HR Coffee Time

Have you ever dismissed something you do brilliantly because it feels easy? Perhaps a colleague has praised you for something and you've thought, "That's nothing special. Doesn't everyone do that?" The challenge is that some of our greatest strengths can be hidden in plain sight because they come so naturally to us.
In this episode, we explore why recognising and using your strengths can have a powerful impact on your wellbeing, performance and enjoyment at work. We also look at why many people spend too much time relying on learned behaviours rather than the things that genuinely energise them.
To help us unpack this topic, I'm joined by chartered psychologists Michele Deeks and Martin Galpin, co-founders of Work Positive and creators of the At My Best strengths tools. Together, we discuss the research behind strengths-based approaches, how to identify your own strengths, and simple ways managers, leaders and teams can help people recognise what they do best.

What You'll Learn
The difference between a genuine strength and a learned behaviour, and why recognising the distinction matters
Why the strengths that come most naturally to you can be the hardest ones to spot
How focusing only on weaknesses can limit development and prevent people from excelling
Practical ways managers can help team members identify and use their strengths more often
Why detailed positive feedback is more powerful than generic praise
How reflecting on times when you've been at your best can help you identify your strengths
A simple team activity that encourages colleagues to recognise and appreciate each other's strengths

Chapters
[00:00] Introduction: Hidden Strengths
[00:31] Welcome, Guests & HR Planning Day
[03:35] What Are Strengths?
[04:21] Strengths vs Learned Behaviours
[05:47] Fay's Personal Example: Time Management
[06:43] The Impact of Overusing Learned Behaviours
[08:26] Why Focus on Strengths at Work?
[10:28] Fixing Weakness vs Building Strength
[12:16] The Cost of No Positive Feedback
[12:37] How Managers Can Weave In Strengths
[13:06] The Leaving Party Effect
[14:29] The Power of Detailed Positive Feedback
[16:37] The Ripple Effect & Strengths Blind Spots
[21:22] Using Strengths Cards with People Facing Redundancy
[23:08] The Research Behind Strengths
[27:10] Wellbeing & Financial Performance: Oxford Research
[28:37] How to Identify Your Own Strengths
[32:03] The Story Behind the Strengths Cards
[35:24] Team Activities with the Strengths Cards
[39:02] Book Recommendation & Job Crafting
[43:46] Wrap Up

Useful Links and Resources
Connect with Michele Deeks on LinkedIn
Connect with Martin Galpin on LinkedIn
Visit the Work Positive website
Explore At My Best resources and strengths tools
Try the free Strengths Self-Reflection Tool
Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme
Treat yourself to a copy of The Essential HR Planner
Book your ticket for one of the HR Planning Days

Books & Articles Recommended in This Episode
Personalization at Work: How HR Can Use Job Crafting to Drive Performance, Engagement & Wellbeing, by Rob Baker
Journal article:Flourishing in New Zealand Workers: Associations With Lifestyle Behaviors, Physical Health, Psychosocial, and Work-Related Indicators (2015),by Lucy C. Hone, Aaron Jarden, Scott Duncan and Grant M. Schofield
Michelle McQuaid’s research on strengths-based organisational change
University of Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre:Workplace Wellbeing and Firm Performance, by Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Micah Kaats and George Ward

HR Coffee Time Episodes to Listen to Next
Episode 47:Discovering Your Values to Help Your HR Career, with Zoe Hawkins
Episode 173:How to Build a Better Workplace Culture, So People Thrive at Work, with Aoife O'Brien

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Career progression does not always have to mean securing a promotion or climbing further up the career ladder. You may want to deepen your expertise, move into a different area of HR or explore a completely new path.
In this solo episode, Fay talks you through four possible career directions: growing in your current role, stepping up, moving sideways or stepping out. She also shares practical questions to help you decide which direction feels right for the next stage of your career.

What You’ll Learn
Why meaningful career growth does not always require a promotion or a new job title
How growing in your current role could help you develop your expertise, confidence or strategic impact
Questions to consider if you would like to step up into a more senior position
How a sideways move could broaden your experience and support your longer-term career goals
Practical ways to explore stepping out of your current career path before making a major change
How to identify the work, strengths and experiences you would like more of in your career
Why choosing a general direction can help you make more deliberate decisions, even if you do not have every detail worked out yet

Chapters
[0:00] Introduction: The Four Career Directions
[01:15] Option 1: Grow in Your Current Role
[03:28] Option 2: Step Up into a More Senior Role
[05:21] Option 3: Move Sideways
[07:03] Option 4: Step Out - Leaving Your Current Path & Exploring New Options
[08:48] How to Choose Which Career Direction Is Right for You
[10:19] Using The Essential HR Planner to Turn Your Decision Into a Plan
[11:37] Closing: What Do You Want Next from Your Career?

Useful Links and Resources
Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme
Treat yourself to a copy of The Essential HR Planner

Enjoyed This Episode? Don’t Miss the Next One!
Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email for useful HR resources, ideas and new episode updates to support you in your HR career.

Exclusive offer from HR Coffee Time’s sponsor, C-me
HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Managers are expected to handle everything from one-to-ones and development conversations to absence, performance issues and disciplinaries. Yet many step into management without having been properly taught how to deal with these responsibilities. For HR and People professionals, finding a way to build managers’ knowledge and confidence without overwhelming them can be a real challenge.
In this special bonus episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay Wallis is joined by Amy Critchley, Head of People at Indigo Networks. Amy explains how she created a management development programme from scratch after joining an organisation that had not previously had a dedicated HR or People team.
Amy shares practical ideas for combining essential HR knowledge with wider management development, making potentially dry subjects more engaging and helping learning stick. She also explains how the programme strengthened relationships between managers and changed the way they worked with the People team.

What You’ll Learn
How to decide which topics to prioritise when creating a management development programme
Why combining practical HR knowledge with wider management skills can make training more effective
Ideas for making subjects such as absence, investigations, disciplinaries and employment law more engaging
How to accommodate different learning preferences without relying on lengthy presentations or uncomfortable role play
Ways to support learning beyond the workshop through e-learning, workbooks, drop-in clinics and People Partnering sessions
How real-life scenarios, discussion and peer learning can build managers’ confidence
Signs that manager training is working, including stronger peer relationships and a more positive relationship with the People team

Chapters
[00:00] Introduction: Why managers matter
[01:14] The challenge of developing managers
[02:02] The Workforce Success Stories Summit
[02:49] Meet Amy Critchley: building a management development programme
[04:11] How Amy identified the need for manager training
[05:47] Deciding on the training content
[08:28] Combining HR knowledge with management development
[09:50] Designing engaging, brain-friendly training
[13:27] Wraparound support: e-learning and drop-in clinics
[15:28] From drop-in clinics to people partnering
[17:46] Measuring success: executive buy-in and manager engagement
[20:18] Changing the perception of HR
[24:16] Making learning stick: worst-case scenarios and one-to-ones
[29:06] How the programme changed HR's perception in the business
[32:43] Book recommendation and wrap-up

Useful Links and Resources
Learn more about the Workforce Success Stories Summit
Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme
Treat yourself to a copy of The Essential HR Planner

Book Recommended in This Episode
The Trainer’s Toolkit: Bringing Brain-Friendly Learning to Life, by Kimberly Herr and Larry Reynolds
Amy recommends this practical resource for ideas on keeping training real, recognising the different needs of people in the room, creating multisensory learning and managing the state of the group.

Helpful Episodes to Listen to Next
Episode 129: Five Essential Techniques to Become a Great Manager, with James Rose
Episode 118: 9 Tips to Unlock Training Success When You're a Busy HR Professional

Enjoyed This Episode? Don’t Miss the Next One!
Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email for useful HR resources, ideas and new episode updates to support you in your HR career.

Exclusive offer from HR Coffee Time’s sponsor, C-me
HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Cancer affects far more people in the workplace than many of us realise. As HR professionals, there may be times when you're supporting an employee with a cancer diagnosis, someone undergoing treatment, a colleague living with the long-term effects of cancer, or an employee who is caring for a loved one affected by it.

Knowing that support matters is one thing. Feeling confident about what to say, what practical help to offer, and how to create the right support across your organisation is another.

In this episode, Fay is joined by Tara Ferguson, Founder of Onward With You. Drawing on more than 20 years in senior HR roles and her own experience of being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023, Tara shares practical advice to help HR teams and managers better support people affected by cancer at work. Together, they explore the role good line management can play, the reality of living with cancer beyond active treatment, and the steps organisations can take to build greater cancer confidence.

What You’ll Learn
Why cancer should increasingly be considered a long-term condition rather than a short-term illness
The scale of cancer's impact on today's workforce, including employees with caring responsibilities
What Tara's line manager did that made such a positive difference during her diagnosis and treatment
Why work can sometimes play an important role in someone's recovery and wellbeing during treatment
What HR professionals need to understand about legal protections and reasonable adjustments
How to approach the first conversation when someone shares a cancer diagnosis with you
Practical steps organisations can take to improve awareness, support and manager capability

Chapters
[0:00] Introduction: Cancer at Work
[01:15] Meet Tara Ferguson
[02:50] Tara's Story: From HR to Cancer Diagnosis
[03:48] The Changing Face of Cancer in the Workplace
[05:12] How Tara Is Now: The Ongoing Impact
[08:07] Cancer in the Workplace: The Statistics
[11:36] What Good Line Manager Support Looks Like
[15:32] The Positive Role of Work During Treatment
[17:13] Legal Protections & Reasonable Adjustments
[19:05] Supporting Employees with Hidden Cancer Diagnoses
[21:40] Having the First Conversation About Cancer
[24:20] Organisation-Wide HR Strategies
[27:26] Book Recommendation & Resources
[29:27] How to Reach Tara
[29:55] Key Takeaways & Closing

Useful Links and Resources
Visit Tara's website:Onward With You
Connect with Tara Ferguson on LinkedIn
Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
Learn about Fay's Inspiring HR Leadership Programme
Treat yourself to a copy of The Essential HR Planner

Books and Resources Recommended in This Episode
The Leopard in My House, by Mark Steel
Tara also mentions a number of resources available through Onward With You, including:
A guide covering 12 common questions HR professionals and line managers ask about supporting employees affected by cancer
The Cancer Confidence Framework
The Cancer Confidence HR Masterclass

Enjoyed This Episode? Don’t Miss the Next One!
Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email for useful HR resources, ideas and new episode updates to support you in your HR career.

Exclusive offer from HR Coffee Time’s sponsor, C-me
HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Have you ever found yourself going round and round in circles trying to choose between two options?
Perhaps you’re deciding whether to recruit externally or promote someone internally, introduce a new policy or stick with what you already have, invest in a new HR system or make the current one work, or even stay in your current role or apply for something new.
Sometimes the problem isn’t that you haven’t thought hard enough about the two options. It’s that you’ve become so focused on them that you haven’t spotted another possibility.
In this solo episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay shares a real decision she recently struggled with while planning the 2027 edition of The Essential HR Planner, and how an unexpected suggestion helped her realise she had fallen into a common decision-making trap called narrow framing.
Drawing on ideas from Chip and Dan Heath’s brilliant book Decisive: How to Make Better Decisions, Fay explores two practical ways to widen your thinking and get unstuck when a decision feels like an either/or choice.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn
What narrow framing is and how it can limit your decision-making
Why the options in front of you may not be the only options available
How to use theVanishing Options Testto uncover different possibilities
Why asking someone else for their perspective can help you see what you’re missing
The questions to ask other people so you don’t accidentally keep them trapped inside the same narrow frame
How Fay used these ideas to solve her dilemma about whether to bring back the wire-bound version of The Essential HR Planner

Chapters
[00:00] Introduction: Stuck Between Two Options
[00:28] Common Either/Or Decisions at Work
[01:22] The Book: Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath
[02:43] Fay's Dilemma: The Essential HR Planner
[04:27] Should the Wire-Bound Planner Return?
[05:14] Asking for Feedback to Get Unstuck
[06:20] Claire's Game-Changing Suggestion
[07:53] Understanding Narrow Framing
[09:53] The Vanishing Options Test
[12:39] Getting Another Perspective
[13:50] How to Ask Better Questions When Asking for Advice
[14:44] Book Recommendations: Decisive, Made to Stick, and Switch
[15:28] Pre-Order the Wire-Bound Planner
[16:11] Closing Thanks and Sign-Off

Books Recommended
The book links below are Amazon affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you.
Decisive: How to Make Better Decisions, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Made to Stick: Why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Switch: How to change things when change is hard, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

The Essential HR Planner
If you’re watching or listening to this episode close to its release date, you should now be able to pre-order the wire-bound 2027 edition of The Essential HR Planner.
Visit essentialhrplanner.co.uk to find out more and pre-order your copy.

Enjoyed This Episode? Don’t Miss the Next One!
Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

Exclusive offer from HR Coffee Time’s sponsor, C-me
HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee