We know that Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities.  But Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances, and in order to reach an equal outcome may need different resources, opportunities or chances to get to the same place, however we may determine that.

But in order to achieve equality, we need to push for equity.

I saw a quote by Susan K Gardener that I think explains this very simply “Equality is giving everyone a shoe, Equity is giving everyone a shoe that fits.”

Equity acknowledges that people don't begin life in the same place and that circumstances can make it more difficult for people to achieve the same overall goals.   And those goals may be similar in one sense but they are not necessarily the same.

"Who is not being heard in your organisation?"

It means that people who make decisions, who engage with others and who employ people should be responsible for asking good questions about their policies, procedures and engagement. For example:

• Who are we including or excluding in our decision making?

• Whose voice is heard and amplified and whose voice is disregarded?

• Whose opinions do we value and listen to and therefore who are we not listening to?

We don’t all start from the same position – real change has to be more about generating opportunity, a leg up, access to qualifications, jobs, even ways of thinking.

So who is not being heard in your organisation?  Get in touch with us if you would like to find out more about developing equity-friendly policies, procedures and behaviours in your business or organisation.

Career management is about having a plan for your career. Think about your career as a journey - you might not end up where you thought, and you might need to change en route or adapt to a change in circumstances.

When you are planning what to do in the future, it is important to:

• Think about your skills, strengths, values, and ambitions and how they match to potential work areas.
• Look at local opportunities and see what job vacancies, training courses and voluntary work will help you to achieve your goal.

We need to think about ourselves too. Self-awareness is the most important part of career management.

What is self-awareness?

If you do not know what your priorities are in work, or what your skills and qualities are, you will not know where to look for the career you might be suited to.

Ilham's top 3 tips:

1. Ask yourself what is most important to you - what are your objectives from a career? Better work/life balance or more responsibility? A job you don’t have to “take home with you” or the chance to progress? A “9 to 5” or a job with greater job satisfaction?
2. Use skills analysis tools to help you identify your skills, such as the short Buzz Test at the icould site - https://icould.com/buzz-quiz
3. Stay resilient when faced with challenges by adapting and responding in a positive way. Keep things in perspective, make connections, see the opportunity, and retrain or up-skill.

Happy job hunting, and get in touch if you would like any further advice and guidance.

Real Rest - A present to yourself

How often do we build time in our working week for thinking.  For working on the business and not in it?  Indeed, how often do we build in time for rest, real restorative rest?  I hope to persuade you (and me probably) that real rest is the greatest present we can give ourselves to enable us to be better at work and in our relationships with others.

Over the past few months, many of my coaching and mentoring sessions with others have been focused around some similar topics - time management, the fear of missing out and how difficult it is to protect time to recuperate from over-working or feelings of being overwhelmed.

I wonder whether you use holidays as a tangible gift to yourself?  I wonder whether, as you are reading this, making your mind up whether you agree or disagree with where this is leading, you might start to be thinking about what you can do to make the most of your time to include rest or thinking time in your working week?  A bit of Leader Love is actually spending time out of the business – literally physically and mentally.  It is concentrating on the other things that are important to you and not checking social media or emails all the time.  Isn’t that a hard thing to do?

So let’s look for a moment at Rachel’s Rules of Real Rest.  Firstly, no screens – at all; then there is the absolute directive to be sitting or lying down.  It is stopping the body and stilling the mind.  Very difficult to do and even harder to build into Monday to Friday!  I recognise that the joys of rest can include a good book or a middle distance view that enables you to look out and let your mind wander (hopefully at water, woods or the natural world).  Everyone has their own understanding of ‘rest’ and you’ll know yours – I’m just being a little prescriptive for effect!

And that is because of the impact of the Rest on us.  Good rest – especially over a number of times across days or a week – brings about clarity of thinking, creativity, uncovering understanding and commitment to action that reveals itself when you are back at work.  It is like a pause button, that allows you to regroup with yourself and then re-emerge from the rest somehow more than you were before.  Rest is regenerative, a bit like Doctor Who, and well worth the effort and energy of planning it into your daily life, not only during holidays.

That is the gift – you rest, relax, calm down and slow down.  The world and the people in it that you want and do spend time with come into focus and you can be present with them.  But the biggest present of all is the renewed energy, ideas and sense of perspective that you bring back to your work place – ready to face a new day, week, month or year with all the new opportunities and challenges that awaits.  Christmas holidays seem like a long time ago now; but I hope you might consider planning some rest into the diary if you can.  Let me know if you do and what brilliant things happen as a result.