Managers versus leaders. Aren’t they both the same? Is it really possible to distinguish one from the other? And do you need to? I have worked with hundreds of business professionals who share this problem of knowing whether they are leading or managing. And whether it really matters anyway. I thought I would write this article today to help you understand management style and how you can differentiate between them and decide how to adapt between managing and leading – because, truth ...

What are the hot topics for employees in your organisation? What are the things that are really bothering them? How often do they hear your personal views, as the Chief Executive, about these? The truth is, unless you work in a micro-organisation, chances are the people that you lead don’t hear directly from you nearly as often as they want to. You see, I’ve found that in organisations with as few as 60 employees, people feel that the Chief Executive (or Managing Director ...

How good are leaders in your business at the ‘people’ side of their role? Working across the engineering sector, I find it’s common for engineers-turned-leaders to confess that this is something they’re not always too hot at. In their hearts, in their heads and in practice they remain technical problem-solvers and innovators, and aren’t nearly visible enough as leaders. This is a big mistake. Here’s why increasing visibility most be a central element for any engineer in a leadership role. ...

What are the early warning indicators that employees in your organisation are disengaged? As a chief exec or HR leader, you probably don’t want to wait until absence and sickness rates become a problem or staff turnover increases. It takes a long time for such obvious signs to manifest. For example, research shows that 50% of disengaged workers don’t actually leave their organisation. While you may feel you can rely on the results of your employee engagement survey, there’s a good ...

Are you a Chief Executive who’s struggling to get engineering managers excited about the business potential employee engagement brings? Does it feel like you’re facing a lonely struggle to get things moving, with maybe just your HR team for company? If so, you’re in a position shared by many Chief Execs I work with. Too often managers – whether senior Directors or frontline managers – believe that employee engagement is HR’s responsibility, while the Chief Executive is expected to be the ...

Are you a Chief Executive or HR Director struggling to increase employee engagement in your organisation? Are you wondering who’s really responsible for employee engagement in your engineering firm? I’m sure you’re already familiar with the answer ‘everybody’. While this is ultimately true, it’s far too glib to be meaningful. Like many of my clients, you probably find that this broad answer doesn’t actually help you build employee engagement. Communicating that ‘everybody’ is responsible tends to mean that ‘nobody’ believes ...