Monthly Archives: October 2018

There are some brilliant managers out there who motivate and inspire their staff.  Those of us that have experienced brilliant, effective managers know how fantastic this can be.

Unfortunately, many managers do the opposite, which can cause frustration and a great deal of dysfunctionality amongst teams.  Common management blunders include:

Number One, Failing to Adapt Management Style -  Important that we adapt our style dependent upon the situation and the personalities involved.  For example, in certain circumstances, we may have to be more assertive and in others more consultative.  The ability to adapt is a key management aspect.  Think about your style dependent on the situation.

Number Two, Not Delegating Properly - How do we expect staff members to learn if we don’t delegate work to them.  The number one reason we delegate is to develop people.  Furthermore, if we don’t give feedback on the work we have delegated, how are they ever going to know what they did well

Have you ever walked away from a meeting thinking you have agreed on something, then what you haven’t agreed starts to happen? It is all about how we take our information in.

Some of us like facts, really enjoy facts and need them to hang on to. Then there are others who find facts restrict their thinking; the facts get in the way. They can see better ways of doing things. Some people like them for evidence, others don’t. Ask yourself a couple of questions, what do you do, do you rely on facts or do you think in a more inspirational way? Yes, you will do both but what do you do first.

A useful exercise in understanding yourself and why you may clash with others is to work out what your preference may be. Look at the picture you see in this blog and think about what you see first, colours, shapes, pictures or go straight to the artist or is it oil based or put a bigger picture to it? A useful exercise to see how different people around you are and what they see. No one way is the right

There’s a lot of doom and gloom around current affairs right now and reading Claire’s fantastic latest coaching blog about focusing on positivity reminded me of this.  This got me thinking about the past and a better approach for business about training:

It’s a necessity that when times are hard in the economy and for business, things get reviewed to “tighten the belts”.  One particular trend I’ve seen is with the amount of training and personal development that happens when times are good in comparison to when times aren’t so good.  While I can completely understand the rationale, I’ve always thought that this is hugely detrimental to business in the short and longer term.  One of the primary functions of a business for productivity, safety and profit is to make sure that people are correctly trained by properly trained staff, and importantly, they can be retained.  For businesses that are quality assured, it’s been very interesting to hear that it’s no longer sufficient for

I am really into workplace transfer.  In other words, transferring what was learnt on a training course and into the workplace.  To me, this is what training is all about. I was recently training a manager on a presentation skills course, and she had learnt loads and was looking forward to putting the skills and techniques into practice.

She was keen on the fact that on the course she learnt skills to engage individuals to a very high standard.  She felt she could now start to reduce the number of PowerPoint slides she was using.  She said to me she had been told that she used too much PowerPoint in presentations but didn't know what else to do.  Of course, we have all been to presentations or possibly delivered them ourselves when we just read slide after slide.  As I always tell delegates, this isn’t effective presenting, it is reading out loud, and anyone can do that.

A few days later she emailed me to say she had cut down her slide deck from 37 to 5 and was looking forward

The media has a lot to be responsible for along with the IT world. All we do these days is grab our phones, read the updated messages from social media and focus on what they want us to think. To get a feeling of what's happening these days, you have to read everything.

But what is it we read? Everything is negative, no matter where you go to read you learn so much negative information. The problem these days is we continuously turn to our phones and laptops. So we read more negativity and are constantly bombarded with doom and gloom.

Can you imagine a whole day of reading just positive information? Imagine and visualise that type of day. Imagine all the media agreeing to have a full day of greatness. Just imagine what that feeling would be like what transference people would share with each other. It would be so incredibly powerful and positive, just amazing.

I believe it would be like the sun shining, that day where everyone wants to say good morning. Not like the day where the clouds

I was recently going through some of the past blogs for social media and came across one written by Ralph “Good at your job v good as a manager”. This is a subject that always rings true as I’ve witnessed it many times and it got me thinking that actually, there are huge comparisons with training:

In my career, I’ve come across so many fellow trainers; some good, some amazing and some (to put it kindly) are not so good!  I have also been in positions many times where I’ve heard the statement: “You’re outstanding at ‘X’, so I’m going to make you a trainer for it”.  I see the judgement and justification of making them a trainer purely based on their ability to do something well, rather than the potential to be a good trainer; often then what follows, is a spectacular fail!  So why is this and what should we look for in potential trainers?

Firstly, I’d say consider how that person got good at what they were doing; was it through sheer natural talent or was it through the experience

I was delivering a management development course recently when a delegate pointed out that they didn’t realise how much they didn’t know.  We were discussing conflict and how and why people get wound up, what causes it and how it could be an automated response created from a habit.

The delegate in question said to me they had gone through years of getting angry and frustrated with staff who didn’t think or work as they do.  They said they had gone out their way to hunt people down in the workplace who didn’t think like them.  They were very honest and identified how this type of behaviour could cause more issues in the workplace.   Of course, this type of honesty is essential for making real changes in our behaviour.

The delegate was correct of course. Unfortunately, we are all ignorant; we don’t know what we don’t know.  Education is a valuable key; it can change the way we think and see things.  It changes the way we act and ultimately how others behave too.

Many managers

I recently found myself responding to my son in a conversation saying the words, “Be who you are and not what you think you should be”. Be an individual and someone not conditioned to be a certain way; it is all about you being you.

Have you ever reflected on your journey in life how often are you... YOU? Have you ever thought and reflected on you and the changes? Have you ever thought about the differences and why? The conditioning that takes place through life, what has happened to you and are you entirely happy with your journey and who you are?

An example of this, a small area but an interesting preference in me is how different I have been between the organisation, planning vs the last-minute casual, spontaneous me over time. Such a difference in me from when I was 18 compared to me now (not sharing my age). How conditioned I have become over the years with planning and organisation, but what is really me?

I can remember at 18 buying a monthly railcard to travel around Europe, the

In my last blog I talked about the ability to “adapt and overcome” with one important part being the use of resources that are available to you.  Now as most travelling Trainers like me will tell you, we all carry what I refer to as my “bag of tricks” which is the name for my Trainer bag I take to every event.  In this blog, I’d like to share with you what my bag of tricks has in it and why:

As I changed from being office based to mobile, my trainer drawer evolved to my bag so, over a period of years, I’ve refined the equipment and resources I need to be prepared for most eventualities while the new ones make me get creative.  Some of the contents are of course common sense, but some have more than one use:

Pens – Of course it goes without saying you’ll need pens but what sort?  I carry lots of ballpoint pens in different colours as with larger audiences you can almost guarantee at least one person won’t have one.  When I attend hotels and meeting rooms, I’ll always take a few