April 24, 2017 Culture and Values, Giving Feedback, Managing People Well

Can you build a culture of candid feedback in your team? Here’s how to start

In a sector devoted to making the world a better place, creating a culture where everyone feels happy is an important priority for many NFP managers and leaders.

But could you be being too nice?

If you’re withholding feedback from your team because you’re afraid that being candid with staff would conflict with being nice, respectful and warm, the effect could in fact be that your team doesn’t perform at their best, and they miss out on opportunities to improve themselves and the organisation’s overall impact.

So if you’re keen develop a culture of candour and feedback in your team, here are seven steps you should follow.

April 3, 2017 Giving Feedback, Managing People Well, Organisational Strategy

Why justice matters in NFPs – and how to make your workplace fairer for everyone

Have you ever considered how fair or “just” your behaviour at work is?

It matters more than you might think. In fact, research shows that if managers behave fairly their staff are more likely to feel committed to their jobs and perform better overall.

The good news is that justice can be embedded into the culture of your organisation – particularly through the improvement of policies and procedures – which can ultimately improve the impact your not-for-profit organisation is able to make.

August 8, 2016 Giving Feedback, Managing People Well, Volunteer Management

Giving feedback can be tough. These assumptions make it even tougher

Giving tough feedback to your team members is an inevitable part of managing staff or volunteers in any NFP, but can be incredibly challenging for a manager. But according to Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman of US-based leadership development consultancy Zenger/Folkman, these conversations are often harder than they need to be.

April 11, 2016 Giving Feedback, Leadership, Managing People Well

What to do if your staff won’t act on feedback

Much has been said on the topic of giving feedback – it’s vital to building an effective team and boosting productivity, among other things.

But what do you do if you’ve given a team member feedback and they ignore you? Or get defensive? Or even begin to evade discussions involving feedback?

January 25, 2016 Giving Feedback, Leadership, Managing People Well, Organisational Strategy

NFP managers: Do you struggle to have difficult conversations? These three things can change that

Having a difficult conversation in the workplace can be, well, difficult. Giving criticism is hard – and so is receiving it. As a result, the conversations that need to be had the most often go unspoken, leaving problems and grievances unaddressed and ultimately causing issues like reduced productivity and low morale.

December 21, 2015 Giving Feedback, Managing People Well, Organisational Strategy, Performance Reviews

Four tips for ditching your organisation’s performance reviews

Organisations sidestepping traditional performance review systems aren’t canning the idea of reviewing performance altogether. They recognise the need to continue to improve staff performance in some way – just one that is more effective. Here are four key tips for ditching your current performance review process.

November 2, 2015 Giving Feedback, Leadership, Managing People Well

How to be compassionate in challenging conversations

Do you dread having tricky conversations with colleagues about performance, pay, restructuring or workplace conflict?

Throughout a career, every not-for-profit leader will face these conversations. But for many, they can be the most difficult parts of a job.

September 9, 2015 Giving Feedback, Managing People Well

Six effective ways to have that difficult conversation at work

Employees want more feedback. Gen Y employees in particular, want constant feedback. Managers however are often reluctant to give feedback if they fear that what starts as a rational conversation may degenerate into an emotional one.

In this guest post, Grace McCarthy provides some simple guidelines to help managers to achieve positive outcomes from these difficult conversations.

May 18, 2015 Giving Feedback, Health & Wellbeing, Meetings

Walking the talk: How walking meetings can make your staff fitter, happier and more productive

The Young and Well CRC is an international research centre, based in Melbourne, that focuses on the role technologies can play in improving young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Young and Well CRC is also a leader in workplace health and wellbeing.

In 2014, they publicly released their innovative and comprehensive wellbeing policy, with the aim of supporting other organisations to prioritise wellbeing in the workplace.

In this guest post, Rose O’Sullivan, Young and Well’s HR Advisor and Operations Support, shares why they love one particular initiative from their wellbeing policy – the walking meeting – and why you should bring walking meetings into your organisation too.

April 22, 2015 Giving Feedback, Managing People Well, Organisational Strategy, Performance Reviews

Six ways to make your performance management processes really work

According to the latest Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends survey, there’s one area in which organisations are failing significantly – and their leaders know it: Performance management. Of the 3,300 business and HR leaders surveyed, incredibly just 10 percent believed that their performance management processes were a good use of time.