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

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and the theme this year is anxiety. Many employers will be providing talks, activities and resources to support greater awareness of the importance of our mental health and wellbeing. One of the most important factors in workplace mental health is how employees perceive they’re being managed. So if you manage… Read more

  How can you tell your team is really motivated? What are the signs that say so? Do they show enthusiasm for their work, their colleagues and the wider organisation? Is there discretionary effort – going above and beyond what’s expected (as opposed to demanded)? Are they energised and engaged? Or are they quietly doing… 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 actual / virtual room if they were smart) but they know that was just the initial reaction. How to… Read more

Right now, many employers are working hard to recruit more people. So I thought this post from the vault might be useful for readers who are interviewing candidates. One of my 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… Read more

A question I sometimes hear from participants in Zoomly’s workshops is ‘How can I convince someone to step up?’ When we explore this it’s often the case that the person in question seems to lack confidence – even though their manager sees them as very capable. For example, they: Seek approval for every step of… Read more

So you’ve noticed that one of your team is turning out to be a star performer. First of all, congratulations – lucky you for having a high performer on your team. Second of all, well done for noticing – all too often, great performance is barely acknowledged, with a grudging, “Well it IS their job… Read more

I’ve written a lot about giving feedback, particularly in The Feedback Book. It’s an essential skill for anyone who works in a team and/or manages people in the workplace. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that that feedback isn’t just given – it’s also received. How do you feel when a colleague says, “I’d like… Read more

    One of the first things that any decent coaching course will cover is the ‘ask-tell’ continuum. Over on the far right we tell people things – from a straightforward answer through to details of what to do and how to do it. On the left we ask them. Both have their uses; each… 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

Being micro-managed can affect our feelings about how competent we are in our jobs, and dent our confidence – if we let it. On the other hand, there’s a lot that can be learned from working with a micro-manager, both about the job itself and about handling professional relationships. What can you do? Try these 5 strategies…