Totem Talks

The penultimate Totem Talks!  Next month is a wrap up special and will be a little different content wise, so we had to end our podcast on something dear to both of us, and the one thing that could benefit so, so many people.

This month we talk exclusively about facilitation skills, how do we get people to talk to one another?  Hear one another?  And understand one another?  We cover a few top tips including "Rounds" as well as the evergreen Six Thinking Hats - courtesy of the legend De Bono.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

In this month's Totem Talks we have a very special guest.  Helen Frewin welcomes the fabulous Sarah Creevey to the show, and gets well and truly stuck into the nuts and bolts of Positive Psychology - a phrase loaded with connotations - some bad and some er... positive.

If you love what you hear and would like to connect with Sarah directly, this is the best place:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahcreevey

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

In the latest episode of Totem Talks, Mark Smith and Helen Frewin review the latest, greatest and inspirational in the Hybrid Working landscape.  And we come to a difficult conclusion about the New Normal* of working.

We also have additional input from the research of our very own facilitator Cat Pugh, who gives us the 4 C's of effective Hybrid Working - Care, Connect, Communicate & Clarify.

Links to some of the things we natter about are below!

We wanted to get an expert on this subject to bring a sales perspective to the conversation, so welcome Sales Leadership Guru Andy Buchanan to Totem Talks!

In this conversation, Andy and Helen discuss what it means to be commercially aware and how we can all do better at this – in sales, in HR, in any role.

Highlights include:

• We need to think about why someone would want something, rather than how we can sell it. 

• Focus on the person we want to influence and their problems or needs.

• Speak the language of the person you want to influence – talk about their business, their market, their challenges.

• And to do all of that, you’ll need to do your research!

You can find Andy at the links below and take advantage of his sales training and sales leadership coaching!  Which we highly recommend you do!

Business Partners: What makes a good HRBP, or any kind of BP? How do we develop them?

In this month's podcast Mark Smith & Helen Frewin reveal the Totem Business Partnering framework and give pointers on how this comes to life. As we realise just how powerful a great business partner can be, the natural question is, how do we build these skills in our teams? So there are a few tips in here as well for developing your teams to be even stronger BPs.

You can read more on this in our download guide on the subject too, but it's really, really good stuff so we'll trade you for your email address: 

A slightly different podcast than our advertised schedule called for, but the requests for this particular topic just kept rolling in - and who are we to deny our adoring fans?

I thought you were going to just say Therapy - what's the Hypnotherapy all about?  This month we take a deep dive into the world of CBH with our guest Sarah Makinde - consultant and coach extraordinaire!

But is CBH not just the tried and tested CBT with a side serving of Hypnotherapy?  Yes and no.  Sarah explains the similarities and differences,  explaining how CBH gives us the tools to manage stress and feelings of anxiety, as well as some physical ailments.  We also peer into the “cognitive-behavioural” theory of the nature of hypnosis - which surprisingly - rejects the notion of a hypnotic “trance”...

As Helen mentioned in the podcast, there are countless links that we could share with you, but here are our top two.  And if you want to connect with Sarah, here details are below:

The belated follow up to Totem Talks Episode 32: Psychological Safety comes the aptly titled; Psychological Safety Part 2!

Wrestling with the importance of learning cultures, listening to understand and challenging the word “but”. One t, not two. In this month’s episode Mark Smith and Helen Frewin delve deeper into several key components of Psychological Safety in the work place.

If you would like to read Google's Project Aristotle's own research into this subject, visit here:

In this months Totem Talks, Mark Smith & Helen Frewin wrestle with the issue of Assessment.  And first up is a quick description of what we mean by that, as what we’re talking about here is taking a group of people and assessing their skills and behaviour against certain criteria.  Mostly.

We also touch upon the candidate experience, asking should we put candidates under extra pressure at interview?  And then meander around the ins and outs of assessment best practice, from note taking to assessor training.

If you love our stuff and want to find out more, visit our website to find out more or get in touch:

What do Totem & the FBI have in common?  

Not a lot actually, but we do have a huge amount of respect for their Behavioral Change Stairway Model - which was developed by the FBI’s hostage negotiation unit.  

It's a 5 step model to influencing others, and in this podcast Mark Smith & Helen Frewin cover the first 4 steps of the process, shedding light on one of the best techniques we know for engaging with and influencing others to get the outcome you want.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

Perfectionism is one of those interesting character traits that many aspire too, but it can often lead to drastically negative behaviour.   Research now shows us that perfectionism is an acquired trait, we’re certainly not born with it.  How perfect were your idle doodles as a 4 year old? 

Perfectionism continually points to our failures, no matter how small and undermines our achievements.  So culturally, why do we prize the perfect outcome?

In this episode, Mark Smith & Helen Frewin wrestle with this curious phenomenon offering insights and practical tips to recognising the value - and detriment - to perfectionism.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

As globalisation has taken a hold of business, it’s become increasingly important for leaders to understand their role and capabilities within this new global view.   

You can no longer ignore the potential gain (or loss, ahem...) to be derived from a single tweet any less than from an incoherent strategic vision.  

In this episode, Mark Smith & Helen Frewin discuss the role of Authenticity for our leaders as they step forward into the limelight, and how those that are commercially thriving under this scrutiny have done so by introducing a transparency and authenticity to their interactions with the world.  

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:  

In this Episode, Mark Smith & Helen Frewin dive into the (relative) deep end of psychology in the work place - and specifically Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or ACT.

ACT gets it name from it's core messages, namely to accept what is out of your personal control, and commit to action that improves what is in your control.  It's a modern mash up of CBT, Mindfulness and a few others.

We once read that Action Commitment Therapy is "A therapy so hard to classify that it has been described as an existential humanistic cognitive behavioural therapy."  

We're not too sure if that is an endorsement or not?  But we're certainly huge fans and would recommend it as an approach to untangling a few of the tricky situations we find ourselves in from time to time.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

It's official, Helen's book has arrived!  Well, sort of...  

There is a draft version in circulation, being read and edited this summer ready for publication in early Decemeber.  But what has the journey been like, how difficult is it to write a book?    

Helen Frewin offers us her thoughts on the book writing process, as well as an extended peak at the content of her book - Better than Confidence! 

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:  

In business we crave the ability to quantify everything, from our sales targets to the number of toner cartridges we use.  Why shouldn’t our people be the same?  

The ability to rank our employees in a given context and to assign performance-related perks (or not) has been the bread and butter of the average HR department for decades.  Where would General Electric and Jack Welch be without them?

In this episode, Mark Smith & Helen Frewin discuss the challenges and downsides to using rating scales.  Given that many of us still need to use rating scales, we give practical tips on how to make the best of them.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

The third and final installment in our summer series on running your own business.  In this episode, Mark Smith & Helen Frewin explain how you can differentiate yourself from the competition.

And it's quite simple really.  Do a good job.

But what does that mean and what are the practical steps you can take to ensure you're exceeding the expectations of you clients?  

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

Have you been thinking about quitting your job?  Maybe you'd like to venture out on your own?  But  how on earth do you actually start your own business?  How do you get clients?  How do you do a good job?  

In this weeks podcast we take a slight detour from our usual topics to cover the in's and out's of running a company - whether you should be self-employed, or a limited company and we even shed light on the dreaded VAT department!  

So welcome to the first part of a three part summer series on running your own business!

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

A special treat this week listeners!  Helen Frewin has the opportunity to speak to Dr Penny Pullan about the in's and out's of Hybrid working, how to make the most of it and how to succeed when delivering your training programs to a team who may or may not even be in the room.

It's a genuine masterclass in practical tips and subtle but powerful ways of framing learning sessions to get the most out of them for your business and your delegates.

There's even time to shamelessly plug her latest book:

Many companies are beginning to wrestle with the "new normal" world of work.  Will you be expected to go into the office every day? How will you make that work? Could you carry on working from home?   

The uncertainty and worry about change (as much as we might also be desperate for some change!) can be distracting and debilitating.  If you’re not in a position to make or influence decisions about how the business responds during this time, what can you actually do?  

Developing your resilience or your flexible thinking can be critical for staying effective and focused, no matter what life throws at you in the next few weeks and months.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

In this weeks podcast, Mark Smith & Helen Frewin discuss the Trusted Advisor model - the common sense approach to building strong relationships as advisors - but also the The Challenger research from CEB and how these two sales models interact with one another.

The Trusted Advisor model was and still is invaluable for sales, consulting and internal advisory functions like HR, Finance and IT, in showing us how to build trust and therefore achieve better outcomes.

But does the Challenger research mean the Trusted Advisor model is obsolete?

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website:

In this week's episode of Totem Talks, Helen Frewin and Mark Smith catch up on her book writing progress.  In a fascinating twist, another book has appeared on the horizon!

We share the ins and outs of how this new book has come to be, the progress gained by having a publisher in your corner and the challenges ahead.  Helen also gives us a sneak peak into the content, and what we can hope to expect in the coming months.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

If you’re a people manager or supervisor, how could asking a few open questions help you better manage your team? 

Whereas our previous podcasts on coaching have been from our perspectives as coaches, in this conversation we chat about the simple ways managers can use coaching every day, to unlock ideas and the team’s potential.

We also mention some of the live training events we'll be running this summer, you can have a peak here:

In this week's podcast Mark Smith & Helen Frewin have a proper good natter about the impact of Hybrid Workplace Management.    

Exploring what our clients are up to, how we're supporting them and some of the early challenges we're facing as a business in the "new normal" of work.  

We're so excited by all of this we've even dedicated one of summer workshops to developing your skills in this area:

What an earth is Brain Fog?

Do you find yourself wandering into rooms and completely forgetting why you're there?  Or struggling to focus for anything longer than 20 minutes?  Or that your thinking is sluggish and treacle like?

In this episode Mark Smith & Helen Frewin discuss recent research that has suggested that uncertainty and isolation during the Pandemic may have affected our mental health.  Offering top tips on what you can do for yourselves and your employees to overcome the symptoms of Brain Fog.

It’s here! 

Author, speaker, Productivity Ninja and all-round fabulous human being… Grace Marshall’s new book “Struggle: The surprising truth, beauty and opportunity hidden in life’s sh*ttier moments” is a fantastic read and incredible resource to help us all through tough times, and times when we’re struggling and we don’t know why. 

Helen Frewin had the pleasure of chatting with Grace, discussing the book and sharing where each of them could particularly relate to the content. 

Pre-order your copy now at:

Come and celebrate with the Totem team as we mark our one year podcast anniversary.  

This podcast is arguably focussed towards the budding entrepreneur or small business owner, it's been a crazy 12 months - so we look back at what has kept us going and what we've learnt as business leaders.

We also explore some of the struggles and triumphs we have learnt from over the last decade too - wisdom that has been hard gained and we're happy to share.

As mentioned by Helen, we're interviewing Grace Marshall in the next episode and you can find her book here...

Cast your mind back to the distant past.  

A distant time when we'd actually make phone calls to speak to one another, and fret over our remaining minutes or put the phone down before the 60 minute mark...  Remarkably, telephones still exist.  And they're as useful as ever - especially when interviewing candidates.

We explore the challenges and natural limitations of telephone interviewing and provide some top tips on scoring guides that can help highlight and overcome the classic biases at play.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

Over the years we’ve acquired quite a bit of expertise working with psychometrics.  We’ve found it was in our clients interest – and therefore in ours – for us to remain independent from any particular test publisher, but we still aim to be a well connected user of a range of different tools and training packages.

In this podcast, Mark Smith & Helen Frewin discuss some best practice tips for using psychometrics in your organisation, where they're appropriate and where you'll need additional tools.

And don't take our word for it, we highly recommend the fabulous people at Sten10 for a second opinion...

In the latest instalment of Helen Frewin’s 3 Conversations interviews , we’re joined by the fabulous Tara Humphrey - founder of THC Primary Care and host of the Business of Healthcare Podcast.

Sharing her experiences in challenging conversations with not only her husband but also herself too, Tara offers incredibly useful tips she has learnt along the way.

If you would like to get in touch with Tara, you can find her through her website or Linkedin:

We're back!  The Totem team are back in podcast mode and what could be more clichéd than starting the New Year with a podcast on goal setting?

In this episode, Mark Smith and Helen Frewin ease themselves back into podcast life by sharing their thoughts on the importance of setting personal and business goals and offer just a hint or two, to enable you to do it well.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

No not really!  That's just a bit of playful clickbait to celebrate the last Totem Talks podcast of 2020 - a remarkable year by any definition!

In this weeks episode Mark Smith & Helen Frewin discuss what they've learnt as business leaders this year, discussing the importance of applied learning, resilience and confidence.  

We also share a few tips on how you might like to approach adversity and what has worked well for us in the craziness that has been 2020.  We'll be back in the New Year with a slightly different format so until then - take care, stay well and have a fabulous festive holiday! 

If you'd like to be one of our Podcast guests or have a topic you would like to hear us discuss, you can get in touch with us below and we can have a natter!

The words mission, vision, and values hold very different meanings to different people.   What do they mean for you?

In this podcast Mark Smith & the fabulously dressed Helen Frewin focus on the word "values" - specifically values within a business context.  What do they mean for individuals?  What do they mean for corporations?  How can they be aligned?  We dig deep into the potential cost of working to your values, but ultimately - what you're going to gain.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

In the latest Totem Talks we focus again on 3 conversations, as Helen Frewin is progressing with the writing of her book.

This week Helen Frewin interviews Osaro Ewansiha – and prepare yourself for a breath of fresh air! Passion, drive, willingness to challenge traditional ways of thinking, overcoming a lack of confidence and speaking up about the need for change. 

Osaro shares his experiences and thoughts on identity, challenging people’s assumptions and he sparks a movement towards embracing the new generation joining the workplace.

Enjoy!

In the latest Totem Talks we focus again on 3 conversations, as Helen Frewin is progressing with the writing of her book.

This week Helen Frewin interviews the amazing Charlotte Speak, Director of Power of the Parent. Charlotte spends her time delivering strong returns workshops for various businesses, helping parents return from parental leave well and work to their strengths. 

Charlotte shares difficult memories in this interview about a conversation after a miscarriage, and offers great insights into how to have great conversations with people, including children!

Perhaps not quite what you think, but Psychological Safety is a term almost exclusively used in a workplace setting.  

A term that came to prominence thanks to the clever folks at Google, Psychological safety is being able to show who you really are without fear of negative consequences to your self-image, status or career.

The wikipedia page on this concept is actually quite fabulous:

With Black Lives Matter and a greater awareness than ever before about unfair discrimination, have we forgotten that some discrimination is good? How do we stay focused on discriminating against job criteria when we’re interviewing? 

How do we avoid the distractions of other things when we’re interviewing or CV-screening? And how important is it to consider bias and racism when looking at improving your recruitment and selection processes?

Helen Frewin and Mark Smith share their experiences of clients asking for help with interviewing – sometimes asking for the bias piece to be included and sometimes asking for it not to be included! How can we respond and what can we do to be better interviewers? And where does racism really show up in recruitment anyway?

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

In this weeks podcast Helen Frewin & Mark Smith discuss the idea of Wellbeing.  An often used, but poorly defined word that can cover everything from our mental to physical health.

We share our personal experiences of “wellbeing” acknowledging that we’re human beings first and employees second, as our anxieties and concerns about our personal lives will leak into anything to do with work.  So give yourself time to acknowledge this and be kind – to you, your colleagues and your family.

We also share a few tips and observations from what we’ve seen work well - perhaps the best being that we give our brains a moment to switch off, which has been shown in many different ways to benefit the quality of our thinking - which is not a bad place to start!

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

It strikes us that the traditional view that managers must have all the right answers and never be seen as weak, is more damaging now than ever before.

We want an engaged team of talented people to lead us forward to great success, and that only happens by gaining their trust.  A great place to start is in building trust is through selective vulnerability.  In this podcast, Mark Smith & Helen Frewin discuss the concept of vulnerability in the workplace.  When is it appropriate?  How to use it?  Does it actually work?

We explore these questions and more, whilst sharing our own personal & business insights as to why we think this will be a future proof skill for the next generation of managers.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

We have been delighted this year to have received more requests for coaching than ever before.  We’re delighted because we love doing it.  

It’s one thing working with 12 people on a workshop, but the difference we can see in someone, working 1:1 over six months, is incredibly rewarding.

Following on from last weeks podcast about Coaching - Mark Smith & Helen Frewin discuss just how useful coaching and it's techniques can be in everyday life, in every context and for everyone.  Touching on the key questions to ask one another through to your mindset when hearing the answer...

As promised in the podcast, here is the link to a highly recommended training course in Listening:

Feeling stuck?  Maybe you know where you want to get to, but you’re going around in circles.  Or maybe you haven’t worked out yet what direction you want to take.

1:1 coaching gives you the thinking space and time to make progress.  To work out what’s working, what’s not and what you can do about it.

In this episode, Mark Smith & Helen Frewin discuss how you can maximise the benefits of coaching by defining your objectives, starting with an open mind and evaluating what you are gaining from the time and money you are investing.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go coaching in our online store:

“How do I achieve a better work-life balance?”

People ask us this all the time, and we feel like it’s the wrong question.  Because balance seems elusive and something we will never achieve. 

It’s always a weighing-up exercise, as we work to balance the scales. Shall I put work first, or family first?  That project or my self-care?  This deadline or the opportunity to play with the kids?  These seem like impossible choices and choices that leave us feeling full of guilt.  And that’s not great for work or life.

In this podcast Mark Smith and Helen Frewin explore Work-Life Harmony - an internal calm, feeling good about what you’re doing, no matter how busy you are or whether that thing you’re doing is work or personal - integrating all of life: family, friends, the things we love, work, self-care, all together. 

As promised in the show, here is the link to Peter Bregman's book 18 Minutes:

This week we're celebrating the work of Action for Happiness, and focusing on their Self-Care September.  Inspired by a previous podcast (Episode 22) Mark Smith and Helen Frewin discuss the idea of self care, and that it is not selfish.

Exploring practical tips to rest and relax, we dig deeper into the importance of restorative care.  After all, we're not robots or machines, we don't have batteries that can be recharged or software that can be instantly updated.  So let's reclaim a little of our humanity and remember what it is to be a Human Being - not a human doing.

To connect with Action for Happiness you can visit here:

Maybe the way we’ve been brought up to think about job seeking isn’t so helpful...  Mark Smith & Helen Frewin take a turn for the unexpected in this week's podcast.

Originally billed as an opportunity for those seeking work to learn what may be expected of them during a recruitment process, they discover two very simple truths.  How you project yourself and honesty are more important during the recruitment process than ever before.  

Create a life you want to lead, not the life you have to lead.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

Where to start when recruiting?  Whilst we don’t want to teach you how to suck eggs – whatever that means, we do often get asked what simple steps can be taken to make a more robust hiring decision. So here they are.

Exploring best practice, virtual assessment, internal mobility and the cost of getting this wrong, in this podcast Mark Smith and Helen Frewin explore the upcoming changes to our industry as the economic bite from Covid is finally felt.  

As promised (by Helen) here are the links to SHL and PSI's virtual assessment suites:

In this week's episode, Mark Smith and Helen Frewin take time to pause and reflect on the last few months.  Covid 19 has forced an entire society to "Pivot" it's work, it's expectations and challenged us all to really assess what is important in our lives.

So grab yourself a Gin & Tonic, relax and shoot the breeze with the two of us as we explore what has stood out to us as business leaders & psychologists over the last few months.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

Is confidence something you can build?  Are some people just naturally more confident than others?

Yes of course, some people have more confidence than others, but you can also learn to build your confidence.  In fact, if you think about it, there is benefit in considering “confidence in what?” As I might be confident in skydiving but not in public speaking. Another person might be confident in giving feedback to their boss, but terrified by the idea of walking into a party alone.

Mark Smith & Helen Frewin discuss the concept of Confidence, as a mix of thoughts and feelings, which we can work on and how it is built up or damaged over time.  They also discuss how to build your self-awareness, a critical first step in building confidence and the best thinking methods  to build your confidence now and in future.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

Maybe networking has never been your thing. Maybe you were working on it pre-lockdown. But how can you do it now?

Whether you’re working from home, or facing a hybrid of moving between the office and your sofa, how can you be growing your network? What benefits could that bring you in terms of your in-house network for projects and career development, and your external network for different opportunities?

Mark Smith & Helen Frewin explore the good news that networking need not be as painful as many people find it! So often we worry about what to say and how to be interesting, but we can remove that pressure and make networking a far more pleasant experience.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

If you're thinking about becoming your own boss, we may have some advice for you!  The word entrepreneur is certainly the flavour of the moment, it’s even been reported that school children and college students are beginning to use this phrase in connection to their career aspirations.  Which is awesome!

But what does being an entrepreneur mean?  The connection with profit is unmistakable, and working to your own agenda is certain but in this podcast Mark Smith & Helen Frewin expand on the hidden joys and difficulties of being entrepreneurs.

Huge thanks to Johnny Pawlik at Mantra Media for interviewing Helen on his podcast, and providing the spark to this conversation.   If you fancy listening to Helen twice, and going into a little more detail herself on this topic, follow the link!

Success requires more than traditional skills & intelligence (IQ).  This is true of leaders, managers and every member of the workforce.  Each person needs to deal with the emotions related to their work, both their own and others.  This is where the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) comes in.  

Originally coined by two American psychologists, John Mayer & Peter Salovey, research in over 200 companies and organizations worldwide suggests that about one third of the difference in job performance is due to technical skill and cognitive ability while the remaining two thirds is due to emotional competence.  In top leadership positions, over four fifths of the difference is due to emotional competence!    

In this podcast, Mark Smith & Helen Frewin explore the four key components of EQ; Perceiving Emotions, Using  Emotions, Understanding Emotions & Managing Emotions.  

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:  

In the latest Totem Talks, Helen Frewin interviews the fabulous Ali Carruthers - Director of People Development & Change at Purple Pebble People.  Continuing Helen's research, Ali explores the 3 conversations that have shaped her life, offering candid insights into the Art of Conversation.

You can connect with Ali and her team here:

The second instalment of Helen Frewin’s 3 Conversations interviews, as part of her book-writing journey, we’re joined by Lorna McCallum. No surprise, as a communications consultant, Lorna has a few things to say about good conversations!

Sharing her experiences in challenging conversations with her husband and with her dad, Lorna offers incredibly useful tips she has learnt along the way.

To prepare or not to prepare – seems to be something our interviewees have different perspectives on so far!

If you would like to get in touch with Lorna you can find her on Twitter or LinkedIn:

What exactly is unconscious bias?  Put simply, it’s the decisions that we make every day - on an unconscious basis - in relation to other people.

Based on our gender, ethnicity, genetics, upbringing, education and so many other factors, our brains are wired in different ways.   And the tricky thing with different brain patterns is that we tend to like our own, because we only know our own ways of thinking and working.  Our minds are perfect echo chambers, everyone who thinks differently – more often than not we think of as wrong, misguided or weird.

In the broader context of the recent resurgence is the Black Lives Matter movement we feel that globally, we are all being challenged to sit up and take notice of our own biases,  the systemic racism around us and to make real and lasting change.  In this podcast, Mark Smith and Helen Frewin describe their upbringing and the influence of race upon their unconscious biases, their response to recent developments and how they plan to contribute to a future free from racism.

As mentioned in the podcast, Mark has been particularly moved by the work of Dr Laura Morgan Roberts, a consultant and researcher on the science of maximising human potential in diverse organizations and communities.

You can find out more about the workshops Laura runs and the book she helped write below:

“I told my wife I was thinking of having an affair.”

In the first of Helen Frewin’s 3 Conversations interviews as part of her book-writing journey, Mark Smith is in the hot seat.

Sharing his experience of big scary conversations, little everyday chats and what he’s learnt about how to do all of this well – he certainly started big and scary with, “I told my wife I was thinking about having an affair.” A powerful example of the benefit of having a conversation before it is too late and a fascinating look at what we can learn from such challenging experiences.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

How do you Delegate?

Poor delegation will cause you frustration, demotivates and confuses the other people, and even fails to achieve the task or purpose itself. On the other hand, good delegation not only gets results, but also increases the capabilities of the team, and frees up your time for more important things.

In this podcast, Mark Smith & Helen Frewin explore the tricky topic of Delegation - easily one of the most important life skills we can learn. We explore a few different techniques to help delegate well, build trust with those around you and motivate your people.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

What is Gravitas? And how on earth do we develop it?

In the latest episode of Totem Talks, Mark Smith & Helen Frewin discuss several key components to Gravitas, or that notion of your own ‘gravity’ or authority – sharing how you bring this to life through calm confidence, keeping it together under pressure, being personable and having credibility.

We also touch upon the physical aspects like the tone of voice someone uses, how they use silence, their posture and pace. Showing us how we can use our bodies to have great impact with our colleagues and clients.

As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store:

Transactional Analysis is one of the cornerstones of modern psychology. It was developed by Eric Berne, and describes the infamous ‘parent adult child’ theory.

In this podcast, Mark Smith & Helen Frewin explore its use in our everyday lives, from home to work. Transactional Analysis is a great starting point for building your self awareness, and an awareness of others. So if you find yourself struggling to communicate with others (or others with you!) it can be a very helpful tool.

We have several Transactional Analysis resources available on our website, but this is probably the most helpful:

Helen is writing a book!  

In this latest podcast Mark Smith and Helen Frewin discuss her tentative and surprisingly emotional first steps in writing a book.  What's the book about?  Who is she writing it for?  Secrets will be revealed...  

If you're considering writing your own book, this podcast is a simple and quick way to catch that first glimpse of the journey that you'll need to embark on.  And as the book progresses, well update this playlist with more of Helen's discoveries.  In this podcast we mention the fabulous Alison Jones, who has helped us start on this exciting adventure...  

Why do we not like giving feedback?  Why do we not face up to those honest, tough or difficult conversations?  Whatever we call them, and many businesses have tried their share of variations, feedback and performance conversations are still a challenge for many people.

In this Podcast, Mark Smith & Helen Frewin look at why interventions to date may not have worked and share some top tips that are working well for us and our clients.  And then we'll get to some meaty stuff - preparing for the other person’s response…

Find out more about us and our online learning store here:

What are other people doing with virtual learning?  

This is a question we are getting asked a lot right now, so we thought we’d share a few experiences and tips that have come up across our clients.  Mark Smith & Helen Frewin talk about the stand out issues, and some personal quirks about the "new normal" during Covid-19.

Find out more about us and our online learning store here:  

Business Psychologist Helen Frewin and her trusty sidekick Mark Smith give us an overview of what causes anxiety and tips to manage it. 

In this fourth episode, we also explore Acceptance & Commitment Theory, and how it can help you overcome your anxieties.

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Silos in the workplace cause nothing but frustration for customers, clients and employee's alike, so why do we often find ourselves operating in this way?

Mark Smith & Helen Frewin have a natter about their experience of silo working, the psychology that creates silos, and how to challenge the 'silo' mentality.

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