Dealing with ‘difficult people’ is an energy sapper for everyone. Trouble is… we can sometimes walk into an invitation to a dead end interaction without realising it. How do we get sucked in to these human black holes? Transactional Analysis Game Theory can offer some...
Wouldn’t life as a manager be so much easier if everyone in your team was the same, so you could treat them all the same way? Unfortunately, managing people doesn’t work like that. Participants often tell us that one of the hardest things about being a...
Say you have an issue that requires a change in behaviour from an employee – how do you know when they’ve really ‘got it?’ How many times have you discussed a necessary change with a team member, where they have looked you in the eye and...
Like many, my first performance management experience was not a good one! It was an excellent lesson in how NOT to manage a performance conversation…I worked in the head office of a well-known jewellery retailer and my mid-year review was managed by Emilia* the HR...
You’ve just had an initial conversation with a new client who is the head of service within a medium sized organisation… the initial meeting went well, you established your credibility (using the techniques outline in our earlier Developing Credibility blog), you’ve gathered information about the...
You’ve prepared your presentation, you know your subject, you’ve even rehearsed it in front of the dog (but he wasn’t interested). So, why are you still having nightmares about what could go wrong? When I work with groups to develop their Presentation Skills, I always ask...
Does your role involve you helping senior managers make effective business decisions? Have you moved from being a specialist 'expert’ to working alongside managers in a more consultative way? Is there an expectation that you need to be operating as a Business Partner with your internal or...
With so many differing views on leadership, how are you supposed to make sense of what you should be doing as a Leader? What do you need to do to get it right? If you want to know how to get it right, read on… To start with,...
Do you ever put off having those ‘difficult’ conversations? Is it because you: … don’t want to upset people … find it hard to use the right words … wonder how they will react and if you’ll cope? Do you want a straightforward, memorable, tool to help you prepare for...
What a WASTE OF A DAY! Back to back meetings and most of them either a waste of time or totally disorganised!! Now I’ve got my day job to do! Does that sound familiar? Do you get frustrated by poorly managed meetings? If there’s one thing I’ve learnt...