Talking Toughness

In 'Part Two' of this discussion with Karen Walker, she explores further how her extensive experience of developing Customer Service at the top of organisations such as Virgin Media, Centrica and First Direct helped her to create strategies for developing organisations into thriving communities.

"Organising yourself around customers means understanding their needs before they do. It should never be a sell, rather there is a need, and I am going to fill that need". Her approach to people development is the same, which she also attaches to the idea of 'purpose'.

Karen adds that what keeps her going is having a goal that is gently stretching. Because in that process, she tries different things and through that, both she and everyone else, can grow.

To develop that holy grail of intrinsic motivation in those around you, you must be motivated in the same way yourself.

This is a thoughtful and very practical business leader demonstrating what leadership can achieve.

Listen, learn and be inspired.

Our guest for our next podcasts is Karen Walker, Director of MP Services, Strategy and Change at the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority and Non-Executive Director at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Karen is simply one of the most thoughtful and purposeful people we have ever worked with.

With a background in customer and people experience with Virgin Media, Centrica and First Direct, Karen brings a valuable perspective to organisation development.

In 'Part One' Karen talks about the challenges she faced in her current role in an organisation with so unique demands placed upon its staff. As well as addressing issues of resilience and confidence, Karen appreciated the need for positivity and diagnosing staff needs carefully which brought her to the Mental Toughness concept. In her words "The mental toughness assessment has helped us to understand where we've got growth opportunities as a whole".

With her colleagues, Karen is making excellent progress, building a culture embracing diversity and inclusion as a precursor to building a culture of thriving.

What excites us most, is that Karen and her colleagues have managed to bring the mentally sensitive and the mentally tough together in a manner which optimises their contribution and their wellbeing.

Which remains a puzzle for so many in the 21st Century.

This is learning from the one who is doing it.

"The challenges for most people around the world are pretty much the same"

Our guest for the second part of this podcast is Charles Cormack. Founder of the Charles Cormack group, he now works in more than 30 countries helping Universities, their staff and their students to optimise what they do.

In session two we look at the growth of the international student.

Exponentially on the increase, the huge benefits of studying overseas are undoubted.

It's not without challenges including the student's own mental responses to finding themselves in a radically different setting to the one they have experienced to date.

The Cormack Group also seeks to get staff to understand concepts like mental toughness that matter when helping young people manage stressors and pressure of this type. If staff don't understand it, how can they support their students?

An important application is in social mobility where a parallel challenge rests. It is important to open HE opportunity to everyone. For some, this can be as daunting as travelling to another country.

For those engaged in the education of young people, this is a must-listen podcast.

Creating partnerships working across the global Higher Education sector

Helping to ensure happy outcomes for students and the establishment.

Our guest for the podcasts in two parts is Charles Cormack. With a background in the hospitality industry, Charles has brought these skills to the world of Higher Education where creates partnerships and services that benefit Universities, their staff and their students.

In session one we explore Charles's philosophy of adding value to the University sector particularly in the internationalisation of Higher Education through innovation and the creation of sustainable partnerships.

It's an example of helping organisations look beyond their own boundaries to identify and grab opportunities.

Charles has embraced the mental toughness concept and the MTQPlus measure to help universities and business schools identify those students who have resilience issues and are at risk of not completing their programmes.

This matters always. The economic case is unarguable.

It is especially important when looking at students from overseas with a variety of cultural backgrounds and who may be attending courses which are not of their choosing and doing so in a foreign environment. Mental toughness is a key aspect of training staff to work with these students.

The lessons are applicable everywhere.

"Mental Toughness is about coming to terms with 'who you are, and understanding who you are".

In this second part of an exceptional podcast, our guest Rebecca Hebert explores the mental toughness concept and what it means for her as an individual and for her work in leadership an organisation development.

Rebecca talks about self-awareness about your mental toughness, an overused term, but she does so in a very down to earth and thoughtful manner. We are who we are, and sometimes this is to our advantage and sometimes it puts us in a disadvantage. Knowing this and its relevance for the way you will connect with others and situations, helps to recognise what you might need to change to find a solution.

Finally, Rebecca talks about the way she and her colleagues have taken the mental toughness concept and applied it as a way of showing staff that senior leadership genuinely cared for them and their challenge - 'when we said we cared, we meant we cared'.

Rebecca is, above all, someone who is innovative and thoughtful with the courage to carefully apply what she knows will provide solutions that benefit everyone – staff, the organisation and its clients.

If you want to learn what a 21st century approach should look like, listen here.

PURPOSE, MEASURES, METHOD

Creating effective organisations in today's world means "Getting rid of barriers, clearing lines for people to thrive and flourish in spite of the system".

Our guest for this podcast in two parts is Rebecca Herbert who is a People Experience Specialist at The UK Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA).

Rebecca started off working with young people who were not in Education Employment or Training where she found that the "system did NOT serve people?". Her response was to find solutions for those who needed them most.

Her experiences led her to understand the importance of diversity of 'thought' - how we think and how we approach things. Those differences were often the key to "make things happen".

Now she brings this experience and her approach to leadership and organisational development.

Rebecca describes leadership as not knowing the answers but knowing who you can trust to find the answers, creating the space for people to do that. It's always been the case but never more so than now. Leaders need to trust themselves and others to come up with solutions because you can't come up with them all yourself.

Rebecca is, above all, someone who is innovative and thoughtful. Unlike many, she practices what she preaches.

If you want to learn what a 21st century approach should look like, listen here.

Our guest for this and the following podcast is Binod Shankhar.

Binod is well known across the Middle East as the founder of Genesis – now Kaplan Professional Middle East – which is one of the leading providers of training for CFA charter holders in the region. CFA stands for Chartered Financial Analyst.

He appears on regional TV as a pundit on financial and economic affairs and is a passionate advocate of proactive strategies for success in life and in work.

He is now developing a successful career as an executive coach for professionals who want to move up to the C Suite. Since training in the use of the mental toughness concept, he has incorporated that into much of his work.

He is a thoughtful person who reflects on and learns from everything he sees and experiences which has led him to distil this into a bestselling book "Let's Get Real: 42 Tips for the Stuck Manager".

In this book and in this podcast, he focuses on the individual where he explores confidence, challenge, fear of failure, learning from your experiences and procrastination, as factors which either help or hinder you in the journey through life.

Always interesting and never dull, this is a "must listen" podcast.

Our guest for this podcast, the second part of a long and hugely interesting conversation is Binod Shankhar.

The founder of what is now Kaplan Genesis – a leading provider of training and support for Chartered Accountants in the region and a TV pundit on financial and economic affairs, he is a passionate advocate of proactive strategies for success in life and in work.

He is now developing a successful career as a coach for aspiring chartered accountants and senior leaders he has incorporated the mental toughness concept into much of his work. He explores motivation and how coaching and leadership both have their role in this.

In this episode, he addresses the challenge of developing organisations and ensuring that this is about much more than systemic structures. It must be integrated with individual development of its staff.

Those who know Binod will describe him as provocative – in a good way. Always interesting and never dull, this is another "must listen" podcast.

"Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country" - JFK

Our guest for this podcast is Paul Trainor.

Paul brings an interesting, socially aware, perspective to the application of mental toughness.

Paul is a practitioner who work with schools to develop key life skills in young people and uses sport as a metaphor for life to engage them in learning. He and his team do this successfully. The mental toughness concept is a key element of his practice.

Paul is also a director of Salford Rugby League Club where he is very active in the club's development. It is one of England's Super League clubs. Uniquely in this elite set-up, it is a genuinely community-based club.

This enables Paul to bring his interests together – helping young people to prosper; helping rugby athletes to deal with the challenges they face and engaging the club with the whole community.

His philosophy is both inspiring and humbling. It captures the sentiment expressed by President Kennedy so many years ago which still resonates today.

It's a podcast that "keeps on giving".

In this podcast, we welcome back Dean Mumm. As captain of the Australian Rugby Union team, the Wallabies and captain of Exeter Chiefs rugby club, Dean faced and dealt with many challenges.

What we learned in our earlier podcasts is that Dean and Sarah, his wife, had, at the same time, dealt with far greater personal challenges which tested every aspect of their resilience and positivity.

Dean and his wife lost their first four children to pre-term birth. It is difficult to imagine what that must feel like.

In this podcast, Dean shares with us what happened, how they felt and how they responded. It is a description of self-belief, of hope and optimism, of grit and determination.

Now, parents to two beautiful children, Dean and Sarah channel their considerable energy into the Bourne HMRI Foundation raising funds to support research into pre-term birth.

If anyone wants to understand what a positive and resilient mindset is and what it can achieve, this is it. As Dean so eloquently puts it in the podcast "No one says we can't have children, yes - it is going to be difficult but yes - we want to have a family, so what do you do? You keep going".

Its humbling and inspiring in equal measure.

This is what being self-aware about your mental toughness can achieve.

For those interested to know more and how they can help, go to https://hmri.org.au/dean-and-sarah-mumms-story