Presentation skills: take a deep breath and drop the corporate mask
Connecting with an audience in a business setting isn’t just about content – it’s about being able to bring your authentic self to the room. To get better at giving presentations, we first need to look within ourselves. In a corporate training room in London, an inspiring space with lots of natural light, creative décor, […]
Conflict management: how to be generative rather than destructive
There’s only one organisation that I have worked with, where people had physical altercations in the office. That doesn’t mean that the other organisations don’t have conflict – it just means that they enact that conflict differently, often in ways that are equally destructive. What I more often see is weaponised gossip, arguments about technical […]
Five ways to build confidence in your audience
Training is a two-way interaction, so winning the confidence of the room is crucial for every trainer. How do you build confidence in your learners? Make them feel like they matter and you care – it’s that simple… So many trainers are focused on delivering their content, to the detriment of the learning process. Of […]
Five ways to have better conversations
While technology and management styles have been transformed over the past hundred years of working together in formal environments like offices, our ability to have ‘good’ conversations is stuck in the past. It’s important because businesses don’t just depend on the quality of their people – they depend on them communicating. Workplaces continue to involve […]
Video: How to deal with bullies in the workplace
In this video, Zenna Atkins, former Chair of OFSTED, shares her experience of being bullied and offers advice to anyone being intimidated in the workplace. “Back in about 1990 I set up an organisation with a board. It was a very small organisation working with young homeless people. And the chairman of the board was bullying me. He would […]
Feedback: the gift that keeps on giving
Many people feel uncomfortable giving feedback, but establishing a strong feedback culture is essential for a healthy work culture and, ultimately, for business success. Feedback – it’s a hot topic across all industries and it’s key for a business to progress and for employees to act effectively and develop. There are many ways to give feedback, using […]
Peak productivity: powered by culture & technology
Today’s leaders have a responsibility to invest in technologies that drive engagement and implement inclusive policies. This will help ensure company culture is aligned with the collaboration solutions they employ. Enterprise leaders also need to understand the unique differences across their workforce in order to empower every worker to do their most effective and productive […]
Soft skills: the four cornerstones of a great conversation
I believe that the most important things that happen at any organisation are conversations. They are the reason we innovate, collaborate, sell, lead, coach, change, succeed, or fail. A salesperson who struggles to have meaningful customer conversations, a leader who is misunderstood when implementing strategy, or a manager who prefers to avoid coaching conversations are […]
13 Qualities of Effective Career Conversations
It’s a sad fact that people can often identify memorably bad career conversations more easily than effective career conversations. Particularly if one was of significant positive value to them Like that time at the end of a not particularly glowing performance appraisal when your boss asked you where you wanted to be in 5 years. […]
Creating a culture that values learning: how to avoid training cancellations
Participants cancelling their attendance at training sessions is not only inconvenient and costly, but it often points to a larger problem in the way an organisation approaches learning. Here, we look at the key issues and how to overcome them. Executives in your company say, ‘we must get management training going on this organisational change straight […]
Mindfulness for trainers: the practice of deep listening
In part six of this content series on how to become a mindful trainer, Kay Buckby, Facilitator at The Mindful Trainer, explains why being able to truly listen to others is an essential skill for teaching. How many times do you have a non-conversation with someone? I heard one at lunchtime: Friend 1: “Hi, how […]
Learning culture: the benefits of continuous learning at work
How can you create and nurture a learning culture in your organisation and secure buy-in from your team? Businesses are now recognising the need for workplace learning and are creating more opportunities for continuous development, leading to better performing employees and higher performing teams. Unfortunately, with the ever-increasing pressures on business to meet deadlines and […]
Should we be talking about a learning culture or a business improvement culture?
For L&D to truly have a transformative impact on learning culture, perhaps a shift in the language we use is needed. It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m having a relaxed cuppa with a friend who also works in learning and development. We’re chatting about an upcoming gathering of fellow L&D professionals – the second meeting of […]
What’s aspiration and what’s bullying?
There’s a thin line between a high-performance workplace with high expectations and an organisation poisoned by bullying. It’s a line that’s getting thinner with the intensification of 21st century working (via IT, always on working and use of performance targets). As Amnesty International has found in recent months, getting the balance wrong has serious consequences. […]
Questioning Skills Exercises/role plays.
Hi, I know it's a bit of an old one this, but I'm going to be running some half-day sessions with some recruitment people who need to enhance their questioning skills as a means to understand their client's needs. I need to get them to be asking questions – a lot – in order to […]
Learning culture: why evidence-based L&D is more successful
Communicating the impact of L&D is about gathering the right evidence, using it to connect with the C-suite and creating actionable insights. Sadly, very few organisations are getting this right. Only one in five organisations manage to create a high-performing learning culture, according to Towards Maturity’s latest market insight, and of those that do, only two […]
Learning culture
How to ensure team members are all on the same page
Communication breakdown can quickly spiral among team members when the heat is on to meet deadlines and targets. How can project managers and team leads ensure smooth working relationships that lead to successful projects? Most project managers will experience times when it feels like their teams don’t understand them. This tends to occur when chaos […]
The art of persuasion: the new top skill needed by employees?
What’s now the most desirable quality among employees? According to the latest global LinkedIn data on job opportunities and what employers are asking for from applicants, it’s the skill of persuasion. ‘Persuasion’, though, is often seen as being more like manipulation and lies. The kind of dark art used by sales people to pressurise customers into […]
Learning at work: how to persuade stakeholders and employees of the importance of continuous learning
On Learning at Work Week 2019, we look at some of the common impediments and objections to implementing training in the workplace and how L&D professionals can overcome them and secure buy-in from management and employees alike. A robust learning and development programme is a cornerstone of every successful organisation, especially in the current unpredictable business […]
