I hadn't been promoted very long, when I had cause to have a performance conversation with an employee. A colleague was running a series...

Have you ever turned up at work to find the boss in a bad mood, then discover that you too are having a bad day? Not only that, but...

Managing people can be a mixed blessing at times. They can frustrate you, almost to the point of purposeful sabotage. Many managers and...

Have you ever noticed how managers manage to defeat their own purpose by getting in the way of their own team members and demoralising...

We don’t like to be sold to, but we do love to buy. How many times has someone tried to “sell” something to someone and they are not...

Sometimes, I will ask a group of participants if any of them are in sales. Very few hands will go up and most often, no one will own up...

HR professionals already know the questions your team are asking themselves that go unanswered by you, their boss. The trouble is, you...

Here are some examples: In a negotiation, y0u are not obliged to react to every offer. You can opt to say or do nothing. Your opponent...

There are many times that we need to get work done quickly and efficiently. We often go into “tell-mode” when time is short or we are...

I’ve been a manager since the nineteen-frozen-solids but the lack of awareness that some managers show still surprises me. Given the lack...

Questions. They are powerful things, aren’t they? They can change how you feel, from sad to happy, or they can change your life, like the...

Are you one of those people who find social situations difficult and are secretly jealous of those who can just fit into any situation...

As an effective leader, your job is to spot the difference between a temporary blip in performance and a much more serious dip. You need...

Everybody lies, don’t they? From those little comments that spare someone’s blushes (white lies), to the bigger lies that can change the...

My work requires me to travel extensively and when things don’t quite go to plan, train and airline staff manage to take the anger of...

There is so much written about leadership, I thought it would be good to talk about not leading. There are times when we should fight the...

Have you ever been paid a compliment at work and then ‘batted’ it away by saying something like: “I was only doing my job.”? We are...

Everyone has good days and bad days, don’t they?  You know those days when everything seems to go wrong, when we say the wrong thing at...

My work requires me to travel extensively and when things don’t quite go to plan, train and airline staff take the anger of passengers in...

If you were to get your busy managers to list the attributes that they think makes an exceptional leader, very few would list Focus as an...