What type of leader are you? Fostering successful Employee Engagement

According to the CIPD, 40% of employees are disengaged in the workplace and, if they do resign, it is generally down to an individual rather than the organisation as a whole. According to the CBI, sick days cost the UK economy £13.4bn every year with disengaged employees taking 6.19 days off sick per year compared to an average of only 2.69 amongst engaged employees (source: CBI-AXA (2007), Annual Absence and Labour Turnover Survey). Little wonder then that employee engagement is such a hot topic.

Organisations with high levels of staff engagement have a higher rate of staff retention because engaged staff are 87 percent more likely to stay with the organisation. The cost of hiring and training new personnel is put at an average cost of one year’s salary per new employee. If it can be said that in the vast majority of instances employee disengagement lies with a poor quality relationship with a manager or managers, then the solution can always be sought at that team’s level.

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The art of conversation – fostering a culture for successful employee engagement in the workplace

The quality of any professional relationship, experience or culture is dependent on conversations: whether or not we have them, their content and the level of skill we choose to deploy during them. Conversations can be separated into two distinct areas: Functional and Reactive. Functional conversations consist of thoughtful, proactive and useful content whilst Reactive conversations are dysfunctional, clumsy and pointless. Regardless of the conversation type, it will cost the business time, energy and resource; Functional in a positive way because it will lead to increased productivity and Reactive in a negative way because it fosters bad feeling, resentment, stress and bad experiences….

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Progress Talk To Develop Confidence In Your Players/Clients/Team

All of us as coaches have been faced with at least one of these statements: “I just want to be more confident”, “I have no confidence”, or “I’m not confident when playing competitively”. So what can we do to really help our players/staff/team? Is it about giving them affirmations, using positive self-talk, helping them believe in themselves more? Well, maybe some of these things work but for me there is a fundamental starting point when dealing with such statements – they are not real! They are just thoughts! What do I mean by this? Well, if I asked you to show me your serve or your forehand you would be able to do – it’s a mechanical action, something that I can see. Confidence, on the other hand, is an intangible concept which in linguistics is referred to as nominalisation – essentially turning a verb, a doing thing, into a noun. For example….

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Progress Talks – Ten more Top Tips for Business or HR Leaders

Entrepreneurs, accountants, venture capitalists, HR or business development professionals…..

As a business leader or finance specialist I’m sure you want to guide your company to greater profitability. Part of that process is creating thriving cultures where individuals and teams are performing at high sustainable levels.

I have considerable experience of working with a variety of organisations & businesses that have had “problems” and have found that when leaders can create environments where “different” and effective conversationstake place both informally and formally then progress is quickly made. I have included some principles and ideas that have helped me to establish a reputation for creating progress through “Progress Talk and thinking”. As I like to say “change is inevitable but progress isn’t” so I hope you find these further 10 Top Tips and ideas useful. Let me know!….

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Progress Talks – Ten Top Tips for Business or HR Leaders

Entrepreneurs, accountants, venture capitalists, HR or business development professionals ….

As a business leader or finance specialist I’m sure you want to guide your company to greater profitability. Part of that process is creating thriving cultures where individuals and teams are performing at high sustainable levels.

I have considerable experience of working with a variety of organisations and businesses that have had “problems” and have found that when leaders can create environments where “different” and effective conversations take place both informally and formally then progress is quickly made. I have included some principles and ideas that have helped me to establish a reputation for creating progress through “Progress Talk and thinking”. As I like to say “change is inevitable but progress isn’t” so I hope you find these 10 Top Tips and ideas useful. Let me know!

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What is the shortest word in the English Language containing the letters abcdef?

The answer? Feedback.  Feedback is one of the essential elements of good communication in any relationship, in the workplace or otherwise and it can build or lose trust quickly. As feedback is about clear communication, it’s also a reflection of your company culture.  I’ve had a number of conversations recently with clients about “feedback”. Many of them have been given what I would consider inadequate feedback in that it’s all one way, namely pure criticism or “this is what’s wrong”. Why is it important to give feedback about what was even slightly positive or good about somebody’s actions and thinking?  Feedback should, in my opinion, also be part of a learning process so that the person receiving it also receives ideas for “learning” to improve performance. Neuroscientific findings suggest repetition creates new neuronal pathways, e.g. new thoughts and behaviours. Therefore, being focused on repeat behaviours or thoughts that worked even a bit on a daily basis, perhaps even several times a day, can help individuals build on success (see counter intuition below)…..

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