73. COMEBACK – Andy Lancaster – CIPD – sick leave for surgery – preparing your team for your absence – re-crafting your role – three elements of phasing back

My guest today is Andy Lancaster who took three months leave for planned eye and shoulder surgery from a job he loves at CIPD Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. We count CIPD among our clients and love working with them.

Andy champions and leads the vision for innovative workplace learning and has been at the heart of CIPD's transformation to digital and self-directed learning, with its professional development opportunities now accessed in over 180 countries. 

He has more than 30 years’ experience in learning and organizational development in a range of sectors and has a research Masters' degree in instructional design. He regularly speaks at conferences, writes, and contributes to research in evidence-based learning. His award-winning book “Driving Performance Through Learning” is published by Kogan Page and he is currently working on a new book on social collaborative learning called: “Organizational Learning Communities” which is due out in 2024.

In this episode:

• How to prepare for leave as a leader of a big team.
• Why being vulnerable is good for us and the people we lead.
• Coping with brain fog and pain management.
• Three aspects of returning to work: the physical, the mental and the social.
• The unexpected good that can come out of sick leave.
• Why we shouldn’t rush to pick up exactly the same job we had before we went on leave.
• The difference between being resilient and being a hero (and why none of us should be heros).

MORE FOR YOU

• DM Jessica on instagram @comebackcommuk
• Get Caremail (free, every other Sunday at 7am)
• Read Mothers Work! How to Get a Grip on Guilt and Make a Smooth Return to Work by Jessica Chivers.
• Watch five coachees talk about working with us
• Connect us to your HR team - bring the Comeback Community™ employee experience to your workplace