Author: Formium

  • 5 of the best… Strengths Tools

    5 of the best… Strengths Tools

    If you want to find out your strengths, your best bet is to use one of these five strength assessment tools. They differ greatly in the number/categories of strengths, what you get for your money, and options for follow-up work, such as bespoke development programmes. We think that each assessment has value and can appeal…

  • Appreciative Inquiry: Strength-based organisational influence

    Appreciative Inquiry: Strength-based organisational influence

    We’ve all been there. You are tasked with delivering a significant change to processes, products or ways of working. Before you even start you are told by colleagues or staff that this will never happen, it’s impossible to do and all you feel is push-back. Leading change can feel like pushing a boulder up a…

  • Review: The Strengths-Focused Guide to Leadership

    Review: The Strengths-Focused Guide to Leadership

    If you want a practical manual to understanding how to harness strengths, for you and your team, this book is a great place to start, as it: introduces the key concepts of strengths provides the research base for more inquisitive readers illustrates with narratives prompts you with a range of exercises and action points explains…

  • Coaching 101: Myths busted and advice for using a coaching approach

    Coaching 101: Myths busted and advice for using a coaching approach

    Coaching 101: Myths busted and advice for using a coaching approach Do you want to help your team members improve their performance? Do your one-to-one meetings often end up with you giving all the answers and telling them what to do? Do you want your team to be more self-sufficient and empowered? If the answer…

  • Book Review: The Positive Organization by Robert E Quinn

    Book Review: The Positive Organization by Robert E Quinn

    So many business books leave you wondering “…but how does that work in reality?” That’s not a problem with The Positive Organization – this short book (less than 160 pages from cover to cover) is packed with ideas, examples, case studies and practical exercises, written in an engaging and straightforward style. Throughout, Quinn challenges us to consider…

  • You only win when you’re singing

    You only win when you’re singing

      In Britain, football crowds have songs for every occasion. If your team overturns a losing position, to taunt the opposition fans now sitting in crestfallen silence, you bellow at them: “You only sing when you’re winning” (improbably to the tune of a traditional Cuban song, Guatanamera). But have the fans got this the wrong…

  • The future of learning and development?

    The future of learning and development?

    The days are numbered for sheep-dip, classroom-based training courses, chosen by the L&D team, and often forgotten by the following week. Well, maybe not numbered, but the recent CIPD/ Towards Maturity report – Driving Performance and Productivity provides evidence that companies relying on old-fashioned models of learning and development are being outstripped by those embracing…

  • 7 questions for impactful leadership

    7 questions for impactful leadership

    Review of the Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier Your team sometimes just need a bit of support to shine. You can provide this support through changing your leadership approach to coaching. Helping people to find their own solutions is more impactful than giving advice, providing rules or direction. You can coach anytime, anywhere, and with…

  • Impactful women leaders

    Worldwide, at the lower levels of organisations over half of the staff members are female but if you look higher the number of women shrinks. Therefore, we’d like to share with you list of 5 impactful leaders who just happen to be female. Sheryl Sandberg – The COO of Facebook and founder of the Lean…

  • #Girlboss review

    #Girlboss review

    Sophia Amoruso is an interesting and inspiring millennial. She is the founder of one of the fastest-growing retailers on the planet, Nasty Gal and the author of #Girlboss, a book about her and the company’s story. The business began with selling off vintage clothing and accessories on eBay, currently she is the leader of internationally…

  • Where does the courage come in?

    Where does the courage come in?

    I fairly recently went to an event on Women’s Leadership Careers organised by the Chartered Management Institute’s (CMI) Women in Management (WiM) Network. The keynoter was none other than CMI’s CEO Ann Francke, an remarkably dynamic and engaging speaker. Ann shared her wealth of knowledge and experience about progressing in the ranks of organisations as…

  • Celebrating women in leadership

    Celebrating women in leadership

    Against the backdrop of Theresa May taking office as the UK’s second ever female Prime Minister and Hillary Clinton potentially becoming the first female President, women at work are still paid significantly less than men and there are fewer of them the higher up the management ranks you look. Yet there are some shining examples…