Blogs & Articles

Surely managing people effectively is a necessity for all businesses? After all, it is employees who are responsible the day-to-day operation of the business and interaction with your customers. Managing people effectively is essential if a business is to work to optimum productivity levels and it is hard to disagree with the following statement ‘happy staff members tend to be more hard working and loyal to their organisation’.

I think most of us would like to think that we have what it takes to succeed; determination, grit, Mental Strength. But how do we know for sure? After all you can’t improve what you can’t measure. Until recently Mental Strength (toughness) was subjective. We would look at a business person, an athlete, or an artist achieve great success in the face of adversity and say, “WOW…they’re mentally strong!” We would determine a person’s Mental Strength by their success. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a way to measure this.

Something happens in our house on a nightly basis that I’m sure happens in most houses with kids of a school age. I ask my (soon to be) 5 year old son what he’s done in class that day and wait for the response. It’s usually like trying to get blood from a stone and the inevitable answer is usually what he’s had for lunch from the award-winning school cook or how he’s been chased around the playground with his friends at lunchtime by a boy they’ve christened ‘Broccoli’ due to his green coat.

No. Let’s be clear on that. Emphatically not – but it is being given disproportionate importance and academic coverage. So why even pose the question? Well, it’s just this bloggers way of highlighting that the analysis of individual and organisational learning requirements, the highest quality of design and piloting and the robust delivery of learning solutions are all just as important in getting the job done.

How many times have you heard a colleague refer to the accounts team as the bean counters? Or, maybe you have done it? Maybe that just reflects the fact that many of us (including me) don’t fully understand the work that they do or just how vital it is if a business is to function effectively…and profitably.

Companies often find themselves in a position where they believe they need a competency framework but are not entirely sure why or what the material benefit would be.

One common approach to developing the senior team or Board would be to seek to ensure that, firstly, the Board are working, not just as a team, but as an ‘effective’ team because after all, that is exactly what the Board should be.

Most people’s sales conversation could be improved. Over the last 20 years I have seen many sales people do the following:

However, it’s surprising how many businesses still aren’t even getting the basics right. There are numerous methods, models and metrics for evaluating the transfer of knowledge and skills back in to the workplace. But, why can’t we just keep it simple?

The diagnostic framework and suggested management options attempt to provide guidance on the identification, support and management of trainees in difficulty and to provide clinicians with a systematic approach to dealing with these challenging and often complex issues. The pre-eminence of maintaining patient safety should be paramount when managing trainees in difficulty. Formal management guidelines and protocols from your local LETB/Deanery or NHS employing organisation supersede this guidance in all circumstances.

Every weekend throughout the land in both amateur and professional ranks team managers and team coaches grace the playing fields and sports centres of the nation and together with their respective charges they gather to go into metaphoric battle with their adversaries. In doing so, whether those team managers and coaches recognise the fact or not, they are all viewed as leaders by their subjects and are undoubtedly tasked with doing an exceptionally difficult job. So what lessons in leadership can be learned from business and applied to the sporting arena and vice versa?

Learning always has to be relevant to the job, the organisation, the industry and the market. Rubbish. Education is about developing the mind, not just stuffing the memory. Our job here at Maguire Training is to teach the delegates of our high profile clients to be able to do something differently tomorrow that they are not doing today. That could be applying new knowledge, implementing a new skill or adopting new behaviours and to do that it is often much more useful to use abstract teaching tools to excite the imagination, draw out instincts and encourage more cerebral analysis.