By Heather Campbell >> In interviews with medal-winning Olympic athletes during London 2012, most of them acknowledged the impact that the cheers from spectators had on spurring them to success in their vital races and events. Yesterday, I had my own – admittedly somewhat less headline-grabbing – experience of the importance of someone else’s encouragement. Heading out on one of my own runs (or rather slow jogs) around my neighbourhood, someone walking past smiled at me and said, “Good for you – ...

By Heather Campbell >> Leaders with charisma usually win the hearts and minds of the people around them – whether that’s the people they lead, those they report to, or other stakeholders within or outside the organisation. Leaders with charisma quite simply win more often. The great news is charisma doesn’t have to belong to a lucky few. Everyone can build it – and the secret to doing so lies in some surprisingly simple guidelines around how you communicate. These are the ...

By Heather Campbell >> Even with the best of intentions, leaders who want to change the way they communicate can find they quickly revert to old habits. This isn’t surprising given that most of these habits have been developing since we were babies. That’s a long time to embed habits that we find are less than effective once we get into leadership roles! To help leaders make changes to the way they communicate that will stick long-term, CommsMasters’ programmes are usually run ...

By Heather Campbell >> In today’s working environment, it is good practice for leaders to empower and engage people in order to get better business results. As regular readers of this blog will know, CommsMasters certainly subscribes to the link between an empowered and engaged workforce and business results that head north. But the focus on empowerment and engagement is leading to one of the big mistakes that leaders are making when they delegate projects or tasks. This is a failure to ...

By Heather Campbell >> One of the hallmarks of a good communicator is their apparent self-confidence. Indeed, self-confidence tends to be seen as one of the core attributes required to be effective at just about anything. We’re not talking arrogance here – simply that underlying sense others get that we are comfortable in our own skin and able to handle whatever the day throws at us. But what do people do that leads others to conclude that they are – or are ...

By Heather Campbell >> Your staff are the people who ensure your organisation’s success.  No matter how much time and money you invest in developing strategies and processes, your employees implement them and deliver results.  If your people aren’t happy, they will be less effective in their roles, and your organisation will struggle to fulfil its potential. Of course, if your current staff aren’t effective, you can look to replace them – but more often than not this is a short-term and ...