How writing a children's book has helped inform my corporate work: Jo Smedley

The Girl with a Big Heart, however, is ten stories about the importance of being yourself and it’s primarily aimed at children.

I wrote it as a response to transition that was happening in my own life and to the increasing levels of social inequality and disconnect being experienced by children and young people.

Fast forward just over a year and it’s now published and out in the world.

There has been a book launch; I’ve talked about it at events; and there’s an audio book version for future release.

Overall, the reception has been wonderful, and it’s a huge privilege to know my book was in lots of stockings this Christmas.

There’s no question that the way I dealt with getting the book out into the world was informed by my 20-plus years of commercial experience.

What I didn’t expect when I embarked on this journey, however, was for the book to positively impact the work I do with executives.

Not only have I had interest in the book from the corporate teams I work with, but I’ve also found that writing the book has given me fresh insights into supporting people to be themselves. In the conversations I’ve had, what has struck me is that it is not only children who are feeling disconnected.

The business world is moving faster than ever.

Advancing technology is an incredible advantage in so many ways but we also know we’ve quickly become hugely dependent on it and that most of us spend too much time staring at screens.

This has impacted our relationships with the people around us and the most important relationship of all: the relationship with ourselves.

In business, this can show up as lack of empathy in departments or teams, team members not understanding their own value, and a culture that includes low levels of employee wellbeing and high levels of burnout.

I have been asked if I would eventually like to become a full-time author.

But I think giving up either my commercial or creative life would be to the detriment of whichever one was left standing.

It is so rewarding to support people who want to make a big, positive impact and I have no desire to pull back from that.

Writing The Girl with a Big Heart and seeing it go out into the world has only served to underline even further how important it is that people are better able to see the incredible potential they hold inside themselves.

Whatever their environment, nine times out of ten it will be a person’s own creativity that proves to be the most effective route to understanding that. And whether that realisation is from a small person under the Christmas tree or a larger person on the edge of burnout, the results can be magic, every time.

Jo Smedley is co-founder of Zest Learning and author of The Girl with a Big Heart.