If Not Gold, Do Your Team Want Silver or Bronze?

Following the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics, researchers studied those who had won gold, silver and bronze medals.  Those who won gold seemed the happiest, but surprisingly those who received bronze seemed happier than those who got silver. According to a recent Inc.com article, this is down to what psychologists call “counterfactual thinking” or “what if”, […]

How Not to Damage Self-Esteem With Your Feedback

If you don’t give feedback, or only rarely (eg. only during Annual appraisals), then your employees get very little encouragement to provide exceptional performance, as the assumption could be that all is fine.  No news is good news?  Although not great for building confidence levels. Studies have shown that people who received regular praise and […]

Amplifying Stress Down to Your Team

During one of my Financial Services Senior Exec interviews on Leadership (see video), a great observation about inappropriate leadership was raised.  And that was about amplifying the stresses and pressure from above down to your team, and the consequences of doing that to those who receive it. One of my personal experiences was during the crucial […]

How Do You Prefer To Manage Conflict?

Although research has shown that 18-26% of managers’ time is spent on dealing with conflict, there is more than just time that can be gained from effective handling and conflict management.  Whenever there are disagreements between colleagues (be that regarding tasks, projects, handling specific situations) where different perspectives, information and expertise are brought to the […]

Saying Yes Was Difficult

A friend and I decided that we would be spontaneous the other weekend and go to Gatwick airport and get a flight to somewhere, with no pre-determined ideas as to where.  For those naturally spontaneous people, that won’t sound particularly strange, but for us very organised types, it was an interesting challenge!  The additional goal for […]

Self Awareness Improves Self Esteem in Business

In management, it is important to identify and value the differences individuals bring to the success of the team and the organisation; building on this where it works well.  Each manager’s style can contribute to a positive and progressive team or (as you may have encountered from some of your bosses), if unaware of their […]