Blog

Appraisals and Feedback – What are we actually feeding?

Research shows (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007) that whether we are giving positive or negative feedback the way we deliver it can have a long-term effect on the recipients’ ability to deal with immediate and future setbacks.

In work as in life, things don’t always run smoothly and there are bound to be setbacks and challenges. And whether we like it or not, part of our role as managers requires us to give appropriate feedback in order to redress the situation and/or to prevent the individual making the same mistake again.

Performance Management and Appraisals and Feedback

If the performance management and appraisal system is to be effective it’s important to think about how people in our teams deal with difficulties and, specifically, whether they go on to repair any damage done and to improve their future performance. Read more

Great Presentation Skills and the Sounds of Silence…

 

One of the most important things to consider when you’re thinking about how you use your voice is, of course, when not to use it.

The deliberate use of silence is widely recognized as a great negotiation technique but what place does it have when you are making a presentation? Read more

Be a kid – the value of playfulness in science and technology

When we get grown up it’s easy to forget what fun we had and how we learned new things and and came up with new ideas when we were kids.

We learn to put away childish things and accept that they are not appropriate for the workplace.

When we get grown up we learn we have to speak in particular ways, wear particular clothes, control our emotions including enthusiasm, excitement, and joy, etc.

When we communicate at work we are taught to abstain from using adjectives and metaphors in order to stick to the facts, in the name of clarity.

We are even told to curb our gestures in case we undermine the seriousness of our intended message.

Whatever happened to nurturing our creativity?

Take a look at this great video of AnnMarie Thomas giving a TED talk on the playful side of engineering, science and technology – using play dough.

See if you can find your inner kid again. How could you bring him/her into work more often? Read more