Margaret Heffernan

Please see link to the podcast and all platforms #Alongsider is in conversation with Sir Steven Wilkinson, a very different energy within the financial and business community. Before the recording, he quoted from Deuteronomy 8 - Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, "Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land". We meet a very different thinker and protagonist who encourages the pursuit of evolutionary growth only after some sound reflection. Considering the impact for ourselves as much as for all those participating in the system. This is a very rounded view and seems at one level quite partial. It does not take long however, for the full breadth of his ambition and vision to emerge. This is in no way self seeking and reveals a holistic perspective that is refreshing, exhilarating and not without challenge. Enjoy! #financialfluency #criticalbusinessthinking #humanscalebusinesses #businesstransformation

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"The FT guide to Mentoring is not merely a book to be read and put aside. It's a call to action, to reflect, evolve and inspire. If it can have that impact on me after all my years of mentoring experience, how valuable might it be for you?" Thank you MARK LEE FCA for this excellent review of The Financial Times Guide to Mentoring #mentoring #businessbooks

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Podcasting offers an intimate platform to engage with your audience, presenting your narrative, wisdom, and professional insights in a format that captures attention and fosters connection. Whether embarking on a new podcasting venture or refining your existing series, mastering the core principles of podcast creation is crucial for resonance and impact. Considering launching into the podcasting space? Partner with Sampson VA Services for a comprehensive support system designed to elevate your podcast. From initial concept to continuous content creation, we equip you with the tools, knowledge, and support needed to ensure your podcast stands out and speaks directly to your listeners. #PodcastingExcellence #EngagingContent #ProfessionalInsights

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CHANGE FOR BETTER OR WORSE For some participants, attending the Leading Through Change (LTC) programme can be very challenging – they just cannot abide change in any form. Maybe it’s because it signifies coming out of their comfort zone and whatever it is, it’s going to be bad – and bad experiences of change can linger a lifetime. Coping with change affects us all to some degree and we may find ourselves using words like, ‘unnecessary’ or ‘too expensive’ to signify our lack of enthusiasm. But, as leaders of teams, we are the ones who have responsibility for achieving change and in many cases probably initiating it in the first place. So, how do we get the team on our side when major changes are about to be introduced? The principles are really quite straightforward – it’s the way we do it that counts! Understand the needs fully yourself –then brief the team, including the ’what it is‘ and ‘why it is’ of the strategic decision and the ‘benefits’ for everyone. Now, the important bit, discuss how ‘we’ are going to achieve it and the tactics needed to create a plan. This is the chance to talk through any concerns but firmly and with direction. Finally, work through the changes and encourage the team to accept that change is a regular part of every working day. Handling these types of everyday situations are crucially important parts of good leadership and leading a team through change is certainly a key event. P.S. The most stoney faced participant who attended the LTC begrudgingly, hardly said a word in day one but her team encouraged her throughout and at the end she tearfully said “I really enjoyed that”. Miracles do take a little longer! For more details on Leading Through Change, book a free call via my diary link: https://lnkd.in/eGRRUg43 Or email me here: email: [email protected] #leadingthroughchange #reinforcingleadersstrengths #embracingchange #leadershipdevelopment #settingstandardsatwork #leadingteamstandards

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I've stumbled across this excellent conversation whilst researching for our new Aspire Programme for new or aspiring leaders. It includes two awesome thought leaders, authors and communicators Simon Sinek & Charles Duhigg. They discuss Charles' book 'Supercommunicators' [great book btw] and how we need meet the other person where they're at in our conversation. For example, there is nothing more annoying than when we 'just want to be heard' and the other person jumps to fix..... grrrr. If you're looking to enhance your communication in any way, this is a great listen. https://lnkd.in/dhWV7zhe #communication #buildingrelationships ##supercommunicator

When we consider all the 'pieces in the puzzle' for getting the (UK) #suicide numbers down, towards zero, a key piece is #SuicidePrevention 'within the #health system'. #Healthcare is only ONE piece of the puzzle - suicide is more than just a #MentalHealth issue! - but getting the numbers down in the health system is crucial for getting the total numbers down. Sadly, the total suicide numbers are not coming down; in fact they're going up - a 4% rise in Scotland and a near 8% increase in England & Wales, 2022-2023 The woefully low ambition National Strategy for England 2023-2028 claimed "Considerable progress has been made since the last Suicide Prevention Strategy for England was published in 2012" despite the suicide numbers rising considerably since 2012! Disturbingly, the only data put forward to support this claim was "collective efforts to improve #PatientSafety led to a 35% fall in suicides in mental health inpatient settings in England between 2010-2020" when the numbers have actually flatlined since 2016, and a significant fall in in-patient suicides 2010-2015 won't be due to a strategy introduced in Sept 2012! To get the numbers of suicides on that downward trend, towards zero, we need a co-ordinated, collaborative approach and a package of practical actions as contained within the Towards Zero Suicide CIC Zero Suicide Society Transformation Programme. We also need honesty - from government; from the National Strategy Advisory Group; and honesty with ourselves. As human beings, as people worn down by trying to prevent suicides, we can sometimes go looking for good news when the actual picture is very bad; trying to defend our efforts as 'progress' despite the evidence to the contrary; and there's a danger of responding to rising suicide numbers by lowering our ambition rather than raising it! When I designed the programme for the #ZeroSuicideSociety Humber-to-Mersey #JoinTheDotsTour Launch Conference in Scunthorpe on 12 June, I thought about the ideal speaker on 'the healthcare piece'. Top of my list was Prof Joe Rafferty CBE - CEO of Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, Co-Founder & Chair of the Zero Suicide Alliance I felt Joe had the right knowledge & experience...and level of ambition! Joe agreed to do a talk for us. He couldn't make it in person but kindly recorded a talk specially for our Conference. The #ZeroSuicide in Healthcare approach is a proven, evidence-based approach for getting considerable reductions in suicides since Henry Ford Health in #Detroit first achieved a 75% reduction in 4 yrs in the early 2000s. As Joe says in his talk: "If the number's not ZERO, what's the right number?" It's a simple yet incredibly powerful thought that then drives everything we do to get the suicide numbers on a downward trend #TowardsZeroSuicide Thanks Joe for your recorded message and support; and your inspirational leadership. Happy #NHS retirement! Here's Joe's talk (17 mins): https://lnkd.in/ejH7jj7f

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How do we lead future humans? This is a really interesting question and one that myself and Adam Lacey founding co-director of Assemble You have been pondering, researching and exploring. As a result we are developed a 'Leading Future Humans Series' and we are very excited about this. Watch this space because we will be sharing more details about the launch very soon ...   #fitforthefuture #readyforanything #resilience #curiosity #wellbeing #creativity #flexibility #kindness #wellbeing #lifeskills #leadership #selfawareness #futureofwork #futuresthinking #freshthinking #agility #curiosity #hr #employees #hrdirector #podcasts #leadingpeople

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🌟Calling all Edinburgh based impact leaders 🌟 Curious about the B Corp movement and how to get certified? Join Michelle Sutherland for a deep dive during the “Become a B Corp Workshop” co-facilitated with certified B Corp Zebra Growth and Co Founder Lee Fitzpatrick. We’re excited to be delivering this workshop together because we firmly believe in the B Corp movement and its values. Lee from Zebra Growth will be sharing their own B Corp certification journey, including their experience with the B Impact Assessment, how they manage being a B Corp and the positive impact it has had on Zebra Growth. 📆 Date: 23rd July 🕔 Time: 9:30 am - 12:30 am GMT 📍 Location: myEdinburgh, 18 Brunswick St Ln, Edinburgh, EH7 5JG 🎟️ Register here: https://lnkd.in/d343vay5 In this workshop, you’ll kickstart your journey towards becoming a Certified B Corporation. Here’s what you’ll gain: ✅ Insights into what a B Corp is and its significance. ✅ An understanding of the B Corp movement and its impact (featuring a B Corp business). ✅ A clear overview of the B Corp certification process. ✅ Guidance on mapping your path to B Corp certification. ✅ A walkthrough of the B Impact Assessment (BIA) tool. ✅ An initial assessment of your business’s impact using the BIA tool. ✅ Tools to set goals and track your business’s impact improvements. ✅ A chance to get your questions answered by a B Corp Consultant and a B Corp certified business.

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Attention all leaders! Have you heard about the PCA Review 2024? It's an exciting opportunity to assess your people and culture skills and make improvements for the future. And I'm thrilled to share that my chapter in the review describes a comprehensive framework for achieving success as a leader. If you're looking to take your leadership skills to the next level, this framework can help guide you in the right direction. If you're interested in learning more about it, please reach out to me. Let's work together to make 2024 the year of great leadership!

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Are you a book, an e-book or an audiobook person? As a trainer and an enthusiastic reader for leisure, I'm fascinated by the different ways we engage with the written word. I'm especially interested in the way an author's voice changes across book, e-book and audiobook. I retain a reverence for the permanence of the printed word. I cannot bring myself to annotate a book as I feel it distorts the author's voice. And heaven help anyone who borrows one of my books and creases the spine! My Zoom background is one of my bookshelves, which I believe gives more insight into me than any LinkedIn profile. It's also a great icebreaker when people on a Zoom call remark on one of the books on my shelf. I find e-books more efficient for academic work but don't feel the same affinity with them and therefore find them less memorable. You certainly can't put a PDF on a bookshelf and gaze back on it. However, I've recently become a convert to the audiobook and the article below indicates I'm far from the only one. I particularly enjoy an audiobook on a long car journey, and once seriously considered extending my journey so that I could finish R.F. Kuang's thrilling 'Yellowface'. Do any of these things resonate with you, or do you have different feelings about books? Please comment below... https://lnkd.in/eej6AXZK

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So yesterday I read a Guardian interview with the remarkable Anne Lamott. Anne has been one of my favourite authors for years now, and the interview coincided with both her 70th birthday and the publication of her 20th book 'Somehow: Thoughts on Love'. The book is effectively a collection of homespun #parables - a beautifully woven tapestry of allegory and metaphor around the profoundly #developmental themes of love and grace. Here's a for instance 'Some time ago,' she begins, 'a friend of mine was having a bathroom remodelled, and when preparing the room for the decorator she found a small frog trapped in the shower... Picking it up in her hands the friend carefully carried it outside to the relative safety of the grass in her garden - however for the whole of the short journey the frog was jumping and wriggling in her hands, panicking and unresponsive to its rescuer's murmurs of comfort and encouragement. I think', she concludes, 'that this is one of the best examples of how #love operates when we feel most afraid and doomed. It carries us to a safer place whilst we pound against cupped hands' It's a profound little parable, and I've nothing of any value to add to it. However, It has got me thinking about some of the most intimate conversational moments within a genuinely developmental partnership. Those moments when both coach and coachee - or perhaps supervisor and coach - realise that there's something unfolding here that could just maybe be #developmental for us both. Something that might take us somewhere where we've never been before. Somewhere along a path that can feel a bit scary. Can have us pounding against cupped hands as the 'rubber hits the road'. As we both run the risk of being found out by the other. And it's then that the value of what we've built together in our developmental partnership emerges and invites us to respond; and we realise that living adventurously, like this, is ok. In fact it's better than ok. It's way better than ok. It's where we meet the outer edges of our developmental journey, and that's a life affirming place to be. #coachdevelopment #executivecoaching #coachsupervision #developmentalpartners #love #annelamott Sian Lumsden Nial O Reilly Simon Lovegrove Anastasia Nekrasova Rebecca Stevens Helena Clayton Áine O’Keeffe Mac Ling Natalie Goni Christian Scholtes Philip Brady Mikael Erlandsson Alice Leung Vuibert, Laurent Vuibert John Hill Association for Coaching (AC) Liz Stewart Anita Sauvage, MSc Karim Hirani Ben Phillips Sarah Mumford Erich Wilgenbus-Lamb David Townley Nickie Jakeman Dr. D. Ursula Clidière, Alis Anagnostakis, PhD Monica Hanaway Simon Cavicchia

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We all have to make difficult decisions at some point in our personal and professional lives. What matters is not necessarily the decision you come to, rather how you communicate it to those concerned, and how you behave before, during and after the transition. If you're interested in finding out more, come to one of our workshops

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I appreciated having had the opportunity to contribute to the #NurturingTheFieldsOfChange session on theme of "Resistance, polarisation and conflict as openings for healing" with my experience of restorative facilitation for conflict resolution. A deep dive into important and fundamentally different ways of relating in the world to meet the needs of our current times. #restorativepractice #restorativejustice #commuityofpractice #conflict #relationships #repair #conflict #humancondition #consciousness

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Believe……. At the #SyncTheCityNorwich keynote 2023, I delved into a powerful theme: belief. It’s not just about believing in yourself; it’s about embodying your vision, your story, and inspiring others to believe in you too. Belief is the secret ingredient that drives innovation, creates exceptional products, and fuels personal growth. So, I ask you: - Do you believe in yourself? - Do you stand behind your words? - Are you confident in your journey? - Do you truly believe in your product or service? #Belief #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #Storytelling #PersonalGrowth #Leadership #Inspiration #Startups AskStephen

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Permission to do things your way, drop a load of eff-bombs and be decidedly 'unprofessional'! I loved joining Duncan Yellowlees in our workshop yesterday at #VitaeCon2024: "𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙢𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩" where we challenged what 'professionalism' means in academia and explored how we can use 𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆 to support participants to express and be their optimal, most authentic selves in their research lives. Whether that's dancing or games or sharing our own messy stories or encouraging researchers to say 'fuck it' to all the conventional, 'professional' methods / behaviours it's about supporting researchers to shrug off the (unhelpful) constraints of academic expectations and 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁, 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗮𝘆 of making decisions, taking action, working and doing research. Paradoxically: when you shrug off the 'professional' and find your own best, aligned practices you will inevitably end up producing creative, thoughtful, successful, valuable research that's truly done professionally and in integrity anyway. So. Let yourself be silly and messy and ragged around the edges It'll bring you to your best self and your best work.

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The latest edition of the Business Barometer report highlighted that many organisations do not have the strategic planning and training in place to address skills gaps. The OU’s Dr Haider Ali explains why short courses can rapidly upskill existing staff and build vital capabilities within the business. Read article https://lnkd.in/edDCqADZ #career #ou

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Here's my latest blog. How DO you demonstrate integrity? I would love to know .... #integrity #leadershipdevelopment #culturematters #leadership #ethics #values #blog

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