The Latest Bulletin

A much-needed resource in these pressurised times. Keeping pressures within manageable limits is a very demanding undertaking in these modern challenging times. This manual provides important practical guidance eon managing pressure and keeping stress at bay. Essential reading for all busy practitioners and managers.

Twitter: Follow Neil Thompson on Twitter

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Many times I have heard some people try to justify bullying behaviours by describing oppressive practices as ‘strong leadership’. In reality, using bullying tactics is a sign of a lack of leadership. A leader is someone who shapes a culture and creates an atmosphere where people want to do well, where they want to be part of a team that works well – they do not need to be coerced or intimidated into doing what is required of them. They feel they belong to an important endeavour and are pleased to be part of it. Bullying is a sign that leadership skills are lacking or that the person in a leadership role has failed to grasp what leadership is all about.

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Ensuring every older person is treated with dignity as a unique individual

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I’m not quite ready to hang up my boots just yet, but I am now very definitely in the final phase of my career, so I wanted you to be aware of what that means in terms of any interest you may have in my work or my services.

I am no longer providing face-to-face or live online training, although I will be speaking at the occasional conference and special event. My work now has four main elements. First, I am continuing to write and I have a number of books in the pipeline, as usual. The second is that I remain active in producing online courses. That includes our annual subscription service that offers a total of 60 courses, plus new programmes of learning that I am developing around leadership and workplace wellbeing. The third element is that I am involved in some consultancy work with a company called Vigoroom. I have been aware for quite some time of the major challenges in the workplace around stress, health and wellbeing and staff turnover. Vigoroom is a service that offers excellent resources to help with these problems, and I have been pleased to have some of my work included on the platform. I genuinely believe Vigoroom can make a positive difference. And, finally, I am currently a visiting professor at the Open University. This is an honorary position that is mainly advisory.

I have produced a document that goes into a lot more detail about what I hope will be my legacy as I steadily work towards retirement. That document plus an article that explains my approach to stress and workplace wellbeing (a key factor in relation to recruitment and retention) can be downloaded from: https://neilthompson.info/neil-thompson-resources/

It’s all about people: visit Neil Thompson’s humansolutions website

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For the first time, the only time, everyone on Earth was in the same boat at the same time. We’ve long been divided by privilege, by caste, by accidents of birth or by organized hierarchies. Sure, there have been events that struck us all at once. Landing on the moon caused us all to gasp simultaneously. But this time was different. Regardless of class or age or nationality, the situation was right there, in front of our face. And it didn’t go away in a few news cycles.

But the responses, of course, were not the same. Some profiteered and hoarded, cutting the line and seeking a profit, regardless of the cost to others. Some embraced panic while others sought to fan it. Some showed up asking for help while others decided to see who needed help. And that’s the first lesson of our pandemic.

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A Career in Social Work: Part biography, part overview of social work careers

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Many of the people we see have mental or physical health problems, or have issues with drug or alcohol use. Sometimes people face a complex mix of these factors, on top of more difficult family backgrounds than most. Many people who become homeless had traumatic experiences during childhood. Sometimes it was sexual or physical abuse, other times it was an unstable environment, such as moving between foster homes. For some people, these experiences put them at risk from an early age. In fact, some people we work with say that their early experiences led them to become dependent on drugs or alcohol while still in their teens.

Research that we carried out in 2013 showed that 43% of people who slept rough for the first time had problems with alcohol or drug use. For some people that was a contributing factor to them becoming homeless; for others, it was a symptom of trying to cope with other problems that they faced.

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The Authentic Leader A new approach to leadership in Neil’s important book.

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Connect with Neil online

LinkedIn: Connect online & join Neil Thompson’s HUMANSOLUTIONS discussion group

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