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Jane Sparrow with be presenting a webinar on Monday 18th March, 2013 at 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM GMT discussing how HR can unlock the value of the middle manager.
Jane believes it is essential that managers have the confidence and capability to be great engagers and this is the only way to truly build and sustain a high performance culture. Within the webinar, she will provide proven and practical strategies for HR Professionals which they can use in order to support their managers and use throughout their organisation.
You can register for the webinar here.
Jane is author of The Culture Builders.
Jane Sparrow’s interview with Bob Garlick in the recent Business Book Talk is a wonderful example of leading by example. If you just listen to how Jane talks about her approach to leading employees, you get an immediate sense of the quality and common sense she distills in her book The Culture Builders. Her focus on the importance of middle managers in making things happen may not be radically new but the pragmatism that she brings to the process of mobilizing them is immediately convincing. That doesn’t mean that it’s easy – particularly with the five distinctive roles that she outlines for middle managers (prophet, storyteller, strategist, coach, pilot) – but then, just maybe there are middle managers out there who are looking for the opportunity to step up to a challenge; to make a difference to their organization and not spend their whole time simply as the bulldogs of business-as-usual.
Penny Pullan, co-author of Gower’s A Short Guide to Facilitating Risk Management is one of the experts being interviewed this week at the Leader’s Employee Engagement Conference (18-22 June), so be quick don’t miss anymore of this great free event.
Best practices and insights, that would normally cost you thousands of Pounds, Euros or Dollars, will be given directly to you, for free, in a powerful week-long conference. You can join from wherever you are. For more information and to register visit http://www.leadersemployeeengagementconference.com/
You will learn:
- How to drive Productivity and deliver Bottom Line Results
- How to attract and keep Top Talent
- How to inspire your Employees to go the Extra Mile, every day
- The Key Factors to increase Customer Loyalty
- 5 essential Drivers to keep your Employees happily performing, now & for years to come
This year’s Simply Summit (26th/27th April, Prospero House, London SE1) looks very good indeed. Along with speakers such as Euan Semple and Jim Ylisela, there is a wonderful programme exploring emerging developments in employee engagement and organizational social media. Plus delegates will have the chance to hear John Smythe talking about his research and the subject of his forthcoming book: The Velvet Revolution at Work: The Rise of Employee Engagement, The Fall of Command and Control. Simply Communicate, who host the event put on extraordinarily good and thought-provoking events so I am looking forward to it. We’ll be exhibiting copies of The Gower Handbook of Internal Communication and offering a draw to win free copies.
There is plenty of research, as well as books and conferences on employee engagement but not a great deal out there to help employers with the flipside: ‘Presenteeism’. Sharon De Mascia has been involved in a useful discussion paper, published by Business in the Community and The Centre for Mental Health, which provide a great place to start. Sharon is a author of Project Psychology: Using Psychological Models and Techniques to Create a Successful Project, published by Gower and out in December.
It’s rare for a Gower title to feature on broadcast television so it is particularly rewarding to see Stewart Wingate, CEO of Gatwick Airport, training his senior managers in Sky TV’s programme: ‘Inside Gatwick’ using David Hutchin’s book Hoshin Kanri as the basis of his message. Stewart and the Gatwick team have adopted the Hoshin Kanri concept as a basis for helping ensure that everyone across the business is pointing in the same direction; interesting programme … and a wonderful platform for this Gower book.
Gower author, Penny Pullan talks about A Short Guide to Facilitating Risk Management with co-author Ruth Murray-Webster, explaining how their ideas came together to create the finished book . Penny’s video interview along with the transcript can be found here: pm4girls.
Bridget Juniper’s article on the Simply Communicate website offers a fascinating and, I think, previously unconsidered perspective on the topic of employee engagement: that of employee well-being. Some organizations may find this a step too far but, on the other hand, the logic of Bridget’s position is very strong. Think about your own mental and physical state of health for a moment and you’ll understand that it directly affects your ability and willingness to work and, particularly, to handle risk, change and innovation … all currently listed as fundamental for the success of organizations as they strive to sustain a competitive edge. Simply Communicate is run by Marc Wright, Editor of Gower’s award-winning Handbook of Internal Communication.
There is surely no factor that’s more problematic in a commmunications campaign than the challenge of making it work globally. Many large organizations now work across borders and cultures and face the difficult task of making these global networks effective. Bill Quirke’s article in Strategic Communication Management on how to work together in communications globally is, as you’d expect from one of the leading thought leaders on communication, sensible, pragmatic and great read. Bill Quirke is author of Making the Connections: Using Internal Communications to Turn Strategy into Action.
Weak people who are a waste of space in business! Rape cases that are not so bad, and rape cases that are not so good! Elderly disabled people in Birmingham on the receiving end of threatened budget cuts to the (totally essential) care that they receive. Women even being told they shouldn’t wear mini skirts after 35, or bikinis after 47, or high heels after 51. (Ageist, eh? I wonder what Joan Collins would say to that?). Housemaids in the Middle East being treated like slaves (really very nasty indeed).
I don’t think that you should cherry pick your prejudices. You can’t pick on the weakest. You can’t reserve your Duty of Care remedies for some and not for the others, or create special cases. If you do you will inevitably get into difficulties. You need joined up thinking. Repeat, you need joined up thinking. Otherwise you will get Equality Risk. You will lose hard-earned reputation (as in the case of the Toronto Police or Birmingham City Council). You will get into trouble with all sorts of people and the media, or you will have to eat your words (Ken Clarke MP please note).
The lawyers, who are paid to know exactly what they are doing, will always cost you lots of money.
All of the topics above are current scenario’s being reported in the media and Tony Morden has covered such cases in his book A Short Guide to Equality Risk. In it, Tony analyses components of an Equality, Diversity, and Discrimination (EDD) Agenda: equality, diversity, opportunity, and discrimination to assist you in protecting yourself and your organization from this politically sensitive, and high risk subject.
