Jenny Jones

Which sectors have moved the dial on gender and global majority representation in FTSE 350 leadership teams?   The Green Park Business Leaders Index 2024 provides the answers, with extensive analysis of more than 16,000 roles at the top levels of the UK’s major companies. Broken down by sector, level, function, gender and ethnocultural diversity, this is the most comprehensive research series of its kind. Key Findings:  FTSE 100 - the highest female representation in Top 3 roles are Utilities (33%), Health (31%) and Banking & Finance (21%).  Technology stands out for female representation in FTSE 100 Top 20 roles (49%).   Media has the most representation in Pipeline roles in the FTSE 100 (47%). Ethnic Minorities still have low representation in nearly all sectors, across all levels.  Notable Ethnic Minority representation in Health and Telecoms (Top 3, Top 20 levels). Highest Ethnic Minority representation in the Pipeline is Telecoms (45% in FTSE 100 and 41% FTSE 250). Talk To Our Team  Since releasing our high-level findings, we have been approached by several organisations to present a more detailed analysis to their senior leadership and talent teams. If this is of interest or you would like to discuss these findings further, please let me know.   Talent and Culture Audits One of Green Park's specialties are flexible audit and diagnostic services which provide a clear evidence base to identify key priorities and rationalise spend for our clients. Combined with our extensive market research which includes the Business Leaders Index we are able to provide clients with a clear understanding of how their talent strategies are performing and highlight key areas for sustainable growth.    Speaker and Guest Slots We are open to doing a limited number speaker and guest slots at events and conferences to dive into the findings and their impact on the market. If this is of interest, please let us know. www.green-park.co.uk/BLI

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I enjoy chats with potential clients who get in touch because they want to run a culture-focused team workshop. It means they’re taking a proactive and intentional approach towards building a thriving working environment. Often, once I’ve asked a few more questions, it becomes clear that some of the challenges they would like to address have evolved over months – sometimes longer. A half-day or even full-day workshop is not going to solve them completely. I've written two books about workshops, so naturally, I'm a big fan of them. Workshops can help a team have breakthroughs, get new ideas, build energy, create momentum and much more. And, I’m also aware that workshops are often the start or part of an ongoing change process towards a better team culture. To make a long-term impact, we need to work to undo the habits that have become entrenched in a team’s daily working life, develop new behaviours and ways of working over time, and equip the team to do this themselves. So my ideal way of working, if a client is open to it, is to first get a snapshot of the team’s existing situation, through a diagnostic (based on the five-pillar framework I’ve developed for high-performing teams – alignment, cohesion, communication, design and change). This helps a team understand what is working well and where there are opportunities to improve. If we can create some quick wins to make progress on a couple of areas that are causing the most frustration, the team is more likely to engage with the next phase of the process. This encourages the team to think about their culture *whilst* they are working in their everyday setting. As a result, they can become more tuned in to the dynamics and behaviours – positive or negative – that define the team. This initial kickstart also helps to emphasise that: - Culture is not static. It is dynamic and always shifting. - Your culture is formed by how you work together, communicate and interact with each other  - Everyone on a team impacts the culture, so they all need to be involved in its development Then, when we go on to run a longer team workshop, we’re not starting completely from scratch. We’ve already had forward movement in some of the challenges that matter most, and we can go deeper into the areas that the diagnostic revealed. In addition, the team has already developed an awareness of what it will truly take to shift the culture and how each member plays a part. *** I share thoughts like these in the monthly-ish Bracket newsletter (although this has been slightly edited for Linkedin). If you'd like to get them straight to your inbox, sign up here: http://eepurl.com/gyJHur #teamculture #WorkshopCulture

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Great to see so many law firms interested in supporting the mental health of their people at the Mindful Business Charter conference yesterday. As the only parental coaching company tracking mental health markers and actively engaging our clients on the topic of parental burnout (different to general burnout but often overlapping and very common in law) it’s validating to see so many on the same page. #womeninlaw #parentalcoaching #mentalhealth

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Another great transformation leaders network event this week, with some great insight and discussion on building effective leadership teams. Thanks to our clients that attended and please reach out if you are interested in being involved in future events. #transformation #transformationwithpurpose

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Change Management is something that is often either forgotten or remembered far too late. Embracing change management is key to organisational success. By effectively managing change, businesses can reduce resistance to the adoption of new ways of working, minimize disruptions, and contribute to achieving strategic goals. Change Management should be at the centre of any key initiative that a business undertakes and, just as importantly, considered right at the start.  #changemanagement #businesstransformation

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🚀 I've just published the first post in a new three-part series on leadership and work culture over on The Firebird Partnership Ltd blog. 🔍 In this first post, I delve into how leadership shapes a positive work culture, boosts team morale, and drives business success. Whether you're a seasoned leader or just starting out, I hope there is something valuable here for everyone. 🌟 Have a read and let me know your thoughts, then stay tuned for parts two and three coming soon. 👉 Read the full post below #Leadership #WorkCulture #BusinessGrowth #TeamSuccess #FirebirdPartnership

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𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 Business development - we all have a pretty good idea of what we should be doing so why is it so hard to do get it done? This episode delves into some of the psychological aspects of marketing and what might hold us back, as well as considering some practical strategies that can help us to be effective in our approach to business development. While there is a particular emphasis on lawyers, the insights are also applicable to anyone who needs to market their services. Click the links to tune into the podcast and watch the YouTube video. Podcast:  https://lnkd.in/e44h8NvY Youtube:  https://lnkd.in/eWryEQ4R Don’t forget to follow The Women's Room - Legal Division LinkedIn page to ensure you never miss an episode: https://lnkd.in/e_yj_4Si Got coaching topics or guest suggestions? We'd love to hear! Share your ideas here: https://lnkd.in/eZkseDrC

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When you need to transition from doing reliability well to doing something new too, for example leading change and bringing people on the journey, the seven attributes below must be in your leadership toolkit. Otherwise, change will be sub-optimal at best, painful and counterproductive at worse - damaging relationships and inadvertently decreasing trust. Feel free to take advantage of the time-limited free assessment - you may be surprised at the insight it sparks. 💥

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I spoke to d&i Leaders (Diversity and Inclusion Leaders) recently about the importance of employee network groups. The work of an #employeenetwork directly benefits the culture of an organisation, and it is important network leaders and employees in the network receive recognition for this. Employers can show they value the network by championing its work from the top down and helping to set it up for success. Employers could encourage the executive team to spend time with network leads and personally thank them for their work. It’s important that the work undertaken by employees in networks is reflected in their objectives and performance review. Employers should also recognise the skills employees gain from leading or being involved in networking groups as part of promotion opportunities. I have to say, I couldn’t agree more with Ali Shalfrooshan over Talogy, who shared this advice for #managers: 💬 When planning work for your team, account for their involvement in these types of initiatives. Encourage them to take an active part and ensure you make sufficient space for them to be involved actively and have a positive impact on these groups. 💬 This is so important. More on these initiatives here ▶ https://lnkd.in/eeyvw8YW

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This week Piers Cross invited me to be a guest on his wonderful podcast. Ive worked with Leaders for over thirty years and started to notice certain ‘Patterns’ in certain leaders I was working with. The patterns included: 1. A deep loyalty to their social peer group 2. A need to dismiss and cover up abusive or bullying behaviour amongst senior management and leaders 3. A blind sense of entitlement that made them behave ‘bigger than’ others 4. An inability to ‘relate’ to those who came from ‘different’ backgrounds. *NB: I realise that these patterns are also in ‘other’ leaders too! They often genuinely couldn’t ’see’ from other people’s perspectives. It felt like they’d been ‘wired’ up so strongly and were so entangled in their systems (Education and Family and Class), that they had no capacity to see or understand the ‘reality’ of those who had come from other backgrounds or cultures. These weren’t people who intentionally did harm to others but seemed to following a ‘secret’ (hidden) code. This insight transformed my work as I began to see how the systems were often designed to accommodate this kind of leader. All the talk about changing ‘culture’ was exactly that… “Talk”. The idea of a different (inclusive) culture was a potentially terrifying prospect for some of these Leaders. It would trigger an existential crisis. These leaders were traumatised and leading traumatised organisations and institutions. Which is where the need for ELDERS comes in. Elders are those wise people who sit ‘outside’ the system so they can see it and support the Rites of Passage for leaders and communities. As the saying goes… “You can’t read the label from inside the jar” #eldership #boardingschools #trauma

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[Easy to apply coaching tool coming your way - save for later] What better way to kick off the new financial year than with an honest reflection and potential reset? It's easy to get trapped in 'doing what I've always done,' but this is also why so many are unfulfilled in their life and/or career and struggle to get ahead. Being good at something is one thing. Enjoying this activity is a completely different story. Rating yourself on both metrics—skill level and enjoyment level—gives you a good indication of where you should double down because you love doing it and feel fulfilled. It also helps identify the tasks, projects, or clients that drain your energy and need to be off-boarded or transitioned. This is where the 2x2 matrix comes into play. By plotting activities based on skill level and enjoyment level, you can eliminate binary thinking and gain a broader perspective on the same topic while gaining clarity on where to focus your efforts. How are you reflecting and resetting for the next FY ahead? #Coaching #PersonalBrand #Leadership #LeadershipCoaching #Reinvention

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The big 'R' word - redundancy - I've been there, done that. And yet at the time I was not as aware, as I'm now, about the importance of good endings at an organisation. I know for one of my clients having a conversation about what a good ending would look like for them and for the organisation they were leaving really helped them move smoothly out of the organisation. I encourage you to hear what my colleague, Vanessa has to say about good endings. #menscoach #meninleadership Leading Well

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𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽, 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽. ☕ It is always the most wonderful feeling to know that something you did once, usually something very little, made a difference to someone, helped them out or simply made them feel a bit better. 🙏 Thank you Lester Mak for reminding me that one simple coffee conversation can resonate through the years! I always knew you were going to be a huge success and it is testament to your talent, your capability and your resilience that you are still at it in 2024! Here's to many more years of success ahead! 🚀 #independentconsulting #alwayssayyestocoffee

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Caroline's story It's never comfortable to talk about yourself for 38mins but I was happy to do this podcast as its important to me to help inspire others working out their paths (I remember how important this was to me in my 20s/30s) Here's the topics covered in case you're a more short-form targeted listener: *Career journey (1 min) *Managing up/showing up (5mins) *Living by the mantra "Live your dash" (8mins) *The difference great leaders make (11mins) *Making career choices (15mins) *Giving back/industry volunteerism ... and creating space for others (20.5mins) *Building networks (25mins) *Balancing work & family commitment (27mins) *Owning the stage - public speaking capability (32mins) *Personal purpose/why (36mins) Thank you to DEI Advisors & Dorothy Dowling for the invitation. Enjoy the listen and do let me know if it prompted any questions or ideas for you https://lnkd.in/eBzxFVez #careerstory #createbetter #workplace #leadership

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Look - I did a thing! (And remember, get in touch if you would like to discuss arranging an external Board Performance Review, or would like us to take care of your annual internal assessment of board, committee, chair and/or director performance. We're always happy to talk.) #companysecretary #companysecretaries #gc #generalcounsel #boardeffectiveness #boardevaluation #boardperformancereview

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Fantastic Baringa Client Event last night ... our latest gathering of our exclusive Transformation Leaders Network. Last night's rountable discussions centred around where senior-team support & leadership often being the critical success factor of a transformation programme. However, the majority of senior teams, from the ExCo to functional/departmental teams, often lack the coherence, alignment and purpose to work effectively together, let alone champion a transformation agenda.   The science behind high performing teams is clear, and it's not what you might expect. Conventional wisdom says that what matters is interpersonal dynamics and a friendly atmosphere, but the evidence shows that the best teams have 7 characteristics in common, including a strong purpose and shared objectives, clear structure and cohesion, as well as aligned ways of working and shared accountabilities. All of which is underpinned by mindset. Together we explored what a high performing team looks like at these senior levels, why they matter to the transformation agenda, and how best to engage and enable them to provide the support and leadership needed. #Transformation #TransformationLeaders #Leadership Bernice McNaught | Katharine Henley FCIPD | Matthew Adams | Richard Sudlow | James Bridgeman | Talia Dayna Hawkins | Ela Jones

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“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing will change until it is faced” – so says one of the great US authors James Baldwin. I am seeing more leaders embracing the idea of wanting to face the challenges that leadership in all its forms presents. It takes courage to chat privately and open up about issues that educators and leaders find confronting, demoralising or simply attritional in nature. As a leader and ICF Accredited Coach I am here to work with individuals, leaders, aspiring leaders in schools and organisations – to ensure you get the support you need. ICF defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. The process of coaching/mentoring (Moaching) frequently unlocks previously untapped sources of imagination, productivity and leadership - and needless to say can assist leaders in ways that allow them to face the challenges head on. Be and Become. #leadership #educationalleadership #conflictresolution #coaching  philrobertsmoaching.com.au

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In this week’s BrightBird case file we’ll be sharing a situation brought to us by a senior manager of a large charity. As always, names and some details have been changed to ensure client confidentiality. Our client shared with us that they had experienced difficulty coping with the amount of incoming work, resulting in high stress and anxiety levels and a period of sickness absence. 🌟 The BrightBird approach 🌟 We explored what was actually causing the issues identified and through a process of root-cause analysis discovered the issue wasn’t the amount of emails per se, but how the manager was dealing with these. It became apparent that there were a couple of main issues going on: 1. Reading and responding to emails was a displacement activity, which meant the manager was prevented (or prevented themselves) from working on more complex and ‘risky’ tasks. 2. There was an organisational culture of cc and bcc-ing other staff/managers into every email. Again, root-cause analysis showed two main reasons, of lack of clear policy around communications and also an inherited mistrust from some members of staff from previous roles. This meant they used emails as an ‘insurance policy’. From this, the manager was able to implement an email policy in their team and wider organisation to reduce the number of emails sent. They also begin to coach individual team members on their own barriers and expectations in their work roles. If you would like to find out more about our programme of 1-to-1 executive coaching please get in touch...you can call us on 07714 855757 or email us at info@bright-bird.co.uk.

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