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Dear Employers, I know you have a lot of priorities including getting your revenue in order, but employees are overstretched mentally during this period. Please be empathetic and flexible while we get over this together. Employers have a duty of care to look after the wellbeing of their employees. These are unprecedented times with work and personal lines blurred.I had a conversation with someone earlier today, she told me she is tired and overwhelmed. Her workload is not decreasing, in fact, she needs to show value at work by exhibiting flexibility and adaptability skills.She’s home-schooling her kids, managing her work while dealing with the regular home front responsibilities. I agree this can take a toll on mental health. I shared some tips with her: Discuss with her Line Manager for flexible working hours: She can start her workday a bit later, so she can home school her kids in the mornings. Use all the support available: If not physically going to the stores will save some couple of hours, why not take it, and use that free time to catch up on pending work tasks. I told her to take few days off work to refresh. Meditation: This can help increase productivity. How are you dealing with stress and fatigue? Please share

In as much as I have seen people switch jobs and increase their income during this season, I will not pretend that I live in Mars and do not know that some have suffered reduction in compensation while some have been laid off. While I don’t know the best way to ask for support in job search especially during times like this. I do know some tips that can make your message stand out: Please be specific – Summarizing your message, adding a few lines about your value proposition, and going for your “specific” ask all in one shot, will make it easier for the person you are seeking his/her support to respond to your messages. Be patient – We are all feeling some type of way, so yes you can see the person online, but they are not online solely because of you. Exercise some patience and you will probably get a response. If the response doesn’t come in a week, you can send a friendly reminder, if you still do not have a reply. It’s time to move on. Don’t take the NOs personally: Only if you know the person you are asking a favour personally and they owe you, you don’t take it personally if they don’t reply to you. They just might not be in the position to help, and you have to be okay with that. Any tip to add?

I have spoken to highly accomplished young women and 99.9% of them tells me they struggle with imposter syndrome. If you listened to any of my podcast episode, this is a question I ask every guest. I ask with the purpose of getting women to own up about this feeling, share their coping mechanism so others can learn from it.. Remember when someone tells you: Wow such a lovely pitch you gave out there or you nailed that presentation but you are afraid to internalize your achievement and you reply with — Oh no it was nothing, yet you didn’t sleep for 3days to finish the presentation and it meant EVERYTHING to you… (That is a sign of Imposter Syndrome) There are ways to deal with this unworthy feeling, some of it include the realization that: Everybody is a work in progress: if it makes you feel better, the queen of England also sufferred from it. It sincerely made me feel better to know. Be kind to yourself. Remind yourself of the work you put in. Surround yourself with positive people. Anything to add? As we begin this week, remember to bring your authentic self to the workplace and everything in between… Show up with the real YOU. Ask questions if you don’t know. I always say: there is no stupid question anywhere.. Ask for support if you need it: No, it wouldn’t make you seem weak but open to learning.. Your stakeholders can spot a #copy from afar.. Fake it till you make it approach is a wrong advice. I won’t take it, you shouldn’t either. The workplace is getting increasingly competitive, crossing ethical lines and doing all sorts to get ahead seems like the order of the day, but I will say: Owning your skills. Showing up 100% with your competencies. Continuous self development. Remaining true to your values. Are still top on my list for maintaining authenticity in the workplace. Be yourself: Everybody else is taken – Oscar Wilde Anything to add?

As the world prepares for another #worldmentalhealthday This year has generally been a tough one even for the people that did not experience a job loss, income reduction or lose a loved one. The social isolation, anxiety and fear of catching the virus itself can take a toll on our mental health. It’s our responsibility as business leaders and stakeholders to create a safe space in our organisations for employees battling mental health challenges. We need to spur processes/environments that enable them to be unashamed to speak UP without the fear of stigmatization or backlash. As we encourage them to speak up, we also need to consciously strive to provide them with all the required support, some examples that comes to mind are: Providing anonymous employee assistant programs. Therapy sessions that respects confidentiality. A toxic free organizational culture. I say to anyone struggling with mental health challenges: Asking for help is the first step to recovery. I may not know how it feels but I sure know how to CARE. You do not need to do it alone. On that note: I am also going to take a day off social media, to just BEATHE and take care of myself. How do you plan to spend the weekend? Let me know in the comment session

Stereotype and bias shouldn’t have a place in our workplace, community and society. All day, everyday I commit to challenge and call out bias. Studies has shown that over 2.2million women left the workforce in 2020 while the male counterpart were not that impacted. It will definitely take another very long shot to recover from that kind of disproportionate impact. So today, I call on decision makers to be reminded not to only make the workplace ‘conducive’ for women but pledge to support the advancement of more women at the decision table. We need more women in those decision ROOMS.. We can start by: Stopping the subtle corporate discrimination against women. Normalize genuine support for women career advancement without secretly helping them calculate how many times in their career lifespan they will go on maternity leave.

Disruption to the traditional education methods or are you imagining what the hiring process will look like in the coming years? For me, it’s all of the above. The world is changing and evolving, and so is the world of work and the requirements for getting certain jobs. For instance, what would it profit a young graduate after graduating with an accounting degree but cannot use any accounting software? The world of today is in need of practical solutions and that is why people who can provide these solutions are sort after. This is the reason I encourage young Africans to develop relevant skills that can set them apart and prepare them to compete globally. A university degree is fantastic, get it while you can. It can give you a head start in your chosen career. But you know what they say about hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work? Now more than ever, the advancement of technology has made it easy for people to get jobs regardless of whether they have a degree or not. The world is getting skilled up, do not be left out! What was your first thought reading this?

Collaboration amongst virtual teams seems to be a daunting task for most organizations. I don’t particularly blame them, this is one of the many challenges we have all dealt with at different stages in our work-from-home or new hybrid work patterns. I find having smart tools to be an effective way we have deployed in my own organization to foster collaboration among our teams. In addition to this, crystal-clear communication will take the lead. There is nothing clearer than having business goals clearly defined, assigned, and communicated to employees. This will block out any uncertainty, and allow employees to direct their own work. Know who, when, and how to collaborate efficiently. Turning on videos: As simple as this sounds, I have found it useful. It is my own simple trick of ensuring I remain in the present and collaborate in real time with my team. What are the mechanisms for collaboration in your own organization? Feel free to share…

I see a lot of you struggling with interviewing. This is why personally when I am recruiting, I just tell the candidates, I am inviting you for a chat 😊 relax and let’s just talk… In this article, I have shared 5 tips that can help you better prepare for interviews… Know yourself. As one of the women I love dearly used to say, “to thyself be true.” Know about the role. Know about the company. Know their industry. Know their competitor: Take them to school about what their competitors are doing and let them go green with envy. 😅 Prepare stories around your strength that will allow you answer any questions no matter the angle. Practice, practice… Switch on your confidence game and go impression them!! I know there are many interviewing tips, please add yours…

The workplace culture is evolving very rapidly. This is partly attributed to the fact that there are 3 active different generations present in today’s workforce. Each generation has a very clear difference in what attracts, motivates and retains them.. Intentionally designing and controlling an organization culture is very paramount to the sustainability of every organization. A toxic workplace culture is enough to shut down the motivation of its employees among other things. Studies have linked a toxic work culture to have a negative effect on the psychological well-being of employees. As HR Professionals and Business Leaders, we must strive to ensure our org culture is: Conducive. Give room for learning and growth. Encourage creativity. Empathetic. Life is already pretty complicated. Let’s not add a toxic work culture to the reasons employees can’t sleep at night. Have an amazing week…

I love that the gig economy is growing. As progressive as this article sounds, for me it doesn’t address the real issue. Women shouldn’t be forced out of the workplace because they have to take the brunt of an unplanned pandemic or for having to be the gender that needs to babysit. I don’t want the gig economy to grow at the expense of women being out of the workplace because organizations failed to be flexible and make effort to retain more women in the workplace. Business Leaders and HR Professionals need to make the workplace more conducive for women to thrive in it, not out of it. Flexibility is good, I live for flexibility but what if women want that in the workplace as full-time employees? I know it’s a bit of a touchy topic, so I am open to reading more diverse views on this.