Distracted from Action?

I keep receiving emails about business planning, the most interesting that I read, stated “Don’t let your life get in the way of your business” and it made me think, I’ve spent years in the corporate world facilitating and talking about work/life balance, why can I not balance it all? That’s one of the reasons why we started Eden Mayers!

Obviously, life happens and your business still needs to function and be profitable.  I have to say that I write this while my 4 year old is curled up asleep on the sofa, having been sick the past few days, so the article probably hit a nerve! I think I’ve got a pretty good balance, I work when my children are in school/childcare during the day and then if needed again when they are asleep.

I do find that some days I achieve a lot more than others, so here are some strategies that I have implemented to ensure my days are as productive as possible:

Have an Organised Work Space

I work both from home and my office space. I used to find that when I worked from home, I ended up working more on the house than the business, as I cannot walk past mess and the same applies to my office. Now I make sure that before I leave the office or before bed, my working space is organised and my to-do list for the next day is completed, that way I don’t get distracted with tidying or doing things that aren’t a priority.

90 Minute Madness

I work in 90 minute blocks, where I shut down my email, turn my phone to airplane mode and focus on a task or theme for 90 minutes. I find that I am able to achieve a lot in a small space of time and it prevents my mind from wandering off task.

Schedule Email and Social Media Interactions

It’s really easy to spend your day reacting to situations, especially in HR! I find that checking and responding to my emails and social media at 9am, 1pm and 5pm, helps me to avoid being distracted.

Take a Break

It is difficult to focus 100% effectively for long lengths of time. Take 5 minutes for some fresh air and to rest your eyes. Take time to eat lunch away from your laptop and phone.

Celebrate Small Successes

It’s hard to keep focused if you feel you aren’t achieving much. Remember to celebrate the small things and give yourself a pat on the back.

It takes a while to make changes become routine, but stick at it and you’ll see the benefits before you know it!

Trying to find some extra hours in the day?

Have you heard this amazing statistic?

Small business CEO’s spend an average of 20% of their day on HR tasks

That's a day a week!

A lot of clients that I speak with cite being too busy as a reason why some essential HR things don’t get done, and the reason why they need Eden Mayers HR to whip them into shape!

The majority of their battles can be put down to one thing …

DELEGATING

Now HR is my business so I spend a lot of time on and with it, however I can relate when it comes to other elements of my business. I like numbers and data analysis but it’s the job of Daniel in my team! I do have a tendency to start some analysis and take a bunch of time working on it, then get frustrated and get shown how it’s really done (sometimes in moments) with fancy excel formulae and macros. The same applies to making changes to the website!

My business is my baby so I sometimes struggle to hand things over and then complain about a lack of time. Delegating is always a big thing in our Management and Leadership coaching programmes, so I thought I’d share a few tips to help you find those extra 4 hours in the day:

Play to your strengths

Know what you are good at and stick to it. When you started your business you were a team of one and had to get everything done, now you have the ability to buy in support either though outsourced providers (accountants, VA, social media, contractors) or employees. Get the right support in and give them the autonomy to deliver.

Take the time to train

“By the time I tell them how to do it, I could have done it myself!” You have to invest time to free up time, this is the same thing I say to clients who are too busy to find time the hire the staff they need – chicken and egg! A full trained empowered employee, means freedom for you.

Block out your time

It is really easy to get distracted by the admin needed to run a business. Block your time, unless there is an emergency (or holiday) I do my admin on Fridays. I schedule in time to write blogs, call clients, record vlogs, do Facebook lives, as well as delivering to clients. It means my team know when I’m available and I know what I need to achieve during the day.

Change your location

People can’t asking you things if they can’t find you. I have a few local coffee shops and restaurants that I can escape to, put my phone on airplane mode and hook onto their wifi! I can get a days work completed in half the time, when I have no interruptions. I’m on a train for 3 hours tomorrow and I already have a work plan.

Try these time saving hacks and see if you find some extra time in your day to focus on the things that really matter.

When the team dynamic is tragic!

This week’s case study looks at resolving conflict using mediation.

I always say that the interesting thing about HR is working with people, it’s the interaction with individuals, learning about them and building relationships, then using that knowledge to influence, motivate, develop and exit them where necessary.

One of our clients contacted us, as they had a manager whose relationship with one of their team members had broken down to the point where they could not sit in the same room together. They asked us to come in and mediate with the pair as an outcome of a grievance, and see if their working relationship could be repaired, as they didn’t want to lose either person as they both had unique and hard to source skills.

We arranged a time to meet, laid down the ground rules for the discussion and began. It was soon established that some of their issues was due to cultural differences. The manager came from a country where disagreeing with your manager was not deemed as acceptable behaviour,  you were expected follow commands without questioning. The other individual came from a country where speaking your mind was expected and respected – Can you guess the countries?

The manager kept speaking over their staff member during the mediation process, every time they expressed their feelings, to the point that we had to adjourn the meeting to calm the staff member and reiterate the ground rules to the manager. After an hour and a half of clearing the air, we established the foundation for their working relationship going forward. We followed up with each individual at 1, 4 and 8 weeks post the mediation session and the relationship was much improved. They would never be friends, but had found some common ground and a language to communicate in.

Here are some tips for mediation:

• Both parties must be open to the process.
• Set ground rules.
• Remember you are there to facilitate only.
• Do not take sides.
• Compromise is the key.
• Listen actively – without interruption.
• You can adjourn if the meeting is getting heated.
• It may take more than one meeting to find a resolution.
• Not every situation can be solved by mediation.

Watch our managing directors Facebook live on the mediation here.

While mediation is not a guaranteed solution for conflict and can be time consuming. It gives you an insight into individuals and may help highlight some action that needs to be taken within your organisation to build better working relationships both internally and externally with clients. For details on how we can support you, click here.

How many version of the truth are there?

One of the joys that I get from working with entrepreneurs and small businesses is that we get to be a part of their organisation. Often their lean organisational structures mean that we get involved in second or final stages of grievance or disciplinary hearings as part of the process.

One client of mine contacted me when they received a report from a whistle-blower (Def: a person who informs on a person or organisation regarded as engaging in an unlawful or immoral activity – Oxford Dictionary). The nature of the accusation was very serious as it related to safeguarding (Def: To safeguard something or someone means to protect them from being harmed, lost, or badly treated – Collins Dictionary) and as the founder and director would need to hear the case and some of their direct reports were potential witnesses, we agreed to come in and investigate the case.

We had to speak with 12 different parties who were a combination of colleagues, managers and client of the accused individual, as well as keep the individual (who was suspended on full pay) updated with our progress.

We received differing versions of the same incident and other concerns were brought to light. To get to the bottom of things some witnesses were spoken with on three separate occasions.

In the final report we recommended that the individual involved be removed from the location that they were working in as their professionalism with those particular types of clients was in question and the individual admitted to not enjoying working with that client group. Subsequently the individual resigned and started a new vocation.

This was a complicated case, I wanted share some learnings that will help you when you have a case to investigate:

• Act as soon as possible – memory fade and the ability of individuals to conspire increases over time.
• Understand the policy you are working with – make sure you are clear on the process you are following and your obligations as a manager.
• No such things as too much communication – Keep updating those involved.
• Seek help – If you aren’t sure ask for help.
• Remain objective - do not make assumptions based on your previous experiences.
• Gather all the evidence – don’t disregard the small details.
• Be detailed in your recommendations – see it as preparation for an appeal of the outcome.

Bear these tips in mind and your investigations will be successful. For details of how we can support you, click here.

The day my professional mask slipped

A lot of the time when I meet someone new and tell them that I keep entrepreneurs out of HR trouble. I get told a dodgy or embarrassing story about an incident that an individual had to deal with. Everyone loves a bit of drama!

I like to think I’ve seen most things and am pretty difficult to shock. I am often told that I have a great poker face, but I do remember the last time a client only had to look at the look shock on my face to realise that something was very wrong!

I have a client that told me they had some outstanding issues that needed addressing when they signed up to receive our advice and support on a retained basis. I remember in our initial meeting they had probed pretty hard on our experience of dealing with staff relationships and even went as far as asking if we could create policies that banned them!

About two weeks into working with them, they contacted me because they had received an ET1 – the notification you receive from the Employment Tribunal Service when a claim has been submitted. So I went in to see them to gather evidence and see whether the case had legs.

It transpired that an employee had raised a grievance against her manager (whom it was rumoured she’d been in a relationship with) and when the grievance wasn’t upheld, she went off sick. The claim was for discrimination and also stated that she had not been paid.

When I asked for details regarding her sickness and pay. I was told we stopped her pay when she didn’t come into work and we haven’t heard from her and she hasn’t returned our calls. I asked for documents to substantiate that they had made contact and copies of the sick certificates; I was given one sick certificate!

At this point I could see that the look on my face made my client distinctly uncomfortable! I really wasn’t sure where to start cataloguing the mistakes that had been made, amongst other things they had NOT:

• Followed their grievance process and given the option of appealing the outcome of the grievance.
• Paid sick pay according to their policy.
• Documented the attempts they had made to contact the individual.
• Written to the individual after failing to contact her by phone.
• Demonstrated carrying out their duty of care to the individual

Now, in their defence they are American and this was their first experience of UK employment law, so they had made some assumption based on their U.S. experience.

I was able to speak with the individual and negotiate a settlement agreement with her (as she didn’t want to return to work), pay her was she was owed and her notice pay; for less than what it would have cost to prepare an Employment Tribunal case.

The lessons that my client (and I hope you) learnt from this experience were:

• Ensure you have comprehensive up to date HR policies in place.
• Follow your HR policies.
• Document what you have done.
• Don’t make assumptions, employment law can be complicated.
• Take advice before you act.

You can find the vlog on this subject here.

If you need HR advice and support to keep you out of HR trouble contact us to find out how we can help you here.

Delegate or Drown

As an entrepreneur it can be difficult to release the reins and allow others to work on your ‘business baby’!

Both in my corporate and entrepreneur life, I have struggled with delegating the time consuming administrative and technical tasks to others, as I was SURE they couldn’t do it as well and as quickly as me and if I was going have to teach them and then check it afterwards, I may as well have done it myself! But I wasn’t doing myself any favours, I was busy being busy, and my team wasn’t learning or developing.

The whole idea of delegation is to free you up to do the high value stuff, like speaking with potential clients and delivering 100% to your pay clients, it should also mean that you can go on holiday WITHOUT your laptop, iPad and iPhone or go to your children’s school play without worrying about what’s happening in the office. After all you became an entrepreneur to have freedom and flexibility.

I’ve had many clients say they are so busy, they need help but they have no time to find someone or they just can’t find someone who they can trust to do thing just how they want it done! Fact is, it doesn’t matter how it’s done, if the end result is want you want.

So with this in mind, here are a few signs that it’s time to start delegating:

• Its 3pm, you’ve been working all day, but haven’t completed any of the MUST DO tasks on your list.
• You’ve just spend the last 3 hours trying to make ONE SIMPLE CHANGE to your website.
• You can’t remember the last time you switched your laptop before 10pm.
• You can’t remember the last time you had a no technology day. (email/mobile/facebook/twitter/instagram).
• Some days you get to the end of the day, have been ridiculously busy but can’t name a thing you’ve done and so have no sense of accomplishment.
• Your only solution (on a regular basis) is to just work through the night, so you can get everything done.

If this is you, it’s time to consider what tasks you can delegate and then train, coach and mentor your team or find a service that you can outsource some tasks to.

To find out more, check out how we can support you here.

Sure you want to be called a Leader?

In the beginning of this month’s focus on Leadership, I said that to be an entrepreneur you had to be a leader. To be successful you’ve got to do a great job of influencing and motivating your team, clients and most importantly yourself – especially when no one else sees your amazing vision!

It’s a tough life being an innovator, taking risks and daring to be different, the very definition of an entrepreneur is: ‘A person who sets up business or businesses taking on financial risk in the hope of profit’ or  ‘One who organises, manages and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise’.

So, how do you build the mind-set needed to be a risk taker who bucks the trend and goes with their gut - with the right planning and research of course!

And the answer is RESILIENCE!

The definition of Resilience is ‘the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness’

Resilience is all about how you deal with the challenges and obstacles that come your way. We all know that being an entrepreneur isn’t all blue sky thinking, ah-ha moments and sweet sales! The question is how you bounce back when you feel stuck or get feedback that makes you question yourself.

A little while ago, as part of a training programme I was asked to ask friends, family, colleagues and clients for 3-5 words that they would use to describe me and almost all of them said resilient. I was surprised, I didn’t write that down about myself, but as I thought about it I realised that I’d been building my resilience all my life and love proving naysayers wrong. I loved it when I passed my driving test before my ‘friend’ who said they’d get there’s before me or when I decided to go back to university to do my Masters and people told me it would be too hard as a newly-wed with a demanding full time job. I’ve never let doubt or worry prevent me for going for what I really wanted!

So, below are a few tips to help you remain focused when the only cheerleader you have is yourself:

Start your day right

I find that the tone with which I start my day has a big effect on my mood and productivity. I try to make sure that I start the day right by either going for a run or exercising most mornings. I also read a daily devotional and pray to set up my morning before the rest of my family wakes up. I find that the exercise wakes my brain up and the prayer puts my heart and mind in the right place.

Keep a Positive Attitude

I remember when I worked in customer services during my summer holidays, I realised that if angry customers shouted at me and I remained positive, I was able to calm them, sort out their issue and not feel so stressed myself. Always try to see the positive in every situation, sounds corny but there really is always a silver lining.

Don’t take things personally

Your business is your ‘baby’, as an entrepreneur it’s difficult not to take things personally as you have put all your passion into achieving your dream and taken the associated risks. I used to get very emotional when things didn’t turn out the way I planned, even when others gave me positive feedback, all I could see were the errors. You have to learn to separate your individual self-worth from the success of your business because everyone will have an opinion on your business but that doesn’t mean it’s how that think or feel about you. I’ve learnt to say “That’s an interesting idea, thank you” and let it go.

Remember you can’t please everyone

As a business owner you try to please your clients or product users and keep your team motivated. It is good that this is your focus, however remember that “You can please some of the people all of the time or all of the people some of the time”. You can lose focus and begin to doubt yourself and doubt and fear have killed more dreams than failure.

Try these tips this week to build your resilience and you will feel more focused and less stressed. You can find the vlog on this subject here.

Want to build your People Management resilience? Check out our online training programme here.

You're not a Coach!

A big part of developing your leadership skills, is learning how to coach, mentor and influence individuals. So I guess your question is what’s the difference and why is it important?

Well …

Coaching is … generally task or objective related, helping an individual to do something specific and once that has been completed the relationship normally ends.

Mentoring is … generally long term and future driven. They work best when the mentor isn’t directly responsible for the mentee.

Influencing is … the ability to effect the character, development or behaviour of an individual.

Now I believe that the key skills that links all of these together are LISTENING and EMPATHY.

To influence, coach and mentor you need to understand the other persons, likes, dislikes, aspirations, hopes, fears and learning style. Then package your advice and instruction accordingly.

You have to ask questions and then really listen and engage, then respond in an authentic way. It’s pointless saying “I’ve been there” when you haven’t. The idea is to use questions to help the other person come up with the solution, rather than just telling them. It takes time to build your skill at having this type of conversation without getting frustrated.

Good questions to ask include:

• What could the best outcome be?
• What part of what you just said could be an assumption?
• If I were in your shoes and asked you that question, what would you say?
• What are the positive outcomes of this negative situation?
• What would you try now if you knew you could not fail?
• When will you start?
• What are you waiting for?
• And?

This week, when your team comes to you with issues, try asking questions instead of just giving the answer (where appropriate) and see what happens. Let us know in the comment’s below. You can find our Vlog on Coaching here.

To find out more about the services we offer and book a discovery call, click here.

Happy coaching and mentoring!

Are you a Leader or a Follower?

“Leaders Bring You Along, Managers Push You Along”, have you ever heard that saying?

There are distinct differences between a manager and a leader, even though you do have leaders who manage and managers who are leaders.

Remember when you started your business? You had to motivate yourself, push forward and make things happen. You had to win that business, make the sale and convince your family, friends and funders that your business was a going concern that will be hugely successful?

You led them to understanding your business, to join you on your business journey as a client, investor or cheerleader. That’s what a leader is, someone who takes people with them, using a compelling message.

Sounds easy right?

As an entrepreneur, you need to have the skills of both a leader and a manager. It’s not easy as often influencing others can take more time than just directing them to a task! And time is always short for an entrepreneur!

However the pluses for leading your team, is that by giving them greater autonomy, you get freed up to do the high value tasks that only you have the skills to deliver and who knows what amazing ideas your team may have for improving your business, creating efficiency and increasing your bottom line.

Below are some of the differences in the behavioural characteristics of a leader and manager:

Manager v Leaders Behaviours

Manager Drives employees ... Leader Coaches them

Depends on authority ... On goodwill

Inspires Fear ... Generates enthusiasm

Says “I” ... Says “We”

Places blame for the problem ... Fixes the problem

Knows how it is done ... Shows how it’s done

Uses people ... Develops people

Takes credit ... Give credit

Commands ... Asks

Say “Go” ... Says “Let’s Go”

See my Live Video on the subject here.

Next week we will be looking at how to develop your leadership behaviours.

Are you Flexibly Friendly?

This is the final week of our July focus on Health and Well-Being. This week we are looking at flexible working and family friendly policies.

When I speak with Entrepreneurs about the reasons why they started their companies, flexibility almost always comes up, whether it is to able collect the children from school, watch their favorite teams home and away games or take a holiday 8 times a year!

Obviously if you are the boss, you can make your day work for you, but that may be different for those that work with and for you. Being able to work flexibly is a really great perk to offer your staff and for more and more individuals it is becoming a deal breaker.

All employees has a legal right to ask for flexible working once they have completed 26 weeks of employment. Flexible working can come in many forms including:

• Job Share – Splitting a role between two individuals
• Working from home – Performing all or part of their role from home
• Part time working – Reducing the contractual days or hours a person works
• Compressed hours – Working the same contractual hours in less days
• Flexi-time – Working core hours, but flexing the start and end times

Employers have to reasonably consider the application and make a decision within 3 months.

If the request is agreed, it should be confirmed in writing, with a start date and any contractual amendments made.

You can reject applications for the following reasons:

• Extra costs that will damage the business
• The work can’t be reorganised among other staff
• People can’t be recruited to do the work
• Flexible working will affect quality and performance
• The business won’t be able to meet customer demand
• There’s a lack of work to do during the proposed working times
• The business is planning changes to the workforce

Again, this would need to be communicated to the individual in writing. While there is no obligation to allow an employee to appeal the decision, it would be best practice to do so, as you could be taken to employment tribunal if an individual believed that their applications wasn’t being treated fairly and it would be good to be able to evidence a best practice process.

Giving your staff some flexibility around their working times and location, can reap massive benefits for your organisation from a point of view of motivation, retention and work quality.

What flexible policies do you currently offer to your team members?

The link to the blog on this subject is here.

This is the last blog on health and well-being. Do let us know which subject has been most useful for you this month and what changes you have implemented.

For August we will be looking at building our leadership skills.

Is your working environment inspiring or demotivating you?

The environment in which you and your work is vitally important and it’s not just the colour of the walls, locations of windows or if you have the latest Nespresso machine!

Your work environment consists of your geographical location, physical location and the people around you.

If the mere sight of your working space fills you with dread and overwhelm, it isn’t going to be conductive to creative, effective and efficient working.

When I worked corporately they called me Monica from Friends; stacks of papers, dirty coffee cups and rubbish could not be in my eye line, I often ended up washing up everything in the sink, instead of just my plate and fork at lunchtime!

I also had the same problem when I started out as an entrepreneur, working from my dining table! I had to tidy the house before I could start working, but also I lost quite a bit of time on the phone and WhatsApp, because being home alone all day is lonely.

Now I work from a lovely co-working space at least twice a week. It’s clean, tidy and well lit. I get to be surrounded by entrepreneurs from across London and feel like part of a community.

How does your current working environment inspire you and your team? Here are some tips to help you improve your working environment so that you and your team will be more productive and creative:

Location

Location isn’t just the street that your office is based on and the shops nearby. Sometimes just moving your desk so you can see out of a window and get some natural light makes a big difference.

Furniture

Being flexible about working space is a great way to improve the environment. Think about a section where you can work standing (I often use a standing desk set-up at home), having non-tradition ergonomic chairs (backless chairs/balls) or having a break out space, with comfy chairs or bean bags.

Working Equipment

There are some basic things that should just BE in a workplace. Safe working machinery, no trailing wires or other trip hazards. Ensure your work area is clean, tidy, with ample storage and the provision of a good coffee machine, fresh fruit, water and snacks will always help.

Noise levels

If you have a department or individual that is loud or spends the majority of time on the phone as part of their role. It’s important to organise your office space in a way that contains the sound and providing a separate area for telephone calls, is a good idea if you have the space for it.

You can find the Vlog for this subject here.

Let us know what improvements you’ll be making to your working environment, in the comments section below.

Are you Managing Your Stress or is Your Stress Managing You?

Everyone has Stress in their lives and while there is no universal definition of Stress. Put simply, Stress is the way that your body physically responds to mental or emotional pressure. Your job, relationships, family life, money and other commitments can all contribute to your levels of Stress.

The challenge isn’t removing instances of stress (that would be impossible!), it’s recognising when there is too much pressure and what we do to address it in ourselves and our teams.

I like to say people can be either problem solvers or problem multipliers. I once had a manager who would always up the pressure, when she had a run in with her boss; it was as if her way of dealing with stress, was to stress everyone she came across! It wasn’t an endearing quality in a manager, so soon grievances and sick notes became a common occurrence!

The most important thing you can do for yourself and your team, is to keep the lines of communication open and think out of the box when it comes to how you can support your team at times of stress.

Signs to look for in yourself and your team include:

• Negative or depressive feeling
• Disappointment with yourself
• Increased emotional reactions - more tearful or sensitive or aggressive
• Loneliness, withdrawn
• Loss of motivation commitment and confidence
• Mood swings
• Confusion, indecision
• Can’t concentrate
• Poor memory
• Changes in eating habits
• Increased smoking, drinking or drug taking 'to cope'
• Mood swings effecting your behaviour
• Changes in sleep patterns
• Twitchy, nervous behaviour
• Changes in attendance such as arriving later or taking more time off.

Techniques of stress management include:

• Developing an understanding of Stressor's
• Time management (including delegation)
• Conflict resolution
• Adopting a more Positive attitude
• Talking to others
• Breathing exercises
• Meditation
• Exercise
• Altering your diet
• Taking more regular and effective rest

You can get more information on stress management, from The Health and Safety Executive here

The Vlog on this subject can be found here.