Mean machines and the Isle of Man

So whilst most of the UK has been sweltering and Gina has been buying ice lollies for the office, Carol and I have been on a slightly cooler Isle of Man. Always lovely to be hear and catch up with people who we have known for so many years!!

Imagine our surprise and delight to find that the Sefton was hosting a Suzuki event and even better, many leather clad gentlemen! So what’s the point I can already hear you saying? Well fast bikes always make me think of Emotional Intelligence… Picture this, you are at a set of traffic lights and this mean machine is beside you and its engine is revving – so what do you do?

Well I would normally have some “inner chat” with myself about how I would love to razz it off, but perhaps this would not be a good idea! That to me is being self aware about how I am feeling and then choosing to moderate my behaviour.

On the theme of Performance Management, what gets in the way is really a manager’s ability to have that open conversation with his or her team members. At the heart of every “good conversation” is the manager’s ability to be self aware.

I came across a good article in this month’s Harvard Business Review called You can’t be a good leader without self awareness. The author Antony Tian has identified 5 ways to improve your self awareness:

mediation
writing down plans and priorities
take psychometric tests
ask trusted friends
get regular feedback at work

So once again we see that feedback is an invaluable skill.

Now for a soft sell… did you know that we offer psychometric tests? Fill out one of our enquiry forms on the website and we will give you a list of the ones we support.

We also have a great way to help you develop your feedback skills so that you can develop your managers’ ability to give constructive feedback. All it will take is one of our skilled facilitators, a group of people can be as few as three and half a day. Do let us know if you are interested, these skills are often part of a programme but can be done separately.

Don’t forget to book your place at our last Performance Management Circle of Peers! We’ve been to London, Sussex and Isle of Man. Gibraltar is our final destination!