The Working Parent Podcast
By Sharon Charlton-Thomson
The Working Parent PodcastApr 20, 2020
Ep16: Working Part-Time in a Senior Role with Lee Clements
Today we are talking to Lee Clements who is Head of Sustainable Investment Solutions at FTSE Russell, a part of London Stock Exchange Group. Three years ago Lee reduced his working week to 3 ½ days to have the time to provide help for his daughter, who is severely disabled, and to support his own mental health.
In this episode we talk to Lee about his path to a part time role, the challenges associated with it such as work creep and scheduling stress, and the benefits for him and the business. Lee encourages honest and adult conversations with line managers and colleagues and has advice on how to lose the stigma associated with part time work.
Lee is on the 2021 Timewise Power List which celebrates senior, successful part-time employees and organisations, with an innovative approach to flexible working.
Ep15: Working Part-Time in a Senior Role with Sara Tate
Today we are talking to Sara Tate who is responsible for delivering sustainable and profitable growth as CEO at creative agency TBWA. Sara was hired into the role on a 4 day week so that she could spend more time with her young family. Under her leadership, the agency is thriving, with media billings up 9% to £226m.
Sara is on the 2021 Timewise Power List which celebrates senior, successful part-time employees and organisations, with an innovative approach to flexible working.
In this episode we talk about how Sara landed a part time role in the first place and how she makes it work for her and the team. She has terrific advice for others who are currently working part time or aspiring to do so.
Cindy Gallup
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindygallop/
Timewise Power Awards
https://timewise.co.uk/power-list/
WACL
Resources and research on flexible working https://wacl.info/flexible-first-campaign/why-flexiblefirst/
Sara Tate
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/saraktate/
Twitter https://twitter.com/saraktate
Sara’s Rebuilders Podcast focussed on helping people rebuild after challenges:
- Podcast the-rebuilders.simplecast.com
- Twitter https://twitter.com/RebuildersThe
Ep14: Journalling with renowned coach and author Jackee Holder
Jackee Holder is the author of five non-fiction titles:
- Soul Purpose: Self-Affirming Rituals, Meditations and Creative Exercises to Revive Your Spirit - 1999
- Be Your Own Best Life Coach: Take charge and live the life you always wanted - 2008
- 49 Ways to Write Yourself Well: The Science and Wisdom of Writing and Journaling - 2013
- Writing with Fabulous Trees: A Writing Map for Parks, Gardens, and Other Green Spaces - 2016
- The Write Prescription: Paper and Pen Cures & Remedies for Mind, Body & Spirit - 2021
With "Writing with Fabulous Trees", she brings together the restorative benefits of nature, eco-psychology, eco-geography and self-reflection through twelve tree-inspired journal and creative writing prompts. She has published a collection of creative writing e-books and creative resources which are available as free downloads on her website.
Jackee’s professional background is as a leadership coach and coach trainer. She works corporately, in the NHS with senior leaders and BAME nurses and midwives. This work is supported with a groundbreaking practice of facilitating creative writing and journal writing workshops including online events for writers and creatives nationally and internationally.
Ep13: Lessons from Maternity Leave and Beyond with Ruth and Stu Ashby
Ruth Ashby is a Global Talent Partner at Vodafone. She is an Occupational Psychologist who has held senior roles in Media, Consultancy and Financial Services. Stuart served for seven years as a Royal Marine Commando before establishing Fieldworks Gym in Hackney. Stu and Ruth met whilst at university in Manchester, they now live in Hackney with their two girls, aged 6 and 3.
Ep12: Being a Great Dad with David Willans
The BeingDads website where you can access past editions of David’s blog and also sign up for a weekly email drop is here:
David and Kerri discussed the amount of time it takes to get back into a task that requires focus when we are interrupted or switch tasks. Here is a link to the seminal study https://www.ics.uci.edu/~gmark/chi08-mark.pdf and this is an interview with one of the authors of the study https://www.fastcompany.com/944128/worker-interrupted-cost-task-switching. The answer is 23 minutes and 15 seconds although of course it is more nuanced than that and depends on the task and the person and various other factors. It is only one example of multiple studies on this phenomenon which finds that there is no such thing as multi-tasking. Instead, we switch between tasks and when these tasks are ones requiring lots of attention and focus it costs us time.
David mentioned a quote by Victor Frankl and this book:
Ep11: How does a Positive Psychologist parent? with Jen Rolfe
In this episode, we speak to the wonderful Jen Rolfe about the highs and lows of her own parenting journey. What are the stand out moments – the highs and the lows, and what has really helped. Often as practitioners in this field, there is the myth that we can do it perfectly – Jen’s talk in a humble, entertaining and very real peek into her world where parenting and positive psychology collide. For more information on Julie Morgenstern's work that Jen mentions visit www.juliemorgenstern.com/time-to-parent and for more information on Jen visit www.practicallypositive.com/
Ep10: Getting In Touch With Your Inner Tortoise with Carl Honoré
Carl Honoré is the bestselling author, broadcaster, keynote speaker and leader of the Slow Movement. He firmly believes that living in fast forward significantly damages our health, happiness, relationships and productivity. In this podcast Carl talks about how we might harness the slowness that the pandemic has forced on us and use it for the better in our future lives.
Link to Carl's TED Talk In Praise of Slowness
Links to the studies in which Carl mentions the benefits of slow in the workplace. Read these and then discuss it at work:
https://hbr.org/2010/05/need-speed-slow-down
https://hbr.org/2020/03/slow-down-to-make-better-decisions-in-a-crisis
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2015/12/05/the-creed-of-speed
Here is a link to the trailer for Frantic Family Rescue which Carl filmed in Australia. It might make you cringe but also we might all recognise a little of ourselves in this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7dxXzfy0ro&feature=emb_logo
For more information on Carl: www.carlhonore.info
Ep9: The Benefits of Being Bored with Dr Aric Sigman
In this delightful podcast Dr Aric Sigman explains why boredom needs an image makeover. Boredom is a constructive part of the childhood experience, vital for our children’s mental health, creativity and future success. All too often we feel obliged to ‘cure’ our children’s boredom or make every second count in the weekly schedule, but we need to make space for boredom and help our children develop the ability to withstand a lack of novelty and stimulation. What they mustn’t learn, Aric says, is the solution to boredom comes outside of themselves - buy this, play that, smoke this, eat that. Instead they need to develop strategies to solve their inner boredom and they need time to practice this. In our always on, too much choice, electronic media world Aric provides useful strategies for parents to bring boredom back. He does not leave adults out of the equation either. We too are increasingly in need of stimulation and addicted to novelty! What might we be modelling to our children?
Dr Aric Sigman (http://www.aricsigman.com/index.html ) is a health education lecturer and has delivered numerous talks for The Parent Company (www.theparentcompany.co.uk) on screen time/dependence, alcohol, ‘soft’ drugs & vaping, preventing mental health problems, body image, and understanding boys, sex and relationships topics. He is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on a Fit and Healthy Childhood, co-author of 3 of its latest reports on mental health in childhood. He publishes medical papers on health and development subjects and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and a Chartered Scientist awarded by the Science Council. He is the author of five books (http://www.aricsigman.com/books.html) on health and development-related topics, including Getting Physical, which won The Times Educational Supplement’s Information Book Award.
Here is a link to the survey with the quote from a very wise dad on page 19 https://www.suittiestroller.com/dad-survey-report
Ep8: Exploring the True Value of Our Strengths with Sally Bibb
In this episode we look at the powerful, portable and purposeful resource that we all have available in our own pockets - our strengths.
I explore the true value of our strengths with strengths guru Sally Bibb. Sally is director of engaging minds, a strengths consultancy, an award winning author and keynote speaker. She is also a dear friend - we met through a shared delight of David Whyte’s poetry and she remains an inspirational person in my life. I thoroughly recommend Sally’s two books on strengths - The Strengths Book and The Strengths Workbook as practical reflective guides to discover your own strengths.
Sally shares stories, tips and lots of inspiration. https://engagingminds.co.uk/the-strengths-book-discover-how-fulfilled-work-life-sally-bibb-2017/ Also check out Sally’s podcast The Lockdown Diaries for inspiring human stories around the world. It is amazing! I hope you enjoy.
Ep7: The Office - Going Back is Just the Beginning plus How Not to Drop the Stone! with Dr Harriett Shortt
There is so much to consider about us returning to our offices. How, when, if, where and why! One things for sure this will be a transition not an event and our lockdown experiences and stories will be such a huge part of transitioning back.
Dr Harriett Shortt is a Associate Professor, author, consultant, speaker and working mother. She is fascinating. Listen in as she shares with us some of her thinking around this transition and how I try to describe dropping the stone metaphor on audio (not my finest moment!) we hope you enjoy!
Ep6: Understanding Sleep as a Resource and What Can be Done to Aid Rest with Dr Katharina Lederle
Consultant human sleep and fatigue specialist.
If you are struggling with sleep during lockdown then this podcast with our very own Dr Kat is a must. Dr Kat uses evidence-based insight and provides practical knowledge about sleep science, sleep therapy and sleep-related matters to help us all sleep well and feel good.
Sleep is such an important resource, we all know how it feels to not have good sleep. Dr Kat even shares a pre bedtime exercise with us to help the nervous system settle and prepare for sleep.
Dr Kat is one of our most sought after experts at The Working Parent Company and its no surprise why
Ep5: How can kids stay connected during lockdown safely? with Paul Thomson
Ep4: Home Schooling - An interview with Ed Richardson
Homeschooling! Loving, struggling or somewhere in between - what seems certain to us is that as working parents, whilst we are all in the same storm we might be in very different boats.
According to our time, competencies, our schools and a whole host of other factors that will be unique to each family. This week join me speaking to Ed Richardson, on of our speakers and head of development at KeyStone tutors.
Ed tells us what’s really important when it comes to learning, helps us understand the learning loss and how little and often is our best strategy.
Ep3: Talking about Growth Mindset with Charlie Warshawski
Has there ever been a better time to immerse ourselves in the world of a growth mindset! And understand how we can change our mindset. In this episode, we speak to Charlie Warshawski, growth mindset guru and an executive coach and facilitator at TWPC. Charlie brings mindset theory to life, sharing lots of practical strategies around growth mindset, how to cultivate it where it matters for us and our children. Charlies mindset assessment tool can be found here https://theworkingparentcompany.co.uk/growth-mindset-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/ Give it a go and see how you can shift your own and your children’s mindset for the better…
Ep2: Resilience during lockdown and what Killing Eve can teach us! with Dr Nihara Krause
Resilience is such a vast topic In this episode Dr Krause helps us to understand resilience and provides lots of practical tools to help us develop sustainable resilience at this time.
Ep1: What every parent needs during lockdown with Sharon Charlton-Thomson
How do we best resource ourselves during lockdown?
In this episode we explore and share mindfulness and visualisation strategies as a wonderful resource for leadership and parental focus, regulation and nourishment.