I got to this beach hut- I promised myself that I would. I wrote this in 2020

Hola LinkedIn readers... It’s good to see you again. I have worked in the world of Learning & Development a fair few years, and I still love it. Lucky me!. How do I know that I love it, well.....

I've had a break from connecting with people, as I pursue my self- employed life. For over two months I've seriously removed myself from a routine, e mails, meetings, milestone plans, flip charts, fruity smelling marker pens. I simply miss the human connection. I don’t do I’ll work from home so well. Sometimes, we dream of what we want to do, experience and savour within our lives and quite often they do become just words and not actions. If you stop and think about that one thing you always wanted to do, such as play the guitar, learn how to tailor cut. You may have started it, did you continue with it. Ace, if you did!

Yes, I did say the word ' Ace' I'm a 70's child. My point is, I decided to go self -employed, knowing that it would be different, hard work and relentless.

I underestimated the relentless part, let’s be honest, we'd all love an easier life. I coach and train professionals around their skills and attributes, so here I am in all of my glory, sharing mine now.

I’d like you to class this as a digital blog

resume, and read on.

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A little bit about me and my recent experiences at Royal Mail. I'd consider my role as the Leadership Academy Change Manager the ultimate career and mind set game changer. I was catapulted into a brand new world of unions, legacy mindset and extreme deep rooted habits, that a tsnumai would struggle to shift. I loved every minute ( not quite) of it.

On reflection, I'm very proud of the stakeholder relationships that I built through influencing a more open and collaborative approach, dealing with ambiguity from 2 different reports and translating the strategic needs into something applicable to my goals and achieving complex and confusing ROI’s.

Communication and influencing are very underestimated within larger organisations, as the C suites expectations are often not so clear with the true front line Managers or the ' shop floor' so to speak. The key to the success of the leadership transformation programme was in the milestone plan, key players and the overall approach towards the WHY.

Purpose and intent is everything when it alludes to communicating to an audience where you have new Managers entering into a 501 year old business that digs its heels in when it comes to changing even a small habit. So, what do you do. You involve the potential ' blockers', explain the purpose and ask for help, instead of keep them out of the picture. It’s surprising who wants to be part of something when you probe. Basic human needs, that’s all.

To organise a proof of concept on a national directorate is not for the faint hearted, and neither is being the new person who doesn’t quite fit in, or has earned the credibility of respect from a Senior Leader that’s only ever worked for one Company. Unfortunately, you'll be challenged or blocked at the first hurdle. My FTC contract ended in August, and it was a huge journey and opportunity to grow a set and say to myself “ I’m pretty good in driving results through bringing people on the journey and smashing success”. It’s a pretty proud accolade.

The proud achiever

My biggest achievement throughout my careers has been achieving a huge reduction of pre-join attrition, decreasing new Management attrition and the success of delivering several complex, large programs being delivered under immense pressure. I have gained incredible for sight and resilience within call centres, public and private sector as well as working in Thailand, Ibiza and the US with some amazingly talented and inspiring professionals. The people that we meet on the way help to carve and influence the way we act, feel and respond. Often, only on reflection do you realise that because the stressed Manager used to e- mail you at 5 am and 22:30 with relentless and silly demanding requests that were not achievable made you who you are.

The plan that you thought was good, hadn’t considered someone’s expertise that had better advice, because pressure meant that you didn’t make time to look up and pause. In everything that I have done, I have learnt, so I’d say I’m self -critical, confident and assertive when it comes to dealing with ambiguity.

The only way you can enjoy what you do and truly get results is by understanding the challenges, strengths and desires of individuals, the organisation and its customers. Culture is key. People talk about culture like its theory. It’s this simple, we become who we are surrounded by. We talk about what we’ve listened to. We act how we are feeling, regardless of heaps of self- awareness. I listen to supposed experts discuss high EQ. yet we don’t role model it. So, lets start to do that.

If you were to ask me what I love doing, the first thing that springs to mind is being with people, supporting, empowering and encouraging talent to realise their own capability. I take pride in listening, and I mean really listening to signals, self -limiting emotions and triggers that stop so many people from growth. I've studied human behaviour for such a long time and never assume, which removes any kind of ego, and I’m always told professionals learn in my environment based upon trust and relatability. I'm not conventional and I don’t want to be. I won't patronise anyone through poor, plastic coaching methods, because humans are intelligent they simply need a nudge, not a ' tell'. The only person that can change what they do is that person, so if your Sales Agents aren’t doing what you're telling them to, then that’s because you're telling them, not listening and possibly not even effectively coaching. Pressure creates reactions in all humans, and I am not perfect, however I will always consider why people aren’t performing at their A game, and help filter that into something that's digestible and applicable. I simply love this part of my job. So, I will continue to use what I am good at, and build on my own growth in the meantime.

Change comes from crystal clear honesty and clarity, and even the best CEO's in the world make it up as they go along, it’s part of the excitement, but for goodness sake, don't pretend you can do everything alone. No one can.

My product offering is versatile, genuine and I will always deliver to a deadline. We may not always agree on ways of working, which means that I am confident to positively challenge any business in terms of getting you to think about spending your training and development budget wisely. I've experience from f***** g up, from thinking I was right. I also now know to pause is smarter than rushing.

If you’re looking for a professional learning and development Consultant that has tenacity and drive, I'm here

Let’s be awesome- I need to get to that beach hut in March !

[email protected]