Home »
Home > leadership training
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 »
In April 2011, the Bribery Act becomes enforceable and that means all businesses should start thinking a bit harder. In laymen’s language it will be a criminal offence for someone to offer, ask for or accept an “inducement” that may be a reward for acting improperly. And organisations will be committing an offence if they fail to prevent bribery by someone associated with them. And the scope of the UK Bribery Act covers UK organisations even if the business is conducted outside the UK.
Are you aware of the NEW Pension Tax Changes? All you need to know here.
Silicon Beach Training provide Management Training, Leadership Training and Human Resources Training courses in Brighton, Sussex.
The UK Bribery Act is therefore a key piece of legislation for all senior managers and Human Resources departments to think about.
What does the UK Bribery Act mean for my Business?
Consider the following scenario:
You’re chatting to a colleague; in the conversation they mention one of the following.
- They had a client meeting in Starbucks and paid for both coffees.
- A supplier paid for their lunch at Pizza Express.
- A supplier sent them a lovely bunch of flowers on their birthday.
- A customer offered to make a donation to their favourite charity in return for a good deal.
- A supplier’s offered to let them use his villa in Tuscany for a holiday.
- They’re organising a 3 day “service users” conference in a 5 star hotel, all expenses paid; the “conference” bit is minimal.
- An employee of a major customer has asked them to arrange a large cash payment into an overseas bank account in her name to guarantee the company is shortlisted for a huge contract.
What’s your reaction? Of course it depends on exactly what your colleague said. It probably ranges from hardly noticing number 1 (having coffee or lunch with clients / suppliers is part of everyday business life) to finding number 7 very worrying. In the middle, your reaction probably also depends on the sort of organisation and sector you work in – what’s generally acceptable or not.
So how seriously do you need to take the UK Bribery Act? If you’re part of the senior team of any sort of organisation you should at least check how this may affect your business…
Read on for our Top Tips on how to prepare for the UK Bribery Act
Read the rest of "How to Prepare for the UK Bribery Act 2011 – Top Tips for Business"
Posted by Andy Trainer in Business Skills, Human Resources, Management & Leadership, News on January 26th, 2011| 3 Comments »
February Deadline for Train to Gain Funding Applications:
THIS FUNDING STREAM IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE – DETAILS OF THE NEW LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT TRAINING GRANTS SCHEME FOR 2011
Training Funding will be finishing soon – APPLY NOW to avoid missing out…
Over the last few years, lots of Silicon Beach Training’s clients have taken advantage of Train to Gain’s “Leadership & Management” funding. This scheme allows business leaders and owners to gain access to up to £1,000 in funding towards training.
Unsurprisingly, many recipients have chosen to take our Leadership Training and Management Training courses in Brighton, Sussex. However the funding can be used on any courses that help business leaders to succeed, including accredited PRINCE2 Training, MSP Training and Six Sigma Training, or even creative courses like Photoshop Training or InDesign Training.
All good things have to end though, and the scheme is closing soon…
Read the rest of "Training Grants: Last Chance for Train to Gain Funding"
Posted by Andy Trainer in Human Resources, Management & Leadership, News, Personal Development, Train to Gain Funding on January 17th, 2011| 2 Comments »
For some, carrying out a Performance Appraisal can be one of the most daunting management skills.
Gaining confidence in carrying out appraisals is something that comes with practice. We offer a practical 1-day Appraisals Training course in Brighton, Sussex. The course allows delegates to practice their skills in a safe environment, you will also gain confidence with carrying out appraisals on the job. Appraisals are also covered as part of our Leadership training and Performance Management training courses.
Planning your appraisals meeting properly will also make it much more successful for appraiser and appraisee alike.
To help you plan your Appraisals more effectively, here are our five C’s:
Climate
Creating and maintaining the ‘climate’ or atmosphere that is most appropriate for achieving your objectives and making this a rewarding experience for both participants.
Clarity
Provide clarity during the discussion in terms of its structure as well as a shared understanding of issues, reactions and outcomes.
Content
Manage the content of the discussion to ensure that each of you contributes in a way that will help you both achieve your objectives.
Commitment
Gain commitment through the way you communicate with people and develop solutions with them.
Confronting
Tackling and resolving difficult issues constructively, without causing unnecessary or damaging conflict.
Because our choices are so entrenched we believe that they are the only way to behave. We look at some of the alternatives available to us in our Appraisals Training Course.
Posted by Andy Trainer in Appraisal, Management & Leadership, News on December 15th, 2010| 2 Comments »
think outside the box
Great leadership is not just about managing and maintaining what is. To be a Great Leader you need not to be afraid to make mistakes. Leaders have the confidence to take risks. Our Leaderships training in Brighton, Sussex, will help you develop your outside of the box thinking. We also offer a range of Management Training, and Project Management Training courses, including PRINCE2 Training.
Consider the following quotes:
“Theoretically, television may be feasible, but I consider it an impossibility -a development which we should waste little time dreaming about.”
- Lee de Forest, 1926, inventor of the cathode ray tube
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
- Thomas J. Watson, 1943, Chairman of the Board of IBM
“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.”
- Western Union internal memo, 1876
“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”
- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962
“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”
- H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927
“640K ought to be enough for anybody.”
- Bill Gates, 1981
Leadership Skills and Thinking Outside the Box
It is important not to look beyond the present and into the future. Today organisations need to be organic, adaptable in order to grow and change. When the movie camera was introduced, the camera did not move! The actors would run around the static camera like they were on a theatre stage. The idea that the camera could move around the actors took time to realise. To identify great opportunities you need good leadership skills. Great Leaders look beyond current practises and markets.
leadership test
Try this test to see if you can think outside the box! – Draw nine dots to make a square – three rows of three. Try and join the nine dots with 4 straight lines.
Do you need 5 lines?
The correct answer is shown here in this diagram
Did you restrict yourself?
Did you impose the restriction that lines cannot go outside the box?
Try not to give yourself self imposed restrictions that prevent you and your organisation from reaching your goals and developing new ideas, as mentioned before businesses need to be adaptable, to be open to change and be continuously developing in order to survive and grow.
This way of thinking is commonly called thinking outside of the box. Inside the box thinkers are very skilled at killing ideas. For example, Charles H. Duell, Director of the US Patent Office, said in 1899, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
Here’s a list of ways in which Leaders think outside the box:
- Listening to others
- Supporting others when they come up with new ideas and respecting them
- Valuing new ideas and not being afraid to act on them
- Willingness to look at new perspectives to day to day work
- Openness to different things
- Openness to doing things differently
Posted by Heather Buckley in Business Skills, Human Resources, Management & Leadership, New Free Resources, News, Personal Development on November 22nd, 2010| 3 Comments »
by webtreats on flickr
Your customers are not longer simply the consumers of products, consumers themselves are becoming potential marketers for your product, or on a bad day potential saboteurs. Through the social web people’s ideas and thoughts about your service or product can have a significant impact on the success or failure of your business.
Silicon Beach Training offer great Social Media Training, in Brighton, Sussex, but if you would like to learn something different then try our InDesign Training, Leadership Training or Assertiveness Training.
Businesses are no longer in complete control of their products, brands and messages. End-users are taking control. Heading this shift of power are users of the social web – bloggers, micro-bloggers, forum posters, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter users are spreading messages, influencing people, driving or diminishing demand.
Businesses need to identify the online influencers and acknowledge, respect and develop relationships with them in order for their products and brands to thrive. To stay competitive in this ever-changing environment, businesses must learn how to harness these forces to their advantage. Here are five tips for small companies seeking to leverage the power of social media to increase brand awareness and to drive demand for their product or service.
- Identify who the key online influencers are.
Do some market research and identify the key online influencers for your product, brand, business or industry. For twitter use Twitalyzer or Klout. Find people who are interested in your products, brand and business and are likely to talk about you in their online conversations. Make a list of these influencers in Twitter and/or Facebook and LinkedIn. Look at their blogs and see if you can find forums and networks where these people are active online.
- Engage with them.
Join the conversations that are happening on those sites and online destinations. Persevere, it will take time to get noticed, see what hash tags they use on twitter and use them too. Comment on their blogs, ask them questions, join their groups. Be consistent and participate often, offer information and insights that add value to the conversation.
- Develop relationships with your influencers.
It is not enough to simply join the conversation. Meaningful relationships take time to develop particularly with key influencers as there will be many more out there competing for their attention. By interacting with them in a meaningful way by providing useful information and add a little bit of flattery maybe, you may begin to join the inner circle! Building relationships is an important part of social media marketing. The indirect marketing power that influencers are capable of igniting through their own online relationships and discussions can be huge.
- Get your influencers to talk about you.
Avoid self-promotion or direct marketing your business and products to influencers. Think of ways of putting your name, product, or services in front of them that show them how your business can benefit them or others. If you have already established a relationship with them and you don’t try to sell to them, but rather offer information and insight, they’re more likely to value what you give to them and share it, particularly if they believe your product or business can benefit their audiences. The objective is to encourage them to take control of the conversation to let it spread for maximum exposure.
- Make sure conversations lead back to you.
You should have already established branded destinations across the social web using tools such as a blog, YouTube channel, Twitter profile, Facebook group or page, LinkedIn group, podcast and so on. Make sure all of your social web participation links back to your business blog or website where conversations can get more information or make a purchase.
The key objective is to connect with influencers and to get them talking about and advocating your brand, products and business. You can achieve this by delivering content that adds value and by taking the time to build meaningful relationships with them. If you practise the above successfully you will probably become a key influencer yourself.
Posted by Heather Buckley in Facebook Tips and Tricks, Sales & Marketing, SEO, Social Media on November 15th, 2010| 2 Comments »
Smart phones are getting smarter thanks to the deluge of Apps available. Sometimes though there are so many it can help to have someone else sort out the wheat form the chaff. So here we are, we’ve complied a list of the best iPhone and Android Apps for people who want to update their website or blog on the go so you no longer have to be sitting in front of your computer to upload, manage, publish and monitor your website.
WordPress
wordpress application for iphone and android
Top of the list of course is WordPress. If you have a WordPress blog, this app allows you to manage comments, upload images, and write, edit and publish posts from your phone. Both these apps are free and are can be downloaded from WordPress.org.
If you have an iPhone see the left screen in the image, you can use location sharing to give your blog posts added context.
The Android version (see the right screen in the image) is good for smaller screens.
Download WordPress for iPhone and Android
iPhone: WordPress for iOS
Android: WordPress for Android
If you need help setting up a WordPress site we offer WordPress Training courses in Brighton and Advanced WordPress training for those who wish to learn how to create templates for wordpress and integrate their blog into their existing site. To learn to create Templates and Websites we offer Dreamweaver Training and Web Design courses as well as Photoshop for Web Graphics.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics for iPhone and Android Phones
Now you can track your web stats wherever you are by downloading a Google Analytics apps onto your phone.
There are several free and paid for options for both iPhone and Android users. The free ones may have all you need but it you are an SEO addict you may need something stronger!
iPhone: for a not free but really comprehensive Google Analytics app for the iPhone try Analytics App. If you’re looking for a free Google Ananlytics App for iPhone try Blast’s Google Analytics app.
Android: Droid Analytics is one of the most popular choices and is so cheap you may as well buy it (a free trial is also available).
If you need help installing and understanding Google Analytics we provide regular Google Analytics courses here in Brighton, we even provide Advanced Google Analytics Training for the really geeky.
Web Browsers
Web browser for android and iphone
Opera Mini for iPhone:
Opera Mini is a good alternative to Safari, the features are much the same for both the iphone app and the android app to read below for more info.
Opera Mini for Android:
Opera Mini is also available on Android, and has the benefit of lightweight browsing and homepage bookmark links.
The user interface in Opera Mini is much more usable than Android’s rather clunky browser. The speed dial feature lets you set up on-click shortcuts to up-to nine of your favorite sites. Mini supports tabbed browsing, meaning you can switch between the different pages you have open very quickly and easily.
There is also an auto-complete feature in the address bar, and a built-in search bar. Unfortunately this search bar only supports Google and is not customizable with other search engines.
Page load times are good, thanks to Opera’s server-side rendering technology.
There’s support for bookmarks and browser history, too.
Online File Management
download dropbox app
Dropbox for iPhone and Andriod
Dropbox is a brilliant tool for uploading, downloading, sharing and syncing files online. The Dropbox app comes in both Android and iPhone flavours. It’s simply amazing and what’s more it’s free.
The free Dropbox application for iPhone, iPad, and Android lets you:
- Store all you documents in one place to be accessed anywhere
- Browse the files in your Dropbox folder easily
- Open images and other media directly through the app
- Upload photos to all of your computers at once
- Share links to your files over email
- Export files to other apps
It does loads more definitely worth checking out.
You’ll need a Dropbox account, but it’s free to sign up.
iPhone: Dropbox for iPhone
Android: Dropbox for Android
In case you didn’t know we don’t just offer techie stuff . We also provide InDesign Training, Management Training and Leadership Training courses. Come down to Brighton!
Posted by Heather Buckley in News, Photoshop, Social Media, Web Design on October 27th, 2010| No Comments »
“You can’t solve a problem with the same mindset that created it.”
One of the hardest things about being a manager is managing yourself. Over 140 delegates per year come through our public Management Skills for New Managers training course here in Brighton, and before we teach them about managing a team we first cover a range of techniques for managing yourself .
One thing we’re often told by attendees is that they find it easier to give advice to other people than to think about their own approach to problem solving and to give themselves advice.
This short article describes a simple but highly effective 3-step process to reaching objective solutions for yourself. Visit our Free Resources section for a range of other Management Skills Resources and Leadership Resources
What Advice Would You Give?
To quote Albert Einstein, “You can’t solve a problem with the same mindset that created it.” We all know what it feels like to give others good advice, but when it comes to giving ourselves advice it doesn’t seem to be as simple. It can be difficult at times to employ clear thinking when we are so personally involved. Especially in emotionally charged situations such as dealing with personality clashes, handling conflict and managing stress. However, I believe that people do have the resources within them to meet their own needs – it’s just a matter of accessing them.
Read the rest of "Techniques for Managers: 3 Simple Steps to Reach Objective Solutions"
Posted by Alistair Wylie in Management & Leadership, New Free Resources, Personal Development on November 17th, 2009| No Comments »
