In a year of political unrest, ongoing uncertainty and continued culture wars it is important to make time for positivity. Far from burying our heads in the sand, in the wake of businesses slashing headcounts and cutting DEI budgets, creating space to self-reflect is an important and essential task when it comes to prioritising progress.  

The IPA’s Stepping into the Spotlight event began with Leila Siddiqi, Director of Diversity and Inclusion at IPA, underlining the importance of positivity, hope and uplifting one another. The Stepping into the Spotlight series aims to empower and offer success strategies for mid to senior-level people at work. The programme runs  a series of workshops and training throughout the year, designed to give individuals the space to consider their own goals.

The varied event featured a session from coach, Sally Henderson on the importance of ‘pushing into the do’, a keynote from Sue Unerman and Kathryn Jacob, Co-Authors of A Year of Creativity on the importance of finding new ways of thinking and a panel session chaired by Nicola Kemp, Editorial Director at Creativebrief, featuring Chloë Davies, Founder and CEO of It Takes A Village Collective and Ivana Kosorok, Managing Partner at Publicis London, providing practical insights on how to shape a better workforce.

Overcoming fear

As a High-Stakes Leadership Mentor, Sally Henderson is well-versed in helping leaders master the ‘how’. Yet she explained that often real success lies within the ‘how’ and in the fine-tuning of getting things done well.

In a world where 79% of women report feeling under qualified compared to their male colleagues and 52% of women feel a lack of confidence when stepping into leadership roles it is clear that female leaders still face specific barriers.

Henderson strives to equip both men and women with the practical confidence they need to achieve success. For Henderson, Her strategy is rooted  in unpicking some of the common barriers that people feel in the workplace such as setting boundaries, putting your own needs first, managing up and saying no. She also has a disdain for the phrase ‘imposter syndrome’, as she feels it gives people a reason for feeling lesser. Instead she urged the audience to think of it instead as ‘fantasy fear’.

In her interactive session Henderson asked the audience to dig deep and self-reflect on their own worries in the workplace. She then asked the audience to think about the emotions attached to these worries. By understanding these emotions and reframing them to channel fear into success, new perspectives open up new opportunities. Yet, Henderson notes that being honest with ourselves about these fears and emotions is one of the hardest things to do.

Creativity is a muscle

“Creativity is a muscle, and that muscle needs to be exercised,” says Global Chief Strategy Officer Brainlabs.

Sharing insights from their newly released book ‘A Year of Creativity’, Co-Authors Sue Unerman and Kathryn Jacob, stressed the importance of finding new ways to be creative for better performance in life and at work.

Unerman and Jacob’s book explores 52 smart ideas for boosting innovation at work for times when logic and data need to be shaken up with creativity.

While data and logic are often the foundations of work, sometimes the best ideas are the ones that are unpredictable. Leaning on football for her analogy, Unerman says sometimes we need to simply: ‘stick it in the mixer’, kicking the ball into the box to see what happens rather than following a uniform play that is predictable and repetitive.

Pointing to the example of ‘Barbenheimer’ as a non-logical example of creativity that shook up the cinema industry last year, Jacob stresses that sometimes two things that shouldn’t work together, like Oppenheimer and Barbie, just do, without rhyme or reason.

‘A Year of Creativity’ includes different methods for creativity such as ‘random link’ which requires you to take a random object and link it to the problem at hand to encourage out-of-the-box thinking. The methods help improve creativity and make things more fun. Encouraging people not to get caught up in the monotony of the everyday, Unerman and Jacob advocate shaking things up a little.

True leadership is a work in progress

A panel session chaired by Nicola Kemp, Editorial Director at Creativebrief, featuring Chloë Davies, Founder and CEO of It Takes A Village Collective and Ivana Kosorok, Managing Partner at Publicis London rounded off the day. The trio discussed the importance of consistency, inclusivity and community to create a better workforce.

Underlining that progress should always come over progression, Kosorok opened the discussion by reassuring the audience that: “You are never perfect, you always think the next level will be easier but more knowledge comes with more doubt”. Yet, while challenges continue at every level, Kosorok urged the audience to strive for progress and not be paralysed to do nothing by the size of their challenges. “It’s not good enough to think good is enough,” she added.

Ultimately, the best workplace cultures are created by leaders who strive to do their best. For Davies, consistency is key. She urges businesses to have a moral compass and stick with it, being intentional about what their views are and standing by them 100% of the time to attract the talent that shares in their goals. She believes that this consistency is what builds culture over time. “Anyone can create culture but sustaining it and embedding it is hard,” says Davies.

She points to the fact that post-covid people's expectations of the workplace have changed. Time is particularly important and people don’t want to ‘stick it out’ anymore. Employees are more emotionally connected to their time and want to work somewhere they feel valued.

For Kosorok, psychological safety is key to building culture. “People need to be empowered to play a role,” she says. As a yogi, living between the inhale and exhale has allowed her to embrace empathy and be open about having conversations about once-taboo subjects like hormones in the workplace.

This theme was brought to life further by Davies as she shares that speaking about her ADHD has led to improvements in places she has worked. With partners making little changes like changing light fixtures or provided fidget toys, which make a huge difference. An experience which underlines that being honest and speaking out helps to make positive change for all. Finding people that support you, building community and investing into people long-term helps to create a workplace built on human culture.

Embracing the joy in thinking differently, working to build a consistent culture and reflecting on the emotions that drive change are essential in shaping an industry where there is space for us all to step into the spotlight.