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Emotions obey laws
Written by John Berry on 8th June 2017. Revised 22nd April 2018.
6 min read
What should a manager to do when someone in a meeting is getting emotional – they become so angry that they disrupt the meeting? Frijda’s Laws of Emotion tell us much that will help us first understand this situation and then suggest a course of action that the meeting chair might take to recover good order. Managers can successfully deal with anger because emotions obey laws. Here are the details.
Engagement Follows Commitment
Written by John Berry on 9th June 2017. Revised 22nd April 2018.
4 min read
If there were ever two words that are almost interchangeable, it’s commitment and engagement. The Collins English Dictionary (CED) describes both as accepting an obligation or pledging allegiance. But when you look, it’s not hard to drive a wedge between them. And driving a wedge is essential to understand how, as a manager, you motivate your people for optimum performance. First there’s commitment. Then there’s engagement. Engagement follows commitment. Here's how it works.
Growth Without Employees
Written by John Berry on 9th June 2017. Revised 22nd April 2018.
6 min read
In the UK today there are around five million people who work for themselves. They run either sole-trader or limited liability firms in which they are the only employee. Those workers seek to sell their labour to entrepreneurs. This labour market gives the entrepreneur rich picking of very skilled and motivated individuals without having to employ them. So how does the entrepreneur tap into this resource?
Psychometrics driving vote outcomes?
Written by John Berry on 1st May 2017. Revised 22nd April 2018.
4 min read
Research suggests now that that inferred personality can be used with targeted emotion-laden stories to drive a person's behaviour. This blog updates on this research and notes how this links to psychometrics used in recruitment.
In the UK, we get the idea that our staff need to be technically trained, but we have little or no understanding that the job of 'manager' is neither innate nor obvious. It can't just be learned by trial and error. Simply, we don't train our managers and, as a nation, this lack of management training is killing us. Here's what to do.
How hiring managers should differentiate one young applicant from another
Written by John Berry on 19th December 2017. Revised 16th January 2018.
6 min read
Hiring managers are faced with young people seeking apprenticeships and employment without previous experience in the mainstream workplace. So what should hiring managers do to judge which young person will perform well in the role? Since vocational identity predicts performance, hiring managers should listen to the young person's story.
