April 2013
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Inspiring People – Doreen Lawrence
Have you been inspired by the achievements of a famous person, particularly in the face of adversity?
On Mothering Sunday I was moved as I listened to Clare Balding interview Doreen Lawrence on Radio 2. Having lost her son 20 years ago in a violent racial attack, Doreen Lawrence spoke about how the event has changed her life. She described how, despite it taking several years to arrive at this...
January 2013
3 posts
2013 has finally got off the ground!
Well, 2013 has finally got off the ground! People are back from holiday and are ready for some exciting challenges over the coming months.
Yesterday we experienced the buzz of Learning Technologies at Kensington Olympia. We met some very interesting people, listened to some key industry players talk on current trends and even had time for a bit of fun on the Redware Bleeper game!
Next week it’s...
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Ten plus one extra
Our main focus is optimising the human capacity that underpins organisational success through change management, communication and leadership. The 2013 Juniper Co calendar sees us celebrating 10+1 years. So why the one extra? Because it got us thinking about all the areas where we add that bit extra…
In January, our calendar focuses on one extra question.When we’re working on a project, we...
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“Your brand is what people say about you when...
How many of us have made resolutions this year and broken them already? From both personal and professional experience, I know that a resolution such as “Must eat healthier” or “Must do more exercise” is often very difficult to keep up, especially when the weather is cold like it is now. How about focusing on an area that can have just as much impact – personal brand? Small changes we can make in...
November 2012
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We Are Moving!
Always up for a change and a challenge, the Juniper birds will be migrating to their new office in Weybourne, Surrey next month – and we are very excited about it!
We will be embarking on the next chapter of our story in a place that has been the home to innovation, creativity and sporting excellence for many years. From John Henry Knight (pictured here driving the first petroleum carriage for two...
October 2012
4 posts
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"The most important single ingredient in the...
Part 2 (continued from last week)
Having identified the roles, let’s look at how we can change our behaviour.
In their book, Leadership Presence, Halpern and Lubar say: “Much of leadership is about finding balance between two often-conflicting activities: asserting authority and responding to others’ needs.” I use an adaptation of the DESC approach to giving feedback to provide the...
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"The most important single ingredient in the...
How can we all learn to get along better with the people we work with? And how can a company empower its people to build strong, effective and fruitful relationships?
One way of doing this is to ensure that your people are capable of maintaining adult-adult relationships. When people have an adult-adult relationship, they are able to communicate assertively. This means they can stand up for...
Survey competition
Congratulations to Teresa Kotlicka and Louise Nash who have won our survey competition. They have each won £25 of Amazon vouchers to spend on their learning and development.
Keeping in touch with our delegates and contacts is important to us to ensure we understand your training needs in today’s market. We believe strong client relationships help us to keep savvy and stay on top of the ever...
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The harder you work, the luckier you get – Gary...
Those of you who read my “Olympic” blog might have asked yourselves the same question one of my clients asked me : “Surely more sweets hit the bowl second time round because they have practised?” A very good question indeed!
It’s true to say that even without instruction, more sweets probably would have hit the bowl (although I must insist, more would have done with coaching and...
September 2012
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“Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose...
In a recent blog I talked about how resourceful organisations are responding creatively to cuts in learning and development by balancing out formal programmes with more informal development, such as coaching. Even in the absence of training programmes or workshops, ongoing coaching is useful because it provides the opportunity to speak to people about personal growth and development.
There are...
August 2012
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"The Crowd Helped Me" (Jessica Ennis)
What a fantastic 2 weeks! Our athletes have certainly emphasised the “great” in Great Britain.
Interestingly, Mo Farrah, Jessica Ennis and Laura Trott are just a few of the competitors who have not only thanked the home crowd for their support, but have attributed their success, in part, to it. After winning a gold medal last week in the velodrome for the omnium, Laura Trott explained...
July 2012
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Leadership and learning are indispensable to each...
Recently,I have been working closely with a team of promising leaders, who have been participating in our Leadership Enhancement Forum and the whole experience has been very rewarding. One element that works really well in programmes like this is that each participant is given invaluable support by internal sponsors from the senior management team. These sponsors give feedback on how individuals...
May 2012
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The strongest principle of growth lies in human...
It’s more important than ever to continue to grow and develop in the workplace – both individually in our role and as part of a successful team. To do this we need to be continuously aware of how things can be done better and more creatively. As Walt Disney famously said: “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us...
March 2012
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Your opinion of the world is also a confession of...
How did you feel when you started your work day? Chances are you’ll already been influenced by many factors before arriving at work – whether it’s family relationships, the news, advertising, a phone call, traffic, how well you slept or how well the previous day’s work went.
The way you respond to influencing factors makes a difference to whether you look forward to tackling work or if...
February 2012
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Self-confidence is the first requisite to great...
I’m frequently asked to help people become more self-assured, confident and positive in the workplace. However, this is often followed by a slight concern that being assertive means being aggressive or arrogant. But this isn’t the case.
Being assertive means you’re focused on the goals of others, as well as your own. You put equal emphasis on the task and the relationship. You show empathy to...
December 2011
2 posts
10 Days of Juniper Christmas
On the first day of Christmas Juniper gave to me An invite to Buckingham Palace
On the second day of Christmas Juniper gave to me Two trips to India, And an invite to Buckingham Palace
On the third day of Christmas Juniper gave to me Three Dutch visits, Two trips to India, And an invite to Buckingham Palace
On the fourth day of Christmas Juniper gave to me Four comms campaigns, Three Dutch...
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Do you know your O, P, Q, R, S, T?
I was recently asked about the biggest challenges in my role as a Managing Director of a successful company. One of the things that instantly jumped to my mind was the realisation that I need to delegate in order to grow. I started Juniper on my own and put such a large amount of energy and effort into building my client relationships. When it came to the point where I needed extra resources to...
October 2011
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"We must become the change we want to see"
If you are responsible for managing change then you’ll know how important it is to find common ground with your team so that you can connect with each of them and engage them in the change process. Sometimes it seems to come so naturally to others – we often value certain qualities in our peers and aspire to be more thoughtful, caring, motivated or emotionally intelligent, but we don’t take the...
September 2011
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"Never mistake motion for action"
The ‘activity trap’ or being in a constant motion is a state many of us find ourselves stuck in when we’re in a pattern of doing ‘stuff’; keeping busy without truly doing ‘valuable’ activity.
It often happens to people at work when they’re struggling to acknowledge a change in business direction; they’re concerned about adapting to a new process or an alteration to their job role.
The classic...
July 2011
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"A vacation is what you take when you can no...
It’s that time of year again when many of us are focused on our much-needed holiday – a time for reflection and rejuvenation. Sandy beaches, summer sun and balmy evenings feel just within our grasp… if only we could get all our work finished!
Why is it that in the run up to a holiday we become more focused on the task in hand, more aware of priorities and more determined to complete our work?...
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Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work…
…so said Aristotle some time before employee engagement specialists arrived on the scene! But those wise words are still relevant today. I know that when I’m working on something I truly enjoy, I get totally absorbed and captivated by it, give it my full focus. I do a good job.
As leaders and internal communications professionals, we now have a really good understanding of what we can do to fully...
June 2011
3 posts
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The greatest result of learning is tolerance
I love this quote: “Fix it. If you can’t fix it, learn to live with it. If you can’t live with it, leave it.”
Hopefully, when dealing with everyday conflict in the workplace, we can come to a solution without resorting to ‘leaving it’.
It’s how we ‘fix it’ and ‘learn to live with it’ that most interests me – because tolerance is about having the capacity for endurance and keeping an open mind –...
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Stop complaining, start requesting!
I recently worked with an enthusiastic team of support staff and talked to them about how they can begin to take responsibility for their own advancement within their company.
Taking responsibility is key: when things aren’t quite working, it’s sometimes a default response to take no action and complain about the circumstance or event that has irritated you. This kind of complaining wastes time....
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Learn to accept that some days you are they pigeon...
Today I woke up and felt great. I had a great night’s sleep, I went for an early morning ride and ate a delicious breakfast. Now I feel ready for anything. Today I’m a pigeon! As with any job, however, there are days where I feel I’m the target, when things don’t go smoothly, where work keeps coming in, as my time runs out. On those occasional ‘statue’ days, I have to show resilience in the face...
May 2011
3 posts
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If you are going through hell, keep going
Churchill’s famous quote about overcoming adversity will strike a chord with many of us who have experienced troubled times in our professional or private lives. But, if you are in the middle of a crisis, it does always help to take a step back, assess the situation and think about just how long you’re prepared to keep going.
To overcome obstacles you need to maintain a steady flow of personal...
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If it’s to be, it’s up to me
In business we are constantly faced with decisions about change – whether it is change that has a global impact on the organisation, such as a restructuring programme; deciding on how to improve processes within a department; or more personal decisions, such as a career change.
It is only if we are able to make decisions in line with our goals, that we can take positive action. There are a number...
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Am I truly listening ... or just waiting to speak?
Listening is defined by the International Listening Association as: “The process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal messages.” However, in our enthusiasm to get our point across, we often forget communication is completely ineffective if we don’t listen to the other person – or if the other person isn’t listening to us! We either lose or confuse the...
