Reassuring ourselves

If praise is about me showing you that I think highly of something that you have done, how come people are resorting to praising themselves so much on their social media?

July 10, 2020

Water cooler moments

We've been doing a little research to find out what they are, what people use them for and what they've been doing instead (or not! - not everybody misses them).

April 20, 2020

Working and playing at home - a few things to consider

A few things to consider for those still getting used the oddness of working from home

April 9, 2020

"Normal"

Each of us is getting on with it. It? ... Making life as normal as possible. But are there bits that we just can't fake?

February 4, 2020

Relationships

Show a little love

A quick Valentine's Day look at 3 things you can do to show that you do indeed care about your colleagues

January 17, 2020

Thinking on your feet - revisited

Some people seem to be so good at dealing with that curve ball question. They just come up with the answer… and some.

November 5, 2019

Why we need water coolers in winter

The water cooler was originally invented in around 1906 to provide safe drinking water. A few things have changed...

October 3, 2019

Meetings

Breaking the cycle of bad meetings

We're making time for bad meetings. There are simple things you can do, whether you're in charge or not, to make things very different.

September 3, 2019

Good conversations don't happen by accident

We need good conversations in order to gather people around us, to have families, a social life and to make our jobs, departments and organisations function.

August 3, 2019

Empathy: What's really going on?

Getting the hang of empathising is a long-burn endeavour...so is it really worth it?

May 3, 2019

The power of honesty

Aside from greater morality, honesty delivers other game-changing benefits

January 3, 2019

Motivation

This was the post that almost didn't get written. How come? Read on - but only if you want to.

September 3, 2018

Where to look for real leadership

There are plenty of people who will tell us how to be leaders... but are they the right ones to ask?

June 3, 2018

Looking beyond the obvious in people

I don't like the phrase "seeing the good" as in "seeing the good in people". So, what else is there?

May 3, 2018

Does coaching have an image problem?

Commonly expressed views on leaders doing coaching rarely explain how simple it can be: helping your people to get more done, better, whilst staying out of the way... Does coaching have a bad image for all the wrong reasons?

February 3, 2018

Snap! The art and science of handling your emotions

How we handle our feelings forms a big part of how people see us - our personality. So why do we try to ignore them and what could we do instead?

December 3, 2017

Ten snippets from 2017

Here's a round-up of one-liners from 2017.

November 3, 2017

How to get it, how to keep it

Resilience is like salt - we never think we can run out of it until we actually do.

October 2, 2017

How to learn from experience(s)

Children really know how to learn - do they have something that we need to remember?

September 2, 2017

Thank you

People rarely ask to be thanked, but things can go seriously wrong when we fail to show appreciation.

August 2, 2017

How to mend the broken conversation

We mostly don't go out to mess up a conversation but we do often overlook the basics and therefore increase the chances that things will go wrong.

June 2, 2017

It's feedback time. Oh good.

Although feedback has a reputation for being painful for both the giver and the receiver, we only have to observe a few simple ideas to make it successful for both.

May 2, 2017

How to present like a human being

We carry around lots of strange notions of what we are supposed to be like when we stand up to speak in front of a group. Which should we disregard?

April 2, 2017

Commitment

We go to great lengths to gain agreement... taking hours, days and weeks to achieve a consensus which then fails to translate into wholehearted action. Why? And what instead?

March 2, 2017

Temper, temper...

We all get annoyed from time to time, but how can we calm ourselves down really quickly and perhaps get rattled a little less often too?

February 2, 2017

Persuasion!

How to get people to really change their minds without tactics, pressure or power.

January 2, 2017

Honestly!

What better way to launch the year than with a shout out for honesty. That thing that we are all told is so important as we grow up and which then seems to promptly abandon us in adulthood when we could actually do something good with it!

December 2, 2016

Top 10 scribblings from 2016

Here is a selection of things that people told us were useful to them - take you pick of these into 2017

November 2, 2016

Assertiveness is not for wimps

Becoming more assertive is not just something that wimps need to do. Even the most confident amongst us stand to gain much by tuning up the way that we get our messages across.

October 2, 2016

Customer meltdowns and the 5-minute recovery plan

Where there are customers there are problems. Supply chains fail, machines break, people mess up. So what could possibly be wrong with simply providing a like-for-like solution as soon as possible? Everything.

September 2, 2016

Customer service or customer care? Who cares?!

Many industries have embraced the notion of customer service - giving the customer what they want, when they want it, for a price they are wiling to pay. But is that really all that's required?

August 2, 2016

Making the remote team work

We're all saving our companies a lot of money by managing our remote teams from our desks. But whilst staying off all those aeroplanes does indeed save money and time it introduces hidden problems for which it is taking us a while to find solutions.

July 2, 2016

Make yourself heard

Everyone knows that the way to make yourself heard is to have the strongest argument, the loudest voice, the biggest personality or the highest rank. But what on earth am I supposed to do if I can claim none of these attributes?

June 2, 2016

Feedback

This word is used so often it has lost its meaning and its power to fascinate. What can we do about this and how can we exchange meaningful words that influence behaviour?

May 20, 2016

How not to help

How can we reduce the number of times that we can be charged with 'getting in the way' rather than helping, as we intend? As usual, just knowing about it helps. But there are three types of 'help' to avoid giving, above all the others.

April 6, 2016

How to disrupt a meeting... to make it better

Can meetings ever pay their way? And if so, is it just a matter of chance or are there things that we can routinely do to ensure that our meetings will actually lead somewhere and produce something usable? Read on...