Online Article Archive

If as a school we want to develop relationships with stakeholders that encourage genuine input to the schools strategic direction we, first, have to learn to listen.
When another person speaks, we are usually listening at one of four levels:
Ignoring, not really listening at all;
Pretending, Yeah, Uh,huh. Right;
[…]

There are difficult conversations in our lives; and then there are the really difficult ones! Conversations between a manager and employee about poor performance at least have the advantages that roles are clear, and that performance can be measured and recorded. Conversations become a lot more difficult, and require a lot more skill, when you […]

If your business includes networks of employees in different locations of close proximity, currently communicating to each other using mobile phones, you may be wise to swap them for two way radios and save yourself a bundle. In an era where half of the entire human population owns a mobile phone, it’s hard to imagine […]

With so much competition in the workforce today, it seems ambition is inflating and the ratio of jobs to jobseekers is dramatically unbalanced. This is advantageous to employers as they are offered a wider selection of talented employees to recruit and harder for jobseekers to get their foot in the door. Saying this, how easy […]

How often have you made decisions only to find out that you were missing critical information? Have you ever jumped to the wrong conclusion because you did not have all the facts? How many times have you thought you had commitment to a plan only to be told, much later, that everyone else had reservations?
Poor […]

Look it up in any telephone directory but you won’t find an area code for 0845 numbers. This is because they are non-geographical. That means that they are an established prefix that can be used with any phone number and means that a flat rate is charged from wherever you may be calling from.
This is […]

Everybody likes something for nothing, but most business people have become spoiled by attending meetings and conferences on the company’s dime. Well, based on current economic conditions, some of your members’ companies may have precious few dimes to spare for sending their employees to meetings, even though they will be the first to admit the […]

We all negotiate - whether in the workplace, at home or in volunteer activities. We do because we all have needs and sometimes these needs conflict with the needs of others (e.g. “I need a low price and the supplier wants the highest possible price”).
For negotiation to happen, however, there must be common needs […]

Have you ever wondered why presentations given by yourco-workers were better than yours? Did they use more sophisticated visual aids? Have more interesting topics? Or was it the way they presented the information?
The secrets to giving a persuasive presentation aren’t known only to a select group of people. You can easily improve your presentation style […]

We call asking for what you want in a negotiation stating a position. Positions define the issues and problem to be negotiated. Positioning sets the frame for the entire negotiation, so how you introduce your opening position will impact your desired outcome.
Your position also represents your ideal out come, and if the other side […]