I strongly recommend this week’s featured article in our newsletter ‘Why leadership development doesn’t work.’ The points the authors make all resonate with me, and I love the way this article is written.   My first thought was to recall a...

  Increasing complexity, skills shortages, and constant pressure on costs are just three reasons for prioritising organization-wide talent development – that is, learning and development that upskills people, increases their engagement with organizational...

  Talent management has once again risen to the top of the priority list for HR and CEOs alike. There are two reasons for this: one is that we still have talent shortages, especially for senior leadership roles so it is crucial to grow our own: the second is that...

  A glance at the chat lines and published articles shows that talent management is again becoming a hot topic. It is hardly surprising considering some hard evidence: PwC’s 20th CEO survey, 2017, found that 77% of CEOs see the lack of availability of key...

  In my previous blogs, I strongly advocated drawing up a talent management strategy that sets out the guiding principles for recruiting, developing, rewarding, promoting and paying people.   In my last blog, I set out what successful talent management looks...

I was struck by an article in our last newsletter reporting a study that showed that fear of change was putting British companies at risk. The survey conducted by Microsoft, Goldsmiths, University of London and YouGov found that 49% fear the change that comes with...

In my recent piece, entitled ‘Surviving cultural uncertainty,’ I posed questions that make great discussion topics to raise awareness of attitudes, behaviours and practices that block change.   From these questions, the three below in my experience...

We at Scala send our warmest wishes and congratulations to Peter Estlin, who this Saturday becomes the 691st elected Lord Mayor of the City of London.   Peter has spent most of his career in banking, and finance. However, he has long been a keen proponent of HR,...

Janice Caplan is quoted in the FT in this great article about coaching.

 In our last newsletter, we included a great article: “Are performance appraisals pre historic?”   The writer makes some good points for reflection, which match the general headline claims that are abounding right now about the unsuitability of...

Integrity can be defined as the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.  It can also be defined as a state of being whole and undivided.  Both these aspects are important in assessing leadership – particularly when we are trying to...

The British Army has been providing courses on leadership development at Sandhurst since 1812 when it was recognised that leading men into battle required more than an aristocratic background.  I was at a leadership seminar there recently where the commandant was...

“Management is about answers.   Leadership is about questions”.   There have been many acres of newsprint dedicated to defining the difference between management and leadership and there is no simple answer.  If we assume that the...

Leadership can be simply defined as “the act of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal”.     What this means in practice, and what it takes to be a “good” leader has been a topic of discussion for...

 “This House believes that Non-Executive Directors do not do enough for company Profits!”  A good-natured debate aimed at finding out what makes the best NED for a business sponsored by Russam GMS Ltd. Click download below for Janice Caplan's...

Flexible working and apprenticeships bring considerable benefits, but who is ensuring the business benefits from these practices while HR spends its time on the day-to-day? Employee engagement is the hot topic, but who is driving that agenda? Download the full report...

From last week.... Looking after the 90% Just published CIPD (i) research shows that almost half (49 per cent) of UK workers are in jobs they are either under- or over-skilled for. Put this together with our poor productivity statistics, it is safe to conclude that...

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