“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...
Have you been told that you need to operate more like a Business Partner? Do you have the words ‘Business Partner’ in your job title? Are you wondering what on earth that means? So, what is a Business Partner? and How is it different from other roles For me,...
Do you ever sit in meetings and wonder why the meeting is ...
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...
As a manager, once you have delegated an objective...
You’ve got a really interesting piece of work, perhaps a new, groundbreaking, project and you’re excited about sharing the news with your team. However, when you tell them about it, they don’t seem to see share your excitement; they’re not as motivated as you are!...
You’re snowed under; you have too many meetings to attend and not enough hours in the day to get the work done. Does that sound familiar? You also have a team of pretty capable people and know that you should delegate more, in fact you...
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...
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...
Why do managers often avoid having conversations about career aspirations with their team members? We’ve had a whole host of responses to this question on our programmes. Here are the most common: “I don’t want to raise their expectations.” “They think they’re ready for promotion, but I don’t!” “I...
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...