Being a manager is never an easy job, but being a new manager is especially difficult. When you think about the competencies required of a good manager, they are constantly changed, updated and reviewed. Whether you have just been promoted to a leadership position or…
Learn More
In our complex, VUCA environments we face today, no-one in your organisation, even the CEO, knows everything about everything. This requires you to rely and depend on the people who work for you to come up with ideas that would work in the real world.…
Learn More
Have you ever carried out one of those personality profiles that categorise you into a few ‘types’ of person? One of these discusses if you are ‘extroversion’ or ‘introversion’ in your outlook. That is, do you appear to be an extrovert in the workplace or…
Learn More
Once, an old man in a village planted a tiny turnip seed and said to it ‘Grow, little turnip seed, grow big, strong and mighty’. Well, his words must have done the trick because the turnip grew and grew, got stronger and bigger, until it…
Learn More
One of the fundamental human needs we have at work is the ability to control our own approach to tasks. If we are simply ‘doing a job’, it is not surprising that our motivation will soon atrophy and die. What is it that makes us…
Learn More
A recent report by Seibert, Wang and Courtright in Applied Psychology magazine carried out an analytical review of the consequences of team empowerment in organisations. They concluded that ‘when employees feel empowered at work, it’s associated with stronger job performance, job satisfaction and commitment to…
Learn More
I recall a customer years ago who I would describe as ‘difficult’. No matter what I said, she interrupted me. No matter how I tried to appease her, she wouldn’t listen. (more…)
Learn More
Of all the challenges we hear managers facing these days, the aspect of being able to manage their own time is very often top of the list. It’s not because we have less time; it’s that the demands on us these days are so great,…
Learn More
How do you feel when you are about to present information, even to people you are familiar with? If you’re like most people, you will suffer from nervous anxiety or, at best, have ‘butterflies’ in the stomach. How can we calm our nerves? Why do…
Learn More
Becoming a team leader is often someone’s first experience of management responsibility. With many team leaders being promoted from within the team because they were good team members, they face a challenging time especially as they now have to manage their friends! (more…)
Learn More
Today we’re going to take a look at the differences between communication and interpersonal skills and how to improve each one. Now you might be thinking that they are one and the same thing but hear me out here and I’ll explain why they are…
Learn More
We’ve all come across those situations where we think we’ve communicated effectively and yet it’s obvious there’s been some mis-interpretation or mis-understanding. No matter how well we think we communicate, barriers exist, and it’s necessary to not only understand what they are and why they…
Learn More
