you enjoy what you see.

All the best – Roger

Men Discussing Life

3 More Steps After #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek

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So, here we are and MHAW has just ended and men have spoken up. However, the conversation about better mental health continues. Luckily, we have tools available to us to improve our health, as well as the support to help us keep going.

Here are three more steps to better mental health.

Ask ourselves what is going inside and how we feel about it. Is everything good? Or is there more anxiety and darkness than usual? The greater the disturbance the less successful our relationships and productivity.

Build up our personal networks, so we are connected to people – family, friends, professionals – who understand our situation and can support us when we need it. Being able to support them is a bonus!

Continue these conversations. It is important to keep having those conversations about positive mental health and to reduce the stigma sometimes associated with these conditions.

How do you address your mental health needs? Feel free to add your voice to the conversation with a comment below.

(Featured image credit – Nappy at Pexels.com)