Life is too short

Did I ever tell you about the time that I made myself redundant? I was working for a great organisation but I was bored, they put me to work on a project and it was clear that I wouldn’t be able to move onto something else until the project completed, which wouldn’t have been a problem but it was a 10-year project and we were only halfway through. The parameters that excited me, in the beginning, had changed and so all of the interesting stuff had been removed. I was just spinning my wheels.

Have you ever been in that kind of gilded cage? From the outside, it looks amazing but inside you are desperate to escape?

I knew that I needed to move on, even if it looked risky and decided that it was time to move my HR Consultancy from a side hustle to my main gig.

I had a chat with my boss and told him that he didn’t need me to work on the project, a less experienced HR practitioner would be fine delivering and helped him to recruit and train my replacement.

It was the best move that I ever made. Sometimes we can mistake comfort for contentment but change only comes from discomfort.

Is there something that you want to do in your business but you’ve been waiting for the children to go back to school or the pandemic to be over or for there to be a certain number in the bank?

There are four months left of what has been the longest year ever, what are you going to do to end it on a high?

On my list is:

·       Publish my leadership book

·       Hire an apprentice

·       Launch my 6-week leadership programme

·       Complete Book 2

What's on your list? Lets set some SMART goals to ensure that we end the year well.

Establishing business and individual needs

When I decided that it was time to move my business from my side hustle to my full time gig, the first thing I did, was to up-skill. I invested in my development and achieved Chartered status for the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development). It was a way to ensure that I had the paperwork to support my skills, I knew that I could do it, but I wanted to be able to prove it.

The other thing I did was sign up with a business start-up service and attended all of their courses to make sure I learnt the basics of running a business. All of this played into my business plan, helping me to do my research and set the business goals.

Now, we all know that our business plan is a live document, we have to constantly review and update it to keep up with the needs of our clients and stay ahead of the competition. This means learning new skills, developing our offerings and making strategic partnerships, so that you can scale and grow your business.

It’s important to know where you want your businesses to be in the next year to three years, so that you can put a plan in place to be prepared for the increased clients and the changing landscape.

To do this effectively, you need to know what skills you currently have within your organisation, the skills you would need to execute your plan for world domination and then see where any skills gaps would be. You can then look at adding to the skill-sets of your team and yourself to make sure that you are ready.

You may also consider recruiting new staff to help give you capacity. For example, I plan to recruit an apprentice in the autumn, I’m excited about mentoring and developing an individual to become an effective HR Professional, but I’m also excited about building the capacity within my team, so that I can take on more clients and take a break, knowing my business baby is in safe hands.

Developing staff has always been a challenge for small business owners. We are typically small and lean and so can often need to develop staff while keeping them doing what they do best. Then there can also be a fear that staff that have been developed may take their new shiny skills and go and work for someone else.

However, studies show that staff who feel appreciated and invested into, stay with an employer longer.

“employees who are ‘engaged and thriving’ at 59% less likely to look for a job with a different organisation in the next 12 months”

Gallop Research

So what are you doing to develop your team? To keep them 'engaged and thriving'? It doesn’t have to be a traditional classroom based course, take them out of your office for days at a time or cost a fortune.

When I first started studying HR we used ‘Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs’ to discuss motivations for individuals, if you’ve never seen it before, check out the image below. The theory is that there is a set of basic, psychological and self-fulfilment needs, for each individual and that you need to start with the basics as a foundation and then add the other elements.

It’s a good argument for why a good salary and benefits package isn’t enough to retain your staff, but also why fulfilling work is the key.

For the rest of the month I’ll be looking at how we can build our teams, increasing their capability, motivation and happiness.

Let us know if you have any questions in the comments section below and we will try to address them this month.           

Once upon a time ...

Once upon a time there were Three siblings and they all woke up and fancied pancakes for breakfast.

They ran down to their respective kitchens and found that they had no flour, milk or maple syrup to pour!
 
They all rushed to get dressed and pulled open their front doors …

And it was snowing HARD!!
 

The First Sibling said “I HATE Snow!” Closed their front door and had toast and jam for breakfast instead.
 
The Second Sibling said “I HATE Snow!” thought of the taste of those fluffy pancakes, sighed and stepped out, closed the door behind them and started walking to the corner shop. Halfway down the road he slipped on a patch of ice and landed on his bottom! He struggled up looked around see if anyone had witnesses his humiliation and headed back home dejected. He had porridge (with no maple syrup) for breakfast instead.
 
The Third Sibling said “I HATE Snow!” thought of the taste of those fluffy pancakes. Went into her cupboard, got her snow boots out, put them on and headed to the corner shop. She took the walk slowly and nearly fell a couple of times, but made it to the corner shop. Got her provisions and came home to make lovely fluffy pancakes, with maple syrup.
 
What do you think is the difference between there three siblings?
 
They all wanted pancakes and all hated the snow, but the desire for the fluffy pancakes was stronger for some than others.
 
When you say this is your year and you are going to make steps towards your aspirations, is the desire stronger than the obstacles you’ll face, the fear of failure or what other people think?
 
Be honest in the main which sibling are you? If you aren’t sibling 3 what’s holding you back?

I was speaking with a director last week, I’d been working with some of his managers to formulate a plan for some changes within their teams. He and I started discussing the finer details of the plan and I suggested some changes to the plan that I’d also suggested to his managers – but they had not gone for as they assumed that he wouldn’t agree. Funny thing is … he could see the pros and cons and wanted to look into it!
 
I’ve made these types of assumptions before, I’ve spoken to candidates that I assumed weren’t interested in a role, from looking at their CV or prepared for a fight with a union official, who totally understood the business needs!
 
Are you letting your assumptions stop you from moving forward in your business?
 
I hear so many entrepreneurs worry about building, growing or changing their team. If this is you schedule a call with us to discuss your HR needs here, and see how we can help you to move forward.

Why Mentors Matter

There has been a lot of press about bringing the US model of having mentors to help with career development in the news lately, I found that interesting, because I can remember organising mentoring programmes in 2005. However, in speaking with some of my colleagues who work in HR, I found that while some Graduates and Interns are often matched with mentors, those with some work experience are not.

My years of experience working alongside senior managers, employees and entrepreneurs, I’ve found one thing to be true ‘No man (or woman) is an island’. Everyone needs support and a listening ear at some point. In order to have a successful business or build a successful team within your business you need to mentor and be mentored.

As an entrepreneur it’s important to have a mentor, sometime more than one! Entrepreneur’s are often driving their business forward, focussed 100% on the tasks in hand.  Focus is a good thing but sometimes this can mean that you focus on the things that you are good at to the detriment of other things that you should be doing or reviewing.

You need someone you respect who can cast a critical eye, keep you accountable and teach you the lessons that they have learnt so that you don’t have to learn the hard way! Mentors can also open doors, introduce to you to their network and potential clients.

A great mentor will help you set your targets and keep you accountable, remind you to invest in yourself, and tell you the truth when others might not.

Within your organisation having a mentoring programme that is outside the traditional line management structure, gives your employees an opportunity to have a relationship that is focussed on developing their career, rather than their immediate objectives and gives them a safe space to explore their aspirations. Employees who are mentored tend to progress quicker, be more motivated and more loyal to the organisation.

Being a mentor is also enriching, you don’t realised how much you know until you start imparting your knowledge to others. So invest some time and reap the benefits of a more motivated, driven workforce and a more balanced you!

Learning to Love Resignation

My clients are often hugely proud of their high retention rates and low turnover. They see it as a badge of honor and take it personally when one of their work 'family' resigns.

I always find it interesting as my clients entrepreneurs who all had successful careers where they honed their skills before they started their own enterprises, and it took a considerable amount of bravery for them to leave a secure job and branch out on their own.

It got me thinking about the way that organisations deal with resignations from effective productive employees and how a resignation from an awesome member of your team can be seen as a positive thing:

Development Opportunities –

Increasingly organisations have flatter structures and so less of a career path for employees, so a resignation means you can provide employees with an opportunity to develop within the organisation, rather than outside of it.

Innovation –

A resignation is an opportunity for you to review that person’s role, amend job descriptions and add additional skills that you may need in a changing marketplace.

Fresh Blood –

New employees come with new ideas and viewpoints, which is always useful in keeping your business fresh and relevant.

Identifying Single Points of Failure –

If an employee’s resignation means a vital task within your organisation will not get done, and no one else has the skills, knowledge or qualifications to carry them out, you have a problem and that needs to be addressed.

New Business Opportunities –

An ex-employee could become or bring you your next significant customer. Remember people buy people, often people use their network when they are looking for services or products.

Alumni Hiring –

Employees do return, sometimes as contractors rather than employees, but you do get someone who knows your business, has great skills and can hit the ground running on a project or piece of work.

If you’d like some support with talent management and succession planning for your organisation, get in touch here.

When your Path is Rocky

We offer Career Coaching to both businesses and individuals – normally with our corporate clients we are working with their graduates or interns as they embark on their career, or experienced staff going through the uncertainty of a restructure. However, the individuals that we work with can be at any stage in their career, just starting, returning to the workforce after a career break, looking to change career or winding down to retirement.

I find these sessions really interesting and fulfilling as often the individual has a burning passion for something that they do (or used to do) in their spare time and never imagine that they could forge a career or start up a business in that area.

For example, I met with a lady who had an established career, she was on the management track, having gone through a management training programme with a large retailer. She then moved into local government management and had worked her way up to senior management. However, she had reached a ceiling, there was nowhere further of interest for her to go in local government and central government didn’t appeal.

When I reviewed her pre meeting questionnaire, I was amazed to see that she’d never pursued what she studied at university, even though I could see that she was volunteering in that sector. When I asked her about it, she said she would love to get paid for delivering that service, but when she graduated it was so hard to get into it, that she applied for the trainee management program at the retailer where she had a part time job during her studies and the rest was history. I could see her eyes light up at the idea of having a fulfilling career in an area that she was passionate in.

We looked at her ideal role and dream employers, we also looked a freelance options and created tailored CV’s, covering letters and prospecting messages. My lovely client was able to secure her ideal role, make a good living and get the work life balance she wanted by pursuing her passion. A year on, she is loving her role and mentoring others.

My coach always says “All of the things you have experienced, positive and negative, come together to make your life’s work”.

Here are a few tips to help you find your dream role or business:

• What do you LOVE to do?
• What do you DISLIKE doing?
• What do people often ask for your HELP with?
• What QUALIFICATIONS do you have?
• What SKILLS do you have?
• What does that little VOICE keep directing you towards?

Your ideal role is a combination of all of these elements. Take some time to sit and reflect, and you will find it!

Watch the Video on this subject here.

For help with your career planning you can find more details on our programme here.