Tag: Personal Growth

How To Be A Better Job Interviewee

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Preparation helps manage interview nerves

How do you manage pre-interview nerves, when you go after a new job?

I remember coaching a colleague whose nerves were obvious when she fidgeted with her keys all the way through a mock interview.

How did she go on to earn a promotion into a dream job?

We talked and she recognised that positive self-talk, plus preparation would boost her chances of confidently performing in her next real interview, regardless of previous job search nightmares.

Feel free to Like, Share and Comment if this story resonates with you.

How To Promote Innovation & Digital Technologies On #IWD2023

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Feel free to Like, Share & Comment on the video

As more services go online, the importance of having digital skills increases.

This 8 March is International Women’s Day 2023. The principle that digital skills should be held by everyone is reflected in the hashtag #DigitALL

I have identified five principles to support the growth of digital skills, by listening to the women whose career development I have supported.

This YouTube video sets out the five digital principles, so leaders can help women team members learn, change and grow.

What are your suggestions to help achieve that goal?

How To Lead Without #Bullying

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(You can view the video on YouTube – Feel free to Like, Comment and Share)

Bullying is never far from the headlines.

It happens when people throw their weight around in classrooms, workplaces and on social media.

Here’s a reminder of how we can be good leaders, colleagues, and friends. The kind of people that inspire others, without acting like bullies.

How To Be A Good #Leader And Make People Feel Valued

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Here’s a reminder about including people in social situations

Leaders make people feel valued.

It is a skill that comes with practice.

One trick, in a social setting, is to ask open questions.

What does your team do?

Who uses your service?

Can I introduce you to any of the attendees?

Most people like the chance to share something about themselves. It makes them feel included.

Leaders show others that they are welcome to be themselves. Perhaps that is a goal for all of us to work on in 2023?

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.   

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?

3 Steps Toward Personal #Success

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Picture by Otto Rascon on Pexels.com

One day I want to be as wise as James Earl Jones (he provides the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars saga).

Or maybe as creative as Clint Eastwood (a film director and musician).

I might even settle for a touch of William Shatner’s curiosity (well known space explorer).

Although these gents are now in their nineties their wisdom, creativity and curiosity were always present.

Having said that, our own unique talents can sometimes lie below the surface of our everyday armour. We can be scared to show others just how talented we are whether we are fifteen, or fifty. We have to decide we can be vulnerable, then get and hold other people’s attention.

So we need to get out of our own way and actively chase after personal success. If we are doing this, our life goals should include:

  • Working to increase the amount of happiness we get from our day
  • Promoting others’ well being
  • Building an intriguing set of memories for others to remember us by

How does that sound to you?

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.

An Award Winner Talks About Anger Management

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Photo by Gezer Amorim at Pexels.com:

Sir Sidney Poitier was a thoughtful, charismatic actor and Academy Award winner.

He was also an activist. He marched on Washington in 1963, as part of the call for equality spearheaded by Dr Martin Luther King.

He could see that channelling his righteous anger could influence millions of people around the world.

His life was celebrated during this year’s Oscars ceremony, alongside others in the entertainment industry who passed away in last twelve months.

The ‘slap that was heard around the World’ might have eclipsed that segment.

I think the only slap which people will remember Mr Poitier giving was the one his character, Virgil Tibbs, gave the racist character Endicott ‘In The Heat Of The Night’ (1967).

That was a bold, justified, and revolutionary act. It is a long way from what happened on film in the sixties to last weekend at the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles.

Apologies have been offered since then.

Learning is underway too.

Meanwhile, to close here’s a quote from Mr Poitier which puts all that into context:

I have learned that I must find positive outlets for anger, or it will destroy me.

Sidney Poitier: The Measure Of A Man A Spiritual Autobiography