As the video clip shows he’s also a very accomplished speaker engaging audiences with wise words and witty anecdotes from an outstanding career. If you’d like Giles to host or speak at your next conference give us a call.

Employees taking part in one of our many team building exercises

Why is it then that we expect our bright young employees to step into management roles having read books and attended courses, yet never having actually practiced leading a team? Play, in music and business, is the best way to learn; it allows us to experience success and learn from our mistakes in safety.

In the workplace opportunities abound for talented individuals to practice leadership before formally taking on the mantle. Effective succession planning can include giving junior staff opportunities to take responsibility during team meetings, to facilitate conference programmes or deliver internal presentations. But like tinkering at a piano it’s unlikely that this alone will be enough to prepare someone to lead a team well.

Better still is to build practical exercises into leadership training. This tests theories and provides opportunities for participants to reflect on their personal leadership style. A simple yet effective leadership game involves asking a group of six potential leaders to erect a tent. All but one of the six participants is blindfolded, leaving the sighted participant as leader. He can give verbal instructions but not touch the tent in any way. After five minutes swap roles so that the sighted participant puts on a blindfold and another player removes their blindfold and takes the lead. Continue changing roles every five minutes noting which leaders give encouragement, feed back progress, ask effective questions and remain calm.

This is just one of hundreds of exercises or games that bring leadership development to life, creating long lasting memories that remain long after the management theories found in books fade.

Freshen up your leadership programmes with a half day consultation.

Conversations with others are important, as is the speed at which we converse.

For a truly nutritious meal we take time to gather ingredients, prepare and then savour the flavours.  Similarly, not all conversations should be clipped text messages or hurried phone calls. In our drive for greater efficiency in the workplace most communication is focused around a specific topic. Emails follow subject headings, meetings follow agendas.  Good communication, like good food, requires a slower approach.

Over-reliance on high tech communication stifles creativity and does little to build relationships.  Only when colleagues know and trust each other can they be truly efficient. So a slow conversation has:

• No agenda, simply a desire to understand
• No set duration – a minute can be enough or an hour
• A desire to listen not to speak
• A commitment to set aside office politics
• An informal and relaxed environment

As I reflect on the interactions I’ve had over the past 24 hours about 80% were fast and just 20% slow.  There’s no question that the slow conversations have been the most enjoyable and valuable. Once again I’m struck by the comparison with food – a diet of 80% fast food wouldn’t be healthy or sustainable.

Knowing why your best employees might quit could help you keep hold of them for longer

What’s particularly surprising is that missing from the list of reasons great talent defects is stress.  
Figures suggest that whilst stress may contribute to staff leaving, it tends to be ill health that forces a departure, not a rational choice on the part of the employee to seek a less stressful role.  We are more likely to press on in the hope that a quieter day is coming until we burn out.

The greatest threats to your talent bank are more likely to be:

Line manager – over 70% of people claim they left their last job because of something their boss did, or  failed to do.  The relationship between manager and team member is unique.  Unlike friendships, parenting or marriage, managers have to balance a tightrope between being a point of authority and a trusted confidant.  Add to this the fact that team members are all ‘wired differently’ and it’s clear that to be an effective team leader requires a high degree of psychological insight and sensitivity.

Conflicting Values – one survey found that 68% of employees (across several organisations) disagreed with what their employer stood for.  Clearly staff don’t always accept the carefully crafted corporate values as a bona fide.  We believe what we see, and if that conflicts with our personal ideals we are likely to dis-engage.

Fear of Stagnation – bright people don’t operate well in dim environments.  Along with a clear career path, talented people need frequent flashes of light to maintain their attention.  These unpredictable challenges heighten our senses and generate energy and a sense of anticipation.  Monotonous routines lead to frustration and provoke smart employees to look for excitement elsewhere.

Unfulfilled promises – the honeymoon period in a new role can fade quickly if the opportunities presented during recruitment don’t become a reality.  Talented individuals tend to be impatient and are unlikely to tolerate a lethargic working environment where they are unable to implement the improvements they were recruited to deliver.

Feeling unappreciated – a job offer is the career equivalent to a dozen red roses.  Good people will receive offers; the challenge for their present employer is to demonstrate that their ideas, opinions and work ethic are valued by the business.

To keep good people, leaders need to offer adequate challenge, appreciate the individual’s contribution and give a variety of rewards that frequently reinforce the fact that this person’s talent matters.

Is Your Organisation Growing Fruit or Vegetables?

His lecture highlighted the fact that the ‘always on’ culture, combined with less people doing more work in organisations, is threatening family life.  Interviewed ahead of the speech by Andrew Hill in the Financial Times, Handy says:  “I am seriously worried that the rather frenetic atmosphere in some organisations. . . . is really damaging relationships at home.”  No surprises there, it’s a reality many of us live with day in and day out.

What’s interesting is the root cause of this conflict.  Observing the long awaited arrival of spring this year it’s more apparent that alongside blossoming fruit trees, the green shoots of vegetables are beginning to appear. The earliest form of enterprise was agriculture and perhaps we should reflect on the farmers’ approach to asset management.

If people are your organisation’s most precious asset then is your employer cultivating an orchard that will last, or a crop that will grow fast then burn out in the heat of the sun?

Twenty years ago Charles Handy predicted a rise in what he termed the “shamrock organisation” employing a combination of core staff, contractors and part-timers.  His prophesy has come about but he fears that “the fragmentation of the workplace and, to a degree, of family life is. . . creating worse standards of living for most people”.

Ultimately of course this isn’t a choice our employers have to make at all.  It’s our choice whether we want to be a tree that bears a little fruit year after a year or a high yielding profitable crop that needs reseeding each year but could still be considered a vegetable.

What’s your crop? Lasting fruit or lucrative vegetable?

What's your favourite chocolate??

A small piece of chocolate placed on the tongue and allowed to melt of its own accord, with no sucking or chewing, is the best way to combine the pleasures of taste and texture – fine chocolate has a long ‘finish’, like good wine.

Part of the pleasure of consuming chocolate is that it is something which is seen as an occasional treat or reward. Despite the fact that some of the individual ingredients might be good for you, most commercial chocolate products contain high levels of fat and sugar.

Over the years there have been many attempts to reduce fat in chocolate, mostly without success. Chocolate has a specific texture and melting point due to the way in which the fat is held in suspension within the solids of the chocolate bar and most low fat products just couldn’t match the velvety texture of the full fat version.

Chemists at the University of Warwick now claim to have found a way to reduce the fat content of chocolate, by using liquids – including alcohol – to create tiny “sponges” that displace the fat but do not change the all-important “mouthfeel”. They tried this first with fruit juices, but found that they could also use vodka to make “tiny little vodka jellies”. Dr Bon, one of the Warwick team, admits that this is “obviously not very healthy, but exciting”.

And our love of chocolate in the West shows no sign of waning, with new flavours and chocolate products available all the time. It’s also a fun product both to consume and to experiment with, so why not try your hand at coming up with your own innovative chocolate product in our ever-popular Chocolate Challenge team event? We’ll encourage you to play with your food at every stage in this fun team building session that simulates business processes from conception to production and distribution, and yes you can eat as much as you want!

Margaret Thatcher, 1925 - 2013.

One of those was the chairman of HBOS Lord Stevenson.  In the months prior to the banking crisis, when he was held in high regard, he gave a lecture on the subject of leadership to invited members of his business school’s alumni.  The audience, many of whom led large organisations themselves, heard how he’d risen from starting his own small business to holding one of the top jobs in the UK.

His message that evening was that successful leadership is principally about two things: having vision and being decisive.  In an age where leadership has become a science these two simple principles make good sense and there’s no doubt they brought him success.  As with Baroness Thatcher, the question historians ask now is, “was the vision the right one?”.

The men vs. women debate continues...

This theory has been used to explain characteristics such as empathy, the ability to read other people’s emotions, with some research* suggesting that the female brain is better able to create mirror neurons and therefore better equipped to anticipate the moods and feelings of others. The men vs women debate continues…..

Effective managers use empathy to understand what motivates or concerns their team members – empathy has been called the oil that keeps relationships running smoothly.  Being able to understand and predict how people will react to a new challenge enables the manager to make more informed choices about how work is shared out and feedback is best delivered.  Those with low empathy will often be seen as effective because they find it easy to think strategically, rarely allowing emotion to cloud their judgment.  The fact is that all organisations involve people, both customers and staff. And no matter how good the strategy might be, if people get upset the odds of failure increase dramatically.

Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen believes the female brain is wired to empathise whilst the male brain has a tendency to systemise. The male brain seeks to develop a set of logical rules that guide another person’s behaviour. Women may be more empathetic because their brains’ mirror neurons are more sensitive than men’s.

Empathetic managers are more likely to:

• Understand the root cause behind poor performanc
• Identify and act upon development needs
• Come alongside and coach a team member
• Identify with an individual’s values
• Create a less stressful work environment

Emotional Intelligence pioneer Daniel Goleman says:

Leaders with empathy do more than sympathize with people around them: they use their knowledge to improve their companies in subtle, but important ways, by thoughtfully considering employees’ feelings – along with other factors – in the process of making intelligent decisions.

So, if you are a rational male in a managerial role is there hope.  Thankfully empathy, although an innate skill, can be learned.

• Use your imagination – empathy is simply imagining how you would feel in a particular position. Try picturing it and empathetic reactions should come naturally.
• Practice active listening paying attention not only to what is being said, but how it is being communicated.
• Use body language to help convey empathy.
• Reflect and repeat – both to encourage open communication and to validate what is being communicated.
• Be fully there – when talking to your team members ensure that you are focused on them and the issue at hand, removing distractions and allowing sufficient time for the conversation

And finally if you’re still concerned that increasing your empathy will make you a weaker manager, remember that being empathetic doesn’t mean you have to agree with how the other person sees things; rather, having empathy means that you’re willing and able to appreciate what the other person is going through.

* Sources:
“Gender Differences in Brain Networks Supporting Empathy“, Martin Schulte-Rüther, Hans J. Markowitsch, N. Jon Shah, Gereon R. Fink, and Martina Piefke in NeuroImage (2008);
“Emotional Wiring Different in Men and Women“, Robin Lloyd in LiveScience (2006);
“Language-Associated Cortical Regions are Proportionally Larger in the female Brain“, Harasty J, Double KL, Halliday GM, Kril JJ, McRitchie DA in Archives of Neurology (1997).

We often come up with the best ideas whilst working as a team.

1.  Relocate – go to a different part of the building a nearby café or even the pub.  The more different the location is from your usual working environment the better. And don’t be afraid of distractions – they will provide creative stimulus.

2.  Stimulate – use magazines, toys and images to prompt fresh thinking, scatter random items about and let the team fiddle.

3.  Continue – don’t stop at the first solution, keep exploring for different and perhaps even better ideas. As the philosopher Emile Chartier remarked, “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one you have.”

4.  Stray – penicillin, the telephone and Kentucky Fried Chicken were discovered when their inventors were looking for something else.  The truly great discovery might not be what you are looking for.

5.  Embellish – don’t play by the rules, go to extremes.  Discuss ridiculous and unworkable ideas in order to tap into the team’s creative genius.  Once you’ve listed the outrageous ideas it’s easier to work backwards to original and workable solutions.

Not only should this process generate some valuable intellectual property it will also energise and motivate your team.  You just need to think of a problem that needs solving and invite the team to spend an hour solving it.

Many arguments could be avoided, if we just listened a little more carefully...

The sad truth is we are not good listeners. The 21^st century is full of noise and distractions that prevent us from hearing what’s being said.  The technique of ‘active listening’ can bring clarity, minimise misunderstandings and make the other person feel valued.

Active listening is where we make a conscious effort not only to hear the words that the other person is saying, but also to understand the complete message that’s being transmitted.

This requires complete and total attention by the listener to the speaker, blocking out distractions and focusing exclusively on the other person, even to the point of resisting the temptation to formulate a mental response to what is being said. Here are some active listening tips:

1. Mentally repeat what is being said to maintain concentration
2. Look closely at the other person’s manner, expression and body language
3. Acknowledge what’s being said by nodding and giving verbal ‘uh huhs’
4. If you agree, smile and use affirming statements such as ‘I understand’ and ‘Yes’
5. If something’s not clear ask a clarifying question ‘Are you saying that…’
6. Periodically recap what you’ve been told to demonstrate you’ve heard ‘What I’m hearing is…’
7. Be conscious of your internal voice/emotion responding to what you are hearing
8. Don’t draw premature conclusions or pass judgment – the speaker will become defensive and may clam up

Next time you’re having a face-to-face conversation with someone, try this approach and see what else you hear.