Victor Frankl, via his book Man’s Search for Meaning, wrote about how important it is in living a good life to have a purpose. When we have a purpose we can weather any storm and look back over our life and know our life mattered. It helps answer the question: why are we here? Purpose … Continued
There is quite alot of discussion about the importance or otherwise of employee engagement to productivity and performance of individuals at work. There is correlational data which suggests organisations with high levels of engagement (however that is defined and measured) have higher levels of productivity, discretionary effort or job satisfaction. There is much less data … Continued
Coaching, be it personal, life, executive or transformational, seems to be the panacea to cure all ills. According to the 2016 ICF Global Coaching Study undertaken by PWC the annual revenue worldwide of the coaching industry now amounts to over $2.3 bn annually. This, of course, does not take into account the amount of time … Continued
Feedback can demotivate an individual and lead to a drop in performance. And yet feedback is a critical component of any manager’s job. Is there a better way to deliver feedback which leaves employees feeling motivated and positive about their performance potential? It doesn’t matter if it’s negative or positive feedback in more than one … Continued
There is a growing canon of research on the benefits to organisations when employees get to use their strengths at work. Using your strengths every day increases engagement, meaning and job satisfaction. That translates to lower employee turnover and absenteeism. In addition, leveraging strengths is key to releasing creativity as it increases the amount of … Continued
Ed Deci, together with his collaborator and friend, Richard Ryan, have been researching and writing about what motivates people for more than 25 years. In their opinion, leaders and managers should not be worrying about how to motivate their employees. Instead, they should be thinking “How can I create the conditions within which other people … Continued
The aim of any performance management system is to continuously improve the performance of individuals and that of the organisation (ACAS). It involves making sure that the performance of individuals contributes to the goals of their teams and the business as a whole. Good performance management helps everyone in the organisation to know: what the … Continued
In March, Zappos offered its employees an ultimatum: get behind their new organisation structure or leave in exchange for at least 3 months of redundancy (The Washington Post). As a result of the ‘ultimatum’, approximately 14% of the the 1,500 workforce took redundancy. Some may consider this relatively high, particularly as Zappos’ customer focused workforce … Continued
Professor Adam Grant, is an organisational scholar who undertakes research into pro social behaviour and is one of my favourite reads. In his book ‘Give and Take’, he defines people in one of three ways. Mostly people are ‘givers…people who contribute to others without expecting anything in return.’ Some others are ‘matchers… (who) aim to … Continued
After realising it wasted 2 million hours annually on undertaking pointless information gathering in support of performance management ratings, Deloittes have radically overhauled its performance managment system and with one stroke have breathed life into one of the most painful HR processes created. It asks line managers to rate each member of staff against 4 … Continued
Chiswick Consulting