What is leadership?

The term leader is often accompanied by words like ‘power’ and ‘authority’. Alexander the Great, Abraham Lincoln, and Queen Elizabeth are some renowned figures known to have personified the term. While these well-known personalities deserve due respect for their historic successes, leadership can’t be limited to a hierarchical position, seniority, title, or personal attribute. Speaking in today’s organisational terms, leadership isn’t limited to a certain pay grade. Before we dive into answering the broad question of what is leadership? let’s take a look at some common modern perceptions of leadership. Top Three Leadership Theories Leadership theories refer to various schools of thought [...]

Why Training and Developing your Team is an Essential Investment

Continued training and development are important to make businesses and their workforce function effectively. The world has changed so much since the COVID pandemic sent shockwaves through businesses across the globe, and it’s now even more critical than ever in our changed ways of working to make sure that our team members are able to develop and grow to support the future of your business. This article will take you through the significance of team development as a core part of your business strategy. Ongoing development will boost adaptability Training and development will boost the adaptability and resilience of your teams and [...]

Holding effective Virtual Meetings

How do we make sure that meetings are effective when we’re all working at home and relying on video technology? According to Rogelberg, in his book ‘The Surprising Science of Meetings’, it’s estimated that non-managerial employees have eight meetings a week and managerial staff have 12, costing companies an estimated £100 million in lost profit each year. However, the cost of meetings shouldn't just be measured by how many hours they absorb but instead, measured by the cost to the business of a bad decision or no decision. There are plenty of methods you can use to make your virtual meetings more [...]

Adaptability for the new financial year

For some time now I have been talking about the need for businesses to be adaptable and flexible during this global pandemic.  I’ve discussed the importance of coaching and mentoring your teams to streamline productivity, alongside the need for resilience in these challenging times. A key element of adaptability that we still need to reflect on is how to approach the new fiscal year. January did not, unfortunately, deliver the positive beginning to 2021 we had hoped for but in April we embark on a new financial year which could bring with it the fresh start we all need. The insights in [...]

Leading your teams out of COVID: pandemic recovery strategies

It’s perhaps an understatement to say that the past year has been a colossal challenge for businesses globally. Many industries such as aviation, hospitality, leisure and entertainment have ground to a halt, with devasting job losses despite the best endeavours of the furlough scheme in the UK. The public now has a clear message that there is a path out of the Pandemic thanks to the rapid rollout of vaccines. But what if you are a leader of a company, large or small? How can you lead your workforce out of the unprecedented difficulties COVID has left in its wake, in a [...]

Executive Coaching and Mentoring

Understanding executive coaching At Catalyst we believe that business leaders, like top athletes, benefit from having a coach at their side to help them perform consistently at their absolute best. This week we will discuss executive coaching, explain how it differs from mentoring, and outline the benefits. Executive Coaching London What is executive coaching? The coaching process focuses on providing a safe environment in which business leaders build a collaborative partnership with their coach, to explore ideas, opportunities, strategies, challenges and issues, in an environment that is confidential and impartial. A skilled coach will observe then use insightful questions and reflections [...]

Break Free and Rediscover Your Entrepreneurial Spirit

This week we’re looking at how to break free of the norm and rediscover your entrepreneurial spirit. We’ve found that executives who adopt a more entrepreneurial mindset through coaching and mentoring come up with more innovative ideas and understand how to apply them in their own organisations. Business leaders should use entrepreneurial thinking to generate new ideas and develop ways to grow their business. This approach can give you an edge, help you penetrate markets faster and accelerate business growth. Here are some ways to help you get on board with the entrepreneurial approach, no matter how large or small your business [...]

Why use a mentor?

Business leaders and managers sometimes ask ‘what is the value of a mentor?’ We thought we would tackle this question and explain not only what mentoring is but also how it can transform performance. Business Mentoring London What is mentoring? The word Mentor originated as the name of a character in Homer’s Odyssey and is now used more generally to refer to a trusted advisor, friend, teacher and wise person. To help distinguish between mentoring and coaching we would say that a mentor has insightful answers for your questions whereas a coach has insightful questions for your answers. Business Mentoring [...]

By |2020-08-27T10:25:31+01:00October 26th, 2018|Business Mentoring, Leadership, Management, Mentoring|0 Comments

Traits of a Good Manager

What makes a good manager? This week at Catalyst we’ve been unpicking the theme of management, discussing what makes a good manager and thinking about the common traits of some of the best managers we’ve had the pleasure of coaching and mentoring. Here’s what we found. Top Traits of a Good Manager Management text books and self-help guides regularly quote the common denominators of communication skills, the ability to make decisions and being able to think quickly under pressure. These are all important, but they aren’t the critical elements that transform a good manager into a great one. What makes [...]

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