When Odysseus gave the task of protecting, guiding and educating his son Telemachus to his old friend Mentor, he did this knowing that Mentor would be the best person possible to care for his only son during his absence from Greece. Since then, Mentor is synonymous for someone who is willing and able to provide guidance and support to bring out his Mentee’s very best – without any other personal agenda.

When you agree to mentor another person, you offer to help someone in his/her development in the organisation. By mentoring, you have no agenda of your own and thus you are able to create a safe arena within which to develop a trusting relationship. Mentoring is not always easy and as natural as we expect. […]

Annual culture surveys are not good enough to connect managers and their staff. They are too formal and deliver only lagging information in a very stringent way. They cannot measure the daily pulse of the organisation. Other ways are needed to help sensing the heartbeat of the firm. Try Management by Walking About.

“I would like everyone in our organisation to have his personal career plan in his hands shortly after joining us” was the message we received from Jason, the leader of a social sector organisation. As he explained, it was not easy to attract people to join his team of around 600. The lack of attraction […]

Identifying knowledge and skill set of a candidate is rather easy. Finding the right mind-set is a more difficult task. Using a set of value and competency-based interview questions enables managers to spot the STAR, the person who does not only bring the required aptitude but also “fits” in the organisation.

Olympic Games are unthinkable without the invaluable support of thousands of volunteers. For most organising committees, this fact alone posts a major challenge in preparing and running the games since they often do not have experience in managing an army of unpaid workers. The always available IOC ‘cook book’ is not more than a good […]

In response to evolving conditions, you came to realise that your organisation must change. Change leadership consists of project sponsor, with overall responsibility, seconded by a project manager. These people will be your change agent – the ones upon which success of your initiative will rely.

At some point in our life, some of us may have experienced a person who helped us to see our own strengths, who shaped our thinking and spurred us to move on. Often, this person does not even know how much impact he had on us. We probably never told him … that he is the best coach we ever had.

Thinking ahead is a cardinal rule of business. In addition to monitoring the daily operations of your business, you need to think about the future. And, as difficult as it may be, it’s important to envision the day when you no longer will be in charge. For successful organisations faced with demanding leadership requirements in […]

“We have a problem. Our staff turnover is quite high; our people make many mistakes and do not take any initiative. Moreover it seems to be impossible to hire an HR director who can survive longer than 4 months,” said the frustrated CEO of a service management company with staff strength of about one hundred. […]