Today, February 17^th, is Random Acts of Kindness Day.  The day was started by The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, a non-profit organisation that began in the 1990s in Colorado, USA.

Kindness

Kindness has been scientifically proven to have positive benefits to our health.  It has been shown to decrease pain. stress, anxiety, blood pressure and depression.   And to increase our energy, happiness, oxytocin & serotonin levels and even our lifespan.

The idea behind the day is to pass on feelings of kindness and brighten up someone’s day.

As it says in our name, here at Brighter Directions we always aim to achieve brightening someone’s day And we find that being kind is at the forefront of our work ethos.

Support

From the smallest thing of complimenting each other to bigger acts of support when times are busy and tough.  Being kind is conducive to having the best atmosphere for a healthy work environment.

In truth, compliments are not small things. They inspire a better work ethic and increase productivity, and they take the least amount of effort!

We are a small team here and without supporting each other we would struggle to achieve our goals.  We start small with making cups of tea without being asked, but more importantly we help each other and take on work to relieve each other’s workload as necessary.

Without kindness we would not be able to work as the fantastic team we are!

#RandomActsOfKindnessDay  #MakeKindnessTheNorm

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There’s little doubt that we need to create cultural and social norms that give women the connections and context they need to succeed in all commercial environments. There are still not enough women in leadership roles (nowhere near enough) however, by networking and conversing with likeminded and driven women, to gain/share advice and learn to avoid the mistakes they made. Networking is a beneficial skill. It improves your ability to not only learn from others experiences but to also discover new passion and spark from fellow professionals.

It’s proven that women are some of the most motivational and positive communicators and influencers. A fact we have appreciated first-hand through the many campaigns we’ve been a part of, such as Women In Sales Awards, Enterprising Women and Women In Business celebrations and the tremendous talent showed year on year emerging from businesses, yet, these are still a minority.

Influence is power and power can be gained through asking questions and participation in senior situations. Research shows that men are the loudest in the business meetings, men ask the most questions and men are confident with their communication. In comparison, findings show that women, regardless if more qualified, knowledgeable or experienced across a subject matter, are the ones that take a back seat, and this needs to change.

Women are born communicators. Some insights state that women are more emotional, but instead of this being a negative statement, we need to realise that’s logically the reason why we find it easier to converse at multiple levels, and the ‘emotional’ part of our communication style is used to gain authority and influence, such as inviting others for contribution, using empathy to solidify relationships with colleagues, clients and stakeholders, and bridging the gap between commercial strategy and the people that drive those agendas forward. All of which are significant senior skills.

I’m often asked why we promote ‘women’ so much as an organisation – we are founded by a woman, we are a female-dominated team, we are passionate about the development of women in senior roles, not only across our own organisation but as a wider goal – why?

The answer is simple, because we believe that women (and men) are capable of amazing work, we just don’t shout about it enough, or have the confidence to elevate each other, and quite frankly, we don’t have enough peer support through c-suite to drive this strategy.

One of my many mantras is ‘building others up doesn’t dampen your own success” and this statement is incredibly ardent for women in business.

I was incredibly lucky, that throughout my corporate career, in a very male-dominated environment, I had tremendous backing from incredible female (and male) leaders, manages and colleagues who worked together to achieve common goals and support one another, both in the commercial role and to drive my career progression. A methodology I hope that I have carried through to my business and one that I’m passionate about continuing to push across my industry.

International Women’s Day shouldn’t be about bashing men, (although I admit, sometimes they deserve it!), or putting stoke on the fire to the ‘poor women’ topic – it should be about celebrating diversity and understanding that women do have different challenges and experiences across their careers, but the key is being aware of those and inspiring the females in your organisation to excel and rise, which is as simple as recognising this fact and putting equality at the heart of a business, in reality, it should be an easy fix… but the figures still speak for themselves.

So, instead of the traditional ‘women are great’ posts that will no doubt flood our timelines this week, let’s celebrate by recognising and appreciating the superb women we have across our businesses – shout about how and why they are great, what their achievements have been, what its meant to the business and bottom line – and why we, as business owners are better businesses culturally and financially as a result of being a diverse organisation.

Claire Curzon

MD – Brighter Directions

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Employee appreciation has been around forever in reality, (as some of us older ones will recall), we grew up in an environment of work where we compliment those who have done well, recognise hard-work with a social pint after work, and local businesses give out bonuses for company growth – but has this methodology changed over the years?

Global brand Apple recently announced the biggest trend of 2018 was self-care, and this trend is expected to follow into 2019. Self-care is now seen as an essential part of life and not just a luxury; studies also show the link between mental wellbeing and job performance. This is this is why corporate wellness is such a fast-growing industry with HR and wellness professionals have put together strategies to keep employees happy and healthy.

But are they a minority nowadays, and something that only corporates and larger brands are committed to? We think not…and nor should it be.

To us, who proudly boast our ‘family ethos, ‘caring nature’ and ‘team at the heart of everything we do’, these terms aren’t simply marketing gimmicks and words on a website – they are the values in which we operate.

Well-being of a team isn’t as simple as it was back in the day. Additional thought should be put into new challenges affecting our population, such as financial constraints on a difficult economy, family frustrations as work is both harder to come by, and more necessary, and burnout and stress have become much more apparent in the world of work, at least since I started my career. I’m not saying there weren’t stressful situations when I was c-suite management, because of cause there was, however, I notice that my team also carry ownership and a much stronger investment in how we do business, nurture clients and do the best job that they and we can, and that in turn is obviously going to impact stress levels.

It’s important to let staff take time out to relax and recharge.

Personally, I couldn’t run a  business where I didn’t care about my team, and their well-being, both personally and at work.

There are several ways to do this, depending on your business model, and the people you have within your team. There isn’t a right way to be conscious or implement well-being structures in an organisation, it can be as simple as celebrating pancake day and cooking/ sitting together eating and catching up, NOT about work (as we most certainly will be next week!), through to profit bonus and creating better work environments and cultures, which undoubtedly, all contribute towards a nicer place to work.

Today is a great day to assess your current culture, and how you support your team on the whole. This day shouldn’t just be a day to celebrate; it should be an ongoing methodology of progress to do better.

Lastly, thank you to all my amazing team who every-day does such a tremendous job supporting our clients, and each other – you are awesome!

Claire Curzon – MD, Brighter Directions

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Meet Sahara…

Sahara is one of our most established employees, having joined the company back in 2008 on a Marketing Apprenticeship program – little did we know then that this would be the start of her amazing career with Brighter Directions, she has blossomed into an integral part of our team, leading by example on some of the largest marketing campaigns globally, she now holds a ‘Marketing Manager’ position and manages the digital and social teams directly, as well as providing overall support to the PR & Marketing teams.

Her role;

Sahara directly manages our digital and social media manager teams, consisting of six highly trained and experienced ladies (Natasha, Danielle, Lisa, Melanie, Alicia and Mel), which includes all the strategic management and leadership of all client accounts across our organisation, managing the team directly through motivational management and inspirational team meetings – this is in addition to her day-to-day activities running of her own larger social media accounts across a range of sectors from B2C care through to professional sales alignment and B2B technical campaigns.

Sahara has definitely ‘paid her dues’ in terms of her role, she started with the company and has worked from the ground up, developing and honing her skills, experience and outside of personal social networks has an exceptional understanding of commercial social media she now uses to pass onto client accounts and developing her own teams skills through CPD.

About Sahara;

Sahara is one of the most sociable and hard-working people anyone could ever meet! She is an incredible asset to our company and that of our growing client base, she treats every single one of her clients strategies like it was her own money – and that makes her pretty special.

In the office she is always one of the loudest and honest of our little family, she is the first to encourage people to do their best and expects nothing less in all situations because ‘if she can, why cant you’ is her ethic.

Outside of work, she is a very proud mummy to three loving doggies, Poppy, Bear and Lady as well as an array of other ‘animals’ she loves and cherishes, including a tortoise (who was a boy and now lives as a girl… long story!) and various house spiders and rescued pets like birds and hedgehogs – she welcomes them all in. A ongoing joke in the office is that she actually loves animals more than people and would happily live on a farm in the middle of nowhere with her herd of animals following her around all day!

Some things you may not know…

Sahara is passionate about charity, one particular one that holds her heart dear, #IBDSuperheroes which she founded in 2015 with a group of other volunteers across the country and has been awarded the ‘Pride of Britain’ award in 2016 for raising over £1m pound for Crohns and Colitis charity. She suffers from IBD (Colitis) which has seen her undergo several life-threatening surgeries over the years and loves giving back – but you still won’t see her have a day off work sick!

She is also a massive fan of camping and festivals… the old fashioned ‘tent’ way…

You can read more about Sahara on our MEET THE TEAM PAGE – as well as learning about our other incredible team people.

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At Brighter Directions, we love nurturing new talent and supporting our clients through recruiting the best, most efficient and customer-centric people to add to our team – our recruitment has always been organic; we have grown only due to the fact that our clients demand it.

This organic growth means that, unlike our competitors and other companies operating within the industry, that we have always been fortunate and ‘lucky’ enough to build our team (or our family, as we like to think of them), focused on attitude, aptitude and quality overall.

Due to demand and growth through our creative services, beit creative graphic design, social media graphics or branding, we have been searching for the right person, with the right qualities and skills to join our creative division, so that we can quickly provide the excellent quality we demand for our loyal and superb clients.

It’s with that we welcome our newest addition, Diana to our creative team – Diana will work alongside our incredibly experienced and talented Head Designer Angela to provide complete creative solutions to our clients globally.

Having worked with Diana before through joint-agency working, we have come to know her attention-to-detail, quality driven work ethic and have been amazed by some of the excellent creative imagination she has contributed to some of the worlds most exciting ad campaigns – so we are delighted she has joined our team for more of the same!

I know you’ll join me in welcoming Diana to our friendly team and we look forward to working with you!

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Thank you to a superb Brighter Directions team

It’s not often enough that we see companies putting out heart-felt praises and messages to staff, (and that includes us)! For the most part, internal management is just that – practises and organisation motivational tactics are in place to boost morale and drive productivity – but sometimes it’s just not enough and the world needs to hear about it!

With that in mind, I would like to take this open opportunity to SHOUT ABOUT and recognise the dedication, hard-work and enthusiasm of my outstanding team – each and every one of them has supported Brighter Directions over a tremendously busy few weeks (and every day before and after)!

As an agency, we are often extremely busy (it’s how we like it), but the past month has seen a significant flow in capacity – with international visits and conferences coinciding with UK annual events, many client deadlines, staff holidays, new contracts starting, Christmas campaigns launching  (yes I know!) not mentioning our ‘usual’ operations.

Throughout, my team have consistently and effortlessly focused forward with a big smile and bright attitudes and for that, I want to shout from the roof how proud I am!

On many occasion, my team are approached by recruiters and companies with job offers (some very impressive) – yet I still have an incredibly loyal, dedicated and close-knit team who operate like a family – with the traditional values, ethics and passion for our company and those of our clients.

I often use the word ‘lucky’ when I am out, describing my team – and that’s because it’s truly how I feel. I am blessed. Not only to have a successful and growing company, but I also have an extended family – the team behind our company make the success every single minute of every day and that money will never buy – and for those that try, I will continue to take it as a compliment!

So, from the bottom of my heart – Thank you to my amazing team, without you, we would not have the superb smooth operations and client satisfaction we do – and I am (we are) very lucky!

Love, Claire xx

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