Really Useful Conversations Andrea Newton

Are you looking for a way to increase self-awareness, develop your leaders, improve your sales or simply develop a high performing team? I may have the answer for you! In this week’s Really Useful Conversations podcast I get to chat with the wonderful award winning, professional speaker, Learning and Development professional, and all round good egg that is Kerry Lockyer. Kerry is a Licensed Insights Practitioner and accredited Clarity4D Business Partner and uses these powerful behavioural profiling tools to transform personal development and team effectiveness. With a strong background in the corporate world, she founded Oomph Learning and Development Ltd in 2019, - and their mission is to provide engaging and innovative learning solutions that truly add value and deliver real results.....and she’s here today to talk to us specifically about how we might recognise others preferences and adapt our style in order to get the best out of any situation – a fantastic mirror moment opportunity for us all! Don’t forget the Reflect & Reset opportunity too on 22nd May at 1pm where managers and leaders can take time out from the busy-ness of business and consider their intention versus the impact they are actually having! Full details on

As a leader or manager you have the power to make such a difference to your team, their experience of the workplace, and the outcomes they achieve. Just in the way that you behave around them, the style of leadership that you choose and use, and the impact that you have. However, sometimes the effect we INTEND is not always the experience that people are having, and every now and then we have to stop and ask ourselves the question – is there a gap between my intention and my impact? You probably have an organisation where a fair number of managers intend doing a great job – in fact, the majority will believe that they are and I have met many over the last 30 years in business who genuinely think they are doing a FABULOUS job, but they don’t hear what people say about them when they are not in the room, how they talk about them behind their back, what they say when they go home at night and are asked “How was your day?” In this episode I am offering some essential steps for all leaders to better assess the gap between intention and impact, and encouraging a mirror moment to step away from the wheel and focus on being the best leader you can be. Does the room light up when you enter or when you leave? And says who?

In this week's episode I thought it felt like a good time to talk about the power of human connection, there is so much going on in the world at the moment and in organisations that it feels like a good time to remind ourselves about the difference positive relationships and strong human connection can make. We will take a close look at why in the busy-ness of business it matters so much – surely people should just rock up and do the job they are being paid to do, right? Why do we need to connect with them as human  beings? What difference does it make? What is it about "human first" that makes the BIG difference? And when we talk about connection, what are we actually talking about? I will also share a few quick and easy ways in which leaders can build connection into their day to day role and responsibilities - sometimes it is just a question of how we view an interaction and how our mindset might make it more productive. Grab a brew, pull up a pew and tune in!

You may have seen the noise that the recent headlines created, when the European Human Rights Commission confirmed that under the Equality Act (s.6) that menopause symptoms COULD be classed as a disability. In this week's episode I am going to talk through that noise and explain in really straightforward terms what this means, and what you as a business need to be doing about it. Whether you are a Line Manager, HR Manager, Healthy & Safety Manager or indeed a business owner, this news article does NOT change anything - and no, women are NOT disabled because they are menopausal, and NO we are not entitled to a blue badge and NO it is not every woman! If you are a manager keen to get it right, to understand what matters in the workplace and what your duty of care actually is, then go to my website here and check out this fabulous resource:- If you are curious to understand what all the noise was about, tune into this week's tongue in cheek episode where I will bust a few myths for you. You'll thank me for it ;-)   is definitely worth a look if you want really useful resources that are written and created in a very straight forward, no nonsense way.

In this week's episode I get to chat with Alison Colley, an experienced Solicitor and HR specialist, who is passionate about supporting organisations and individuals with any work problems, and giving clear and unstuffy legal advice. This week we talk about the term reasonable adjustments, and ask when is reasonable actually reasonable enough? Following a recent UK EAT Tribunal Case where the panel suggested an employer dealing with a menopause issue had not acted in a way it considered reasonable, despite adjustments having been made. This takes us on to the wider conversation about situations such as this, and with Alison's advice we cover off some interesting points from a HR and Employment Law perspective. We also recognise the importance of our managers and leaders being trained in more than just following a policy, recognising that they may have to have some quite challenging conversations from time to time. Definitely an episode to tune into!

You understand the importance of really useful conversations at work. You recognise the impact it has on employee engagement, retention and motivation, as well as forming part of your duty of care as am employer. You understand that conversations of this nature if not done well can have legal, financial and moral implications but how do you get others to buy in too?  Whether you are addressing the proactive change to Equality Act 2010 or seeking to implement ISO 45003, you may need to get buy in from others - but how? In this episode we talk exactly about that. Often HR leaders are asked to provide development opportunities but cheaper, in a shorter time scale, without any operational disruption - so whether it is psychosocial safety, organisational resilience, an update in employment law, how do you get your leaders and managers onside? Time to talk - but they need to be prepared to listen!