Is the most popular person in your business singlehandedly destroying it? For some years my path has regularly crossed an individual who on the face of it is the driving force behind the team’s success. She brings in energy, vibrancy, and draws people together. She appears caring and empathetic. But what I have increasingly become […]
Welcome to our blog
From ‘I’ to ‘We’ – A positive culture can’t survive if there is no sense of team
How do you create a culture of engagement, high employee morale, great retention of good staff when for decades all the workplace legislation that has been published in the UK relates to Individual Rights, rather than the Rights of the team or group? How does it work in your family or friendship group? Do you […]
Bam! The frustration of dealing with staff who lack the skills to do their job!
I recently sat for 9 long hours on a plane. I read a really good book from start to finish, but 9 hours is a long time to be sat on your backside, especially following 3 hours bottom numbing in the departure lounge, and 90 minutes of inactivity on public transport getting to the airport […]
The Demonisation of Zero Hours Contracts
Welcome to my blog. In this blog I wanted to talk about zero hours and flexibility. It infuriates me when employment practices are dictated by over emotional and ill thought through media/public hysteria. In recent years, I have been horrified by the demonisation of zero hours contracts. We live in a world where 75% of […]
Harassment in the workplace … are your staff saying #Metoo?
#MeToo has been trending since the Harvey Weinstein media fury kicked off. Men and women are coming forwards saying that they too have had to deal with harassment. I empathise. It is endemic. Both the serious stuff and the lesser kind of harassment. The loud assertive voices saying ‘get over it’ or ‘you’re being over […]
Is workplace anger making life miserable?
A topic that seems to have raised its head on a regular basis over the past few months has been that of anger. Perhaps prompted by us at Jaluch supporting a lot of organisations with redundancies, grievances and disciplinaries at the moment…. a real hotbed of change and unrest perhaps brought on in part by […]
Racism in the workplace – act now and stamp it out!
In recent months at Jaluch, we have seen more racism in the workplace than at any other time I can recall in the past 20 years of running an HR business. And whilst some of it is mild (if there is such a thing) what is really worrying is that quite a bit of it […]
Managing yourself: productivity review
Is it time for a productivity review? We all spend much of each day striving to be effective and productive. But how many of us have a clue about our actual level of productivity? If you could rate your productivity in the past 60 mins what score would you give out of ten? Go on, […]
Do leaders understand what society wants of them?
Last week I watched endless news reports about the Hillsborough verdict and the BHS fiasco. This all follows years of major issues around honesty and integrity in government, in the NHS, in boardrooms, in charities etc. With this in mind, I must ask… do leaders understand what society wants from them? It appears to be […]
Seven key lessons I’ve learned about managing staff
There is a special art to managing staff. Here, I’ve put together my top 7 management lessons to help you effectively manage your team and guide your company to greatness! 1. One size doesn’t fit all… As a people manager, you must remain flexible and adaptable, because things change all the time. People are complicated […]
How many of our leaders are mindless bureaucrats?
‘Process and Procedure are the last hiding place for people without the wit and the wisdom to do the job.’ (This has always been my favourite quote from The Office). I have used this quote before in a blog and I have no hesitation in using it again. For this week I have been incensed […]
Do all HR Managers deserve more money?
When you read about and see the complex people problems HR managers have to deal with, you really have to wonder if they should be paid more than anyone else. Sometimes you couldn’t make it all up, what employees get up to, what they fail to learn, what chaos they land themselves in. It’s a […]
Bosses criticised for Micromanaging staff
‘Stop micro managing me!’ Is fast becoming the refrain of unhappy employees. How many managers will have faced criticism about micromanaging staff in recent months? A significant number I expect. There are even articles that talk of managers’ duty to give clear responsibility to their employees and clearly step back from any sort of micromanagement. […]
Tackling poor performance
Almost every organisation I come into contact with admits to needing training for some or all of their managers in how to manage employee performance. Employers know there is a lack of skill to confidently and competently manage performance. Their employees know that their under performing colleagues are seldom properly managed. And their managers themselves often […]
Mad, bad and oh so sad… the challenges of employing great staff!
It only happens in the summer months I am sure. Does everyone go a bit loopy and clap happy? This week I have read about a square running tack, a mad woman with a chocolate cake on her head and an employee whose claim to fame was to still have all his teeth. It’s a […]
Leadership – lead, lead or lead?
I was once chatting with a Director who was describing one of his management team. “Her a leader? No chance! She couldn’t even manage her way out of a paper bag”. Ahh! Houston, we have a problem! Leaving aside those who haven’t even cracked the management part of the job yet, my thoughts in recent […]
‘e’ or ‘me’ to develop management skills?
This week I wanted to talk about e or me? By ‘e’ I am referring to e-learning and by ‘me’ I am referring to a real person – the trainer. When I talk to business and finance directors they all want to talk about e-learning. HR and training half heartedly talk about e-learning, but enthusiastically […]
Recruitment versus dismissal
Before I start this week’s blog, I just wanted to point out that last month there were 795 people who read my blog on the Jaluch website. But none of you left any feedback or comments! Cat got your tongue? All sensible thought flown straight out of your head? Typing fingers broken after a tussle […]
I don’t know … and its impact on staff development
Today I met some lovely business women in Jeddah and one of our conversations was about whether it is acceptable in business to simply say ‘I don’t know’. If, when asked something, you say ‘I don’t know’, is it a sign of weakness? I have heard it suggested that you are better off saying ‘let […]
Leadership competencies under scrutiny
This week’s blog was prompted by an article I read in the Harvard Business Review. At Jaluch, we do a lot of work with leaders and deliver many leadership programmes and whilst we often talk about a need to review the leadership competencies that many of our clients use, we rarely see major change in […]
Leadership integrity hits a new low
I am sure you have all read this week of the 17 year old youth police commissioner who after just one day of service was shown to be shockingly prejudiced against so many parts of the society she has been appointed to represent. I am less interested in whether Paris Brown ultimately keeps her job, […]
Binning the SMART objectives
It’s a radical approach, but would your whole performance review experience be improved if you binned the SMART objectives? Having delivered training in how to set and write up SMART objectives for many years now, I don’t suggest this lightly. But I do suggest it as SMART objectives seem to be universally hated, so perhaps […]
Are our business leaders really this bad?
A recent survey provided the following stats: 1 in 4 leaders have a destructive approach to management 47% of employees feel threatened by their leaders Just 15% of the workforce say their leader is interested in how they feel Only one-third of leaders are self-aware 24% said the leader of their current organisation was entirely […]
Managing under performance
A survey recently suggested that 63% of small business owners worry about how to terminate the employment of their under performing employees. Sound familiar? But its not just small business owners, is it? In my experience there will be just as many managers in the larger organisations who either don’t know how to go about […]
Who inspires you?
I have been talking about leadership and role models to a number of business and student groups recently. Who inspires us today to choose our careers, develop our skills, aspire to the board, or set up a business on our own? What I have found is, if you ask a group of students, invariably the […]
Company confidentiality
Who cares? We’re on a train! Bookbinders unravelled… I do like it when I’m pondering what to blog about, then something rears up and slaps me in the face! This is what happened last week. I boarded a train to London, the journey was to take 90 minutes so I thought I could work sat […]
Why staff don’t listen to negative feedback
In recent weeks, during various training sessions, discussions have turned to how to successfully give staff the feedback they won’t necessarily want to hear. I’m sure that many of you know the ‘sandwich’ technique for giving feedback – some call it the ‘burger’ – anyway, in essence, its about giving some positive feedback at the start and […]
Twit twoo
Who’s a moody, misery guts in your business? Yesterday I heard a guy on the radio saying, it’s now possible to monitor the overall daily mood of the world by analysing global tweets on Twitter. So what you might say! But they have also worked out that the Dow Jones index actually responds to the […]
Whose responsibility?
Today I am speaking at one of the banks in London on Motivation. Part of my speech relates to responsibility for motivation – are we each responsible for our own motivation? Or are our companies and managers responsible? Perhaps you take the view it should be a shared responsibility? I suspect many will say it […]
Instant gravy, instant noodles and summary dismissal!
Many line managers know that summary dismissal means ‘you’re fired’ – so all clear on the meaning of the word ‘dismissal’ then, but perhaps not so clear on the meaning of the word ‘summary’? You could (if you are a line manager) be forgiven for thinking that ‘summary’ means ‘instant’ as we come across a lot […]
How great is your body
I read an interesting article this week on how leaders need to be aware of, and use their bodies to lead! Other than where the imagination takes you on this theme – with whichever leader you know who springs to mind! I thought I’d take this opportunity to give you a few lighthearted reminders on […]
The incompetence of line managers
Joey Goodfellow joined the company five years ago as a machine operator. He then progressed through the ranks as a result of his enthusiasm, work ethic and general good nature to deputy supervisor and then, after a round of redundancies, he suddenly found himself line managing 25 other machinists. Joey Goodfellow had experienced what so […]
Appraisal angst
For many, it’s performance review time of year again. A time when managers sigh, their stomachs churn, headaches set in and brains whirr to think of any viable excuses to get them out of all that extra paperwork, time spent in meetings and embarrassment when difficult issues need to be addressed and recorded. On the […]
Sick of sickies
A recent survey showed that 21% of staff said the last day they took off work ‘sick’ they weren’t actually sick at all, but were instead pulling a ‘sickie’. 21%? It’s enough to blow your mind if you are a line manager or company owner. So, what would it feel like to lop 21% of your […]
