One thing we’ve noticed in our work is that the pub (or the wine bar) seems to loom pretty large in amateur theories of management. Problems with someone’s performance? Have a chat over a swift half after work one evening. Someone seems to be upset and complaining a...
...(and sorry, neither will paint-balling, a Superhero Evening or drumming). Are you exasperated that your team doesn’t behave like a team? If you’re honest with yourself, do you see petty office politics, people who don’t communicate well, don’t really support each...
Thanks to Jackie Fitzgerald of Alchemy Business Coaching for today's post: Many years ago I shared an assistant with three of the other managers in the department. Sally was enthusiastic and very pleasant but she made a lot of mistakes (and I mean a lot). Because of...
For the vast majority of people, collaboration is a matter of willingness, not ability. And unless there is a fundamental wish to collaborate, it won’t happen. When senior people in organisations tell their team leaders to work together, it will only happen if ‘they’...
Mostly, the important work in organisations does not involve an individual creating something from nothing. Frequently it involves individuals and groups working together. So why is it so very unusual to see individuals and groups working really harmoniously together?...
Our perennial favourite blogger, Neil Crofts, has come up trumps again with this very insightful guest post on what a team really is: There is a lot of talk of team work and team building in businesses, but the reality of teams and teamwork existing in business is...
A term invented in 1972, Groupthink is a mode of thinking we engage in when we're deeply involved in a cohesive, task-centred group - or when our need for agreement supersedes our need for a decision based on rational information. Groupthink can lead to bad judgments...
Who is ‘they’ in your organisation? ‘Sales’? ‘Marketing’? ‘the staff’?, ‘customers’? Do ‘they’ seem to be making your job harder to do? Do you hear stuff like (or catch yourself saying): “this job would be fine if it wasn’t for ‘them’!”, “nobody tells me anything”,...
Coming to realise what you are unaware of (or blind to) can be empowering and motivating to the teams you lead. It provides them with a space to add value and a space for the contribution of their strengths in confident vulnerability. It is the transparency and...
Everybody’s invoking the word ‘accountability’ now that, following the global financial crisis, the lack of it has become so apparent. It’s a loaded word and a political football in sectors, such as health care and education, crying out for reform. Who should get what...
Learn how you and your team can collaborate to raise your game, improving your results and your experience of working together.
Learn how you and your team can collaborate to raise your game, improving your results and your experience of working together.