I have the pleasure of coming to Salford in December to speak to FM professionals about “The skills shortage and shifting workforce demographics”

My brief is this:

• Attracting a diverse range of new talent
• Developing professional career pathways for the FM workforce
• How to measure performance in a meaningful way
• The transition from traditional hard FM models into customer-focused workplace solutions Read more…..

The World of Facilities Management

The world of facilities management is dynamic and evolving. We are seeing rapid progress in technology, social aspirations, and our work environments.

The need for FM professionals to innovate, adapt and deliver value has never been greater, as more and more organisations are recognising the importance of the built environment to their core business. Read more…..

Why is the health and wellbeing of your staff important?

“Look after your employees and your employees will look after your business”

This statement has been known to organisations for decades (or at least since workers rights became a little more prominent).

A good leader knows that in order to work towards success, you need to have support from inspired, knowledgeable professionals to encourage behaviours that drive the organisation’s vision.

However, many leaders forget that basic needs of their staff need to be met in order for these professionals to operate at maximum capacity – Your team need to be happy, motivated and healthy!

Read more…..

Many directors and CEO’s throughout the UK have a true passion for their business and a genuine feeling of responsibility towards their organisation, as well as the staff that help to make it work.

However, in difficult times, when cash flow isn’t quite balanced and money is tight, people can change…

The boss that was once an advocate for positive attitudes and working together to make progress, all of a sudden becomes the devil in disguise and makes the lives of their subordinates the equivalent to living in the pits of hell.

When push comes to shove and there are demons at your door, some bosses go into self-preservation mode and as a result choose to disregard the potential impact of their decisions on customers and suppliers, as well as staff.

This isn’t the case 100% of the time, but most of you will have heard horror stories of this occurring and been disgusted by the attitude of those involved.

Read more…..

By now we all know the business environment is by no means smooth sailing and we all venture into stormy weather at some point.

Businesses are very much like ships at sea, and like any ship, your business requires a captain to ensure it reaches its destination.

You are the leader of your vessel, which means it’s your challenge to navigate your way through the rough and stormy seas whilst keeping your crew safe. As part of this responsibility, it’s up to the captain to identify when things are not running smoothly.

A great captain can identify when their ship is running into dangerous waters or even predict when their crew is under pressure. Perhaps at this point of realisation, the captain must act quickly to solve the problem, restore employee productivity and improve business performance; so that their ship can stay afloat.

Read more…..

When we hear the term ‘coaching’, many will think of sports coaches who teach, motivate and inspire their team to achieve more on the pitch.

With this in mind, perhaps, business coaching is not far from sports coaching. Think of the manager as the coach and the players are the employees.

Organisations now require a new breed of manager that acts as a coach for their team and their players.

Creating a winning environment

Coaches and managers have many important things in common; teamwork, motivation and people management. Therefore, it’s fair to say that professional sports coaches provide great role models for managers.

Essentially, the parallels between the sporting world and the business world are numerous.

But, how important is coaching and mentoring to your organisation?

Well, a staggering “93% of managers need training in coaching employees”

And “30% of employees said they had benefited from the advice and guidance of a mentor”

This means that organisations need to start focusing on ‘coaching their managers’ to get the most out of and retain their best employees.

So, where do you start?

Read more…..

Like many things in life, when it comes to project management the success of your project begins way before the work gets underway. For this reason, choosing the appropriate project management framework for your requirements is an important decision in any project.

In an ideal world, all our projects would run smoothly. Unfortunately, in reality, that’s not quite the case. A staggering 97% of organisations believe project management is critical to business performance and organisational success.

So, how can you be confident that your project is managed effectively? There are lots of frameworks out there and the decision is not always an easy task.

Have you ever heard of the analogy oranges and onions?

If not, I’ll explain… Read more…..

Mind the Gap Ladies!

Did you know that approximately less than 24% of women hold a senior role across the world in 2018?

I’m sure this isn’t news to you… since The Equal Pay Act 1970, we all know it’s illegal to pay women less than men for equal work; “an act to prevent discrimination, as regards terms and conditions of employment, between men and women”.

Clearly, the question isn’t about women being paid less than men. Instead, the question we ask is how many men hold higher paid positions in comparison to women? Read more…..

While growth is exciting for UK businesses, there’s no question that the world in which we operate is becoming more chaotic and challenging.

Let’s face it, we are all being challenged to face change management in all aspects of the businesses. What many organisations fail to understand is how the power of growth is impacting their leadership styles.

The question you need to ask yourself is how is your leadership style affected by growth? And, are you a HERO or a VILLAIN, in this case?

All heroes have different powers, and all leaders have different leadership styles. But it’s for you to understand if the style you have adopted makes you a hero or a villain? Read more…..

Do you remember building all sorts of things with LEGO as a Kid?

In my architect days, I was always trying to build bigger and aim higher, to only find out that my crafted skyscrapers would fall over without a strong foundation. Like LEGO, any business without a strong digital foundation will fall short of reaching new heights!

To build a stable foundation, you need to address four unique building blocks: Developing personas, a responsive website, visibility in search, and standing out through social media.

Think of these components as the base of your skyscraper, without one, it will result in the whole building falling over. With that being said, having a strong online presence is a crucial component to the foundation of your brand awareness strategy, if this is done correctly you can sit back and watch your skyscraper grow higher and higher.

So the question is how do you create awareness? Well my building days aren’t quite over yet, here are four fundamental building blocks to success…

Read more…..