Yvette specialises in leadership, personal effectiveness, change and innovation.
Before joining =mc, she worked in HR for several years in both the private and charity sector as an HR Manager. In these roles, Yvette provided advice and guidance to managers, staff and trade union representatives. She also delivered several change projects and worked closely with senior leaders.
I have recently been supporting leaders and managers with their development, through our Transformational Leadership Programme. I’m particularly excited to be working with leaders at Brunel University of London, Solent Mind and Outward Housing. Leadership can be tough, especially when we are still getting used to leading hybrid and remote teams through challenging times. I’m also thrilled to have launched the 7th cohort of leadership training for managers at City, University of London. The programme is a brilliant way for people from across different departments and areas to connect, explore leadership together, bring the City values to life and share their experiences. Read more about that in our case study. These programmes include topics such as Strategic Thinking, Innovation, Change, and Motivation.
Coaching is also a key part of these programmes. Coaching is a really empowering way to enable people to perform at their best – without you being physically present. Having practical skills to hold the conversations that help people to solve their own challenges, and learn from their own experiences is a real confidence booster: both for the coach and the coachee.
As organisations continue to want to improve their approach to diversity, equity and inclusion, I am supporting managers with recruitment workshops exploring bias and how to overcome unconscious bias in interview processes. This is so important to ensuring your applicants are treated fairly and have a good experience. We have also been recruiting, and we constantly refine our process too to ensure applications have the best possible experience.
Sadly, some charities are having to make job changes and redundancies. I have been supporting individuals and groups in preparing for job hunting and interviewing as part of our outplacement service – which continues to be a popular way to support exiting staff. Giving participants a structured process for thinking about their career aspirations, strengthening their CVs, being confident in their applications, and techniques for interview preparation has been really beneficial, and you can see their confidence growing. I love seeing both sides of recruitment, and ensuring a positive experience all round. I think it is incredibly generous and also absolutely right that charities able to offer this support to their staff.
I have also been supporting people to develop their confidence in assertive conversations. Having the motivation to speak up is crucial when there are challenges, issues or changes needed. We need skills, tools, and emotional intelligence to handle these conversations in a sensitive and productive way. I have been supporting teams through online workshops to be courageous, develop a mindset for assertiveness, hold useful conversations and use strategies to manage their own wellbeing in the process.
Finally, I’ve been really excited to continue a Business Skills project with the Calico Group. Cohorts 5 and 6 are underway. We will be exploring commercial thinking for managers in charity settings. Calico is a large and diverse organisation, and managers need to deliver their services in a way that is both sustainable and effective. They have a strategic focus on ‘customer’ service – meeting the needs of their stakeholders, through an enabling approach. The programme is all about being business minded, but with a social heart. It is a very practical course, and throughout participants apply ideas to their real work. We recently interviewed 4 alumni from the programme to find out how they have been getting on. It has been fantastic hear how much they had taken from the programme, and their ideas for next steps. I’m looking forward to seeing what our next group comes up with! You can read the interviews here.
Before joining =mc, I worked in HR for several years in both the private and charity sectors. I started out at a major City Law firm, where I provided a support role to staff, managers and senior management on all kinds on employment issues. Whilst there, I really enjoyed developing and facilitating training for staff and HR colleagues alike. I was also involved in large change projects, working with management to lead change and providing support to staff.
Most recently, I was the HR Manager at ODI. In this role, I managed a team to deliver lots of different HR activities. I particularly focused on designing and implementing the Learning and Development strategy. I also enjoyed providing support, advice and coaching for line managers. Throughout my time at ODI, I lead the performance management procedure. This meant working closely with the senior management team and CEO to ensure the process was strategically aligned, fair and met organisational goals. I also had a key role in providing training to staff and managers, and ensuring staff had development opportunities.
Through our work at =mc I am constantly inspired by the work the people on our programmes are doing and how our customers handle the tough challenges that they face. I’m really enjoying seeing people develop as leaders as they go through their own learning journey on our courses. This means honing their skills so that they are confident to lead others, to make tough decisions, to improve their own performance and develop their teams. I’m always delighted when I can see participants applying the tools they’ve learned on the course, and getting tangible results. When I hear from them several months after the course, I’m thrilled to hear how they are making techniques work for them.