People Managers
The global team trap: 5 mistakes leaders keep making
Leading teams across time zones means more than adding Zoom calls. Mykhailo Voitovych explains five common mistakes that derail multicultural, distributed work, from fuzzy definitions of “done” to undocumented decisions and clumsy feedback. He shares practical fixes: structured handoffs, decision logs, and flexible communication norms that keep progress steady globally. In the era the World Economic Forum labels as one of “geoeconomic fragmentation and geopolitical tensions”, businesses seek flexibility. For leadership and talent development, it means multicultural teams are popular…
The leadership blind spot: Managers who stop listening when it gets awkward
Difficult workplace conversations are now routine, but many managers lose confidence when emotions rise and listening matters most. Joseph Conway explores why employees feel dismissed, what the psychological safety data reveals, and how L&D can build people’s skills for listening under pressure, with practical strategies that strengthen trust and wellbeing. Difficult conversations in the workplace are no longer few and far between. For line managers, they’ve become a routine part of leadership, whether it’s navigating performance concerns, responding to interpersonal…
SOFest: A learning festival where everything is an invitation
Kirsty Lewis shares what makes SOFest different, from focused speaker sessions and practical workshops to silent discos, sound baths, business development and creative reflection. With everything framed as an invitation, delegates choose their own route through learning, connection, rest and experimentation. All at this year’s must-attend festival for learning professionals. Learning events can sometimes feel over-designed. Delegates are moved from room to room, sessions are fixed, choices are limited and the day can become something to endure rather than explore.…
From breakdown to backbone: Helping people thrive under selfish leaders
Selfish leaders can drain confidence, distort reality and trigger burnout, but support can be a turning point. Drawing on a case study, this article shares coaching tools to build awareness, protect boundaries and respond strategically. Josefine Campbell shows how clients can restore resilience, reclaim agency and even thrive at work. Selfish leaders prioritise their personal gain over the well-being of their teams and can create a toxic ripple effect in the workplace. Whether as a professional coach, an empathetic colleague,…
From job redesign to work transformation: How organisations can future-proof roles in the age of AI and skills shortages
Technology isn’t the blocker, work design is. Many organisations trap people in low-value tasks while layering AI onto old workflows. Johnson Wong argues leaders must shift from updating job descriptions to transforming how work flows at task level, prioritising high-impact roles, and investing in skills to unlock productivity and engagement. Across industries, leaders are confronting the same paradox: technology is advancing faster than organisations can adapt, yet productivity growth remains stubbornly slow. AI tools are proliferating, automation investments are rising,…
The AI bottleneck is people
AI adoption is racing ahead, but most organisations are blocked by people, not technology. Skills gaps, weak data fluency and shaky governance turn pilots into bottlenecks. Mehdi Paryavi explains how HR and L&D can build AI literacy, upskill leaders, embed guardrails and create continuous learning that keeps pace with change. Artificial Intelligence is transforming economies, industries and workplaces. A report from LinkedIn found that three times more C-suite executives are adding AI literacy skills to their profiles than they were…
When leaders run on empty, strategy turns into firefighting
Workplace stress is surging, executive burnout is a systemic risk to organisational performance. In a DUSTy polycrisis world, traditional wellbeing initiatives barely touch the root causes. Steve Macaulay sets out a practical HR and L&D roadmap to redesign roles, build psychological safety, embed structured support and impact the whole organisation. The signs of workplace stress are everywhere: UK sickness absence is at its highest for 15 years. According to a CIPD survey, 64% of organisations are taking steps to identify…
The risk radar that stops culture biting back
Most leadership programmes scale fast on assumptions that only unravel in the room. A genuine pilot surfaces hidden beliefs, resistance and the workplace conditions that make behaviour change stick, before the full investment lands. Jimmy Burroughes argues against biased, stacked pilots and shows how to test important reality, not optimism. Most leadership programmes are designed and decided before anyone enters the training room. The content is chosen, facilitators are booked, the business case clears the board or approvals committee, and…
From learning to earning: A practical framework for skills-based compensation and workforce agility
Skills-based pay is gaining traction as organisations seek clearer returns from workplace learning and really embedding this in culture. By linking skill development, assessment and reward, companies can boost motivation, target critical capabilities and strengthen agility. Johnson Wong outlines a practical framework and maturity pathway to start then scale responsibly. Many organisations are investing heavily in workplace learning. Yet a persistent challenge remains: how do we ensure learning translates into real workforce capability and business value? Skills-based pay is an…
L&D’s biggest influence barrier is access to decision-makers
L&D can’t make impact visible an important from the side-lines. The TJ Readiness Enablers Index shows that the biggest bottleneck to meaningful change is access to decision-makers about strategy, budget and priorities. While L&D has momentum, readiness is inconsistent, and influence depends on being close enough to shape action early. In a context of L&D focusing on impact, including grappling with how to measure it, how to evidence it, how to report it and how to make it visible to…
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