Are your managers really applying what they learn?
This article was written by Rachel Lewis and Emma Donaldson-Feilder. The holy grail of learning and development programmes is to guarantee that the skills individuals develop are applied in the workplace. Change is difficult and simply running a half-day (or longer) workshop may not result in developing skills and ensuring that they are subsequently used […]
The 10 habits of successful managers
The quality of management is critical to the success of any business from the leaders at the top who set the strategy and direction to the army of line managers who, through their teams, help deliver the goals. What differentiates managers in high performing organisations from those in low performing businesses? The answer is trust. […]
Book review: The Intuitive Compass by Francis Cholle
HRZone has a range of books available for review. If you would like to receive one of our business books, free of charge, please contact the editor on editor at hrzone dot com and we can send you a list of what’s available. In return, we ask for a 400-700 word review of the book, […]
Do you ignore context when developing people?
You need talent, and you need it fast. The question is how. One of the most common queries we are asked is how to accelerate people’s development. How to help people learn and develop and be ready for promotion sooner than they otherwise would. In technical specialisms with a fast-aging workforce, or geographies with a […]
Make emotional intelligence part of your toolkit
There’s so much rich insight coming out of the academic sector that HR professionals need to know. At Academics’ Corner we feature the best HR researchers that tell you what they’ve found and what you need to do differently on the back of the research. Get connected to the academic sector through Academics’ Corner and […]
Team away days – where nothing and no-one changes
No names, no job titles, no companies. HR After Dark features totally anonymised opinion pieces from HR professionals, consultants and industry commentators. No holds barred, no censorship, nothing but raw opinions on issues that matter to HR. When the lights go down, HR After Dark comes out to play. See it all here first. Want […]
Why putting pressure on people is a good thing
One technique open to the team leader, business leader, chief executive, is to put staff under pressure to raise their game. There are different forms of words that do this, but essentially it comes down to two things: Accountable individuals are pushed to commit, to deliver something beyond what they believe is possible Having made […]
A life less ordinary – getting commercial value from Army Reservists
Look through any HR article at this time of year and you will probably be treated to predictions – all the issues facing organisations standing in the foothills of 2015 as they set out to scale this year’s personnel challenges. The old favourites get a mention of course – staff must be trained and developed, […]
New research tells you how to make management development programmes a success
Management development is not simply a matter of choosing the right model and running a ‘training’ event: developing manager skills and identity is a process that evolves over time and requires a range of elements and activities. Applying and sustaining newly learned behaviour in the workplace is not easy, so needs support, and the context […]
Five ways to foster intrapreneurial thinking
Entrepreneurs take risks and find new ways to do things. And for many years, they have had no place in large organisations for this very reason. They break the rules. They get bored quickly. And they generally have ideas that go beyond protocol and process. But with the rise of digital technology, companies are finding […]
Developing managers for sustainable people outcomes
Line managers are the secret There is an abundance of evidence showing that the relationship with the line manager is key to employee engagement and wellbeing, particularly important for ensuring sustainability of positive people outcomes. Understandably, organisations are investing in developing line manager capability with 88% of organisations in a CIPD survey saying they provide […]
Creating physiological and emotional coherence is one of the biggest challenges of our time
Dr Alan Watkins is an ex-physician dedicated to transforming business and society by vertically developing business leaders. Vertical development is, according to the Global Leadership Foundation, “building our ability to distinguish and let go of our own limited thinking and perceptions.” Alan’s book, Coherence, is a how-to guide. Vertical development is a relatively new term for HR. […]
Why assess your next CEO?
The chief executive is arguably your company’s most important hire. The person appointed is tasked with setting vision and strategy, building and maintaining teams, taking big decisions and ensuring they’re delivered on. They’re required to energise the organisation by setting the right tone of behaviour, maintain focus when all around may be losing theirs and […]
Putting leadership under the magnifying glass
Why leadership development needs to be company-wide, focussed on self-awareness and enhanced interpersonal skills. Leadership response to recession We conducted two studies with managers of UK headquartered organisations in 2011 and 2013, totalling around 400 respondents, looking at the way UK leaders in the private sector are responding and contributing to the economic recovery. One […]
The secret to saving half your training budget
In the last few months we have been working with clients on training core skills. What do I mean by this? Well, a short story might explain. Late last year, a client was telling me his goal was to get his account managers to become better people managers. In particular he wanted them to coach […]
Book Review: The Leader’s Guide to Managing People by Mike Brent & Fiona Dent
HRZone has a range of books available for review. If you would like to receive one of our business books, free of charge, please contact the editor on editor at hrzone dot com and we can send you a list of what’s available. In return, we ask for a 400-700 word review of the book, […]
Customer service: Is another training programme the answer?
As a service nation we all know the importance of customer service – it has been drummed into us that the customer is always right. However, knowing this and actually behaving in a way that serves the customer beautifully seems to be something that we are incapable of doing.[1] This poor service costs. According to […]
Use mentoring to hold on to talent, employers told
Employees are not being given enough mentoring opportunities despite the fact that it could “stem” the talent drain, according to new research. The report, by HR services group Penna Plc, found that a fifth of the 2,000 employees questioned are not currently mentoring or being mentored, even though they would be keen to do so, […]
Staff that smile on demand play havoc with their emotions
There’s an emotional and physical price to pay when people are forced to display feelings that don’t coincide with how they’re actually feeling. Researchers followed 78 bus drivers in the north-western United States. Over two weeks they answered surveys before work, after their shifts and just before they went to bed. The questions focused on […]
How should HR deal with mentoring arrangements?
Mentoring can take place in different ways – either internally within a business (senior staff mentoring junior staff), staff providing mentoring to external beneficiaries and the employer bringing in mentors from outside the business to support staff. All of these possibilities have different implications, benefits and risks to the employer. Perhaps the main benefit to […]
