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Effective Leadership - Tip 6 - Always Exercise Accountability

Nov 28, 2017
1 min

Effective Leadership - Tip 6 - Always Exercise Accountability

Once you have made a decision and allocated the tasks, always hold people to account for delivering. To do so, it is important that they are clear about what is required and have adequate resources (including time) to do so. It is usually helpful if they have had a say in delivery targets as well. Of course, things may change, and the original goal may no longer be desirable and require amendment or cancellation. If that decision has been made below your level, that’s fine (a

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Effective Leadership - Tip 5 – Learn to Coach and Mentor.

Nov 22, 2017
2 min

Effective Leadership - Tip 5 – Learn to Coach and Mentor.

Coaching and mentoring are 2 essential tools in the leader’s arsenal. The vast majority of large, successful companies now expect their managers to be able to use these skills to motivate and develop their teams. This results in much higher levels of employee engagement with attendant business benefits (higher profitability, lower staff turnover, greater agility, etc.). Coaching is used to help the coachee articulate the root cause/s of the problem and generate solutions to a

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Effective Leadership - Tip 4

Nov 14, 2017
1 min

Effective Leadership - Tip 4

Delegate effectively. There are 2 main errors leaders can make: delegate too little, too late and continue to micro-manage, or delegate too much and to the wrong person. Both are very damaging. The first error severely limits the both individual and organisational capacity. It also ensures that ideas and staff engagement will be sparse and condemns the manager to, at best, a stressful tenure. The second error lacks control, puts the subordinate in a difficult position and car

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Why Bother With Teams?

Nov 10, 2017
1 min

Why Bother With Teams?

Simple but useful reminder on how teams help businesses: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-teams-matter-jo-keeler/ Belbin is a great tool for facilitating the right mix of team skills and it is particularly effective when used in conjunction with other behavioural/psychometric tools such as DiSC and TSDI. As always, good leadership is the glue that holds it all together. Call Aspire Management Consultancy Ltd on 020 3904 7501 for more information. #TeamBuilding #Productivit

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Effective Leadership - Tip 3

Nov 8, 2017
1 min

Effective Leadership - Tip 3

There are many exciting aspects to leadership: making decisions, growing your staff, setting the vision, etc. Communicating the same message again and again may not be one of them, but it is no less important. Studies show that employees need to hear a message 7 times on average before they really believe the senior management means it and that it is important. Many an organisation has launched a bold new strategy with great fanfare only to find that little really changes in

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Effective Leadership - Tip 2

Oct 30, 2017
1 min

Effective Leadership - Tip 2

Be consistent but tailor your style. It is important to be even-handed and consistent when dealing with your team whilst also understanding that each person is an individual with different motivations and preferred behaviours. The good leader will behave consistently and apply common, high standards when holding others to account or praising them for their behaviour. However, he will tailor his style according to the needs and preferences of individual team members (also taki

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Effective Leadership - Tip 1

Oct 24, 2017
1 min

Effective Leadership - Tip 1

Be decisive! There is little more poisonous to a team than an indecisive leader. Note that this is very different from rashness. If you have time to make a decision, use it wisely, but remember that you will never have all the information or assurances you want, and you will have to act on incomplete or even contradictory information. The key is to fail quickly and cheaply (how many projects continue to consume resources long after it is clear they will not deliver the benefi

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Effective Meetings - Tip 10

Oct 9, 2017
1 min

Effective Meetings - Tip 10

Okay, as this is the last in the '10 tips' series for meetings, here are 2 to finish with: 1. Debrief with self and others after a meeting. What went well, what didn't work? How could you do it differently next time? Of course, this is a really helpful thing to do not just after meetings but after pitches, projects, programmes, etc. It's amazing how many companies have to relearn the same lessons because they don't review. Incidentally, choose objective and constructive peopl

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Effective Meetings - Tip 9

Oct 2, 2017
1 min

Effective Meetings - Tip 9

Be prepared. Lots of aspects to this, of course, but I find it helpful to focus on the following 2 activities: Research the attendees by checking out their profiles on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Then, look at the wider picture: For example, if they are representing other companies, what are the big issues and opportunities those other companies are facing? This is particularly helpful during sales meetings: If you can show an awareness of your potential client’s motiva

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Effective Meetings - Tip 8

Sep 25, 2017
1 min

Effective Meetings - Tip 8

Be clear about what outcomes the meeting must produce and prioritise the agenda. What decisions must be made and to whom must they be communicated? How? Being clear about these things at the start of the meeting will help you to prioritise discussion points and to allocate time more appropriately. In a dynamic environment, priorities and situations change, so don’t be a slave to the agenda. Change the agenda order and remove/add points as necessary (remembering that your team

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Mistakes Execs Make When Leaving

Sep 22, 2017
1 min

Mistakes Execs Make When Leaving

HBR conducted a survey of more than 700 senior executives who had resigned from a previous position - only 16% reported that they would have done nothing differently when they did so. Their top 3 regrets were: 1) Being unprepared for the worst-case scenario (fired on the spot). 2) Neglecting to rehearse (thus failing to articulate the core reason/s) 3) Failing to foresee the fallout (hurt feeling, misunderstandings, feelings of betrayal, etc.). Interestingly, otherwise sharp

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IQ versus EQ in the workplace

Sep 20, 2017
1 min

IQ versus EQ in the workplace

Really good article by Regus: "A successful leader needs to be at ease switching between emotionally driven decisions and purely intellectual ones." It's okay to have a preferred style, but good leaders, including very senior leaders, must be able to flex their approach depending on the needs of the task, team, individual and the wider environment. Here's a link to the full article: https://goo.gl/8z1Jsi Get in touch for help with understanding and developing your EQ. #Commun

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Effective Meetings - Tip 7

Sep 18, 2017
1 min

Effective Meetings - Tip 7

Save yourself a lot of time and stress by managing communications properly: Ensure the agenda is sent out in good time to allow people to prepare and have the minutes distributed as soon as possible after the meeting whilst all is still fresh. Maximum is usually within 5 working days, but the shorter the better. ALSO, and crucially, before everyone rushes off at the end of the meeting, spend a little time summarising the decisions and agreeing what will be communicated across

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Questions for Leaders to Ask

Sep 12, 2017
1 min

Questions for Leaders to Ask

Not a comprehensive list, but useful for focusing effort and keeping the team on track: https://hbr.org/2017/04/5-questions-leaders-should-be-asking-all-the-time. Appropriate questions can be very helpful for generating new ideas, promoting buy-in, clarifying understanding, getting the quieter team members involved, etc. Even if you know precisely what you want to achieve and do, it can be a useful technique. #ActionCentredLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #Meetings #Decision

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Investing in People - Why bother?

Sep 12, 2017
1 min

Investing in People - Why bother?

Another good article from HBR (I'm not on commission, honest!). Note the 'time' and 'energy' sections: getting those 2 right will lead to real business benefits (and you'll enjoy working towards them much more as well!). Here's the link: https://hbr.org/2017/09/the-case-for-investing-more-in-people #PersonalDevelopment #StaffDevelopment #Management #Effectiveness

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Effective Meetings - Tip 6

Sep 11, 2017
1 min

Effective Meetings - Tip 6

When leading a discussion on contentious matters, frame the issues in a neutral manner, explain the outcomes required from the meeting and allow your team to work it through. A common mistake is for the leader to speak too much and/or to 'anchor' the discussion, i.e. making it clear what he/she thinks the solution should be. Such an approach stifles creativity (who wants to go against the boss?) and precludes buy-in (there is no ownership of the solution which has been given

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How to Focus at Work

Sep 11, 2017
1 min

How to Focus at Work

Some good tips for those who find it difficult to focus. Even if that's not you, the practices are relevant: https://hbr.org/2017/09/5-ways-to-focus-at-work-from-an-executive-whos-struggled-with-adhd#comment-section #PersonalDevelopment #Management #Effectiveness

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Ready to get back to work?

Sep 8, 2017
1 min

Ready to get back to work?

Or does the stress of dealing with difficult people and not being able to work to your strengths fill you with dread? This will help: goo.gl/TSSi5z I really like this tool - practical, simple and quick to apply, but yields profound, positive changes. What's not to like? Give Ian a call on 020 7904 7501 to discuss further. #TeamBuilding #Productivity #Management #PersonalDevelopment #PersonalStrengths #Effectiveness

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Effective Meetings - Tip 5

Sep 5, 2017
1 min

Effective Meetings - Tip 5

Decide how long the meeting needs to be, ensure it starts and finishes on time, and hold everyone accountable for time discipline. Just about every leader says they are very busy and yet they are often prepared to allow people to arrive 5 minutes late. For a 30 minute meeting, that's a waste ratio of 17% (for everyone who is kept waiting). Would anyone accept a 17% financial penalty that could be easily avoided? Then why accept it when applied to time, one of the most limite

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Effective Meetings - Tip 3

Aug 29, 2017
1 min

Effective Meetings - Tip 3

if you have time, use it to generate new ideas and to think about solutions to complex issues. Decisiveness is not the same as impatience!

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