» Managing people

Managing people is a vague concept. At its widest, it encompasses every relationship between two people in a business. Our approach to managing people covers how managers organise the people for whom they are responsible, and how they manage the projects, enterprises for which they are responsible. There is, of course, a huge overlap between these two.

Managing people

Attitude

Attitude is not a negative word. It’s true you can have a bad attitude towards something; but equally you can have a good attitude towards something, for example business

The chorusmaster’s tale

Havergal Brian's Gothic symphony remains one of the most challenging works in the choral repertoire. Far from being the random jottings of a deluded old man, the work is a

What to do to stop projects failing

To be honest, this might be better titled, What to do to reduce the risk of projects failing. It's a very brief summary in response to the interesting work done by the

A short piece about the «facilitating environment»

Creating a “facilitating environment” is a key component of leadership. And, as I suggest leadership is an approach, an attitude, rather than a job description, it is

What is a «facilitating environment»?

Some time ago, I was running a workshop about leadership for charity bosses. During the conversation, one of the participants told us about the time when her charity lost a

An approach to hiring and inducting graduates that works

During the course of our conversation, it became apparent that Waterstons not only has a well-developed process for bringing new graduate recruits into the business, but also

The intergenerational communication gap at work

That there is an intergenerational communication gap shouldn’t come as surprise. Many people experience it directly. And, ’twas ever thus:

A short piece about (un)conscious (in)competence

A useful model of how we learn. It applies to any other skill in which there is a strong behavioural component which is also restricted in the choices of behaviour possible.

A short piece about judgement

When we judge someone we apply a label to them that is very hard for them to remove. Our judgments are often ill informed—or at least under-informed—and we naturally fill in

Resistance

To handle resistance to your ideas and influence during negotiation, you will first need to know why there is an objection. Typically, people object or resist because they:

A short piece about dealing with difficult people

In a webpage that I will elaborate and extend any day now, I give no fewer than thirty tips for dealing with difficult people. However, the three top ones are:

Saying ‘no’: 13 tips

Sometimes you have to be able to say 'no' and not leave yourself open to influence or manipulation. When we just take on everything thrown at us, our bosses and colleagues

A short piece about why we behave the way we do

We invariably behave in a certain way at every moment in our lives for reasons. We might believe it is the right thing to do. We might feel that acting in this way will

Noticing body language: 14 tips

Humans are the only animals to communicate using words. The rest of the animal kingdom manages very well with non-verbal signals. Your body language releases lots of subtle

Metaprograms

Metaprograms are ways in which people choose to approach life and their relationships with other people

A short piece about well formed outcomes

If you are seeking to solve a problem, what do you want to have happen? A well formed outcome is one that is achievable and purposeful and which satisfies all the following

A short piece about problems

Whenever anybody tells me they have a problem, all I know at that moment is that that is not the problem.

How to transform a relationship in twenty minutes

The client of a colleague reported difficulty being a parent to his middle child. The child was clearly unhappy. The father was unhappy because he did not know what to do

The best way to make decisions

Note, this article is not called “the way to make the best decisions”. However, the best method of decision making goes as follows.

Trust me, I’m a director

... the board wanted me to interview each member of the business... One finding was very prominent: the staff believed that the directors didn’t trust them.

Being right

Being right can be a big problem for people in charge—and indeed for people whose quality of service relies on their capacity to give good advice: accountants, financial

Thinker, feeler, knower, sensor ?

In 1928, Carl Jung identified that people receive and process information in four ways: thinking, feeling, intuition and sensing (in a kinaesthetic sense)

The behaviour cycle

For every person, behaviour is driven by their emotions and feelings, and by their thoughts and beliefs. One cannot act unless one has premises on which to initiate

Business functional structure

It is a truism that there is a lot to do in business. Businesses of more than one person need to be confident that each person knows their responsibilities

Creating a good environment for staff

In this video, Jeremy Marchant talks about how team dynamics affect performance at work and what the manager can do

Seven ways for better teamwork

Success for the team comes from each person giving or being their best; neither of these involve winning or beating others.

Stretch—don’t stress

It is a natural behavioural strategy to avoid situations which are stressful or have the potential to be stressful.

Influencing others

To help us understand how to be more influential it’s useful to understand what generates our and others’ behaviour.

Leadership and emotional intelligence

In this video, Jeremy Marchant discusses an emotionally intelligent approach to leadership and suggests a new, effective way of thinking about management and leadership.

What do managers who are leaders do…

We believe leaders differentiate themselves from others in four ways...

Assertiveness

Being assertive means respecting yourself and other people; seeing people as equal to you, not better than you or less important than you.

Why being in control is not always a good idea

I once had a boss who wouldn’t let out of the door a proposal, or even a letter, I’d written before he had revised it half a dozen times. How did I feel?

An emotionally intelligent view of motivation

A friend’s daughter went on an assertiveness course. “How did it go?” we asked when she returned. “It was alright, but people are still not doing what I tell them to do.”