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 […]
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 […]
Teamship – an inside look at Team GB’s preparations for London 2012

I was expecting Sir Clive to tell us about some of the psychological techniques he uses to get the very best out of his players. Maybe also a bit about the tactics used in rugby and what we business people can learn from them. What he actually said was nothing to do with sports psychology […]