The HR Room Podcast

We tend to think of procrastination and productivity problems at work as issues of motivation, discipline or time management. But what if the real barrier preventing someone from getting started is emotional?

In this episode of The HR Room Podcast, Dave is joined by Brendan Mahan, internationally recognised ADHD coach, host of the ADHD Essentials Podcast and author of Overcoming the Wall of Awful, to explore why people can sometimes find seemingly straightforward tasks incredibly difficult to begin.

Brendan introduces the concept of the “Wall of Awful” – the emotional barrier that can develop between us and tasks we've previously struggled with. Built from experiences of frustration, disappointment, guilt, shame and failure, that wall can make simply getting started feel exhausting. 

The conversation explores what this means in the workplace, particularly for managers and HR professionals dealing with performance issues, neurodiversity, procrastination and burnout. Brendan explains how changing the conversation from “Why aren't you doing this?” to understanding what's making the task difficult can create a safer and more productive route towards solving the underlying problem.

Guest
Brendan Mahan — Internationally Recognised ADHD Coach, Host of the ADHD Essentials Podcast & Author of Overcoming the Wall of Awful

Topics include:

How difficult experiences and emotions create barriers around particular tasks

Why recognising and naming those emotional barriers can make them easier to overcome

How managers and HR professionals can use the concept when addressing performance issues

Why neurodivergent employees may encounter more – and bigger – “Walls of Awful”

The workplace behaviours associated with ADHD that managers can easily misinterpret

Brendan's five ways people respond to the Wall of Awful

Why “smashing through” tasks using anxiety or anger can contribute to burnout

How body doubling, music and changing your emotional state can help you get started

How high-pressure and “hustle” workplace cultures can make burnout more likely

Why compassion, dignity and psychological safety matter when someone is struggling

Key Takeaways for HR

Don't immediately interpret difficulty as a lack of motivation.

Depersonalise the problem.

Look at the employee and the environment.

Be careful about cultures that reward constantly “pushing through”.

Create enough psychological safety for people to solve the problem.

Put the problem on the other side of the table.

About Brendan's Book
Brendan's book, Overcoming the Wall of Awful, is available to buy now. You can also hear more from Brendan on the ADHD Essentials Podcast.

Get in Touch
If you're not already following us on LinkedIn, we'd love to connect with you.

If you have suggestions for future podcast episodes, or would like to appear as a guest on The HR Room, contact Dave Corkery at dcorkery@insighthr.ie or connect with him on LinkedIn.

About The HR Room Podcast
The HR Room Podcast is brought to you by Insight HR, where we speak with HR leaders, legal experts and workplace specialists from across Ireland about the issues shaping the future of work.

If you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with colleagues or friends.

We're always keen to hear your feedback and suggestions for future episodes.

For immediate HR support, contact Insight HR on 056 770 1060 or email info@insighthr.ie.

Training and development can be a powerful tool for improving performance, but not every performance problem is a skills or knowledge problem. Sometimes what an employee really needs isn't another course or LMS module – it's clearer expectations, better feedback, coaching or simply an honest conversation.

In this episode of The HR Room Podcast, Dave and Mary Cullen are joined by Ann Halloran, Talent & Learning Development Professional and author of Helping Others Learn in the Workplace, to explore how managers and HR professionals can distinguish between genuine learning needs and wider performance issues.

Together, they discuss why managers can be too quick to reach for training as a solution, the importance of properly diagnosing the cause of underperformance, and why avoiding difficult conversations can allow relatively straightforward issues to become much bigger problems. They also explore what makes workplace learning genuinely effective, how managers can help new skills stick after training, and what organisations can do to create a stronger culture of continuous learning.

Guests
Ann Halloran — Talent & Learning Development Professional | Author, Helping Others Learn in the Workplace

Topics include:

How to tell whether poor performance is really a training issue

Why managers sometimes use training to avoid difficult conversations

Taking a diagnostic approach to performance problems

Ann's RIPPLE framework for designing effective workplace learning

When performance issues may require a structured performance improvement process

The role of mentoring, peer learning, coaching and reflective practice

How organisations can create a genuine learning culture

Why developing managers is central to improving employee performance and engagement

Key Takeaways for HR
Diagnose before you prescribe. Before recommending training, establish what's actually preventing someone from performing. Training won't solve unclear expectations, poor motivation, workplace conflict or a manager's reluctance to address an issue directly.

Training doesn't end when the course finishes. Managers play a critical role in helping employees transfer learning back into their day-to-day work through reinforcement, accountability, encouragement and ongoing feedback.

Don't ask employees to self-diagnose. Giving people access to a large library of LMS modules isn't the same as identifying their development needs. Managers need to be actively involved in understanding where performance or capability gaps exist.

Sometimes the answer is a conversation. If someone has the ability to perform but isn't doing so, another training course may achieve very little. Clear, specific and timely feedback can be far more effective.

Invest in your managers. Direct line managers have an enormous influence on how employees learn, develop and perform. Organisations that want a genuine learning culture need to equip managers with the communication, feedback, conflict management and performance management skills to support their teams effectively.

About Ann's Book
Ann's book, Helping Others Learn in the Workplace, is a practical guide designed for managers and trainers who are responsible for helping others learn but may never have been taught how to train effectively themselves. It is available to purchase here.

You can get the free checklist we mentioned in the podcast here.

Get in Touch
If you're not already following us on LinkedIn, we'd love to connect with you.

If you have suggestions for future podcast episodes, or would like to appear as a guest on The HR Room, contact Dave Corkery at dcorkery@insighthr.ie or connect with him on LinkedIn.

About The HR Room Podcast
The HR Room Podcast is brought to you by Insight HR, where we speak with HR leaders, legal experts and workplace specialists from across Ireland about the issues shaping the future of work.

If you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with colleagues or friends.

We're always keen to hear your feedback and suggestions for future episodes.

For immediate HR support, contact Insight HR on 056 770 1060 or email info@insighthr.ie.

The relationship between employers and employees is changing. The era of the "job for life" has long since disappeared, but so too is the more recent model where organisations sought to become a source of identity, community, purpose and even care for their employees. With AI accelerating change, economic uncertainty increasing and the balance of power shifting once again, the psychological contract between organisations and their people is being rewritten.

In this episode of The HR Room Podcast, Dave and Mary Cullen are joined by Deirdre Donovan, HR Strategist & Speaker, to explore what this means for the future role of HR. Drawing on more than 25 years of experience, including roles with Diageo and Meta, Deirdre argues that HR now has an opportunity to move organisations away from paternalism and towards a more mature partnership with employees.

From the rise and retreat of lavish employee benefits to return-to-office mandates, AI, job security and changing expectations around workplace culture, the conversation examines why HR may be more important than ever. Rather than simply managing processes, HR has a critical role to play in helping employees make sense of change, building organisational capability and creating honest, adult-to-adult relationships between employers and their people.

Guest:

Deirdre Donovan — HR Strategist & Speaker

Topics include:

Why the traditional psychological contract between employers and employees is changing

How we've moved from the era of the "job for life" to a much more uncertain employment relationship

Whether organisations went too far in becoming a source of identity, community and care for employees

How the war for talent transformed employee expectations and workplace culture

Why return-to-office mandates have tested trust between employers and employees

How AI is changing jobs, skills and the role of HR

Why HR needs to help employees make sense of rapid organisational change

The move from workplace paternalism towards a more mature partnership with employees

Why honest, transparent communication becomes even more important during uncertainty

How HR can build the skills and capabilities organisations will need for an AI-enabled future

Key Takeaways for HR Leaders

The psychological contract has changed. Organisations need to be realistic and transparent about what employees can expect from the employment relationship.

HR should aim for an adult-to-adult partnership with employees, built around clear expectations, frequent feedback, dignity and honest communication.

AI will change many jobs, but that makes human skills such as communication, judgement, empathy and leadership even more important.

HR has a vital role in sense-making — helping employees understand change, translating organisational priorities and ensuring communication flows effectively throughout the business.

Organisations shouldn't simply use AI as an opportunity to reduce headcount. Its greater potential lies in augmenting work, removing administrative burden and enabling people to focus on higher-value activities.

Treating employees with dignity, respect and transparency during good times makes organisations better equipped to navigate difficult periods of change.

Rather than making HR less relevant, the AI revolution could make HR one of the most pivotal functions in helping organisations successfully navigate the future of work.

Get in Touch
If you're not already following us on LinkedIn, we'd love to connect with you.

If you have suggestions for future podcast episodes, or would like to appear as a guest on The HR Room, contact Dave Corkery at dcorkery@insighthr.ie or connect with him on LinkedIn.

About The HR Room Podcast
The HR Room Podcast is brought to you by Insight HR, where we speak with HR leaders, legal experts and workplace specialists from across Ireland about the issues shaping the future of work.

If you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with colleagues or friends.

We're always keen to hear your feedback and suggestions for future episodes.

For immediate HR support, contact Insight HR on 056 770 1060 or email info@insighthr.ie.

This week, we are republishing one of our most popular episodes from The HR Room Podcast. This episode was first published on Jun 27, 2023. 

Across the month of July, we’ll be talking all things performance management, looking at best practices, employer stories, new approaches and common challenges. So to round off June, and set us up for next month, we’re going to discuss one of the most obvious performance challenges for HR teams and employers everywhere, managing underperformance. How do we manage an employee who is performing poorly, how can we help, what are our obligations, and what are our options?

And to talk to us about this on episode 124 of The HR Room Podcast, we’re delighted to be joined by Liam Barton, Senior HR Consultant here at Insight HR.

 

About The HR Room Podcast

The HR Room Podcast is a series from Insight HR where we talk to business leaders from around Ireland and share advice on how to create the HR systems and workplace culture that's right for your business.

For show notes, go to www.InsightHR.ie/Podcast. 

If you need any HR support in Ireland, get in touch with us at Insight HR.

Whether it's conducting a complex workplace investigation, filling a gap by providing you with a virtual or an onsite HR resource, or providing advice via our HR support line, as an expert HR consultancy in Ireland, we'll help you resolve whatever Human Resources challenge your business is facing.

Visit us at www.InsightHR.ie.

For the next two weeks, we will be republishing some of our most popular episodes from The HR Room Podcast. This episode was first published on Oct 8, 2024.

 

Today, we're diving into one of the more challenging and often nerve-wracking aspects of HR—managing a workplace disciplinary hearing. It’s a process that, when not handled properly, can lead to unnecessary stress, strained relationships, and even legal challenges.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. 

So, in this episode, to guide us through these complex procedures, outline best practices, common pitfalls, and how to ensure fairness and transparency throughout the process, we’re joined by our very own Joe Thompson, HR Consultant here at Insight HR. 

 

Chapters

00:00 Understanding the Disciplinary Hearing Process
06:30 Common Pitfalls in Disciplinary Hearings
13:14 The Importance of Structured Policies
19:53 Employee Rights and Obligations
25:53 Maintaining Impartiality in Disciplinary Processes
32:51 Key Takeaways for Conducting Fair Hearings