Helping Organisations Thrive with Julian Roberts

#101 Tom Finn | How to turn your team into an ideas factory

How to turn your team into an ideas factory, giving you a modern engine of innovation to drive ROI. 
CEO and Co-founder of Leg Up Tom Finn talks about how to achieve the balance between kindness and accountability within servant leadership, and explores reasons behind the turnover tsunami of the current Great Resignation. The importance of having a growth mindset is nothing new, but Tom explains how to move people from the fear that causes a fixed mindset, into the freedom of a psychologically safe workplace, making the most of the talented individuals that we have employed.
Tom explains servant leadership, and how to create a psychologically safe workplace; along with how to work as a leader with your own potentially autocratic boss - adjusting your style when you manage up, but being a filter for the communication coming down to your team. Tom's six ways of creating psychological safety can be used just as effectively in the boardroom or round the kitchen table at home with your family.
 
 
Watch the full episode on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z9QzKgqBMI
 
Connect with Tom:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomfinnleggup/
Website: http://www.leggup.com/
Email: tom.finn@leggup.com 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/_TomFinn
 
 
Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.
 
The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges:
- no clear strategy
- dysfunctional team dynamics
- not knowing their vision or mission
- feeling stuck and procrastinating
- business not growing
- leadership challenges
 
If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me:
https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com

#100 Corina Walsh | How to identify and support emerging leaders

In this podcast Corina discusses how to identify and then support emerging and front line leaders. She prioritises "coach-ability" as the number one trait to look for when identify future leaders; and advises organisations to consider having two different leadership tracks - one for business/technical leadership, and one for people leadership. 
Corina advises companies to give any employee the chance to practice leadership skills in a low risk environment, and gives examples of this. 
New leaders need supporting in their role - knowing how to have a difficult conversation is a skill set that can be learned, and, like giving effective feedback, is something which a new leader can learn and practice in training.
 
The managers of these new leaders also need to know (or to receive training on) how best to support the new leaders they are responsible for. Corina discusses how to create an environment within your organisation allowing and encouraging people to show emerging leadership skills or potential. Corina is a business owner, certified coach, and author of The Engaged Employee.
 
 
Watch the full episode on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCR9TRaLKhk
 
Connect with Corina:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corinawalsh/
Website: http://www.shiftpd.com/
Email: corina@shiftpd.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/corinawalsh
 
 
Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.
 
The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges:
- no clear strategy
- dysfunctional team dynamics
- not knowing their vision or mission
- feeling stuck and procrastinating
- business not growing
- leadership challenges
 
If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me:
https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com

#99 Gillian Selby | Creating a service mindset to achieving sales growth

Seeing sales in a new light: Ex global business director Gillian Selby talks about the impact of taking a collaborative approach to sales, and elevating your business as one unit, rather than seeing sales as a stand alone entity.
She explores the value of having a service mindset approach, as opposed to a company seeing themselves as the experts and expecting clients to come to them. She explains the longer term value of wanting to be of service to people; going out and meeting them where they are; listening first to establish the needs they may have. This may mean a slightly slower take off in terms of sales, but will lead to much higher revenue and return.
The cost of client acquisition is high, and Gillian looks at how a business can increase the sustainability of their client relationships, looking for a longer term investment in clients, rather than the "sales-driven" approach, which may be quicker but is less sustainable in terms of client relationships. The entire company needs to be included in this type of approach, and the sales team need to be involved in more than just selling.
 
Watch the full episode on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO-_NWAqePU
 
Connect with Gillian:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillian-selby/
Website: http://www.gunnmcqueen.com/
Email: gillian@gunnmcqueen.com
 
 
Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.
 
The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges:
- no clear strategy
- dysfunctional team dynamics
- not knowing their vision or mission
- feeling stuck and procrastinating
- business not growing
- leadership challenges
 
If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me:
https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com

#98 Rebecca Conroy | How to use value driven leadership to navigate difficult seasons

CEO and Principal of East Sussex College Group, Rebecca Conroy talks about maintaining value driven leadership through difficult financial seasons. 
 
Rebecca explains how she makes tough decisions relating to significant funding cuts, and how she leads her team in prioritising listening, then talking to people. She takes time to understand how decisions like potential redundancies would impact the individual, then works with those individuals to see if she and her team can support them, so that redundancy becomes a positive change in their lives, rather than a negative. 
 
Rebecca clearly lives and breathes her values, staying true to her beliefs as she navigates large organisations through challenging times. 
 
Watch the full episode on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEN0B4Kaexg
 
Connect with Rebecca:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-conroy-6985a21a5/
Website: https://www.escg.ac.uk/
Email: rebecca.conroy@escg.ac.uk
 
 
Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.
 
The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges:
- no clear strategy
- dysfunctional team dynamics
- not knowing their vision or mission
- feeling stuck and procrastinating
- business not growing
- leadership challenges
 
If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me:
https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com

#97 Patrick Aylward | How to have leadership and business impact through collaboration

Intent on changing the way people interact, author Patrick Aylward is having a global impact with his ideas on collaboration. He shares how collaboration leads to opportunities and innovation; whereas mediation, debate and conflict resolution close down this potential to innovate and grow. Where conflict resolution is inherently reactive, collaboration is proactive. 
 
Patrick is a former litigation lawyer, and author of The Collaborative Path. He defines collaboration as the pursuit of dual outcomes, creating solutions to situations and building stronger human relationships: "What's different in my approach to collaboration compared to conflict resolution or 'getting to yes' is that I address where conflict comes from, and what we can do to prevent it, whereas the field addresses what to do after conflict arises. Getting to 'yes' becomes about how to negotiate after negotiations have broken down. Conflict doesn't arise from differences, conflict arises from the fact that we use the debate model to discuss the differences."
 
Patrick talks about the importance of having a curious approach, rather than one of judgement, and to consider the opportunities that may be in the differences. He explains that perspectives are often presented as truth, which is not the case; and that debate slows innovation as it always favours the status quo. "We can't debate without being judgemental, in the same way we can't collaborate without being curious."
 
 
 
Watch the full episode on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAXR6tMqTzQ
 
Connect with Patrick:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-aylward01/
Website: https://www.collaborativepath.ca/
Email: Patrick@collaborativepath.ca 
 
 
Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.
 
The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges:
- no clear strategy
- dysfunctional team dynamics
- not knowing their vision or mission
- feeling stuck and procrastinating
- business not growing
- leadership challenges
 
If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me:
https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com

#96 Isaac Kenyon | How to harness the power of knowing your purpose to achieve meaningful goals

Eco-adventurer, Geoscientist and expedition leader Isaac Kenyon talks about the mental toughness needed to row for 3 days and 10 hrs on an indoor rowing machine with no sleep (gaining a world record); and the success of using meta-cognition for this event.
 
Growing up, Isaac was not always safe outside or in school, and therefore spent a lot of time indoors as a teenager. Camping and fishing trips with his dad opened up a whole new world, but not one that he embraced until he was older. University coincided with the digital revolution which had an impact on Isaac's mental health and he found that just being outside "wiped the overfull whiteboard of his mind".
 
Isaac combined his love of sports and being outside to help navigate mental health issues, taking on challenges that were even more about the process than the end result. Isaac developed an awareness and understanding of his own thought processes and used meta-cognition to help him through difficult situations. He broke difficult challenges down into smaller chunks - like he did with his world record indoor row, he mentally divided into 15 minute segments of time.
 
Isaac spoke at the United Nations COP26 and has made an internationally recognised award-winning film. He enjoys finding new adventures to challenge himself physically, mentally and spiritually - ones that give him a purpose much greater than just completing the challenge. Isaac is a Science Communicator, a TED talk speaker, and a trustee of Mind in Hertfordshire. He is always trying to find the balance of combining sport and being outdoors with digital working. 
 
 
 
Watch the full episode on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtAvXdQ30is
 
Connect with Isaac:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaackenyon/
Website: https://www.isaackenyon.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kenyon_isaac
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isaac_kenyon/
Email: HELLO@isaackenyon.com 
 
 
Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.
 
The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges:
- no clear strategy
- dysfunctional team dynamics
- not knowing their vision or mission
- feeling stuck and procrastinating
- business not growing
- leadership challenges
 
If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me:
https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com

#95 Matt Phelan | How to have happy and engaged employees through neuroscience

Is there a correlation between employee happiness and customer happiness? Can emotions be translated into data to show the relationship between engagement in the workplace and the top 4 happiness drivers?
 
The Happiness Index co-founder Matt Phelan discusses how to analyse data on employee happiness, engagement and productivity from a neuroscience perspective, coaching his clients to use data to make effective decisions for their businesses. 
 
Matt believes people are the future of technology, and explains what it takes for an organisation to thrive. He correlates a thriving business with a high happiness score on the Index, along with a high engagement score. Matt shows how a low happiness score even with high engagement does not lead to a culture of thriving; and he brings neuroscience into the workplace to make sense of the data.
 
The Happiness Index data shows the current "Great Resignation" in the UK to be emotionally driven, not rationally driven. Psychological safety; freedom to take opportunities; feelings of acknowledgement; and positive relationships are shown to be the top four happiness drivers in the workplace. Matt states that although the order of importance of some of these happiness drivers differs culturally -  across the world the number one factor affecting employee happiness is having positive relationships in the workplace. 
 
Matt is the author of Freedom to be Happy.
 
Watch the full episode on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et14son4N5M
 
Connect with Matt:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewphelan/
Website: http://www.thehappinessindex.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Matthewphelan
Email: matt@thehappinessindex.com
 
 
Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.
 
The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges:
- no clear strategy
- dysfunctional team dynamics
- not knowing their vision or mission
- feeling stuck and procrastinating
- business not growing
- leadership challenges
 
If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me:
https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com
 

#94 Louise Larkum | How to create a top down culture of mental well-being in your workplace

Today I am interviewing Louise Larkum who is the Founder and Director at Mindcare Training.
 
Deloitte's undertook an official independent review and found that for every £1 they had spent on mental health and well-being in the workplace, they received a £5 return. Join Louise Larkum as she discusses how to create a top down culture of mental well-being in your workplace.
 
Louise explains how, as a leader, you can have effective conversations with employees to address mental health concerns. By carefully choosing the right environment at the right time, you can sensitively and specifically share your concerns, and give your employee the chance to be open about any current issues they may be facing - at the very least you are showing that you have noticed and you care. 
 
Louise discusses the importance of compassionate leadership, and shares facts such as 50% of people having an episode of depression do not go on to have any further episodes in their lives. A mental health diagnosis is usually for a period of time, not for life. 80% of employees taking extended time off due to  mental ill health, including stress, do not return to the same workplace. It costs a baseline of £30,000 to re-recruit, therefore a proactive culture towards mental well-being can significantly benefit your business, and most importantly could have a life-changing impact on your employees. As Louise explains, the far-reaching results of having properly trained mental health first aiders in your business cannot be overstated.
 
Watch the full episode on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHe-o2V6tSQ
 
Connect with Louise:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louise-larkum/
Website: https://mindcaretraining.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiselarkum
Email: louise@mindcaretraining.com
 
 
Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.
 
The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges:
- no clear strategy
- dysfunctional team dynamics
- not knowing their vision or mission
- feeling stuck and procrastinating
- business not growing
- leadership challenges
 
If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me:
https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com