This is the fifth of the blog posts based on the top ten most read Straight Talk Tips that go to my clients each month. The tips are free and you can sign up for them here
Essential characteristics of good leaders
From ancient philosophers to modern scholars and consultants, we have been obsessed with finding out what [...]
This is the fourth of the blog posts based on the top ten most read Straight Talk Tips that go to my clients each month. The tips are free and you can sign up for them here
Importance of managing emotions in difficult conversations
Conversations about performance or behaviour have many starting points but all have an underlying [...]
This is the second of the blog posts based on the top ten most read Straight Talk Tips that go to my clients each month. The tips are free and you can sign up for them here
Challenges and choices Re-title : How to plan better conversations
Every conversation that we hold presents challenges and choices.
The biggest [...]
One conversation can make or break a relationship, a career or a life. No wonder we find some of our conversations really scary. Getting to a point where you can speak up about almost anything to almost anyone takes practice, but if you start with these tips in mind you’ll go wrong less often.
1. Choose [...]
Everything you say in a meeting can be categorised into one of three types of behaviour. You can put forward new ideas; you can give support to, or disagree with, what has been said; and you can make sure that the information in the meeting is managed so it is clear and understood by everyone. [...]
If you want to build a high performing team you must know how to hold people to account for their performance. In general however, people are more skilled at avoiding accountability than others are at holding them to account. There are three tactics that are most commonly used. For each, there is a specific behaviour [...]
The old acronym K.I.SS. - Keep It Simple Stupid - is as well understood and relevant today as it ever was. In spite of that, much business communication is ineffective, whether it’s written or spoken.
People tend to ramble, never getting to the point. They focus more on showing what they know, rather than on [...]
If you are a stand-up comic or a natural story teller, you may well decide to use humour as a way of making your presentations or public speaking opportunities memorable. For the rest of us, it is a high risk strategy.
There are three main reasons why attempts at humour in presentations and speeches can fall [...]
Are there people around you behaving like this?
They perform way under their capabilities even though you hold regular performance reviews
They use up most of their sick leave each year although you see no evidence of any serious illness
They use mobile phones during meetings for mail and messages in defiance of agreements to [...]
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 [...]