Posts for tag: Motivation

The Antidote to Bad Decisions

When was the last time you took some extended time to reflect?

Perhaps it was during your summer holiday, a recent business trip or over the Christmas break. How did it feel?
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What Others Think of Us

We all go through periods of self doubt, especially when we fear others think badly of us.

This speech extract from Michelle Obama gives an insight into the insecurities she’s faced and the attitude she now adopts to remain strong:
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5 easy methods to motivate your team

Motivating your team members can make a noticeable difference to their performance and the atmosphere at work. Here are five tips to give your team a boost, so they know you care.

1.       Say thank you more often and mean it.

If you thank every team member at least once a day and explain why they have done a good job rather than just saying a token ‘thanks’ this will make their day a whole lot better, empower them and you’ll see productivity increase….

Is your Desk making you Fat?

How much of your day to you spend sitting?  For many of us we sit at the office, during our commute and later when we are resting at home, maybe as much as 14 hours every day!  Frighteningly, recent research suggests that a day spent sitting at a desk will undo the benefits from cycling to work or going to the gym!

A number of studies into inactivity have been conducted to try to understand what part sedentary behaviour is playing in the rise of obesity and diabetes.

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Is Your Organisation Growing Fruit or Vegetables?

The great Charles Handy made a rare public appearance earlier this week, not speaking to a group of executives but at a fundraising lecture for the family support network Relate.

Is Your Organisation Growing Fruit or Vegetables?

His lecture highlighted the fact that the ‘always on’ culture, combined with less people doing more work in organisations, is threatening family life.  …

Scientific evidence shows that women are hard-wired to make better managers

In the early 1990’s neuroscientists at the University of Parma discovered that brain cells not only fire when we perform a given action, such as reaching for a cold drink on a hot day, they also fire when we see someone else doing that action – hence the name mirror neuron (click here for a link to the research). This is why we sometimes wince when we see another person experience pain or embarrassment. 

The men vs. women debate continues...

This theory has been used to explain characteristics such as empathy, the ability to read other people’s emotions, with some research* suggesting that the female brain is better able to create mirror neurons and therefore better equipped to anticipate the moods and feelings of others. The men vs women debate continues……..

Woodland Leadership – a unique leadership programme

When a client asked us to come up with a unique ending to their 6 month leadership programme, we decided to break with convention and exchange their hotel for a woodland habitat.

Despite the informal setting and the relaxed structure the resounding feedback was that this group feel significantly more confident as leaders.

This next generation of senior managers already spends much of their time in hotels. To conclude this programme in yet another hotel would dilute the impact and miss an opportunity to create lasting memories. Instead we began with breakfast and an intensive session exploring Insights Transformational Leadership before heading into the woods after lunch….

Make sure you use your brake before you break

Many of us are becoming accustomed to the three or four day weekend with Easter, May Day, Whitsun and Jubilee holidays falling so close together.  These enforced Bank Holidays should result in a more rested and energised work force but it seems most of us are using these long weekends not so much to take a break but instead to press lightly on the brakes, keep working and catch up on the back log.

Everybody has different ways of recharging, make sure you know your way and that you spend time doing it.

Hotels and holiday cottage owners are increasingly promoting ‘free wi-fi’ knowing that it’s a key attraction to potential guests.  Keeping in touch and being able to instantly research local restaurants or even suppliers for a forthcoming work project are high on our list of vacation priorities.  So much so that many holidaying executives report feeling anxiety when they find themselves ‘unplugged.’  And that anxiety only gets greater when they near the end of what should be a relaxing break, fearing the bulging inbox and a pile of unread papers….

Two Motivational Forces

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

Partnership Overcomes Fear

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

Five Top Tips to Take your Team into 2012

It’s not much fun waking up early and joining the crowds to return to work on a cold January morning.

So here are five ideas to welcome and motivate your team at the start of the New Year:

1. Restate the vision: the best teams share the same goals and values, so be sure your team knows where they are headed and why.
2. Shout about the good news: don’t let the January blues get to your team, publicise all the good stuff that’s happening in your organisation, sector and city.
3. Celebrate what’s good about 2012: the Olympics in London, Spring getting closer, new products in the pipeline.
4. Innovate together: after a break our minds are fresher and the ideas will flow. Create some time to be imaginative as a team before the routine takes over.
5. Book a team away day in the diary: now that the Christmas party is a fading memory set the date for your next team event.