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 [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:32:34+00:00February 25th, 2024|Business Consultancy, Business Mentoring, Business Planning, Business Resilience, Coaching, Leadership, Mentoring|Comments Off on Why Training and Developing your Team is an Essential Investment

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 [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:33:31+00:00January 6th, 2024|Business Consultancy, Business Mentoring, Business Planning, Business Resilience, Coaching, Leadership, Mentoring|Comments Off on What is leadership?

Why are coaching and mentoring effective leadership techniques?

Effective coaching and mentoring are essential components in helping any member of staff to perform more effectively and helping a business to function more smoothly. As we see our economy on tenterhooks and we look over the edge of the cliff of a potential second lockdown, many businesses will welcome ideas and inspiration to lead their teams through this tough time, so this blog post runs through some ways in which coaching and mentoring are good leadership techniques. Investing in success When you’re applying coaching and mentoring techniques to develop a colleague, you’re helping them to succeed. Taking the time to carefully [...]

By |2024-03-22T10:31:43+00:00November 5th, 2023|Leadership|Comments Off on Why are coaching and mentoring effective leadership techniques?

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 [...]

By |2024-03-22T10:33:17+00:00April 6th, 2022|Business Consultancy, Business Mentoring, Business Planning, Business Resilience, Coaching, Leadership, Mentoring|Comments Off on Holding effective Virtual Meetings

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 [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:26:31+00:00February 26th, 2021|Business Consultancy, Business Mentoring, Business Planning, Business Resilience, Coaching, Leadership, Mentoring|Comments Off on Adaptability for the new financial year

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 [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:26:37+00:00February 1st, 2021|Business Consultancy, Business Mentoring, Business Planning, Business Resilience, Coaching, Leadership, Mentoring|Comments Off on Leading your teams out of COVID: pandemic recovery strategies

Ways to be more adaptive and resilient at work

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to end, it’s about learning to dance in the rain”. - Vivian Greene. Developing the resilience to adapt to a change in circumstances and make the best of them is a vital human resource. A recent study from the University of Toronto and Cornell has shown that humans began to develop resilience and adaptability as early as The Bronze Age.  Historians have found that early human settlements in Turkey learned, over a period of years, to adapt to environmental changes, producing a variety of crops on new land which meant they could not only survive [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:26:43+00:00January 7th, 2021|Leadership|Comments Off on Ways to be more adaptive and resilient at work

Improving productivity to help you become a better leader

As we enter into a new school year, many of us are thinking about fresh starts, new routines and an all-round more productive life. Often, these ideas are fleeting, as we quickly get swamped with daily demands. But this year can be different – after almost six months of our routines being flattened by Coronavirus, it’s time for us to take charge and forge ourselves a new, more organised path. This blog post goes through some tools and techniques to help you achieve best practice and improve the way you work. Sometimes just the smallest of changes can make a big difference, [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:27:37+00:00September 1st, 2020|Leadership|Comments Off on Improving productivity to help you become a better leader

How do coaching and mentoring contribute to leadership development?

A leader’s role is to give advice, guidance and direction to the people following him or her. A great leader inspires others to be empowered, creative and enthusiastic. If you can influence people to be their best, you’re already a leader, no matter what your job role or title. The best leaders in business are always learning, adapting and developing. They are looking for new ways to improve, which is where coaching and mentoring can help. This article explains why coaching and mentoring are essential as part of successful leadership development. People learn new skills in lots of different ways, but developing [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:27:43+00:00August 3rd, 2020|Leadership|Comments Off on How do coaching and mentoring contribute to leadership development?

How diversity can drive innovation

Decades of research has shown us that diverse groups are more innovative. Diverse groups, including people from different ethnicities, races, genders, and sexual orientations, have been proven to be more innovative than homogeneous groups. This is discussed in depth by Katharine Phillips in Scientific American, who concludes that diversity and inclusivity are giving companies a competitive advantage. It’s believed that this happens for two main reasons: People from different backgrounds bring new and differing information and viewpoints. Interacting with people different from ourselves forces us to be more prepared, to have more empathy, and to expect differing points of view. This article explores [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:27:49+00:00July 2nd, 2020|Leadership|Comments Off on How diversity can drive innovation

How can you lead effectively through change?

The pace of change was already at top speed - we were always running to keep up. Now Coronavirus has given us all a level of change that we’ve never experienced before. We’re feeling scared, confused and uncertain, and we’re working as fast as we can to mitigate the damage caused and to find new opportunities as the crisis passes. It’s highly likely that your teams are feeling the same way as you. They’re worried for their livelihoods and fearing the worst. It’s your job as a leader to make sure they know how much they’re valued and understand what’s in store [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:27:56+00:00June 4th, 2020|Leadership|Comments Off on How can you lead effectively through change?

How will your business bounce back from Coronavirus?

We have a global pandemic on our hands, thanks to a pangolin somewhere in China. A single event, originated in nature, has created effects that are unprecedented and has caused ripples across the globe. Image: A pangolin. From Wikipedia Commons. We’re at home for the foreseeable future and potentially facing a very different way of living and doing business for several months. Many of us are wondering how to keep our businesses afloat in these uncertain and worrying times. This article explores opportunities that could help us to develop ourselves and our businesses. What changes can you implement? We’re all [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:28:01+00:00May 11th, 2020|Leadership|Comments Off on How will your business bounce back from Coronavirus?

Are leadership skills inherent or learned?

We often hear the saying that some people are ‘born to lead’ but is that really true? The adage of nature versus nurture is as old as time, and unfortunately it seems the debate is as true as ever when it comes to leadership skills. Are some people ready-made leaders? Like some people seem to have innate musical abilities, or possess athletic prowess from the get-go, so it can seem that some people are ready-made leaders. We all know the type. Those who just seem to seamlessly rule the room, adopting and succeeding in their positions as they go. However, it’s unlikely [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:28:09+00:00April 2nd, 2020|Leadership|Comments Off on Are leadership skills inherent or learned?

How to be more effective when you’re working from home

I have been working with clients this week who are now entirely working from home. Adapting to the new work situation and being in such close proximity to spouses and children they are finding it difficult to get more than ten minutes’ work done at a time without being interrupted or distracted. I gave them some guidance on more effective home working, which I thought you might find useful in this unprecedented time. Create your own space I’m one of the lucky few who have an office space at home, which is a real luxury. Many people don’t have this, and the [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:28:17+00:00March 27th, 2020|Leadership|Comments Off on How to be more effective when you’re working from home

What are leadership theories?

Have you ever wondered how some people become leaders? Some seem ready-made for the positions, others, well, we might internally ponder how they got to where they are. Leadership theories give us a way to explain why certain people become leaders. For a long time, the typical discussion revolved around nature versus nurture, and whether some people are born with the inherent skills they need to lead. Formal leadership theories are a more recent concept that offer reasoning and alternative hypotheses to explain why some leaders are successful whilst others fail. So how can we explain what makes a good leader? This [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:28:23+00:00March 10th, 2020|Leadership|Comments Off on What are leadership theories?

Are leadership skills inherent or learned?

We often hear the saying that some people are ‘born to lead’ but is that really true? The adage of nature versus nurture is as old as time, and unfortunately it seems the debate is as true as ever when it comes to leadership skills. Like some people seem to have innate musical abilities, or possess athletic prowess from the get-go, so it can seem that some people are ready made leaders. We all know the type. Those who just seem to seamlessly rule the room, adopting and succeeding in their positions as they go. However, it’s unlikely they’ve been dominating the [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:28:30+00:00November 16th, 2019|Leadership|Comments Off on Are leadership skills inherent or learned?

How Group Facilitation Radically Improves Team Performance

A few weeks ago we focused on executive coaching and mentoring, and this week we’re expanding on that theme to discuss the power of group facilitation. An experienced facilitator will help you and your management group to grow and develop, by helping them to further explore and better understand issues that are standing in their way and also identify ways to overcome these. We distinguish group facilitation from team coaching. Group facilitation is focused on working with a team to address a specific business challenge or issue or capitalise on one or more specific opportunities. It is also powerfully used for complex [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:29:44+00:00November 30th, 2018|Group Facilitation, Leadership|Comments Off on How Group Facilitation Radically Improves Team Performance

How does a ‘good leader’ become a ‘great leader’?

At Catalyst we believe that every role within an organisation has a part to play in its overall success. Many organisations can boast good leaders but this week we are looking at how a good leader can become a great leader, who and what business leaders and CEO’s turn to for support and to help them improve their personal performance and the overall performance of their business. It’s lonely at the top Leadership in Business A study carried out by Egon Zehnder surveying 402 current CEOs from various industries, countries and corporate structures, revealed that 49% of respondents felt they couldn’t [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:29:36+00:00November 23rd, 2018|Leadership|1 Comment

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 [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:29:16+00:00November 1st, 2018|Business Mentoring, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Executive Coaching, Group Facilitation, Leadership, Mentoring|Comments Off on Break Free and Rediscover Your Entrepreneurial Spirit

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 [...]

By |2024-02-20T13:29:05+00:00October 12th, 2018|Business Consultancy, Business Mentoring, Leadership, Management, Mentoring|Comments Off on Traits of a Good Manager
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