Management

How to negotiate with suppliers


There’s no doubt about it, times are changing. With increasing market volatility, uncertain political environments and the impact of climate change the world around us is changing at a rapid pace. This is no different in the business world. Organisations are constantly adapting, re-calibrating, planning and reacting to forces seemingly out of their control. These […]

Importance of negotiation skills for manager


What is negotiation? The term “negotiation” covers a huge range of activities. An obvious example is two lawyers talking (or writing) to each other on behalf of their clients to try to resolve a legal dispute – or to strike a deal for the acquisition of one company by another. A personal example is buying […]

How to resolve conflict with clients


Client relationships can at times be the most challenging relationships to navigate. They rely upon constant communication, can change quickly and are embedded with high levels of expectation. Despite our best efforts, they don’t always go to plan. And without continual transparency can result in conflict. Conflict, in the course of a client relationship can […]

If it’s broken, fix it – don’t throw performance reviews away


It seems that performance review bashing has become the newest sport in human resources. Recent weeks have seen several major Australian corporates announce that they are scrapping annual performance reviews. These announcements are sending some practitioners jumping for joy – after all, plenty of research shows us that no-one like performance reviews. Before we get […]

Performance feedback: does “tough love” really work?


If you think reality television is a waste of time, think again. While some would say that it’s the detritus of the entertainment industry, there’s one area in which it generally excels – in the quantity and quality of its feedback conversations. The ability to give effective feedback is an essential leadership skill and, in our experience, […]

Mind your language: how to give effective performance feedback


Performance feedback – it’s a phrase almost guaranteed to fill managers and employees alike with a sense of dread. That’s disturbing, but hardly surprising when you consider the negative way in which most feedback in the workplace is delivered. As a learning and development professional who passionately believes in quality performance conversations, I can’t emphasise enough […]

The colourful truth about working collaboratively


Birds do it. Bees do it. Even Justin Bieber and Karl Lagerfeld are doing it. Everyone’s talking about collaboration at the moment. Deloitte Access Economics estimates that the ‘collaborative economy’ (the value of greater workplace collaboration) is worth a staggering $46 billion in Australia alone. So much of this talk is focused on using the […]