“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” Harry Truman Those of you who know me well will know that I’m an avid reader. As I travel a lot as part of my job with Excel, I spend more than my fair share of time in airport lounges and what better way to pass the time than with a good book. And […]
How to move from being a colleague to becoming a leader? It’s elating; that feeling when you’ve just achieved a promotion. At last, a chance to implement your plans, to see your ideas come to fruition and the opportunity to lead your team to great things. And then it hits you. You’re going to have to manage the same people who used to be your colleagues. The ones who you’ve – let’s be honest – spent more than an occasional five minutes gossiping with by the coffee machine, or had a few nights out with celebrating. […]
Resilience; what does it mean to you? Resilience centres on the ability to adapt in the face of adversity, disappointment or uncertainty. It could be small scale such as managing stress in your day to day work, or more significant such as making difficult decisions that could affect both the future of your business and your employees. Resilience allows you to adapt your plans, be flexible […]
Why do people resist change – even if they know it’s the best option? No matter the size and scale of the change – from implementing a new piece of software to making sweeping changes to the whole company, improving customer service or downsizing the business – it’s crucial for leaders to ensure that change is managed well. It’s fine to have strategic ideas at management level, but without the enthusiasm […]
Curiosity is a crucial ingredient in making a leader successful. The ability to build a high performing team and lead organisations requires many attributes including sound judgment, confidence, authenticity and the vision to take your company forward. And the greatest, it could be argued, is to have curiosity. As learning and development consultants here at Excel, we sometimes find that clients on our programmes have many great leadership traits. However, some don’t […]
Here are the critical components of influence. Did you notice that at some point in the last few years, Millennials started to take over the workforce? There are nearly seventeen million millennials in the UK, making up over a quarter of the total population. Millennials already make up the largest generational workforce in the UK – with them expected to dominate the UK workforce by 2020. Projections state […]
Feedback – often delivered formally at annual reviews, can strike fear into the hearts of employees at every level. For those receiving it, it can seem critical, sometimes harsh or unfair. For those delivering it, it can be a delicate balance between providing encouragement to the employee and flagging performance that is under par. Feedback is a crucial part of development – or is it? Used […]
Stress is a very real problem in companies across the globe. Have you ever had an employee who is highly engaged to perform and loves their job? They are happy to work long hours, ensuring their team are appropriately managed, dealing with deadlines while simultaneously organising everything. Then suddenly they crash; physically and emotionally exhausted from burning the candle at both ends, trying to do too much, lacking a good night’s sleep […]
In a workplace where many employees remain well into their 60s, and school leavers and graduates are joining teams, employers face a new set of challenges in managing an increasingly age-variant workforce. There may already be Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y (Millennials) on your team, with Gen Z soon to join the helm! As a leader, you might be wondering how to best manage this diverse age range to get the best out of your team. How […]
