Leadership and Management

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Making family friendly work for you – 5 mistakes and how to avoid them

By Christina Lattimer • June 28, 2012 - 11:20 am Leadership and Management

Family Friendly is an employee and business benefit

If you struggle to get the very best people to come and work for you. If you believe your employees aren’t giving their best, or are stressed because their working life and domestic life don’t work well together. Or if you have a high rate of unexplained absence, then you may wish to consider reviewing your family friendly offer.

If you want to attract and retain top talent now and in the future; to remain competitive in the talent marketplace you must consider a family friendly culture as a business benefit as well as an employee benefit.

The main reason why businesses don’t introduce a family friendly environment are three fold, they don’t know how; are afraid that it will detract from and impact negatively on achieving their outputs or results or don’t realise it’s important.

Enlightened organisations create a family friendly culture which fits their business model. Being family friendly is the way forward and you will find the best talent (who know they can pick and choose) will opt to work for businesses where they can operate in a way which fits their own personal circumstances. My guess is you will find that this is the new contractual norm for talented people.

So what do I mean by family friendly? There are a number of factors involved in creating a family friendly environment. In short a combination of customs, practices and policies you can adopt to help your employee enjoy and attend to their home life as well as their work life.

Family friendly practices and policies can include:

Flexible working – including flexible hours, flexible location and flexible roles.
Time out – aimed at helping people care for dependants in the short and long term.
Work breaks – including career breaks and sabbaticals
Employee benefits – discounted childcare, elderly care, access to family health schemes, onsite crèches, after school clubs, holiday clubs.

Many enlightened organisations realise that a family friendly environment is a key factor in their employee attraction and retention strategy, but not many are easily able to articulate and implement family friendly practices effectively.

Effective implementation means not only do employees enjoy a work/life balance allowing them to attend to pressing domestic responsibilities and values, but also harnesses their loyalty, commitment and enthused effort. Implemented well a synergistic effect of boosting motivation, leading to improved productivity, efficiency and profitability will result.

If you have tried to introduce a family friendly culture and are struggling, or you want to get started, here are 5 mistakes that business make, which you must avoid.

Mistake 1 – A vision setting out the factors involved in the family friendly offer is not clearly articulated. The vision does not include what employees can expect, and importantly, omits expected benefits for the business.

Mistake 2 – The organisation doesn’t emphatically state boundaries. A family friendly culture must overall improve and energise the performance of the organisation. There are limits and parameters. If a family friendly culture begins to negatively impact it has overstepped accepted boundaries.

Mistake 3 – Managers only want to offer family friendly policies to best performers. They fear some of the workforce will take advantage and not reciprocate by seeing it as a way to improve their contribution. This leads to managers unconsciously choosing who can and can’t take advantage of family friendly arrangements.

Mistake 4 – Managers do not assess workload impact of individual family friendly ways of working on the employee or on others in the team. Thus adjusting the frame but not changing the internal picture.

Mistake 5 – Organisations don’t adequately train managers to a) understand the “bottom line”, b) harness a win/win result c) review patterns and workloads d) be confident to say no, when it is fairer to do so and objectively justified

So now you know the pitfalls, here are some ways you can both avoid those mistakes and harness the best of both worlds, by getting the best out of your people, whilst improving their work/life balance.

Articulate accepted boundaries, and use as an acid test before you introduce any measure towards a family friendly culture.
Be clear about work patterns acceptable to you. If compressed hours really don’t fit in your organisational model, don’t offer them.
Be clear about parameters of each measure. If time off for domestic emergencies is included in your family friendly package for example, make it clear it is not a default position. Develop a framework to work through setting out alternatives an employee must consider. If a situation develops which isn’t a one off; you and the employee need to agree an approach to deal with this.
Be imaginative about the extent of your work patterns and location framework. Would extending to evening hours not only give employees some well needed flexible working solutions, but also benefit your customers? Can employees work from home remotely, and could such a way of working ultimately cut accommodation overheads?
Be very clear your family friendly culture is a win/win offer. You want to help employees with domestic responsibilities so they can be at their best at work, and give you maximum performance.
Manage expectations of all employees. Resentment can quite often fester when some of your workforce believe they are not included. Manage perceptions; I once had someone tell me they thought my family friendly approach excluded them because they didn’t have children, or any dependants. That was until she had to take time off because her dog needed a lifesaving operation.

If you are already going down the family friendly route, or intend to, then congratulations. If devised and implemented thoughtfully through consultation with your strategists and your people, then it will be successful. By being clear about your bottom line, you will gain the commitment, loyalty and best performance from your people and have people queuing up to work for you.

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The Followers’ Guide to: What your Leader wants

By Christina Lattimer • June 15, 2012 - 8:45 am Employee Development

Do Followers know what their leaders want?

Today, a search on showed 98,516 results for “leadership”. A further search for “followship” came back with a mere 39 results. I searched again for “team player” and received over , although “team player” wasn’t quite what I was looking for. I know sometimes part of great leadership is setting out what you expect and need from your followers, and “followship” is a little used word, but the yawning gap between the results surprised even me.

You may be a leader or a follower or both. As a leader do you ever think we are disproportionately focused on your behaviours, skills and values? As a follower, do you ever think about what your leader might require from you? As a leader, do you take time out to articulate what you need from your followers? And I’m not talking about job specification or role here.

I guess some leaders would say they need different things from the people who work for them and industry differences would drive some of the skills, characteristics and behaviours of followers. When you consider different dynamics across millions of organisations, it’s a sure bet if people decided to write about followship with any enthusiasm, you would end up with considerably more books than those written on leadership.

As a leader I am sure you will either consciously or unconsciously know what you require of your followers, over and above their job role. But do you articulate those wants, or do you get frustrated because your followers don’t actually follow very well? If you are a follower, do you know what your leader expects of you, and if not would you like to know?

As a leader and manager, and a follower, and subsequently a coach for leaders and managers, I have over the years, experienced and listened to many views and opinions from leaders about their teams and what does and doesn’t work. As a follower, I have consciously tried to support my leader and have sometimes found continuous support challenging.

As a starter for 10, I’ve brought together the main points gathered over the years and the following describes what I believe leaders commonly want from their followers.

As a follower involved in my leadership I need you to:

Take responsibility for yourself
Get the big picture and understand exactly what we are trying to do together
Have an affinity with and believe in what we are trying to achieve
Give a positive account of the organisation and concentrate on what is good about it
At times when it is crucial for the business, go the extra mile
Care about others on your team
Commit to resolving differences in an adult and win/win way
When you’re not able to fulfil your contract for any period of time for family or medical reasons, you commit to doing your best to get back to work as soon as you can because you know how crucial you are to the excellence of the business.
Commit to getting the work done, on time and to the best of your ability
Give me the benefit of the doubt
Trust me to take the best decision I can with the information I have, even if you don’t like it.
Understand we have a mutual contract and I will respect your rights, and you respect mine.
Forgive me for my mistakes, we all make them
If you aren’t happy come and tell me about it constructively, trust me to listen and do something about it
If you can’t commit to any of the above, consider how you are contributing to the success of the organisation, and if you can’t or won’t commit then consider if you are in the wrong job.
If you are in the wrong job, then do your best you can while trying to find the right job.

Do you think it’s reasonable for a leader to expect certain behaviours and attitudes from their followers? Do you think employers have a right to state so explicitly what they want and need from their staff?

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7 Ways to Get It Right And Give Management The Credit They Deserve

By christinapd • May 17, 2012 - 7:55 pm Miscellaneous

A Management role is a multi-talented one!

I have read so many negative reports about management over the last few months that I felt I had to stand up and hurl in a different perspective. In the past few months, I’ve read quotes such as:

“three quarters of employers report a lack of leadership and management skills and too many managers have an inflated opinion of their ability to manage people”
“More than six out of ten people employed in customer facing sales and service roles say that their managers’ behaviour towards them [Negatively] affects the level of customer service they deliver.”
“Poor people management is at the root of much of the evil in our economy”
“Estimated cost of poor management in the UK is £19 Billion a year!”

What on earth is going on? If I were still a manager I think I’d be feeling pretty battered by now. So ok we have a problem Houston. But what is the real problem?

For me, problem number one, is that although we all know the difference between leadership and management (Don’t we?) We employ managers and complain they don’t lead and then we define leadership with models which talk about competencies such as leading from the front, vision and courage and integrity… to name but a few. Attributes most managers can’t actually use because they have to deliver an already created and articulated vision, where the trail has already been blazed, and the values already decided.

We want managers to be people managers, but actually none of our outcomes or targets or values is about our people, so where do we expect them to focus? Ok, so I’m stretching a point, or two, but I do think that those points illustrate that at times, just sometimes, managers can’t win.

I’m not going to get into the leadership debate in this blog; I’ll save that for another day. Today, I am going to concentrate on the sometimes thankless task of being a manager and why I think our good managers need a big and hearty pat on the back.

And just a final observation about the bad press managers get. With all the “poor” managers out there, I just have three questions. Who is recruiting them? Who is managing them? And who is letting poor managers get away with it to the extent that they have such a “negative” impact? Well, someone is!

There was an advert a few years ago that featured a mother wearing different hats. When her little girl cut her knee, she had the nurse cap on. When she was helping her son with his homework, she donned the mortarboard, and finally when cooking dinner she wore her chef’s hat. (I know, I’m probably showing my age) Well for me, managers are like mothers, to the extent that they have many roles and have to wear many hats.

In most organisations, managers are multi-faceted. They have to manage their people, their budget, their results locally and globally, the environment they work in, change management, training needs, absence, performance, initiatives, projects, the business plan, the people plan, stakeholders, partners, customers, reward, reviews, income, communications, processes, media, social responsibility, diversity,…….oh and of course the work. Need I go on?

I know that there are some great qualifications for managers and also managers pay is probably not too bad. But what I do think is that managers are not given the actual credit for the demanding, time-consuming, multi-talented role they have to play in an organisations’ success. It may have simply slipped my attention, but I have honestly never heard an organisation come out and say things like “we owe our success to our multi-talented managers” Or “the real backbone of the organisation is held together by our highly skilled managers” High profile leaders tend to get the credit for great successes.

So how do we go about changing the image of our managers, and giving those good ones the credit that they are due? Well here are my thoughts:

Be clear about the limit of the leadership role the manager. If a manager is an executor of an organisational vision, then specify that they have to have a team vision, which derives from the main vision. They don’t have to be able to change the world.
At recruitment stage, be clear about why you need the manager. If their prime focus is people management, then make sure they have people management skills. If you want a people manager and the successful candidate has written a great thesis on your range of products and the best way to sell them, then you are on the wrong tack.
Develop potential within the organisation, with brilliant role models and clear demonstrations of the skills, behaviours and standards expected.
If your organisation only has aims and targets based on product or service, then that’s where your managers will place their attention. If you want them to manage your people, then set targets about your people.
Make sure management is clear about the expectations of them. More importantly be clear you know what you expect of them. If you shift the goalposts, involve them in the decision.
If you employ specialists or professionals, value your managers as much as, if not more than your specialist or professional contribution. (Yes really)
Give your manager’s credit for the difficult and dedicated job they do. Their jobs are highly skilled professional roles, and you should acknowledge that.

In life there are people who work well and people who don’t do so well, and this is reflected at all roles in an organisation, there are poor CEO’s, all the way down the hierarchal chain to poor Administrators; as well as poor managers.

I believe that the reason for the focus on underperforming management is because they are such a pivotal and impactful force in an organisation. So let’s raise the standards of our managers and have better businesses, but also give credit when managers are doing a great job and value them.

I hope you enjoyed my small but heartfelt accolade to the manager. What do you think? Do you agree? Why do you think management are getting such a poor press? I’d love to have your views.

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Nine Attitudes of Emotionally Intelligent Leaders and Managers

By Christina Lattimer • May 11, 2012 - 8:50 am Miscellaneous

Emotionally intelligent leaders and managers get the best results!

Like learning to drive, leading and managing people is an experiential journey.

My entrance onto the leadership stage was when I was promoted into the role, having stood in for the team leader from time to time I don’t know about you, but although I had practiced at managing people I hadn’t experienced it properly until I had to do it for real.

Junior leaders and managers are appointed because they have shown potential, displayed leadership skills or are extremely good in the specific field they are in. More senior leaders and managers can have had a most distinguished career as a professional, i.e. doctor or lawyer or accountant, and the next step for their career is to manage people with the same specialism. An entrepreneurial business owner may be extremely successful and have acquired commercial business acumen and savvy long before they actually have to employ people.

So people enter leadership and management at all stages. Often their success as a leader or not, will be determined by their people skills, and if these skills haven’t had a chance to develop then the most successful entrepreneur or professional may well find the going very tough indeed.

One of the most impactful people skills is emotional intelligence. Wikipedia describes emotional intelligence as” the ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups”.

If you’ve ever been in an office where you have seen people have tantrums of a two year old, or the rumour mill is the most reliable communication channels, or there is a prevalent blame culture, then you know that the skills of the emotionally intelligent is somehow lacking.

Even worse, if conflict is commonplace, and your people aren’t firing on all cylinders or even are openly disengaged then you have may have a problem which stems from limited or unrecognised poor emotional intelligence.

Depending on our psychological profile, and we are all thankfully different; then you may have brilliant emotional intelligence, or conversely you may need to develop this skill more. The great thing about emotional intelligence is that if you are struggling, you can learn!

My first challenge as a young manager was learning how to control my own emotions. In the early years I was quite often daunted about having to deal with some larger than life characters I had to manage. Managing my fear was one of my first and probably my longest lessons. I still feel afraid sometimes, but now I know how to deal with it, and it doesn’t faze me.

My second challenge was to learn how to manage the emotions of my team. This stage was a long one and a steep learning curve. The journey was interesting, thought provoking and a necessary one.

The final stage in my learning came when I had to think about engaging large teams. Some of who I didn’t see for months at a time. Although I did try to do the best I could to have physical contact as much as I could humanly manage. Trying to encourage people to feel good, fulfil their potential and understand how much I appreciated them was more difficult. Although there are many skills attached to managing remotely, my own emotional intelligence was a key player in making remote management a success.

I have worked for and supported many managers and managed teams locally, regionally and nationally. During this time I have practiced and observed attitudes and behaviours which have been the most successful in getting the best out of a team. These attitudes and behaviours are most commonly adopted by people who have honed their emotional intelligence skills and have the best people skills as a result. I have practiced these in the latter years, and wished I had access to and learned them in the early years.

The Nine Attitudes are:

Accepting people completely for who they are
Always looking for the good in people, there is always some
Dealing with negatives in an impersonal but practical way and getting over it!
Not judging – we all make mistakes.
Giving people the benefit of the doubt
Listening to what people need and wherever possible – obliging
Responding neutrally to anger or other attacking behaviour and helping the person to reframe it in a positive way.
Pivoting negative situations to achieve a positive outcome.
Caring about people, even when they were difficult.

You might be thinking that it all sounds unrealistic, given some of the people you might be managing. But I can guarantee that if you think about it enough, they are all attitudes or stances you would like people to take with you.

Unfortunately we aren’t born with an instruction manual and so navigating and improving our own emotional intelligence often comes through our own life experiences and self-reflection. However the good news is that there are some clear and easy steps to improving our own emotional intelligence and therefore that of your team and organisation.

If you would like to find out about 6 ground breaking secrets to accelerate your journey on developing great emotional intelligence then visit peoplediscovery.co.uk, and get your complimentary report, The 6 Secrets of Great Emotional Intelligence for Inspirational Leaders and Managers. In it I describe

The true purpose of emotions
How to achieve a more positive emotional state
How to break the cycle and create effective change
The four strategies for greater connection

I hope you enjoy, and would welcome any feedback or comments.

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Gross National Happiness on the balance sheet?

By Christina Lattimer • April 16, 2012 - 9:46 am Miscellaneous

National Happiness is a tangible outcome!

Because of my commitment to great people management and engagement, I was heartened to discover that the UN conference on national happiness and wellbeing which began in New York City on 2^nd April came to the conclusion that good performance on GNP (Gross National Product) didn’t automatically mean that GNH (Gross National Happiness) increased at a similar rate.

Yes, really, Gross National Happiness! For those who always thought soft skills were the soft option, then the introduction of the measurement of Gross National Happiness might mean they have to think again.

The conference reported that whilst economic growth was important, 4 other factors were independent causes of national happiness. These are; community trust; mental and physical health; quality of governance and finally rule of law.

The conference pointed to the premise that you and I know only too well, that “money is not the root of all evil, it is the love of money which is”. Or in other words, whilst financial wealth is desirable, it because of what it brings to our lives, not the objective.

The conference which is a first of its kind may well be an extremely important landmark in the drive to change the way we do business.

If you haven’t yet heard of “” by Jeffrey Sachs et al; upon which the summit referred to in their discussions on national happiness, then you may want to get yourself a copy of this. The report makes the link between economic growth and the impact on national happiness and wellbeing, which is fast (it seems) becoming a measurable commodity.

The theme of the report centres on the premise that happiness as a by-product of increasing wealth is no longer sustainable. From a global perspective, in terms of sustainable development, we need to concentrate on: ending poverty, environmental sustainability, social inclusion and good governance.

Most leaders know and understand that financial reward is not usually top of the list to help motivate staff. But leadership development programmes must include some of the social issues addressed by the overall message from the conference. The overall message from the conference and report is that the following factors are important to people in the world of work and as a measurement of national happiness.

“Working hours, good opportunities for advancement, job security, interesting job, allows to work independently, allows to help other people, and useful to society: A sense of overall purpose for the job, a degree of autonomy in discharging it, and the competence to do the job – a proper fit between worker and job. Allied to this people need support and recognition for their efforts. In addition, more personal factors include mental and physical health, education and family experience”.

As a people manager for many years, I always knew through experience that happy employees were productive employees. But it is more than that. As human beings, if you break down any motivation for any action we take, it is usually to help ourselves become happier. We have an inner drive towards happiness and wellbeing. That is because happiness and wellbeing are our natural state.

While I think the conference is merely a beginning, and it will remain to be seen whether the subject of happiness is taken seriously or not by world leaders; at least it is a start. So along with me, watch this space!

Do you believe happiness is important? What might this focus on happiness mean for leaders, managers and HR professionals in the future? What are your views? I’d love to hear from you.

Why not read “The Single Daily Choice Which Will Change Your Life For Good“

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Know How + Great HR = Inspiration

By Christina Lattimer • March 27, 2012 - 10:16 am Miscellaneous

Inspiration is the best way to engage people!

Or does it make you squirm?

You may be an HR Professional leader or manager relying on HR to help move your business forward. When discussing strategy with people of different roles at many levels, I have often been met with a perplexed look when I have mentioned that the role of the HR professional is to help the business to be inspirational. Many people feel much more comfortable with descriptors like, credible, respected, focussed, performance-led…. well I could go on and on.

So what does inspiration mean and why do many people not relate to it? The free dictionary gives the following definition of inspiration.

Stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity. Or the condition of being so stimulated.
An agency, such as a person or work of art that moves the intellect or emotions or prompts action or invention.
Something, such as a sudden creative act or idea that is inspired.
The quality of inspiring or exalting: a painting full of inspiration.
Divine guidance or influence exerted directly on the mind and soul of humankind.
The act of drawing in, especially the inhalation of air into the lungs.”

For me; inspiration is about tapping into the true self of a person and helping them to engage, emotionally, intellectually and physically with a situation or cause which resonates with their values. No mean feat huh?

For you as an enlightened leader, manager or HR professional, you may be well ahead of me. However, If you aren’t sure how, you might be asking “Is that the role of HR? “

Some people will prefer other expressions, such as “gain commitment” “going the extra mile” employee engagement”. “Performance management” to name but a few. There is nothing wrong with these ways of expressing how you get the best from your people. The questions are; Are you inspiring your people to be the best? and: Is the task of inspiring your people something HR should be involved in?

Well I believe yes it is. If HR is going to be at the top table, and bring real value, it needs to understand the equation of Knowhow + Great HR = Inspiration and it goes like this: -

Great HR professionals know how people tick. – They understand why people like words like inspiration and why other people prefer words like respected. They understand how to motivate people and why some people will never be motivated unless you pivot them in a certain way.
They understand the dynamics of their organisation; how people relate to each other, and the dominant dynamic which is in place. If their organisation is a caring sharing one, for example, they know what the big no-no’s are which might shatter the brand it has consciously or unconsciously developed.
They are great at all levels of the HR offer. They understand how to develop people strategy, as well as pay people on time. The policies they develop reflect the desired outcomes and culture as well as mirror the values of the company.
They make sure that the products they develop and the frameworks they set out include the right information and are in a format which is understood by everyone. Most importantly, they know how to get them to people in the right way so they absorb them.
They understand the business inside out. They know how their CEO and the Board ticks and they are committed to helping the business become a success, because they share the vision and values of the organisation.
They care about people, know that people are the organisations greatest resource, and so they take care to inspire them.

What do you think? Are you an inspirational leader, manager or HR professional? Are you managed by someone truly inspirational? I would love to hear from you with your story.

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Silver Lining – Find the Hope in every Cloud

By Christina Lattimer • March 15, 2012 - 7:53 am Leadership and Management

Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

A couple of weeks ago, I heard from a young mum of three. In a downsizing by her husband’s company he lost his job after one interview. He had been in the job for 14 years, and loved it. Now I don’t know the detail, so I don’t judge. And I know such hard decisions have to be made if the money simply isn’t there. I would also say though that I had used services provided by the organisation and he was dedicated, enthusiastic and went the extra mile. As you can imagine there was shock, indignation and anger from his friends and relatives.

We all know the business reasoning about Remploy, and why the government decided to untangle what seemed to be viewed as an “outdated segregated remedy” by the disability bodies. It was also making a colossal loss. But seeing those people talking about their fears not knowing what is going to happen in the future was heart-breaking. The theory is that employers will be given financial incentives to help these people and more to secure employment. Will this happen in reality? I’m not sure.

I am all for facing up to the reality of any unpalatable truth we may have to accept. I know that it’s important that we all know why hard decisions like the above are made. I think as a nation, we did actually get the message. We need now however to refocus, and we need to refocus on the silver lining.

In the two situations above, those decisions appear harsh and inhuman without making sure that the people affected had some hope about what their options might be in the future. We are not reporting well enough, that vital step. Any change strategy, including downsizing in any shape or form is poorly executed unless before the decision is made to cut jobs or change course, the fears and possibilities for the people involved have been explored and articulated. There has to be a plan B for everyone.

And so instead of the process, we need to focus on the vision for the future. We need to focus on the silver lining, but what might that be? Well it might not be apparent yet, but here are a few ideas.

As a nation, we are learning to be more financially responsible
We are becoming more efficient
We are driving up the quality of services
We are learning resilience in the face of adversity
We can show that we are strong and are able to reinvent ourselves

Ok, not a long list yet, but I’m sure there are more to be identified, as we learn from the situation we find ourselves in. The main message for everyone needs to be one of hope. If this doesn’t start coming soon and stridently we will simply be a nation sapped of our energy, enthusiasm and commitment.

Let us shift the balance and focus on and celebrate successes, and find and articulate that silver lining. For people who are facing hardship and a loss of way of life, let’s make sure we can create meaningful options where everyone wins in the end. Let’s tell the story of how great our workers are and how dedicated and efficient they can be. These factors are all there, we are just not looking at them.

There is no doubt about it, if we focus on and celebrate hope and success, the results will surely follow.

What do you think? Do you think we need to be more positive about the change we are going through? Do you think a shift in focus is needed at this time? Let us know we would love to hear from you.

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Happiness at Work

By Christina Lattimer • March 11, 2012 - 3:23 pm Miscellaneous

We all want Happiness at work!

Today the sun is shining and the hope of a beautiful spring and lovely summer are in the air. Most of us know the feeling of happiness and wellbeing that comes with a lovely sunny day.

The day made me think about happiness at work, and the happy memories I have over the years. It was interesting that the images that sprung up were:

The memory of times when the full team were on the same wavelength and really felt like what we were doing mattered and made a difference.
When someone did something they were proud of and a personal success had materialised
When we laughed when we worked, even when things weren’t perfect.

It’s funny that what didn’t come up when considering happiness at work, were the memories about performance, or profit margins, or great management, or any of the traditional things we try to get right in the workplace.

Stories about Steve Jobs and his questionable leadership style abounded after his untimely demise. Although he was celebrated as a great leader, some of the rumours hinted at bullying tactics, micromanagement and a sheer determination to get results no matter what, certainly no consistent tales of happiness at work.

I don’t know if these are true, but If I were an Apple employee, I would guess that being part of some of the most world changing set of products and how amazingly they were marketed and accepted, would be up there in my portfolio of happiness at work. The fact that Jobs wasn’t the perfect people leader may well have been irrelevant. Who knows?

Having significant meaning in your work can be the happiest experience you can achieve. It can be the most motivating, resilient inducing factor. It is amazing how being involved in a meaningful way creates determination and builds character, despite the odds.

Likewise being in a place where individuals can grow and feel proud of what they do is one of the best cultures to foster. When people feel a sense of achievement, when they’they’ve gone the extra mile and made a difference, it can not only be for them, but can brilliantly move the whole team to action.

You might laugh to think that workplaces could be exciting, inspiring and create enthusiasm. It might be that it is difficult to muster these states in ourselves and people we work with for long. But it is these factors which the majority of us will remember about our working lives.

These qualities don’t have to be present only for world changing products. Making a difference to the care of our elderly population or with our kids who need help to have a better sense of themselves and therefore achieve more with their lives for example, can be equally inspiring, even on a one to one. Providing an everyday service, or producing inexpensive products can be inspiring if they make a real difference to others’ lives.

I’ve met many wonderful people over the years and worked with some inspirational leaders and individuals across all different roles. The ones I remember the most are the ones who could laugh in the face of adversity. The people who had a sense of fun. This entailed a sense of detachment and lack of seriousness about the job in hand at times, but never a lack of commitment or dedication.

Studies have shown, that laughter can have the following positive effects on our own and others wellbeing in the following areas:

Reduce the effects of stress
Invoke muscle relaxation
Reduce pain
Invoke essential cardiac exercise
Maintain healthy blood pressure
Improve Respiration

And we all know that people who feel better and have a greater sense of wellbeing are more productive. So can you afford to spend the time to focus on happiness at work? I would suggest that you can’t afford not to.

Wishing you happiness at work today, and if you aren’t feeling happy, try to bring some sunshine into someone else’s life today.

What do you think? Is your workplace a happy one? Do you have happy memories of work? We’d love to hear from you.

The above blog post is available in audio. If you aren’t able to see the audio button below, visit: https://peoplediscovery.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Happiness-at-work.mp3

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Sparking Creativity

By Guest Post • March 8, 2012 - 9:38 am Personal Development

Welcome to this weeks’ Guest blogger – I am really pleased to introduce Claire Marriott. I have known and worked with Claire over a number of years. We instantly developed a rapport as we both had similar views about innovation, creativity and life! Claire has a flair for weaving creativity and innovation both in her communications expertise and other interests. As you can see she is the perfect person to talk about sparking creativity! You can learn more about Claire below.

Let your Creativity Sparkle!

Hello everyone! Having worked with Christina on a number of projects I am delighted to be her guest on this blog.

For many managers, creativity is something of a holy grail. How many of you, if asked about your ideal working environment, would end up describing a free-thinking, energetic set-up where ideas flow like water and innovation is the norm?

Unfortunately, the day-to-day realities of working life and the typical structure of organisations often work to hamper the very qualities that we desire most in our team members, limiting their ability to generate new ideas or their willingness to think differently.

Letting go of expectations

The first step to unlocking creativity is to let go of expectations. Creative people aren’t fixated on what others think of them and tend not to focus on the ‘right’ way to do things. Instead they try a number of different approaches and see what happens. They follow their instincts and their intuition to see where it takes them and, above all, they ask questions.

Here are two exercises that you can try with your teams to increase the amount of creative energy in your organisation.

Summarise a challenge that you are facing in just one sentence and then ask each team member to spend ten minutes writing down everything that occurs to them about the situation. Tell them that they don’t have to worry about spelling and grammar but should just write anything and everything that comes into their head when the y start thinking about the problem. This type of free-writing helps people to overcome their internal censor and can give rise to intriguing new ideas.

Over a number of weeks ask your team members to save any images that they come across which remind them of your organisation, or what they would like your organisation to be. Gather the images together and paste them all onto a board then discuss what you see. Look for themes that the pictures have in common. Identify any colours or settings that recur. Imagine the lives of any people in the pictures and see how the images make you feel. Using images activates different parts of the brain and can be a wonderful way to bring a company’s vision and values to life.

If you would like to find out more about living creatively then I would thoroughly recommend ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron, a classic book on the subject. I leave the last word to film-maker Frank Capra who said ‘A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.’

[message type="custom" width="100%" start_color="#FFFCB5" end_color="#F4CBCB" border="#BBBBBB" color="#333333"]After a 16 year career working in corporate communication for a range of public and private sector companies, Claire redesigned her life and became a freelance writer, craftsperson and reiki practitioner. As well as providing communications advice to a number of organisations she has also begun to write creatively and is currently studying scriptwriting with the Open University. To find out more, please visit her website: www.clairemarriott.com[/message]

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Make your Innovative Idea come to Life

By Christina Lattimer • March 5, 2012 - 6:36 am Miscellaneous

The innovative process is available to everyone!

You either own or run a business, and so you know what it takes to make a concept work. You must be providing a product or a service which is or has been in demand. If your business is thriving then congratulations, if not doing so well, then take heart. You have the means within yourself to expand and create new and innovative products or service. You just have to believe you have and that you can.

You may be in the position where you aren’t sure about how you expand and accelerate growth in your business, or you may have a great idea, but are not sure how to make it a reality. Either way, the first thing you have to do is get clear.

The innovative process is not going to begin until your mind formulates a clear outcome. The problem is, is that we get fixated on the details, and the “how’s” and this actually inhibits the creative process. All you need to do, to start is have an outcome.

I remember coaching a young entrepreneur in her 20’s. She had paralysed herself into inaction because she wasn’t sure which career path to take. She had got to a crossroads in her life, and wasn’t sure what she wanted. After some exploration, she realised that she didn’t need to be specific about exactly what her career looked like, but she did need to be specific about how she would feel about what she did.

Thus her success criteria and outcome became. “She would feel enthused and love what she did. She would feel motivated and grateful that she was doing work which made a huge difference”. Ok, so she still had to make choices, but outlining an outcome that meant something to her gave her a standard or a benchmark to work towards. As she tried different things, if her outcome didn’t materialise, then she knew she had to try something else.

You may have an innovative idea, and a clear outcome for a product or a service which is going to make a difference, but are not sure how to make it happen. Alternatively, you may just want to make your business profitable, more profitable or make a bigger impact, but at this stage you may have no idea about how that is going to happen. In both situations simply set out the outcomes that you want, and that process will give you a massive head start.

The next step in the innovative process is to believe it can happen. Doubt is the biggest prohibitive force in the innovative process. Doubt shuts off your mind to the possibilities out there. If you think you can’t then – guess what – you can’t. If you doubt you can, then it either shuts off the mind, or delays the realisation of your innovative idea.

I’ll give you an example. A number of years ago, a team I worked with wanted to be great at customer service. To change the mind-set, the only way was to access some in-depth customer service training. After some research, across the board of all the providers who could help, the cost came to some £25k for all of the staff to be trained (It was a large team, and the training stretched over a number of months).

There was no way that sort of budget was available. There was a resignation across the management team that it wasn’t going to happen. But I asked the team to keep open to possibilities. That if we kept out doubt then a solution would appear. And it did. About 3 weeks later we received a call from a company who had heard we were looking for customer service training, could they come and talk to us? Because we hadn’t dismissed the possibility, we agreed. It turned out the training company had access to grant funding for just what we were looking for. Altogether, a team of 30 people were trained for 9 months, with a City and Guilds qualification for under £2k.

I could relate many stories like that which show the power of trusting that you can make things happen is key to the innovative process. The vital message here is that you simply need to get started with an outcome and then believe it can happen.

Here at People Discovery, we help clients formulate their success criteria, and then find a way to make things happen, which works to each owners individual style, to realise their outcome.

If you have any questions, or have a great innovative story to tell, then let us know. We would love to hear from you.

This coming week, I have a brilliant guest blogger who is a writer and entrepreneur, who will talk about sparking creativity. Look out for her blogspot in the next few days!

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