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

Sometimes we can hold ourselves back without even realising it. We’re working hard, taking focused time to get stuff done, doing what we’re good at – playing to our strengths. But there’s the potential rub: we may be staying stuck in our comfort zone when we could be stepping up. Questions about this often come… Read more

A question that often comes up when I facilitate Zoomly’s ‘How to give effective feedback’ workshop is who to ask for it. After all, feedback isn’t just about commenting on others’ performance; we need feedback on ours too. Some people seem to think there’s no-one to ask or feel a bit awkward about asking. I’m… Read more

Poor you, that doesn’t sound good. Yet what strikes me most is that you believe you’re stuck. Who says you must stick around and can’t leave? I wonder if you’re finding your present situation so tough you’re struggling to find ways through, around or out of it. If that’s the case, possibilities may not spring… Read more

What is International Women’s Day and how did it come about? We have The United Nations to thank; they officially began the Day in 1975, the year designated International Women’s Year. But #IWD’s origins go back to 1908 in USA, when women working in the garment industry took strike action over poor workplace conditions. A… Read more

So let’s get the shameless plug out of the way first: I’m often asked to train and support trainers who run in-house training sessions. Phew, that’s better. Now, having been doing this for several years there are 4 traps I frequently see in-house trainers fall into. Here they are, with my advice on what to… Read more

Whether you’re winding down or still working at full throttle, I hope there’s something in this post that’s just what you need for a quick boost – or a completely new perspective. 2018’s most popular TED talks Want to catch up on TED talks? Here you go – TED’s top 25 of 2018. No, I… Read more

Speaking as a Brit, I’m acutely aware that the very word ‘feedback’ can make the toes curl. Those from other countries and cultures may indeed smile. Here we can talk a good game but, when it comes to the crunch, I suspect many people would rather do public speaking than give or get feedback on… Read more

Make sure all the words in your visuals can be read easily. Thanks to my friend Andie Hemming for this one. Now it might sound like common sense…but it isn’t common practice. Andie and I heard – and struggled to see – some very clever people give presentations recently, and that was how I tested… Read more

Want to better handle those moments when you’re asked to evaluate creative work, a.k.a. feed back to the people who did it? Yep, there’s a Zoomly bite-sized workshop for that*. This is something that happens a lot in creative enterprises of all persuasions: content creators, ad / design / media / branding / experience /… Read more

Participants in Zoomly’s workshops often ask ‘how do I…?’ questions and they always give me food for thought. One topic that always generates lots of questions is productivity: “How can I get stuff done?” I think there are six essential steps to focus on if we’re to improve. 1.Set and focus on your goals We… Read more