Bizarre, isn’t it? Direct eye contact was left behind when we moved our presentations and meetings online. In almost every […]
Bizarre, isn’t it? Direct eye contact was left behind when we moved our presentations and meetings online. In almost every […]
Audience abuse Well, all right, you may have seen worse – this is, after all, the era of PowerPoint audience-abuse – […]
Recognising, responding, and reporting aggressive behaviours in the workplace – supporting health and safety systems Training with actors. These workshops take […]
Insights from the front-line What do workers really think about their leaders? Your leaders might be surprised. With Roydon’s help […]
It depends.
If you’re an athlete, fair enough. to make it to the top you need your muscles to suffer.
But as a learner? Different story. Pain, in the form of feeling bad about our mistakes, just gets in the way.
Fed up with working from home during the pandemic? Was it daunting to learn how to use Zoom or Microsoft […]
You may have been told that if you want to get the best out of your staff one of the […]
Ever been to a training session and been bored, frustrated or wondered what the point was?
Smart trainers use sharp tools to get the job done. They use lively, effective and enjoyable methods that get learners thinking and trying ideas out.
They engage their learners. Most often, it’s the engagement that’s missing.
My two-year-old granddaughter has just started preschool.
It’s such fun playing with her and noticing what she enjoys. Whether it’s reading her favourite books, tipping beans between cups, or digging in the sand at the beach, she loves real-life, active involvement. It’s more than fun. It’s her work. She’s directing her learning her own way.
Can we transfer what we know kids love doing to adult learning?
Imagine. The news media are onto your crisis. And so are the social media – which can be an even bigger challenge. Why? Because the social media are much faster and much freer with exaggerations and outright fiction. Social media can treat your crisis the way a pack of dogs treats a rabbit.
If you love the power of analytical thinking and data, what I’m about to say may seem a little ‘woo woo’.
Bear with me. It could really help improve the way you make decisions.
‘It’s important that we play down any reference to employee engagement’.
A learning and development manager made that comment during a planning session for a workshop. It turns out that the HR managers in the organisation had indicated that the employees were ‘over’ the topic of employee engagement.
Why would that be?
Picture this. You’re about to be ushered in front of the committee (or board, or council, or panel, or a single authority figure etc). Once there you’ll have five minutes to tell them what you want.
Number 1? Who says?
Deloitte. The consulting and advisory firm publishes its Global Human Capital Trends report each year. In its recent survey of 3,300 businesses worldwide, culture and engagement edged out leadership as the most important issue overall.
How will we know it’s good?
Let’s see if we can agree on a few tests of effective writing. Here are mine.
Ask professional writers to describe effective writing and they’ll give you more answers than you need.
That might suggest that they don’t agree on what makes writing effective. But they do agree. They just use different language to describe what they do and like to read.
Engagement is everything. You need them to own the customer service programme.
Training is not the issue. Do they really need to be told to smile when they answer the phone?
It sounds simple: to keep your accountant happy, keep the team happy.
Don’t think of happiness as merely some touchy-feely, tree-huggy topic. Happy staff means more money earned and saved. It’s as simple as that.
Let’s get the usual advice out of the way first – things like ‘Make sure you participate’, ‘Turn your cellphone to silent’, ‘Be courteous to others’.
Now let’s go a little deeper and draw on what researchers and Skillset’s training specialists have observed. Here’s my pick.
Do you believe that the best leaders are born, not made? What about musicians, artists, mathematicians?
Do you believe that there are only talented people and people with no potential to be stars? That’s a fixed mindset.
If we think of ability as fixed, we discourage learning, practice and resilience. Could you be doing the same to yourself?
Yes and no. Yes, if they come with mini-goals and an action-based plan to achieve them. No, if the ambitious goal is really just a dream or fantasy.
Is your slide showing photographs? Diagrams/graphs/charts? Just words? A mixture? It’s going to be a judgement call, but here’s a […]
‘Oh no, not another meeting! I’ve got too much to do.’
Ever find yourself thinking like that when you have a regular committee or staff meeting to attend?
If you’re leading one, you might be wondering how you could spice it up to lift the energy a bit.
Let’s assume you already do all the obvious things that meeting chairs are expected to do. You’ve circulated a clear agenda. Everyone knows the purpose of the meeting.
Now let’s focus on the human side of leading a productive meeting.
Ever feel frustrated or annoyed by how some people behave at meetings?
A recent survey shows you are not alone.
You’re keen to bring more focus into your meetings, right?
There are some surprisingly simple strategies that can help us avoid the pitfalls that beset them. How about the pre-mortem?
No, this isn’t about meeting famous people.
It’s actually about meeting someone way more important. You.
Training fads usually survive on little more than their followers’ enthusiasm and myths about our brains.
But there is plenty of hard evidence about effective ways for adults to learn. That evidence from thorough research is useful for anyone who teaches, coaches or mentors adults.
Let’s get controversial.
Business letters in formal English are not more professional. They’re just odd. They’re not better service; they’re aloof and cold and say, ‘This is our routine letter because we couldn’t be bothered writing one especially for you’.
Call it blind faith if you like, but the rewards of believing that people are on their way to being first-class are enormous and backed by the research.
Since an influential study in American classrooms in the 1960s established the power of the self-fulfilling prophesy, there have been hundreds more. Our belief in their potential or ability can be a useful motivator for children and adults.
Think about the last time you were embarrassed and ask yourself what was achieved by it. Does fear of embarrassment make you less inclined to speak up at a meeting, sing a song you enjoy or be outgoing at parties?
What would it do for your life if you were to choose to be unembarrassable?
Negotiation isn’t a form of face-to-face combat. It’s an intricate dance.
To do it well you must know the steps, be able to sense the shift in tempo, recognise your partner’s strengths and weaknesses and get to the end together.
There’s more to giving effective feedback than most people think.
Research over the last two decades has shown the value of focusing on effort rather than ability, talent or intelligence. It might sound like a minor distinction, but the consequences are serious.
Why don’t they do what I ask? Have you ever asked one of your team members to do something and […]
Can you tell the difference? There is a fundamental difference between emotional and aggressive behaviour. They are very distinct and […]
Which strategy is my best option? There are two basic methods for negotiation; negotiation is a distributive process where the […]
Written by Fingal Pollock – Skillset writing specialist It’s vital to establish and maintain rapport in your written relationships – […]
By Jeremy Nelson [Jeremy Nelson has been with the Skillset team for four years. He is a skilled presenter and […]
By Fingal Pollock – experienced actor and trainer with Skillset I have spent much of my adult life on the […]
Written by Fingal Pollock “I hear you” – in whichever vocabulary you choose to express it – is one of […]
When my first wife died many people I met didn’t know what to say, so they didn’t say anything. Others […]
No. Plain English is a low benchmark. Focusing on plain English made sense when people in business thought absurdly formal […]
You open your mouth to start talking and suddenly you’re aware that every eyeball in the room is focused directly […]
‘I’ve told them dozens of times, and yet they’re still not doing it.’ Those were the words of an exasperated […]
PEACE is the acronym for a framework that investigators use to conduct robust interviews. Investigative interviewing has developed significantly since […]
How often do you depend upon your colleagues so that you can provide exceptional service to your customers? How often […]
It would be surprising if you were not. It’s very human. Confirmation bias distorts our decisions and leaves us scratching […]
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Do you coach a team of professional sports people? Do you need your team members to communicate more effectively with […]
Imagine this, you are working with team members on a project. You are discussing with each other how best to […]
Let’s get controversial. It’s time to ditch performance reviews. I’m not alone in saying that. The resistance is growing. So […]
But wait. Surely effective presentations are about what the audience can hear and see. You may be the presenter, but […]
Here’s the self-delusion many of us adopt when speaking in front of an audience. It’s the big body-cred lie we […]
Time Management Workshop Get more done with less stress and better results It’s for staff as well as leaders. Strictly […]
(MUSIC? It’s an acronym to make leading change easier.) Do you have team members with inefficient work habits? Maybe they […]
Who cares? Well maybe they do, but if you care too much what other people think of you, it’s time […]
You want a simple answer? Some pop psychology is nonsense. It may even be harmful. Pop psychology may be popular, […]
Let’s get one thing out of the way. This method has nothing to do with stringing wall-to-wall slides together and […]
It’s the worst use of PowerPoint I’ve seen – so bad it was funny. It was a lecture in a large auditorium. […]
This one is for anyone who is worried by the pandemic – or anything else. We should be wary of […]
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