Have virtual meetings made our meetings worse?
An increasing proportion of our meetings are virtual – through tools such as videoconference, conference calls, WebEx and Skype. As the number of tools proliferate it is becoming increasingly clear that meetings’ facilitators often lack the skills to plan and run re-engaging virtual meetings. Meetings are essential to effective collaboration and decision making and, as […]
Training Importance in an Organisation
Training, in Reality, is the basis of successful Management since it makes workers more efficient and effective. 1- Benefits of standardization: The methods of manufacturing are standardized throughout training. All trained workers follow same techniques and techniques of manufacturing and consequently there may be little variation in standards and output made by different workers. By […]
How to design a development programme for managers of remote teams
Some companies have embraced location-independent work and it has become a part of everyday life, without a single reference to “remote” or “virtual”. On the other hand, some organisations have found themselves making a very deliberate and fast transition to “remote work”, “flexible work” or “agile working”, which all involve working with others with whom […]
How to be digitally mindful: achieve productivity wins and still stay with yourself
Today the digitally-driven professional fights with a conflicting concern for our mindfulness and for a holistic treatment of self and wellbeing. These personal and role tides seem at odds. With my own daytime desperately digital and yet a mindful reading list (accompanied dutifully by gorgeous candle!) by the bed, it occurred to me that the […]
Developing leaders in the digital environment
Is it possible to develop leadership skills effectively in a virtual environment – or is face-to-face delivery really the only way to equip managers with the high level skills they need to meet the challenges of leading in an increasingly complex business environment? There has been much debate in recent years over this question. As companies […]
Training online communication: 4 methods
Nowadays, everything can be done online. Even training! With the use of online instruction, you can train your physical fitness or do memory games, for instance. The same goes for the training of communication skills. Study material is always available in an online environment and you can get started wherever you want. Managers will be […]
The art of flattery – are you doing it right?
Can I just say, I absolutely adore that outfit you’re wearing today, is it new? Oh, and that story you told me yesterday, it was hysterical, I haven’t laughed so much in ages! That was just a little attempt at flattery, what experts Chan and Sengupta say is the art of offering pleasing compliments and one […]
How to Use Behavioural Interveiwing Effectively
Behavioural interviewing has been around long enough now that both human resources personnel and job seekers are well aware of it. In theory, the premise of behavioural interviewing is quite promising. The interviewer asks a series of questions to elicit a clear picture of how the interviewee performed in previous job situations. Unfortunately, the strategy […]
Measuring *what we do* needs feedback from others
Be Brave… Ask for feedback! The 2 minute video clip above summarises the main reasons why Observer Assessments matter! Why Observers Matter At work, your behaviour is what’s out there on the front line, shaping your interactions and experiences with everyone you encounter. Belbin Team Roles are clusters of behaviour. Each role is made up […]
Smart but silent – Making a career as an introvert
Being an introverted person can produce challenges that the rest of society can’t relate to. And most likely that is why introverts, who are actually most often than not quite intelligent, find it difficult to enter the job market, are bullied at work or are passed up on big promotions. I am not an […]
A Lesson from Dunkirk
Of all the articles written about the new blockbuster Dunkirk, I found this article in the Guardian particularly interesting. It shows how the same situation can look very different when your perspective is changed. In Britain, the mass evacuation of allied forces from Dunkirk is generally remembered as an incredible success; a time of great […]
Emotional Intelligence in business and education
Have you ever, before doing something or taking some sort of action, thought to yourself that maybe what you are about to do is not a good idea? Or maybe it was the opposite – maybe you thought you should have had taken a certain action but chose not to. Later on, you would find […]
Getting people to work better together – what are the stages of successful team development?
Effective team work is the lifeblood of every organisation. Yet my experience is that very little time is spent developing teams that truly work towards a common goal. Most teams I observe are dysfunctional – goals are unclear, there are unhealthy habits such as ignoring team members, bullying disguised as banter, and poor standards of […]
Belbin and Tuckman
Supporting your team at every stage In 1965, Dr Bruce Tuckman was doing ground-breaking work on group dynamics in Ohio. A couple of years later, Dr Meredith Belbin began his seminal research into team behaviours at Henley. Tuckman studied teams from formation to completion of a task and identified crucial stages in a team’s life […]
4 Tips to Make Development work and Training
The year did your company invest in Development and training which failed to supply the results you sought? If worker training classes led to the transport of information for your 20, you’re not alone. Actual employee modification, based on the training Content, is more difficult to demonstrate in organizations. Discouraging? You bet. What’s an organization? […]
Enablers vs Debilitators
The best teacher I ever had was, undoubtedly, Mr Emery. When I was nine, I started my first ‘novel’ and I’ll never forget his enthusiasm and encouragement of my efforts. I wrote three chapters before the distractions of youth and the complexities of writing about the adventures of swallows emigrating to Africa, when I’d never […]
“Organisations could do a lot more to give candidates a better chance to ‘self select’ themselves into the role.”
Lucy Standing is a chartered business psychologist and vice chair of the Association for Business Psychology. She is the founder of ViewVo, a shadowing service that connects those who want to learn what it’s like to do a job with experts in that field. Lucy will be speaking at Learning Live on September 6th and 7th on […]
Over 100 training resources free to download
Loads of free training resources to download from influencing to management; from training admin to training needs analysis. Click here Loads of free training resources to download from influencing to management; from training admin to training needs analysis. Click here
Credit scores: how employers can help employees improve it
With all the big changes in the current political and economic climate, it’s fair to say that millions of employees are feeling a very large and painful financial pinch. In fact, in a survey of over 10,000 employees and 500 employers, 33% of employees said that financial worries are their biggest concern, after health (29%) […]
The debt stigma – how trainers can help
There is a stigma in UK workplaces that employers are rarely tackling, but must. It focuses on the vast levels of debt that millions of UK employees are carrying and which is shown, through mounting evidence, to have a debilitating impact on an employee’s wellbeing, their work and, as a consequence, a businesses’ overall productivity. […]
