Staff who do not take the initiative are very frustrating and time consuming to manage. There are a number of reasons that stops staff taking the initiative. The manager is in a great place to remove these reasons and encourage staff who don’t take the initiative to be a lot more proactive. 

 I share 4 powerful ways to energise employees who do not take the initiative 

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 Staff who don't take the initiative are a real anchor on team performance. As a manager you can almost see your bonus shrinking.  There are a number of factors that stops staff showing initiative. Some of these are environmental which the manager can change. The others are to do with the individual. Either of these stops staff being proactive. 

To encourage staff to be proactive, it is really important the manager doesn’t make classic mistakes like micromanaging or punishing mistakes. I list more mistakes managers much avoid that  stops staff thinking for themselves. 

 To encourage proactivity, the manager should take several actions to build and maintain psychological in their teams. Trust and safety are key starting points. I list more actions for the manager to undertake. 

 When managers don’t align their actions with what they ask staff to do – this create confusion and damages trust, which in turn will stop employees being proactive. 

 On the positive side, there are lots that a manager can do to develop confidence and capability in staff who do not take the initiative. Often this can be because staff simply don’t know what to do. To build real confidence quickly, I suggest you take 4 key actions with staff who are not proactive. 

 Finally, towards the end, I share how you should adapt your management style to the person and situation to encourage any staff not taking the initiative to be a lot more proactive. 

 If you have any questions on “4 Powerful Ways To Energise Staff Who Do Not Take The Initiative”, please lemail me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. 

 Jess Coles 

enhance.training 

 I am sharing 5 proven actions to transform poor teams at work quickly & effectively. That is take the WORST team in a company and transform it into one of the BEST teams. 

 Any manager with people skills can implement these actions to significantly improve team performance. I share lots of practical tips that you can put action straight away. 

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 How to transform the worst team in a company? It has to start with building team trust in you, the leader. In your capabilities and how you are going to help the team. I share 9 practical actions that are great to start transform underperforming teams. 

 I have transformed the worst team into the best team, in multiple different companies, generating £’millions in additional profits in the process for the business employee us. 

 It does take confidence to improve the worst team at work. One of the best first actions is to identify what is holding the team back. I share 6 areas that I nearly always investigate in transforming poor teams. These will give you plenty of ideas for what to do to transform the worst team in a company. 

 Next, invest your time, and resources, into removing problems publicly and privately. The more problems you remove, the more able the team is to improve their performance. Without some time investment at least, it is very hard to improve poor teams at work. I share how you should approach prioritising your time. 

 Next, plan a path to achieving team goals and walk with the team. The better and clearer the plan of HOW to achieve goals, the more likely goals will be achieved. The HOW part is vital. Poor performing teams often lack the expertise to perform well. Teach and coach the team. 

 Finally, doing great work and NOT shouting about it within the company is doing yourself and your team a disservice. Make the time to market and communicate your team’s achievements and successes. I share a lot of options for how to do this. 

 If you have any questions on “5 Proven Actions To Transform Poor Teams At Work Quickly & Effectively”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. 

 Jess Coles 

enhance.training 

Struggling with Boss? I share 3 vital approaches to transform your most important work relationships 

The worst mistake in boss relationships is to do nothing or try to ignore the situation. Taking the right action will transform their perception of you. Want more respect, more appreciation, more praise, better development opportunities, a bigger bonus, a promotion … take these actions to transform your most important relationship at work. 

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 When you are struggling with manager relationships, the first vital approach to transform the relationship is to be perceived as good at your job. This is not about working harder (another common mistake in boss relationships). WHAT you work on and HOW you communicate it is vitally important. i.e. your boss’s perception of you 

 I share 5 core things you must work on to ensure you are perceived as good at your job. Doing these are vital if you are not getting on with your boss or you have problems with your boss. 

 To improve your relationship with your boss you have to communicate. Relationships are built on communication. Don’t make the biggest mistake in relationship with boss – communicating less when things are not going well. I explain how to do this and give a ton of practical tips plus discuss frequency of communication. 

 Another vital action to take to improve your most important work relationship is to find your boss’s pains and help reduce them. I have been using this technique for over 20 years, and it works brilliantly. (13 promotions demonstrate its effectiveness). I talk you through how you can find out your boss’s pain points and give you ideas for how you might create solutions to reduce common pain points. 

 Always make the time to look after the relationship with your boss. There is not other more important relationship nor one that will have a bigger impact on your success and enjoyment of being at work. 

 If you have any questions on “Struggling With Boss – Transform Your Most Important Work Relationship”, please leave a comment below and I will get back to you. 

 Jess Coles 

enhance.training 

Managing effort or managing outcomes – which is best? Get it right and you get a ton of benefits – better team performance, happier staff, more time plus more. Get this right more than you peers, and you will enjoy better team performance, better pay and bonuses, higher status and more. 

Get it wrong and team performance suffers, you have unmotivated staff and you have a lot less time available personally. 

I share 7 factor and approaches to maximise the benefits you get from getting a better balance between focusing on effort or outcomes. The best managers get it right by considering each of these 7 factors. 

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What to focus on - managing activity or results – is not always easy. It can even harder when it you struggle in measuring activity or results. You can’t manage what you can’t measure. 

I start by explaining exactly what we mean when we talk about managing activity or managing effort. This is when a manager focuses on managing each step in a series of steps to get an end desired result. One extreme of this is micro-managing. 

Then I explain the difference between managing effort and managing results. This will help you focus on activity or results, or get a better balance between the two for everything you and your team does at work. 

Why results matter more than activity comes down to results are end result of a lot of activity. If the results are good, the activity to get those results is very likely to be good too. Good activity doesn’t always give you good results. 

Finally, I take you through 7 factors you should consider every day in deciding about what balance you strike between managing effort or outcomes. There is rarely a right or wrong answer. There is certainly better or worse in terms of creating great team performance and impressive results. 

If you have any questions on “Managing Effort or Outcomes. How The Best Managers Get It Right”, please email me at support:enhance.training and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles 

enhance.training 

Having better work relationships makes being at work a lot nicer, more enjoyable and certainly a lot more rewarding. I share 5 tips to have better work relationships, to increase your likeability, confidence and influence. 

Take actions today to create better work relationships! 

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 The first action to build better relationships at work is to think about other people and not yourself. We all have very busy lives and spend a lot of time focused on ourselves. You cannot think only about yourself for how to create positive relationships at work. To build great relationships at work, focus on those around for at least part of your day. I share tips on exactly how to build relationships at work when you don’t know the other person at all. 

The next action for how to have great relationships at work is to make it easy for others to work alongside you. Some people you would work alongside all day, others 5 minutes is too much. What creates the difference. I share 10+ tips on how to build professional relationships at work. 

Next, to build better work relationships, focus on making sure you are not dragging down your colleagues and making their life harder. This is really important in any group setting to create the best conditions for others to like you and want to work with you. 

Fourth, doing this action is absolutely brilliant for how to have great relationships at work. I have used this action all my career and it builds great work relationships, a lot of respect, a lot of influence and a lot of appreciation. If you take no other actions, take this one. 

Lastly, to build and maintain relationships at work, show your interest in and appreciation of coworkers, colleagues and bosses by taking this vital action. When you are a leader or manager, you must take this action every day to enable you to do a great job with you team. 

If you have any questions or comments about “5 Tips To Have Better Relationships At Work For Likeability, Confidence & Influence”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles 

enhance.training 

Deliver what you promise at work, and you will probably be happy and very successful in whatever career you choose. I share 4 vital stages to beating expectations, week after week. Beat expectations and you build a ton of trust, colleagues want to work with you, bosses appreciate you and you get the best tasks and projects to work on. 

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Before you set expectations to beat, take time to mentally plan out how you will deliver what you are being asked. Don’t say yes until you have done this or you make setting expectations at work ten times harder. 

When you know what you can and can’t do, THEN you can start negotiating. If you do this stage after saying yes, you are going to look bad and have to go back to the other person. 

Be very careful what you agree to so you can set expectations you can meet. In my experience, bosses prefer to be sure a person can deliver what they agree when they agree it compared to a person than just says yes. Bosses expect some questions and some level of negotiation. This is the sign of a person good at managing expectations and who will action what you promise. 

Another key stage to set expectations you can beat is negotiating on resources alongside the goals or expectations. Don’t do this stage later. If you don’t have the right resources, the work will take longer and will be harder to do. Get the right resources or the best resources you can from the start. I share tips for how to do this. 

Finally, the best workers and managers ask for assistance and help. From co-workers. From managers. From people who are better than they are at x. Playing to strengths is what makes them so effective at their jobs. I share how they create the goodwill and trust to enable them to ask for help and assistance so effectively. 

Always do what you promise. 

If you have any questions on “Deliver What You Promise – 4 Vital Stages To Beating Expectations”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles 

enhance.training 

Stop being nice at work. Managers cannot be nice and still increase performance personally and of their team. I explain what managers should do instead and take you through 7 actions to stop being nice at work will helping improve team performance. 

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Leaders and managers cant be nice and lead a team effectively. There are so many difficult decisions and situation where being nice is detrimental to you and your team. There are a ton of problems with being too nice at work for anyone:

1.      You get swamped with work you can’t possibly deliver

2.      You are seen as a walk over and people take advantage of you

3.      Respect, appreciation and authority are drastically reduced

4.      Your ability to your job is a lot lower (for pretty much any position)

I share some of the classic signs of being too nice at work and explain why they cause you (and your team) such big problems. Stop being too nice at work. 

Being very nice to others does not actually win you more people who like you. In my experience, it creates the opposite effect because you are not being genuine and honest and people sense this. People don’t like those they don’t trust and know. This is also the problem with being too nice at work – being too nice is harmful. 

I then share 7 actions you should take (particularly as a leader or manager) at work to stop being too nice and position yourself to do a better job and/or increase team performance. Be fair not nice at work. Stop being too nice to people.

If you have any questions on “Stop Being Nice At Work – Managers Cant Be Nice & Increase Performance” please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles

enhance.training

Losing your job is very traumatic and very stressful, not to mention painful for your bank balance. I share 14 signs you are losing your job to look out for. I also share 10 actions you should take especially if you see signs you may be fired. Taking these actions will improve your job security 

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Firstly, I list out 10 signs you may be losing your job due to your personal approach or performance. Looking out for these signs enables you to take action to stop being pushed out of a job. Don’t ignore these signs you are being pushed out. 

These signs you are being pushed out of your job also give you indications if your bosses are not happy with you or thinking poorly of you. Being fired is a very unpleasant experience. 

Next are listed 4 signs you are going to lose your job due to issues within the company – for example cost cutting. It is harder to take effective proactive actions to avoid losing a job in these circumstances. If you are in the top 50% of employees in terms of performance and attitude, you are generally a lot less likely to lose your job. 

Finally, if you ever see signs you are going to lose your job, knowing what to do to prevent it, is really important. The 10 actions I suggest you take significantly improve job security at any point. I suggest you put each action into practice throughout your career. 

Each action has worked very well for me, both in terms of increasing my job security but also in terms of getting promotions and advancing my career. 

If you have any questions on “14 Signs You Are Losing Your Job + 10 Actions To Increase Job Security”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles

enhance.training

Messing up at work or making mistakes at work happens to us all. We all want to avoid making big mistakes at work. What is really important is what we do after making errors at work. 

I share the 5 best actions after messing up at work or making mistakes at work. Create confidence and trust and get lot of help to rectify any mistakes. These are the best ways for recovering from making mistakes at work. 

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 It is always a good idea to make less mistakes at work or the ensure the impact of your mistakes is small. Keeping your mistakes small will stop you screwing up at work. Is share 4 really good practical actions you can take to stop making mistakes at work. 

 When you can’t avoid making mistakes at work, it is really important to reduce the impact of the mistakes that you make. I have made a ton of mistakes at work and they have not hurt my career success. In fact, they have contributed to my success BECAUSE I have worked to keep the impacts small AND I have tried to learn. 

 Don’t have a fear of mistakes at work or be afraid of making mistakes at work. Take these 5 best actions after messing up at work. 

 When you make a mistake at work be responsible for that mistake. Work to fix the mistake or create a solution to fix the mistake. Also own up to the making the mistake. This means you are likely to make a lot less mistakes in the long run and build trust and willingness in others to help you fix any mistakes. 

 When you make a big mistake at work always communicate that mistake quickly to any others affected and potentially your boss. This enables others to help reduce the impact and it prevents the size of the impact of your mistake growing. 

 Finally, cultivate a growth mindset so that you learn as quickly as possible to avoid making the same or similar mistakes again. 

 If you have any questions on “The 5 Best Actions After Messing Up At Work Or Making Mistakes At Work”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. 

 Jess Coles 

enhance.training 

Are you making one or more of the 4 worst mistakes managers make with difficult employees? I share the 4 worse mistakes managers make when handling challenging staff so you can avoid making them. 

Learning how to manage difficult employees is one of the most critical skillsets to build to have a very successful career in management. 

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 Our FREE webinar on “The Quickest & Best Approach to Remove People Problems from any Team” click here https://enhance.training/lm-lp/remove-people-problems-quickly-ulp043 

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The first of the worst mistakes managers make with problem employees is putting up with the small problems. The small problems are the easiest to fix and fixing them stops them becoming bigger problems. When dealing with difficult employees always speak to them early about the small problems. 

The second of the mistakes managers make with difficult employees is responding with anger and frustration to the situation. This is super easy to do and it one of the most natural responses. This response makes the situation WORSE so needs to be avoided. I explain the psychology behind this natural response and why it is so problematic when resolving people problems. 

The third of the worst mistakes managers make with problem staff is failing to build support for sensible action. You asking them is not as powerful as you plus a group asking them when managing difficult employees. Incentives and group pressure increase reasons to change – use them. 

The fourth of the mistakes managers make when managing difficult staff is failing to incentivise improvement. Improving take effort and work. Few difficult employees will put this work in without meaningful incentives. Your incentives should be fair, progressive and provide rewards and consequences. 

I see these 4 worst mistakes managers make with difficult employees being made by senior staff with years of managing as well as new managers. Great new manager tips - learn exactly what to do as early as possible in your career. 

If you have any questions on “The 4 Worst Mistakes Managers Make With Difficult Employees”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles 

enhance.training