Leadership: why effective change management requires a new leadership structure
Most people say they love to change but hate doing so. In order to facilitate effective change, leadership teams need to step up and be the change they want to see. Change is constant in business life. No longer can people or organisations prepare for change, make a special effort then return to previous norms. […]
Tuesday Insight: Treat me like a child and…
I’ll behave like one. One of the most useful tools for reviewing behaviours, particularly our own, is perhaps Transactional Analysis. It’s a beautifully simple model that learners can grasp quickly and easily relate to. In very simple terms, it identifies behaviours we adopt as Parent, Adult or Child. Parent behaviour can be Controlling or Nurturing, […]
A diversity of strengths
How much do you earn? Is that a personal question and perhaps none of my business; well now I’m going to ask you an even more personal question which is what do you personally bring to your organisation in return for which they pay you a wage. It only started last year but already April […]
Marketing teams: getting the mix of people right
What’s the most important role of a senior marketer? To bring on board and develop a marketing team with the right mix of skills for driving forward the most valuable areas of the business. Twenty-first century marketing is suffering from a skills crisis. The sector is confused about its priorities – a well-justified focus on […]
Mindfulness for trainers: posture as a management tool
In part four of this content series on how to become a mindful trainer, Kay Bucky, facilitator at Facilitator at The Mindful Trainer, explains how posture can be the key to kindness and softness when faced with stressful situations at work. It is so easy to get overwhelmed by a stressful situation. Often, I facilitate […]
Learning at work: can procrastination ever be a good thing?
Procrastination is often viewed as a negative thing – an obstacle to effective working – but that’s because many people aren’t doing it right. Done properly, procrastination has the potential to actually make your work better. In our ‘always on’ world, we have super-fast internet, time-savings apps and intelligent tech that helps businesses streamline processes and cut […]
Trainers’ tips: how baseball players’ ‘deliberate practice’ can improve your training technique
Has your sales training hit a curveball? Here’s what trainers can learn from baseball’s art of ‘deliberate practice’. Learning and development organisations face the challenge of more training with less budget and, as a result, sales veterans and higher end performers are often left out of L&D plans in order to address more pressing issues like onboarding […]
How to become more proactive and less reactive
Being a proactive person isn’t just about getting things done, at its heart it should mean taking affirmative action within strategic parameters. Most people, if you were to ask them, think of themselves as being pretty proactive. We have so much choice, information and freedom now, coupled with a strong sense of individuality. We operate within that cozy bubble […]
People management: four steps to avoid relationship breakdowns in teams
In high-pressured work environments, relationship breakdowns sometimes happen. Here are some ways managers can bring teams together to avoid this. Undoubtedly project delivery, especially within digital, has the potential to create stressful environments. With new groups of people working towards tight, non-negotiable deadlines, and long hours that drain and deplete energy levels, this environment is […]
Social Media, Hate and Us
This isn’t the blog I intended to write this week, but on Friday we heard the terrible news of the terrorist attack on a mosque in New Zealand and, once more, the role of social media in our society was brought to the fore with the absolutely appalling news that the massacre was being live […]
It’s healthy to be scared of public speaking
Amazingly, 75% of people are scared of public speaking. And most of those people do it anyway! As the CEO of Motivii, I’ve given hundreds of presentations & I often hear people mention that I must not get worried or nervous about presenting nowadays. But here’s the the thing… I do! I still feel slightly sick […]
Five golden rules for effective mentoring
Mentoring schemes are increasing in popularity, with that in mind Julia Wilkinson highlights the need for a more structured process to match the right people together. The idea of using a wooden horse to break the siege of Troy reputedly came from Odysseus, king of the Greeks and hero of Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey. Before leaving for the […]
How to help your team overcome self-censorship
In order to encourage employees to open up at work, managers need to lead by example. Only in this way can organisational cultures change for the good of everyone. Vulnerability. It gives me the confidence to let go, build trust, embrace conflict and allows everyone in a team to share our individual truth. I was […]
Time for a chat?
Have you noticed how communication, even between friends, can become a minefield of miscommunication, indecision, confusion, indecisiveness and decision avoidance? Take the modern process for arranging a night out with a friend: It might begin with a simple text along the lines of “How are you? It’s been too long!” But how quickly it descends […]
Why your creative employees are more likely to be risk-takers
According to the World Economic Forum: “Five years from now, over one-third of skills (35%) that are considered important in today’s workforce will have changed.” However, it also states that: “Creativity will become one of the top three skills workers will need.” In the most popular TED talk of all time, Sir Ken Robinson delivers a powerful […]
Training the mind: a new fitness regime for the workplace
Reducing stress in the workplace requires a major cultural shift. Companies that give people the confidence to express themselves and encourage a positive working environment will thrive. Stress is a huge issue in business today. The cases of mental illness and depression continue to rise and in today’s pressurised and bottom-line centric world the problems associated with […]
How to harness emotional intelligence in a multigenerational workplace
The modern workforce represents a cross section of multigenerational attitudes. So it’s essential to find commonality in human experience and explore the potential of emotional intelligence. We’ve all heard many ways in which the economy was, and still sees, impact from the notable population numbers of Baby Boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964. It’s been nearly a decade […]
How to successfully manage different personalities
One of the biggest challenges in business is managing people, so understanding how to handle different personality types is an important factor in successfully delivering projects. For a project manager, at their best their team will be collaborative and work together with an understanding of one another’s skill set. At the most challenging, the team will […]
Mindfulness: learning to live in the moment
In part one of this content series on how to become a mindful trainer, Kay Buckby, Facilitator at The Mindful Trainer, explores how beneficial the meditative practice can be for learning and development professionals. I have used mindfulness for 15 years now, and in December 2018 I completed a one year programme to facilitate the eight week […]
Debunking the emotional intelligence myth
Getting to grips with your emotional intelligence may be easier than you think. It just takes an open mind and self-belief. Think of a time when you were in flow. Either on your own, or in a group or team. One of those times when things just seemed to happen really naturally and easily. When you […]
