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How to Tackle the Biggest People Challenges in Your Organisation

As Willow & Puddifoot launches our new website, we’re excited to offer a range of services designed to help you navigate the complex people challenges that come with managing teams. People challenges can make or break the success of your organisation. Whether its leading teams, keeping employees engaged, or dealing with stress and uncertainty, these issues can slow down progress and cause frustration. But with the right approach, you can turn these challenges into opportunities for growth and high performance.  Here are some of the most common people challenges businesses… Read More »How to Tackle the Biggest People Challenges in Your Organisation

Developing Leaders: How to Develop Leaders in 12 Steps

The development of effective leaders is crucial for organisational success and growth. This blog post delves into a comprehensive 12-step process for developing leaders, ensuring your efforts in leadership development are as impactful and efficient as possible. Preparation Step 1 – Define Leadership Competencies or Behaviours Start with a clear definition of the competencies and behaviours your organisation values in leaders. These could include strategic thinking, effective communication, emotional intelligence, change management and the ability to inspire and motivate teams. Tailor these competencies to reflect the unique values and goals… Read More »Developing Leaders: How to Develop Leaders in 12 Steps

The Five Characteristics of Wellbeing

Do you ever think about what it is in life that really, fundamentally, makes you happy – or indeed unhappy? ​In 2010 Gallup (the American analytics and advisory company) did a comprehensive study on wellbeing covering 150 countries globally, asking people hundreds of questions about health, wealth, relationships, jobs, and communities. Across borders and nationalities, they identified five universal elements that are seemingly essential to wellbeing the world over – whatever your age, social class, employment, nationality, and race. Of course, these broad categories don’t cover every nuance of what’s… Read More »The Five Characteristics of Wellbeing

Acing your End-of-Year Reviews

It’s that time of year again… Whilst we’re not quite into the Christmas countdown just yet, it certainly is the season to plan your End-of-Year Reviews. Evaluating employees’ performance, assessing skills and development areas, and reviewing goals: it’s a process many leaders and managers find daunting. How do you deliver feedback in a way that will genuinely help the individual and the company? Having a powerful conversation Knowing how to have a good one-to-one conversation is key. Making your feedback come across more as coaching than criticism, with a two-sided… Read More »Acing your End-of-Year Reviews

Is it time for your summer stocktake?

With things slowing down for many of us at this time of year, it’s an opportunity to review how you feel about your work and what you need to do to keep on track with your goals. Time for reflection I used to work in a college library and the summer at work was very different to the rest of the year, transforming from a buzzing, busy hub (yes, libraries have changed!) to a calm retreat, with just one or two of us working. It was a time to have… Read More »Is it time for your summer stocktake?

Happy New Year!

A RAY OF LIGHT Happy New Year! Does it feel like an exciting start for you? Are you happy to look at the year ahead? I think there’s something about the bustle of festive season, some light in that very dark time of year, for relaxing and contemplation after all the hard work of the year. In the UK it’s been cold, damp and dark this winter, but those could be said to be perfect conditions for some deep thinking. Time to cosy up with a hot drink and decide… Read More »Happy New Year!

Employee Knowledge Sharing

Unlock Hidden Potential: Enhance Employee Knowledge Sharing There’s an abundance of untapped knowledge within your business—valuable insights, experiences, and skills that remain siloed. Sharing can significantly enhance your team’s performance and innovation. So, what’s stopping you from sharing that knowledge more effectively? Imagine how much more successful your employees could be if they had the tools and opportunities to tap into each other’s expertise. Employee Knowledge Sharing is not just about increasing efficiency, but also about fostering collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving across teams. While formal training plays a crucial role… Read More »Employee Knowledge Sharing

Giving off the right vibe: keeping a common culture as you grow

‘Culture’. We’re not talking about high-brow art galleries and opera here – or even mysterious organic matter cultivated in a petri dish. We’re talking about the common values, beliefs, attitudes and assumptions shared by the people in your organisation: the things that consciously and unconsciously define the character and personality of your business – the ‘vibe’ it projects. As a start-up you probably found your culture and vibe established itself quite naturally, reflecting the ambitions and values of the founder(s) and becoming a bonding ethos without having to define or… Read More »Giving off the right vibe: keeping a common culture as you grow

Company Culture

Time to be picky: How to select the right people to be managers in a fast-growing business

It’s an exciting time: you’ve started scaling your business, progressing from upstart start-up to fully-fledged business success. But as your business grows, you soon realise you need to increase the number of people managers in the team. The early days where everyone simply reported to the leadership team is no longer sustainable: as a properly-functioning larger business you need another layer of management – responsible for people as much as process. You might recruit externally, with careful work by your HR team to attract the right candidates. Or, you might… Read More »Time to be picky: How to select the right people to be managers in a fast-growing business

How to select the right people to be managers in a fast-growing business