Archive for the ‘Team Building’ Category

Is Dealing with Difficult People Stealing Your Time and Energy and Even Your Wealth?

Then this “Natural Influence” workshop is designed for you 

 Discover how to stop  people holding back your business, professional or personal life.

Take away tools and strategies that will help you:

• make your personal relationships a joy
• get the best out of your team and your colleagues
• make dealing with demanding clients more relaxing
• and make your career or business more rewarding

 Among many other things you’ll discover how to:

• § Discover how to handle people’s aggressive behaviours assertively
• § Resolve conflict and create win-win outcomes
• § Prepare for challenging situations and avoid escalating them further
• § Develop rapport and motivate others quickly and easily
• § Deliver difficult feedback confidently and skilfully – without appearing to nag or criticise
• § Read special clues in the body language, voice tones and words people use
• § Get the best out of people who are not like you

100% Money Back Guarantee 

If by the end of the workshop you feel your knowledge about how to influence difficult people has not improved, I will refund your money in full. All I ask is that you return the workshop materials.

Where’s the venue?

St John’s Innovation Centre – Milton Road, Cambridge

What time and date?

9.30 a.m. – 12.30 or 1.30 p.m. – 4.30pm or 6p.m. – 9p.m. Wednesday 1^st December

 So what is your investment to attend?

Early bird price of £107 + VAT (full price £147 + vat), if you book before Friday 26^th November.

You can bring an additional guest (friend, family member, colleague or team member who is not on my mailing list – perhaps that difficult person J) for £97 + VAT per person.

 Places are limited to 4 per session so hurry and book yours!

 How do I book?

Call Madeleine Morgan on 01223 426392 or email madeleine@growu.co.uk to confirm your booking or find out more.

 What my clients say:

“Thanks for making it so useful, informative and lively.” Vicky Faupel Cambridge Network

One of the most powerful lessons I learnt is how to deal with difficult people – an invaluable seminar run by Madeleine. This was thought provoking, structured and fun! Aegean Thompson, Director Event Wishes

“Madeleine is an exceptional coach and trainer. The process, wisdom and expertise she brought to the training allowed me to make changes in myself that deepened my relationship with my girlfriend, improved my interpersonal skills with colleagues at work and most important of all, given me an ongoing realisation that this whole journey is exciting and enjoyable.” Ben Green, Marketing Manager

 “I found the workshop very interesting and motivational. I’ve got more tools to create something better than compromise or win-lose situations. I can create win-win outcomes.” Justine Fairweather, Credit Controller, Whizzle It

The managers, professionals, technicians and adminitrative staff in your business can be valuable assets or a frustrating time and money consuming drain on your business. It all depends on how well you select your team and how well you develop your staff once you’ve recruited them. Here are 7 tips for helping you recruit the right staff for you.

1. Make sure that you have a very clear idea of what you want.

This may sound obvious but recently I spoke to a business owner recently who went ahead and recruited a member of staff without being clear about what he really wanted. As a result, 3 months later the recruit resigned. That cost my client in interview time, money for advertising, time and money invested in training, frustration…

Here are some things to be clear about:

• What are the goals you have for them working for you? What do you want them to achieve? How will you get your return on investment from them?
• What will their role be? E.g. Business Development Director, Sales Manager, Finance Officer
• What values/attitudes/personal qualities do they need to have to fulfil the role effectively? (What needs to be important to them?) e.g. customer service, team work, decisiveness, motivation, maturity, creativity, honesty, willingness to learn…It’s easier to train staff to have the right technical skills than it is to train them out of unhelpful attitudes, so give priority to attitude.
• What beliefs do they need to hold to fulfil the role effectively? What do they need to think is true? For instance, belief in themselves/their abilities, in the company and its products and services etc.
• What skills, knowledge and experience do they need to have to fulfil the role effectively? For instance, how to: sell, lead, influence, manage their time, listen, work on their own, work in a team, ability to drive, computer skills…
• What tasks do you need them to perform to fulfil the role effectively? What behavioural habits do they need to have, e.g. always being polite to clients, dressing professionally?
• What environment and resources do you need to provide them so they can perform their role effectively e.g. induction training, equipment, office? What resources do you expect them to bring, e.g. contacts, qualifications?

2.    Have relevant ways of measuring their competence.

Qualifications only test a person’s competence at one point in time, during exam conditions. You need to know if their skills and abilities are current, more than just theoretical and up to your standards.

For instance if you are recruiting:

1. Sales staff – have them demonstrate how they would sell your products and services.
2. Administrative staff – have them take computer tests on the software you want them to work with.
3. South West airlines in the USA set candidates who were applying to be flight attendants a task to deliver a presentation. The canny managers weren’t looking at how well the candidates were presenting. They were looking at how well the other candidates in the audience were supporting the presenters by paying attention, clapping, nodding at good points etc. Why was that a good test? Because they were selecting staff for their ability and willingness to look after the needs of others!

3.    Have relevant ways of testing their attitudes

It’s easy for people to put on a good front in an interview.

Candidates can appear more outgoing, people focussed, decisive, resourceful and reliable than they really are. Personality profiling and psychometric tests are valuable tools for helping you to get a true picture of a candidate’s:

• personality,
• strengths and weakness they may bring to your team
• reactiveness to stress,
• leadership capabilities and areas for development,
• values,
• attitudes and
• likely ways they’ll react in certain situations
• How to get manage them

…and so help you recruit the right people and get the best out of the right away.

It will also help you make objective choices about who to appoint. We all have a tendency to get on with people who are like us but another person with your strengths (and weaknesses ) may not be the best thing for the business.

One profiling tool I use to help my clients take on new people and get the best out of them is FACET5. It’s been tried and tested in large companies like British Sugar and AVIVA, local authorities and charities as well as SMEs. It’s also accredited by the British Psychological Society.

For more information, email madeleine@growu.co.uk or phone 01223 426392 or visit the website http://www.growu.co.uk

I also train my clients to use NLP metaprogram questions because they can be used in a conversational way that gets natural answers from the candidates.

4.    In the interview, ask searching questions relevant to what you need to know.

For instance, if you want someone who is innovative and creative, you might ask how they see the future of the company and what their ideas are for its development.

Some useful questions are:

• What experience do you have for this job?
• What did you like/dislike about your last job?
• What have you learned from the jobs that you have held?
• What would you like to be doing 5 years from now?
• Competency based questions are useful – that is, ones that ask the candidate for examples of how well they have performed certain skills or dealt with certain situations in the past, illustrated with examples.

5. Whatever the candidate is doing, whether they are listening or talking, notice their body language and voice qualities.

Do they match up with what the candidate is saying or do they seem to be telling you something different?

6. Always follow up references but take them with a pinch of salt.

It’s useful to have another opinion about the candidate. On the other hand you don’t know if there is a hidden motivation for giving a good reference, e.g. wanting to get the candidate out of the company.

7. Use the services of a good recruitment agency.

Some agencies barely do any screening and leave the company the hard work of wading through a long candidate list.

Some agencies don’t treat the candidates very well.  A good agency will save you a lot of time, money and guess work.

One reliable recruitment agency I have experience of is http://www.ExactSourcing.com. Based in Cambridge, the owner, Rosa Dos Santos, has won awards for her abilities as a recruitment agent.