Blog

“Do the best you can until you know better, then when you know better, DO better”
Mary Angelou

Recently I spent some time training employees and volunteers at One of a Kind, a company run by leaders who walk their talk.  Formerly Lifeline Northwest NSW, they broke off from the National body as they saw the money they were raising was put into the collective pot and not being spent in the region. So they took action.

Twelve months later One of a Kind has successfully rebranded itself as “Locals helping Locals” – working to improve the personal health and wellbeing of locals by promoting community inclusion and engagement.  Pretty inspiring don’t you think?

The CEO, Michael Ticehurst had heard about me through my Self Confidence workshops and called me in to do an “Above the Line” workshop on appropriate and inappropriate behaviour for their Narrabri team.  This is where it gets interesting.

The culture in Narrabri is REALLY good. In fact, the shop has a waiting list for people who want to work as volunteers! Michael sat in on the 90 minutes and had such great feedback, he booked another 4 workshops for Armidale and Tamworth before I left.

In a nutshell, I explained that “Above the Line” was your Personal and Professional Code of Conduct.  Ir’s not just for the workplace, it’s to take home and teach others.  It gets everyone on the same page.  You can call someone on their behaviour with no emotion attached. You can bring awareness to unacceptable behaviour without getting into specifics.  It’s a great way to give encouragement as well.

Recent feedback was “Why don’t more companies have this training done, 90% of the people I know would benefit from it” and “I’m working with someone at present, and this has been a really logical way for me to bring it altogether” and “Can I use this with my teenager” to which I replied “Absolutely”.

Yes, it may be Acceptable Behaviour 101 but it brings an awareness to everyone in a very non-judgemental way.  All I can say is, I wish the majority of companies I have worked with over the years had brought someone in to do this with the employees – and I mean top to bottom.

I’m usually called in when the culture has turned so toxic, the pain has become too great to bear. I have to say it was refreshing to work with a company with a great culture who just wanted to make it even better. Happy, productive employees who loved going to work.

My question to you is, “Have you checked your culture levels lately?”

Until next time.

Glenise Anderson is a Mentor, Trainer and Speaker. Her company SR Group works with businesses wanting to develop their staff.  She is the Chick Confidence Chick at Self Confident Women which focuses on Soft Skills training.  Her membership site offers an abundance of e-learning modules for the busy woman and donates 12 month memberships free of charge to women around the world impacted by domestic violence.