Three Keys to Building World Class Professionals
To get the most out of your workplace, you’ll want to focus on empowering your employees, rather than just having them fulfill your objectives. By taking the time to sit down with them and truly understand what makes them tick, you will have the opportunity to get the most from them in the long run. […]
Video: Dealing with difficult people
In the Clear Lessons video featured below, Zeina Bain suggests trying to work out what makes people tick, so you can work with their personality rather than against them. “Having looked at the different types of people I’ve worked with, typically senior CEOs, or chief financial officers, I’m always trying to figure out what makes […]
360-degree feedback for leadership development: what are you practising?
The idea is simple; it enables people to give and receive honest feedback and to develop greater self-awareness, which will (hopefully) lead to a positive shift in behaviours, in the direction of greater leadership skills. I say hopefully, because there’s no evidence that such a shift in behaviours occurs. It is at its best, when: […]
A Guide to Building Successful Sales Pros
When you are trying to take your company to the next level, it’s vital that you build superstar employees. This is especially the case if your company specializes in sales. By sticking to the tenets of sales that will allow you to grow your revenue, you will be in an excellent position to thrive throughout your […]
How to Make Your Employees Networking Machines
When you’d like for your company to continuously grow and thrive with new opportunities, it’s important to remember that you’re only as good as your least employee. You need to take your employees to “hunt” and be enterprising in how they go about their business so that they can continuously bring in new sales and […]
Video: Treat your employees like grown-ups
In the Clear Lessons video featured below, Julian Wilson describes working for Apple in the 1980s and how their inclusive, ‘grown-up’ approach has influenced his management style ever since. When walking into the Apple office in the mid ’80s one day, Julian Wilson noticed no familiar faces – everyone on reception and the switchboard was new: […]
5 Tips For Promoting Workplace Learning
When you need to make the absolute most out of your company’s presence, there are always some key strategies to execute. The best thing that you can do for yourself is build capable employees that understand how to get more positive visibility to the company. When you nurture your employees in this regard, you will have […]
Creating Marketing Savvy Brand Ambassadors
When you need your company to thrive, it’s important that you master branding. The best way to do this is by building a quality marketing foundation by training your employees to be brand ambassadors. By teaching your professionals how to conduct themselves in this way, they’ll help your company grow its profile as a whole, […]
Behavioural change: why growth mindset is not simply a training course
Nurturing a ‘growth mindset’ has become de rigueur in L&D circles, but many businesses are failing at it due to a fundamental misunderstanding of the core principles. Here’s how to embed the growth mindset in your organisation. The idea of having a growth mindset (i.e. the belief that you can develop your intelligence) is a popular one. […]
How Freelancing Introverts Can Find Connection
The work of a freelancer is exciting and dynamic; you don’t know what the day is going to look like, and, most of the time, you don’t know what the weekly or monthly paycheck is going to look like, either (though this can certainly not be exciting. I feel fortunate to experience the best of both […]
Networking and Winning
For a couple of weeks our television was dominated by the European Athletics Championship. This was not necessarily my choice, but it could have been worse – in our household we managed to completely avoid the national obsession with Love Island! What struck me most, watching the athletics, was the friendliness of the games. Time […]
7 Ways To Cultivate Innovation In the Workplace
Implementing organizational innovation can seem like an arduous process. In a fast paced work environment, expediency often takes precedence over restructuring. But in a world that’s growing ever more competitive, innovation is a must. Finding a fresh approach can strengthen your workplace culture, ensure the quality of your products, and ultimately lead to greater profits. […]
3 Essential Guidelines to Hire a Diversity Officer
Diversity has been a prime focus of many organizations for the past 20 years. However, the discussion started heating up more than ever over the past year. Google engineer James Damore created controversy when he released his memo on biological differences between male and female employees last summer. This drove more organizations to evaluate their […]
4 Ways to Build Web-Savvy Employees
Your company relies on its ability to stay relevant in a Web 2.0 world. Because of this, it’s up to you to lead the charge in maintaining strong web presence and operating with the most effective practices. In the process, it’s vital that you train your employees to do the same. When you want your […]
Nine ways to grab and keep your learners’ attention
Holding learners’ attention is a bit like performing a magic trick. You need to get them to buy into the illusion before doing your big reveal. Here are some techniques to help capture – and keep – your learners’ attention. You may have read the scary headlines about the fact that the average human attention […]
Leadership: how can we solve problems so everyone wins?
Good leadership isn’t about imposing your worldview on those you manage; often it’s about being able to resolve conflict effectively. Here are some tips for more positive problem solving to ensure everyone feels like a winner. When there’s a problem that needs solving in a working environment, the temptation is for people to pick a […]
Professional development: the team is dead but we still need to engage employees
Traditional team structures have dissolved. In their place, we have more a more complex organisational matrix, which presents challenges for professional development. For a long time, activities like dropping teams off cliffs or challenging them to cross a river using only a pile of pallets and some baling twine was what was expected of team building […]
Bringing success home
In a profound way England’s success at the 2018 World Cup is all the greater for them not having come home with the trophy. Had they done so all the commentary would have been about the win; endless TV appearances showing off the trophy, managing the weight of expectations in respect of the next tournament, […]
Soft skills: Why playing it safe with non-verbal communication is a bad idea in business
Before we even open our mouths to speak, others are forming opinions of us based on our non-verbal communication. Despite this, many leaders are still getting it wrong when it comes to the signals they are giving out to their teams. Non-verbal communication, for example your body language, facial expressions and posture, can all influence […]
The art of nonviolent communication
We all do it every day: connecting. We are all busy with connecting and we are proud of it based on the many hits on Google, LinkedIn profiles, and in missions, visions and core values. But in daily practice, both in the working environment and at home, we are unwittingly more dividing than connecting. The […]
