Nick Smallman, Author at Working Voices

Covid-19 updates

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Coronavirus – a guide to looking after your people

Essential advice from Nick Smallman, CEO of professional skills consultancy Working Voices

Leadership

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Is there really a difference between Leadership & Management?

There is a real difference between managing and leading. John Kotter, leadership professor at Harvard University, is quoted in The Guardian as...

Leadership

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Delegation – Allow Others To Succeed

I see it time and time again: the often-accidental belief that leadership means control. We’ve all known people who just can’t let...

Personal Impact

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The Value Of Modesty

I’m sure I’m not the only one who remembers the days when the problem with CVs and interviews was that people were...

Leadership

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How to make decisions

Decisions really are the toughest thing a manager or leader must do, on a day-to-day basis. Little decisions are the bread and...

Presenting

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Presenting: How to react when you make a mistake

Its many people’s worst nightmare – making a mistake whilst giving a presentation.

Wellbeing

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Control & Stress

Can you control yourself, when you become stressed? Stress is something almost all of us live with at home or at work,...

Leadership

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The Fear Effect

Fear isn’t something you’ll normally read about on blogs on LinkedIn, or in the sort of books about how to improve leadership...

Networking & Personal Brand

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How to Be a Good Team Player

A successful team isn’t necessary filled with brilliant leaders, nor obedient followers. A team usually needs a good balance of members, full...

Networking & Personal Brand

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Take The Stress Out Of Teamwork

Teamwork can by joyous, but can be very stressful. Sometimes there aren’t clear roles; sometimes there are too many leaders with overlapping...

Networking & Personal Brand

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The Overconfidence Effect

We all know what overconfidence is, and we all probably know people who are often overconfident, but what it the overconfidence effect?

Presenting

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Presentation Preparation versus Presentation Memorisation

Sometimes, a presentation looms and it’s not the worry of presenting well that takes hold, but the worry of remembering what it...

Presenting

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Kinaesthetic Presentations

It’s easy to think that presentations are all about what you do aurally, but anyone familiar with Working Voices no doubt knows...

Personal Impact

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Criticism & Projection

Some people just love being critics don’t they? And whilst there is a great deal of criticism that is extremely valuable, and...

Leadership

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Failure Is Good

I was reading an article on workintellignet.ly about leadership the other day, and it gave three pieces of advice on how companies...

Influencing & Persuasion

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Circles of Influence and Concern

Should I worry about not getting enough sleep, or should I worry about quantative easing?

Culture, Diversity & Ethics

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Now Leaving The Conference Call

Conference calls? There’s no one on earth who likes dialling in, reading an access number the length of a nuclear armament code...

Personal Impact

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Be Prepared

Just like the scouts, you should always be prepared when going in for an interview, talk, when meeting clients, and generally when...

Wellbeing

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Dogs and Stress

It’s important to how we communicate that we learn how to deal with stress, particularly what triggers stress and what works for...

Personal Impact

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Psychopaths At Work

Psychopathy is a personality disorder that sees sufferers yield a diminished capacity to empathise with others, or a diminished desire to exercise...

Wellbeing

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Don’t Stress About Stress

Now, if you’re a worrier like so many of us, you may be sick of people telling you that ‘it’s no use...

Networking & Personal Brand

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Rise Above It Like Beckham

David Beckham has an incredible football reputation, but he also has an enduring reputation as being a genuinely nice man. Recently in...

Writing & Productivity

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The Ten Minute Rule

As my colleagues will no doubt agree, I am one of the worst proponents of the idea that things will take ‘only...

Culture, Diversity & Ethics

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Should Managers Befriend Their Staff?

There is an important difference between being friendly with someone (communicating in an open and empathic way), and being friends with someone.

Presenting

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Presenting Articulately

We’ve all been there, or seen someone who’s been there – addressing an audience of people who generally couldn’t care less. Cast...

Leadership

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Having Difficult Conversations

A recent article in the Financial Times got me thinking about how difficult a difficult conversation really can be, especially when such a...

Networking & Personal Brand

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I don’t want to complain, but…

We all know them. They can be funny, irritating, insightful, and they can be like sleeper agents, mild-mannered ninety-five percent of the...

Personal Impact

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Smile and the world does smile back

I was walking around in central London the other day, and I just happened to think of something funny and as I...

Presenting

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Pace yourself: How a little bit of practice can change peoples perception of you

We all know them, people who defy the laws of linguistics by speaking at a rate close to a turboprop engine, who...

Personal Impact

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Blinking – a lot of myths; a few facts

Did you know that women blink on average, twice as frequently as men? And, unlike some other things which are different among...

Wellbeing

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Stress and Communication – Tips to lighten the load

We’re constantly told that we live in stressful times, or that the modern world is more stressful than its ever been, or...

Networking & Personal Brand

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A Rough Guide to Handshaking Today

The handshake is an incredibly recognisable form of greeting, with many variants and many meanings depending on how they’re conducted and their...

Personal Impact

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Blah Blah Blah and other things to listen for

Listening.  It sounds easy doesn’t it?  Someone’s speaks, a sound is made, and you can’t do much but hear that sound. We...

Personal Impact

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Genuine vs Inauthentic – The Importance of Connection

I’m going to talk briefly about the differences between being genuine and being inauthentic, and when we are most likely to lean...

Personal Impact

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Assertion, Aggression, and Submission – getting the balance right

I’m going to briefly outline the differences between assertion, aggression, and submission in terms of communication, as Vickers et al state in...

Presenting

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Staccato speech – trying to create a meaningful flow

Note that I am not talking about the medical definition of staccato speech here. Staccato speech is where you speak in fragments...

Personal Impact

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Emphasis – the most powerful communication tool

How many of us remember that teacher who, whilst knowledgeable about their subject, had the incredible gift of being able to put...

Presenting

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Presentation preparation – the best cure for pre-match nerves

We’ve all be there, a big meeting coming, a presentation in front of co-workers, a special someone who makes your throat close...

Personal Impact

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The eyes have it – why eye contact is so crucial to interpersonal communication

We’ve all heard the expression ‘the eyes are the windows to the soul’, and its true.  The eyes are an incredibly important...

Networking & Personal Brand

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Networking with depth – The difference between acquaintances and friends

I remember coaching someone in Emotional Intelligence some years ago, who was already quite an effective, confident communicator.  They had a good...

Personal Impact

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No means No – powerful ways to get what you want without ruffling feathers

One of the nicest things to say to people is ‘yes’, but as Robert Bolton PhD says in his book ‘People Skills’,...

Personal Impact

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Self Sabotage – Just don’t do it

Today I was thinking about the things people do, consciously or not, that turn others off, or push others away, or simply...

Wellbeing

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Self help – Is it really the route to sustainable confidence and happiness?

Thomas Hobbes was probably on to something when he wrote that life was “nasty, brutish and short”.  Having said that, in his...

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