Monthly articles on career success, leadership and productivity
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Can’t see the Wood for the Trees?
Coach yourself out of the overwhelm with just one question. Clients are telling me that they feel particularly overwhelmed and weighed down at the moment. ‘Struggling to see the wood for the trees’ is coming up a lot in my sessions. I don’t want to add to the...
Will you still get ahead if you choose to stay working from home?
As schools reopen today, the UK government has launched a media campaign encouraging us to go back to the office. The CBI have warned of our city centres becoming ghost towns if people continue to stay away: save Pret etc. Yet many people are well in the...
Are you frightened of your Boss?
The choice of how and when to return to the office after lockdown will be giving some people sleepless nights right now. Home working has been a welcome respite from anxiety. It's not the commute, the virus or their colleagues that's...
Does Email squeeze the life out of you?
The way we use emails is chocking our productivity. Email has become an invasive intrusion, binding us to our screens: the japanese knotweed of work. Researchers say we spend about 28 percent of our time actively managing email, that’s over a quarter of...
Virtual Influencing – How to influence on Zoom
How to Influence on ZoomBusiness partners, leaders, trusted advisors, sales people, collaborators, experts - every one of us needs influencing skills. We want people to buy into our ideas, take our advice, follow our lead, call us first and trust...
Keeping your team engaged and motivated: banana bread, monkey brains and boundaries
Now that we are in the groove of remote working, our challenge is to maintain motivation, focus and connection. What’s working? Here’s a list of home truths from people I’ve canvassed: take a breather to skim through it and share it with your managers:Zoom Zombies...
Procrastination and Parkinson’s Law: Why we get less done when we have more time
How are you doing in lockdown? Do you have more time on your hands and if so, are you getting more done?I expect not. Remember Parkinson’s law? Work expands to fill the time available If you are juggling full-time employment with entertaining, caring...
Coping with Corona: Your 5 a Day
For years I’ve asked Crazy Busy delegates what they would do if they had an extra hour a day. Predictably their answers always include sleep, read fiction, read around their own subject, cook a decent meal from scratch, exercise, spend uninterrupted time with their...
Corona Virus Special: How to manage your team when you are working from home
I’ve been asked for some productivity tips by Managers who aren’t used to working from home. They are keen to take advantage of some gaps in their calendar to get more done and perhaps prove that remote working is a viable option post-Corona. Here’s what we’ve...
Psychological Safety: Does your Manager have your Back?
In 2015 Google published the results of a two-year study into what makes a great team successful. Hiring the best brains, setting them clear objectives and giving them meaningful work were obviously key, but the factor at the very top of the list may surprise...
How to PIMP your time and get your real work done
What did you really want to do this week and what's got in the way so far? Has your time been hijacked by corridor kidnappers, distractions, meetings, routine admin, curveballs and (the bane of most our lives) endless emails?Here’s...
Why the best Managers are Snow Plough Managers
Like me, you probably learnt of the term snowplough (plow) parent when news of the US college admission scandals broke last spring. Snowplough parents clear the path in front of their children, removing obstacles that could impede their success. They...