Practical tips. Prompts to get you thinking. The odd rant.

  One of Zoomly’s clients took an interesting approach to their six-pack of bite-sized workshops: they repeated the same topic, ‘How to interview potential recruits’, six times. This meant that they were able to provide essential basic training for all the managers who get involved in the hiring process. Some of them were pretty senior,… Read more

Yes, you may be smarting a little and yet no, it’s not the end of the world – or even your career. There’s probably more to it than you think – and there’s probably a silver lining. So please don’t do anything rash. Bear in mind this might not be all about you. There could… Read more

As the end of the year gets ever nearer, many a Learning & Development professional finds themselves trying to establish the value of their efforts. Yes, they got feedback at the time (before anyone left the room if they were smart) but they know that was just the initial reaction. How to find the value… Read more

You’re stepping up to mentor someone – well done. Having worked with employers and professional groups over several years to support their schemes, I’ve learned that the likelihood of a successful mentoring relationship is set at the start. If it gets off on the wrong foot, it can be hard to sustain. But if the… Read more

  How are you doing? Good? And how well are you progressing towards your goals right now? Not this quarter, or even this month, but right now, here, today. If we’re not careful, all that planning (or daydreaming, or wishful thinking) we did way back when the year seemed all shiny and new will come… Read more

Experienced givers of feedback will know the alternative (and more widely used) name for this workplace snack. Whatever they’re called, I’m not a fan of them. I’ve lost count of the number of times this point has come up during Zoomly’s ‘How to give effective feedback’ workshops. Someone asks, “What’s so wrong with the old… Read more

Your team has a new member: a brand-new employee in their very first job. They may be a new graduate recruit, or an apprentice straight out of college or even school. You have been assigned as their manager. If you’re new to managing people, before you go power mad, bear in mind that it’s not… Read more

Something that’s been coming up in Zoomly’s workshops recently is goals. Not in a good way; we’re talking about goals that are unclear, too vague and utterly unhelpful. Whether the topic is appraisal discussions, coaching skills for 1:1 conversations or simply giving feedback (yes, you can have a Zoomly workshop on each of those topics),… Read more

You’re working hard, getting stuff done, getting good feedback from your manager and colleagues – so promotion will surely be headed your way, right? Wrong. OK, you might be lucky: the right opportunity appears at the right time. For most people who get promoted, there’s more judgement than luck involved in getting that promotion. ‘I… Read more

You’ve completed a training course of some kind – what action do you take to ensure that new learning sticks? It’s great when people tell me how they’re using what they learned from some Zoomly training and how it’s benefitting them – and that’s because they’ve made it stick. When I ask people in organisations… Read more