Innovation comes with an opinion - but does your culture welcome that, or stifle it?

A lot of people don’t want to be ‘that person’, the one who is always bragging on about how great they are, how good their work is and the ‘proven track record’ they have. However, in our wish to avoid being seen as arrogant or stepping on peoples’ toes, we can get left behind - along with the profile our great work could have given us.

As organisations return to work and take stock of the past few weeks, the conversation is shifting from ‘how to work at home during lockdown’ to ‘what remote working will mean to the future remote based organisation’. It’s a far reaching strategic issue.

Is it really possible to solve unconscious bias in organisations? We are often asked this question. We commonly team up with specialists in diversity, equity and inclusion to assist in cultural change programmes designed to do just this. So yes, we believe there are ways to address and manage unconscious bias - both in ourselves and in others.

Creativity and innovation tend to fuel rapid business growth. Whether it’s ground-breaking design, new technology or a reputation for creative excellence - it can attract an influx of new business and new people. Add entrepreneurial leadership to the mix and things can really fly.

Every leader or business owner wants to see more productivity, but there’s no set formula for achieving it. Productivity comes from a blend of an engaging culture, effective relationships, and being able to manage both time and stress. What’s more, creative people tend to need to be together to collaborate - and that’s something remote working has largely prevented these past few months.

Coaching is such a broadly used term it’s hard for people selecting coaching or experiencing coaching to know what to look for - or for some to understand why they are receiving it. Indeed, when we are training coaches, they often report experiencing mixed reactions from the people they are commissioned to work with. Some feel pleased about being coached, others less so.

Despite the pressures of the pandemic on home and work-life, especially impacting on mental health, new research finds that actual take up of wellbeing programmes is running at 23%. (HBR/Gartner 2021). This is despite much higher numbers of employees admitting to mental health issues.