Archive for the ‘Communication’ category

Let me start this blog with a bit of a story (just bear with me here)……

A few years ago we were on holiday with some friends who had a young son and to keep him occupied they had brought along a kit for him to make bracelets. One quiet afternoon he decided to make everyone a friendship bracelet. He spent ages selecting the materials, choosing the design and then making each one. He then took great pride and pleasure in giving each of us our own individual bracelets. Whilst it was a lovely idea, with lots of thought, care and attention going into the making of it, the skills didn’t quite match up to the intention and well… it wasn’t the best bracelet that I have ever seen. However the thought behind it was wonderful and meant a lot to me. Here was someone who had taken the time effort and trouble to think about, make and give me something.

‘ » Read more: Feedback; It’s a gift, you choose what to do with it…….

In times of organisational re-structuring attention is quite rightly given to those that are being impacted and who are leaving the business due to redundancy. But beware of forgetting to spend time and effort thinking about the people that will remain in the ‘new organisation’ as well, otherwise it could cost you in the long run.

» Read more: Organisational Change; Looking after those left behind…

I caught up with my friend the other day, the one who told me of the new team leader who had got off to a shaky start with her team (See my previous blogs post: A New Manager). Well, it transpires that this new team leader is also not that understanding when it comes to Performance Management either. It seems that she still has some way to go in her development as a manager!

“Be the change you want to see….”

» Read more: Performance Management – Managers need to be role models

Meetings seem to always be a hot topic of conversation on the web with quite a few comments on Twitter and other platforms about how dire they are etc. All this chatter got me thinking about some of the meetings that I had been in that had been well run and then some of the meetings that had ‘lost there way’ and not been very successful at all. Meetings are expensive and time consuming, yet we don’t often think about how much meetings are actually costing our businesses. How often have you stopped to think about the actual value that your meetings create? Of even if they were actually necessary in the first place. That then led me to start thinking about how we could be Evaluating Meetings from now on?

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» Read more: Evaluating Meetings – Meeting Nightmares!

It is always difficult to tackle negative behaviour in a positive way that corrects the issue without causing resentment and / or damage to the relationship.

The BIFF model is one of the simplest and most effective ways of guiding your approach to the situation that I have come across.

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» Read more: Challenging Negative Behaviour

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine yesterday who was telling me about a new Manager within their organisation. Following a re-structure this person has been appointed to the newly created role of Area Manager and is responsible for 2 or 3 teams spread across a geographical area.

The story continued in that the new Area Manager has now been in position for approximately 5 weeks and to date there has been no contact with their new team(s) either individually or collectively. It appears that the only way to get to meet with the new manager is to phone them direct and ask for an appointment in their diary.

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» Read more: A New Manager ……….