A positive workplace improves teamwork, raises morale, increases productivity, job satisfaction and performance, and reduces stress in employees. So how can organisations start to put people first over productivity?

In this episode, I speak to Claire Warner, a former charity Fundraising Director & Senior Leader, turned workplace culture and wellbeing strategist.

We discuss:

• Claire’s story from breast cancer survivor to a workplace wellbeing advocate and consultant
• How to instigate cultural and organisational change to better support employee wellbeing
• Why leaders should focus on the cause of diminishing wellbeing, not just treat the symptoms
• The importance of self-awareness, education and creating psychological safety for leaders and their teams

CONNECT WITH CLAIRE

Claire Warner is the Founder of Claire Warner Wellbeing and the Charity Workplace Wellbeing Summit.

It was in trying to throw herself back into her beloved Fundraising Director role after 12...

Are the household responsibilities shared equally in your home? Or is the majority of the emotional, mental and domestic load taken on by one person?

In this week’s episode, I speak to Clare Twelvetrees about how we can create more equality in our homes. Clare is the Chair of Equality Starts at Home (ESAH) and in our conversation, we discuss how to start a conversation about equality with your partner and share tips for workplaces and line managers on supporting equality at home.

COMPLETE THE HOUSEHOLD BALANCE CALCULATOR

Equality Starts at Home has come together with ThirdShift which has developed a Household Balance Calculator. Answer questions about what chores you do and how long they take you and the tool calculates what the balance is in a percentage. An objective way to start the conversation in your household!

Household Balance Calculator

CONNECT WITH CLARE

Clare is a leader in the international development sector and currently Director of Strategy and...

29% of working age people in the UK have a chronic illness and yet it is something that is rarely discussed or recognised within many workplaces.  In this week’s episode, I speak to Rebecca Kudyk who openly shares her personal experience with chronic illness and how she manages motherhood, a career in financial services and her unpredictable symptoms and pain.

Rebecca shares helpful and practical advice for managers and workplaces on how they can support a team member with a chronic illness or disability. We also talk about grief, mental health and all the strengths that an employee with chronic illness can bring to the organisation.

CONNECT WITH REBECCA

Rebecca Kudyk is a 33-year-old wife and mum of a 3-year-old boy. She suffers from Fibromyalgia, Osteoarthritis, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (known as ME or chronic fatigue syndrome) and anxiety and depression. Rebecca also has a career specialising in Conduct Risk within Financial Services.

At 25, thanks to...

Employee happiness is gaining traction as an essential element of the employee experience. A happy person is more engaged and productive, performs better and positively impacts clients and customers.

This week, I speak to Aoife O’Brien, the founder of Happier at Work, a business with the mission to support organisations in retaining top talent.

We discuss:

• The value of workplace happiness for both individuals and organisations
• Aoife’s three core elements of having a good “fit” with your role
• How to identify your values and strengths and work to them
• The future of work and hiring with cultural fit and diversity in mind

After listening, I encourage you to think about what your needs and values are at work and how you can align better with them.

CONNECT WITH AOIFE

Aoife O’Brien is the founder of Happier at Work, a business with the mission to support organisations in retaining top talent. She is passionate about ‘fit’ and...

This week is another medley, showcasing the most impactful tips and insights from previous guests and episodes. Our topic is how to present to senior stakeholders and colleagues with confidence.

In this episode Sandra Francis, Rupal Patel and myself cover:

• Speaking the language of senior stakeholders
• How to feel comfortable dealing with interruptions
• Owning your expertise and authority with senior leaders or in a male-dominated space
• How to present information so it lands for everyone in the room

I hope this episode gives you practical tips and lots of inspiration.

EPISODES FEATURED

• Episode 93: Succeeding in a Male-Dominated Environment with Sandra Francis
• Episode 98: From CIA to CEO with Rupal Patel
• Episode 82: Speaking the Language of Senior Stakeholders

CONNECT WITH OUR GUESTS

• Sandra Francis
• Rupal Patel

WORK WITH ME

As well as coaching women leaders to have more influence, make more impact and be kinder to themselves in my programme Influence...

This week I’m celebrating 100 episodes of the Influence & Impact for Female Leaders podcast! Thank you for listening and supporting the show.

I was recently speaking at a conference and was asked a brilliant question by a woman in the audience. She asked:

“How can I, as a female leader, support and champion the women in my team? How can I do my bit to overcome gender bias and give them the most opportunities possible?”

In this episode, I’m sharing 6 ways you can champion the women in your team with a medley of the best tips and ideas from past episodes.

• Episode 70: Women with Influence Interview with Mylene Sylvestre
• Episode 72: Women with Influence with Monique Carayol
• Episode 84: Breaking the Bias
• Episode 87: Having the career conversation with your Line Manager

I hope this episode gives you some practical ideas about how you can champion the women in your team. If you found it helpful, then please do share it with other leaders, whatever...

Mary Ann Sieghart has been on my dream guest list for a while so I’m very excited to share this interview with you. Mary Ann is the author of the best-selling book The Authority Gap: Why We Still Take Women Less Seriously Than Men, a BBC Radio 4 presenter, speaker and advocate for women’s equality in the workplace.

We discuss:

• The impact of the book The Authority Gap and why it’s so important that male leaders read it
• Conversational manspreading
• Whether woman need to change how they behave to be seen as more competent
• Unconscious bias about women, by women and how to be aware of it
• What men can gain by narrowing the authority gap

Mary Ann shares so many fascinating studies that demonstrate the authority gap in action which are both surprising and validating for women's experiences at work.

MORE ABOUT MARY ANN

Mary Ann Sieghart is the author of the best-selling book The Authority Gap: Why We Still Take Women Less Seriously Than Men. She spent 20...

In this week’s episode I speak to Rupal Patel, a CEO, business consultant, coach and former CIA Intelligence Analyst.  

Rupal’s high-octane career has taken her from jungles and war zones to corporate boardrooms and international stages. 

We discuss her inspirational career journey so far and Rupal shares how her experiences at the CIA translate to practical leadership tools, including profiling, tactical ignorance and a personal energy map.  

We also talk about being influential as woman, person of colour and young leader in a male-dominated environment.  

MORE ABOUT RUPAL 

After a thrilling career at the CIA, Rupal Patel earned her MBA from London Business School and started her first award-winning business over ten years ago.  

Called a ‘Power Woman’ by Harper's Bazaar Magazine, Rupal is a sought-after international speaker and business consultant who has spoken in front of thousands. As a...

Gender and ethnicity pay gaps are a very real issue in the UK and worldwide – so how do we change that? 

This week’s episode is part two of my interview Michelle Gyimah, the Director of Equality Pays, a gender and ethnicity equality consultancy dedicated to closing workplace pay gaps.

We discuss what organisations need to know about tackling the gender and ethnicity pay gaps and how they can take action to make the changes that are needed.

In part one, we talked about how to ask for a pay rise or negotiate a higher salary when you start a new role. You can listen to that episode here.

MORE ABOUT MICHELLE

Michelle Gyimah is a passionate advocate for enabling women (and men) to progress in their careers in a way that suits their outside of work responsibilities and lifestyle choices. She does this by empowering workplaces to radically rethink how they can support their employees to thrive at work.

Michelle’s unique understanding of employee engagement,...

Ever wished you knew how to ask for a pay rise?  Or negotiate a higher salary when you start a new role?  We don’t talk about money enough and that’s exactly what I’m talking to Michelle Gyimah about in this episode.

Michelle Gyimah is the Director of Equality Pays, a gender and ethnicity equality consultancy dedicated to closing workplace pay gaps.  We’ve recorded two episodes together – this one is all about what you can do to close your own pay gap.

Then in episode 97 (released on Monday 6 June) we’ll be focusing on how organisations can close the gender and ethnicity pay gaps.

MORE ABOUT MICHELLE

Michelle Gyimah is a passionate advocate for enabling women (and men) to progress in their careers in a way that suits their outside of work responsibilities and lifestyle choices. She does this by empowering workplaces to radically rethink how they can support their employees to thrive at work.

Michelle’s unique...