Women Who Lead

Charu Malhotra is an OG of the Talent world. She and I have been knocking around in this space for a looooooong time, and she has worked with some incredible businesses during her career.

I invited Charu onto the pod to provide a special perspective for those of you in Talent (well and beyond!), because I want to make sure you get every ounce of inspiration to be all you can be at work and in life.

✳️ The importance of values when it comes to speaking up at work, let this bit push you into finding your voice and taking up space
✳️ The real challenges in recruitment around self esteem and feeling like a service provider, but only to remind you of the magic you bring!
✳️ AI is here, does it give us a chance to dial up on our human-ness, what might you want to change in order to evolve with it?
✳️ The magic that happens in your career and life, when you let yourself be just who you are

There's also a brilliant interlude, baked in the middle of our conversation somewhere, but one that you won't want to miss, all about challenging conversations, go find it!

Thank you for being here. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions, I'd love to hear from you at [email protected].

As I say in the start of this episode, when I saw Saira Gangji posting online and felt her energy, I knew I had to say hello. There are so many elements within the HR arena that we are just expected to know how to do well, workplace investigations is one of them. 

I love that she brings so much love and humanity to something that can be a really hard moment in time for humans as Founder of hrology. Join us as we unpack: 

✳️  The fact that if you were ever on the fence about the value of values, after this episode you will be running to grab my free values exercise here

✳️  That one of the biggest challenges in relationships is when you don’t know yourself well enough, it’s so hard to lead others when you don’t

✳️ How to approach workplace investigations with humanity and integrity, and not contribute to the trauma that already exists

✳️ And how to do all that taking all the parties involved in the process with you, really creating the right vibe with leaders

There's also a brilliant interlude, baked in the middle of our conversation somewhere, but one that you won't want to miss, all about VALUES! Because we love them.

Thank you for being here. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions, I'd love to hear from you at [email protected].

I first connected with Naomi Trickey as I kept hearing about how amazing she is, and they all were right! She's generous with her time, heart-led with her counsel, and really is a Chief People Officer to know.

She is the master of a career pivot, but describes her move into the People world as like she was coming home. I love the idea of humans from different background entering the HR profession, and if that's you, you will love this!

Join us as we cover:
✳️ How to stop constantly proving your worth as an HR leader
✳️ How much freedom you get from being at the top table, and how much influence you can have in steering the strategy
✳️ How to harness the power of agile to unlock creativity

There's also a brilliant interlude, baked in the middle of our conversation somewhere, but one that you won't want to miss, all about recovering your creativity - which trust me, you want to do!

Thank you for being here. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions, I'd love to hear from you at [email protected].

Daryn Edgar is a phenomenal 2nd time CEO (and counting). I was lucky enough to get to work closely with her, and I've made it my business to keep her in my world ever since.

She brings a lot of heart into how she leads, but balances it with commercial acumen and decisiveness. And boy did she bring the goodness for us gang.

This episode is for you if you want to know about:
✳️ How to step into leadership in a way where your heart is right in the middle of it, getting past feeling like you always have something to prove.
✳️ The importance of the women you surround yourself with, and how to make mentorship what you really need it to be
✳️ How important it is to ffind your sweet spot and try to work as much as possible within that - I like to call it the zone of genius!

There's also a brilliant interlude, baked in the middle of our conversation somewhere, but one that you won't want to miss. It tells you the stages of career development, so you can take a breath and see where you want to be.

Thank you for being here. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions, I'd love to hear from you at [email protected].

Saná Rasul Walker is the woman you meet once and feel like you've known her forever. She also founded a truly amazing community for women in HR called HR Girlfriends that you have to be a part of.

What I love about her is just how much accountability and honesty she leads with. For me, that's everything and honestly, was one of the biggest ways I learnt how to start to step into myself.

This episode is for you if you want to know about:
✳️ How to overcome fear and use it as a catalyst rather than something that holds you back
✳️ How we can be soooooo bad at taking care of and investing in ourselves as women in HR, and she's right!
✳️ What we can do to build ourselves up and take up space at work, but in real and tangible ways

There's also a brilliant interlude, baked in the middle of our conversation somewhere, but one that you won't want to miss. It helps with things like burnout so look out for it!

Thank you for being here. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions, I'd love to hear from you at [email protected].

This is a really special episode my friends. I managed to assemble four brilliant women who have gone through the Bloom programme together for a conversation about what it means to be a woman in HR.

We have Hanna Smith, Natasha Norman, Allison Anti and Gemma Lockhart. I am so thankful for their honesty, and humility... and for the fact they they chose to empower themselves and Bloom.

This episode is for you if you want to know about:
✳️ That as a People leader, it is okay to be the heart of an organisation... it's more than okay actually, it is badass!
✳️ That rather than building confidence, it's more about rebuilding it - we lose confidence through our experiences as women but we used to have it
✳️ How to bringing your authentic energy as a People leader and learn how to take up space at the leadership table.
✳️ Overcoming the negative perceptions of HR in the workplace, things like being called HR robots

There's also a brilliant interlude, baked in the middle of our conversation somewhere, but one that you won't want to miss. See if you can find it. 

Thank you for being here. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions, I'd love to hear from you at [email protected].

Kelly Vickery is Founder of The Mother Connection, and does amazing work to help us learn how to navivate the working world as women around maternity.

And boy is it shocking. Real talk, every woman I have coached who has been in and around motherhood has been penalised in some way. This episode does two things; first supports us as women, and secondly, helps us to get better at empowering and supporting other women.

This episode is for you if you want to know about:
✳️ The motherhood penalty, what it is and why we should ALL care about it
✳️ How our expected best self can get in the way of feeling enough - I really felt this and I am sure you will too
✳️ Matrescence; how it is a whole thing, and how we often marginalise it
✳️ The dominant power that work can have in our life, and how we can rebalance to be a little more of who we really are

There's also a brilliant interlude, baked in the middle of our conversation somewhere, but one that you won't want to miss as it helps you know what to do if you feel like you are experiencing these things. 

Thank you for being here. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions, I'd love to hear from you at [email protected].

As Bloom has evolved to serve women in HR, Jessica Zwaan was the obvious choice for a podcast guest. She embodies many of the things that we don't dare to let ourselves be; bold, opinionated and exactly who she is.

That is how I know just how much you will get from this episode, without even asking.

It is literally packed with nuggets of inspiration. This episode is for you if you want to know about:

✳️ The fact that if you aren't getting feedback it doesn't mean there isn't any... you owe it to those around you to help them feel safe enough to give it to you

✳️ Helping us to truly understand what we mean by people as a product, and how we can lean into it as People people

✳️ The brilliant idea of redefining employees as a subscription model; how long they subscribe for is up to us!

✳️ How we can build honesty around how we measure performance in the workplace, and support everyone to win

There's also a brilliant interlude, baked in the middle of our conversation somewhere, but one that you won't want to miss. It helps with starting thinking of everything in life and work as an experiment.

Thank you for being here. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions, I'd love to hear from you at [email protected].

Dannique Blake is a truly special human. We connected a couple of years ago online, and immediately saw ourselves in each other. Don't you just love it when that happens?

Dannique is a powerful thinker in the People and Culture world, but I love the radical responsibility she encourages us to take for our role in things.

This episode is for you if you want to know about:

✳️ The fact that leadership is an energy and you already have more power in your life and career than you think you do

✳️ How to build powerful, meaningful, beneficial relationships at work

✳️ How to know when it is time to leave a company, and that the best exits start at the beginning - yep, you'll want to hear more on that for sure!

✳️ The importance of having people who know who you are... with folks like Dannique, I don't have to mask any parts of myself... listen to the beginning and you can hear my ADHD running wild, interrupting with excitement - it's a blessing to get to be free sometimes!

There's also a brilliant interlude, baked in the middle of our conversation somewhere, but one that you won't want to miss. 

Thank you for being here. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions, I'd love to hear from you at [email protected].

Oooooo I just love this episode so much. Jenn Fenwick is an Executive Coach and leadership expert with deep, and I mean deeeeeep, experience of talent development.

She knows exactly what it takes to grow and develop in your career. She supports leaders to let out the magic, the ideas and the energy that is inside them, especially if they are starting out in a new role.

We cover things like:

✳️ Building your brand and reputation in order to grow, embracing your next level identity along the way

✳️ How to onboard yourself in a new role, even when the learning curve is a steep one

✳️ How important it is to be aware of our own demons and how they can get in the way of us truly being great

✳️ How companies can support leaders to be more successful, and that the sink or swim approach is an outdated practice for leaders

There's also a brilliant interlude, baked in the middle of our conversation somewhere, but one that you won't want to miss. It helps with things like burnout so look out for it!

Thank you for being here. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions, I'd love to hear from you at [email protected].