Today I launched the first phase of the upd8 hints. A new way to deliver information – which starts with a series of short messages

      H - help
      I - inspiration
      N - news
      T - tips

Two are now available – Study Hints and Management Hints.

I decided to produce the Study Hints to help anyone who is studying to achieve more. I see too many of my students struggling with the same problems, so I’ve written this short series of hints, delivered one each week, so there’s time to implement each suggestion and the whole series is delivered over 6 months – a reasonable length of time to build up study skills without having to wait until the week before an exam for exam hints and tips.

Each hint is short, but useful. I know that if more of my students followed these hints then their study skills would improve and that leads to improved course results. Great for them and great for me too
Sign up today – and tell me what you think

I was talking to someone who’s just returned from holiday and he told me about a conversation he had whilst stood in the queue at the local Fish and Chip shop. The owner was talking about the different deep fat fryers available (apparently the Dutch ones look after themselves, but the UK ones need more skill to use well) and the difficulty of taking time off as no-one could be trusted to use the fryer in his business properly - not uncommon in small businesses - not uncommon in teams either.

Does this sound familiar? It’s yet another way to say ‘I’m better off doing this myself’ – ever find yourself saying:

• ‘it’ll be quicker if I do it myself’
• ‘he always does it wrong – I’ll just do it now’
• ‘this is really complicated – as the expert, I need to do it’
• ‘she never produces the right quality’
• … or similar.

I’m sure we’ve all done it at times but is that good management? Of course not and tempting though it is – and yes we can give all the best ‘reasons’ for it – it’s bad management and if you find yourself saying or even thinking any of these little phrases, then you need to consider what you can do differently. That way, you’ll free up more time to manage – rather than do.

So, what’s the answer – well, it has to be a two-pronged approach – one won’t work without the other:

• you need to do some work on yourself - No more excuses, no more saying or thinking the phrases above
• you need to do some work with your team member. Training isn’t only done through training courses –there are lots of ways for people to learn new skills or to improve existing ones.

What will work best for the team member and you right now?

Hmmm – I wonder if there’s such a thing as an NVQ in fish-frying?