ted Learning Podcast

During my time as a Learning and Development Manager with TransPennine Express, one of my responsibilities was to organise the Annual Management Conference which I had done for a couple of years. Each time we would organise a series of activities and speakers throughout the day. Everyone would sit around the cabaret-style tables, sticking with the colleagues who they knew and worked with regularly. As soon as it came to coffee time, delegates would grab a cup of coffee and then go in search of a quiet space so that they could catch up on their emails.

There is nothing worse than the absolute fear that overwhelms some people when they have to stand up and present – sweaty palms, pulse racing, can’t focus, worried they will forget key points.  It’s also no fun being on the receiving end of this quickly realising this will be an uncomfortable presentation and hoping it’s not a long one. 

In this podcast, Katherine Mount provides help and advice for anyone who is going to present any type of information or message to someone else.  Follow the simple steps she describes and we believe you will be on the road to deliver a presentation that engages your audience. 

A survey in the  Daily Mail  in 2018 of over 1,100 decision-makers found that three out of five agreed a woman should have to disclose whether she was pregnant during the recruitment process and almost half thought it was alright to find out if women had young children.

Asking any of these questions would be illegal and a breach of the Equality Act 2010. So why do employers still want to ask this type of question?

As they do in every area of our lives, our emotions can influence the way we act and react in the workplace.

Emotional intelligence is about developing the skills to better understand both our own emotions as well as those around us, and effectively managing how we react to them so that we can be more productive in our work life.   The objective is not to suppress or ignore difficult emotions or feelings but rather learning to handle them intelligently when they arise.

Emotional Intelligence (or EI for short) is what makes the difference between top-performing leaders and the rest. Managers with strong EIs are measurably more successful in recruitment, employee retention, productivity, and customer service.

But EI is not just for Managers and Executives; it is critical for success at any level in your career.  If you want to rise to higher levels of responsibility in your job, having a strong EI is essential.

Conflict in the Workplace costs British businesses £33 billion per year.

We are all unique. We all have different experiences with diverse backgrounds and perspectives of the world which means we can respond differently to situations at work. This has an influence on our relationships with those around us. Our diversity of experience and thought is a positive thing, but sometimes it can also lead to misunderstanding and conflict between us.

What we consider to be conflict differs from one person to another. Our perception of a difficult situation can differ from someone else’s. A degree of conflict can even be positive, a bit of healthy competition in achieving goals can be a good thing. Different opinions on a project help us to reach a creative solution.

Managed well, these conflicts correctly we can up with a really positive outcome.

We often forget that an interview is a two way decision making process. Many interviewing Managers believe it’s their decision alone as to whether a candidate is successful and joins the team. The reality is that the candidate is effectively interviewing you too – does your business live up to their values – does it feel like a good place to work, are you flexible if that’s important to them? What are career progressions prospects?

If we start all interviews mindful that the candidate is also deciding if your business is right for them, we are beginning the process of a candidate focused interview. Also, it’s worth noting that more and more candidates not only research the company but the person interviewing them! So be prepared for your social footprint to be explored by people considering joining your business.

Even when you don’t manage to take a sick day, stress and worry can seriously impact your performance: we’re all less productive when we’re tense, distracted by worry, and lacking sleep. The statistics back this up; according to the Institute of Directors one in three employees admit that stress and anxiety hinder them from completing projects on time. The negative impact of stress on company culture is clear; studies have also shown that it damages employee retention and commitment to the company.

There’s a lot of self-help literature out there about how helping others is actually a good way to help yourself. One of our favourite mantras at ted Learning – one that is often forgotten in the workplace – works the other way around: ‘Doing the best by yourself in order that you can do your best by others’.

Managing yourself is surprisingly difficult. It’s easy to take the attitude that ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’; to assume that since you know you want to be successful, you can trust yourself to always  push your hardest to get there, without needing to think strategically about motivating yourself to work. As long as you make enough time, you tell yourself, and waste fewer hours on luxuries like, say, sleep, you can exceed everyone’s expectations.