Golden Skirts don’t necessarily add Midas touch

David Cameron has been taking advice about Norway’s 40% quota of women on boards as the plan is to get the UK up to 25% by 2015. Cameron says there is overwhelming evidence that having women on boards is good for business. Unfortunately researchers at the Ross School at the University of Michigan found that having the 40% quota negatively affected companies. Continue reading »

Feedback & Women’s Team Performance

Receiving feedback on how individuals in a group are performing on can reduce your cognitive ability.
Researchers ranked performances on tasks and then shared that information with the group. After the feedback some people’s problem-solving ability declined significantly and that was particularly true for women. Continue reading »

Female Managers more critical of Organisations

according to Roffey Park’s Annual Management Agenda report. Female managers are more critical of their bosses, less impressed by their boards, and see more conflict in the workplace than men. It seems that female managers have higher standards and expect promises to be kept and people to be honest at work. Of course it could be … Continue reading »

My most read posts on Leadership & Management in 2011

As last year the competition is really hot out there with some great writers and experts but here are the figures from WordPress showing which of my posts you read the most. My readers come mainly from the UK, USA, and Canada, followed by India, Oceania and Brazil. In 5th spot was: Most people prefer male bosses. Despite all … Continue reading »

Should Managers be Held Accountable for Labour Turnover?

In the present economic climate should managers be held more accountable for labour turnover? Turnover rates ran at between 6 and 9%, and almost 30% in London,in 2009 according to an IRS survey. Just over half of employers believed the impact of  economic conditions had been to reduce turnover. There is some survey evidence that … Continue reading »

Think Twice about Working from Home

unless you have a strong relationship. When I wrote about working from home last December we were in the grip of snow and bad weather and it seemed a good idea to stay at home, off the roads, warm and safe. This year there may be more people who have no choice after losing their … Continue reading »

Rudeness and the Bottom Line

We seem to becoming less polite to each other at work. Over 10 years ago 1 in 4 employees said they were treated rudely at least once a week. Five years ago that number had doubled. Last year 1 in 4 employees reported seeing workplace rudeness on a daily basis. And it isn’t just rudeness … Continue reading »

Quietly does it, sometimes

Extraverts may have a natural advantage in leadership roles because they are dominant and outgoing. They tend to be the centre of attention and take over discussions and are perceived as more effective by both supervisors and subordinates.
New research shows however that in some situations an introvert may be a better leader than an extravert Continue reading »

Rude, Arrogant, and Powerful?

Being conscientious is a good predictor of performance in a job. It doesn’t mean however that you will be seen as powerful.
The evidence suggests that it is the rude and arrogant person who is perceived as being a powerful decision-maker. People rate rule-breakers as being more in control and leaderlike than conscientious types.
Continue reading »