Have you ever given feedback to an employee, only to receive a negative response? Feedback is one of the most important management tools for companies, however it can be one of the trickiest ones to get right. Feedback has the tendency to impact on people’s emotions which can mean that many managers avoid giving feedback altogether. Regardless of how difficult it can be to give […]
Have you been putting off having difficult conversations at work? Perhaps you need to talk to an employee about their lacking performance or resolve an issue between your team members. Or maybe it’s not a planned conversation at all, and someone is suddenly being angry or abrupt with you and you need to be able to react quickly and in a professional manner. Everyone has […]
“Everyone needs a coach. We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve,” Bill Gates, Co-founder of Microsoft, in his 2013 TED Talk. Often when we look at highly successful people, we don’t stop to consider what might have gone on behind the scenes to help them get to where they are. Or in fact, who helped them. An athlete wouldn’t […]
Sourcing, attracting, hiring, and retaining the right people for your business can be a big task, but it is also the difference between your business’ success or collapse. While every business needs to retain its clients or customers to survive, without the right people – your top performers – you run the risk of high staff turnover and mediocre work. High staff turnover within a […]
Recruitment can be a tricky process. You need to find the best person to fill a position; not only someone who is capable of doing the job well, but also someone who will fit in with the rest of your team. To ensure you’re getting the fit right, you also need to predict whether the candidate will feel fulfilled within the position, feel valued and […]
Sourcing suitable, let alone high performing, staff is a huge challenge for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) in Australia. In fact, according to a recent survey conducted by the Sensis Business Index June 2016 it is the number one challenge facing SMBs, closely followed by retaining top talent. Many businesses are finding that their recruits aren’t meeting their expectations of performance or cultural fit. […]
What makes a great leader? The ability to understand and appreciate staff. Positivity and insight. Great communication and motivational skills. Love of learning. Unless these attributes are in balance, however, employees will not follow. Too much of any classic leadership trait can overturn the ship. And trying too hard is a real no-no. Truly authentic leaders make it seem effortless. They know when to assert […]
Exciting your team can bring huge rewards, but it takes subtlety, persistence and smart assessment to really pull it off. Have you ever taken part in one of those ‘team building’ exercises involving Kumbaya songs and choosing the fruit, dog or piece of furniture that most resembles you? Even worse, the totally inappropriate ‘therapy groups’ or bonding sessions involving extreme sports, splatter guns and excess […]
Better sales staff equals more sales. It sounds simple, doesn’t it? Increasing the productivity of your sales people, however, is a complex task fraught with misunderstanding. Finding high performing staff involves a specific hiring approach which targets those with precisely the right attributes for the job in hand. Once you have the right players, it doesn’t stop there. It’s a question of matching them to […]
Oh dear. Nearly a quarter of newly employed staff in Australia leave their jobs within one year, according to Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) and LinkedIn research. This is a staggering statistic when you consider the time, energy and money pumped into the recruitment process by Australian companies desperate to find perfect employees. These premature exits are costing the nation’s business around $3.8 billion in lost […]