Talk Seminars Blog

Women Driving Start-Up Boom

The number of women starting their own business has increased by 9% over the past 12 months reports New Business.

“Women in business are a crucial part of Britain’s economy contributing some £60 billion annually" claimed Karen Gill, co-founder of everywoman, producers of the research along with Nat West.

Promotion is 'Key Driver' For Workers

Workers would be more likely to stay with their current employer if they had better promotion prospects, according to a survey by Manpower, reports the BBC.

Career advancement was the main reason people left to work for another company, followed by the chance to work more flexible hours.

On the other side of that equation, Manpower discovered that holding onto staff was the most pressing human resources issue for employers.

Leadership in The Workplace

A "Leadership in The Workplace" survey released indicates that UK bosses' lack of leadership skills is having an adverse effect on business performance, reports HRM Guide.

Commissioned by a leading firm of Chartered Psychologists, the study was based on responses from 1500 people from organisations of varying sizes throughout the UK about "leadership in the workplace".

• 77% of respondents said their boss was not interested in them
• 90% said their boss did nothing about poor performers
• 79% claimed their boss did not set clear objectives
• 89% said their boss lacked innovation and was unreceptive to new ideas

There are still places available for Talk Leadership in March 2007, which covers many aspects of modern leadership in the Corporate Environment.

CEO is ‘much easier’ role than HR director

That is according to Richard Smelt, group HR director of Carphone Warehouse and former chief executive of One Tel.

“I had to motivate people who were looking at losing their jobs, and maintain morale for existing staff,” he told Personnel Today.

"Transferable HR skills proved to be invaluable to the role... Being honest with people, listening to concerns and providing clear direction and time-scales were all things I’d learned in HR,"

"Good HR people also have plenty of emotional intelligence and are able to see where people are coming from. Quite a few CEOs don’t have that ability."

"It’s sometimes difficult in HR to see the bottom line effect of your productivity. Being directly accountable for business results was a great experience,"

Do Leaders Undermine Training?

A recent survey by The Ken Blanchard Companies found that senior managers are undermining the training programmes they have asked for.

They ask their training managers to:

• Initiate learning programmes that produce empowered leaders for the future
• Encourage people to be more productive
• Be accountable for bottom line results showing a clear return on investment (ROI) in training

But about half of the same top managers will then undermine their requests by:

• Failing to set an example of what good leadership looks like
• Refusing to go on training programmes themselves
• Not showing an interest in sharing the responsibility for enhancing the recognition and value of training within the company

More from HRM Guide...

UK Must Improve Management Skills

The UK must improve management skills before it can compete with India and China, reports Personnel Today.

The 'management crisis' in the UK must be tackled urgently if it is to compete with India and China, according Petra Wilton, head of public affairs at the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). She also condemned the state of leadership in UK businesses.

"Managers impact on decision making, and our research has shown that organisations that invest in management performance get better results."

Attitude Reflects Leadership - Gary Bertwistle

In the movie 'Remember the Titans' the Captain and Vice Captain of the now famous NFL football team, The Titans, are discussing their team. The Captain is disgruntled with the way the Vice Captain's team mates are contributing to the success of the team at practice. At that moment the Vice Captain looks to the Captain and says 'Attitude reflects leadership'.

To me, this sums up the basis for leadership. There is a lot being written and said about leaders having to inspire people to be the best they can be, to inspire people to do things they didn't think were possible, and to achieve their own personal and group goals. I concur with the sentiments of the thousands upon thousands of books and speeches that have been given along this premise.

However, my personal belief is that leadership starts from within the leader and the standards that the leader sets for themselves. Like anything, the attitude of the team is a direct reflection of the attitude of the leader, and the standards by which the leader holds themselves to.

When I'm speaking with corporations and groups you can pretty quickly draw an idea about the attitude that the team will have by spending time with the leader. The greatest leaders in the world have held themselves personally to a standard higher than anybody else could hold them to. They inspire people by setting their own standards, their own goals, and not settling for mediocrity.

A mediocre team is a reflection of mediocre leadership, and that mediocre leadership is a reflection of the standards and expectations the leader places on themselves. In the most simplistic version of this, if the leader is always 5 minutes late for meetings, and arrives dishevelled and disorganised, you can be guaranteed that the team knows its OK to turn up disorganised and always late. Attitude reflects leadership.

At the Talk Leadership seminar in March 2007, the Raise the Roof topic is about how leaders can set their own expectations in order to inspire those around them. Its as much a personal journey as it is a team journey.

Gary Bertwistle - January 2007

UK Workers Need More Skills

British workers need a major injection of skills to beat migrant workers to London jobs, according to leading commentators, reports Personnel Today.

Research by the CBI and KPMG has found that two-thirds of companies expect skills shortages to be the biggest obstacle to growth in the first half of 2007. Half of those surveyed currently use people from other EU countries to plug skills gaps.