Sometimes, the scenarios that our clients ask us to work with are straightforward – a revised pay structure, a manpower plan or a restructure of existing activities. But occasionally they present something that takes a little more to understand, is more complex and takes more time to develop solutions for. Here’s an example of one such complexity involving complex work patters, pay and tax.

Writing a job advert is a test of communications brilliance - or communications stupidity. Yet, many managers believe that by asking for passion or enthusiasm or by describing the boredom of a job, great candidates are going to apply. So just what is the role of the job advert and what should a job advert contain.

At some stage it will be right for those who start the firm to stop, close it or transfer it to someone else. It will be time to Turn! Turn! Turn! But how should this be done and over what timescale? The answer to this conundrum is to develop an exit plan, and the sooner the better after start-up. At least if a plan exists, it can be revised year by year.

There’s no rule about how many people one manager should have reporting to them. For effective leadership the leader must build the dyadic relationship with every follower. If the manager has too many direct reports his or her leadership will weaken while too reports with too much time on each few stifles. So what's the ideal reporting structure?

An assessment centre is where a number of candidates participate together, undertaking exercises as selection tests while being observed and rated by multiple assessors. The candidates are effectively in competition. Assessment centres can replace interviews and a host of other tools as methods of employee selection but they are misunderstood and controversial. Here's why.

Entrepreneurs and leaders must become managers and embrace management when they want to achieve something - when, metaphorically, they want to build ‘great big ships’. They must work with their people and help them excel, not demand performance and dismiss when that does not follow, or the relationship otherwise sours. Here's why - but take care, some managers may find that the truth in this offends.