Henry Stewart’s Blog

At TrainingZone Live this morning, Michele Owens of the Olympic Delivery Authority gave an interesting example of how people reacted to different approaches: "When we first used 360 degree feedback, we used it as a performance management tool. It wa... more

My last post was on finding out what your people are good at, to help them play to their strengths. So how can you put this idea into practice? Georgie Fienberg is the founder of Afrikids, an inspirational charity working to improve the quality o... more

Are you and your people using your strengths at work? One of the simplest ways to make your people happier, and more productive, is to ensure they spend their time at work doing what they are good at. That may sound obvious but it is surprisingly ra... more

What would happen if your company allocated some of its marketing budget to surprising your customers with acts of kindness? I met this week with Ole Kassow whose Danish company (www.wemind.dk) works with companies to create happier cultures. One ex... more

This week we learned from Greg Smith, departing executive director of Goldman Sachs, that in the sales meetings he attended "not one single minute is spent asking questions about how we can help clients. It's purely about how we can make the most possi... more

I was very struck today by an article in a local London paper, the Islington Tribune, on the special customer service award given to a local corner shop. The article describes how friendly and polite the shop-keepers at Arsenal Food and Wine are. But w... more

In my last post, I talked about how the principle “people work best when they feel good about themselves” should be at the core of how your company is managed. This principle can be extended to everybody you work with. My colleague Diye Wariebi, w... more

People work best when they’re happy at work. That principle is the core of everything we do at Happy (a training business in London, UK). Think about whether you agree with it. If you do, and I find over 95% of people do, then what should be the k... more

I often say that our most radical belief at Happy is this: you should decide who should manage people based on . . . how good they are at managing people. Because too often they are chosen on their core skill or how long they’ve been in the job. W... more

Julie Wedgwood used Learnfizz to bring together her favourite online curation links, for easy distribution to her audience at Online Educa Berlin. Rudy Bagot used it to store his favourite Guyanese recipes. Marion Janner, who is writing a guide to 77 i... more