As I sit here, reflecting on the journey of Zestfor—a journey that spans 15 years—I’m reminded of the power of milestones. These markers in time hold immense significance, both personally and professionally. But this month, there’s two additional reasons for...
As we continue our posts on developing as a new leader today, let's discuss developing your high-performance mindset. In the dynamic world of leadership, one truth stands out: our mindset and the thoughts we cultivate play a pivotal role in determining our success, no...
Becoming a leader that inspires a team and who delivers results for an organisation requires more than just technical skills and experience. They require one of the most critical traits for success, and that is self-awareness. Becoming self-aware is an ongoing process...
Over the next few posts across the summer, we will focus on how new leaders can succeed. We will look at the knowledge, skills, and attitude required to be successful in a changing leadership landscape. The role of a leader has evolved significantly as our teams...
Over the last few blogs, we have talked about resilience, what it is, and why we all need to improve our personal levels of resilience. Developing resilience to cope with a specific situation is super important, and the key goal is to embed resilience into our lives...
Today we are talking about the key enablers of resilience. Over the past few blogs, we have shared a deep dive into this area and how being resilient can completely change our lives; read our previous posts here. Last time we looked at two challenging barriers to...
Over the past few blogs, we have focused on resilience. What it is and why becoming more resilient in our often uncertain working environment is critical. You can read our previous posts here. The uncomfortable fact is that resilience isn't a switch to be flicked off...
Today marks international women's day globally when we recognise and salute women everywhere. In this week’s post, I want to share an inspiring story from a female leader who demonstrates several traits we can all learn from. Lesley Patterson World Champion Triathlete...
Rituals can shape our lives for the better. When we habitually practise positive habits, amazing things can happen. There’s a reason that we feel so unsettled when we miss our alarm, forget to put on our watch or have to take a detour to the office due to roadworks. ...
[Post updated June 2023] What exactly is influencing; and importantly, how can you develop this essential skill? In essence, influencing is the ability to affect the character, development, or behaviour of someone or something else. And the ability to understand and...
Being able to influence the people around us is essential if we want to influence change. Most roles require us to influence and persuade people who have more power, status and authority than us. This can often seem like a difficult task. How can we persuade others...
Continuing our theme of creating a happy and engaged workforce, I wanted to raise the topical subject of employee burnout. For the training team at Zestfor, we are reflecting on a fabulous sun-filled summer and are preparing for the last quarter push this year. I...
Interested in developing a growth mindset this year? As 2017 eases in there is one certain way to make it your best year yet and that is to develop your mindset. In different ways, we have been exploring this in our various posts and this time of year is the ideal...
Most of us have grown up with the skewed perception that a leader should be the one with all the ideas, and who does most of the talking. However, what’s been dangerously missed in this traditional leadership model is that a leader will not get far without mastering...
Some of us misunderstand confidence. We often think it’s the loud, attention-seeking colleague— that domineering person in the office who always has something to say. We forget that self-confidence is actually a quiet, internal thing: it’s the faith you have in...
Though both capability and competence are key ‘must’ haves when it comes to developing your career in today’s workplace the other c…… word; confidence, will be the catalyst to inspiring your team and delivering exceptional results for your organisation. It’s also key...
Last time in our blog ‘The Joy of Being a Perfectionist’, I talked about some of the many benefits a perfectionist approach can bring your career. But that’s not quite all the story. Perfectionism, when left unchecked, can actually prove to be quite a destructive...
It’s amazing, isn’t it? That feeling you get when you deliver a piece of work or a presentation that you know is as good as you can possibly make it? The late nights, stress and the obsessing over details now feels completely, utterly worth it. As a perfectionist,...
It’s a great feeling when your ideas are heard, discussed, and acted upon. It brings you credit, raising both your professional reputation and self-worth. Meetings are therefore the perfect opportunity to show your creativity, as well as raise any concerns. On the...
By the time we hit the workforce, we already tend to have a ‘programmed reaction’ to certain stimulus. We may lash out when we feel stressed or criticised, or we might bottle up emotions at work rather than dealing with them calmly at the time. We’ve learnt these...
Many of us live in fear of being criticised, particularly at work. We all know it can be difficult to separate the personal from the professional, and the failure to recognise this crucial difference often leads to our defence mechanisms firing on all cylinders when...
Summer’s here. You are taking a break, aren’t you? No matter where you are in the world, summer is the season of holidays. Holidays conjure up different things to different people but for everyone it is the break with routine that's important. It's this change that we...
Those of us who seek career promotion sometimes struggle to understand those who don’t. Because progression to management is something we wanted, we tend to assume that it’s what everyone wants. Yet it turns out that we’re in the minority. A recent large survey in...
We’ve all seen it happen. An employee is unhappy about something at work, but rather than speaking up they turn to negative gossiping in the corridors. They become toxic to a workplace by attempting to convert everyone to their angry view of the situation. If this...
We’ve all met an arrogant person at work: the one who considers themselves superior, makes condescending remarks to tear others down, or refuses to admit their own mistakes. The arrogant person has low emotional intelligence and works from a position of bluster and...
Many of us have, at some point in our careers been fearful of a manager- whether because of a bad temper, a personality clash, or simply the power those in authority can wield over our futures. What is less commonly understood is how frequently the person in the...
Our comfort zone is a place of routines, low risk and low stress, and provides an important sense of security and stability in an adult life full of responsibilities. Unfortunately, our comfort zone is also often a place of low achievement in which we spend years...
Managers are human and as a consequence are bound to make mistakes at some point during their management career; the real issue is when mistakes happen consistently without any change or adaptation of their management skill, knowledge or attitude. This then leads to...
Many managers dread them, but here are some suggestions and ideas to get you through the most challenging conversations with positive outcomes and your calm professionalism intact. Don’t put the conversation off It is natural to be a bit nervous about confronting...
We all know the benefits of a motivated team. Enthusiasm, creativity, productivity and a positive working atmosphere are all outcomes of employees who like their jobs and want to move the company forwards. Over the years, companies have adapted HR strategies that...
Until next time, Julia
When you’ve worked hard to prepare for a promotional opportunity, one of the most frustrating things that can happen is to get overlooked in favour of a candidate who you think is less technically capable than you. Today we are going to take a look at some of the main...
If you ask the person in the street, they will probably tell you that a manager and a leader are the same thing. The truth is they are different, with both having different outcomes. It’s a question I am often asked on new manager training courses or my Insights...
In a previous post, I looked at the issue of trust in the workplace, why it matters, why it’s difficult to achieve and why we need it now more than ever. In this blog, I’ll look at four important considerations when trying to develop trust within a team. Of course,...
In the modern world, many people struggle to trust. There are some good reasons for this. Our economies are weak, much of our world is in turmoil and the mass media keeps reminding us of the threats that could be just around the corner. But while it’s...
Today’s glass-walled offices may seem far-removed from the caves of the early humans, but the evolutionary principles of the hunter-gatherers continue to inform the responses of managers to stressful situations. New research from Ashridge Business School at University...
Maya Angelou epitomizes what leadership is truly all about; creating transformation. It would take a long time to share her entire life story and all its lesson though Michael Hyatt ( www.michaelhyatt.com ) does a pretty good job. That's why I wanted to share his...
This is the second part of our series on productivity for virtual employees. Last time our focus was about how we can work with our physical body to fuel us to ‘be’ productive. You can find it here. This time I wanted to talk more about tasks and how we work with...
Over the past few posts we have talked about a number of different ways to increase your skill toolbox as a leader. A fact of life is that no matter how skillful you are ‘stuff’ still needs to get done. So here you are; productivity tips for all you virtual workers...
Over the last few articles we have talked about the new and classic skills that all good leaders must embrace in our new world business economy. Here is one for you that has only recently started to appear in the top management skills deemed necessary to succeed in a...
I have had some interesting comments about your development. Some of you are feeling good about the amount of development you are receiving in your roles but some of you have realised that the learning curve has become somewhat flat. How does this make you feel? What...
It has been a year now since Zestfor Ltd was founded and what a year it has been. When I reflect on the one thing that I have loved the most about this past year, it has to be the fact that I am learning new things again - every day. Having been within the corporate...
The power of motivation? Now here is a topic that is full of confusion. I want to share an interesting video by Dan Pink in an outstanding TED talk he gave some time ago. It is a known fact that true motivation is not exactly what people might think.Make your self a...
