Blogs by Becky Westwood

It happens in organisations every single day. Your best developer, the one who can untangle complex algorithms, work late into the night to save a crashing server, and deliver flawless code, is rewarded for their brilliance with a promotion. They are now the Team Lead. It seems like the logical…

Picture your last team meeting. Everyone nodded along to the new strategy. There was no pushback, no difficult questions, and everyone seemed completely aligned. A harmonious, well-oiled machine, right? Wrong. That seamless agreement might just be the biggest threat to your organisation’s success. Welcome to the world of “artificial harmony”…

World Mental Health Day is a crucial reminder that leaders have a vital role in supporting their teams. But this isn’t just about providing resources; it’s about genuine empathy, authenticity  and a strategic approach that also prioritises your own wellbeing. Here’s a guide to how leaders can effectively support their…

Receiving feedback can often spark anxiety, dread, and fear. Similarly, providing feedback can also be challenging. Feedback is often seen as a double-edged sword, but it can be a powerful tool for growth and development. To truly benefit from feedback, it’s essential to understand what it is and what it isn’t. Feedback isn’t…

Receiving feedback at work is the curse…no sorry gift… that comes hand in hand with working in organisations. Whilst some people relish those feedback conversations, for many of us the word feedback fills us with anxiety and dread. During the research studies for my new book, “Can I Offer You…

“I’ve got some feedback for you”. “Let’s discuss how that meeting went.” For most people, the prospect of being on the receiving end of feedback at work is a cause for anxiety. Why? Because, for many, the way feedback is often presented can provoke feelings of being under threat, whether…

Has your organisation invested time, energy and money into creating feedback processes – and yet they seem to miss what feedback really is – two humans sharing perspectives? Or does feedback feel one-sided, being ‘done’ by one person to the other? This can often create anxiety for both those who…

Many of the stressful situations we get ourselves into happen because we don’t have as good a grasp of our time boundaries as we thought – if we’d even considered them at all. As a consequence, interactions with others can end up being frustrating and unfulfilling, and what we really…

We are all trying to manage and deliver more, at work and at home. With so many demands on our time, it can be difficult to know how to ensure everything receives adequate attention. Invariably something crashes. Increasingly as we cope with the fallout from the pandemic, the risk is…