Right now, we’re in the middle of what is being termed The Great Resignation.

In 2020, there were a lot of redundancies and many people didn't feel comfortable leaving their job because the market didn't feel secure.  

Now things have changed. It’s now a candidate-led market and every week I see at least one Influence & Impact member interviewing or celebrating the success of a new job.  

I always see interviews as a bit of a game.  What you need to do at interview is show that you understand the game and that you can jump through the hoops. Once you’ve done that successfully, then the balance of power moves from the organisation to you. 

Here’s 7 rules I share with my I&I members in my audio course Instant Interview Confidence.   

1: The balance of power starts with the interview panel 

They set the rules of the game and bar anything...

The workday reality for the majority of us is one full of distraction and interruption.

Our schedules are dictated by emails, meetings and the small, urgent tasks that pop up daily.   

The opportunity for focused, productive time is unfortunately few and far between.  

In my latest episode of the Influence & Impact for Female Leaders podcast, I interviewed Alicia Navarro the founder and CEO of FLOWN. They’re on a mission to help knowledge workers create deep work spaces to get significant work done, be more creative and take joy in the journey. 

What is Deep Work?   

Deep work is focused, uninterrupted time where you’re working on something challenging, significant or you’re having a learning experience.  

Alicia’s shared that deep work based in the idea that:  

“When you get opportunities to work in an...

Being great at delegating can make a big difference to your workload, stress levels and how you develop your team... but are you making these delegation mistakes? 

Delegating effectively saves time, reduces your workload and stress levels, ensures individual skills and resources are utilised, gives your team chances to develop and is vital for succession planning. But we often don’t delegate as much as we should. 

How do you know if you need to delegate more?  

Here are some signs:

• You’re struggling to get through your to do list 
• You’re lacking time to focus on your priorities 
• You’re working in a very reactivr way and fighting fires 
• Your team rarely step out of their routine responsibilities 
• The organisation or your team would be completely lost if you moved on 

Although delegating is important, it’s also something that many managers and leaders struggle with....

As you develop your career and become more senior, there’s a good chance that you’ll move from being a specialist to a generalist.

In a typical office environment, many of us start off in a generalist role as an assistant or coordinator, helping the team with anything and everything.  

As you progress you become more specialised and when you reach management or head of level, you’re an expert in your area.  

But then the time comes when you move above that level and instead of just managing people from your specialism, you find yourself having to lead, manage and trust people from different specialisms. All who know more about their areas than you do. 

This transition from successful specialist to a successful generalist can be difficult to navigate. 

The more senior you are, the more important this transition becomes.  After all, a great Chief Executive is...

The most important relationship you’ll ever have is with yourself... so why not make it a kind and loving one?

I believe the most powerful way to live a happier life is to learn how to be kinder to yourself and love yourself more.  

As women, we often struggle with accepting ourselves and being confident and secure in who we are.  

Being kinder to yourself not only makes your relationship with yourself a better one, it also improves how you show up as a leader. 

Many of the issues that come up around perfectionism, negative self-talk and overwork can be reduced almost completely by just being kinder to yourself and fully accepting and embracing who you are. 

If you love yourself, you are operating from a secure place.  This means you don’t feel like you need to push yourself ridiculously hard to prove that you're good enough or believe that the quality of your work defines your...

There’s a reason why we need women’s leadership coaches and women’s leadership programmes.

The playing field that women operate on in the workplace is shockingly unlevel. 

The Current Environment 

Let’s start with some stats to see the real picture of the current environment we work in.  

I learnt some very interesting facts on this from Why Women Win At Work by Gill Whitty-Collins – a book I highly recommend. 

At the beginning of their career, 43% of women and 34% of men aspire to reach top management. Surprisingly, it's actually more women than men aspire for that.  

Just two years later, 34% of men still aspire to reach top management. However, the percentage of women has dropped to 16%.  

The question on my mind is what’s happening in those two years of experiencing the workplace that is changing women's minds about what they want to do or what they think is...

As a leader, your voice is a powerful tool for communicating your expertise, confidence and authority.

However, many people don’t know how to use their voice to its full effect.  

If you want communicate powerfully, then it’s time to give it some attention.   

In the latest episode of the Influence & Impact for Female Leaders podcast, I interviewed Sharon Stacey, a Voice Coach and Musical Director.  

Sharon teaches people how to use vocal clarity, attentive tone and confidence for delivering in person and online meetings, keynote speeches and business pitches. 

She shared six ways you can use your voice to boost your gravitas in meetings: 

Look After Your Voice 

Warming up is not something reserved for singers. Before your meeting, practice saying a few sentences using the full range of your voice and emphasising different words....

Are you a perfectionist and is it pushing you towards overwork and burnout? 

For years I thought that I was doing well in my career because I worked so hard and held myself to such high standards. Then I realised that those strategies were actually perfectionism in disguise and were causing as much harm as they were good.  

I coach a lot of high achieving women, at all levels and perfectionism in its various guises, crops up all the time. If you struggle with overworking, trying to be in control of everything in your life, procrastinating and fear of failure, you might be a perfectionist.  
 

What is a perfectionist?  

There are many definitions but essentially, people who experience perfectionism are very focused on how things should be done and feel that they need to perform perfectly every time with nothing short of this being acceptable.  

I love this quote from Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s...

Are you the boss of your brain or is your brain the boss of you? 

Overthinking is something your mind will naturally do. 

You might ruminate on past situations, worry about future events or are fearful of the judgement of others.  

All of this overthinking  can stop you from enjoying the present moment plus creates stress, anxiety and affects your self-confidence.  

The good news is, everyone has the ability to train their mind, change their thinking habits and be the boss of their brain.  

In the latest episode of the Influence & Impact for Female Leaders podcast, I interview Tahirih Mclaren-Brown, a mindfulness coach who helps to free people from overthinking, anxiety, worry and fear. 

Tahirih shared 6 mindfulness strategies you can use to reduce your overthinking and build a calmer, more confident mind.  

1. The Awareness Diary 
2. Thoughts, Emotions, Questions 
3. Sitting in...

Menopause is something that all women will experience in their life.

However it’s not something that’s well understood or openly spoken about.  

The symptoms of menopause will almost certainly affect how you work but it’s often seen to be a taboo subject which leaves women struggling in silence - in fact, 1 in 4 women consider leaving their roles during that time.  

As well as the 34+ physical symptoms a woman could experience there’s also the lessor known psychological effects. Many women feel anxiety, worry, brain fog, lack of concentration or forgetfulness, affecting their confidence and self-esteem in their job.  

In the most recent episode of the Influence & Impact for Female Leaders podcast, I interviewed Deborah Garlick from Henpicked Menopause. Deborah is on a mission to ensure women are supported throughout menopause through awareness, education and workplace...