Archive for the ‘Teams’ category

Emotional Intelligence and you

Emotional intelligence (EI) is our ability to understand and manage emotions in ourselves and in others. EI is a major factor in your personal and professional perceptions and interactions and is now becoming a more preferred method for evaluating employee credentials than simply looking at their IQ.

» Read more: Emotional Intelligence and what it can mean for you

This second of two blog entries about some leadership lessons that I drew from a trip across America via Route 66 earlier this year.

If you missed the first instalment you can catch-up with it here.

We we’re lucky enough to travel the whole Route from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California. It had been an ambition for a while and we wanted to do it the proper way, on a Harley Davidson motorcycle. We made the trip as part of a group in an organised tour run by Eaglerider in the USA.

So how did I draw Leadership lessons out of this experience you may well ask? Well, being a management trainer and coach I try to look for learning in everything that I do and everywhere that I go. Our Route 66 experience was literally ‘littered’ with them, from the people that have helped the Route to survive and prosper, and the people who fought and in some cases continue to fight to have their town, city or attraction listed as a Route 66 Historic monument. However it is our guides and support teams on our journey that I want to focus on today for they were truly inspirational. So what did I learn?

» Read more: Leadership Lessons from Route 66 (Pt 2)

This blog entry is based around some leadership lessons that I drew from a trip across America via Route 66 earlier this year. We travelled the whole Route from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California. It had been an ambition for a while and we wanted to do it the proper way, on a Harley Davidson motorcycle. We made the trip as part of a group in an organised tour run by Eaglerider in the USA.

This is a two part blog with 5 Leadership lessons in each one. The second one can be found here.

» Read more: Leadership Lessons from Route 66 (Pt. 1)

Over the last few years executive coaching has enjoyed growing popularity in the world of staff development. It’s no-longer viewed as solely the domain of senior management or simply for staff requiring remedial development (“to get them back on-track”). It is becoming regarded as an essential tool for developing both existing managers and new ‘high potential’ staff alike.

However, despite this growing popularity, many common misconceptions still exist. These mainly revolve around the nature of the work that executive coaches do and the results they’re expected to achieve.

» Read more: Executive coaching: Common Misconceptions

Further to our earlier posting 20 Tips for Managing Time, Here are 20 more tips to help you be more effective in the way that you plan you day, week, month year.

TiMe Management is one of those topics that we can all find difficult to address at times. Am I perfect at managing my time or planning my day, no I’m not, but I do use the tools and tips below to help plan my day and manage my time more effectively. The key to changing most behaviour is awareness, so be aware of when you’re not effectively using your time, and then do something about it!

So to help you, pure and simple here is a list of 20 tips for managing time and setting yourself up for a productive day.

» Read more: 20 more tips for Time Management

Do you regularly plan, organise or lead meetings either with your team or clients? Do you want a way of leading meetings effectively?

If so, below you will find some top tips for leading meetings effectively to ensure that you are getting the maximum value from everyone that is present. After all, meetings are an expensive use of everyone’s time, so make them effective, make them work for you and your team.

» Read more: Leading Meetings Effectively

Time Management or as I prefer to call it TiMe Management is one of those topics that we can all find difficult to address at times. Am I perfect at managing my time or planning my day, no I’m not, but I do use the tools and tips below to help plan my day and manage my time more effectively. The key to changing most behaviour is awareness, so be aware of when you’re not effectively using your time, and then do something about it!

So to help you, pure and simple here is a list of 20 tips for managing time and setting yourself up for a productive day.

» Read more: 20 Tips for Time Management

Essential Meeting Skills

How frustrating is it when your meetings don’t run to time?

How frustrating is it when you receive an invitation to a meeting and it’s not clear what will be discussed or the purpose of the meeting is not clear?

Well, if you use three little letters when planning a meeting or asking questions about the meeting you will be able to gain this much needed clarity.

The three letters are P P O and they stand for;

» Read more: Planning a meeting – Use PPO!

Do you struggle to say no to requests for your time?

Do you drop whatever you’re doing to help others despite having deadlines?

If the answer to the two questions above was yes, then you will probably benefit from these approaches for saying No more effectively.

» Read more: Being Assertive: Approaches for saying No….

I saw the photo and story below shared by a friend on Facebook a couple of months ago and thought that it was such a brilliant way of getting the message across about the damage that we can cause our fellow human-beings when we bully someone. It is so simple and effective that I want to share it with you here.

» Read more: Bullying – A lesson for us all?