Voting ends tomorrow at midday

The Employee Attachment Inventory has been named in Anthill Magazine’s ‘SMART 100’ index. Anthill’s ‘SMART 100’ Index was developed in 2008 to identify and rank Australia’s 100 most innovative products.

We’re very excited about this and truly honoured to be recognised.

It’s not easy to launch and raise awareness of a new product that challenges conventional thinking. So please vote for us in Anthill Magazine’s SMART 100 People’s Choice…

A recent report in HR Magazine by David Woods reported “Employers are failing to inspire their staff and make them feel valued, with only 21% of employees believing their company cares about its staff, according to a YouGov survey of over 1,000 workers, commissioned by performance consultancy, River Marketing.

The results don’t surprise me, although I think it’s a downright shame that people aren’t experiencing a greater sense of value from the workplace. People need to feel valued,…

Staff turnover is an ongoing headache for most businesses.  Even booming industries like mining & resources are experiencing their fair share of hurt with with 18% of workers leaving within the first 12 months and with total turnover costing over $140 million per year.…

This post is taken from my blog "Notes from the workplace garden" where I analyse how creating a great organisation is like creating a great garden.

It is very easy as a leader, or a gardener, to get caught up in the details and forget what it is you are trying to achieve in the big picture. We can easily obsess about minor issues, like the weeding or pruning when, from a distance, everything looks fine. We just need to take a step back to see the big picture rather than focussing on…

Friday Redux No.15: When I want your opinion, will you provide it?

Unsolicited feedback is given for the benefit of the sender not the receiver. Don’t concern yourself with those who come offering their criticisms, speculations and the like if you never asked them for it.

I once had a woman thrust her business card into my face after I had given a conference keynote presentation…

Have you ever tried training someone and felt like you were getting nowhere?

This was one of my early HR lessons: We can’t assume everyone wants to learn and develop their skills.

In some workplaces and some roles, you will find people who just want to get on with the job they were employed to do. They may even see training as an…

Best Practice Graduate Development Strategies

In a four part series, the team at DBL have put together a comprehensive ‘best practice’ guide to graduate development. Although by no means exhaustive, the series is a great resource and useful ‘how-to’ for graduate managers both new to the industry, and for veterans looking for new or fresh ideas to enhance their existing program, enjoy!

Regards…

Motivating for Behaviour Change

This article was originally written and posted in January 2008. It is still just as relevant today in 2012 as it was in 2008.

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Presenting a full-day strategic program to business people and executives in northern Queensland, a very fine person, who had…

What professional firms need to know about their people

People who work in professional services are different. They are knowledge workers. And, they’re unique!

• They are the means of production. They own it, because it is them.
• The office is their servant not their master. They don’t need to be in the office to do their…

I had a bad experience last week. A bad experience which quickly rebounded into a good one, I am happy to say.

It was Friday 6 pm. I was rushing to wrap up things at work. Last minute emails to complete. A call from our Director in Asia with a client issue. A Skype call from our Europe MD. And then my wife on the phone saying don’t forget to pick up the kids.

I race down the elevator to the under-building car park, juggling laptop, gym gear, mobile phone and security pass.…

Having a mentor can be vital to your successful career plan. While some businesses create structured mentoring plans, sometimes the relationship grows organically and you may already be someone’s mentor without even realising it. 

If you are in a mentoring relationship, have you given much thought to what that means? 

Mentors provide insight and guidance, provide encouragement, and share ideas and their own experiences to help another person on their own journey. Typically a…

Weekly Wisdom No.103: What are you doing?

You create an idea for your business. You get everyone together to discuss it. You wrangle over the merits or otherwise of pushing forward with this new idea. The idea has its supporters and it has detractors, as well, of course. (There’s always somebody who thinks it’s their role to say no to a new idea no matter how good it…

Friday Redux No.14: Looking for leadership in all the wrong places

I had been captain of many of the sporting teams at school and college. I had captained club teams after graduating and been elected to leadership positions in community groups as well. So, later in life when I became a CEO of a …

The role of manager is a multi-talented one!

I have read so many negative reports about managers over the last few months that I felt I had to stand up and hurl in a different perspective.   In the past few months, I’ve read quotes such as:

• “three quarters of employers report a lack of leadership and management skills and too many managers have an inflated opinion of their ability to manage people”
• “More than six out of ten people employed in customer facing…

In a four part series, the team at DBL have put together a comprehensive 'how-to' guide for best practice graduate development. Although by no means exhaustive, the series is a great resource for graduate managers both new to the industry, and for veterans looking for new or fresh ideas to enhance their existing program, enjoy!

Regards,…

Five Executive Decision Making Myths

With over 200 executives from 14 countries who have been through my Coaching & Mentoring Program, I have learned a great deal about executive decision making by observing the behaviours and actions of CEOs and senior…

Last week I had a conversation with one of my long-time clients. His issue was, in a nutshell, not having time to do his job because he was too busy doing the job of his staff.