Managers have a huge impact on the experience people have at work. They influence engagement, performance and retention, which is why manager development is so important for any organisation. However, when someone is promoted into management, often one of two things happens. Either they receive very little development and are expected to learn on the job, or they’re sent on a one-off course and expected to come back with all the skills they need to be a great manager. The reality is that becoming a good manager requires a completely… Read More »The Biggest Mistake Organisations Make When Developing Managers

For many organisations, the summer months bring a change of pace. While some teams are planning around annual leave, HR and L&D often have a valuable opportunity to reflect on what’s working, what’s not, and where managers may need more support. As managers take annual leave, organisations gain a different perspective on how leadership is working in practice. With managers away from their day-to-day responsibilities, teams are given the opportunity to work more independently, creating useful insight into both leadership capability and team effectiveness. While no one expects everything to… Read More »What Summer Can Teach You About Your Leadership Development Strategy

One of the biggest frustrations organisations have with leadership training is that the workshop itself can go really well, but very little seems to change afterwards. Managers attend, engage in discussions, enjoy the activities, and leave with good intentions. The feedback scores are strong, people feel energised, and there’s often a genuine sense that the learning has landed well. Then a few weeks later, people are back in the reality of day-to-day work and old habits start creeping back in again. The manager who wanted to delegate more is still… Read More »Why Leadership Training Often Fails After the Workshop

Most of us have had the experience of saying something we thought was clear, only to realise later that it didn’t land in the way we expected. We may have explained a task, shared an update, or raised a concern, and in our minds it all makes sense, but then sometime later it becomes obvious something hasn’t quite registered. It might be that the work isn’t what we expected, or the issue we thought we’d addressed hasn’t gone away. At that point, it’s easy to assume it’s about the other… Read More »The hidden reason communication breaks down in teams

Managers often say that handling difficult conversations is one of the hardest parts of the role. But it’s not just managers. We all have conversations we find hard and tend to avoid. It could be that we need to say something and we’re worried it might upset the other person. It could be that we need to talk about something that’s been bothering us and we feel quite strongly about it. Or it could be that we need to call something out when it would be easier not to. Because… Read More »How to handle difficult conversations as a manager

Whether you’re deep in performance review season or approaching mid-year reviews, this tends to be a busy and demanding time for HR. The performance review process is a significant project to coordinate and one most HR teams care deeply about getting right. It places a real demand on managers’ time and it’s not generally something employees look forward to either.  In recent years, we’ve seen a strong focus on ongoing feedback and regular performance conversations as part of broader performance management approaches, which is great. But most organisations still need a formal moment… Read More »Performance Reviews: How to support your managers in 2026

Over the past year or so, many of the conversations I’ve been having with HR and L&D leaders have circled around the same question: AI has quietly embedded itself into everyday work. It’s supporting planning, analysis, communication, and tracking progress in ways that were simply not possible a few years ago. That naturally raises questions about which parts of the manager role still need to sit with people, and which don’t.  What I’m seeing isn’t organisations wanting to remove managers altogether. It’s more a sense of uncertainty about what managers should now be focusing on.  For a long time,… Read More »Redefining the middle manager for 2026

  When I think back to 2025, it felt like a year where the pace of change just kept picking up. Work was shifting quickly, and for many people it felt like it was happening faster than they could comfortably keep up with. AI moved from something we actively chose to use. To something sitting quietly in the background of everyday work. And while that made some things easier, it also created new challenges. Particularly around how people learn, adapt and keep adjusting as work continues to evolve. So, I want… Read More »How AI is influencing workplace learning in 2026

This year, we’ve seen AI become mainstream in our lives and gain ground in our organisations. It’s everywhere – in how we search, how we shop, how we read our emails, and increasingly, how we work. Its rise has been fast. AI has embedded itself into day-to-day workflows in a matter of months, not years, and while most of us do find it genuinely helpful, it’s also evolving quicker than people, and whole organisations, can keep up with. We’re seeing access to AI tools grow across businesses, but many employees… Read More »The New Manager Skills for 2026: What Leaders Need in an AI-Driven Workplace

As the year starts to wrap up, planning conversations are in full swing. Many HR and L&D teams are looking ahead to 2026 and where to focus next. This is a great opportunity to step back and make sure your learning and development plans are genuinely aligned with your organisation’s goals, not just a continuation of what’s been done before. Here are a few things we’d suggest thinking about as you plan for the year ahead.   1. Look back before you look forward Before jumping into new priorities, take… Read More »Planning for L&D Success in 2026