It’s risky; speaking up. Many people miss the opportunity for fear of getting it wrong only to regret later not having said anything. Even though speaking up is often spontaneous, a reaction to something unexpected, it doesn’t mean you can’t prepare...

No-one enjoys being criticised or from negative and hurtful comments (or the fear of them) often prevent you from doing things you really want to. You might ask yourself ‘What if people don’t like my idea?’ or ‘What if I fail and everyone sees?’...

You are training people, all the time, on how to treat you. Your behaviour constantly gives other people messages, some subtle and some less so, about how to behave towards you and how to communicate with you...

Remember that when you are communicating to other people about your time you are basically training them in how to treat you. We all have natural habits in how we respond to requests for our time. Let’s look at ways in which you can increase your choices of response to requests for your time adapted from our new book Time Management; Banish Time Management Forever.

There are three main skill sets that ensure success in business: people skills, technology skills and problem-solving skills.
Problem-solving is a high level thinking skill. It involves accurately assessing an issue, identifying potential solutions and choosing the most effective solutions to implement. Building the problem solving skills of your team benefits your business by boosting productivity, improving teamwork and giving your team the ability to deliver results which stand out from the norm.

Getting together with the family at Christmas should be full and fun and joy. In reality though the fun and joy rarely happens as spontaneously as it does on those Christmas TV ads. The secret to a successful Christmas with the family to think ahead and be prepared by considering who you’ve got coming with these three steps:

For many organisations, change is neither desirable nor simple. How can you help your people feel in control during times of transition? How can you minimise the ‘loss’ which often comes with change? What can you do to reduce conflict and build healthy teams, even when the rate of change keeps increasing? What behaviours help people thrive during change? Use these top tips from the experts:

If the Wikipedia entry on NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) is to be believed, it is all a bunch on mumbo jumbo. If that’s true, why then, have over 150,000 people in the UK been trained in it and report using it with success? Why do people like Pharrell Williams, Oprah Winfrey and Warren Buffet sing its praises? Why do a lot of counsellors and psychotherapists secretly use it without labelling it? Why is it so popular in the sports and business world?

People often tell us they find asking other people for their time, help and support difficult. It can feel like grovelling, being demanding or disrespectful depending on how you think. This can often make requests appear clumsy and awkward. Being able to ask for help well builds relationships and is a key factor in managing your time well, as you can’t do everything yourself. Here are our top tips straight from our forthcoming book: 

“Busy” has become a word so packed with meaning in social circumstances, it has become has common a response as ‘fine’ to the question ‘How are you?’. Habitual it might be but are you telling people what you really want to when you use this in conversation? Busy can be a positive thing, if you are busy doing the things you want to do with your life. If your business has been quiet and now it’s ‘busy’ that’s good. Be careful though of using it as a standard response because when you describe yourself as busy, you are potentially communicating to yourself and other people one or more of the following:

When people come on our certification courses in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) they are always blown away by the power of the interventions to change behaviours, how we feel and how we behave. It’s easy to love the big powerful stuff, but the small changes we make in our thinking are often the thing that ensures long term success because they create good habits which serve you for life. Here are our top tips to try:

We all know people who wind us up, make us feel small, angry or useless, even over small things. The impact can be a minor niggle, ruin our day or ruin a relationship! It might feel like these reactions are out of your control but the good news is there are ways to minimise the impact and deal with differently. Here are our top tips:

Tis the season to be merry - and also stressed if you are organising Christmas this year. At such a special time, you want to get it right, but many people race up to the big day and are then too exhausted or stress to enjoy it. There’s a reason why Christmas Eve is a peak day for people getting colds. Here are our top tips for making Christmas a breeze:

The words we use matter. When we speak or hear a word we make pictures and sounds in our minds, and that impacts how we feel and behave. So it’s important to be clear about what we are saying, to ourselves and others. In this series, John will explore the meaning and impact of common words we use and ask the question ‘Do we know what we’re saying?’