Hi, I’m Jo Miller!
If I were to fit in a box it would probably say HR professional, but I don’t like boxes and neither do the people I love to work with.
My passion is talent and people.
I use my experience, skills and qualifications in HR, coaching, facilitating and teaching to bring bespoke solutions to innovative business owners and their teams.
I truly believe that within your business your people are everything. They are your business.
They represent your brand and take care of your customers every day. I can help nuture them and create a workforce of ambassadors for you and your mission.
Where I began
I’ve spent a lot of my career working in recruitment in the public sector. I loved that what I was doing contributed directly to the quality of lives in my community. It was fast paced and exciting. Recruiting Police Officers, Firefighters, Social Workers, I knew what we were doing was so important and genuinely making a difference.
Burning out as a leader
The organisation I was working for was going through a lot a change and I was excited to be leading that for a long time, but it took its toll and I found myself exhausted and lost.
I wish I knew then what I know now. But, the experience of burning out in this role helped me to understand what leaders need.
Learning more about leadership through teaching
I started a new role teaching and assessing for Apprenticeships, focusing on management and leadership programmes.
It was in this position I was able to understand at a deeper level what made a great manager (and equally what made a poor one) and how this leadership impacts on the whole team.
It felt amazing to help people develop their skills and confidence to manage, knowing what a difference that would make to everyone.
What I loved about this role was the lightbulb moments I saw other people have.
You know, when something you’re talking about suddenly makes sense to someone else. You see their face light up and they are so grateful to see things in a new light for the first time. I was having so much fun!
Feeling restricted
Eventually I realised that delivering qualifications wasn’t for me.
It came back to my dislike of ticking boxes.
Sticking to the criteria was just too restrictive.
I wanted to be able to explore all the questions and issues the learners had that were specific to their circumstances but there wasn’t enough time.
So I went on a mission to make time to make a bigger difference.
Stepping up as a leader to lead others
That’s when I decided to set up my own business; Talent Connected.
I wanted the flexibility to be able to work with businesses and leaders to really understand their situation and find solutions that worked for them.
I still believe that qualifications have their place but Talent Connected is about giving people tangible skills and techniques that are relevant to them that they can put into practice and start achieving results straight away.
Designing solutions that work for you
I now work with business owners who, like me, don’t want to tick boxes anymore.
Who, like me, want to work more doing what they love and spend most of their day using their strengths.
Who, like me, felt restricted working within set criteria and wanted to break free to make their own rules.
Who, like me, long to see progress, justice and positive change in the world.
We are stronger together.
So let’s step up to the challenge and lead.