Christmas holiday is a great time for rest, renewal and reflection. The year-end underlines a natural point for a stock take – how things shaped up and what we are up to in our lives.  With the advent of the New Year and the promise of new beginnings, pausing to take time for reflection and thoughtful intent for the New Year is most natural. 

The seers have repeatedly pronounced – an un-reflected is an unlived life!  This year, I would like to encourage a strengths based approach to your reflections. 

And why not record your answers to the following questions in your journal?  Not only will this give you a sense of achievement and consequent good feelings but it will also provide you with directional clarity for the coming year.

You could ask these questions in relation to your team, business, leadership and personal life as well.

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Whether you are a manager, leader or an employee, having a sense of entitlement can be a dangerous thing. I am not referring to certain entitlements we all have as per legal, contractual or basic moral rights. But more the sense that comes through one’s place in society, organization or political life, where one gets used to a level of position, power, privilege and perks. “Who I am” takes precedence over “what I do” (or how I perform). (more…)

1. Employee engagement is a three-way process and requires responsibility, accountability and ownership from employer, employees and the organization.  We talk about employee engagement including the kinds of things employees need to feel engaged and what the managers and leaders need to provide. The latter certainly have an active role in harnessing the best of their talent and creating a rich culture that people want to be part of and enjoy coming to work.  There is certainly a lot that can be done at the level of leadership engagement behaviours.  However, employees aren’t mere passive receptacles of these initiatives but are also active players who have a role in shaping a great workplace. (more…)

These points are  in response to Ron McLuckie’s question, “ how do we get organisations and managers recognising and acting on the strengths concept, rather than the negative weakness focus we see so regularly? ”

1) Having right people in the right job/role so they can use their key strengths has to be a start!

2) Continuously ask,  “What is working well for our team or organization?”

3) Ask routinely,  “What do we well which we need to keep doing?”
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Giving and receiving feedback whether at work or home can be challenging. In the work setting, whether it is giving feedback during a “coachable moment” or a more formal context such as performance appraisal or review, there are some principles – discussed below, which make the giving and receiving of feedback positive and constructive. While there is a move towards feed forward now, especially in the work setting, giving and receiving feedback is still something we find ourselves doing. (more…)