2019 e-book Wishing you an inspiring 2019 from Ann Andrews This e-book has been created from the generosity of 90 Australian, New Zealand, German, Irish, Canadian, American, Asian, South African and United Arab Emirates based authors and industry experts we have known in the MICE* industry starting in the 1980s. Our 2019 e-book writers have over 2,600 years of business … Read More
Icebreakers At Work
How to liven up your meetings, networking events and off-site sessions If you ask anyone about their team meetings they will usually give you that ‘oh no’ expression – as in ‘oh-no-our-meetings-bore-us-to-tears.’ Which is such a shame. Look at the brain power that is sitting around a room during a meeting. Look at the hourly rates of those people and their time sitting … Read More
15 weird, hilarious, inappropriate jobs bosses asked their staff to do…
In my last post I talked about the 20 Most Creative Excuses Employees Give for Not Coming to Work. Because I’ve been on both sides of the encounter, felt the need to balance things with these weird; hilarious; inappropriate and in some cases even illegal things bosses have asked people to do. In my own case, I’d been promoted to … Read More
The 20 most creative excuses employees gave for failing to come to work…
My last few newsletters have dealt with some ‘tough’ stuff and so as we approach the end of a challenging year, I thought it was time for some humour. As a personnel manager in the manufacturing sector I’ve heard my fair share of ‘great excuses’ but after doing a ‘Google’ search discovered some I’d never heard of and which totally … Read More
12 signs that you’ve just recruited or worse still, promoted a narcissist
Most people who are ambitious or goal orientated probably have a touch of narcissism, but it is the degree of narcissism that you need to be aware of before you recruit or promote someone. They can and will cause mayhem. Their way will be the only way; they will do whatever it takes to get their way even if their … Read More
It’s not what you know about yourself that matters; it’s what you don’t know
I once heard the expression ‘unreasonable friend’ and chuckled, cos I think most of my friends would fall into that category and I love them for it. What it means is that they won’t let me delude myself; they won’t let me play the victim card EVER; they won’t let me get away with excuses and if they think I’m … Read More
12 STEPS TO RUNNING EDGE-OF-YOUR-SEAT MEETINGS
Meetings appear to be the biggest frustration for everyone in an organization. Managers, team leaders and even business owners seem to hate them. Their complaint is ‘no-one ever has anything to say during the meeting then 5 minutes after the meeting is finished they are in the lunch-room bitching and moaning. Why can’t they bring their bitches to the meeting?’ … Read More
Healthy disruption versus dysfunctional chaos
Virtually every organisation or team I’ve worked with over the years employed me to help them change some aspect of their team or organisation. Whether it was to deal with a high absenteeism problem, a high turnover of skilled talent or simply the need to be more profitable — all were situations that required an intervention or change of current … Read More
All hail the accidental and/or reluctant leaders
On 1 December 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man when the ‘white’ section of the bus was full. She eventually became involved with the civil rights movement of that period, even collaborating with Martin Luther King Jr, who at that stage in history was a new minister in town. She … Read More
Fear: Feel it; face it; leverage it
Every now and again in our lives, we hit a brick wall. We may have set some amazing goals and achieved them, and then fall apart immediately afterwards and can’t understand why. We may have worked our way through one of life’s challenges; a marriage/relationship break-down; a redundancy; a failed business, yet once the challenge appears to be over and … Read More