National Women in Engineering Day – 23rd June

Kaur Values is involved with a number of projects and events associated with National Women in Engineering Day on 23rd June.

Why are we involved? If we can sort out the challenges faced by any one diverse group it has a positive impact on the other diversity strands. Every little bit promotes Fairness, Inclusiveness and Respect in the workplace and outside.

The lack of skills and lack of diversity in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professions is a problem that has been growing year on year.

EngineeringUK estimates the current shortfall of engineers in the UK is at 69,000 a year. The Royal Academy of Engineering reports that the current engineering workforce is 92{2d8ca8a57a2be9c4e7c5f608c633b8d2972cbc20ea13f00e48eca0a2f3e4a9f8} male and 94{2d8ca8a57a2be9c4e7c5f608c633b8d2972cbc20ea13f00e48eca0a2f3e4a9f8} white.

If we are to address the skills shortage we have to address diversity and inclusion at all levels in the STEM sector.

Get involved, and do your bit. Check out these links too.

Women in Engineering

NWED2016

Beyond WISE

Women in Transport – Step Up, No Excuses

The Business Case

Would you Fire your Employees too?

A few days ago it was reported that two respected police officers had been fired for sending racist text messages. The Metropolitan Police commented that police officers holding racist views do not have a place in the Police Force. Scotland Yard reported that the officers had “breached its standards in relation to authority, respect and courtesy, equality and diversity” (Click here to read full report)

Some of you will be sympathetic that these officers have had their careers ruined. Some of you may be wondering why were these texts sent when the Metropolitan Police heavily invest in diversity, equality and inclusiveness training.

What action would you take if your employees behaved in this manner? Would you have fired them too?

More importantly in your organisation, what do people really think after participating in diversity and inclusiveness training?

Is your diversity and inclusiveness training achieving the desired outcome? How do you know? If your evidence is numbers and graphs, then I am sorry to say, you are not looking at the complete picture.

The organisational culture is at two levels: what the bosses “see” as a result of their training investment and the “real” culture where people haven’t embraced the changes needed. The “real” culture often stays hidden below the bosses’ radar but is very much experienced by the employees.

There is a lot of talk on how diversity training should address unconscious biased thinking, which is great except you don’t know what you don’t know. You cannot change a person’s values and embedded beliefs by awareness training alone.

What we say and how we behave are indicators of attitudes stemming from our beliefs. The real indicator of whether your training interventions have had the desired effect is to notice what they say and how they behave outside of the work environment. This will reveal whether they are embracing the learning and therefore changing or are they paying lip service and going through the motions of being politically correct in the office.

Your organisational culture is defined by real behaviours from real people and unless you really make an effort to notice, you won’t see the “real” culture.

So, what can you do?

Start by encouraging your staff to build genuine rapport with people who are different to them, by finding connections and exploring similar interests and hobbies. If you think about your close circle of friends, how diverse is it? If your social group isn’t diverse do you really understand some of the different challenges, concerns and viewpoints of other people and cultures?

If you have built up a relationship with someone, you don’t see their colour, gender, disability etc, you converse with the person on the inside. This leads to increased trust and you start to understand each other better. This is your opportunity to understand different people and cultures, leading to new ways of thinking and creating an exciting environment to work in, all of which impacts positively on the company performance.

Changing the organisational culture isn’t easy. We specialise in leadership training that delivers. Our delegates genuinely embrace the changes needed within themselves, proven by the feedback we get from their bosses.

To deliver diversity training that has real impact is the biggest challenge in the workplace. If you would like more information and access to free resources please contact us on info@kaurvalues.com

The Influential Leader

An influential leader is able to continuously improve self performance and the performance of others. To be able to influence requires a great deal of confidence in you. However confidence is something you cannot touch, hold, or buy, so how can you instil confidence in yourself and influence others?

  • Learn to embrace fear with confidence,
  • Improve self performance and
  • Influence performance of others.

 

The Influential Leader workshop gives you proven tools that drive success in any aspect of your work where you need to build your confidence, sharpen your skills and be able to influence!

We share leadership models that positively influence attitudes and behaviours that drive success, and work with you so that you leave with a clear action development plan in the areas you really need support in.

So whether you want to:

  • Get Greater Recognition;
  • Influence Others Effectively;
  • Develop Specific Skills; or
  • Be More successful

 

Join us on “The Influential Leader” Workshop to confidently step out of your comfort zone start getting the results you want and deserve

 Content:

  • Case studies
  • Tools and practical sessions on proven methodologies
  • A personal development plan

Event Details:              

When:                                                       Friday 17th October,

Registration and welcome refreshments:    9.00am to 9.30am

Event:                                                       9.30am to 4.30pm

Venue:                                                     The Studio, 7 Cannon Street, Birmingham B2 5EP

Tickets:                                                    £240 per person  (includes all day refreshments)

 

For more information contact us at info@kaurvalues.com

or book directly  on Eventbrite by clicking here The Influential Leader

Be a Business Olympian

Question: How do you to transform your organisation from its current performance to be an organisation of high performance?

 Answer:  Develop leadership skills in the individuals responsible for championing the way forward and instil confidence in them to challenge the status quo.

At Kaur Values Associates we do just that in our leadership development programs. With a client portfolio that includes F we have been grooming Business Olympians that are now creating high growth performance success in their respective organisations.

 All Business Olympians display three essential characteristics which are analogous to Sporting Olympians and they are: 

  • Unbreakable Mental Toughness

Peak performers work hard, are dedicated and have an unbreakable mental toughness. In the same way that athletes keep fit and hone their skills, managers need to grow and develop their competencies. Strong mental toughness is what differentiates champions from the strong performers.

  •  Good Discipline

Discipline is doing what is needed when you do not feel like it! Athletes exercise and practice when others are sitting around. Business Olympians keep the business up and running, they persevere when the going gets tough and not give up.

  •  Strong Belief

Sporting champions possess a strong belief in their capability to achieve the desired outcomes by tapping into their Emotional Quotient. Business Olympians have the same strong belief in themselves to have the capability to aim higher and experience greater success.

Having unbreakable mental toughness, good discipline and strong beliefs are all very well, but as all Sporting and Business Olympians will reveal, these are mindsets developed by having a good trainer and coach who understands the importance of heart and head and is able to tap into the Emotional Intelligence to really grow individuals to display peak performance.

For Business Olympians the additional output is that they create a strong organizational culture that empowers others to develop their mental toughness, discipline and belief thus accelerating the change for organisations to be transformed into higher performing organisations.

This article is condensed from a paper produced by Kaur Values “Why Olympians make Great Organisational Leaders”

Email info@kaurvalues.com if you would like to know more about the work we do or our training programs.