Only the brave escape the fortress of Hierarchical Authority. Going ‘out there’ without your protection feels scary. In the beginning, it probably will be scary.
Continue readingCategory Archives: personal development
Manage yourself ( before managing others)
Before you can use the soft skill of empathy, you need to be in a good place yourself. Stress, over-work, and poor physical condition do not make for empathetic reflection. Enjoy the video.
Continue readingTesting, Testing, Testing
Both World Wars drove the development of psychological testing and it has not stopped since. The tests can be split into three broad categories: Aptitude, Skills and Personality.
Continue readingRecently Three People Have…
During January, three people have volunteered that they have found a video or article of mine, a valuable resource to solve a people issue or improve a meeting outcome or, even, to raise the performance of an entire team.
Continue readingNew Year’s Resolutions
I am a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions. (My Editor complains I write about this every year – I know but I think it’s important!) It isn’t just that they help you achieve something you might not otherwise; they make you review the last year and form a wish list for the next. In the “good old days” we had more time. First thing you wandered around and made sure everything was running well. The post arrived at 11 so time to sit down and respond before lunch. You could start work on that long term project straight after lunch. Doesn’t describe a typical working day in 2021 does it? It is a good thing that we are more connected with what is going on. We are on the “front-line” much more of the day. The blessing of email means that every fifteen minutes there may be something important buried in the “CC” mail, so you have to check don’t you.
Continue readingWhat Are You Doing?
Whatever your job, solopreneur or employee, you only have 24 hours a day to achieve something. I’ve had line management jobs where finding the time for a bathroom break is a major issue! I know there are plenty of people in that same situation today. When we talk about our time, what we really mean is what we get done in that time. Time management is about managing your personal energy and working as effectively as possible. That 24 hours is all you have to work, rest and play. You do need time to recharge your personal energy through sleep, through personal relationships and a change of scenery helps sometimes. Are you one of those people working regular 70 hour weeks? I understand why you do it. There is always more to do and in today’s economic climate it takes much more work to get a sale.
Continue readingLearning
“The world is just a great big onion!”. Baby-Boomers will recognise this as the title of a Marvin Gaye song. I want to use an onion as a metaphor for the world, life and our perceptions, to show they are multi-layered like an onion. Whatever we investigate, we see the surface and as we drill down, we uncover layer after layer of reality – just like an onion. Sometimes the surface layer – or common sense – can be dramatically different to the deeper truths in the deeper layers. These thoughts spring from two workshops I attended recently. Both put over ideas that were “outer layer” rather than “deep truths”. Consequently, as common sense, they made sense, but in fact, the ideas were false at deeper levels.
Continue readingHow Do You Motivate Yourself?
Google pointed a search to our website to answer the question “How do I get the motivation to manage the staff?” When we meet people in seminars there are many who show signs of stress, time pressure and destructively bad work-life balance. Those whose work includes managing others are doubly troubled, as they know they are not getting the performance they should from their people. How could they when they have so much else to do? How do you motivate yourself to overcome these huge obstacles?
Continue readingPersonal Productivity
Productivity is about getting more done with less. It doesn’t mean working longer, it means working smarter. Unfortunately, modern technology does the exact opposite of making you smart, by constantly distracting you. Enjoy the video.
Continue readingTrust!
One of the key attributes of an employee is trust. Not just that they won’t pilfer the petty cash, but that when they say they will do something, they do it!
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