We are back with Episode Two talking all things wellbeing. As you know we're mixing things up a little this season, so we'll be having a guest host takeover each episode - they'll be inviting three guests who will be interviewed about various topics surrounding wellbeing. Today, I'm so pleased to be joined by our very own mentoring manager, Lally Wentworth, who will be talking to her guests about how we can all build wellbeing into our mindset. So welcome, Lally, and thank you for hosting this episode.
Thanks, Lauren. I've really enjoyed guest hosting. So it's been really interesting.
Oh, that's really great to hear. I know you, but our listeners may not. So could you please tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey with CharityComms?
Yeah, absolutely. So I manage the mentoring scheme here at CharityComms, which is such a privilege for me. I've worked at CharityComms for a while now in different areas of the organisation and it's been really exciting to watch CharityComms and our network grow over the years. I set the mentoring scheme up from scratch here so it's been really rewarding to watch the scheme grow as well and develop over the years and and be part of that. I really love working at CharityComms and yeah, I just think our network of members is such a brilliant group of people.
Amazing. Guys, I just want to say I just learned a new fact about Lally. I didn't know she started that from scratch so it's even more amazing to see how fast the network has grown so well done Lally. And so I wanted to delve a little bit deeper and discuss a bit about the power that mentoring and simply talking can have on building confidence in a role. And I know you speak a lot about how unique the journey is between a mentor and a mentee.
Yeah.
I think the mentoring relationship is definitely a really unique one. In my eyes, I think it's all about being matched with fellow comms professionals. So creating a space to talk about your role and be listened to by someone who understands communications, understands the sector, and has experienced themselves to share. But this is really also a relationship with someone who doesn't work with you directly at your organisation. So it's more of a neutral space. And I think this opens up the opportunity to talk in a way that feels different, I do touch on these themes more with our guests. And our listeners will become aware as they hear the different conversations that I'm a huge believer in the benefits of talking. I think talking to our peers, our mentors, specifically over a period of time can just be so incredibly helpful for identifying where we're at, making our thoughts a reality, getting new perspectives, and also setting intentions for ourselves, all of which are really important, I think, for our wellbeing as well.
Definitely, I definitely agree. I say every episode, but I think there's so much to pull from so many different people. But I'm gonna stop talking, as I'm sure everybody's waiting to hear from our guests. But Lally, could you give us a teaser as to what we can expect on this episode?
Yeah.
I think, I mean the episode's title, as you introduced is, how can we build wellbeing into our mindsets? And I think for me when thinking about this topic, and through talking to, to my guests, there's a real pattern that emerges. And I think this really begins with really believing in the importance of wellbeing for ourselves and making it a priority. I think it just has to be a priority, and not a luxury. And I think getting our heads around this idea that self care really isn't selfish. It's, it's really important. And I think secondly, it kind of moves on to really identifying what we need as individuals for our wellbeing. I don't think that's always easy. And my guests talk about different approaches to this power to check in with ourselves and what we need. And then finally, I think the process kind of is really about recognising that our wellbeing is a bit of a journey is not something that you know, just kind of focus on for one day and forget about it's something we need to really continue checking in with ourselves over time as our lives change and and really get into the passion of doing this. So I think that really brings me back to the title of the podcast that I just I really believe we all need to build wellbeing into our mindset and make it a priority.
I couldn't agree more. So I will hand over to you Lally and let you welcome your first guest.
Thanks, Lauren.
So I'm really delighted to have as my first guest, Susie Wright. Susie, is a qualified and experienced solution focus coach, her commitment to helping people take care of their own wellbeing has led her to create coach yourself workshops where she passes on tools and approaches that help. Susie also works as a communications consultant specialising in digital and has many years experience working for charities of all sizes. Susie, welcome to the CharityComms podcast. And thank you so much for joining us today.
Thanks Lally.
I'm so pleased to be speaking to you. I think I mentioned when we caught up that when w e first started talking about the content for this podcast episode you sprung to mind immediately as someone that I really wanted to talk to. And this is really following a brilliant workshop that you put on for the charities members at the beginning of this year. So the workshop was called New Year, New You, I'll just set the scene briefly for our listeners, this workshop was an opportunity to take some time and space for ourselves to really take stock of our lives and think practically, about how to take care of our wellbeing. And I was just thinking, for me attending the workshop and just really carving out this two hour space to just put everything to one side and put the spotlight on myself felt really nourishing. And I think it just it struck me that quite a key part of the process was actually this process of identifying where I was at, and what I felt unbalanced in my life. And I think for me personally, it's not always obvious to see this day-to-day. And I see that a lot in the work that I do at CharityComms managing the mentoring scheme, I think there are so many of us just operating on autopilot. So I wondered if you could start by just talking to our listeners a bit about the importance of taking stock, and just really identifying where we're at perhaps sharing some practical tools on how to do this.
Yeah, I'd love to thank you. I think I really resonate with what you say people who work in the charity sector, people who work in the caring sectors too have often come into this kind of work, because they want to help other people and they want to make a difference. The sectors, of course, they're generally hard up as well aren't they?
Yeah.
There's never enough hours in the day for everything that we need to do. So I think as a result, a lot of people work beyond their hours and their job description. You know, when you've got this kind of motivation in your work, it's so easy to get burnt out and to not focus on what we need as individuals.
Definitely.
Something I'm finding interesting is that as we ease out of lockdown, I'm really noticing people and that includes myself feeling perhaps more vulnerable than ever. No, no matter what kind of work we do, it really does feel that this year has taken its toll and a lot of people are burnt out. You know, I think the question you're asking is a really relevant one, especially right now, what can we do about this? So I'd say we can definitely take a leaf out of the Dalai Lama's book, he says, if you feel burned out, burnout setting in, if you feel demoralised and exhausted, it's best for the sake of everyone to withdraw and restore yourself. We know he's a wise man. But that's really wise. Isn't it?
So wise. Yes.
We have to pause. If we're going to be effective, if we're going to do our jobs well, if we're going to help other people, we have to take care of ourselves. I know it's been said a lot before, but that's probably because it's true. If you're always giving, you'll end up empty.
It's a really difficult idea to just actually really take on board and do as well.
Yes, I think that's true. Because I think when we hear it, it resonates. But then what we do about it and, and can we do anything about it, because when you're so busy, it feels that you haven't got time to stop and think. And, and especially think about yourself, how selfish, but that Dalai Lama thing is so powerful, saying, you know, it's for the sake of everyone that you withdraw and restore. And as someone else, another wise person Maya Angelou, she says, as we grow older, we discover we have two hands, one for helping ourselves and the other for helping others. And I think that's a really helpful concept as well, you know, that we're kind of...
I've not heard that one before. I love that. Yes.
We're made for both these things, is how I view that. So you know, then yes it takes us to where you where you began here, you know, how can we help ourselves and as you say, you know, this is something that I do quite a lot of work on and one of the tools I use and I know you came across it at that workshop is the life wheel. It is quite a common coaching tool, but it's one you can use really effectively yourself. I use it at least twice a year. It helps me work out my priorities. It captures a snapshot of my life at that moment in time that is helpful. It's just a very practical process for doing that taking stock. So the one thing I should say it's a very visual tool and as people discover as they listen, so we will direct you to where you can download it for free. And if you want to try it out, because you might find it easier to actually do when you're looking at something as well as listening, but let me just run through the process. So you start - piece of paper pen, list the different areas of your life. So examples might be work, health, fitness, interests, significant people in your life, whatever. You want, somewhere between probably four and 10 areas, if you get to more than that it gets a bit messy. You want to score each area out of 10, in terms of where you feel you are at right now. So say I take my work, a one would be the very worst I can imagine and 10 the best, and I'm going to just score it and make a note of that. And then the next process is the very visual thing, transfer it onto a circle, this is the wheel, you want one segment for each area, and then you mark your score. So one would be close to the centre and 10 would be right out at the outer edge. And then when you've done that, you look at the circle and you'd look at these marks you've made. And you just see whether there's a sense of balance, you're not looking for everything to be a ten. To be honest, I just don't think that's realistic or possible. I've never found that, or that's, maybe that's all I should say. Did you find when you did it that you know, it was a bit all over the place?
Yeah, I mean, I just I found it a really, really useful tool. And I think, it actually kind of brings us really interestingly on to the next sort of question, it's that I think it's really nice that it's something you can keep returning to
Yes.
I think, as you say, I think there's this process of of building wellbeing into our mindset. And I think there's really recognising the importance of wellbeing and believing in it for ourselves and identifying where we're at. And I think, yeah, the life wheel is brilliant for that. And yeah, I'll make sure a link is provided for listeners and they can access it.
One thing I would want to say about the life wheel is that you know, sometimes when we think about making change, we think oh, there's so much got has got to change, and it can feel overwhelming, and we can do nothing. Or we can start to do things and run out, can't we. You know, just run out of energy. And the lovely thing about the life wheel is that when you do it, you identify very small practical steps that you can take in a short amount of time. And it's this low, you know, manageable step by step approach that makes such a difference.
Absolutely, and I think that was really kind of moving on into this idea that it's, I think wellbeing is, it's a process. It's an ongoing process of of checking in with yourself, you know, you can't sort everything out at once, but also our lives keep changing. So I think we've seen that massively in the last year as well, our lives will continue to change. And there'll be different parts of our lives that feel imbalanced at different times as well. So yeah, I really like this idea that you can keep returning to kind of checking in to where you are. In the workshop you spoke to us a bit about mindset as well and the impact this can have on us when thinking about setting intentions and, and goals for ourselves and our wellbeing. I wonder if you could talk to us a little bit more about this concept of mindset, and really having an awareness of our mindset and how that can be helpful.
Yeah, I'd love to. Mindset is so important. So, Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck is my mindset hero. She says "I've fallen in love with a new word, that word is yet it says that there's a learning curve, and you're on it."
Yeah.
The power of yet, or sometimes not yet, gives us a path into our future, it really makes us feel that we are on a learning curve rather than at a dead end. What Carol Dweck says is that our mindset plays a pivotal role in what we want, and whether we achieve it. And she explains that we're all on a continuum, somewhere between two extreme mindsets, and we can move in either direction. So she talks about people who might tend towards a fixed mindset. So they are people who believe that qualities such as intelligence and talents are inborn, and fixed and unchangeable. And then she talks about people at the other extreme, or who tend towards the other extreme, the growth mindset, where people believe that our abilities can be developed and strengthened by giving things a go, by persevering, through hard work. Anyone interested in this should have a read of her book, which is called Mindset. There are online quizzes that you can do to measure your mindset. And when I first did it, I discovered that I had a fairly fixed mindset. It shouldn't have surprised me because I have been quite a perfectionist. But it is something that I'm working on daily. I think it is quite a challenge. But I find that saying the word yet makes a real difference to me. And I can actually see it does the same for other people when I'm in conversation. If I catch myself saying or thinking oh, no, I'm no good at that. I add either mentally or out loud yet. And then you know when I'm talking with other people, and they're talking about themselves in a negative or a limiting kind of way, you know, I'll do the same with them and say yet or not yet, and I find it incredibly powerful.
Hmm. Thank you. Yeah, it's really nice just to revisit those ideas with you actually. And just to kind of hear them being spoken about, again, because I think it's keeping that open mind is so, so important, and really important when thinking about our wellbeing and, and changes and healthy intentions for ourselves as well.
Yeah. Yes, absolutely.
Thank you Susie. For our kind of final section of our chat, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the power of talking. So I run the mentoring scheme here at a CharityComms and I'm a big believer in the power of, of talking to others, particularly one on one. I found it really helpful in your workshop as well, when we'd kind of go over these exercises, and then we will split up into pairs and we did different exercises to discuss our experiences one on one. So I was just wondering, as we come to the end of our chat, if you could just share a few thoughts with us on why you think talking to others, about our wellbeing can be so helpful. So whether that's a coach or mentor, our peers, our colleagues, what is it about talking? That is so helpful?
I agree with you wholeheartedly. I mean, clearly, I do believe there's a lot we can do to help ourselves. But it is incredibly valuable to talk, as you say, you know it does, it can be with a professional, but it doesn't have to be it could be with a peer, it could be with a friend. But you know, I know what you described in our workshop. And that work that people did in twos was really valuable. And that was most of the feedback we got, you know, so much of the feedback we got was around that. There is a real power in saying something out loud. I also think that when we keep things inside, they can go round and round our heads, and I think it's incredibly easy to lose our sense of proportion. So when we talk with someone else, we tend to find that things are more likely to fall into perspective. I suppose the other thing is, I think generally someone else is much more likely to be kinder to us than we are to ourselves. Especially if we have a fixed mindset or tend in that direction. I think the power of talking, as you say is incredible. And it goes alongside the work that we can do by ourselves incredibly well. You know, they're complimentary. They're not contradictory.
Thank you so much Susie. It's been so nice and interesting just to revisit the ideas, but also to think about some new ones as well.
Thank you. It's a real pleasure.
I'm really pleased to be talking to Deanne Palmer today. Deanne is head of brand and marketing at Mental Health First Aid England. She is a collaborative, creative and strategic brand marketing professional with over 20 years experience in senior marketing roles, both in and out of the charity sector. Deanne has been a brilliant mentor for us here on the CharityComms mentoring scheme. Previous to working at Mental Health First Aid England Deanne was brand and marketing lead for Action for Children, and has been part of the CharityComms network for many years. Deanne, welcome to the CharityComms podcast, and thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you Lally. That was a lovely introduction, and thank you for having me.
It's great to be talking to you. Mmm the term wellbeing is a really big topic right now with different elements to consider in and outside of our working lives when thinking about our day to day working as charity communicators. What does workplace wellbeing mean to you? And why is it so important for us to be talking about it?
I think it's fair to say that everyone's working environment has changed over the last year in some shape or form. This means we've all adapted in our experience of what workplace wellbeing means has significantly changed. For me personally, workplace wellbeing means operating positively in a work environment that meets my needs. Now, we know there are a number of different facets to the wellbeing mindset. But it's about getting that balance right for you. And as we're all different, it's it's really important to understand what your individual needs are to make that workplace environment positive for you. Once you understand that, it's equally essential to check in with yourself regularly knowing when to pause, when to take stock, when to redefine your ways of working. All of that's critical to maintaining that sustainable environment. And it's also important to acknowledge that, that will change over time. What works one week for you, you may need to adapt differently at a later stage. So it's about just making sure that you manage that well. As we have changed, our working environments have changed, and very much merged with our home lives, one of the things when we launched our My Whole Self campaign was we created a working from home guidance to help people develop a positive work environment. It was in essentially difficult circumstances, this guidance is still a great reminder to how to maintain your, your wellbeing when working from home.
I think as you say, it's been such a different year in terms of what our workplace means to us as well. So that sounds really interesting to look through. I'll make sure that there's there's a link to that on our website.
That's great. Thank you. And I just dropped the My Whole Self campaign in there with no mention, what this is, is Mental Health First Aid England's campaign for workplace culture change. We're calling on organisations to empower employees to bring their whole self to work and to support their own and other's wellbeing. We believe wherever you're working from feeling support, to choose to bring your whole self to work is better for wellbeing, and better for business, bringing together diversity and inclusion with health and wellbeing will drive a positive transformation in workplace mental health and performance. We all know we're facing a mental health crisis in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic, more people than ever will need mental health and wellbeing support. We all understand how difficult this time has been. We believe employers must act now as workplaces are key to creating a society where everyone's mental health matters, we certainly shouldn't feel like we have to leave part of our identity behind - be that our culture, our ethnicity, our gender identity, our sexuality, disability or health. We know the highest performing workplaces are supportive and inclusive, by putting diversity and inclusion at the centre of mental health and wellbeing employers can create a culture where people can be themselves at work. This helps people to feel more engaged, to think bolder, find common ground and work more effectively together. It's even more important than ever now that the workplace, as the workplace is likely to be different, and our whole lives are merged so much with our work environment for us to create this inclusive culture.
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for taking us through that. I think this, this concept of how self is, is just such a useful image when thinking about our wellbeing. I think I've been thinking a lot about wellbeing at work and I just, I keep coming back to the importance really of finding balance. And I think for quite a while people have talked about this idea of work life balance, but I think it's really helpful to go a bit deeper than that, and really recognise that we've got lots of areas of our being really that make up who we are. And if we can really recognise our whole self, talk about our whole selves, we're more likely to find that balance and our wellbeing will really benefit from that I think. So it's a brilliant, brilliant campaign.
Thank you. We are receiving a lot of support, and everybody can see that. And I think it's really important to, you know, to have that and to understand that there are facets of ourselves that we don't necessarily want to share at work, and that is equally fine. But to have that, to have that opportunity is, is the key point.
Yeah, absolutely. I think when thinking about building wellbeing into our mindset at work, I think there's also this idea that it's really important, I think, to know how to identify our wellbeing needs. Like how do we do this? What are the resources out there to help us? I know that Mental Health First Aid England has been releasing some really brilliant resources over the last year, I was particularly drawn to My Whole Self MOT resource. I know you have lots of others as well. I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about, about these resources and how to go about using them?
I'd love to. It is essential that we do have regular wellbeing check-ins with colleagues, but also a reminder to have those with yourself. These are vital ways to support on mental health, especially during these difficult times. You've mentioned we have created a range of free simple resources that are available to download from our website. One of them being th e my, the My Whole Self MOT, there is another item which is a weekly wellbeing checkup. It's as simple tool but it's there as a reminder to just ask yourself those questions. How am I feeling today? You know, have you set some boundaries? Are you meeting those boundaries? Are you, are you not? You know, are you not following where you would like to be? Amongst all of those, there's a range of webinars that might be really useful to all of our colleagues in workplace environments. They cover a variety of topics ranging from supporting your mental health at work, what does mental health look like in the workplace during 2021, race equity and mental health, gender and wellbeing at work, the list goes on for the resources that are available, but we can share those at the end.
Absolutely, that'd be great. So I think this idea of of checking in with ourselves is, is so important like you say to do individually, but also, I think just a brilliant resource and awareness for managers to have. I've been thinking about it a lot in terms of guidance that we give to mentors and our scheme and just developing some guidance around how to check in with their mentees as well. So, as you know, I manage the mentoring scheme here at CharityComms, which you've been part of as a brilliant mentor. In a lot of the resources that I've read from your organisation and elsewhere, it's often referenced how good it is for our wellbeing to really talk to others about how we are. I'm a big believer that peer to peer support and mentoring relationships can be a really helpful part of our, our wellbeing journey. Just briefly, could you tell us a bit about why you think it's so good to talk to our peers and how it can help our wellbeing?
Yeah, our mental health is part of this wider journey of our lives. Just like our physical health, we can always learn new skills to support our wellbeing. If we're able to spot signs of stress, or anxiety or depression for example, we can learn strategies to cope, knowing what to do about it or who to talk to will mean that we can navigate that journey better. We all know that everyone has experienced different, very different wellbeing journeys at the moment. And it is more important than ever to talk to colleagues and those you can trust. But not everyone is comfortable talking about their mental health. So within Mental Health First Aid England, we lead by example, we're, all of our staff on Mental Health First Aiders, and this is evident in the support that we give to each other. Whilst it's important to talk, it's also equally important to listen and to be comfortable with silence, but also to know, importantly to know when to have those difficult conversations. Having a safe space to talk about the good and bad moods of our well being really helps to build a better understanding of what you need as an individual for your workplace wellbeing. And I think it's fair to touch on some of the warning signs and how to sort of build your wellbeing journey. And understanding what is important to you is essentially part of that first step, the creating space in your diary to have check-ins with yourself, that really helps to identify the warning signs and to help you manage and create that sustainable, positive environment you need to work in. The warning signs will be different for everybody. But noticing what has changed and how you are coping and acknowledging when you feel depleted, they all help to spot the trigger points, and to avoid those trigger points in the future. We're all the same, we all allow meetings to creep in over lunchtime or to allow working late patterns to start taking over. It's about establishing those boundaries and sticking to them, we're really lucky in our, in our organisation, in our, in our environment. We have very, you know, similar initiatives that everybody else is trying to put in place. So no meeting lunch hour, regular check-ins, meeting free Friday afternoons. But one of the key things as an organisation, I think that we do, we have two dedicated wellbeing weeks one in the summer, one in the winter, where the entire organisation shuts down. That's dedicated time for you to focus on your wellbeing without the burden of coming back to work for me if you know with work piled high from others, which you do when you take your annual, your regular annual leave. So for me, I would encourage all workplaces to consider how they can better support their staff to give them the competence, the skills and knowledge to help them to manage their own mental health as well as supporting their colleagues. All of that I think is encompassed by what you mentioned there about the ability and the power of talk.
Absolutely, oh Deanne, thank you so much. It's so interesting to hear your thoughts and wellbeing ideas, really helpful and, and also to hear about the Whole Self campaign as well.
Thank you. Nice to speak to you.
I'm so pleased to be talking to Anil Ranchod today, Anil is an experienced, award-winning PR and communications professional. He is currently heading up the press and PR function at the Chartered Management Institute. He's been a very active member of the CharityComms network for many years now, speaking at several of our events, and has been a treasured mentor to many on our mentoring scheme here. Anil a very warm welcome to the CharityComms podcast.
My pleasure, and hi Lally and thank you for giving me the opportunity to come and share my experience again.
I'm just, I'm so pleased you could talk to me because I was really keen to talk to you as you've been such a brilliant mentor. And I think you may have mentored more people on our scheme than anyone else in our network, and also been a mentee yourself in the scheme. So I think it's fair to say that you're very familiar with it.
It's something that I really love doing, and I hope to continue many more years to come.
Oh good, that's really nice to hear. In this section of the podcast, I really wanted to focus in on the power of talking and the power of peer support, and mentoring really to show how it can be so helpful when thinking about building wellbeing into our mindset at work. So just to sort of jump straight in, I wanted to ask you, what is it really about the mentoring process that you think is helpful for individuals when thinking about how they are and where they're at in their working lives?
Well, there's a few things actually. But the thing I love most is, it gives you a chance to interact with people. And I know it's been particularly difficult under COVID. But I've still found ways to manage that more effectively. But it gives you the chance to interact with people and find out how they're doing. We are all living lives that are, have been, particularly strange, not least, because we're working from home. But I think mostly because we're working alone, and as comms people we naturally thrive off each other, you know, bouncing ideas, even if it's a quick gossip, or a joke or a laugh, and you miss that. And I think we take it for granted that we are professionals and we can just get on with it. But I tend to start all my sessions by asking, how are you doing, and giving people a chance to express how they are feeling, what challenges they may be going through, and also just to be on the lookout and listen. When I say lookout I mean, listen, I look out for the signs that people might not be necessarily be as 100%, as they might want you to think they are.
Yeah, absolutely. I think it's so interesting to hear, I think particularly at this point in time and the year that we've all had with the pandemic. And as you say, people working alone, I think finding that, that connection through our peers or colleagues is just so important at the moment. And I think for me there's something about just, it's just so good to talk to people. I saw this brilliant infographic recently that went with the idea that if we just keep our thoughts and ideas in our heads, they just remain as daydreams. When we vocalise them out loud to someone else, they become real, and we're more likely to take action on them.
Exactly.
I think this really resonated for me when thinking about the mentoring process. And it kind of really leads me into my next question for you, which is really around this idea of kind of making changes and setting intentions for ourselves, as I think when thinking about making wellbeing a priority for ourselves in our working lives, and really bringing that idea into our mindset I personally think it's important to see that there's a bit of a process involved. That you need to kind of actively work on that over time, and it's, it's not always easy to do that for ourselves, and often does involve sort of setting intentions, kind of thinking about changes we might want to make. When thinking about this idea of setting goals, setting intentions, changes. What is it about having a mentor that really helps mentees act on this process do you think?
For me, it's, it's important to listen and also to be listened to? I know, I've been accused in the past of being insensitive by a term of phrase that I'm familiar with, or that people will hear me using quite often. But I tend to use the term and I've got, I think it's the thing I got into the habit of because I'm originally from Zimbabwe, and we have turns of phrases that I know people think, oh, that's a bit weird coming from him. So I tend to ask, does that make sense?, but it's gotten to a place where I use that as a way to kind of make sure I'm hearing my mentees and that they are hearing me as opposed to just listening to. I hope that makes sense to you.
Yeah, and no absolutely, I think like you say I think there's just something really unique about the mentoring space gets carved out that just kind of being being listened to. And having the opportunity to talk to a kind of fellow professional that you don't directly work with is, is quite a unique space.
Exactly. The other thing is when you are mentoring a manager, I think what I found is sometimes they forget about their own wellbeing and tend to be thinking about the wellbeing of their line reports. So, you know, there's, there's you have a unique opportunity to be able to remind them to take care of themselves. But as part of the mentoring programme, this also, it's about using your goals and your check-ins we set together at the beginning to make sure that we are both getting, more importantly they are, getting what they want out of this experience. And that it's not just me kind of offloading onto them but that they've actually taken away some learning.
Yeah, absolutely. And I think, I think that's really quite a key part of the process that we just, the feedback we get time and time again I think from mentors and mentees is this idea that you can kind of you know, that you meet with your mentor, and you talk about where you're at, and things that you might want to change or work on. And I think this idea that you know that you'll be meeting with your mentor again in 5,6,7 weeks time, however long, really encourages the mentee to kind of act on on those changes because they really want to kind of be on that journey with their mentor and report back and let them know how it's going. And I think it's really encouraging for, for both parties to kind of see, see that journey happening and those changes being made.
Very definitely 100% agree with that.
Unfortunately, we're coming to the end. But I did want to squeeze in one more question for you...
I'll be quick.
...which is really about the importance of being honest with yourself about how you are. I think this whole, this concept of bringing your whole honest self is really interesting. So I was just wondering if you could just share with us a few thoughts about this concept of being honest with yourself and why that's important?
100%. I mean, at the end of the day, I am offering to help support our younger comms professionals on their journey. I wasn't fortunate to have a mentorship programme in my early years, there wasn't CharityComms in those days. Yes, Lally, I am that old. But the truth of the matter is, you've got to be honest, because I'm, I'm coming to this voluntarily. I'm giving up my time and I don't want to waste your time, I don't want to waste my time. And if you're not being honest, we're not helping each other. It's, it's so important. It's like with any of my team, I can't help you if you're going to pretend that everything is okay. We can't change something, if you're going to want to give the illusion that everything is okay. It's in both our best interests, that we are honest and open from the get go.
Yeah, that's I mean, so it's a really interesting point to finish on. I think for me as well, it just, it just goes back to that kind of space of mentoring relationship being something that's quite unique. And I think it does really give the opportunity for mentees to be honest and get that slight change in perspective about talking about their professional life. I think with someone who understands their role, understands the sector, understands communications, but again, as I said earlier, just isn't someone you directly work with, so it kind of can really literally help you see things differently. And I think if you if you bring honesty to that, it just makes it such a powerful process.
100%.
Anil, thank you so much for talking to me today. It's been really interesting and helpful. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Lally, thank you.
What a great second episode, it was so useful to be reminded about the power of talking to others and building a healthy mindset. Lally, thank you so much for hosting such a great episode and also a massive thank you to Susie, Deanne, and Anil, for sharing your advice and also resources, which you'll find in the description of this episode. As we mentioned in the last episode, CharityComms co-authored the wellbeing guide for comms professionals. Every article in there is written to help anyone, at any stage of their career, and with every organisation in mind. It's also a living guide, which means that it can be added to over time. If you're a charity leading the way when it comes to staff wellbeing, or a mental health professional, get in touch and share your tips. That's it for Episode Two. Keep an eye on our socials to find out who our next guest host will be, till then if there's something that you'd like to hear about, or if you have any questions for us, you can catch us on Twitter. I'm @LaurenHaizel or head over to CharityComms twitter page at CharityComms. Alternatively, you can reach out to me on my CharityComms email which you will also find in the description. Make sure you subscribe if you'd like to be notified when we upload and if you enjoyed the episode we'd really appreciate a review or rating. Bye for now.
