Work Smart Work Savvy - Menu of Services

I've recently produced a new updated version of the Work Smart Work Savvy Menu of Services incorporating a few of my sketches which feature in my on-line training courses and often in the face to face training too.

The Menu of Services clearly explains the four legs of the business and provides details of the services within each.

If you would like a PDF version of this leaflet then drop me an email at worksmartworksavvy@gmail.com.

Front Cover

Page 1

 Page 2

 Page 3

Mental Health @ Work Event

You may remember last month, I mentioned in this blog that I'd been asked to speak at the Mental Health @ Work, Mindful Employer conference in Swindon held at Arclite House home to Excalibur Communications on 1st March. 

It was a fantastic event, as the Mindful Employer events always are, and attracted a crowd of over one hundred delegates from local businesses all focusing on the importance of mental wellbeing in the workplace.

The event kicked off with Lauren Harkin from Withy King talking about the legal responsibilities employers have to their employees under the Equality Act before Dr Donna Lovell and Suzanne Baxter of Swindon Mind looked at Mental Health first aid focusing specifically on anxiety.

Finally it was my turn and I had been asked to provide a practical best practice session on what employers should do if they suspect that one of their employees has a mental health problem.

There was some great press coverage from the event along with some photos of all the speakers in The Business Exchange Swindon and Wiltshire, Swindon Link, Swindon Advertiser and Wiltshire Business.

These are a few snaps I took before and during the event.

Arclite House, home of Excalibur Communications all set up and ready.

Arclite House is that fantastic glass sided building by the Peatmoor Lagoon.  Even on a dreary, wet day we were flooded with natural light.

I took along my Cup of Tea Advice Tree which proved very popular during the coffee breaks.

Attendees were encouraged to take a cup of advice away with them if they saw one they liked and to replenish the tress with their own words of wisdom.

Attendees networking during the coffee break.

How Differently We Treat Mental Illness vs Physical Illness

I've been asked to speak at a Mindful Employer conference in March on the subject of "What employers should do if they suspect that one of their employees has a mental health problem".  The idea being that I'd use my hands on experience gained by supporting and training hundreds of people who have been struggling at work due to stress, anxiety or depression to deliver a best practice for Line Managers advice talk.  

Although it was pretty clear in my head what I wanted to include in this best practice presentation, there was one thing that kept cropping up again and again in my thoughts...and that was...how differently we treat mental illness compared to how we treat physical illness.

We all have mental health just like we all have physical health.  Both need looking after and both change.  We can become mentally unwell just as we can become physically unwell.  Yet there seems to be a massive difference in the way we treat these two different sides of our health.  To me, among some people, there still seems to be a misunderstanding that being mentally unwell is a sign of weakness, unnatural, abnormal, giving in and not trying hard enough to get over it.  How wrong?  Would we say the same thing if someone fell over and broke their arm or caught the flu or had an ear infection?  I don't think so.

"Many people still don't get that being diagnosed with a mental illness isn't something that's in their control -- just like having the flu, or food poisoning, or cancer isn't in their control."  

(Lindsay Holmes - Huffington Post)

The first two links below showcase some brilliant illustrations which highlight the different way people treat a physical illness compared with a mental illness far better than I could ever explain, so I'll say no more and leave you to follow the links.

How People Treat Mental Illness vs How They Treat Physical Illness.
Have you tried herbal tea?

What If People Treated Phyical Illness Like Mental Illness?
Mental illness vs physical illness

Talking About Mental Health
Discover the small things

Finally, please do share this post so we can try and make mental health something we talk about as freely as physical health.

What will you make happen in 2016?

So it's a new year which is traditionally seen as a time for making new year resolutions.  I always think of January as the Marmite month of the year. You either love it or hate it.

January can be a tricky month. The excitement and festivities of Christmas are behind us, it can be grey, damp and dark outside and we're back to the busy routine of weekly life; work, school runs and taxiing to and from after school clubs. Spring and summer can seem a long way away!

On the other hand, January can single a new start, another chance to do the things you had intended to do last year, a time for new plans and new possibilities. As I'm writing today, it's one of those fantastic crisp January days of blue skies and bright sunshine. Yes it's flipping freezing but nothing that my woolie bobble hat can't fend off. It feels like a positive day for new beginnings and new goals.

I'm not a big one for new year resolutions but there are two times in the year, without fail, that I set goals and January is one of those times. My husband knows I’m an old fashioned girl at heart and like to write things down with pen on paper so treats me to a beautiful diary each Christmas. My goals, tend to be a mixture of family focused, lifestyle choices and work planing goals for the year laying ahead and are one of the first things to be scribbled into my new diary. The other time is late August, after we’ve been away for our family holiday and had time to switch off a bit, reflect and before the new school term starts and the madness that brings with it.

Now there is one thing I want to make clear, firstly, I should really be saying ideas at this point rather than goals as ideas are the seeds we plant from which goals can grow if we decide to give them enough attention.

Ideas are the seeds we plant from which goals can grow.

Ideas are the big and little thoughts that pop into our head like “I’d like to lose some weight” or “I think we need to de-clutter the house” or "I want to be more organised" or “wouldn’t it be good to turn the garage into a mini fromargerie”. It is then up to us to look through our ideas and decide which ones are going to go on to get the whole Goal VIP Treatment and become fully fledged goals and which ones will be stored on a kind of idea shelf. Some of these ideas will remain on the shelf, possibly gathering dust and becoming outdated and destined for the idea achieve while others will be called into the Goal VIP area at a future date and given the Goal VIP Treatment. It’s in the Goal VIP area where the makeover work really begins.

If you have ideas you want to make into fully fledged goals and ultimately actually make happen then have a look at my Make It Happen Tool

The Make It Happen is a goal setting tool which will give you somewhere to start, a process to follow and a way to organise your thoughts so your vision becomes clearer, your actions more focused and your motivation more sustained.

Click here to go to my Work Shop Work Savvy shop and pick up your copy for the special new year price of just £2.  That's 11 pages of guidance and tips and 3 worksheets, all for £2 pounds!

I have noticed that I’m much more likely to achieve something if I make it into a well thought out and planned goal than if I just keep it as an idea seed.

“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” 

 Bill Copeland Cricket Umpire