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Rachael Woods
Regional Trainer, Specsavers
Rachael brings 17 years of training experience - having worked with organisations like EE, Orange, Specsavers. She has successfully managed and delivered high-profile events and won awards as a TV Presenter.
- hr
- coaching
- education
- marketing
- chatgpt
- sales
- teamwork
- persuasive
- conversation
- active
- listening
- judgement
- and
- decision
- making
Meet the mentor
Tricky Workplace Situation Handled
- Self-motivation (especially with increased working from home responsibilities) Leadership Communication - multi channel Teamwork Problem solving Able to work under pressure Time management Adaptable/flexible Resilience
- I was working on an event which had very tight deadlines, and sadly the individuals who were initially responsible for looking after the communications plan let us down with only 5 weeks to go until the event. Luckily I had some previous experience in communications so I was asked to take over. I had 1 week to set up a comms plan, which would create excitement and a count down to the main event. I used my skills on imovie and all the information I had collected about the event and the people we wanted to attend to create an exciting video and some weekly count down GIFs to share with our intended audience. The result was that we saw a 20% increase in attendance to our previous events.
- I found myself in a situation where two of my colleagues were both coming to me about issues they had with each other, my mission was to try and establish the underlying issue and encourage them to speak to each other about it rather than using me as a sounding board. In order to do this I asked them both some open questions to get them thinking about the situation from the other persons perspective, as well as getting them to think about the value of giving and receiving feedback. As a result one the individuals reached out to the other to discuss and they were both able to discuss and share there feedback with eachother. They now have a much stronger working relationship and in turn it has created a much more open and accepting work environment where feedback is given and received much more effectively.
- I had a colleague who was very agitated about the change in roles and responsibilites on a project, which I could completely understand. I had to try and help them understand the changes in situation so that we could continue the project in an effective way to support the outcome whilst being sensitive to their needs. In order to do this I shared my understanding of where they were coming from on the situation whilst helping them to understand and see the benefits of the changes that were happening, and how it was a positive outcome of their hard work. The end result was that the project was added into a much larger piece of work which would support and help the business further and the people working on the project were assigned new roles, some of which linked into the previous project work.
- Keep a note of the more challenging situations you face in your day to day role and how you overcame them as you never know when they maybe useful, and try to keep them in a STAR format for future reference. When preparing for an interview consider the role that you are going for and they kinds of challenges you may face and think about similar experiences you may already have faced and how you overcame them, the behaviours and attitude towards your approach is very important as this shows how you work through challenging situations.
- Be well prepared; Prepare some experiences in the STAR model - Situation, Task, Action, Result to help you feel at ease and prepared so you feel a bit more relaxed. Decide what you are going to wear to the interview in advance and make sure it is something you feel confident in and something they conveys the impression you want to make for the role/business you are applying to work for. Example what you might wear to an interview with Google might be different to what you might wear for an interview with Coutts bank. Breathing exercises to help with your posture and the way you speak and help to get you in the right mindset. Arrive early - plan your journey to the interview location to make sure you have time to relax and get into the right headspace.
- Positive - Eye contact, smile where appropriate, nods to show understanding and listening, good posture, well presented. Less desirable - Over smiling, too many nods, too much eye contact at times can seem intense.
- What is not being said verbally is as important as what is being said. If their isn't a correlation between the tone, words and the body language it could indicate there is a non-truth being said. During an interview the interviewer is trying to establish the interviewee's previous experience, evidence and knowledge from what they are telling you, if what they say doesn't mach with their facial expression or body language it could indicate that they are not confident about what they are telling you and therefor it could be fabricated or untrue.
- 1. Firm grip but not too firm 2. Shake from the elbow 3. Each person is only using one hand to shake with.
- A genuine interest in what the other person has to say, asking relevant questions to prob for a deeper understanding of the situation and what part the individual had to play to see how their behaviours could be applicable to the role they are interviewing for.
- In an interview situation I would rate myself at a 9 or a 10 because this is such a crucial time for the business to make sure you recruit the person who demonstrates the most appropriate skills, knowledge and attitude for the role.
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- Personally in order to get the best out of an interview for the person being interviewed and the person interviewing, it is key to making sure you have everything well prepared in advance, a quiet and appropriate interview environment, where possible the ability to have a second person to assist with interviewing to help with note taking so you can focus solely on your active listening. Where this is not possible take notes and take small pauses to summarise and make sure you have captured all the key information with opportunity to ask further information. Any notes taken and captured must be fact and not based on your bias or opinion of that person. Try to keep your notes clear and concise. It can be useful to write some additional questions in advance so that you can focus on what is being said rather than what question you are going to ask next, but try to maintain a natural conversation flow to get the best out of the person you are interviewing. Remember they are probably nervous and this is an unnatural situation, and you ultimately want to get the best out of them.
Tricky Workplace Situation Handled
- Self-motivation (especially with increased working from home responsibilities) Leadership Communication - multi channel Teamwork Problem solving Able to work under pressure Time management Adaptable/flexible Resilience
- I was working on an event which had very tight deadlines, and sadly the individuals who were initially responsible for looking after the communications plan let us down with only 5 weeks to go until the event. Luckily I had some previous experience in communications so I was asked to take over. I had 1 week to set up a comms plan, which would create excitement and a count down to the main event. I used my skills on imovie and all the information I had collected about the event and the people we wanted to attend to create an exciting video and some weekly count down GIFs to share with our intended audience. The result was that we saw a 20% increase in attendance to our previous events.
- I found myself in a situation where two of my colleagues were both coming to me about issues they had with each other, my mission was to try and establish the underlying issue and encourage them to speak to each other about it rather than using me as a sounding board. In order to do this I asked them both some open questions to get them thinking about the situation from the other persons perspective, as well as getting them to think about the value of giving and receiving feedback. As a result one the individuals reached out to the other to discuss and they were both able to discuss and share there feedback with eachother. They now have a much stronger working relationship and in turn it has created a much more open and accepting work environment where feedback is given and received much more effectively.
- I had a colleague who was very agitated about the change in roles and responsibilites on a project, which I could completely understand. I had to try and help them understand the changes in situation so that we could continue the project in an effective way to support the outcome whilst being sensitive to their needs. In order to do this I shared my understanding of where they were coming from on the situation whilst helping them to understand and see the benefits of the changes that were happening, and how it was a positive outcome of their hard work. The end result was that the project was added into a much larger piece of work which would support and help the business further and the people working on the project were assigned new roles, some of which linked into the previous project work.
- Keep a note of the more challenging situations you face in your day to day role and how you overcame them as you never know when they maybe useful, and try to keep them in a STAR format for future reference. When preparing for an interview consider the role that you are going for and they kinds of challenges you may face and think about similar experiences you may already have faced and how you overcame them, the behaviours and attitude towards your approach is very important as this shows how you work through challenging situations.
- Be well prepared; Prepare some experiences in the STAR model - Situation, Task, Action, Result to help you feel at ease and prepared so you feel a bit more relaxed. Decide what you are going to wear to the interview in advance and make sure it is something you feel confident in and something they conveys the impression you want to make for the role/business you are applying to work for. Example what you might wear to an interview with Google might be different to what you might wear for an interview with Coutts bank. Breathing exercises to help with your posture and the way you speak and help to get you in the right mindset. Arrive early - plan your journey to the interview location to make sure you have time to relax and get into the right headspace.
- Positive - Eye contact, smile where appropriate, nods to show understanding and listening, good posture, well presented. Less desirable - Over smiling, too many nods, too much eye contact at times can seem intense.
- What is not being said verbally is as important as what is being said. If their isn't a correlation between the tone, words and the body language it could indicate there is a non-truth being said. During an interview the interviewer is trying to establish the interviewee's previous experience, evidence and knowledge from what they are telling you, if what they say doesn't mach with their facial expression or body language it could indicate that they are not confident about what they are telling you and therefor it could be fabricated or untrue.
- 1. Firm grip but not too firm 2. Shake from the elbow 3. Each person is only using one hand to shake with.
- A genuine interest in what the other person has to say, asking relevant questions to prob for a deeper understanding of the situation and what part the individual had to play to see how their behaviours could be applicable to the role they are interviewing for.
- In an interview situation I would rate myself at a 9 or a 10 because this is such a crucial time for the business to make sure you recruit the person who demonstrates the most appropriate skills, knowledge and attitude for the role.
- Personally in order to get the best out of an interview for the person being interviewed and the person interviewing, it is key to making sure you have everything well prepared in advance, a quiet and appropriate interview environment, where possible the ability to have a second person to assist with interviewing to help with note taking so you can focus solely on your active listening. Where this is not possible take notes and take small pauses to summarise and make sure you have captured all the key information with opportunity to ask further information. Any notes taken and captured must be fact and not based on your bias or opinion of that person. Try to keep your notes clear and concise. It can be useful to write some additional questions in advance so that you can focus on what is being said rather than what question you are going to ask next, but try to maintain a natural conversation flow to get the best out of the person you are interviewing. Remember they are probably nervous and this is an unnatural situation, and you ultimately want to get the best out of them.
