How interesting that the world is opening up to female leaders. It is irrelevant what you think about them, but the fact is we see more female leaders stepping forward to run countries in what can only be termed a very troubled and challenging period. Hilary Clinton in the USA – will she become the next president? Teresa May slipping through in the turmoil created by Brexit and Angela Merkel holding strong in Germany as the German Chancellor. Then the Prime Ministers of Thailand, Denmark, Iceland, Australia, Bangledesh and Trinidad and Tabogo are all women, as are the Presidents of Lithuania, Liberia, Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil and Finland.
Corporate development blog
11
Jul
2016 Total views: 1,376 Comment count: 0 
Jul
2016 Total views: 1,376 Comment count: 0
One of the biggest areas that I address with my customers through training and development of personnel is building and maintaining customer rapport and loyalty, whether that be from the very first contact with the customer or at any other stage in the customer journey, including when the customer is not happy with your services.
Assuming that everyone is in agreement with maintaining customers and building loyalty, rather than looking for new customers to replace them, what needs to take place when a customer complains? Here are two scenarios:
Scenario 1
Customer: “Good afternoon, Mr X, I am calling about the recent holiday my wife and I went on which was organized and reserved through Sun Travel.”
25
May
2016 Total views: 1,304 Comment count: 0 
May
2016 Total views: 1,304 Comment count: 0
I have been working with a hotel client who has been undergoing a change in ownership from one owner to another. Any kind of management buyout, transfer of ownership, or change of direction within an organization is guaranteed to create unease amongst the management and staff. Fear of the unknown is always daunting irrelevant of how vital our position might be or how many times we have been through similar situations.
29
Jan
2016 Total views: 2,950 Comment count: 0 
Jan
2016 Total views: 2,950 Comment count: 0
“There is more to life than just increasing its speed.” Gandhi
Have you ever felt so overwhelmed with your workload and issues in your personal life, that you don’t know where to start? Consequently, you find yourself dancing on the same spot, further increasing your heartbeat, cortisol and stress levels?
23
Dec
2015 Total views: 4,161 Comment count: 0 
Dec
2015 Total views: 4,161 Comment count: 0
I have just finished reading “On Death and Dying” by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. Sadly this lady is no longer with us, however the work she did whilst on this planet is so very special in many ways. Through her medical work she not only created a model for working with the death and dying to help with, what for some is a very difficult time, the acceptance that their journey on planet earth is coming to a end, but also providing the corporate world with a model for handling change (Kubler-Ross Change Curve). Who would ever put these two things together?
Whilst this book is not the easiest read, simply because of the subject, it highlights many things which as leaders we could do very well when applying it:
Communicate Openly
15
Nov
2015 Total views: 1,446 Comment count: 0 
Nov
2015 Total views: 1,446 Comment count: 0
How Good Are Your Listening Skills?
I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.
Ernest Hemmingway
In order to manage the ever-increasing workload, our lives are focused to processing as much as possible in the shortest time,. This is further compounded by social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like, all of which demand time, and to which it is easy to become a “slave”. How are these demands affecting your listening? Look over the table below and remind yourself of the difference between poor and effective listening.
Poor v. Effective Listening Behaviour
The Poor Listener:
10
Sep
2015 Total views: 1,674 Comment count: 0 
Sep
2015 Total views: 1,674 Comment count: 0
What is Conflict Management?
I was looking at the term “conflict management” the other day and realized that it is often used interchangeably with “conflict resolution”. The difference, however is that the concept of conflict management is based on a premise that not all disputes end in resolution. Additionally, conflict management is the practice of identifying and handling conflict in a sensible, fair and efficient manner. Therefore, in summary “conflict management” is any collection of actions, responses, processes, and/or systems that help manage, improve, or prevent the deterioration of relationship dynamics.
31
Aug
2015 Total views: 1,490 Comment count: 0 
Aug
2015 Total views: 1,490 Comment count: 0
After many years of working in the corporate world as a manager and leader and as a person passionate about development of others, I have come to the understanding that self leadership is essential to effective leadership. In other words, if you can not lead and take responsibility for yourself as a totality, how can you lead others?
What is involved in self leadership? Self leadership is taking responsibility for yourself, for your family and other responsibilities that you have “signed up to”. This process begins with your inner core. Inner core - who you truly are - your values around family, health, work, eating , leisure sport……, and the list goes on.