On The Ground

Trust is an essential management tool in business and in any relationship. Building up trust within your organisation and employees is now more important than ever Trust is imperative for your business to function. Employees need to trust in one another and in those that lead them. To be at their most effective, your team needs to be fully engaged in decisions impacting them and their work routine as to increase their commitment to achieving it. We speak of Trust as somethi

There are no formal theories, yet companies have been shifting towards what is now known as Corporate Liberation. A liberated company allows employees freedom and responsibility to take actions that they, not their managers, decide are best for their company’s vision. That doesn’t mean the company is not managed. It simply shifts the hierarchical role of the manager to one of leader and coach, developing and guiding their people towards personal and company success. A spec

Strategic planning, whether that be annual or long term planning, use to be an event that established the business plan and financial budgets for the coming period. It was developed into a nice document and often neglected after the huge investment upfront. In order to be successful, this old approach will not work. Strategic documents, whether long or short term must be a living breathing document that is active and reviewed no less than each quarter to confirm its relevanc

The past 15 months have seen some huge changes in work patterns. Below are some facts from Harvard Business School you may find interesting. 2.95% more recipients to each email. 5.2% more emails sent daily. 8.3% more emails were sent after business hours. 13% more meetings. 12% reduction in duration of meetings. 14% more people invited to each meeting 10.6% longer days worked

If anything, the past 15 months have proved to us all both personally and professionally that we are very good at adapting rapidly. From a personal point of view, this gives us the confidence, self belief, and inspiration to deliver better than we ever have. This however carries with it a consequence we did not dream of, our key stakeholders also noticed our ability to rapidly adapt and have taken note and will now be using this as their new benchmark moving forward. Boards

― people with the ability to bring creativity and ingenuity to their work. Companies that acquire and retain exceptional talent are 20% more productive than the rest due to the way they onboard, develop, collaborate, engage, and lead their people. Remote work has increased this number due to the fact that your exceptional talent can engage virtually in a broader range of initiatives and teams than they could physically — multiplying the influence these individuals have on p

In highly productive organisations, employees have capitalised on new technologies and work routines to stay connected with customers and co-workers. It is estimate that the best organisations have seen productive time increase by 5% or more. But it all comes down to a matter of Trust. Companies that trust their leaders and people increased their productivity significantly, where those companies that did not, suffered with meeting and email overload. In research carried ou

Over the past 18 months companies have had to adapt to new ways of doing things. From working at home, using new technology, to new ways of operating at the workplace. Our people have been doing their best to deliver, but how well are you doing? The truth is, it depends on how well you were doing before the sudden change and the quality of your leadership. Businesses that had great leadership and were doing well prior to the sudden change continued to adapt and perform wel

The ability to develop fresh skills and gain new knowledge is a critical factor with the ever-changing times we have been facing and it applies to both leaders and employees. Companies have always focused on the development of their people but have for far too long overlooked the importance of leadership development. It is the leader that sets the tone of the company and if there is a skills gap in leadership then the business and people will suffer. With the current rate o

Keeping people motivated to want to come to work is critical. Below are Seven deadly sins of Meaninglessness - things we do as leaders that may demotivate our people Disconnect people from their values Take workers for granted Give people pointless work Treat people unfairly/unequally Override people’s better judgement Disconnect people from supportive relationships Put people at physical or emotional risk Source Catherine Baily and Adrian Madden, MIT SLOAN Management Review

According to a Mercer survey of 2020, 99% of organisations say they want to embark on transformation, and almost all reporting significant skills gaps in their people with reskilling as the top talent investment capable of driving business success. Workforce capability and lack of future skills are seen as primary reasons why transformations fail, and reskilling is one of the investments that is critical for the ongoing adaption and growth of any organisation. Of those surv

We need to all come to terms with the fact that the rewards and benefits of the past no longer meet the ever-increasing needs of the modern employee. As leaders within the company, we have the mindset that it is an Employer’s market, but if we do not retain our top talent we will be faced with an operational disaster. The core elements of any benefits and compensation package need to incorporate as many of the following as possible; Be related to personal or team performanc

Many people and their company’s struggle with the successful concept of professional workplace coaches. Yet it is companies that engage a workplace coaching program that accelerate business growth and the development of their people. So why should we engage a coach? You receive an unbiased view of how you and your team are performing. Often when we are so busy doing the doing, we do not notice the lost opportunities that stand before us. You will receive constructive critici

Being a leader is like being a shepherd to a flock of sheep. The primary responsibility of a shepherd is the safety and welfare of the flock. To guide the sheep to feed, protect the sheep from harm and to keep the sheep together. Being a leader is exactly the same. As a leader we need to; Guide your people to success. Give them quality time, support and coaching to help them get the nourishment they need to grow and be a successful member of your team. Protect your people f

Covid-19 proved to most of us that we are flexible and can respond in a split second to making significant change and do it well to save the company and its human assets. Companies transitioned to having their people working from home very effectively and efficiently. Months have passed, the risks are better under control and for many countries, the process of returning to work has begun. Now comes the big challenge of how we transition from the home office to workplace. I

Jim Hemerling from the Boston Consulting Group shares his thoughts on leading in an era of constant change. One of his points is to not impose change on your people Some of his key findings about the leaders includes the following; Too slow to act – leading to a constant crisis mode Short term approach – not securing a future for the company and its people Taking a 1 off approach to the issue and not establishing a long term strategy to deal with the issue. Jim shares in his

When safety became the focus of all industry, we implemented the Occupational health, safety and environment representatives. Companies invested heavily into the education of these people to ensure they were well equipped to ensure the workplace risks were reduced and in the event that an incident did occur, were there to make sure things were put in place to ensure it does not happen again. As the environment changes around us, we now need to shift our focus to also conside

Businesses need to plan for the time when they will reopen after the lockdown ends. If you want to open your business and want to stay ahead of others, you should ideally plan your strategy to restart in the post-pandemic world. There are many  post-pandemic changes to expect in the workplace  across different countries that are widely impacted by the coronavirus. If you open your business or plan to bounce back without an effective strategy, you might not know how to move a

A good leader would know that communication during a crisis is critical. They communicate with urgency, transparency, and empathy, it helps people adjust to the constantly changing conditions crises bring. A tone of urgency encourages people to make quick decisions to mitigate harm. Transparency builds trust in leaders and conveys respect for employees. Showing empathy and conveying a compelling message of hope can foster resilience. Following research by Harvard Business

The law or policies are usually very clear on who can work from home. This was all good and well up to Covid-19 but now things have changed. Whether we like it or not, the policies we once had on working from home now need an urgent review. You see, when we allow most of our people to work from home because the company or law states, it goes to show that it can also be done at other times. Is your business ready to accommodate the increase in requests and does your policy