Blog

The online diary of management consultant Nicky Spencer.

Feel techi-righteous now and then

Just concluding my business-techno session – something that has been booked in and cancelled too often because I always think it’s note important.  How wrong I was.  How quickly I forget the benefits in investing just an hour or so considering how technology and smart software can help me cut corners and be more efficient. [...]

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Making the most of 360 feedback

Sure,  I am just a beginner in the trade of facilitating feedback to managers on their Leadership 360′s – perceptions of their strengths and development needs provided by their manager(s), direct reports and colleagues. It’s no mean feat facilitating the NHS leadership 360 which requires the facilitator to review heaps of valuable data and views  and then enable [...]

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Committed to Career Management?

Well, I just couldn’t resist spending a few minutes watching and then commenting on HR Talk’s  ‘Career management‘ video with Angela Baraon, can you? If you are interested in working alongside or advising on how our career programmes, materials and expertise might be cascaded to line managers in your organisation and beyond, please contact me [...]

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Improving work performance leads to better life-work balance

As another career programme participant starts her role in a new sector this week, one more returned his evaluation of the career advancement programme today. He had focused on improving his performance at work which, inadvertently, improved his life-work balance as he explained in the covering email: “I did just want to say thanks for the amazing [...]

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Keep hold of your networks and your CV up-to-date

Always delighted to hear news from career programme participants. This person was recently made redundant and decided to go ‘free-lancing’: “I just had to email you with my job news! As you know the plan was to start looking for a job at the end of the school holidays. But … “Last week, I received [...]

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In praise of GBC’s “One Stop Team”

Finding my way around tenancy legal and payments systems is one of the biggest challenges as a newcomer to the ‘Landlord-Agent role’ I took on.   Most of all where the tenants are in receipt of housing benefit, a third (public sector) party is also involved, potentially complicating the relationship and the maths. Whilst the [...]

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Business Start Up Programme launched

At last – I have finished designing the programme and web page for the business start up! Views – and improvement ideas – always welcome.

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A move to independent consultancy?

Inquiries about becoming an independent consultant have been coming in over the past few months – as people consider their options post-redundancy. Worth a quick scan through the article on ‘Going Solo‘ – it may have been written in 2001 but much remains relevant.  The main change being the higher number of consultants out on [...]

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Facilitating 121′s

Lovely to get a commission that gives me something new to fathom out, mull on or crack. Today, it’s designing a new process to enable me to facilitate effective conversations between managers and one or more members of their staff where working relationships are in danger of breaking down. Early intervention and resolution allows each each [...]

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Techniques to encourage strategic thinking

Back from a London break and already distracted by this  question on a linked in group:  ”What techniques do you use to encourage strategic thinking in a group?” My best tips included 1.  Recognise ‘strategic thinking’ can be learnt and improves over time, with knowledge and experience 2.  To accelerate the process, find what people [...]

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