Really Useful Conversations

This is my final guest interview wrapping up Season 3, and I’d encourage you to listen in as I chat with Tim Roberts, a Leadership Coach who takes a no BS approach!   Author of ‘Break the Mould’ about which Tim says ‘it’s worth reading if you want to be a better leader or role model in the workplace’ and in our conversation we explore the often quoted ‘authentic leadership’ phrase - and dig into what it takes to be both true to yourself AND be an effective leader to others.    We hope you’ll enjoy listening to our ‘Really Useful Conversation’ and if you want to know more about Tim, you’ll find his website a great place to start!   Thanks for tuning in and please do share with colleagues who might also benefit.

Barbara Nixon is THE Success and Leadership Coach for ambitious Business Leaders. With a strong background in the commercial world, where she designed hundreds of senior leadership development programmes and was responsible for the Management Development for all 3000 Managers.  She worked for all areas of the business which has given her the broad commercial knowledge that helps her to help her clients today. Whether a newly promoted manager trying to find their feet, an established manager with a sudden realisation of imposter syndrome, or a business owner who is keen to get out of the weeds, side step self doubt & elevate, Barbara is the person to talk to! As a Business Leader it's easy to think you should always feel in control, be super confident, and have all the answers - but this often is not the case and with 27 years experience, Barbara really is a secret weapon to have in your toolkit! She is also one of the incredible speakers at the Actually, she can! conference, a unique opportunity for women in business to embrace a day of personal development and inspiration, so watch this space for more info! But for now, settle in to hear what Barbara has to say that might help you be the confident leader you really want to be - and find out more about her at

If you are a manager or leader, self-awareness and the impact that you have is critical to success. So if I asked you the question "Does the room light up when you enter or when you leave?" - what would YOU say and more importantly, what would your PEOPLE say? As a manager or leader your style and behaviour is the single biggest influence on the performance of your team and can affect levels of motivation, engagement, performance, attendance even staff retention (or not!) So much of what YOU do and how YOU behave will impact that – positively or negatively. This brisk and pacy episode is an opportunity for that all important mirror-moment amongst the busy-ness of business to give you chance to consider “Am I doing all the right things?” and consider whether your intentions are delivering the impact and outcome you desire, or whether there are things that you might choose to do differently. I hope you will find it useful as a reflection and to increase self-awareness, it might even inspire a conversation with your team where you ask them for some feedback too!"

ACAS received over 200,000 enquiries about workplace bullying incidents in just one year. Many people worry about what to do, how to handle it, what their rights are and how to deal with it if the issue is from a manager or someone in authority.  I know from my 30+ years of experience in industry that this is an issue organisations want to deal with quickly - no employer would want anyone in their organisation to be having a negative experience of this nature, but sometimes the line between banter and bullying gets very thin, and sometimes what started "as a joke" can turn into unwanted behaviour or comments.  Workplace bullying is an example of a psychosocial hazard that we all need to be aware of and working to eliminate, and this episode is intended to offer sound advice to anyone who feels they are being bullied, as well as a reminder to employers of their duty of care not just for physical health and safety but also for protection of mental, emotional and psychological health and safety in the workplace.  This episode follows on from my recent interview with Katie Skelton and I hope you will find it helpful.

What would you do if someone shouted you down in a meeting in front of colleagues? And then followed you out of the meeting room and leaned into your face? And what if a bunch of senior managers witnessed it and allowed it as "it us just who he is"? Sadly people often get away with bad behaviour, behaviour that is bullying and not acceptable, because they have technical expertise or knowledge that the business needs, so their bad behaviour is ignored or accepted. In today's podcast I get to speak to Katie Skelton from about her experience of workplace bullying and explore how psychosocial safety is critical in organisations who want to get the best out of people. ACAS report that in one year they had over 200,000 calls to their helplines about workplace bullying and together Katie and I chat about this sensitive subject and the issues it can cause. I will also be releasing a follow up episode to this to help employers who are committed to tackling bullying in the workplace, and with advice for employees who might be experiencing it. Bullying doesn't just happen top down, but also bottom up, and we will be exploring examples of that too. I hope you will find this episode helpful in bringing this subject to the table where we can explore it and importantly take steps to tackle it in your own organisation, if it is indeed lurking somewhere within.

If you are looking for ways in which to make sure your business has long-term sustainable success and you recognise the importance of a diverse and inclusive workplace that allows your people to flourish and thrive, then you will want to tune into this week’s podcast. My conversation with Toby Mildon, Diversity and Inclusion Architect, and author of “Inclusive Growth” is all about how he helps his clients to  strategically align diversity and inclusion to organisational growth, change the culture and motivate senior leaders to ‘walk the talk’ for inclusivity, He helps clients to design and implement a sustainable inclusivity infrastructure so that it is not just a HR responsibility, and in our conversation we explore why this matters and the first steps to get you moving in the right direction. You can find out more about Toby and the work that he does around this important topic at and his book “Inclusive Growth” is available from all good book sellers! I hope you will enjoy our conversation and that you will also consider joining me on 22nd May to “Mind the Gap – the difference between Intention and Impact” – full details at Hope to see you there!

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.