What a year we are having. Everything has changed, in ways we could not have planned for.
In January I had training delivery for myself and David booked through to April 2021, I was busy, busy, busy delivering training while David was recuperating from a health scare in December, and we worked on a comprehensive plan for his phased return to work through spring.
There were rumblings about a novel coronavirus that had moved over from China and was in Italy, but I wasn’t paying much heed to that, I didn’t have the bandwidth I was so busy delivering training.
Then it started to look more serious and before I knew what had hit me, I suddenly had all the time in the world. All our training was cancelled/postponed.
The world of training generally experiences bouts of famine in late July, August and December, we plan for those and work on development of services and we holiday. This was different.
A week before lockdown the order book was suddenly empty! I went from having my best year in business to seeing it all fall off a cliff.
Since March I have been working tirelessly to turn this ship around. I had no option but to furlough David and Gemma. I cut costs to the bone, while also spending on training and coaching so that I could learn to develop and deliver online training programmes.
My partnerships with The Learning Collaboration and The One Group enabled me to deliver online training to organisations to help managers adapt to these strangest of times and to help individuals manage their mental health.
Over the last month I have started to adapt the 12-month management programme to online delivery, and I was delighted when CPSL Mind wanted to re-ignite their management training and take it online.
I will re-start the open management programme in August, which stalled after our March session on mental health (great timing!)
Online training is a different approach, I was concerned the connections that are made in the classroom environment would be lost totally. I needn’t have worried, my first sessions of online management training have been very well received and I feel positive about the future.
But, there just isn’t enough work to give me the confidence to keep my office, or to continue employing Gemma and David, so the difficult decision was made in June to make redundancies and give notice on the office.
I cannot pretend I wasn’t scared for what it would mean for our future relationships, they have both handled the situation so well. David has embraced the opportunity this has provided him for time to heal and connect with the things that are important in his life, and he is flourishing.
Gemma has been helping her daughters to learn while staying safe at home, and is taking this opportunity to support her partner’s business using her marketing training and skills.
I am delighted that they are both safe and well, that they have plans for the future and most importantly that our relationships and friendships will continue, that means more to me than anything.
And what of me and Your People Potential? We will go on! I am feeling confident about the future, I know I can continue to deliver the training that is on the order books, I know that I can grow the business back up to where it was and beyond. I also know that it will be a different iteration of the business.
When I look back over the years of being in business, what I set out to do in 2009 and what I am doing now in 2020 I see all the many changes I have made as I have responded to new situations and the challenges I have faced, which ultimately lead to the creation of Your People Potential.
This time is no different. Your People Potential continues to create amazing change for our clients and their managers.
I will continue to provide the intuitive support for my HR clients that helps them resolve tricky problems that have been vexing them for some time.
I will continue to partner with organisations that see the untapped potential in their people.
I will continue to bang the drum to lift the stigma around mental health and work.
I will continue to help organisations shine a light on equality and to overcome the bystander effect when people don’t know what to do in the face of bullying or inappropriate behaviour at work.
I will continue to help super-techie people transform into super-techie people who feel confident to manage other people.
I will continue to work with organisations that recognise the value in challenging the status quo.
I will continue to work with HR professionals who take mental health and management skills seriously.
I will continue to work with HR professionals who want to be taken seriously by the business.
It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life, and I’m feeling good!
If you need help creating amazing change in your workplace call me today on 07880 776756 or email now. I look forward to working with you.
