I hear managers raise this issue time and time again; what begins as an underlying tension between two or more of your team members, with covert “sniper” tactics, strained atmospheres, gossip mongering and occasional snide comments is turning into more open hostilities.
Your team risks splitting as people “take sides”, and you begin to realise your [...]

Two critical skills which the highest performing managers have in spades are the ability to influence and persuade. The most obvious targets for your powers of persuasion are your team, and sometimes your peers in different departments; but just as you need to manage down or sideways, it’s also critical you know how to manage upwards.

People tighten their belts and do their best to weather the storm, and businesses focus an even more critical eye on their spending. Often, one of the first things to come under scrutiny is training and development, and decisions are made to put anything other than “essential” training on hold. “Soft skills”, (also referred to as “People Skills”) often seen as the “fluffy bunny” stuff of development, is the first to be dropped. But how effective is this strategy in reality?