The world is more interconnected than ever before, so you’d think that direct communication would be a skill we’d become adept at from an early age. Not so, it seems. Many people seem to have missed learning or actively avoided learning it: the skill of making a simple, direct request and giving a simple, unequivocal response in return. In this article we look at why it’s an important skill for… read more →
We look at what makes workplace partnerships truly effective, and the mindset shifts you need to achieve them. Can you imagine what it would be like working in a team, or a department, or a whole organisation, where this definition of partnership formed one of the core values, and where everybody behaved in accordance with these principles? You could come to work knowing that whatever you did, your colleagues would… read more →
If you’re the leader of an organisation, you run the risk that no-one tells you what’s really going on. You have a big problem. This article explains why. One of the biggest risks of being a leader in an organisation is that no one is going to tell you the truth. A few leaders are wise enough to bring in outside consultants, but many of them will tell you that… read more →
In times of uncertainty, the default position is to put any business decisions on hold. We look at five ways of providing clarity for you and your organisation through periods of instability. We are living through uncertain times, both politically and economically, and one reaction is to put off making any decisions. Like many other business leaders, you may be waiting for a resolution before deciding what and where to… read more →
Do you find it hard to delegate? Bad delegation affects you, your team and your business. Here are 8 ways to improve your delegation skills. Peter Drucker of the Drucker Institute saw effective delegation as essential to his ‘management by objectives’ philosophy. He provided some clear and simple guidelines about how delegation should be approached: DO: choose your delegate based on an objective assessment of his or her skills and… read more →
How empathetic are you? Are you a softie as a leader? Read this article and find out about the simple E test you can try out at work. American social scientists invented the E test to investigate the connection between power and empathy. This seemingly innocent party trick is something they used to measure someone’s ability to see the world from another’s viewpoint. In other words, to work out how… read more →
Are you the great team player you think you are? Check out this article to see whether collaboration comes naturally to you. If not, there are 5 things you can do about it. The big question is; are human beings naturally team players? When you think about the following, it’s not obvious: Watching children play, it looks like girls are but boys aren’t. Listening to a live orchestra – that’s… read more →
Do you have a job description? And if you do, when did you last look at it? In this article we look at why you need to re-design it and show you how to do it. If you have a job description, it’s likely that: – You’ve not looked at it recently It’s a long list of activities, or alternatively broad statements saying what you’re responsible for in your job… read more →
If you’re a senior executive in professional services it’s unlikely that you yourself are one of the millennials. However if you are a lawyer, wealth manager, estate agent or similar it’s very likely that you will be recruiting and managing this particular generation, born between 1980 and 2000. There’s a danger about making sweeping statements about different generations whether they’re Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y or Millennials. I read recently… read more →
What skills do you think you need in order to be really successful at work? It may seem obvious; you need, of course, to have very good technical skills, by which I mean you need to be an excellent lawyer, wealth manager, estate agent, manufacturer or whatever it is that you do. But there comes a point when your job shifts from being predominantly technical to being more about management.… read more →