Last week Primeast were delighted to support Women in Nuclear for the sixth year running providing a series of free workshops to support the Nuclear Skills Festival 2021.

Not only was it an opportunity, as always, to engage first hand with a fantastic community of men and women who are passionate about their sector and the work they do but who are also deeply committed to the advancement of skills, careers and opportunity for all.

Are you ready for the future?

The theme this year was focused on getting ‘future ready’and presented a number of firsts for everyone. These included the challenge and opportunity of converting a very popular annual conference to a digital platform and the chance to reflect on how the experience of the last year has shone a light on what’s needed right now and the skills we all need to ensure we’re future ready.

Primeast designed 4 workshops for the event which focused on 4 key areas in response to the theme for this year’s event and it was lovely to see so many join us on the session - even with cameras on!

You’re on mute!

Simon Tarver, Director, facilitator, coach and specialist in teamworking at Primeast, explored how the changing working environment over the last year has impacted on inclusivity during a time which has seen many changes to how we interact, communicate and connect as not just employees, but also as friends and family members. 'You’re on mute' has become one of the most heard phrases over the last year and not only have we all had to refresh our communication skills in response to changes in the way we work but we’ve had to think about how we can build trust in virtual teams, how we can ensure socialisation in a diverse and remote workforce, and how we can support each other in testing times where our mental health, resilience and sense of belonging has been pushed further than we might ever have experienced. Much of the Simon’s work in the last year has been focused around supporting leaders to develop the skills needed to lead virtual teams and creating the conditions for team members to thrive by learning and adapting to new ways of working.

Leaders Create the Weather

On Tuesday we were joined by our colleagues Beth Williams, CEO of Primeast North America and Amy Wilczynski, both experienced and accredited Leadership Circle™ coaches. They guided participants through the process of beginning to understand their strengths and opportunities when it comes to their own creative competencies and reactive tendencies. A practical session, we began to understand the impact of our own behaviour and began looking at the kind of ‘weather’ we wanted to create and how we could do that to create the best conditions for our teams to achieve their best performance.

Connecting with Purpose

Because purpose matters now more than ever, hosted by Russell Evans, CEO of Primeast and an experienced and highly focused facilitator and coach to senior leadership teams, working in highly regulated sectors including energy-related, automotive, finance and pharmaceutical. Purposeful leadership is a subject close to Russell’s heart, having worked with organisations for thirty years helping them to shift from the traditional leadership approach to a more creative, growth mindset approach. Russell encouraged participants to consider their own purpose and how that aligned with the organisation’s purpose, provided some practical exercise to guide them through the process – giving them the language and tools to be able to start having conversations with their teams that will help them focus on what really matters for them, their contribution to the organisation’s purpose and how they can align for improved performance.

In the last year purpose and values have been strong, recurring themes for leaders as they have sought to navigate their teams through such uncertain and ambiguous times. Such complexity has forced leaders to respond with agility and to draw on their own resources and emotional intelligence to be able to provide the support, direction and vision needed to give teams the necessary confidence and purpose to their efforts.

Russell employed the PrimeFocus™ model as a framework for discussion, with participants invited to complete the PrimeFocus™ self assessment prior to attending the workshop. The framework is often used by the team when designing customised leadership programmes or bespoke interventions focusing on developing purposeful leaders of culturally aligned and engaged teams.

You’re pushing my buttons

The last year has caused many to re-evaluate not just their own responses to the events of the last year but also how their leaders and organisations have responded. This has led to an increased focus on not just our own values and behaviours but also that of the organisations and leaders we work with. Understanding our own values and those of our teams helps leaders understand the behaviours that play out as a result. Martin Carver, Partner and Director at Primeast, led participants through a series of value-based exercises designed to help us to understand what our own values are and how they impact on our behaviour. With leaders needing to develop the emotional intelligence and 'soft skills' to be able to build stronger connections with peers, team members and their networks, this session proved that self-awareness is only just the beginning. Martin finished the session encouraging participants to start a dialogue around values, to bring it to the table and use the insights to unlock talent and performance in teams. Because understanding values drives positive behaviours which equals improved performance.

One a final note, we’d like to thank the team at Women in Nuclear UK and Marick Communications for the opportunity to share and engage with such a fantastic community. We are always struck by the talent, the passion and commitment of everyone we meet through WiN and love being a part of the journey.

So let’s get ready for the future. It will no doubt continue to be challenging, but at Primeast, we’re here to help you meet it head on.