18. Jess Lawton: From HR newbie to organisational development powerhouse

Trigger warning: suicide

Our guest for the episode is my incredibly dear friend Jess Lawton

She has over 17 years of experience in human resources and organisational development, is passionate about working with people and teams and her goal is to challenge status quo and use her experience in change management, strategy, business design and development to hone in on organisational leaders and teams.

She is a certified gallup strength coach, life and NLP coach and has recently supplemented her psychology and sociology degrees with further education and has added in strategic psychotherapy, clinical hypnotherapy and counselling to her toolbox.

In this episode Jessica shares:

• Jess discusses her first real experience as a leader in a workplace and how she didn’t feel overly prepared
• What happened with how she had to handle people when she changed industries from hospitality to corporate
• How her first leadership challenge was having to let go an admin worker unsuited for their role and she felt she had failed
• The way she was affected when a struggling employee who she had been trying to support ended up losing their life to suicide
• the resources and strategies you can use if someone in your team is struggling with their mental health
• The reason she stepped back from a leadership position and the process she went through to reach that point

Key Quotes

“I’m a very empathetic person which doesn’t always serve me well.”

“One of the best managers I always had, one of the first questions she always asked new staff was, how do you like to receive feedback?”

“Always try and speak to them (struggling employee) about accessing a family member because that support is what they need more than the support from you.”

If you want to find out more about Jessica

Jess mentioned an important  mental health first aid course that every manager should do if they get the chance. You can find it here:  https://mhfa.com.au/

If you want to look into Jess’ services you can check out her website: https://www.mindemporium.com.au/

 

Or find her on socials,

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themindemporium/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088916512713

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website:

http://engage4performance.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.