KEY TAKEAWAYS “…you had to come to the table knowing that while you had a lot of experience, you may have some suggestions but you had no solutions in your kickback. This was unprecedented work… you didn't know that you were doing the right thing. You didn't know whether you were doing the wrong thing. You just were making some decisions based on the amount on the limited amount of evidence” “There were times when you had to take on some commands and control…that were directives coming from the top…you've got to stop doing that and now you've got to do this. And that was very alien to me. I'm not a kind of directive leader… I didn't genuinely wield that kind of that kind of power. When I did that with my team did respond because they knew that I was serious because I've never really spoken to people like that before” “…It's like being at war in a way... you're given your orders; you may not agree with them, you may not understand them and they may not be right... you just do it… that in itself was very comforting, because you have a set of clear instructions.” “There was a real sort of what we refer to as a Dunkirk Spirit… We all knew that we had a task to do and we were, obviously some days asking people to really play to their skills...” “…human beings are very resilient… a lot of people have been reviewing their work life balance… having spent a long time working from home, some people have found the benefits of that some people can't wait to get back into the office…we see the risks” “…people's anxieties about going into the into the office is causing harm, because people are very anxious about it. We're also doing this against a backdrop of economic issues, I know there's an enormous amount of anxiety that people are starting to experience around the economic distress that we're going to be entering as well…the cost of travelling into work, the costs of dressing for work, the cost of buying a coffe...” “…being a menopausal lady, things sometimes slip one's mind. You tend to turn up in a room and say ‘What the hell am I doing?’... The reason that we laugh about it and joke about it is because it's actually quite tough… we do tend to sort of corner the menopause as a big drama. But many men do have issues of their own and getting older isn't easy for anybody” “If I have got something useful to contribute to the workplace, people will continue to give me a job to do. If I haven't, then c'est la vie. But, while I still have a contribution to make, I am what I am. And I don't have to pretend to be anything else. I think that's one of the wonderful things about the menopause, actually, you do realise that you are, you are an entirely flawed human human construction,” ABOUT KATE JONES Kate is Director of Research Delivery for the NIHR Clinical Research Network which provides infrastructure and support to the NHS and social care to enable the conduct of high-quality research. Kate has worked with the NIHR since its inception in 2007, having previously worked in both healthcare governance and as a research fellow. Kate is married with two grown up daughters and lives in Broadstairs in Kent. CONNECT WITH KATE https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-jones ABOUT THE HOST – ALLI SPARGO Alli is the mother of two daughters and a son, a wife, a daughter and a sister. She is also an executive leadership coach who passionately believes that every individual has the potential to be who they want to be, and do what they want to do (she is living proof of that!): to BE the BEST version of themselves. Alli specialises in behavioural performance as an executive leadership and systemic team coach. Her breadth of business experience, together with her coaching and facilitation expertise, enables her to enhance leadership capability and personal impact, whilst understanding the demands of the commercial and organisational environment. WORK WITH ALLI If you would like explore how working with Alli would support you to be the person you want to be, have the career (and life) you want to have and support your team to perform at their optimum, then please book a free 1 hour meeting with her using this link: Exploring Human Behaviour At Work CONNECT WITH ALLI Follow me here with more amazing guest interviews and share with your Podcast friends. https://linktr.ee/allispargo instagram.com/allisonspargoltd twitter.com/allisonspargo linkedin.com/in/allisonspargo HOSTED BY: Alli Spargo DISCLAIMER The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast belong solely to the host and guest speakers. Please conduct your own due diligence.
