Carrot or Stick? Or is there a Better Way to Motivate your Team?
One of the most common challenges all business owners face is how to get the best out of their team. As Tom Peters once said: “Most employees are motivated, energetic, committed, enthusiastic and loyal….. except for the eight hours a day they work for you!” Seriously, have you ever considered what kind of relationship you […]
How to Save Money on your Payroll…
In a recent UK survey supervisors were asked to rank the importance of 10 motivators for their employees. The employees were then asked to rank the same 10 motivators in order of what was important to them. Here’s what the survey found:- It looks like there’s a big difference between what the employees think and […]
Ever felt Trapped in a Box? Management Styles
In my work with SMEs there’s one challenge that comes time and time again and it’s this: The business owner would like to grow the business But they are already working far too many hours So in order to grow, they need to employee more people But they can’t afford to do that because there […]
Is Big Brother Watching you? The emerging science of Neuro-Marketing…
One of the most exciting areas of scientific discovery over recent years has been the enormous progress scientists have made in understanding of how our brains work. This has been made possible by huge advances in the quality of brain imaging. Modern scanners mean we can now see which parts of the brain are active […]
Management in the Moment – what to do when one of your team screws up
People are human. From time to time we all make mistakes. I make mistakes (frequently). You make mistakes (sometimes). And from time to time members of your team make mistakes. What’s the best thing to do when someone in your team drops the ball? First, let’s take a look at what typically happens in a […]
Performance and Leadership – Don’t Panic Captain Mainwaring!
I don’t watch much TV these days, but last weekend I was staying with my parents when a repeat of Dad’s Army came on. My dad’s a big fan so we sat down and watched it together. (I guess I’m showing my age when I say I’m old enough to remember when Dad’s Army first […]
Management – How to give Feedback
When I was a corporate manager (way back in those dim distant days when mobile phones were used for making phone calls and Facebook and Twitter hadn’t yet been invented…) we used to do things called Annual Appraisals. I remember it well. Once a year, normally just after Easter, a whole load of gumph from […]