Top 5 Leadership Faux Pas

There are many ways in which leaders get the best from their teams; likewise there are some common leadership “don’ts” that can stop your team from performing at their best, whatever your leadership style.

Here are our top 5 leadership don’ts:…

Get Out, Get Happy

The unexpected March sunshine seemed to lift the mood of the nation. At lunchtimes the parks are filled with usually cooped-up office workers, with some are even relocating their meetings from boardroom to the boardwalk.

Given both anecdotal and scientific evidence about the benefits of sunshine, this is an entirely sensible idea:…

We’ve done change, now what?

Your team’s been restructured, jobs are safe so why aren’t they happy? Here are some tips to help your team move from confusion to certainty:

Integrate New Blood
Very often when people leave and new team members join there’s a loss of momentum. It’s critical to mark the point where the new team begins and the old team is laid to rest. If the start of this new journey isn’t clearly marked then different team members will set out in different directions. The more memorable the occasion the greater the chance of success, so make an event of this ‘new beginning’ – get away from your place of work and spend time getting to know each other….

Two Motivational Forces

The writer and psychotherapist Anthony de Mello writes: ‘Some say there are only two things in the world, love and fear.’

These two forces drive most behaviour and are commonly used in the workplace to influence others:…

Fearless Leadership – Storytelling

Storytelling is older than the written word. In that sense it is prehistoric. Ever since we noticed one another we have wanted to make contact. This is as true today as it has always been. Be that in the boardroom, the classroom or over the kitchen table.

So why is that ? What does storytelling do that makes it so different from other communication. Simply put, storytelling connects the heart to the head . It takes thinking into feeling and travels imagination into action like nothing else. It can make information engaging and inspiring and it is the seat of positive relationship.In spite of educational norms that extol a cognitive approach to learning, storytelling embraces a more holistic perspective by combining thinking, feeling and doing to inform, engage and inspire….

5 Steps Towards Better Meetings

Our forthcoming seminar on Improving Productivity on the 16th March will give you some tips on getting the most from meetings.

In the meantime, here are some quick pointers inspired by a Japanese car manufacturer that has meeting guidelines pinned to the wall of every conference room. Why not paste these meeting guidelines alongside agendas to keep your meetings on track:…

Vodafone Fail to Make the Connection

If you’ve travelled on the London Underground recently you might have seen a series of posters featuring team building exercises.

Vodafone have launched an advertising campaign suggesting that with their service teams can connect without the need to spend time together.

We would challenge this assumption on the basis that whilst it is possible to convey information by phone it’s almost impossible to build trust.

Trust is the single greatest differential between good and bad teams and to build trust takes a combination of time, commitment, shared experience and common values.

Smart phones might be clever but even they have their limitations.

What are your thoughts?

The Language(s) of Love – for Teams

As we celebrate St Valentine’s Day it brings to mind Dr Gary Chapman’s theory that there are five Love Languages.

These are the different ways in which we show and receive appreciation, not just from our nearest and dearest but also from colleagues in our teams and our managers.  Dr Chapman suggests that each of us favours one particular Love Language over the other four and whilst his work is focussed towards married couples, his theory can be applied in part to those leading teams….

This Isn’t What I Signed Up For

A friend recently retired early from a successful career as a risk manager in the City.

He sent this farewell note to friends and contacts:

“After 37 years in the City I have decided to call it a day. I’ve enjoyed my career immensely, and …

The end of email? 5 tips for reducing email overload

James Murdoch must be wishing News International had stuck with printed memos as the Leveson enquiry threatens to pin the blame on him for the phone hacking scandal.

The rest of us face the daily battle to select the important from the apparently urgent, as we try to spend time on the priorities that will drive our organisations forward and not fall into the trap of our Inbox becoming our To Do List. Some solutions to this will be part of our next workshop “How to be more Productive with Less Stress” on Friday 16th March 2012.

The Financial Times recently reported that…