When you’re planning to chair a meeting, how do you feel? Excited, anticipating the energy that will flow around the room, buzzing with the ideas that people will come up with? Or dreading it, hoping that you can cancel it, and get on with something…
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Time is a precious commodity, and it is especially so in working life. Managers unanimously complain that they don’t have enough time in the day to effectively manage their teams, handle their workload and attend to customers. (more…)
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Although it is impossible to pinpoint the one thing that sets apart a great manager from a mediocre one, there are clearly different skills, ideas and opinions that set apart effective leaders from ineffective ones. The question that we get asked the most in our…
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The answer to the question above is of course no but I like to think of management training as a bit like wearing leathers and a helmet when riding a motorbike. They won’t stop you crashing but they will offer a level of protection far…
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Collins English Dictionary describes ‘soft skills’ as ‘desirable qualities for certain forms of employment that do not depend on acquired knowledge: they include common sense, the ability to deal with people, and a positive flexible attitude’. Certainly, the connotation is that someone who has common…
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You’ve decided that two candidates for an important role in the department should be invited back for a further interview. Both have similar experience and backgrounds…both would fit in well with your team. Here are some questions that might help you differentiate between them. “You…
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Being able to communicate effectively is one of the key components that make up the great manager’s portfolio. Without excellent communication, even a good manager will fail to progress the business because of the need to keep momentum through communicating the vision and objectives. (more…)
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There’s a very interesting TEDx talk by RosaBeth Moss Kanter on leading positive change, and I’ve noted six keys to change that she mentions, along with my thoughts as to their application in the world of business and leadership: (more…)
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You’re sure to have come across different coaching models in the coaching skills training that you’ve attended in the past. They all help you to achieve goals with your team, and allow you to get more involvement from people in making decisions and solving problems.…
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Many managers face the dilemma at times of what to focus their valuable time on when it appears that everything is urgent, everything is important and nothing can be delegated to anyone else. This predicament can have many repercussions on managers’ time and effort, as…
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Why is it so difficult to get my people to take full responsibility for results? This was a question one of my consultants faced when he was working with a client recently. (more…)
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Praise and recognition have often been stated as a key motivational practice for many people. Why? Because being recognised for doing a good job strokes our ego, builds on our self-esteem, creates goodwill between the two people, develops self-worth and makes our self-confidence do a…
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