Friday Footnote #100

Each week we share loads of content amongst Team ION and with our network. Content that inspires us, which we find helpful, or just makes us smile. We thought we would start sharing these insights every Friday. Welcome to Friday Footnote.

A century of Friday Footnotes

In April 2020, our Marketing Manager Adam started Friday Footnote, a weekly collection of content that has caught our eye, helped us through the unprecedented times of a global pandemic, or importantly, just made us smile. We shared this content on our social media channels, but there was so much of it, we needed a 'hub' to pull it altogether. Friday Footnote was born. 

One of the main aim's of Friday Footnote is to provide our network with insights and articles that add value to them, especially as we were all trying to navigate working through the Covid pandemic. Content shared covered everything from support for Welsh businesses, and hybrid working, to the importance of managing staff mental health whilst working from home. We hope Friday Footnote went a little way to helping. 

Friday Footnote also aims to provides a little 'behind the scenes' insight into life in team ION - whether it's the events we run (or attend), or some of the personal stories of members of the team. It's all about people.

Adam has loved pulling Friday Footnote together every week. Here's to the next 100 editions.  

What's caught our eye this week?

• To make change happen at your organisation, here's the first step to take (TED)
• What science says about having fun at work (Fast Company)
• How to deal with constantly feeling overwhelmed (Harvard Business Review)
• Hot weather: How to sleep in the heat (BBC)
• Eight business books to challenge your thinking (MIT Sloan Management Review)
• 'Traditional' businesses exacberating recruitment stuggles (theHRDirector)
• You don't need to get in someones face. Here are 5 other ways to manage conflict and create change (Fast Company)
• 5 practices to help remote teams minimize confusion and maximise innovation (TED)
• Have your say on the new Innovation Strategy for Wales (Welsh Government)

Latest news from Team Bangor

The latest Bangor University Business School came out this week. You can check the full newsletter out here.

The newsletter features a chat with our recent alumni, Dave Faragher at Wild Horse Brewery, who discusses his ION experience, and also an interview with our very own Katy Roberts (pictured right), who as well as delivering on our programme, also runs her own tourism business - practicing what she preaches. 

Practicing what we preach 

This week was the last of our 5 week team sessions with DISCSimple. DISC is a personal assesment tool used by more than 1 million people every year to improve teamwork, communication, and productivity in the workplace. If focuses on individual patterns of external, observable behaviors and measures the intensity of characteristics using scales of directness and openess for each of the four styles. 

In the final session we discussed how we will continute to use DISC going forward, both individually to challenge ourselves, and also as a team to improve the effectiveness of the team, and also discussed the various stages of relationships - both persoanlly and professionally. 

Huge thanks to DISCSimple for the sessions. The ION teams in both Bangor and Swansea look forward to continuing to use DISC in the future.   

Become an extraordinary leader with ION

For over 11 years we have supported leaders at all levels to become extraordinary leaders. Whether you are just starting your leadership journey, or want to freshen up your skills and learn how best to implement the latest thinking, strategies and best practice into your business, we have a programme which meets your needs. 

We currently run 2 tailored leadership programmes; ILM Level 3 New Leaders programme, and an ILM Level 5 Leading Growth programme. However, we are coming towards the end of our current funding cycle, so there are limited programmes scheduled to take place. We know that everyone says 'time is running out'. But in this instance, it really is.

You can find out more about upcoming programmes on our Course page. However, if our programmes don't 100% meet your requirements, get in touch with Adam on ionleadership@swansea.ac.uk to arrange a chat to find out how we can work with you to develop extraordinary leaders in your organisation.

Missed previous #FridayFootnotes?