Really Useful Conversations

This week I am chatting to another one of the "Actually, she can!" line up - the wonderful Soulful Stylist Kate Harrison who will be running a workshop on the 27th February "Styling for confidence - inside and out".  Kate started her career in the fashion industry, later moving into image consultancy and co-founded the first UK High Street Advice Studio, welcomging thousands of women over the years for personal styling and corporate events, and realised just how much the colours we wear and surround ourselves with affects our energy, and indeed also our confidence. Kate has a wealth of experience in this arena and chats to me in this podcast episode about her background and the value that she is brining to the Actually, she can! agenda. Honestly, you will be spoilt for choice in the workshops that we have on offer - personally I want to attend them ALL!  Actually, she can! takes place next February 27th in Runcorn, Cheshire and offers an inspirational day of personal growth and professional development by women, for women, fundraising for future female talent and we have already sold over half of the tickets with 3 months still to go - don't miss out! Tickets are available from the actuallyshecan.co.uk website or if you are an organisation wanting your own table, drop me a note and I can arrange that for you!  But for now, sit back, listen and enjoy as Kate and I chat about the fantastic opportunity she is offering to those who are attending - it's a fabulous listen!

Barbara Nixon is one of the 13 professional speakers, authors and coaches who are giving their time and talent and expertise to help me raise funds for young women in Halton Borough, and in this episode we chat about the insights and opportunity for growth and development that Barbara will be bringing to the day. This woman is an absolute gem and has so much value to offer an audience, honestly, just her contribution to the line up is worth the ticket price alone!  If imposter syndrome is something that catches you out on occasions, or you have a terrible habit of getting in your own way with over-thinking or self-doubt, then Barbara is defintely someone you should come and here from. She will be speaking from stage in the morning and in the afternoon running a more intimate, participative workshop too - 27th February 2025 at The Heath Conference Centre in Runcorn with ALL proceeds from the day being ring fenced to help young female talent in Halton Borough to get a foot on the career ladder and pursue their aspirations.    Hope you enjoy our chat and to find out more visit the ActuallySheCan.co.uk website.

And in this episode we will talk a little more about the Actually, she can! project - where the idea came from, who it will help and why it matters. It's a unique opportunity for women, by women, supporting future female talent and you really do not want to miss out if you can help it. If you are a supporter of equality of opportunity, promote and champion equity at work and are keen to see women given the opportunities for development and growth as professionals in the workplace, then this project really is for you!  Please do share and help me get the word out there and together we can make incredible things happen!

Having had a break away for a few months, I want to update you on what I have been up to and where we are going with this next season of the podcast. If championing equality is your thing, and you are keen to support female talent in the workplace, then please tune in and I'll share a little more with you about a fantastic opportunity that is coming up for women, by women - which in turn is a fundraiser for future female talent in a deprived UK Borough.

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!