Engaged For Success

So thankfully we’ve made it through to another year and people are optimistically stepping forward with lists of objectives and goals; with new year’s resolutions – determined that this year is going to be way better than last year.

I constantly review my goals and objectives throughout the year with the view to ensure that they are aligned to what I see as my God given purpose in life. I therefore didn’t feel especially aligned to follow the new years trend – my objectives et al sorest defined and constantly refined. More than ever I recognise the need to be more disciplined and focused in order to achieve my desired results. Disciplined in doing what I need to do and not get distracted. Focused not simply on the important things, but focused more on the things that I have at least a degree of control over and not the things that are in other people’s hands that I can do nothing but worry about unless they permit me to do something more constructive.

With all this in mind I am reminded of the people that I observed through 2010 who stood firm for something that they believe in regardless of the risks and the costs. With many of them I am not in total agreement, with some I actually believe that their cause is wrong, but they are consistent and they stand and I respect that. Some of them include people that passed away during the year. It’s sad to see them go, but great that their lives had a specific meaning.

So just as the Queen has a New Year Honours Lists I have mine and that is for all those who have faithfully and consistently stood for what they believe me. I’m not going to mention any names, those that belong on this list will be able to identify themselves with a little bit of reflection.

The only thing to add is that for next year’s list I hope that I can count myself amongst the numbers with confidence and that you are on the list too!

Happy New Year! Have a good one.

Copyright 2011. This document is the specific intellectual property of Susan Popoola. Content may not be reused or reproduced without the specific permission of the owner or a reference to the source. Opinions may be generated

Earlier today I read an article in The Independent entitled Most Inspiring People in 2009 by Johann Hari.  I would like to add a name to that list or really just create my own little list.  The person that I would like to honour as the most inspiring person of 2009 is a lady named Susan Magdalane Boyle from Blackburn – a former industrial town in West Lothian in Scotland.

As there has been so much hype about her, I’m sure you’ve heard of her?  I must confess that I normally find hype of putting, but there’s just something about Susan that can’t be ignored.

Susan had a long held dream that she had been working towards for years.  Without trying to be dramatic, it’s fair to say that Susan endured a lot of ridicule along the way and I’m sure she on many occasions she must have felt like giving up. However, she did not; she continued and literally marched onto the Britain’s Got Talent stage and sang her heart out.  The rest, as they say, is history.

The facts are, however that prior to her history making performance, Susan was what typical everyday person that people typically refer to as a nobody.  However she proved that she is someone.  A message to the world that everyone is someone in their own right.  It’s not to say that everyone should find their way through X-Factor, Britain’s Got Talent or the next reality show.  Rather the key is to find and nurture the talent that resides within – whatever it may be, simply being who they were born to be[i].

I therefore choose Susan Boyle as an inspiration because while those on the Independent list are undoubtedly advocates for everyday people, Susan is a direct representative of everyday people.  A true lady, with a sweet demeanour and the true voice of an angel which brings tears to my eyes.  She is truly inspiring and I whole heartedly hope that she continues to shine and inspire.

Copyright 2009 This document is the specific intellectual property of Susan Popoola. Content may not be reused or reproduced without the specific permission of the owner or a reference to the source. Opinions may be generated

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[i] Play on the song titled “Who I Was Born to Be” from Susan’s Debut album “I Dreamed A Dream”

As we are now unfortunately in a recession, the current focus for most businesses is unlikely to be on recruiting staff, but now more than ever there is a need for organisations of whatever size to ensure that they are are as efficient and effective as possible.

A critical key to this is having staff with the right skills, in the right roles within your organisation. You may have noticed politicians talking about upskilling staff affected by redunancies to find the new jobs. This leads me to two inter-related questions. 1. Do prospective employees know what skills they require in order to work within your organisation? and 2)Beyond the knowledge that you need skilled staff do you know what specific skills you require, such that anyone could readily be able to identify individuals that would be suited to work within your organisation?

If the answer to either of these questions is no, then I believe you as an employer are missing something, asemployers are known to complain that young people coming into the workplace do not have the required skills. Now is the time for you to stand up and clearly articulate your requirements so that individuals going out for retraining and the people supporting them can make sure that they will be able to fulfil your business needs.

This is also important for your current workforce as through schemes such as Train to Gain there is currently a considerable amount of financial support is available to help you to develop your Staff.

I would recommend that you seize the opportunity and take a few steps as follows:

1. Review your business objectives/ plan for the next few years

2. Identify the skills and competencies you are going to need to meet your business objectives. If necessary get help in doing.

3. Develop this into a framework of roles which identifies not just the skills and qualifications, but also the wider abilities and attitudes that enable effectiveness such as communicatin skills and confidence to undertake different activities.

4. Assess the abilities of your current staff against both your immediate and future requirements in order to identify where you can develop current staff to fulfil roles and where you are likely to have gaps going forward that need to be filled external.

5. Make sure that the processes that you use to identify staff for development and promotion are open and fair taking into account the views and interests of your staff. This is important in order to prevent any legal claims of unfairness, but it’s of equal importance to ensure your staff remain engaged and positive about working with your organisation.

6. Begin to think about how you are going to fill the gaps (when the need arises) by recruiting employees, contractors or possibly outsourcing.

If you miss this opportunity and don’t begin to prepare now, when we come out of this recession in a year or two or whenever it may be, you may be caught of guard in a reenergised battle for skilled employees.

Susan Popoola

Conning Towers
HR Transformation & Talent Management
Leveraging the Power of People
Copyright 2008 This document is the specific intellectual property of the Conning Towers Consultancy. Content may not be reused or reproduced without the specific permission of the owner or a reference to the source. Opinions may be generated from content obtained from other sources and such content is referenced as appropriate.

From time to time i hear people in conversation calculating the number of days annual leave they have left to take and going on to count the number of sick days they have left – to take. I also encounter people who casually mention that they took a day’s sick leave because they didn’t feel like going to work or because they haven’t used up their full entitlement.

The truth is they are entitled to the time of it they are sick but not if they are not. The truth, however, is because sick leave requires self regulation there are and always will be people that abuse the benefit.

In many ways the current British fiasco around Minister Expenses reminds me of this scenario – most especially when I hear Ministers mention that they understand why members of the public are upset, but go on to mention that they have done nothing outside of the rules. The ultimate truth is they like people that take sick days of when they are not sick, some Ministers have refused to properly self regulate themselves. Probably because they simply believe that they are entitled to an allowance which they therefore spend, whether or not they have a real need for it.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend Countec Education and Business Partnership ‘s Investors in Education Awards at the Ramada Encore Hotel in Central Milton Keynes.

It was an event that celebrated employers that provide secondary school pupils with an opportunity to experience the work place and pupils that had been on a work placement and had a positive impact in the work place.

In the current climate where there is so much negative talk about young people, I was amazed at how many positive words and phrases employers had used to describe the young people that had been with them on work placements.

I found myself jotting some of them down as follows: Motivated; Enthusiastic; Consistent; Hard Working; Always Smiling; Grew in Confidence; Lovely Boy; Wanted to do Well; Steady & Reliable; ‘Can Do’ Attitude; a Delight; Upbeat; Polite; Perfect Attendance; Dealt with Issues …..
and the list goes on and on.

These employers are people who have had a direct experience of these young people, but somehow they see something different from the image of young people that is constantly portrayed in the media. I’m not denying the problems that do exist with young people, but I believe that the young people that were honoured at Wednesday’s event are more representative of the typical teenager than those portrayed in the media.

It makes me wonder what the typical young person trying to make the most of his/her life (who does not carry a weapon or belong to a gang) must think or feel about the image we are portraying of them.

Selah

Susan Popoola

Copyright 2008 This document is the specific intellectual property of Susan Popoola. Content may not be reused or reproduced without the specific permission of the owner or a reference to the source. Opinions may be generated from content obtained from other sources and such content is referenced as appropriate.

I’ve just got back to the office from a visit to a local Secondary School where I am a School Governor. While there I had an interesting conversation with the Head of Art about using Art to develop creative skills for the workplace.

I’m glad that they are thinking along these lines because creative skills are a must for the 21st Century workplace. The war for talent is not just about employers fighting for employees with the required skills. It’s also about employees demonstrating that they have the skills required by employers.

Furthermore, both my direct experience and conversations that I have with employers clearly indicate that it’s actually the softer skills that really make the difference