Helping Organisations Thrive with Julian Roberts

Today I am interviewing Louise Larkum who is the Founder and Director at Mindcare Training.   Deloitte's undertook an official independent review and found that for every £1 they had spent on mental health and well-being in the workplace, they received a £5 return. Join Louise Larkum as she discusses how to create a top down culture of mental well-being in your workplace.   Louise explains how, as a leader, you can have effective conversations with employees to address mental health concerns. By carefully choosing the right environment at the right time, you can sensitively and specifically share your concerns, and give your employee the chance to be open about any current issues they may be facing - at the very least you are showing that you have noticed and you care.    Louise discusses the importance of compassionate leadership, and shares facts such as 50% of people having an episode of depression do not go on to have any further episodes in their lives. A mental health diagnosis is usually for a period of time, not for life. 80% of employees taking extended time off due to  mental ill health, including stress, do not return to the same workplace. It costs a baseline of £30,000 to re-recruit, therefore a proactive culture towards mental well-being can significantly benefit your business, and most importantly could have a life-changing impact on your employees. As Louise explains, the far-reaching results of having properly trained mental health first aiders in your business cannot be overstated.   Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHe-o2V6tSQ   Connect with Louise: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louise-larkum/ Website: https://mindcaretraining.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiselarkum Email: louise@mindcaretraining.com     Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.   The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges: - no clear strategy - dysfunctional team dynamics - not knowing their vision or mission - feeling stuck and procrastinating - business not growing - leadership challenges   If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me: https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com

Today I am interviewing adventurer Jasmine Harrison.   At 21 years old Jasmine Harrison is the youngest female to row solo across any ocean. Jasmine recently spent 70 days rowing alone across the Atlantic, enduring capsizing, hallucinations, sleep deprivation, an inability to eat (which she was not expecting!).  Jasmine explores the importance of knowing your "why"; and how keep on overcoming challenges. She explains the power behind hearing her voice speak out loud the actions she needed to take, helping her very narrowly avoid a collision with a drilling ship. Horrendous weather within the first few weeks was pushing her boat in the wrong direction - she would row for 18hrs making only 6 miles progress in the storm; then sleep for 2hrs only to have the boat dragged 4 miles in reverse. "It took me another 12 hours to gain back those lost 4 miles. I had to keep going though - no matter your situation, it could be worse. I knew I just had to get clear of the storm and I'd be OK." Jasmine is currently planning a sea swim in July 2022, from Lands End to John O'Groats...   Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwHfXkAKiL0   Connect with Jasmine: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasminerharrison/ Website: https://www.rudderlymad.co.uk/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/rudderlymad Email: info@rudderlymad.co.uk     Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.   The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges: - no clear strategy - dysfunctional team dynamics - not knowing their vision or mission - feeling stuck and procrastinating - business not growing - leadership challenges   If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me: https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com

Today I am interviewing Van Carlson who is the CEO at SRA 831(b) Admin.   "We don't have enough risk takers", according to Van Carlson, founder and CEO of Strategic Risk Alternatives. Van explores all things risk-related, and explains how to mitigate risks without taking away the reward. He talks about the importance of being willing to take risks, but also of the need to have a short term memory! Van discusses how to balance risk and reward in order to take even greater risks when building your business; and how to create a culture of calculated risk taking within your organisation.    Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOFb9mKafMM   Connect with Van: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vancarlson/ Website: https://www.831b.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/SRA_CEO Email: van@831b.com     Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.   The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges: - no clear strategy - dysfunctional team dynamics - not knowing their vision or mission - feeling stuck and procrastinating - business not growing - leadership challenges   If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me: https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com

Today I am interviewing British adventurer Chris Howard.   "Our mantra went out the window when we left port, and it became very scary, but we used that fear." Extreme endurance adventurer and father of three, Chris Howard chats about some of his most recent adventures, including rowing the Atlantic and walking the coast of Great Britain (a marathon a day for 450 consecutive days). He talks about how to perform at your best when you feel your worst, and how to use negativity to fuel success.   Chris was able to fund raise for Children in Need during his coast walk, knowing that disadvantaged and vulnerable children around the UK became even more at risk and often in danger during the lockdowns (childhood deprivation is an issue that Chris has first hand knowledge of from his own childhood).   Raising significant amounts of money for charity to support children became a source of inspiration during his walk. Chris explores other driving forces behind extreme challenges, and of how not to let the excuses of today become the regrets of tomorrow.    Chris had undertaken adventures as a teenager (including walking 2800 miles on the islands along the west coast of Thailand), and it was whilst at work one day he realised, "I shouldn't have been doing this every day, I should have been doing that!" He is about to embark on rowing round the coast of Great Britain, along with publishing his book about walking around the coastline.   Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8Ii0d4-P4Q   Connect with Chris: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christhecoastwalker/ Website: https://thecoastwalker.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thecoastwalker YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfhL84AMqVhym90-xtvKyZA/videos Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christhecoastwalker/ Email: Thecoastwalker@gmail.com     Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.   The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges: - no clear strategy - dysfunctional team dynamics - not knowing their vision or mission - feeling stuck and procrastinating - business not growing - leadership challenges   If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me: https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com

Today I am interviewing Siôn Stansfield who is a Co-Founder at POINT3 Wellbeing.   Do you think of high performance when you think of well-being? In this interview we explored performance and well-being in the workplace, balancing goal achievement and well-being with my guest Sion Stansfield. Sion discusses how to develop a sustainable approach to high performance, balancing staff well-being with business goals. He explains how having multiple goals in different areas can help us lead more holistically balanced lives, which in turn supports our business goals. Sion explores how to deal with lower performing goals, both personally and professionally; and the importance of providing space for well-being within any high performing business.    Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxyV5WMGQuc   Connect with Sion: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/si%C3%B4n-stansfield-2a19a048/ Website: https://point3wellbeing.com/ Email: sion@point3wellbeing.com   Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.   The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges: - no clear strategy - dysfunctional team dynamics - not knowing their vision or mission - feeling stuck and procrastinating - business not growing - leadership challenges   If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me: https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com

Today I am interviewing Isobel Cripps who is a personal development and wellbeing coach.   We explored the importance of well-being in the workplace, Isobel explains why this can't be neatly packaged, and advises how to approach well-being as bespoke, rather than corporate. This approach will benefit individual employees as well as your business as a whole, reaping financial benefits through increased productivity. Isobel discusses the fact that emotional experiences manifest physically, and advises ways to support employees through issues outside of work that would otherwise have an impact in the work-place.    Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySyjzJFDF9g   Connect with Isobel: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isobel-cripps-848ab917/ Website: http://www.thecutleryclub.com/ Email: isobelcripps@hotmail.com   Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.   The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges: - no clear strategy - dysfunctional team dynamics - not knowing their vision or mission - feeling stuck and procrastinating - business not growing - leadership challenges   If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me: https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com

Today I am interviewing Michelle Smith who is the Founder and Managing Director of Empower Workplace solutions.   Michelle has an empathetic leadership approach to all the services she offers, today we focused on how to equip your leaders to have those conversations around supporting your teams in loss or grief, this could be loss of a loved one, loss of a marriage or even financial loss. Michelle shares a number of ways to have those emotional conversations, which in essence are through an empathetic approach, they are 1. Really focus on the employee and have no distractions 2. Make the employee feel valued 3. Listen to them fully, give space to the conversation and finally 4. It is ok to have silence, allow the space. And overall use empathy rather than sympathy when having these emotional conversations, it is far more empowering for the employee.   Watch full interview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FItGYft6AxY   Connect with Michelle: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/msmithempowerws/ Website: https://www.empowerworkplacesolutions.co.uk/ Email: michelle@empowerworkplacesolutions.co.uk   Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.   The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges: - no clear strategy - dysfunctional team dynamics - not knowing their vision or mission - feeling stuck and procrastinating - business not growing - leadership challenges   If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me: https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com

Today I am interviewing George Minakakis who is the Founder and CEO of Inception Retail Group Inc.   We discussed authentic leadership in the context of the organisation and how leading in this will have the greatest impact on your business. George shared his Reliability Quotient which is defined as 1. Authenticity - believable leadership, 2. Integrity - incorruptible leadership, 3. Credibility - proven leadership and 4. Accountability - no excuses leadership. Our conversation started to shift away from the individual and explore how organisations need to be authentic, they need to ensure they are transparent to their values and beliefs, and what they stand for and how they are going to execute that with their customers and colleagues.   Watch full interview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzC0g1ZiogA   Connect with George: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgeminakakis/ Website: http://www.inceptionretailgroup.com/ Email: minakakisg@gmail.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/GeorgeMinakakis   Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.   The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges: - no clear strategy - dysfunctional team dynamics - not knowing their vision or mission - feeling stuck and procrastinating - business not growing - leadership challenges   If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me: https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com

Today I am interviewing Victoria Thomson who is the Owner of Ambridge HR. Today's episode is part of the series on "HR challenges faced by SME's", where I will be interviewing HR experts on key topics to help SME organisations.   Today we explored menopause in the workplace, policy and how to implement day to day, what does it mean and why. Here is the context for our discussion. According to Professor Jo Brewis, co-author Government Report on Menopause, ‘menopausal women are the fastest growing workforce demographic’, which is highlighted by the Office of National Statistics. The average age for a woman to go through menopause is 51. It can be earlier than this, naturally or due to surgery, or illness. And symptoms may start years before menopause, during the peri-menopause phase. According to the Faculty of Occupational Medicine (FOM), nearly 8 out of 10 of menopausal women are in work. 3 out of 4 women experience symptoms, 1 in 4 could experience serious symptoms. One in three of the workforce will soon be over 50, and retirement ages are now 68. Victoria shared some valuable advice in how we should implement a policy, support those with menopause and support for the managers too ensuring that everyone is educated and supported throughout the organisation.   Watch the full interview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T09TfrNm52Y   Connect with Victoria: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriathomsonhr/ Website: https://www.ambridgehr.co.uk/ Email: hr.enquiries@ambridgehr.co.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/VThomsonHR   Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.   The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges: - no clear strategy - dysfunctional team dynamics - not knowing their vision or mission - feeling stuck and procrastinating - business not growing - leadership challenges   If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me: https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com

Today I am interviewing Emily Woodason, by day a Landscape Architect, however she has just completed the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. A 3,000 mile rowing race across the Atlantic. This is a story of resilience, teamwork and leadership that we can translate into our organisations. Her team One Ocean Crew crossed the #TWAC2021 finish line on 21st January 2022 at 13:13 local time. Jen Cullom, Emily Woodason, Janette Potgieter and Erin Bastian rowed the Atlantic Ocean in 40 days, 4 hours, and 7 minutes. A final hard push got them to be the winners of the #TWAC2021 Women’s Class and the Murden Trophy!   Today Emily answers questions such as Why did you take on this challenge? What were your greatest fears? How did you overcome those difficult moments? How did you help each other as team to keep going? What lessons did you learn that you can now use in your organisation? All the answers to these questions provided a rich source of inspiration to help organisations build resilience.   Watch the full interview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ7lr7NF_6I   Connect with Emily and the One Ocean Crew: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilywoodason/ Website: https://www.oneoceancrew.org/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oneoceancrew/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsnHOXQDsbGkoJRLTZVyL1Q   Helping SME’s build resilient, high performing teams and businesses, quickly, so they can innovate, deliver, and thrive.   The SME’s I work with typically struggle/suffer/ with one or more of these challenges: - no clear strategy - dysfunctional team dynamics - not knowing their vision or mission - feeling stuck and procrastinating - business not growing - leadership challenges   If you want support in helping your organisation thrive, do get in contact with me: https://www.julianrobertsconsulting.com