The COVID-19 outbreak has forced millions of us to work from home; many of whom have never done so before. If the last few weeks have marked your first ever work-from-home period, first of all – congratulations, and secondly, if you’ve found it difficult to adjust - you’re not alone. Despite an upward trend of home working in the last ten years – the number of people working [...]
Staying focused when working remotely can be challenging, even for seasoned professionals. Constant distractions - from that pile of laundry that needs ironing to your dog wanting a brisk walk – staying focused can be harder than you think. But with more teams working remotely around the world, and with the escalation of Coronavirus adding to the numbers who are working [...]
Before we get into developing your ideal agile virtual team culture, it’s worth thinking about what exactly we mean by ‘agile’. An agile team is a cross-functional group of individuals that have the necessary people and skills to produce a successful outcome. It’s important to remember that there’s no magic formula to developing an agile [...]
Organising meetings that are productive and efficient is a fine art. And never more so if you are developing a virtual team who are too far away for regular face to face meetings. A recent study on trends in high performing global teams concluded that ‘the human factor remains the greatest hurdle for global virtual teams.’ More and more, team leaders and employees are working [...]
Diversity has become a big issue in the workplace over recent years. As a leadership coach, I’ve worked with many managers and leaders who are doing their best to incorporate diversity and inclusion in their workplace. Be it regarding age, disability, gender or ethnicity – employers are striving to provide an inclusive arena for everyone to [...]
It’s a digital age that we’re living in. And for leaders, that means embracing technology when running webinars or online training for virtual teams. You may already have experienced FaceTime or Skype on your tablet – this is just the next step! Many participants I speak to in my training sessions find it challenging to use webcams for presenting in virtual classrooms. It’s not just the technology of setting it up; they say they find it difficult to engage, look natural and remember what [...]
Your team is crucial to the success of your business. Managed well, a team can accomplish much more than an individual – working together and using each other’s skills and abilities to unleash creativity, embrace innovation and build a pathway to success. But what happens if your team is underperforming? What are the warning signs, and how do you deal with problems that arise? In this article, [...]
Influential leaders need to have many traits to successfully lead their team. They need to be resilient, focused and willing to lead from the front. They also need diplomacy, self-awareness and transparency to establish trust in their team. However, there is another quality that the best leaders possess, and that’s curiosity. Often overlooked, curiosity can turn a good leader into a great leader. Having intellectual curiosity, [...]
I read an article recently about emotional intelligence, that suggested this will become a prominent component of business principles in the not-so-distant future. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is no longer the remit of more ‘hippy,’ laid-back companies who tend to employ an attitude of self-love and self-understanding among employees. EI is becoming a business prerogative, growing in importance as an essential set of skills required in the workplace across all [...]
Many managers and leaders find themselves handling complex negotiations at some point in their career. Before you arrive at the negotiating table, it’s a wise move to ensure you have several options in the bag for possible favourable outcomes. These should include more than you actually expect to achieve, and some alternatives – that is, areas you will be willing to [...]
Female representation in the corporate world’s top jobs hasn’t improved much. In fact, it’s hardly improved at all according to a recent report by McKinsey & Company, despite many companies signing up to promote gender equality. In the (not so distant) past, it was difficult for women to climb the career ladder to the top spots. I can remember the [...]
Introverts. They’ve got a bad rap. They are considered to be quiet, shy, reserved, over analytical and lacking in empathy. Extroverts, on the other hand, are seen as outgoing, opinionated, team players who are going places. But in fact, this is not the case. The truth is that introverts are misunderstood. Psychologist Carl Jung claimed, [...]
While I realise we are living in the digital age with communication platforms such as WhatsApp, Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, Signal and Slack we do however have many conversations face to face throughout the day; at least I am hoping as leaders we do? The question is, how many of these conversations excite and inspire you? How many prove to be sincere and thought-provoking? [...]
Last time we talked about why there is immense value in revisiting your personal power in our current working environment. You can refresh your memory by reading why it’s time to develop your personal power post here. In part two of our series, we have several suggestions on how to turn your ‘power’ dial-up. All too often the starting point revolves around stopping [...]
Personal power? Some people might think it’s a phrase that went out of fashion years ago. Maybe, though in today’s disruptive business landscape we need it more than ever; let me explain. This is part one of a two-part series where we explain why tapping into your personal power is essential to your success. Next time, [...]
Leaders, managers and contributors; we all play our part in growing organisations. Though the truth is, do, we have the skills now needed in a changing disruptive economy, to be successful in the various roles we all play in our teams and departments? Possibly; with a bit of adaptation. It’s interesting that Stephen Covey published his New York Times Best Seller The 7 Habits [...]
If you get a group of HR people or leaders together today, the conversation of employer branding, staff engagement and company culture are likely to raise its head. It’s not surprising when you consider we are in the middle of a worldwide skills shortage that increases pressure on talent attraction and management for many organisations. The whole topic of employee engagement is quite [...]
Mid-career blues can happen to the best of us. A great example of this phenomenon in action is portrayed in the iconic film Educating Rita. If you are a film junkie, like me, treat yourself to a copy this Christmas. When it was released, it received a clutch of BAFTA awards, so well worth a watch. The story revolves around Rita played by Julie Walters, a married hairdresser who one day after a particularly banal customer interaction, utters the immortal words: “Is this all there is?” [...]
