Psychology@Work

From a business point of view, the pandemic has taught us many things. At a business leadership level, once of the most relevant is the importance of divergent thinking, of diverse, innovative perspectives in decision making, Particularly when under pressure and in uncertain situations. During the pandemic, the dependence of organisations on the decisions of their leaders for survival has been gre...

Strengths based leadership is getting a lot of interest these days and rightly so. When leaders enable the strengths of their teams, there is a large spike in engagement. This can also lead to significant increases in productivity when taken into performance management conversations. So the strengths based approach - managing and leading by focusing on others’ strengths - makes a human difference...

In this podversation, Paul Brewerton, the strengths guy, talks with sisters Roohi and Nida Mohiyuddin, two inspiring women who have just launched Nu(pw)R , a new business designed to empower women through a unique three stage process. Roohi and Nida tell their story – what led them to set out on their journey and what difference they hope to achieve in the world. They tell us about their programme...

This week, Dr Paul Brewerton (aka The Strengths Guy) welcomes Rebecca Christianson. Rebecca’s been building her own people consultancy for some time. She’s an Executive coach and an expert on innovative People & Culture practices as she worked as an internal P&C senior leader and Executive for over 15 years. She coaches senior leaders to focus on mind-set shifts to thrive, using a strength...

https://www.strengthscope.com/self-management-personal-productivity/ Technology has made it genuinely challenging to deal with the pace and volume of information coming at us day to day. It affects our sleep patterns, our relationships, our stress levels. With all those potential distractions surrounding you, how can you improve your self-management to keep on top of your personal productivity and...

Read the article here: https://www.strengthscope.com/building-resilience-in-5-steps/ Online resilience course: https://www.strengthscope.com/resilience-course/ ‘How can I develop resilience?’ is one of the questions we are most often asked at Strengthscope. Well, we’ve spent years in research and practice to discover the simplest and most effective ways to answer that question.  In this podcast, I...

In Season 1, Episdode 4 I discussed 'How to give great feedback in 3 steps', both positive and negative, emphasising the importance of being respectful, listening well and asking clarifying questions. Although I touched on how to receive feedback, the main focus was on giving it well. In this podcast, I want to go more in depth on how to handle negative feedback, in terms of its emotional impact,...

During times of uncertainty and at the start of the year, people often tend to focus on their personal and professional development. As we move to the end of January, with the freshness of the New Year starting to wear off, could be time to reflect again on the important things in life and reaffirm the commitment to ourselves to do those things we’ve been promising ourselves we’ll do for years but...

In this podversation, I chat with Larissa Batt about how to use the strengths approach in a sales context. For the last few years, Larissa has been in various senior sales role at Strengthscope and in her current role, she leads on all corporate sales, so she knows lots and lots about strengths in a sales context. This podcast will be of interest to anyone who ever needs to persuade or ‘sell’ anyt...

Today’s podcast is on growth mindset. Such a powerful concept. Central to positive psychology.  Evidence links growth mindset to a variety of positive outcomes: higher goal achievement, motivation, lower stress, anxiety, depression, better work relationships and higher performance levels.  There is so much science to back it up. Carol Dweck at Stanford University is the person to go if you want th...

Start off 2021 on the good foot!  In the first podcast of 2021, I look at several areas that will help you shape the next 12 months in a positive way: How did you cope with the life changes brought on by 2020, and what did you learn about yourself through that? How can you use what you learned to take control of 2021 and make it as fulfilling, as energising and as 'you-shaped' as possible? How wil...

2020 has been challenging and damaging in so many ways. For many people, it has been completely life-changing. We have all experienced a sense of loss this year, but for some of us that has been loss of health, of loved ones, of livelihoods and of futures. There’s not much positive to be had in any of that. At least not on the face of it. And yet, somehow, even while the world has in large part be...

During this global pandemic, most people have needed to adapt significantly to new ways of working and new ways of living that we haven’t had much choice over. Working from home, for millions of people, is just one of those adaptations. So now, many months on from the start of the pandemic, what have we learned about working from home well? About giving ourselves the best chance of bringing our be...

Building trust is more difficult virtually than it is when you’re in the same place as other people. You miss out on all the ‘in between’ bits – the micro gestures, the informal chats, the side conversations after meetings. Read more here: https://www.strengthscope.com/building-trust-in-virtual-teams/ All of that information can help us to build up a picture as to whether or not we can trust someo...

Team health is at a premium these days. As in wellbeing as well as performance for individuals in a team and for the team overall.  This year has been unprecedented in its demands on teams to flex and bend into all sorts of shapes they’re not used to. People leaving, joining, objectives changing, changing again, and for many teams, all in the context of zero physical in-person contact.  Checking-i...

https://www.strengthscope.com/blog/ A series of real talk weekly podcasts covering topics to inspire, educate and well, maybe even transform. Occupational psychologist Dr Paul Brewerton takes you inside some of the stuff that can help you get the most from work and from life, every day. Get ready.

The term ‘dysfunctional team’ sends a shudder through many of us, bringing up visions of a team that is infighting, politicking, game-playing, back-stabbing, bullying and emotionally outbursting. So today’s podcast focuses on what to do when you are asked to support a dysfunctional team or if you feel you might be part of a dysfunctional team. https://www.strengthscope.com/top-tips-for-dealing-wit...

Team development is squarely and firmly back on the agenda in most organisations. Now more than ever, teams are working virtually, so organisations need a route map for building successful virtual teams. It would be easy to say that building virtual teams is just the same as building teams that are co-located, and to some extent that’s true, but there are definite differences.  In this podcast, I...

As our new world of working continues to reveal itself, virtual teamworking is fast becoming a standard in many organisations. With more teams working fully virtually and others at least working partly on a virtual basis, there is a growing need for virtual teams not used to working in this way to get some tips on how to get the best from themselves and their members in the new normal . In today’s...

Last time, part 1 introduced the topic of career wellbeing and took you through the first 3 of the 7 elements: Your career progression your relationships at work your relationship with the organisation (If you missed it, you can catch up here: https://www.strengthscope.com/improve-your-career-wellbeing-part-1/ ) Part 2 of our ‘improve your career wellbeing’ series looks at the final 4 elements tha...

This week’s podcast is a big one. It’s a podversation with the new Managing Director of Strengthscope, David Lincoln. Read more: https://www.strengthscope.com/how-to-transition-roles-the-strengths-way-podversation/ This week we’re talking about how you can transition into a new role using strengths principles by: 1. Knowing where you’ve come from and what got you here 2. Being clear on your outcom...

What is career wellbeing? Various researchers have tried to break it down into various elements including: career transitions you might make, your relationships at work, your relationship with the organisation, your work performance, your sense of purpose, learning and development and finally, your work-life blend. So in today’s podcast, I want to give you some pointers on managing some of these e...

Now is a really good time to focus on your well-being and one of the central pillars of you feeling well is to connect with other humans . We are social animals and the last few months have been particularly challenging for us as to how to practically connect socially with other people. Much of our interaction has been through screens or other technology, we’ve been told to be careful about physic...

https://www.strengthscope.com/managing-a-team-through-change/ Many teams are experiencing significant change as a result of the events of 2020 but change within teams presents a perennial challenge. Team membership is always fluid, goals and objectives need to be revisited, projects and focuses come and go. This podcast focuses on what you can practically do to lead a team through change by ensuri...