Feature Image: www.wisegeek.com “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” This quote from Warren Bennis, famous author and pioneer in the contemporary field of leadership studies, describes the important relationship between leadership and vision. Without vision, your business will lack direction. And as a leader, it is your responsibility to direct your team toward success. But successful businesses are rarely a one-man band. It takes a team of dedicated individuals to turn a [...]

Everyone experiences a little work-related stress from time to time. Tight deadlines, and never-ending piles of paperwork can leave anyone feeling overwhelmed and overstretched. But if the idea of going to work each day has got your blood pressure through the roof, and your personal life is starting to take strain, then perhaps it’s time to recognise that your stress levels are out of control. When stress isn’t managed effectively, it can lead to symptoms [...]

Are you starting to recognise an increase in the number of employees leaving your company each year? Do you feel like you’re losing too many talented employees? While many companies experience issues with staff retention from time to time, high employee turnover is not something that should be ignored, as it can have a devastating effect on your business. Apart from the timeous process of finding replacements and training them, high employee turnover can result […]

Are you constantly running around, trying to juggle between a million different tasks, but not accomplishing anything that’s really important? Or do you feel like you’re always falling behind, no matter how many hours you put into your workday? Although many may burn the midnight oil, or resort to drinking copious amounts of coffee to get things done, keeping up this sort of lifestyle will eventually lead to burnout – and that’s definitely not something [...]

When it comes to dealing with employee issues such as retention, motivation and morale, it’s no surprise to see more and more employers turning to incentive programs for solutions. With a wealth of evidence supporting the idea that incentives improve employee performance, it’s easy to see why incentive programs are gaining in popularity. A recent study, conducted by the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence, has shown that tangible incentives increase work performance by an average [...]

Image: www.womenshistory.about.com Although the issue of gender equality has improved significantly since 1994, progress in the business arena has been painfully slow. According to a recent report by Grant Thornton Accounting, South African women make up a mere 26% of business leadership positions. This figure reveals a lot about the status of women in South Africa, and reminds us that the ‘glass ceiling’ is not simply a construct of the past, but an ever-present reality. […]

Image: www.perrigocareers.com “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients.” The above mentioned quote, by Richard Branson, aptly describes the importance of keeping your employees happy. But unfortunately not every business owner or manager thinks as he does, and all too often they place their employees’ happiness at the bottom of their priority list. Although it’s not always possible to make […]

Featured Image: www.schools-training.com Although most leaders have a dominant leadership style that influences the way they motivate their team, they do not have to be limited to using that one particular style for every scenario. Latest research suggests that leaders need to be more flexible in the way that they motivate their team, and adjust their leadership style according to the needs of their team. A recent Harvard Business Review study, led by psychologist and […]

Featured image: www.smartceo.com As a leader, the responsibility to head your team in the right direction can be rather daunting! And it’s not always easy to know whether the leadership decisions you’re making are the right ones. You may have the right intentions, when it comes to helping your team achieve success, but along the way you’re bound to make mistakes. No leader is without their flaws after all. It’s simply inhuman to not make […]

The saying, ‘a chain is only as strong as its weakest link,’ may seem like a cliché, but when it comes to your business team, it has never been more true! Although each member of your team may have their fair share of weaknesses, there will always be that one member that lags behind the rest. And whether their ‘lagging’ is intentional or not, it has the potential to slow everyone else down. Weeding out […]

There is no better way to really bond and get to know your employees, than with team building exercises. As they are designed to ‘break the ice’ and show each person in an entirely different context. By getting your employees to participate in certain team building exercises, you will be able to gain more insight into their unique personalities, as well as strengths and weaknesses – valuable information that can be used to your company’s […]

Have you ever been guilty of judging your employees according to your own strengths? The truth is, we all do this and we often end up wondering why others can’t just be more like us! Perhaps you’ve thought to yourself, ‘life would be much easier if we were all the same, surely my business would run more effectively!” Well, in reality, your team would fail dismally if everyone had the same personality and thought alike. [...]