MOST RECENT BLOG POSTS

Most business teams work at about 32% efficiency, according to research by Gallup, Deloitte et al. It’s not because they’re lazy, it’s because people are often given tasks they’re not naturally good at. Then they’re asked to work with other people who are...

Unless your company has been unbelievably lucky, few of your people are in the right seats. According to Gallup, Deloitte and others, we spend only 30% of our time doing the work that our brains are hardwired for. That means that 70% of the time we are...

The analogy of the slow-boiled frog is the one that comes to mind. Businesses have always paid top salaries and always reaped only 40% of the potential (according to Gallup and many others). It’s expected.  Why leap out of the pan when it’s always been...

In the old days, new company employees joined their new team fully expecting it to be the greener grass they had always hoped for. The first day was great. There were smiles from everyone, lunch with the team leader and a handshake with the big boss on the...

What is the point of having a culture where everyone comes to work energised, team members work together like a swiss watch and the atmosphere is electric 25 hours a day – if it doesn’t impact business performance? Obviously the answer is no point at all....

Talent loves to work with talent. There is no greater excitement for someone bursting with talent (which is all of us) than to come to work knowing you are in a team where everybody is doing a job they love and doing it well. This is the essence of teams...

How many of the people you hired deliver on the potential they showed at interview? Managers spend a lot of their time recruiting to fill vacancies in their teams. Yet they frequently complain that the highly accomplished people they hired never seem to...

I sat next to a HR consultant at a wedding reception last week, a charming, intelligent man in his 60s. I learnt about his challenges in dealing with CEOs and the tendencies of some of them to sack people for unforgivable errors, like sitting the wrong way...

Love productivity. Love efficiency. Love engagement. Love it when people are engrossed in their work. Love it when people come in early because they love what they do. Love it that employees are working in tune with colleagues and not going home in...

There is now little doubt that empathy - the ability to understand and share another person's experiences, emotions and feelings - is a vital talent in business. According to Entrepreneur.com, ‘Empathy in business dealings, especially for the entrepreneur,...

First, for those who haven’t read around this site, a quick explanation of ‘talent alignment’. Our talents are abilities that are entirely natural, they lie within us. They are tied to our sense of purpose. Most of us have an urge to discover and put our...

Everyone knows that most business change projects fail. Some fail outright and end with broken careers and the company returning to its old processes. A larger percentage achieve some of the goals they set out to score but barely cross the breakeven line...

A garden had not been well tended. The surface was trampled down. The grass was patchy. Here and there a few bushes grew but there were a lot of weeds. Many plants were overshadowed by others, unable to grow. Parts of the garden were okay to look at and...

I'm betting some senior managers would quietly prefer to wait till after a merger before embarking on a talent improvement program. After all, why invest in people who may not be with you any longer after the dust has settled? But that's an unenlightened...

If it does, it's a great place to work. Employee recognition company Bonusly recently published a great article entitled 10 Dead Simple Ways to Improve Your Company Culture. I liked the article. A lot. But that's probably because I noticed that...

The booming US stock market is hiding a problem that everyone knows is there but no-one knows how to fix. Most Western business leaders are inadvertently stifling the natural talent in their teams and departments. The complaint that 'I'm not valued' or...

Leave the other countries behind. Break out of the downward productivity spiral by focusing on people! Yet again the UK Government tries to solve the productivity issue by using the failed policies of the past: more money desperately thrown at technology...

Most people reading this don't keep bees. But if you were asked how to attract bees to your neighborhood I bet most of you would instinctively know the answer: grow flowers. Yet in recruitment, although most companies are also trying to attract busy...