Evaluating from your audience, customer or potential client perspective can be overlooked all too easily.

How to cope with rejection:
Find someone you can trust to be independent and ask them to evaluate your offering, discover where your holes are and address them. It’s all too easy to get caught up in the enthusiasm of ‘it’s-great-because…’

Certainly hold on to that feeling and do some bench testing before you ‘go-live’ with a real, potential customer. Better still ask someone you don’t really class as a supporter; the feedback may surprise you.

Practice makes perfect? maybe; more accurate to say, change becomes less scary the more you experience it, and by default, easier to deal with.

Homework: do one thing each day which scares you; let me know how you get on.

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It’s certain there will be job losses, how many and exactly where, is yet to be announced. Kraft will already be working on the who and where but as yet, all that remains a closely guarded secret. There are legal implications and competitive consequences of divulging information about job cuts so we’ll just have to bide our time until the official announcements are made.

As with any business deal, Kraft believes there is a benefit to be derived from the acquisition of Cadbury. If there was not a financial return to be leveraged, why bother?

It’s possible though less likely that new products or markets can be sourced in an already mature marketplace, so it’s more likely that cost savings have been identified. Integration of ‘back-office’ systems as well as preferential buying terms from suppliers can also be anticipated but what about the human cost?

The takeover will mean significant change for those directly and indirectly associated with Cadbury.

We observers will likely have to wait for the passage of time to see whether this latest development benefits one of Great Britain’s world class brands.
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You have a spelling mistake on the ‘testimonials’ page of your website; “perfromance” should be replaced with “performance.”

Business leaders, managers and colleagues want solutions not more work to do, make it easy for them and your profile will rise.

Ok, so the economic position is tough, few would disagree, however, spare a thought for those responsible for managing others, they too are under incredible and sometimes conflicting pressure to “grow the business” often, at the same time as “control costs.”

Inevitably this pressure spills over into managers’ behaviour and affects how they interact with members of their team.

My client, we’ll call him John, resigned from his job because he was experiencing intense pressure from his line manager which resulted in headaches, sleepless nights and a general state of “dread,” his words.

It’s tough out there, the working environment is probably more pressured than it’s ever been and prospects are, at least in the short-term, uncertain.

All the more reason to employ managers who are skilled in leading others; managers who understand how people tick.  Failure to have the right people in leadership roles will result in: resignations, a talent drain (good people have options elsewhere) and, this should focus the mind: employment tribunals!

Employment tribunals will:
1. Require time and effort;
2. Cost money (win or loose the case);
3. Affect the morale of those who remain;
4. Damage the employer’s reputation;
5. Affect how customers feel about the organisation.

So what’s the solution?
Make sure the people who manage others are up to the job. Identify the critical skills needed to do this in your organisation, define them, test for them and in a way which is reliable (do not rely on ‘gut-feel’ alone.) Not sure how to do this then talk to someone who does.

For those who are unfamiliar with the phrase, the grab-bag is, (as the name implies), what you reach for when heading out the door on your way to the delivery suite and the impending arrival of your child.

It may be appropriate in these uncertain economic times to apply the grab-bag principle to your CV/Resume. OK, while you’ll likely have an idea when the baby is due to arrive (a theoretical due date at least) the same may not be true for the need for the CV.

Keeping your CV up-to-date is both prudent and a healthy habit to develop, one that can be done on an ongoing basis. It means that with the minimum of delay you can forward it to an interested recipient; additionally it focuses the mind on the skills, experience and potential you can offer a future employer.

Psychologically, being prepared gives peace of mind and helps instil confidence, essential ingredients when considering options and alternatives to being laid off.

* You could feel good about yourself all of the time;
* You felt comfortable saying “no” to people;
* You could talk in front of people without feeling silly or nervous;
* You could control that negative voice in your head;
* You could communicate with confidence;
* You had the confidence to change careers;
* What other people said didn’t get you down;
* You could act, walk and talk with confidence;
* You lived life as if you couldn’t fail.