I guess we start this year with optimism and yet less certainty than we would normally do. I know most of my friends are much more likely to say ‘If I can…’ rather than ‘I intend to…’ when it comes
Getting ready for APRs? Some self-assessment questions to ask yourself first
It’s Annual Performance Review time of year again for many organisations. APRs are amongst those conversations that everyone involved should welcome because of the value they bring. Instead, far too often people dread them. In fact, according to a 2019
The 5 Secrets of Good Leadership Communication
Heather Campbell shares five secrets of leadership communication you can use to understand things from the other side of the table, and make your communications a two-way street.
How to Get Big Results When Time and Money are Tight
I was working with a client who had a huge budget for development, leaders who were champing at the bit to engage with the development programme, and an Executive Team that was excited to be walking the walk, not just talking the talk. And
How Long Should a Leadership Development Programme Be?
How do you decide how long your leadership development programmes should be? This is a challenge in many organisations, and there are usually two deciding factors involved: The budget you have available for the specific programme How many days you
Do You Secretly Question the Value of Performance Management?
“I’ve got to let you into a secret. I never liked the whole formal performance management thing – and it’s not just because the managers hate me for nagging them about it!” The Head of HR who made this confession
Annual Performance Reviews: What REALLY Scares Your Leaders
I once worked with a manager who never gave his staff realistic annual performance reviews. Everyone was apparently performing equally well. Eventually problems began to surface, so the director of HR sat down with him to find out why he hadn’t
10 Questions For Effective Performance Review Conversations
If you are a regular reader of the CommsMasters blog, you’ll already know that I have a strong negative reaction to overly-structured, form-focussed performance review processes. Instead, the critical focus should be on the conversation that takes place between the
4 Ways To Help Leaders Fall In Love With Performance Reviews
Hands up all you leaders out there who look forward to the annual round of formal performance reviews. And hands up everyone in Human Resources who enjoys the annual game of chase-up-the-leaders-who-haven’t-done their-performance-reviews. No one? Really? It’s surprising how this
5 Ways to Enable Effective Performance Management Conversations
Mercer’s 2013 Global Performance Management Survey reports that only 7% of managers were felt to be “highly skilled at having candid dialogue with their direct reports about performance”. The same survey found that approximately one in three organisations worldwide said