Author: WE ARE BRAVE

We’re sure by now you’ve noticed the biggest shift in both where, and the way we work in human history. COVID19 has changed the landscape of work in a way no-one ever expected. The world of work has suddenly shifted, and flexibility will become one of the keywords of 2020. 

For many organisations, this was simply no big deal, with the right technology, ethos, culture, and people that had already embraced home working it must have felt like just another day at the virtual office.

But, for millions of people, this was the biggest shift in flexible working they have ever experienced in an incredibly short period of time.

Businesses without the right technology suddenly couldn’t work, employees who were used to a set start & finish time, a familiar desk, drawers and a favourite seat in the canteen had their world turned upside down. The answer? Work at home. Now. Done. Overnight millions of people relocated their work to the kitchen table, office, dining room and sofa.

After the initial pain that comes with rapid change it has undoubtedly shown them, their businesses, and the clients that yes, the rumours were true, we can actually work at home and still get the job done.

Right now, your people are working flexibly in a way you never imagined, and guess what? They’re getting used to it and that is going to be a very difficult thing to take back. The working at home flexibly genie is already out of the bottle.

What’s happening now, after 8 weeks of experience is many of these employees are becoming aware of just how, where and when they can work in the most effective way, and for many, they now want to change their working lives to suit this.

This is leaving many organisations that didn’t have them, scrabbling to create or adapt policies, in order to build a more flexible working culture that’s now needed, plus meet the demands of the future employees they may need to hire as well.

Organisations around the world will be reviewing their structures, office rents, equipment costs and some have already made some snap decisions. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter has already told thousands of people who are now working brilliantly at home each day – You don’t need to come back to the office. Ever!

So, are you starting to think about the future of flexible working for your people? If the answer is not yet, then this is something that needs your attention now.

It’s important to recognise that flexible working will only really be successful if it is available to everyone, allowing anyone to use and adopt a flexible working pattern within their organisation. Yes, there are certain roles that will always need to work in an office, we all know that, but for millions of people, they can work perfectly well at home, and the jobs are getting done even though they’re juggling kids & homework, housework, cramped conditions, lockdown and unusual hours. Imagine how much more productive they can be as some of those factors start to become more normalised.

Moving from your traditional, 9-5 working pattern might seem like a huge, and uncertain step, but the benefits of embracing a flexible culture for both employees and for your business are huge. If you ever wanted to do a study or get some data on how this could work for your business, that time is now, you have a real life pandemic that’s providing you with everything you need to see how flexible working will suit you and your people.

A recent study completed by Timewise found that 87% of all full time employees either already work flexibly or have said that they want to and for those that are looking for flexibility in a new job the number jumps to 93%!

Most of the current workforce in 2020 is increasingly made up of multiple generations; from those in first jobs in a resurgence of apprenticeships, those who are career focused, some who may be starting to have children right through to the baby boomers who are looking to ease into their retirement. The spread of employee experience has never been higher.

As a  business, moving through these crazy times you can get a head start on the change that is, without doubt coming, by already starting to create a flexible working culture which will allow you to manage and successfully support different teams with different needs and still grow your business.

If you start doing this now, difficult as it may seem, your people will move with you, as they can see what’s coming too, and when you do this right it dramatically affects not just the welfare and overall happiness of your employees, but also, it has a direct impact on retention, performance and motivation – which all, in turn, affect the bottom line.

Your people are the heartbeat of your company, and by allowing them greater control over their work-life balance, you’ll create a culture of value, trust and respect.

We’ve all moved ahead, in the space of a couple of months, into a new era of working (that has been gradually building in the background) and for the foreseeable future flexible working will be the norm.

Right now, there is probably some kind of home-working corner in every home, most people have multiple devices, most have unlimited minutes on mobile phones and super-fast fibre pulsing through their home. Right now, travel and accommodation costs are reduced, and you’ll be wondering why you didn’t do meetings via video call before? The environmental impact will be massive as the amount of travel by cars and planes will reduce significantly, and it’s all making businesses look back at what they had, minus the rose tinted glasses, and say, “was that actually the best way to do things?”

Pretty soon, it’s likely we will exist in a world where it doesn’t even cross your mind about when, how or even where to work. That future is closer than you think, for some of us, it’s already happening, and the sweet spot to all of this, most people really are more productive when allowed to work flexibly. 

With dramatic change like this, you need to help your people along the journey. Whether its change management, coaching, resilience, remote leadership, soft skills, management programmes or even webinar training at Well Prepared Training can help. Reach out to us today and see how we can help you make your business flexible working ready.

Get in touch today.

Are you working from home AND schooling the kids? We feel your pain! While most of us are developing a new found admiration for teachers we went and created a FREE Download to give you some tips on how to successfully work from home with kids. 

Get your copy now!

The Well Prepared Training Team

Has it happened to you? Tired unblinking eyes glazed over and rolled skyward?

You’ve hit the ‘Virtual Meeting Fatigue’ wall.

If the answer is yes then get clicking and grab a copy of the FREE download or get in touch. 

Start the conversation today.

We know that adapting to working from home can throw any team into chaos, so we’ve created 3 useful guides that work together as our Working from Home Toolkit.

Use these with your teams to address the most asked about topics:

How do I manage a remote team?

How do I help my team adapt to home working?

How can I help my team work from home with kids?

All three guides are free and fully downloadable now.

The Well Prepared Training Team

• Working from home Kit 1
• Working from home Kit 2
• Working from home Kit 3

In this series of Well Prepared Training articles we pay homage to the people we admire when it comes to the way they speak in public.

That last sentence probably doesn’t even do them justice. Our choices for these articles have truly found the purpose of their voices and speak so that everyone is listening to them. They inspire. They engage. They create passion. They can evoke tears. They tell compelling, human stories that make you feel something with every word. These are the inspirational speakers that blow our minds.

Our next speaker is Amy Cuddy. Yes, the woman that made the ‘Power-Pose’ famous. Amy is a social psychologist, author, public speaker, famous for confidence building body language and she’s a previous Harvard Business School professor. Wow.

Oh, and her TED Talk, on Body Language, has been viewed over an astonishing 54 million times. She’s clearly saying something people want to hear.

It took us some time and debate to decide which of Amy’s speeches we wanted to talk about but in the end, we decided on her performance, and we call it that because it’s literally a work of art, at Inc 5000 Conference in 2019 where she talked around her research into the power of body language.

We love the power that Amy brings to the stage but she doesn’t threaten the listener or viewer, she makes them feel engaged. Her power pose doesn’t intimidate, it simply boosts her confidence and our confidence in her as the speaker. It’s clever stuff.

There are so many parts of this speech which really inspired us, but we especially loved the pace, the clear and easy way she explains something that has so much depth in her research.

She helps her listeners to engage and understand by using real life examples and stories so you can almost hear the penny dropping as the audience realise she’s making complete sense. It’s an amazing thing to watch.

When she moves onto a sensitive topic and one that might ruffle feathers, gender stereotyping, it’s done with such confidence, heartfelt knowledge and passion that people just listen and nod. We particularly loved one message she left the session with.

“When you feel personally powerful, you are more likely to be able to empower the people who work for you”

We were so impressed with her stance, her clear and direct communication, the confidence, the way she practised what she preached and the way she has the audience in the palm of her hand as they realised that this speaker, was talking to them and making them want to be more like her. Incredible.

You can watch Amy in action in her multi-million streamed TED Talk by clicking this link.

Now we can’t guarantee to make you speak like Amy, but we can help you become an awesome public speaker through our own SPEAK programme so if we can support you get in touch.

We’ve been celebrating Black History Month highlighting those who have inspired us at We Are BRAVE. This choice is for many reasons (he’s kinda done a lot of stuff) but we adore his style when it comes to the way he speaks & engages in public. It’s Barack Obama.

Originally an American attorney at law and democratic politician and senator, Barack Obama went on to become the 44^th President of the United States holding office from 2009-2017 and the very first African American President.

Once again, we are not making political statements here, that’s something we never get involved in. What we do want to talk about is the public speaking skills that made this POTUS one of the most engaging presidents to ever hold office.

At the very nature of his most high profile job was public speaking, and whilst we know that he will have received coaching and support, he without doubt has a set of natural skills that he uses to inspire and engage his audience to go on his journeys with him.

There are so many choices when it comes to his speaking resume, but we decided to choose his presidential victory speech. It contains almost all of the factors you could wish for when considering how to rally a crowd and leave them knowing that something great is coming and that they need to act. Something that many public speakers wish for as a success measure for their own presentations.

His speech needs to be watched to understand its power, but we’ve selected some of the elements that really stood out for us because of the ways it either engaged, inspired or grew interest and passion from the audience. There are many to choose from!

He starts by congratulating the audience, not himself, on going out and voting, on having the will to change, on letting their votes do the talking and trusting in him to be different. He never once congratulates himself. His passion and sincerity when he does this are masterful.

Within minutes he manages to engage everyone around the USA when he is inclusive in his storytelling. Old, young, black, white, Hispanic, gay, straight…the list goes on. He skilfully is thanking those that are around him and letting you know that you’re a welcome part of his success and team too. He unifies all those people. We are the United States of America.

A skill many speakers struggle with is being humble. Confidence and arrogance run a very close line and he manages to be humble when he talks about those around him, despite just being elected to President of the United States. Instead he used his time to congratulate those around him and those who ran against him mentioning his campaign manager, supporters like Joe Biden, opposition like Senator McCann and Sarah Palin and of course, tugs at the heartstrings when coming back to thank his wife and beautiful daughters.

He also skilfully pays respect to his grandmother who dies just 3 days previously whilst also reminding the people of America that his commitment was to them and the election. Everyone deals with grief and this helps the audience to empathise with him. Evoking empathy, in a presentation, is a rare skill.

He masters the use of his voice, the tone, the eye movements, the hand gestures and ends as he started, talking about the people who voted and supported him, carefully making sure to recognise those that donated $10 and $20 along with those who supported with millions.

He tells them “it’s your victory” and I know that you did it not to win an election, but you did it for me. He has told the audience what he stands for, and now I’m going to stand up for you.

And then, of course, like any good speech, he needs a call to action. What will we do differently? Well in this case it’s all about attitude and for Barack Obama, he simply wants the American public to remember one thing from his election to President. That when it comes to growth, the challenge ahead, any actions and future change there is only one response he wants to hear. “Yes, we can!”

You can watch Barack in action by clicking this link.

Now we can’t guarantee to make you speak like Barack did, but we can help you become an awesome public speaker through our own SPEAK programme so if we can support you get in touch.

In this series of Well Prepared Training articles we pay homage to the people we admire when it comes to the way they speak in public.

That last sentence probably doesn’t even do them justice. Our choices for these articles have truly found the purpose of their voices and speak so that everyone is listening to them. They inspire. They engage. They create passion. They can evoke tears. They tell compelling, human stories that make you feel something with every word. These are the inspirational speakers that blow our minds.

For this article, we have selected someone who speaks publicly with absolute ease. Joanne Rowling OBE, much better known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author, film producer, television producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Most famous for bringing the world her literary masterpieces with the stories of a certain young wizard, Harry James Potter.

We thought long and hard before selecting the speech that stood out for us, she has many under her belt, including reading a passage from Peter Pan at the 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony in London. We wanted a speech that stuck with us and we chose her graduation speech to students at Harvard University in 2011.

The overarching message we took from this, and would encourage you to do the same, is the perfectly played use of humour throughout. Her audience engages with her within seconds as she plays on the fears of public speaking and relaxes the audience (and herself) with the power of laughter. A clever trick many of us can use to ease into a public speech. The power of laughter and relaxing is incredible. She is, without doubt, a master at this. Her self-deprecating humour is powerful and empowering (along with her wicked twitter responses if you look at those).

There are many highlights to this public speech, but we picked some prime moments for you. We strongly advise you to watch as she masterfully tackles topics that many wouldn’t dare to even write down. Included in this speech are personal stories, anecdotes, government issues, African torture, personal failure, divorce and poverty.

Each topic is skilfully delivered using the power of her voice, knowing that her audience are listening to her with interest and compassion. She is a multi-billionaire, talking of poverty could be taken the wrong way, but the way it is delivered, and the story passed along instead warms you to her and the story even more.

She talks passionately about what imagination means to her, and the distinct lack of it in certain arenas. Her stature and body language are strong. She explains that for her, imagination is the powerful tool that allows us to empathise with others without ever actually being in their shoes. An interesting take from someone whose imagination has inspired millions of children (and adults) around the world through her writing.

We love her humour, both outright, and sarcastic and especially the little eye movements that show us how comfortable she is sharing her words and inspiring people to laugh with her. She genuinely seems to be there because she wants to congratulate the students and share her insights with them.

Even after going to more solemn moments during the talk, she ends with her humour when she discusses the reason, she will never be able to run for Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

You can watch J.K. Rowling speaking by clicking this link.

Now we can’t guarantee to make you speak like J.K. Rowling, but we can help you become an awesome public speaker through our own SPEAK programme so if we can support you get in touch.

In this series of articles we pay homage to the people we admire when it comes to the way they speak in public.

That last sentence probably doesn’t even do them justice. Our choices for these articles have truly found the purpose of their voices and speak so that everyone is listening to them. They inspire. They engage. They create passion. They can evoke tears. They tell compelling, human stories that make you feel something with every word. These are the inspirational speakers that blow our minds.

This time we are talking about a legend when it comes to speaking in public, and who has reached millions of people all around the world. Our choice is Simon Sinek. He’s a British-American, highly accomplished author and motivational speaker. One of his books, Leaders Eat Last, appeared on the bestseller lists for Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. He’s famously helped many businesses come up with their ‘WHY’ from his book, Start with Why and his many speeches about finding the Purpose of your organisation.

We immediately had a favourite speech from this guy, it’s one that stood out to us, and we didn’t want to choose the ones that 50 million people have already streamed! Instead we chose What Makes a Great Leader from TED in March 2014.

There are so many parts of his presentation that really ticked boxes for us but we really enjoyed the way he makes it easy for the people in the audience to get on the same page as him quickly and want to move through his story with him.

He talks with passion and conviction about leaders needing to make their employees feel secure and letting them into a circle of trust and safety. He doesn’t just use the words and move on, he lets you know that if you want to do this it’s time to take responsibility. The message is clear – it’s on you, and yet you feel glad he’s effectively telling you to step up and make a change. That is a public speaking skill that many would kill for.

He cleverly draws you in from the very first words of his speech when he talks to you about Captain William Swenson (we won’t ruin it for you but it’s a heartfelt moment) and brings his words alive with analogies and experiences which help him drive home his point. That we all want to work for an organisation where we feel safe and protected and when we do, the evidence suggests we cooperate and work harder.

He owns the stage, he can interact with all of you and one of you, he writes on his flip charts and still has the audience waiting for his next word or story. He speaks so concisely and with such energy and passion that it’s hard not warm to him. His storytelling abilities are second to none. That’s why we chose him as one of our inspirational speakers.

You can watch Simon in action by clicking this link.

Now we can’t guarantee to make you speak like Simon does, but we can help you become an awesome public speaker through our own SPEAK programme so if we can support you get in touch.

In the spirit of being ‘well prepared’ we’ve invested in the capability to use an online platform for virtual learning with our clients. We know businesses are relying on their teams to be credible, speak clearly and influence well via virtual platforms & our solutions can support those skills.

• Our solution will enable your commitment and investment in your people to remain on track
• This is a motivating way to connect people in an otherwise lonely existence/ connecting people aspect in difficult times
• It’s the right time to keep things stable for employees and to continue to show your investment in their growth – especially as the requirements of virtual working will require new virtual skill sets

Interested in learning more? Grab a copy of the FREE download or get in touch. 

Start the conversation today.