Why do so few businesses have a decent strategy?
In my 25 years as a business psychologist, I've worked with a lot of businesses, particularly mid-sized companies, and it's surprising just how few of them have a decent strategy. By 'a decent strategy' I mean that the business knows where it's going and how it's going to get there. "We want to double in size in the next five years" - a surprisingly common aspiration - is not a strategy. Double what? Turnover? Profit? Market share? Even if the overall goal is clear, the route to get there is often sketchy. This is unlikely to surprise you if you ...
How do you navigate organisational politics?
What do you think of when you hear the term 'organisational politics'? My hunch is it's back stabbing, pointless rivalries, sucking up to the boss, that kind of thing. I'm not going to pretend that that isn't a feature of many workplaces. If you work somewhere with really dysfunctional politics, it pays to be alert, to work out who you can trust - and to do what. But the reality is all organisations are political. Some of my clients tell me that they're lucky to work in an organisation with "no politics". What they mean is little or no dysfunctional ...
Work / Life balance – It’s all about boundaries
The key to work/life balance is understanding your boundaries - time, location, spatial and inter-personal boundaries. Over the past six months, the boundaries between home and work have become a lot fuzzier. As we settle in for the long haul, it's worth reviewing how well things are working for you. Whether you're working from home indefinitely, back in the office or splitting your time between the two, here are some things to ponder. Time boundaries Allocating your time This is the most obvious work/life balance category. There are 24 hours in a day; you spend a chunk of them asleep. ...
COVID-19: What will September bring?
It may be only the end of July but I'm turning my attention to September as I think it's worth planning for now. September has always had a feel of New Year, back to normal about it, but this year what kind of normal will it be? Even if you're going to keep working from home well into next year, as many organisations are planning to do, September is still likely to feel psychologically different. So whatever your working arrangements are likely to be, here are five things to consider: 1. Still Working From Home After four months, it's easy ...
Why is teamwork so hard? How to develop better team working
Having worked out what is and isn't a team last month, this month I'm looking at why so many teams fail to work well together and what you can do to develop better team working. The insecure leader One of the first reasons teams fail is not recognising that they are - or should be - a team in the first place. This generally happens when a leader (in the loosest sense) manages relationships with their direct reports on a 1:1 basis. This may reflect personal preferences or a lack of understanding of how a team could function. But it's ...
What is a team? It’s not as straightforward as you think
Does that sound like a daft question? Surely everyone knows what a team is. But actually, it's not as straightforward as you might think. For example, a group of people working for the same boss is not necessarily team, no matter how much the manager talks about "my team". A team is a group of people working towards a shared objective. There is a high degree of inter-dependence and a need to make joint decisions. Team members are likely to have complementary skills. So what? OK interesting idea but why does it matter? Because it makes a difference to how ...
Should work be fun?
I nearly made this the last of my workplace myths series but couldn't decide which was the more prevailing myth. On the one hand, the prevalence of ping pong tables in office foyers suggests a contemporary expectation that work should be fun. On the other hand, I've met many a manager (often in finance, interestingly) who believes that, unless people are staring at a spreadsheet in total silence, they're not really working. So who's right? Well let's start at the beginning: What do we mean by 'fun'? I think what people are generally referring to is enjoying themselves at work ...
Think you understand the workplace? Five ways you’re probably wrong.
I like to keep up with psychology research. I feel it's part of my responsibility as a practising psychologist to have at least some idea of the latest findings. What's struck me recently is how often the research has confounded my thinking, suggesting something counter-intuitive. So here are five pieces of common sense, received wisdom about the workplace that recent psychological research suggests are wrong: 1. Leaders should embody their company's culture This is just obvious, isn't it? What could be worse than having a leader who's out of step with the culture of the organisation? Well in terms of ...
The psychology of influence – Seven psychological insights to increase your influence
I'm sure most of us would like to be more influential. You probably won't be surprised to hear that understanding a bit of psychology can help. Ultimately, influence is all about decision-making. You want someone to decide to do what you want them to do. What psychological research tells us is that decision-making is such hard work that our brains take shortcuts. We don't even notice it's happening. Understanding those predictable shortcuts can help us influence decision making in others. Dr. Robert Cialdini has identified six psychological levers of influence, which I'll outline below, along with a seventh based on a ...
Part 4: Caution emotion at work – How to handle personal and colleague envy
This is the final article in my series on emotion at work and this time I'm tackling the one that rarely gets talked about - envy, and its frequent companion, resentment. Whereas feeling anxious or angry is seen as fairly normal at work, envy seems to be more of a shameful secret. After all, if you're envious it means someone else has something you want but don't have. It could be something tangible, like a promotion or a business trip to the States, or it might be someone's characteristics - maybe they're smarter, more attractive or more popular than you. ...
Why do so few businesses have a decent strategy?
In my 25 years as a business psychologist, I've worked with a lot of businesses, particularly mid-sized companies, and it's surprising just how few of them have a decent strategy. By 'a decent strategy' I mean that the business knows where it's going and how it's going to get there. "We want to double in size in the next five years" - a surprisingly common aspiration - is not a strategy. Double what? Turnover? Profit? Market share? Even if the overall goal is clear, the route to get there is often sketchy. This is unlikely to surprise you if you ...
How do you navigate organisational politics?
What do you think of when you hear the term 'organisational politics'? My hunch is it's back stabbing, pointless rivalries, sucking up to the boss, that kind of thing. I'm not going to pretend that that isn't a feature of many workplaces. If you work somewhere with really dysfunctional politics, it pays to be alert, to work out who you can trust - and to do what. But the reality is all organisations are political. Some of my clients tell me that they're lucky to work in an organisation with "no politics". What they mean is little or no dysfunctional ...
Work / Life balance – It’s all about boundaries
The key to work/life balance is understanding your boundaries - time, location, spatial and inter-personal boundaries. Over the past six months, the boundaries between home and work have become a lot fuzzier. As we settle in for the long haul, it's worth reviewing how well things are working for you. Whether you're working from home indefinitely, back in the office or splitting your time between the two, here are some things to ponder. Time boundaries Allocating your time This is the most obvious work/life balance category. There are 24 hours in a day; you spend a chunk of them asleep. ...
COVID-19: What will September bring?
It may be only the end of July but I'm turning my attention to September as I think it's worth planning for now. September has always had a feel of New Year, back to normal about it, but this year what kind of normal will it be? Even if you're going to keep working from home well into next year, as many organisations are planning to do, September is still likely to feel psychologically different. So whatever your working arrangements are likely to be, here are five things to consider: 1. Still Working From Home After four months, it's easy ...
Why is teamwork so hard? How to develop better team working
Having worked out what is and isn't a team last month, this month I'm looking at why so many teams fail to work well together and what you can do to develop better team working. The insecure leader One of the first reasons teams fail is not recognising that they are - or should be - a team in the first place. This generally happens when a leader (in the loosest sense) manages relationships with their direct reports on a 1:1 basis. This may reflect personal preferences or a lack of understanding of how a team could function. But it's ...
What is a team? It’s not as straightforward as you think
Does that sound like a daft question? Surely everyone knows what a team is. But actually, it's not as straightforward as you might think. For example, a group of people working for the same boss is not necessarily team, no matter how much the manager talks about "my team". A team is a group of people working towards a shared objective. There is a high degree of inter-dependence and a need to make joint decisions. Team members are likely to have complementary skills. So what? OK interesting idea but why does it matter? Because it makes a difference to how ...
Should work be fun?
I nearly made this the last of my workplace myths series but couldn't decide which was the more prevailing myth. On the one hand, the prevalence of ping pong tables in office foyers suggests a contemporary expectation that work should be fun. On the other hand, I've met many a manager (often in finance, interestingly) who believes that, unless people are staring at a spreadsheet in total silence, they're not really working. So who's right? Well let's start at the beginning: What do we mean by 'fun'? I think what people are generally referring to is enjoying themselves at work ...
Think you understand the workplace? Five ways you’re probably wrong.
I like to keep up with psychology research. I feel it's part of my responsibility as a practising psychologist to have at least some idea of the latest findings. What's struck me recently is how often the research has confounded my thinking, suggesting something counter-intuitive. So here are five pieces of common sense, received wisdom about the workplace that recent psychological research suggests are wrong: 1. Leaders should embody their company's culture This is just obvious, isn't it? What could be worse than having a leader who's out of step with the culture of the organisation? Well in terms of ...
The psychology of influence – Seven psychological insights to increase your influence
I'm sure most of us would like to be more influential. You probably won't be surprised to hear that understanding a bit of psychology can help. Ultimately, influence is all about decision-making. You want someone to decide to do what you want them to do. What psychological research tells us is that decision-making is such hard work that our brains take shortcuts. We don't even notice it's happening. Understanding those predictable shortcuts can help us influence decision making in others. Dr. Robert Cialdini has identified six psychological levers of influence, which I'll outline below, along with a seventh based on a ...
Part 4: Caution emotion at work – How to handle personal and colleague envy
This is the final article in my series on emotion at work and this time I'm tackling the one that rarely gets talked about - envy, and its frequent companion, resentment. Whereas feeling anxious or angry is seen as fairly normal at work, envy seems to be more of a shameful secret. After all, if you're envious it means someone else has something you want but don't have. It could be something tangible, like a promotion or a business trip to the States, or it might be someone's characteristics - maybe they're smarter, more attractive or more popular than you. ...
