Transferable skills

A few weeks ago, I gave a light-hearted talk to 50 women at the Cambridge Businesswomen’s Network Christmas lunch. The topic was on how to cope confidently and successfully with the festivities and the balancing acts demanded of most women leading up to and during that special holiday period. I asked them several provocative questions, such as: “do some of you dread the count down to these holidays?” “How many of you have been ill over Christmas in recent years?” and “do you find the atmosphere more fraught at home, when expectations are so high and diverse?”

It was not surprising to see wry smiles, a large number of hands going up and heads nodding in agreement. I asked how many of them had been on management training courses during their business lives. Pretty well all of them had ‘ticked off’ Negotiation Skills, Time Management, Setting Objectives and Seeing them Through, How to Cope with Stress at Work, Dealing with Difficult Situations, Delegation Skills…..and more!

What stimulated me to raise this particular subject was a high-powered client who asked for an extra session to help to manage Christmas and retain her sanity! How strange that a competent senior manager who copes well and communicates effectively with colleagues and clients leaves her team leadership and negotiation skills behind when she goes home. A self-employed accountant who is a stickler for forward planning and ensuring tight adherence to the bottom line overspends the family budget and forgets to consider short, medium and long-term strategy at home. A successful woman who runs a busy department finds herself “doing everything without any help from my family” and completely overlooks her proven abilities to delegate.

No-one should leave these vital LIFE skills at their place of work. They need to be practiced and perfected on a daily basis in everyone’s personal world as well as in business. Of course it’s not just at Christmas that people get frazzled and lose their skills and perspective. Now, at the start of a New Year, plan a programme of support to help transfer and balance those all-important skills so that you are comfortably in control for both work and play.

CONTACT CAROLINE LLOYD-EVANS FOR A COMPLIMENTARY SESSION TO ENSURE THOSE SKILLS ARE IN USE IN ALL AREAS OF YOUR LIFE

DON’T FORGET THERE ARE GRANTS AVAILABLE FOR SENIOR MANAGERS OF COMPANIES BETWEEN 20-250 STAFF

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