Doing a group communication is one of the most agonised over events in organisational life. The number of meetings about meetings, reviews and circulations of scripts and announcements can be staggering and often result in something that’s so bland and watered down that the message is lost, confusing or ineffective.

Does this sound familiar? There’s a briefing going on, it’s an important project and you’d really like to ask a question. Except that you don’t. If only you had, a little clarity would have made your contribution so much more effective from the outset.

You’ve invested a huge amount of time and resources hiring the best people, you’ve got them in the right roles and are rewarding them well for their contribution - but you just don’t seem to be getting the success you’d anticipated. We hear this from CEOs a lot, especially in innovative and knowledge industries, often coupled with exasperation, frustrations and if they are self-aware enough, a smidgen of self-doubt.

Anyone who’s worked on an organisational values exercise knows how painful the process can be. You start out wanting to build something inspirational that truly reflects all that is great about your organisation; instead, you end up in endless wrangles over the right kind of words and ‘what’s the point of this?’ discussions.

If you love what you do, do you even need to think about work life balance? It’s a question many CEOs, business owners, and entrepreneurs ask us. The short answer is yes - both you and the relationships that matter to you – need looking after, regardless of how well your work might be going.

We’ve all seen emotions displayed at work. As humans, it’s almost impossible to hide our emotions and often they can be a good thing – showing positive emotions at work can be highly motivating and engaging.

Stressful life events don’t have to be work-related to impact on performance or the workplace. It’s human nature to be affected by the challenging events that life can bring our way. Unfortunately, taking them into work is often unavoidable.

The four stages of team development by Bruce Tuckman is a core management model most leaders are familiar with. Teams start by ‘Forming’ and then go through a series of stages that eventually see them arrive at ‘Performing’ – with the advantages of being self-motivated, autonomous and competent.

Do you identify as a perfectionist - or know someone who believes it makes them or their team, more productive? The truth is - it’s often not the success enabler it’s thought to be. In fact it could be causing some pretty serious damage.

When you’ve worked hard for your professional qualifications, you’d like to think they provide you with guaranteed future career success. They are the foundation, but not the whole picture...

A lot of organisations have values statements. These are fairly easy to put together but not so easy for organisations to live up to. Companies we work with are constantly asking us to help them implement their values. There are some key reasons why businesses find this so hard...

This is not an uncommon debate for businesses. Why and when should I use internal trainers and when should I bring in external trainers or use external training courses? Let’s consider some of the key issues as part of that debate...

Many organisations cite a ‘no blame’ culture whilst behind the scenes fault finding is a major preoccupation. We all like to believe that there is no blame and it’s best to focus on moving forward, but human nature depicts that we feel a lot better about ourselves when something is not ‘our fault’, so naturally we will look for fault and blame outside ourselves and be hugely relieved if we find it...

Sandra leads a team of Project Managers for a leading IT software development company. An experienced IT developer, she was promoted 5 years ago because of her ability to deliver projects on time and on budget, her ability to control the project management process was particularly impressive...

Stepping into a leadership role doesn’t mean you need to change your style drastically, and women and men generally do have slightly different challenges when they are in leadership positions. If you are a leader and a woman, by developing a few keys skills you can thrive as a leader and stay true to your personality...

If you work in a warm and friendly team environment, the chances are you have a number of affiliation driven people in your team. Harvard Psychologist David McLelland defined three primary motives that drive people Power, Achievement and Affiliation which are the key to understanding behaviour in the workplace...

Do you find it hard to say no? The problem many people have with saying no is that they don’t want to offend or upset people, or they are afraid it will damage the relationship in some way. Here are some top tips for saying no and being polite from Time Mastery; Banish Time Management Forever...

It is all too easy for our social life and family time to end up as the ‘thing we do when everything else is done’. And yet if people were asked on their death bed, what they wished they’d done more of in their life - very few people would say ‘worked more and cleaned the house more’...

It’s a common cause of confusion for leaders and managers; what’s the difference and does it even matter? Isn’t it just helping people? It’s important to know the difference because it helps set expectations for the people you are helping...

Forgetting things is part of being human, it happens to us all sometimes. If you are revising or doing a talk or presentation and need to remember some essential things, or even if you just want to improve your memory skills, here are some fool proof ways to create memory pegs that will make memorising easier...

When someone is struggling, it is natural to feel for them if you are a caring, kind person. There is an important difference in how you deal with this feeling. Sympathy is the ability to feel concern for someone else but not the ability to step into their shoes and experience it from their perspective...

There are many ways to be happy and successful, there is no magic formula. Instead happy and successful people live by some useful Principles and do them their own way...

It’s simple right? Follow some time management rules; make a list, work out what’s important and work your way through it. Not so simple. Even people who really focus on managing time well are being secretly sabotaged by their own brain. Why?...

Employee Wellbeing is not a big shiny initiative you need to implement, the most effective way to develop a really healthy culture is to embed it at the heart of everything you do. This is actually much easier to do than you might think at first.

Time sometimes really does seem to slip away? We lose time often not because we are busy doing something important, but because our mind is stuck in it’s naughty bad habits. If you can identify your habitual time wasters and change them even just a little bit, you will free up more thinking time, more energy and the ability to get a lot more done. Here are a few top time wasters and how to address them:

On 31st October Wyatt Woodsmall ran an NLP Masterclass for over 30 of us in Bristol. The subject was Science and Spirituality and the path towards spirituality - and whether it’s a path we want to take. It was a packed day with many full heads at the end, but in it all were some practical life lessons that we could all take away and do something with. Here are some key ideas that help with day to day life and the path onwards:

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?

Innovation comes with an opinion - but does your culture welcome that, or stifle it?

Do you find it hard to say no? The problem many people have with saying no is that they don’t want to offend or upset people, or they are afraid it will damage the relationship in some way. Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) explores how to use language in a way that sets clear boundaries and respects other people. Here are some top tips for saying no and staying friends:

Hypnosis has great health benefits and in a recent New Scientist feature is cited as being more effective than placebo when working with health issues. When you make it a part of your life it can be a great way to de-stress, allow you to relax as well as solve problems and create great ideas. Your body needs to relax, to unwind, clear the circuits and reboot and self hypnosis is a great way to do this.

A lot of people don’t want to be ‘that person’, the one who is always bragging on about how great they are, how good their work is and the ‘proven track record’ they have. However, in our wish to avoid being seen as arrogant or stepping on peoples’ toes, we can get left behind - along with the profile our great work could have given us.

How do you maintain pace and quality of work, without burning out your staff? It’s a concern expressed by many people we work with in innovative, creative, and high pressured environments.

Creativity and innovation tend to fuel rapid business growth. Whether it’s ground-breaking design, new technology or a reputation for creative excellence - it can attract an influx of new business and new people. Add entrepreneurial leadership to the mix and things can really fly.

Every leader or business owner wants to see more productivity, but there’s no set formula for achieving it. Productivity comes from a blend of an engaging culture, effective relationships, and being able to manage both time and stress. What’s more, creative people tend to need to be together to collaborate - and that’s something remote working has largely prevented these past few months.