Enhance.training

Delivering bad news to staff is definitely one of the hardest jobs of being a manager. There is nothing nice about delivering bad news to employees and team members

I explain exactly what to do when giving bad news to employees - during and after sharing bad news.

Delivering bad news to your team at work is going to provoke an emotional response from multiple people. Before delivering bad news get your own emotions under control and rehearse how you are going to handle emotional outbursts. 

How to deliver bad news starts with what not to do. Don’t go through pleasantries, take time for small talk, or take ages building yourself up to deliver bad news. 

Research from the medical profession shows that the number one factor to how your message will be received is the news-giver’s attitude. Focus on making giving bad news to employees all about them not about you.

Exactly how to deliver bad news to employees I explain in the video in three simple steps. A critical part of communication skills is how you manage your tone of voice and body language. To have effective communication skills, you must be aware of these and be able to control them appropriately. 

Before you give bad news understand why you are giving the bad news. Then you are able to answer questions effectively, openly, and honestly. All key when having difficult conversations.

Another big part of how to deliver bad news at work is to manage the emotions of the receipts of the bad news. Allow them to vent and show their emotions. Be empathetic by showing your emotions but stay neutral. Don’t allow those you are giving bad news to start debating decisions they can’t change or influence. 

Another vital part of giving bad news to staff is what happens after the bad news. Bad news usually creates uncertainty. How are you going to create as much certainty in the situation going forward. What is your vision for future and how are you going to share this.

If  you have any questions on “Delivering Bad News To Staff - Make Difficult Conversations Easier”, please eamil me at enhance.training and I will get back to you.

Jess Coles

Enhance.training

Good teamwork at work is hugely valuable for both manager and company. Teams significantly outperform groups of individuals, in my experience. Signs of great teamwork point to a good manager leading the team.

I share 6 signs of good teamwork at work and how to improve teamwork in your team.

Teamwork in the workplace is hugely beneficial for the manager who’s personal performance is assessed on the performance of their team. Great teamwork at work is great for the manager because:

1. Teamwork enables better problem solving
2. Teamwork unlocks potential for innovation and sparks creativity
3. People are happier in teams with good teamwork
4. Teamwork increases personal and professional growth
5. Working in a team lowers stress and the risk of burnout
6. Individuals working as a team are a lot more productive

 All of these drive higher team performance. 

The power of teamwork starts with every team member understanding and believing in the team goals. Goals give the team shared purpose and direction, which is one of the characteristics of great teamwork.

Another of the signs of great teamwork at work is an environment of trust. With trust you don’t have a team, just a collection of individuals. Collaboration and knowing that colleagues will do what they commit to is a sign of great teamwork at work.

The third of the signs you have a great team is that team members will put the team first. All team members know that when the team does well, they individually do well. Good teamwork at work is doing the right thing for the team even if it costs you personally in the short term. 

The fourth of the signs of great teamwork at work is each team member will do their part. They will work through lunch, stay late, ask for help … anything they need to do to deliver what they have committed to. They won’t let their teammates down.

The fifth of the characteristics of teamwork is that open, honest and lively communication is the norm. Good teamwork at the workplace is noisy. Good teams are constantly asking for ideas and solutions and giving their own. They are asking for help, debating the best next step - all of which you can’t do in silence. 

Lastly, the power of teamwork always shows in how results focused the team is. Team performance is measured on outcomes produced not activity undertaken. Team work makes reaching goals and outcomes a lot easier, quicker and more fun. 

Throughout, I share tips and tactics I have used for decades to improve team performance and what I view as critical teamwork skills.

If you have any questions about “Unlock the power of Teamwork! 6 Signs of Good Teamwork At Work”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you.

Jess Coles

Enhance.training

Building responsibility in teams increases team performance and makes working in the team much more enjoyable. A win for everyone. 

The manager has the biggest influence to encourage employees to take responsibility and knowing what to do makes a massive difference to your effectiveness as a manager. 

I share 5 actions for building a culture of responsibility in teams to increase performance.

How to encourage employees to take responsibility starts with how to give them permission. Taking responsibility can be scary as an employee, particularly if there are likely consequences if something goes wrong. 

Setting out what employees can do and can’t provides security and confidence, which encourages employee responsibility. Focus on your actions, decisions, and behaviours as much as what you tell your team. 

Next, to make employees more responsible visibly and actively ask for and value team member input. Responsible employees will jump at the change to be more involved in the direction of their own work. Everyone will be more motivated when the goals and plan are partly their own rather than just the managers. 

To build responsibility in teams stop telling and start coaching. When you tell a person what to do, the responsibility stays with you. When they tell you what they are going to do, the responsibility is theirs. Give team members responsibility by asking questions (coaching) rather than telling. 

When you get team members taking responsibility, you also have to protect them from external forces and criticism and ensure you don’t punish errors. Use learning errors to teach and improve, while not accepting errors caused by laziness or lack of attention etc.

Getting the team environment right to build responsibility in teams is a key leadership skill and super important to increase team performance. I share 10 factors to build responsibility and accountability.

If you have any questions on “5 Actions for Building Responsibility in Teams to Increase Performance”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles
Enhance.training

Learning safe ways to challenge at work can be career defining. Challenging at work is a crucial element of building better ideas and solutions. Being comfortable and skilled enough to challenge your boss without upsetting is one of the secrets to stand out at work.

Learn 5 safe ways to challenge at work and giving feedback to your boss.

How to give feedback to your boss can also be one of those difficult conversations at work. So few managers get useful and constructive feedback from team members. When you are good at giving feedback to your manager – it’s a great for how to stand out at work.

Firstly, try to challenge others at work in service of reaching business goals rather than for personal reasons. Most bosses support those trying to do good for the group and don’t support those challenging to be difficult, to annoy others, to avoid their fears etc.

Secondly when challenging your boss or others avoid being right. Positioning what you are proposing as being right, the best or the right way is very confrontational. You are implying the other person is wrong. Much better is to offer alternatives, improvements, and options. This is even more important when giving feedback to your manager.

Asking questions is a great way to challenge more subtly. Use questions to lead the other person to the problems, to the alternative routes, to better solutions. Using questions is great when safely challenging your manager.

Always seek to provide alternatives and options rather than highlighting only a problem or adding to the problem. This is always received better and also portrays you in a stronger way.

Lastly, seek to raise up rather than put down. Choose your words carefully and always aim to help, improve, build. This is key part of effective communication in the workplace.

If you have any questions on “5 Safe Ways To Challenge At Work And Giving Feedback To Your Boss”, please email me at support@enhance.training  and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles

Enhance.training 

Managers … put your team before yourself to gain rapid promotion. This may sound a little counter intuitive, yet your performance is judged on your team’s performance. 

Learn 4 compelling reasons for why putting your team first will make you a much better manager and help you get rapid promotion. Plus get practical tips on HOW to put team before yourself.

Become a better manager by putting your team first. Management principles of give before you take is a compelling way to rapidly improve your management results which gets you promoted faster.

There are a lot of skills to develop to become an effective manager. Skills alone are not enough. How you use those skills defines great management. 

Your attitude towards your team is a crucial starting point. Managers and leaders create the most value through their teams. Their teams are a vital to that manager or leader’s success. View them with the importance they deserve. 

Mentally view you team with admiration and respect. Once your attitude and mindset are positive and respectful towards your team, your decisions, actions, and behaviours will communicate your positive attitude very clearly to your team. I view your management attitude a key part of your personal development in a management role.

Using power well is another crucial skill for manager success. One of the most important leadership principles is to use power for the good of others, for the good of the group rather than for your own personal gain. Look at any classic story in any culture for confirmation of this vital leadership principle.

Next, focus on helping your team before pleasing your boss. Doing both is vitally important for getting on the fast track for promotion. Your teams results and output are going to have a biggest impact on your boss’s appraisal of your performance. Put your team first to get promotion quickly.

Using 5 ways to leverage your time effectively is also essential as a manager, to do a great job and to get promoted. Get tips on how to put each of these ways to leverage your time into practice and gain a big jump in your and your team’s performance. 

If you have any questions on “Managers Put Your Team Before Yourself & Gain Rapid Promotion”, please email me at support@enhnace.training and I will get back to you.

 Jess Coles

Enhance.training

What great managers do that okay ones don’t affects us all. Great managers create more than 8 times the value average managers do – that is a huge gap. 

Learn 5 key principles or approaches and become a better manager.

How to be a great manager starts with how you view your job as manager. Managers create the most value through their teams. Your team is critical to enable you to do a great job. Great managers know this and work hard to make their team as good as they can be.

How to be a better manager starts by putting the team before yourself. Working in service to your team is the best way to work in service to yourself as a leader. This is more important than great manager skills.

What makes you a good manager is how much the team trusts you. Without trust there is no team, only a collection of individuals. Teams outperform groups of independent individuals. Working for the team is a brilliant way of building trust.

For how to be a better manager and leader, focus on the environment you are creating. A lot of management skills go into creating a great trusting team environment – most important are what your decisions, actions and behaviours communicate to the team. How to be a good manager is partly about how well you can manager yourself. 

How to become a better manager at work – learn to be comfortable with conflict. Every organisation will have a level of conflict. Resources are limited, different teams have different objectives etc, PLUS every person is different. Conflict is guaranteed. How well you manage conflict – both constructive and destructive is essential for team success.

Partnering with and valuing team members is vital for how to be a good manager and leader. Managers depend on their teams. You don’t have a job without a team. Admire each person’s strengths. Support them to develop further. Value what they bring to the team. Your beliefs about the team will be obvious through your actions and behaviours. Get your mental approach right – one of the key manager skills you need.

How to be a good manager at work must include being unfailingly results orientated. Results is what your company need your team to deliver. Team results is what you are personally being assessed on. Great managers always focus their teams of delivering results.

If you have any questions on “What Great Managers Do That Okay Ones Don’t – 5 Secrets To Become A Better Manager”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you.

Jess Coles

Enhance.training

Making decisions reality at work or getting a decision implemented by others to achieve a desired result - is far harder than making the decision itself. Improve decision buy-in from your boss, your team, and others, to make the implementation of decisions quicker, easier, and more successful.

I share the steps and tactics I use in persuading others to buy-in to the decisions made and work to make them a reality. 
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How to Execute and Make Things Happen - Podcast
https://enhance.training/how-to-execute-and-make-things-happen-tm0050/

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Being persuasive with team members is essential to be an effective and good manager. There are so many decisions made by others that you have to work with your team to put into practice. 

Gaining buy-in at work, particularly with those implementing difficult decisions or complex decisions,  is essential to make those decisions effective and get implemented. There are four useful decision making routes I suggest you use when making decisions which help with decision implementation. 

These are:

1.      Unilateral

2.      Consult and decide

3.      Build consensus

4.      Unanimous 

I explain exactly how to use each route when making decisions at work. Matching the route to the decision type is a key skill to get decisions implemented quickly and successfully. 

To persuade others quickly and effectively, I use a 5 step process to plan how I am going to gain decision buy-in commitment. These steps are:

1.      Who are the influencers

2.      Understand their position

3.      Work out the impact

4.      Explain the benefits

5.      Gain the right support level

I go through how I use each step to gain commitment and make decisions a reality at work. 

Finally, I use a ReCODE model for communicating decisions and recommendation to get buy-in and the action I need from bosses, team members and other stakeholders.

When making decisions, always think about the quickest route to getting the result you need rather than the quickest way to make a decision.

If you have any questions on “Improve Decision Buy-In - Making Decisions Reality At Work”, please leave them in the comments section and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles

Enhance.training

Learn how to give an effective performance review and you have a great tool to motivate and develop team members alongside giving them realistic feedback about their performance.

With the right preparation, you won’t feel nervous conducting a performance review. I share 12 vital tips for how to run a performance review meeting really well so your team member get loads out of it.

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The employee appraisal process starts when you set goals and objectives for your team members at the start of the year. How can you run an performance evaluation if you or the employee is not clear about what is good, okay and poor. 

The performance appraisal should be a summary of all the feedback conversations that you have already had. There should be no surprises coming out in the employee appraisal.

3 additional preparation steps for the appraisal meeting that I think you should do well in advance are:

1.                Book out plenty of time to think through what you want to bring up in the performance review

2.                Write down all the achievements, wins, successes plus add in the misses and what to improve on, so you have a balanced employee evaluation

3.                Ask peers, bosses, and team stakeholders for their feedback before the employee review

Taking these steps gives you a lot to talk about and share with the team member. Make sure most of what talk about is focus on how they can improve what they are doing, regardless of the current performance level.

How to conduct a performance review meeting starts with working out your agenda for the annual performance review meeting. I suggest using:

1.            Intros and communicating the Agenda

2.            Ask the employee to talk through their performance 

3.            Give your specific feedback on performance and invite discussion

4.            Talk through the employee’s career plans

5.            Discuss the employee development plan and the opportunities

6.            Jointly agreed the goals and actions for manager and employee

 During performance reviews, go through each of these agenda items. In the video I talk through each agenda item in more detail.

A key part of performance review tips for managers is to make sure that you follow up after the performance review has been finished. There is so much you can do to help your team member get better quicker. 

For example, I suggest you book in weekly one-on-one meeting every week or every other week to teach, mentor and coach your direct reports. You have so much knowledge and experience to pass on plus you will learn loads in these meetings. The more you know about what is going on in the team, the better job you will do, and the quicker team performance will improve.

If you have any questions on “How To Give An Effective Performance Review – 12 Vital Tips To Action”, please leave them in the comments below and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles
Enhance.training

----- Example of Specific Feedback

 Rather than saying “you have done a great job - well done” 

 say 

 "I have been really impressed at your attention to detail as evidenced by the quality of your work. I and many others I have spoken to continue to be delighted with the skill you have displayed when managing difficult customers and how you leave them feeling listened to and taken seriously. You have been just as good at supporting your team members, taking the time to help them resolve problems. You have done a great j

The more visible to your bosses you are, and the more you make your work visible, the faster you will be promoted and the further your career will progress.

To get promoted you have to be good AND be more visible to your bosses than your competition.

I share six key tactics for you to increase your visibility at work making getting promotion at work easier.

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Free Resources
For more tips and advice on how to raise your profile and tips on how to market yourself internally in your organisation, I have a free downloadable booklet available:
https://enhance.training/lm-lp/market-internally-booklet/

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The six tactics and a ton of tips to make you more visible at work start with finding your authentic voice. To increase your workplace visibility, you must share your ideas, views, and solutions. If you don’t have a considered and thought through view, you won’t be noticed at work.

When you are good at your job, you will have ton of views, ideas, and solutions to share. Be more visible at work by communicating intelligently with your boss, peers, colleagues and stakeholders and sharing the value you are adding to the business.

When you have ideas and solutions, there are so many ways to become more visible, to get noticed at work. Start small. Consistently keep your boss and stakeholders up to date with your progress against goals.

The next of my secrets to increase your visibility at work is to diplomatically stop others taking credit for your work. Don’t talk negatively about colleagues that try to take your credit. I talk though exactly what to do.

Another great way for how to increase your visibility at work is to regularly, and publicly, celebrate your team’s success. This has so many benefits in addition to increasing your visibility.

For getting promoted at work, I suggest you work at helping your colleagues be successful. I know this sounds counter intuitive yet being a team player is so important. You must also communicate what you have done to help and the impact of that help regularly to your boss and stakeholders. This is another great way to stand out at work. 

To increase your visibility at work, I suggest you work on becoming your boss’s most valuable supporter. This is much easier than you think and gives you a ton of benefits including raising your profile at work for all the right reasons. 

How to increase your visibility at work is a challenge everyone must tackle in today’s workplace. Make sure you know exactly how to get noticed at work and get promoted faster.

If you have any questions on “How To Be More Visible To Your Bosses – Get Promoted Faster & Progress Further”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles
Enhance.training

It is scary to disagree with someone more powerful than you at work. Learn to disagree respectfully and you are more likely to stand out, create more value and earn faster career progress.

Learn 7 ways to respectfully disagree, 5 thought processes for WHEN disagreeing with your boss is the right thing, and 4 actions to improve how you communicate your disagreement.

How to disagree with your boss is a skill. Voicing your disagreement should only be done after considering the impact of speaking up. If the impact of any change is small, it is probably best to stay quiet. Picking your battles is important. 

When disagree respectfully at work make sure there is a clear business reason why you are disagreeing. Do not disagree for purely personal reasons.

Always take into account of the culture, situation and person when you respectfully disagree. All should factor into the risk versus benefit though process before disagreeing. 

Before disagreeing with the boss consider the risk of saying nothing. What will be the impact on results and how will staying silent impact you in the future. 

The first of the steps to follow when disagreeing with your boss is to agree the guidelines or process for which your boss is okay with your disagreeing.

Next for how to have a respectful disagreement with those more powerful than you, is to ask permission to disagree. This gives them power and puts them into listening mode. 

Next when thinking about how to disagree respectfully, restate the other person’s original position, idea, or solution. This confirms your understanding and that you have considered their perspective. 

I always think it beneficial to explain the purpose of you disagreeing with them. You can confirm the business goals or reasons behind your disagreement. 

Set out your structured argument. When disagree with someone more powerful you want to present yourself as professional and competent. The more compelling your argument, the more likely you will get a change. 

The next of the steps to disagree with your colleagues or boss is to invite their input and feedback. This promotes collaboration and teamwork. 

Finally, to disagree respectfully with someone more powerful than you, state that the final decision is theirs to make. 

There are many ways to disagree politely without upsetting or damaging relationships. How you disagree and how you communicate your disagreement are both very important. 

Don’t avoid disagreeing. Do avoid disagreeing badly.

If you have any questions on “How To Disagree With Someone More Powerful – 7 Steps To Respectfully Disagree” please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles

Enhance.training

Learn the common mistakes managers make that kill team trust, respect, and appreciation of the manager so you can avoid making them. I share 8 typical mistakes managers make, fundamental mistakes, that your really need to avoid.

Each of these 8 typical manager mistakes makes the transition to manager a lot harder and more painful for you and your team. Make these management mistakes and they will have a big negative impact on your team’s performance.

These are common mistakes of new managers and these are also mistakes of managers with a many years’ experience.

The first of these common manager mistakes is not getting to know your team well enough. When managing teams, the value you personally create is through your team. Not knowing your team is like a carpenter not understanding how to use their tools.

The second these 8 mistakes managers make is not communicating expectations clearly. Common new manager mistakes in this area are thinking that telling the team is enough. It is not. There is a lot more to creating very clear expectations.

The third common management mistake is thinking the team rules don’t apply to you. Petty displays of power or giving yourself an ego boost are sure to anger the team and kill your credibility. Team performance will dive.  Live the rules you set.

The fourth people management mistake is managing with a one size fits all. Everyone is different and every situation is difference. Flexibility of approach is an incredibly important skill and one of my best new manager tips.

The fifth manager mistake is not truly listening to the team. Each team member is an expert in their area because they are seeing and experiencing the problems and challenges. If you don’t listen, how will you really find out what is happening. Listening also speeds up the employee to manager transition.

The sixth of these leadership mistakes is using an “I know best” approach. Don’t get hung up on being the best or demonstrating that you know everything needed. Good manager skills are identifying which ideas and options are the best rather than needing to come up with all the ideas or solutions. 

The seventh typical mistakes managers make is avoiding conflict. Destructive conflict will kill team performance and morale. You must tackle it quickly and in doing so, it is so much easier to resolve. 

The eighth common mistakes managers make is not investing in yourself. Learning by trial and error is slow, painful and rarely get you past an okay skill level. Read books, take course, get a mentor or coach. Management is a set of skills. If you are serious about your management career, invest in yourself.

If you have any questions on “8 Common Mistakes Managers Make That Kill Team Performance and Morale”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you.

Jess Coles

Enhance.training

Feeling safe at work or enjoying psychological safety in a team is a very big deal for all of us. I cover what is psychological safety, 4 stages of psychological safety and 7 ways of creating psychological safety in teams.

Feeling safe within a team or having psychological safety at work provides a huge range of benefits including:

1.      Much more positive working atmosphere

2.      Better teamwork

3.      Lower staff attrition rates

4.      Greater levels of innovation

5.      Higher team performance and output

Create psychological safety in a team and you, as a manager, get to enjoy all the benefits that come with increasing team performance.

There are loads of ways to make employees feel safe and create psychological safety in the workplace. The first step in my view is creating really clear expectations. When we know exactly what is expected of us we gain psychological safety and certainty. 

Next, for getting staff feeling safe and secure be open and honest with what is happening around the team and with what you think, feel and worry about. Being honest and being empathetic increases transparency and reduces fears and insecurities. 

Third, to create safety at work proactively ask questions and seek team members views. This is great for how to make employees feel valued.

Fourth, critical for creating safety at workplace for team members is how you manage and control your reactions and responses.

Fifth, for creating psychological safety in teams prove that making some mistakes is okay by treating this as a learning opportunity. By accepting some mistakes, you encourage your team to take calculated risks, to learn and to innovate.

Sixth, to get staff feeling safe at work encourage constructive conflict where ideas, solutions and views shared are open to careful and diplomatic challenge. Celebrate the differences within the team and use these to improve the solutions created and implemented. 

Seventh, to encourage feeling safe at work, make it desirable to ask for help within your team. Asking for help quickly and appropriately aids learning, creates psychological safety and improve team performance.

I view creating psychological safety in teams as essential in the journey to increasing team performance and making the team an enjoyable and rewarding place to work for everyone.

Please put to use as many of these ways to make employees feel safe in your team - today and onwards.  

If you have any questions on “Feeling Safe at Work – 7 Ways of Creating Psychological Safety in Teams”, please email me at support@enhance.training  and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles

Enhance.training, 

Knowing your team as a manager gives you huge advantages to improve team performance. Get the most out of your team by getting to know your team on more than a superficial level.

I share 12 actions to step change team performance through knowing your team a lot better.

When you know your team's strengths and weaknesses, you can play to strengths and avoid weaknesses. Do this consistently and you will increase team performance. 

Great managers know their team on a more detailed level that average managers. Everyone on any team is different. 

Part of good team management is understanding those differences and combining them to create a team that works well together, relies on each other, and utilises all the strengths and talents in the team to produce great team performance.   

When you know your teams strengths and weaknesses, and each individual in the team, you can adapt your approach, your management style and how you communicate so that you improve how you work with the team.

By making the time and effort to get to know your team, you demonstrate you care, your interest and both massively help increase trust and appreciation. This in turn helps you build stronger relationships with the team members. All essential ingredients to step change team performance. 

I share 7 specific areas that I look to get to know about each team member such as their energy levels and ambitions as well as the more obvious skills and experiences they have. 

Good team performance management is knowing how to utilise the strengths of the team and cover any weaknesses. I share 5 actions that focus on achieving both of these day in day out. 

I personally think it is next to impossible to improve team performance in a meaningful way without getting to know your team in depth. 

Not taking the step of getting to know your team would be like a carpenter having little clue about the tools they are working with. The outcome is unlikely to be good. 

Make the time to get to each of your team members and flex how you approach and work with each person to get the best from them. This creates a great foundation to significantly increase team performance.

If you have any questions on “12 Actions to Step-Change Team Performance Through Knowing Your Team”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles

Enhance.training,

Preventing workplace stress is in everyone’s interests. I cover four fundamental major causes of stress in the workplace and share tips on how to deal with stress at work.

Stress at work costs the UK economy £28bn per year with 23.3m sick days taken. 

As a manager, you should be thing how to deal with stress at work for yourself personally and just as importantly, for your team. If team members are not at work because of workplace stress, they can’t do great work to hit team targets.

I am covering the 4 big causes of stress at work based on my experience - rather than giving you lots of tips on personal stress management - to help you when dealing with stress at work.

In my view, the first place to start with how to manage stress at work is to manage your workload. The more overworked you are, you more stressed you will be. It is that simple. One of the best ways to handle stress at work is to practice saying no. 

Learning when to say no and how to say no are vital to handle stress at work. As a manager, to reduce employee stress in the workplace, learn to say no effectively on behalf of your team. Overwork is one of the biggest causes of stress at workplace I know. 

The next biggest cause of stress at work is having poor relationships with your boss or teammates. When thinking about how to deal with stress at work, think about your relationships and what you can do to improve them.

Focus on your relationship with your boss first. There are lots of actions you can proactively take to improve this relationship professionally and personally. Better relationships are great for handling stress in the workplace.

Another of causes of stress at workplace, is not getting the right help and support. Trying to deliver and learn at the same time is very stressful. Learning takes time, which you are not likely to have enough of. Get the best help you can from inside or outside of work – this is a workplace stress solution you must use!

Organisational conflicts cause a lot of workplace stress, particularly because they are outside many people control to fix. You can contribute to a solution and take steps to resolve these conflicts, even if you are the most junior person in the office. Proactively manage this stress at workplace.

If you have any questions on “Preventing Workplace Stress – 4 Major Causes of Stress & What To Do”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you.

 Jess

Enhance.training

Everyone comes under pressure to perform at work. How we handle the pressure to perform at work is a big part of our personal success as well as how much we enjoy being at work. I share 6 actions to handle the pressure to perform at work.

Pressure in the workplace increases as you enter the management ranks and progress though them.

Dealing with pressure at work at times can get overwhelming. Dealing with pressure is a mental state of mind with physical implications. Staying calm under pressure reduces the physical responses and helps us handle pressure at work.

When we are under pressure at work our hearts beat faster, we have shallower breaths and our bodies release adrenaline and hormones which impact our ability to manger our emotions and memory. To manage pressure at work we need to manage our physical responses. 

How to overcome pressure at work starts with our mental game, which influences our physical responses. 

Performing under pressure is a lot easier when you employ four mental actions. Reframing problems into opportunities is a great way to deal with pressure at work. The pressure of work seems a lot higher when you think in terms of problems. 

Next, for how to deal with pressure at work, replace the feeling of I feel nervous with I feel excited. This is a great mental approach to cultivate to manage pressure at work and explain why in the video. 

How to deal with pressure at work should absolutely include breaking down big problems into lots of smaller problems. Physiologically, small is easier to manager and overcome than big. 

How to handle pressure at work is also about cultivating a positive state of mind. I share tips on how to stay positive even when everything seems against you. 

Pressure in work also arises when we tackle all the urgent tasks first rather than focusing on the important tasks first. In practice this is much harder to do as it involves saying no and potentially disappointing people.

How to manage pressure in workplace is much easier when we make sure we finish each task without allowing ourselves to get distracted. Easy to say, hard to do in practice, yet it is essential to learn how to minimise distractions.  

There is a lot of actions you can take to proactively handle the pressure to perform at work. Start taking action today!

If you have any questions on “6 Actions to Handle the Pressure to Perform at Work”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. 

 Jess

Enhance.training

Learning how to play office politics to your advantage is a crucial part of any management job. Workplace politics happen because of conflicts, differences and scarcity. Navigating office politics is a key part of building personal influence within the organisation in which you work. 

Learn 6 Crucial Ways to Successfully Navigate Workplace Politics.

How to manage office politics starts with ensuring you are aware of the politics at work. Ask questions to those in your network to find out what is happening around the business and who is pushing what.

Company politics, in my opinion, covers the skills and actions you take to build influence within the business. 

When thinking about how to handle office politics don’t chose to ignore it. You will be handicapping your career progress and ability to do your job as a manager effectively.

Influence is power. How to handle office politics is also about using the influence or power you gain to do the best you can for the company and group as a whole. Influence is given to you by others. If you are self-serving, unpleasant, unhelpful etc, you will lose influence and be shut out of meetings and decisions. 

Working in the best interests of others significantly increases your influence and is a great approach for how to win at office politics. This doesn’t mean you are a charity. Do favours for others and they will feel obliged to return those favours. 

A key tool in dealing with office politics is mapping out who you need to get to know and build relationships with. The larger more complex the organisation, the more important this step is. 

Another important part of how to handle politics at work is to build bridges and allies. Both happen when you build trust and relationships with others. 

Finally, when planning how to handle workplace politics, work on building a positive reputation. A good reputation will mean navigating the politics, building trust and relationships will be a lot easier. Proactively work on building your reputation.

Throughout all sections I share how to deal with office politics tips,

If you have any questions on “Office politics – 6 Crucial Ways to Successfully Navigate Workplace Politics” please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. 

Jess

Enhance.training

Learn 7 ways to use 1:1 meetings to develop employees and improve performance of the team. One-on-one meetings with employees are the most value able of my week and it is incredible what you can achieve through them. 

One on one meetings are super useful in setting goals and expectations and more importantly revising progresses towards goals and maintaining expectations. One-to-one should be held in private.

Setting really clear goals in one on one meetings should be a priority for every manager. Too many don’t put enough time into creating clear goals, leading to confusion and lack of direction. Improve performance by being clear.

Next, use 1-2-1 meetings to prioritise what your team members work on. Explain how they can create more value for the team and focus more of their work on these higher value activities and say no to the lower value ones. This makes a big difference to team performance. 

In one-on-one meetings, I love asking questions of my direct reports and listening to find out key blockers and problems team members are facing. You can develop employees by getting them thinking and providing solutions. The more your team are thinking, the more you build a higher performing team.

When developing employees, provide praise to positively reinforce the good stuff and corrective feedback so they know what to improve and how to do this. Whenever you are giving feedback, always give feedback in service of developing staff.

Really effective one on one meetings should include time to coaching and developing employees.  When thinking about how to develop employees, think about all the skill you have because you are a manager and share these. 

How to coach and develop employees should include problem solving. In 1:1 meetings, this is fun to do and really helps build their problem solving skills, which in turn helps reduce the pressure and burden on you. 

Finally, when developing your employees focus on improving their decision making during your one on one meetings. These are vital skills to build to progress their career into the management ranks. 

One-to-one meetings are a great tool to build high performing teams. 

If you have any questions on “7 Ways to Use 1:1 Meetings to Develop Employees & Improve Performance”, please lemail me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. 

Jess

Enhance.training

Self-awareness for managers is an essential skill to lead and manage others better. Most people think they are self-aware, yet research has shown only 10-15% of people are truly self-aware.

Take 5 actions to improve your self-awareness and make it easier to manage teams.

Developing self-awareness as a manager is essential to success. If you can’t manage yourself, how can you manage others successfully?

Firstly, lets cover “What is self-awareness?” It is your ability to perceive and understand what makes you an individual.

Increasing self-awareness at work will give you a huge range of benefits. Research has show those with good self awareness build better relationships, communicate more effectively, are more confident and creative and make better decisions. 

Growing self-awareness takes a little bit of work, yet the rewards personally and professionally are brilliant. Learn 5 steps to increase your self-awareness.

From my experience, increasing self-awareness to manage others better is an invaluable process and it makes you more comfortable with who you are and helps you manage more authentically, honestly, and effectively.

Increase your self-awareness and you will become better at managing how you display your emotions which is essential to build trust, confidence and credibility as a manager.

How to improve your self-awareness is an important question. The 5 actions for becoming more self-aware including:
1.How to get and use honest useful feedback
2.Ask What instead of Why
3.Understand and use your values
4.Be confident using strengths and managing weaknesses
5.Learn what drives strong emotions in you

Developing self-awareness as quickly and as easily as possible is super useful for all managers and all stages of their career. After 25 years of managing teams, I am still working on improving both the two types of self awareness.

If you have any questions on “Self Awareness for Managers – 5 Actions to Improve Your Self-Awareness”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you.

Jess
Enhance.training

Articulate yourself better! I share 8 powerful ways to be more articulate. When you can articulate your thoughts clearly and confidently to others, you gain a lot of confidence, feel more valued and be more effective at work.

What does it mean to be more articulate? Being articulate means being clearer in what you say – the words, sentences etc used and also being better at how you communicate – using your voice, body language, emphasis etc.

There are so many benefits from being able to articulate yourself well. Firstly you can save yourself and others a lot of time when you can articulate your thoughts well. 

When you clearly articulate your thoughts, you are likely to enjoy more success professionally as you increase teamwork, your impact and influence within the business.

The benefits of being more articulate also include stronger relationships with colleagues and friends as you present yourself more authentically. 

Being able to speak more clearly, helps you build a better and bigger network to support you personally and your career growth.

Finally, when you can better articulate your thoughts, you will be better at public speaking which many see as a pre-requisite for promotion into management and leadership positions.

How to become more articulate is the next logical question. I share 8 powerful ways for how to be more articulate. This includes how to become more articulate when speaking to small groups as well as giving presentations to large audiences.

Each of the ways to become more articulate includes practical suggestions and tips of what to put into practice and how to build your articulation skills through practicing. 

If you have any questions on “Articulate Yourself Better – 8 Powerful Ways To Be More Articulate”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you.

 Jess

Enhance.training