Unconscious bias: are you guilty of blocking the talent pipeline?
A man stood in the L’Enfant Plaza metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin. It was a cold, January rush hour morning. Over a period of 45 minutes, he played six Bach pieces. Only seven people stopped to listen. 27 gave him money but continued to walk. He collected $32 in […]
After ER, HR – the tv series
The intrigue, adventures and romance of human resources is to be immortalised on the small screen – probably. A pilot for a new US television show, called simply and emphatically, HR, has been given the go-ahead, hoping no doubt to follow in the success of the equally succinctly and dramatically named ER. But […]
Blog: Jodie Foster and Behavioural Intelligence
Jodie Foster’s Golden Globes speech, in which she made her first public acknowledgement of her sexuality, perfectly illustrated an excellent and moving speaker whose powerful use of rhetoric enraptured her audience. By looking at Foster’s speech, which came after she accepted the Cecil B DeMille award for lifetime achievement, we can shed light on […]
Generating success: How to build a culture of confidence
Confidence is at the heart of effective performance. But the media continuously bombards us with very public examples of people in every sphere of life buckling under pressure. In terms of the performing arts, think of the contestants on Britain’s Got Talent! or the X-Factor. A botched performance can either make or break them. […]
Blog: DWP sackings reinforce need for robust social media policy
It has just been revealed under a Freedom of Information Act request that 11 civil servants at Iain Duncan Smith’s Department for Work and Pensions have been sacked for using Twitter or Facebook, with 116 DWP employees who have faced disciplinary action for blogging and social networking offences since 2009 and been issued with a […]
Is it time to rework your social media policy?
Let’s face it, social media and employment don’t mix very well. Every week, another embarrassing tweet by an employee or an employer’s (over-)reaction to Facebook seems to make the headlines, adding weight to the argument that the two should be kept as far apart as possible. But while this proposition may sound ideal, it […]
Varied work styles lead to personality clash between HR and line managers
The personality clash experienced by many HR professionals and line managers in the financial services sector can be put down to their very different styles of working, according to a study. An analysis of the personality profiles of 5,000 financial services employees conducted by assessment system provider, Talent Q, revealed that HR practitioners tended to […]
AAT’s Lucy Gregory on the power of followership
As long as there have been leaders, there have been followers, and leaders cannot accomplish what they do without followers. Kelley, 1992. Most, if not all, HR professionals understand and implement leadership management techniques within their organisation. But in 1992, RE Kelley put a new slant on the situation with his book, ‘The Power […]
Making the right choices to ensure career success
In order to consistently perform to the peak of your ability and have the best chance of delivering the results that you crave, it’s really important that you understand where to focus the power of choice. Having worked with Olympians over the past 15 years, we’ve learnt some very important lessons regarding the choices that […]
How to ensure there are no legal hangovers after the Christmas party
Christmas music has been played on the radio and in the shops for a number of weeks now which can only mean one thing – the Christmas season is fast approaching along with the anticipation of the associated festivities. Many companies like to put on a Christmas party for their hard working staff, but with […]
Do you over-think things? If so, stop it at once…
I looked at my phone and there was a text that said, “Urgent: now what do I do?” Like a lot of people in HR, I do a fair share of career counseling, especially with Gen Y. This was a call from someone who, to put it mildly, works in a terrible culture with mistreatment […]
Blog: Punk Rock HR – Resilience and the Chumbawumba effect
Good HR people and leaders share what I call the ‘Chumbawumba effect’ in common. Check out Chumbawumba’s punk folk song “I get knocked down but I get up again” to see / hear what I mean: www.youtube.com/watch The lyric “I get knocked down but I get up again” summarises the quality of ’emotional […]
Blog: Body language – Actions speak louder than words
The way someone looks, the way they stand, the way they sit, the way they dress – all of these say something about that person. If we take the time to look and observe with interest we can understand and appreciate so much about a person without them even saying a word. I believe […]
Book Review: 90 days 90 ways: Onboard young professionals to peak performance
As a result of today’s changing working practices and economic requirements, many employers are striving to accommodate the needs of four generations of workers: Traditionalists born up to the mid-1940s Baby Boomers to the mid-1960s Generation X to the late 1970s Generation Y or Millennials in the 2000s (which will comprise the largest chunk of […]
Blog: Was Europe’s Ryder Cup win the result of emotional intelligence?
Europe’s remarkable comeback from 10-6 down to take the Ryder Cup was not only an incredible sporting achievement, I believe it also illustrated how a great leader made an emotional connection with his team and fueled them with a desire to win. As I was listening to the interviews after the famous win it struck […]
What risk type are you? And why does it matter?
Arguing for the importance of self-awareness, Socrates famously taught that ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’. Arguably, the self-awareness of senior executives and managers determines whether other people’s lives are worth living – and that applies especially to self-awareness about risk type. The distance between an extreme ‘Wary’ risk type and their opposite, the […]
Blog: HR, it’s time to show bullies the exit
“As I opened the door, I saw her with her back turned and shoulders slumped. When she turned around, I could see that she had been crying. I felt bad but it made me realize that I am not the only one who gets verbally abused. The kicker was that she was a senior level […]
Blog: Andrew Mitchell’s hissy fit – Why swearing at work is never a good idea
The dear old Brits used to be famous for the rigid quality of their upper lips. Death, debt, war – we remained determinedly phlegmatic. Whether John McEnroe was a cause or a symptom, whether it’s those Oprah-type shows that encourage us to let it all hang out, but the UK’s upper lip is looking really […]
Engaging for success: The key role of line managers
The recently formed government taskforce ‘Engage For Success’ is urging employers to prioritise staff engagement as means of achieving economic growth. As Russell Grossman, director of communications at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, observed at this year’s Institute of Internal Communication conference, if the UK’s 4.8 million businesses could boost engagement levels by […]
News: British workers “among the worst idlers in the world”, claim Tory MPs
The UK’s “poor productivity” is down to the fact that British workers are “among the worst idlers in the world”, a group of Tory MPs has claimed. The five MPs, who are joint authors of a book that is out next month entitled ‘Britannia Unchained’, attest that the country “rewards laziness”, bails out the reckless […]
