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

Good for you – and here’s hoping it’s good for your mentee too. Here are some reasons why people step up to the role of mentor in their organisation, professional body or community. Good mentors want to: Help and support others’ development Develop their soft skills Share their experience Broaden their perspective Be a better… Read more

Recently I’ve been leading Zoomly’s ‘How to develop your leadership style’ workshop quite a lot for different clients. It’s reminded me that this exercise is great for leaders – whether you’re an aspiring leader or already there. One of the first tasks participants work on in is to consider the leaders who’ve inspired them. Time… Read more

  “What’s an ‘amygdala hijack’ – and how would I know if I’ve had one?” Let’s take the terminology first: the term emerged in Daniel Goleman’s best-selling book, ‘Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ’. Goleman offered an accessible term for the neurological stimulus-response that occurs when the amygdala perceives a threat and… Read more

If you’re in need of some inspiration, try these words of wisdom from leaders who’ve been there and done that. “You manage things; you lead people.” – Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” – Kenneth Blanchard “Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own… Read more

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

  Hot off the press: Investors in People (IiP) have just published their annual ‘Job exodus trends’ for the UK. The report is based on employee sentiment research conducted in December 2018 with 2000 UK respondents. Being somewhat sceptical, I would imagine that if people were asked in December if they were likely to ‘consider moving… 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

Each year, Investors in People (IiP) publish their ‘Job exodus trends’. This does what it says on the tin: how many people are thinking of leaving their jobs in the coming year – and why? At the end of 2017 IiP polled 2000 people. Remember, 2017 saw the lowest UK unemployment levels since 1975 (4.3%… Read more

It’s never too soon in your career to create a personal board – so now’s a good time to start. That’s assuming you haven’t already got some personal board ‘directors’ in your network that you may be overlooking. But first: what IS a ‘personal board’? A personal board comes in very handy for your development… Read more

It’s no surprise to this reader that ‘Optimize Your Strengths’ comes with endorsements by some pretty big hitters, such as Facebook, BNP Paribas, the London School of Economics – and an Olympian. Both the book and its theoretical foundations are being adopted by employers big and small. This is a slim volume and an easy… Read more