June 21, 2017 Giving Feedback, Managing People Well

How ancient wisdom can help managers give their employees better feedback

Giving feedback is unquestionably one of the most challenging tasks for any leader, as it can be painful to both the giver and receiver. It is nonetheless invaluable: Research has shown that employees recognize the importance of feedback – whether positive or negative – to their career development.

Despite the research showing that many people welcome it, provided it’s given well, most leaders are reluctant and uncomfortable providing negative feedback. So how can managers become better at providing their employees with negative feedback that successfully highlights problems and how to resolve them?

June 7, 2017 Human Resources, Managing People Well, Recruitment, Remote Work

More NFPs are discovering the benefits of remote workers. Here’s how to update your recruitment process to make that work

If your NFP doesn’t already use remote workers, chances are good that you will in future.

That’s because – and this will be news to no-one – the landscape of Australia’s workforce is changing. Influenced by high-speed broadband and the ubiquity of virtual tools, organisations are increasingly using remote workers to maximise flexibility for both staff and the organisation as a whole.

In fact, many roles across to the not-for-profit sector can be performed remotely, from managers to graphic designers to counsellors – and beyond.

So how does your recruitment process need to change to take remote workers into account?

May 29, 2017 Human Resources, Managing People Well, Organisational Strategy

The case for greater flexibility at your NFP

Dr Clare Allen is on a mission.

As CEO of VisAbility – Guide Dogs Ltd in Western Australia, she knows that work-life balance can be challenging for many people working in the NFP sector – particularly those in more senior roles, and for those in frontline services juggling high client work-loads with admin and/or management responsibilities.

That’s why she wants to spread the word about how organisations can move past a focus on “work-life balance” towards a vision of a much more flexible “work-life harmony” that empowers staff to achieve more powerful and healthier results.

May 17, 2017 Health & Wellbeing, Managing People Well, Professional Development

Can you ‘teach’ staff to be more emotionally resilient?

You may know someone like this at work: optimistic and resilient, they appear to bounce through challenges drawing on an internal strength that helps them work through problems they encounter at work. Always hopeful and positive about the future, they treat stressful events as a “one-off” situation, appearing to have a built-in buffer that protects them against both ordinary and extraordinary events. Perhaps this is even you.

This sort of emotional resilience is often considered innate. But can it be taught?

May 10, 2017 Health & Wellbeing, Managing People Well

Death and the workplace: a compassionate way forward for your organisation

Like going to work, death, dying and bereavement are things that at some point we all have to face. So it’s high time we started having the conversation about how the workplace responds to death and dying. This guest post by Jessie Williams, Executive Director of The Groundswell Project, might help to start the conversation in your organisation.

May 3, 2017 Change Management, Leadership, Managing People Well

Three positive ways to lead your NFP through uncertain and troubling times

It’s no secret that the not-for-profit sector has faced unprecedented instability in recent years, with uncertainty fast becoming the ‘new normal’.

The drastic drop in donations caused by the GFC, constant fluctuations in government funding and sweeping sector reforms like the NDIS are just three examples of massive change – and that doesn’t even touch on the increasingly volatile political climate both in Australia and overseas.

To start developing skills to help lead teams during these uncertain times, and to prepare for change in the future, here are three important lessons for leaders at all levels of your NFP.

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.

March 20, 2017 Leadership, Managing People Well

How to manage self-motivated, intelligent workers

There’s an emerging type of worker who usually knows more about their job than anyone else in the organisation and is not likely to suffer fools gladly. This type of worker can be difficult to manage as they don’t consider themselves to be subordinates in the traditional sense.

Numbers of these “knowledge workers” are rising steadily in the NFP sector and beyond. And a key challenge for managers today is how to get these sorts of staff members to want to do what you want them to.

January 25, 2017 Human Resources, Managing People Well

Five principles to begin designing a great employee experience at your NFP

Traditionally, not-for-profit organisations have focused their energies on the needs of their clients or issues, since they’re ultimately the reason for the organisation’s very existence.

But how can you be more deliberate about the ever-important staff experience – and boost engagement and productivity in the process?