Category Archive

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Improving your remote coaching sessions

Wayne Turmel | 13 August 2014

We all know how important it is for managers to coach team members. But with remote teams, coaching conversations can be particularly tough to get right. Here’s how to get round the lack of non-verbal cues to make your remote coaching sessions more effective.

How wide is the digital skills gap?

Wayne Turmel | 29 July 2014

As any long-suffering IT support pro will tell you, many people use technology unbelievably badly. Just how badly is a real shock. So how long does it take to recognize that this skills gap is a real problem and to address it in a way that gets you some of your wasted time and money back?

How do I handle my nit-picking negative boss?

Chris Welford | 23 July 2014

Bill's boss focuses only on the negative, dishing out a regular diet of nit-picking criticism that is as demoralizing as it is unfair. Coach Chris Welford explains how he can break the pattern by doing something different.

Drowning in co-operation

Kevan Hall | 16 July 2014

Many organizations are suffering from an epidemic of co-operation. Their problem isn’t too little teamwork, it’s too much. Forget a lack of communication, the challenge now is how to separate the mass of trivia from the things that are really important.

What your boss will never tell you

Cindy Wahler | 21 May 2014

So you've been promoted. Congratulations. But be aware that succeeding in your new role and staying on the fast track depends on you demonstrating something that isn't in your job description and won't ever be explicitly mentioned.

Another nail in the performance review coffin

Brian Amble | 26 February 2014

No-one likes or benefits from a negative performance review, new research has found, and a critical evaluation can have a negative effect on any employee, even those normally motivated to learn and improve.

New year brainstorm: things to change, things to stop

Jurgen Wolff | 08 January 2014

With every new year we think about things we want to add to our lives. But sometimes it is just as important to subtract something. So here are some ideas that may help you do both and to look back upon 2014 with satisfaction when next January rolls around.

IT has delivered a five-fold increase in office productivity

Brian Amble | 12 November 2013

Remember when a fax machine was considered high-tech, documents were produced in typing pools and Led Zepplin hadn't sold out to stadium rock? Well since the 1970s, our office-based productivity has risen five-fold. And its all thanks to technology.

Workaholism: hard but not smart

Brian Amble | 07 November 2013

Workaholics may work hard, but they don't work smart. In fact according to a new Italian study, thanks to the mental and physical strain they put themselves under, workaholics tend to have poor job performance.

Work harder, longer, faster or smarter?

Chris Merrington | 16 October 2013

Working harder for longer and running faster from one task to another only leads to overload and burnout. It's not the answer. The answer is to slow down and learn to work smarter.

Hiding who you really are damages productivity

Brian Amble | 09 October 2013

Hiding fundamental truths about yourself at work – such as your sexual orientation – also affects the basic mental, physical and interpersonal skills you need to do your job, new research suggests.

Open-plan offices are a false economy

Brian Amble | 22 August 2013

If you hate open plan offices, you've got good reason to. Because according to a new study, the costs of open-plan outweigh the supposed benefits, with the argument that they enhance communication and improve productivity having no basis in fact.

Engagement, motivation and personality type

Brian Amble | 16 July 2013

Engagement and productivity depends on an individual's high-order goals being aligned with the characteristics of their job. And as new research suggests, if someone's personality doesn't fit their job requirements, they will not be motivated by external factors, no matter how tasty the carrot or painful the stick.

How to manage a workaholic

Brian Amble | 22 May 2013

Far from being desirable, workaholism can lead to stress, exhaustion and even death. So how can managers help workaholic employees stay healthy and effective on the job? A new study has some practical suggestions.

All that glitters is not gold

Bob Selden | 01 March 2013

After years of near-domination in the pool, Australia's swimmers have seen their success evaporate over recent years, a sporting decline which Bob Selden argues is a direct result of a failure of management.

Microsoft and dumb decisions

Bob Selden | 24 August 2012

With Apple's iPhone now generating more revenue than all of Microsoft's wares combined, the astonishingly foolish management decisions taken in Microsoft over the last decade - and particularly its insane performance management system - seem to be coming back to haunt it.

How to stop wasting 600 hours a year

Wayne Turmel | 07 May 2012

Have you got 600 hours a year to waste? Yeah, me neither. Yet numbers show that's how much time is wasted in bad meetings, both face to face and virtual. But it doesn't have to be this way.

What does it mean to put someone on probation?

Dan Bobinski | 30 March 2012

Being a manager carries a lot of responsibilities and putting someone on probation is a huge deal. But the outcome of that choice is more on your shoulders than you may realize. Because it's the manager's job to find a way to help a problem employee, not the other way round.

Behaviors that increase productivity

Dan Bobinski | 24 February 2012

Ask people what they do to stay productive and you'll get a variety of answers. So recently, I decided to contact some folks whom I believe to be productive and ask what they did to maximize their productivity. Here are some of their responses. See if any of these appeal to you.

Nurturing talent?

Steve Huxham | 08 December 2011

A member of Richard's IT team is keen to expand her capabilities and is spending time on projects not formally within the scope of her job. Her supervisor sees this as a problem. But Steve Huxham's advice is to view this in the context of good talent management strategy.

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