Blog

A quick team building energiser: Team Jump

We have just come up with an idea for a new team building energiser that can be run inside or outside and would work especially well with larger teams. It’s called ‘Team Jump’.

Overview:
A great way to re-energise the team and have a great photo memory of your day’s training.

Running the Activity:…

Ten Commandments for Successful Meetings

We’ve all sat through countless meetings. Here’s how you can make them more effective.

Thou shalt:…

What can we learn from sports teams?

Regardless of the team’s level – youth, high school, college, or the pros – players need to be consistently motivated to be successful, even winning teams.

Teams that are not motivated are flat and, unless they can totally overpower their opponent, unlikely to succeed. Motivation is giving players a reason to perform to the best of their ability to achieve team goals. This responsibility falls on the coach and the players. It takes a team effort to be mentally and physically prepared to play and to maintain a level of interest that puts your team in a position to win.

Try these four ways to motivate your players:…

Team Psychometrics What Are They?

Despite the scary sounding name, users of psychometrics often report that they enjoy the process and feel encouraged by the output.

In simple terms a psychometric is a questionnaire that helps the user better understand themselves. In a team this is an excellent way to identify colleagues’ strengths and preferences. For instance a questionnaire might say that Sue is creative and sociable who works best when given regular feedback by her manager whilst Dave is disciplined and analytical, preferring to be set a task and left alone to get on until he’s completed the work….

Relax, Reflect & Resolve

Summer holidays are a time when the pace of life slows enough for us take stock, reflect on the future and maybe catch-up with some reading.

As you sit on a plane, a beach or in an armchair this summer, you might like to ponder one or two of the following: …

Five Tips To Becoming A “Good” Boss

Are you a “good” boss?  One of the most important aspects of an executive’s/manager’s/boss’s job is to manage employees; it is also the most challenging.

A boss can either create a team unit or keep herself apart. All of us are given choices every moment of every day. How we respond to difficult situations is a choice. How we choose to react in a moment affects not only us but our employees. Employees perform best in an environment that is supportive, consistent, has good two way communication, and where everyone helps each other.

Follow these five tips to become a “good” boss:…

Motivating a Team: Five Techniques for Every Personality Type

It’s always going to be the case that you find some people easier to work with than others.

Sometimes you can pinpoint the problem immediately (if, for example, your employee is lazy or unresponsive, comes in late and leaves early, shirks responsibility, or constantly questions your authority without cause).

But there are times when your personality just isn’t compatible with those on your team. Unfortunately, you still have work with these people and find a way to motivate them so that the whole team can realize success.

To that end, here are a few simple ways to keep the peace and get everyone working towards the same goal:…

Do you think your boss is demanding?

Being asked to work late and working to ever tighter deadlines is tough, but not as tough as the tasks the Tour de France support teams are being put through this week.

It’s 40 degrees C in the mountains, with a dry headwind evaporating the riders’ sweat before it can cool their surging blood.  Consequently the riders are dehydrating faster than expected.  The support teams must get more water to them more quickly and in the midst of the race….

The surprising truth about what motivates us

Ever wondered what motivates people.

This lively RSA Animate, adapted from Dan Pink’s talk at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace.

Which A-Team member are you?

In just a few days thirty and forty somethings all across the land will be covertly buying popcorn and taking their seats in darkened auditoriums to relive their youth with Hannibal, Faceman, Murdock and B.A. Baracus.

Teams being our thing at Fresh Tracks we are also getting more than a little nostalgic, much to the bemusement of the younger staff who claim they have never heard of these men. It’s hard to believe that there are people in our teams who can’t call upon those inspirational opening lines:…