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. […]
How defensive behaviour can cost your business
Have you ever been in a meeting where people’s behaviour creates an atmosphere that just isn’t productive? Or chatted on the phone to a customer services adviser and the person on the line just doesn’t want to help you? Creating the right climate between people within an organisation can increase business productivity by 22%; research we’ve […]
The algorithm for finding your Self-realization
What is a success, and how to achieve it? Despite the fact that written and said a lot, each of us goes its way to the goals. It’s not always easy, not all elections are obvious. We want to help you find yourself and give you the most useful advice on how to achieve your […]
5 ways to generation-proof your business
Ugh, Millennials. *Eye roll*… Understanding Millennials – or more accurately, emphasising the differences between generations – is big business. And of course, it’s more of a headline-grabber to make it a tribal thing. It’s a case of divide-and-conquer. But the more diligent research studies show that we have more in common than we might […]
The Gamification of Learning
“My friend came to stay this weekend and we were talking about work; she said she really hated training days until they got a new trainer in. She was telling me about a game they’d played, with the new trainer. It turned out to be Hold the Front Page!” What a fantastic email to get […]
Driving process improvement through learning
In the third article of our series looking at how learning professionals can deliver on five key business outcomes, Laura Overton, CEO and founder of Towards Maturity, provides insights into how the most successful organisations are fine-tuning business outcomes. As learning professionals we are regularly asked to use technology to help fine-tune the learning process. […]
Leadership traits: real leader don’t makes excuses
As a businessman, you should be a real leader in your business. Exceptional leaders maintain optimum between business premonition, performance and character. They have vision, quality, uprightness, humility and focus close by the ability to plan purposely and catalyze cooperation among their team. Various leadership qualities have been recognized that are important to great leaders […]
