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

At this time of year, many employers are conducting mid-year performance reviews. And many children will soon be getting their school reports. Did you ever get this comment in your school reports: “Must try harder”? I certainly did. With the passing of time and the benefit of hindsight I appreciate the intent and feel less… Read more

  “But what if I give someone constructive feedback and it doesn’t work?” This question sometimes comes up in Zoomly’s ‘How to give effective feedback’ workshop. It may be that the participant has given a colleague feedback on their work and has yet to see any improvement in performance. Or, as is often the case… Read more

“How do I motivate people?” is a question that we deal with early on in Zoomly’s bite-sized workshop on the topic, as well as how NOT to. There’s more to it than high-fiving people or telling them they’re ‘awesome’ – much more. A useful exercise is to think of when you’ve felt really motivated about… Read more

More and more of us are working remotely; some of us some of the time, some of us all of the time. There are pros and cons… What’s great about working remotely? Many of us can now work any time, wherever we are. We might be working at a regional hub, in a hotel or… Read more

Whenever I deliver Zoomly’s ‘How to give effective feedback’ bite-sized workshop, there’s some initial squirming from a number of the participants. Particularly the Brits: we seem to get tangled in skirting around the subject, dressing it up, putting a bow on it – and let’s not forget serving up s*%t sandwiches*. Some of us find… 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

Poor you, that’s not a great position to find yourself in. First of all though, how on earth did you get here? Did your boss just wave, say ‘see ya later’ and disappear off to some beach? Or did you have an actual handover discussion before their holiday, where things were explained and you were… Read more

I’ve been delivering Zoomly’s ‘How to motivate people’ workshop quite a bit lately and it often strikes me how some participants feel powerless to deal with demotivation in those they manage. First, I qualify the workshop title: ‘motivate’ actually isn’t something we do to people – it’s more about what can do for people. So… Read more

It’s Mental Health Awareness week and many of Zoomly’s lovely clients are 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 someone, that’s you. How… Read more

Regular readers of this blog will know I’m a Big Fan of the strengths-based approach. I’ve seen teams and individuals light up with a new sense of purpose and a boost to their energy once strengths are identified. But this isn’t la-la land; there is actually a potential downside to our strengths. Used in the… Read more