This week we are thinking about influence. How much do you have, and do you have it over the people that matter?

Teams need a supportive climate to thrive. In this climate, there is just the optimum amount of tension and support to perform at a high level.

This week, Lama Sweis, Chief Operating Officer at Lockton, kindly attended our Women In Leadership Programme with BASF to offer her insights and wisdom on what it takes to succeed as a female leader in the Middle East.

There are not often new models in emotional intelligence that give a fresh and helpful way to see the topic. The four-quadrant model by Daniel Goleman has been dominant for over 20 years and is still widely used (including by me!)

When training presentation skills there are several techniques we teach that help to excel presentations from average to excellent. One of the most challenging techniques for people to get the grips with is using emotions in presenting.

Are you a salesperson trying to sell more, or a manager trying to instill positive behaviours in your team? Whatever your role you need to influence!

When you consider your "emotional self" - How can you accept what has gone on?

How would you like to be? How would you like to think? How would you like to feel? How would you like to behave?

Ask yourself these questions...

Are you adding to or depleting your team? What are you doing now to prepare for that? The teams with strong leaders who take initiative and invest in people will likely emerge stronger than before. Who has the power to inspire, engage and unite others and lift your business to success?

COVID-19 is impacting us all in one way or another. Whether you have financial concerns, job security uncertainty, health problems, family worries, or a general fear over the future, at this time these are normal experiences.

DISC is a behavioural assessment tool that can help you to understand more about your own behaviours and interactions with others. We use DISC in different training courses such as communication skills and sales training.

A new normal is quickly evolving. Live sports postponed, music festivals stopped, events and conferences canceled, cinemas, spas, bars and play areas closed, and home working enforced across many companies. These are unprecedented times, through which none of us has lived before.

Conflict is a normal and inevitable part of our time at work, and the higher we rise in the organisation the more prevalent and impactful conflict becomes.

I had an interesting chat this morning with the team at Dubai Eye Business Breakfast on work-life balance. Most knowledge workers go to an office for a set number of hours, much as we have done for the past 50 years. The difference now is we are always accessible through our phones, so end up often working evenings and weekends too. 

This is always a question that makes people uncomfortable. The instinctive response of most is, that I don't have any biases. And that may be your initial thought too. But we all have biases.

Have you fallen victim to the fundamental attribution error? I am pretty sure you will have done it, probably repeatedly! The fundamental attribution error is where we attribute blame and judgement towards the behaviour of others, where we would excuse ourselves of the same behaviour.

Trust is an essential foundation of high team performance. Without trust we can't build relationships, conduct work with interdependence, be creative or leverage each other's talents effectively.

What are you procrastinating about right now? There is always something we are not doing, but to procrastinate means that we are putting off an important task that we know we should be doing in favour of a lower value, possibly easier, or more enjoyable task.