Do you dread having to make an important presentation? Do your hands sweat? Does your mouth go dry? When you start to speak, does your brain freeze up?
There are few people who don’t feel some nervousness when they speak to a large audience in a formal environment, but once you know how, you can control [...]

You can choose how you look at things. You can say: I failed.  Or you can say: I did not pass this time. You can say: losing my job was the worst thing that could happen to me. Or you can say: losing my job gives me the chance to start my own business.
Re-framing your [...]

Toxic people are those whose attitudes and behaviour poison the environment. They blame, complain and criticise, put people down, and infect everyone with their pessimism, negativity and bad humour. Some moan about anyone they see as more successful than they are; some are angry; others are bullies who dominate and humiliate anyone they see as [...]

While most things change, rapidly and unpredictably, a few manage to stay the same in spite of all efforts to the contrary. To a great extent leadership style is one of them.
On the face of it that sounds unlikely, given the extensive research that has been done into leadership best practice over the decades and [...]

How do you convince someone to improve their performance when they have been paid – and promoted – for years, for what you consider to be sub-standard performance?
One of the most difficult performance management problems is the one where you have taken over a team where people have not received honest feedback in the past. [...]

When it comes to communicating about feelings, it is noticeable how most people operate in one or other of two modes.
Most of the time, they do not share their feelings. You never quite know what they are really thinking, or where you stand with them. You get hints in their non-verbal behaviour or in humorous [...]

They sent me on the training course
They didn’t make it clear
They haven’t come back to me
They didn’t do it right the first time
They never answer the phone
I have heard all of these statements this week. It’s been quite a week! They seem to be everywhere, messing up our lives as usual. They have a lot [...]

The majority of people with whom I consult are concerned about the quality of their relationships, either in their personal lives or at work, or both. While they may realise that the conversations they hold reflect the tone of their relationships, they are often unaware of the problems they create for themselves in the way [...]