Do You Stereotype When Managing?

Right…grab a piece of paper and a pen. Do it now before reading on… OK, draw a picture of a hand on that piece of paper… It doesn’t matter if you’re not an artist…just draw it. Done it? Good! Read on… Let me ask you…did you look at your own hand to draw the picture?[…..]

How To Overcome Procrastination

Procrastination is a symptom. It’s your body and mind telling you there is some area of stress that you are focusing on. By relieving the feeling of pain associated with actually doing the task you are putting off, you are reducing your anxiety by focusing on something more pleasurable or less demanding. Remember, procrastination is[…..]

Minimise The Impact Of Interruptions

How frustrated do you feel when you are interrupted? I know I can feel quite annoyed when I’m in the middle of a large piece of work and the phone, a colleague or an email ‘breaks up’ my concentration. By the way, that’s the original meaning of the word ‘interrupt’…to break up. How fitting! I’ve[…..]

Effective Planning Saves Time

Do you waste time planning? Many managers do, because they spend too much time trying to organise things that are un-organisable! What I mean by this is, if you spend time trying to organise other people, you run the risk of that time being wasted because of your inability to control other people. People don’t[…..]

Running Productive Meetings, When The Agenda Is Ignored

We’ve all been there…the meeting is going ok, then someone takes it off track and you end up spending a long time on subjects that are not part of the agenda and wasting everyone’s time. You need to be assertive and take control. What’s the best way?

Your Team Mate Is Now Your Boss, What Can You Do?

It’s possibly the most puzzling and challenging decision you may have faced in a long time. How do you cope with a situation where a colleague has been promoted to be your boss? You might have put your name in the frame, yet, on this occasion, it didn’t work out. So what can you do[…..]

Improve Your Value As A Manager

Personal and professional development is one of the most valuable uses of your time in your career as a manager. It’s only by growing and developing your skills within your current role that you convince others you are worthy of investing in for the future. So, how much time do you devote to the development[…..]

Lessons On Managing A Team

So, the World Cup is over, and most people would say the best team won the final. Whatever your viewpoint, we can see from the amount of interest in the finals over the last month that many people follow it all with a passion. As managers, is there anything we can learn from the World[…..]

How Do Companies Grow?

Many companies are telling us that business is growing, albeit marginally, after the challenges of the last couple of years. How can companies monitor and drive this growth deliberately and proactively, rather than relying on business improving by default? An interesting model by Larry Greiner, who discussed growth phases that companies go through, should help[…..]

A Better Way To Recruit Staff

How many times have you employed someone based on their CV and the way they come across at interview, then learned to regret it some time later? It may be that they don’t really fit in with the team, haven’t really got the skills they claimed to have or the job role isn’t what they[…..]