Yearly archives: 2012


Managing Poor Performance 3
Reading Time: 4 minutesEarlier this year the Roffey Park Institute published their excellent annual report – The Management Agenda. A staggering 46% of UK managers reported that poor performance is not tackled at all well in their organisation, rising to 60% in Public Sector managers. So what do I mean by Poor Performance? Simply put, poor performance is the failure [...]

Stop the Rot – Managing Poor Performance ~ Part 1


Culture AND Strategy for Success 1
Reading Time: 6 minutesHow many times have you seen stories in the business press or seen first-hand within your business examples of failures and successes that have been put down to poor strategy OR the wrong culture? One company that suffered the fallout of the strategy/culture collision is Kodak. Kodak was not ambivalent [...]

Strategy AND Culture For Success


3
Reading Time: 3 minutesFollowing on from my recent posts on Self-Limiting Beliefs (Part1, Part2), I’ve paid much more attention to the language people use around me to watch for self-limiting beliefs or self-restricting words that serve to embed these hindering thoughts as ‘facts’ in our subconscious – Personal barriers to success! How often [...]

Why Not or Why Not? – Removing Personal Barriers to ...



Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right! 11
Reading Time: 6 minutesIn part 1, we established what Self-limiting Beliefs are, what causes them and how to identify your own, because we all have them. In this post, I will be focusing on the most common self-limiting beliefs and how to start tackling them in your life. It is extremely easy to let [...]

Self-limiting Beliefs ~ Part 2


self-limiting beliefs 9
Reading Time: 5 minutesIf you are one of those people who constantly has negative thoughts or feelings running around inside you, or you find yourself regularly repeating bad habits or destructive patterns, most likely you have a hidden self-limiting belief lurking in your mind, holding you back from reaching your full potential, preventing [...]

Self-limiting Beliefs – Part 1


Star Performer - Attitude or Aptitude 6
Reading Time: 4 minutesI’ve been thinking a great deal of late about what makes the difference between a good team member and a great one, or for that matter a good leader or a great one. Aptitude or Attitude? I’ve come to the conclusion that Attitude is a key defining factor. Who are [...]

Aptitude or Attitude ~ What makes a Star Performer?



James Dyson 5
Reading Time: 5 minutesFollowing on from my last post Fail to Learn, Learn to Fail, I’ve done some research into some famous business people to see how rocky their road to success was. I was surprised by a few names and fascinated by others, so I thought I’d share six of the best [...]

Six of the Best …. Failures



Pace in your Organisation, Execution
Reading Time: 5 minutesIn part 3 of this 4 part series of blogs I covered the importance of PACE to improve organisational effectiveness and speed and specifically Communication: PACE = Planning + Alignment + Communication + Execution The fourth and final part of The Need for Speed ~ Driving Pace in Your Organisation [...]

The Need for Speed ~ Driving Pace in Your Organisation ...



communication and collaboration 1
Reading Time: 6 minutesIn part 2 of this four part series of blogs, I covered the importance of PACE to improve organisational effectiveness and speed and specifically Alignment: PACE = Planning + Alignment + Communication + Execution The third part of The Need for Speed ~ Driving Pace in Your Organisation will focus on Communication of your [...]

The Need for Speed ~ Driving Pace in Your Organisation ...


Alignment 4
Reading Time: 6 minutesIn part 1 of this four part series of blogs I covered the importance of PACE in your organisation to improve effectiveness and speed and specifically Planning: PACE = Planning + Alignment + Communication + Execution The second part of The Need for Speed ~ Driving Pace in Your Organisation will focus on [...]

The Need for Speed ~ Driving Pace in Your Organisation ...


Driving PACE in your organisation 3
Reading Time: 5 minutesSucceeding in today’s competitive business environment requires that your organisation be agile enough to respond quickly to internal and external change. To stay ahead, you have to explore new ways to grow your business – for example, by launching a new product or service or targeting a different marketplace. Speed [...]

The Need for Speed ~ Driving Pace in Your Organisation ...



Politics without the Politics 4
Reading Time: 7 minutesOffice politics is a fact of company life. Wherever there are two or more people working together, there will be politics and there will be opportunity for conflict. However, destructive office politics can demoralise people in an organisation, hamper productivity, and increase turnover of good staff,. Much as you might [...]

Playing Politics without the Politics



10
Reading Time: 8 minutesCommunicate or Fail may sound a little extreme. It’s not. Organisations and individuals can succeed or fail on the effectiveness of their communications. Communicate or Fail is a two-part post focussing on communications at an organisational level and on a personal level. Part 1 will focus on organisational communication. Good [...]

Communicate or Fail ~ Part 1



Destiny or Design - Choose to Succeed 5
Reading Time: 8 minutesLife is not something that just happens to you, something you are powerless to do anything about. You have choices. You can choose to succeed. It is never too late to improve your life and implement the changes that are going to lead you to your ambitions. I don’t profess to [...]

Destiny or Design ~ Choose to Succeed


Teamwork 3
Reading Time: 7 minutesTrue teamwork promotes individual and collective performance. Powerful teams value listening and communicating, sharing work responsibilities, provide support and can even make work more social and enjoyable. Team members are supportive of one another and recognise the interests and achievements of each other. I would go one step further and [...]

Creating Powerful Teams


Keep People Inspired 2
Reading Time: 4 minutesBusiness is all about measurement. Peter Drucker’s quote – “What gets measured gets managed” is never more true than in today’s tough economic climate. The use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are at the heart of most high performing businesses. However, there is often one important KPI missing,  and that is [...]

THE Key Performance Indicator – Keep People Inspired




Focus 3
Reading Time: 4 minutesBill Gates achieved monumental success with Microsoft, and attributes “focus” as the key to his success. He stated “maintaining focus is a key to success. You should understand your circle of competence and spend your time and energy there…I’ve learned that only through focus can you do world-class things, no [...]

Focus on Focus


Measuring Success
Reading Time: 9 minutesIn the sixth and final part in the series of The Brand New, Brand You, I will be covering the last step in the START process in Brand New, Brand You, Test. So you’ve got to grips with Brand New, Brand You. You’ve developed your Brand – Your values and [...]

The Brand New, Brand You! ~ Part 6



Reinforce - Brand New Brand You 1
Reading Time: 5 minutesIn the fifth part in the series of The Brand New, Brand You, I will be covering the fourth step in the START process in Brand New, Brand You, Reinforce. Now that you have started to establish the Brand New Brand You, it is important that you continually reinforce your [...]

The Brand New, Brand You! ~ Part 5


Online Brand 3
Reading Time: 14 minutesIn the fourth part in the series of The Brand New, Brand You, I will be covering the third step in the START process – Articulate. Brand You is who you already are, whether you are consciously aware of it or not. Brand New, Brand You is about building a [...]

The Brand New, Brand You! ~ Part 4




Brand New, Brand You - Self-discovery 7
Reading Time: 6 minutesIn the second part of the series of The Brand New, Brand You, I will be covering the first step in the START process in Brand New, Brand You, namely Self-discovery. START – Self-discovery A personal brand is much more than a job title or how you look. This first [...]

The Brand New, Brand You! ~ Part 2


Brand You START 8
Reading Time: 3 minutesI’ve had some feedback recently that people would like some support in finding new roles, building their personal profile and generally improving their employability. Brand New, Brand You is a series of Think Oak! posts to help you improve your personal brand in the increasingly crowded and competitive job market. Brands [...]

The Brand New, Brand You ~ Part 1


Milestones 2
Reading Time: 7 minutesThere are many theories on implemnting change effectively. Many originate with leadership and change management guru, John Kotter. A professor at Harvard Business School and world-renowned change expert, Kotter introduced his eight-step change process in his 1995 book, “Leading Change” with a follow-up work “Our Iceberg is Melting” in 2006. Step [...]

Implementing Change Effectively



Dodo
Reading Time: 4 minutesWith today’s rapidly evolving technology and business markets in their most challenging time for decades, companies rise and fall faster than ever before. Leaders must constantly anticipate the market and their customer needs and that sometimes means you need to make changes – be that processes, products, organisational structure, or even the [...]

Dead as a Dodo…..Why Teams Don’t / Won’t Change