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Did you watch Rupert and James Murdoch giving evidence to the Select Committee last week?
I did; I found it riveting, and that was long before the shaving foam appeared. It started me thinking about the line between the “organisation” and the staff, and who’s responsible when things go wrong.
We also looked at some of the legal aspects of the accountability of businesses in our tips for preparing for the UK Bribery Act 2011
Actually, UK law does recognise the concept of holding the “organisation” to account (especially for safety), and directors of companies and trustees of charities are legally accountable individually and jointly. This means they can be sued for something an employee did. They have to make sure there are proper systems and procedures, and that staff know and understand them, and they have to monitor that the systems and procedures work and that staff comply with them.
Getting back to Messrs Murdoch, their main message was “We knew nothing”.
Imagine a similar scene: you’re discussing with one of your staff some major disaster that’s happened in their department, and they say “I had no idea what was going on.”
My guess is you might reach one (or several) of the following unattractive conclusions:
- They’re clearly remote / out of touch and not making an effort to find out what goes on
- Their staff are clearly too scared of them to tell them honestly what was going on.
- Their management is so lax they don’t notice anything and their staff can get away with murder.
- They did know what was going on but they didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.
- They did know what was going on but they’ve been “selectively” ignoring it or they didn’t care as long as staff got results.
- They did know what was going on but bottled out of dealing with it.
Now imagine you have to sit in front of a judge or your most important customer and explain what happened and why. Scary!
Management and Leadership Tips – What Can We Learn?
So what can we learn from all this for our own organisations? I think there are some common-sense do’s and don’ts.
If you don’t already – you might want to make sure that your organisation is doing the following:
Read the rest of "Management Lessons from the News International Crisis"
Posted by Guest Blogger in Business Skills, Management & Leadership, News on July 26th, 2011| No Comments »
IOSH Accredited Managing Safely Training Course Now Available
Health and Safety Training Courses
According to the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) every year on average:
- 220 people are killed
- 30,000 people injured
- 33 million working days are lost to injuries or ill health
- 25,000 people leave the workplace permanently because of harm suffered at work
The combined cost to British businesses for all of the above is somewhere in the region of £20 billion
Many of these costly work related injuries and absences can be avoided if managers receive proper Health and Safety Training.
We are pleased to announce that Silicon Beach Training is now offering accredited IOSH Managing Safely training here in Brighton, Sussex.
Attending an accredited health and safety course can not only reduce your organisation’s insurance premium costs, but can also enhance your business reputation, and increase productivity and profitability considerably.
Our 4-day Managing Safely course is priced at just £695 + vat, which includes assessment and certification.
Our first courses are coming up on:
- 12 – 15 September 2011
- 15 – 18 November 2011
Call us now on 01273 622272 or e-mail info@siliconbeachtraining.co.uk for more information and bookings.
Posted by Andy Trainer in Business Skills, Health and Safety Training, Human Resources, Management & Leadership, News, Personal Development on June 13th, 2011| No Comments »
What are Active Listening Skills?
“A good listener tries to understand thoroughly what the other person is saying. In the end he may disagree sharply, but before he disagrees, he wants to know exactly what it is…” (Kenneth A. Wells)
Listening is one of the most useful skills we can have. How well we listen has a major impact on how we do our job, and on the quality of our relationships with others.
Active Listening intentionally focuses on who you are listening to, whether in a group or one-on-one, in order to understand what he or she is saying. As the listener, you should then be able to repeat back in your own words what they have said to their satisfaction. This does not mean you agree with, but rather understand, what they are saying.
Active Listening is a key business skill, and is covered on our Management Skills training course as well as our Leadership training course in Brighton, Sussex. We also offer a course specifically on Active Listening Skills which can be arranged on a private or on-site basis if you want to focus on this topic alone.
Active listening is a way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding. Often when people talk to each other, they don’t listen attentively. They are often distracted, half listening, half thinking about something else.
For example: When people are engaged in a conflict, they are often busy formulating a response to what is being said. They assume that they have heard what their opponent is saying many times before, so rather than paying attention; they focus on how they can respond to win the argument.
Are you a good listener? Think about your relationships with the people in your life – your boss, colleagues, subordinates, best friend, and spouse. If asked, what would they say about how well you listened? Do you often misunderstand assignments or only vaguely remember what people have said to you. If so, you may need to improve your listening skills. The first step is to understand how the listening process works.
Four Steps to Active Listening
- Hearing. At this stage, you simply pay attention to make sure you hear the message.
- Interpretation. If you fail to interpret a speaker’s word correctly it may lead to a misunderstanding.
- Evaluation. Decide what to do with the information you have received.
- Respond. This is a verbal or visual response that lets the speaker know whether you have gotten the message and what your reaction is.
Active Listening Tips:
- Don’t talk-listen. People like to have a chance to get their own ideas or opinions across. A good listener lets them do it.
- Don’t jump to conclusions. Many people will tune out a speaker when they think they have the general idea of the conversation.
- Ask questions. It’s perfectly acceptable to say, “Do you mean….?” or “Did I understand you to say….?”
- Overlook a speech problem, a twitch, or sexist language. Paying too much attention to these types of distractions can break your concentration.
- Keep an open mind. The point of listening it to gain new information.
- Listen to others’ points of view and ideas. It could turn out to be fascinating.
- Provide feedback. Make eye contact, nod your head and if appropriate, interject a comment such as “I see,” etc.
Posted by Alistair Wylie in Management & Leadership, News, Personal Development on April 15th, 2011| 2 Comments »
Update: Applications for the Leadership and Management Advisory Service training grant has now closed. We will make sure we announce the arrival of any similar schemes in the future.
£1000 Training Grants
Businesses who employ between 2 and 249 people can apply for up to £1,000 of matched funding towards any training courses that will help to develop their organisation’s people management skills. The new Leadership and Management Advisory Service (LMAS) is designed to help eligible employers fund training and development opportunities for their senior leaders.
This funding can be used towards a range of Silicon Beach Training’s courses, including our Management Training and Leadership Training courses, as well as other personal development programmes like our Appraisals Training and Change Management Training courses.
If you are interested in applying and would like to discuss the courses we have available, please call us on 01273 622272 or email info@siliconbeachtraining.co.uk
Is my Organisation Eligible for a Leadership & Management Training Grant?
The Leadership & Management Training Grants are open to any organisation which:
- has 2 to 249 full time equivalent employees
- can display the potential for high or fast growth, defined as:
- if trading for more than 12 months have the potential to increase turnover by 20% each year for three years
- if trading for less than 12 months have the potential to achieve a turnover of £500,000 within three years of trading
How Can I Apply for a Training Grant Towards a Course at Silicon Beach Training?
1) Identify Suitable Training
Identify the training course or courses that you would like to attend – remember, the courses must help you to increase your organisation’s people management skills – so the following courses would be applicable:
Read the rest of "£1,000 Leadership & Management Training Grants Available"
Posted by Andy Trainer in Business Skills, Leadership & Management Training Funding, Management & Leadership, New Free Resources, News, Personal Development, Train to Gain Funding on April 12th, 2011| 5 Comments »
Interview with Jennifer Tarjyani from MyTraining Manager – plus a chance to win a free course
Jennifer Tarjanyi from MyTrainingManager recently attended our Blogging Training and Social Media Training courses, and we took the opportunity to catch up with her about what they are doing to help businesses in the south, and how their new MyTrainingManager service can help managers to make the most of their training budget by choosing training that is appropriate to their needs.
In addition to online marketing courses, Silicon Beach Training offers a wide range of Management Training, Leadership Training, Appraisals Training and Project Management Training courses (including PRINCE2 Training and MSP Training) in Brighton, Sussex. We will soon be launching a competition in partnership with MyTraining Manager to win a free course at Silicon Beach – more details to follow soon…!
Read on for our interview with Jennifer about the new MyTrainingManager service
Posted by Alistair Wylie in Brighton, Competitions, Management & Leadership, News, Offers, Personal Development, Train to Gain Funding on March 23rd, 2011| 1 Comment »
Here at Silicon Beach Training we offer a wide range of Management Training & Leadership Training courses, and a topic that regularly appears in a lot of them is SMART objectives. So what are SMART objectives? In this post we take a look at how you can use them effectively.
Some of the training courses that look at SMART objectives in more detail include Management Skills for New Managers, Leadership Skills Training, Performance Management Training & Appraisals Training.
Goals, aims and objectives are often confused. All describe things that you want to achieve, however I see goals and aims as broader, more aspirational intentions whereas an objective is a narrower more defined task you need to achieve in order to meet your long term goals and aims.
All managers and leaders must be able to set effective objectives for their staff, whether they are to achieve project or task objectives, personal development objectives for people to grow in their role or performance standard objectives aligned with a competency framework, values or behavioural guidelines.
When setting objectives for your team you will need to ask yourself:
- What are my team’s targets and goals for the coming period?
- What standards do I need the team to maintain / improve?
Read the rest of "What are SMART Objectives?"
Posted by Alistair Wylie in Appraisal, Business Skills, Management & Leadership, News, Personal Development on March 14th, 2011| 3 Comments »
If you run a business, are you ready for the Royal Wedding on 29 April? And we don’t mean have you got in the bunting or bought the souvenir mugs! Have you decided whether you’re giving staff a holiday that day, and if so are you giving them Royal Wedding Pay!?
Silicon Beach Training run a wide range of Human Resources Training courses, as well as regular Management Training and Leadership Training courses in Brighton, Sussex. We have also recently launched new ITIL Intermediate courses and public MSP Training in Brighton.
Do I Have To Pay Staff for the Royal Wedding Bank Holiday?
You might think you don’t have much choice, but the answers to common questions like “Do I have to give staff a day off?” and “Are they entitled to paid holiday for that day?” and “If they work do I have to pay overtime rates?” all depend on the contract of employment. All staff are entitled to at least 28 days paid holiday per year; many get more, and contracts say different things.
So, before you let your staff know what they are entitled to - check what your contracts say!!
Here are the most likely options:
Read the rest of "Royal Wedding Pay: Bank Holiday Rights for Employees"
Posted by Andy Trainer in Human Resources, Management & Leadership, News on March 9th, 2011| No Comments »
Tax consultancy - Pension tax changes
The Pension Tax changes in 2011 that will be effective from April are said to have the biggest impact on higher earners.
Robin Ellison, Tax Consultant and partner at Pinsent Masons gives his view on the pension tax changes:
“Despite the apparent limits on the amount of contributions that can be made, there are several loopholes that allow higher contributions to be made if the individual can afford it.”
If you are looking for a Tax Consultant try Knill James Chartered Accountants in Sussex. Silicon Beach Training provide HR Training and Excel Training in Brighton, Sussex UK.
The HSBC published research last week claiming that 35% per cent of people are not worried about the new tax and accounting changes, and that 39% of high-income individuals claiming that the changes will have no impact on them.
How will the Pension Tax Changes 2011 effect you?
However, as from April 6th 2011 the annual amount that can be saved into a pension that will attract tax relief will fall from £255,000 to £50,000 – that’s a big change. This is a significant reduction targeted to affect 100,000 pension savers, 80% of whom will earn more than £100,000.
Mr Ellison added that the “real tragedy” of the new tax rules was the “breaking of the community of interest of all people in pensions”. Something that seems to be a trend in recent years. The drop in the amount that can be saved into a private pension will further cause the private provision of pensions to “fall substantially”
This seems to make little sense as this may result in less rather than more money for the Treasury.
Posted by Heather Buckley in Human Resources, Management & Leadership, News on March 3rd, 2011| 2 Comments »
