As part of Grace Blue TRANSITION, we are launching a series of Advisory Panels over the coming months to support our registered community – those whom may have lost their jobs due to the global pandemic. We hope it will help in some small way as individuals search and interview for a new role.
To host our first session, we welcomed Suki Thompson and David Beeney of Let’s Reset in the UK. Let’s Reset is an incredible company working with organisations to shift culture in order to shift performance and put well-being, diversity and inclusion at the heart of the workplace. www.letsreset.com.
It was important to us that we started this programme by addressing the key issue many are facing, that of mental well-being and health; keeping going and being resilient, trying to remain energised when one’s livelihood and sense of professional identity is challenged.
Suki and David took us through real examples; personal to them both and drawing on those courageously shared by the group, to help diagnose the challenges many are facing. Whether it was the impact of redundancy on their sense of purpose, the financial worry, the prospect of reskilling, or being at one’s best (to get a new job) when you’re feeling at your worst. Suki and David spoke a lot about the strength required to share your own vulnerability, and how this can be a game changer with colleagues and teams. And how being yourself, which after all is what makes you unique, allows you to become more successful in the end.
Crucially, and practically, Suki and David shared several frameworks which gave us a way to have a conversation with ourselves (and in some cases, others) about how we are feeling. As an industry of high achievers, success is often defined by how many pitches have we won, how have we grown the value of a brand, what we have achieved in our physical health; all noble ambitions and pursuits. But what we tend not to do is audit how we are feeling overall. The framework discussed for assessing emotional well-being across “security, status, autonomy, intimacy, creativity, mind & body connection and purpose” proved to be a helpful model to structure and recognise how things are today, where needs attention, and where things are positive in order to build on those foundations to find resilience.
Throughout the session, the group and Suki and David, all shared insights and advice on what they’re doing to keep positive and retain energy whilst looking for a new role. Everyone knows we should be taking the best care we can of ourselves – recharging, not just enduring; but it helped to hear it from the experts and a wider community; self-compassion and not putting yourself under too much pressure are key. Managing your energy levels, making sure you get enough sleep, exercise, having something to look forward to in the diary, connecting with people and not suffering in silence, were all tactics which can help as a first step. As David said, it’s “ok not to be ok”, and even though the macro-situation is less than ideal, these are small steps to take to help build resilience starting today.
This was the first panel of a programme extending over the coming months which will include: ‘The skills you need for the future’, a chance to ‘Ask the Coaches’, as well as sessions on ‘What’s happening in my discipline?’
Our ambition with Grace Blue TRANSITION is to reach anyone in the marketing, advertising and media industry, globally, whose role might have been impacted by Covid; and every employer who is looking to hire talented individuals in our space. We hope to bring talent and opportunity together, free of any fees, at a challenging time for everyone in business and society.