It’s likely that a huge proportion of your working day is spent communicating with others, either verbally or in writing, be it text, email or social media. When we communicate verbally, we have lots of choices about the communication tools we use to say our piece. ...
How often do you attend presentations and find that the slides pretty much contain the presenter’s script? And you think to yourself “You may just as well have emailed it to me and I wouldn’t need to be here”. What about presentations where the content seems...
I am convinced that once you get to a certain level of competence as a leader and manager, the remaining development potential you have is all to do with developing your self-awareness and self management: coaching is the ideal vehicle for addressing this. If you, and/or your...
We all know it’s a good thing to have a development plan but, when it comes to executing it, are you taking the steps to ensure that the learning takes place and actually sticks? Maybe you’re a manager who goes through the process of development planning...
Do you feel that you're getting through a lot of work but are not really moving forward? Many managers feel like this because they try to become more efficient rather than focussing on how they could become more effective. To become more efficient (doing things right)...
Organisations will often have values about always treating customers and colleagues with respect but sometimes, in the cut and thrust of the real world of work, this can seem like a big ask…When the going gets tough, what helps us develop this attitude without being...
“The Pitch” has gained increased recognition recently as Lord Sugar’s Apprentices are required to pitch their ideas in a way that ensures theirs stand out from the crowd! So, what is a Pitch? Do you have one? Does it get your message across effectively and efficiently?...
You ask questions in many different scenarios; so whether you’re trying to assess someone’s suitability to do a job, explore how a project is progressing, establish reasons for a performance issue or delve into someone’s career aspirations…. Do the questions you ask help you get the...
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...
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...
As you know, it’s not just what you say that matters, it’s the way that you say it! With so much written about interpreting body language, how are you supposed to know what’s right? Professor Albert Mehrabian's research provides the basis for the widely quoted and over-simplified...
When you give feedback, do people act on it? Do they welcome it? Do they do more of the things that go well? Do they adapt their behaviours to do less of the things that aren’t so helpful? There have been many situations when I’ve had...
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...
There are many opinions on what it takes to be personally effective. Here, a view from the top of the world offers another perspective. The same perspective can be applied to your effectiveness at lower altitude – read on to find out how… At 8,848 metres,...