Motivation in a recession

One of the biggest problems of a recession is that everybody does less business, except the pawn brokers, debt collectors, and specialised accountancy firms – specialism, receivership. Things are particularly tough for training and coaching companies because, along with marketing and It, their budgets are easy to slash. So what’s the good news?  Bizarrely, perhapsContinue reading “Motivation in a recession”

The meaning of the CEO

We all know what CEO stands for, don’t we? The Chief Executive Officer. Wow, what power – executive: it’s all about making decisions, and on decisions all our destinies hang. But recently I read a great piece by Tony Schwartz who proposed a new meaning for CEO and one which I prefer, and which oughtContinue reading “The meaning of the CEO”

How we deal with failure

Failure can certainly be a salutary experience, but not one most of us want to encounter just for the ‘salutary’ bit. By which I mean: we certainly see how people are – really are – when they fail. After all, everyone tends to have a wonderful personality when things go well; it’s when adversity kicksContinue reading “How we deal with failure”

Resilient leadership

There is a good article in the current edition of The Director by Cary Cooper on hard times calling for resilient leaders. He paints a vivid picture of the stresses the economy is about to undergo and suspects the SME sector in particular will get severely hit. The changes coming will no longer be optionalContinue reading “Resilient leadership”

Beyond Motivation 2

As we said before: most organisations do not buy ‘motivation’ because this is seen largely as a feature of performance, not a benefit. It is only when motivation goes acutely bad and usually either staff starts leaving in droves and there is an operational problem, or customer service becomes so lousy it impacts the bottomContinue reading “Beyond Motivation 2”

Beyond motivation

Motivational Maps Ltd has a phenomenal product in the Motivational Map. Time and again Practitioners who use it with clients get an overwhelmingly positive response. Perhaps the most common expression used is ‘uncannily accurate’.  The strange paradox occurs in which the client on the one hand confirms the truth of the report and yet simultaneouslyContinue reading “Beyond motivation”

Transforming the self

As a motivational mentor I encounter people with many issues and these always divide along the lines of the three core life elements: achievement, relationship, or self growth. Paradoxically, sometimes the more the serious the issues, the easier they are to support and help. People who are doing all the right things sometimes cannot change,Continue reading “Transforming the self”

Standard debate

A recent debate on the IOD Linkedin Forum asked whether Investors in People and ISO 9000 et al were a total waste of time and effort. Good question! Ever since the ‘Standards’ were formulated practitioners and clients have been wrestling with this problem. I cannot speak about ISO as I was never a practitioner, butContinue reading “Standard debate”

Lotus eaters and Myrmidons

A good friend of mine copied me in today on an email he had received that filled him with disgust. It was from a senior manager in the institution in which he worked – basically, informing them all that his work was done, time for new hands to steer the tiller, and he’d be offContinue reading “Lotus eaters and Myrmidons”

The nature nurture debate

A perennial and favourite discussion topic is the nature-nurture debate. Are values and morals learnt or do we inherit them? Do we instinctively know right from wrong or is this down to conditioning of childhood? A friend of mine recently had a debate with their partner and discovered they had very different views: one, thinkingContinue reading “The nature nurture debate”