Do you identify as a perfectionist - or know someone who believes it makes them or their team, more productive? The truth is - it’s often not the success enabler it’s thought to be. In fact it could be causing some pretty serious damage.

Don’t wait until the new year to make big plans for 2019. Every year millions of us make New Years Resolutions that few people ever achieve. If you want to be different from the crowd, get thinking now about what you want to achieve and make a plan with these top tips:

Christmas is usually such a mix of people, different styles, generations and needs that it can be really hard for everyone to have a good time. It is possible with a bit of planning and forethought. Consider these three needs:

I’ll let you into a little secret - no one’s Christmas actually looks like their Facebook post would have you believe. Most of us are just grateful we’ve managed to serve something resembling a dinner and not poisoned anyone in the process.

Helen was a well qualified, competent L&D Manager in the retail industry. Having reached the top end of middle-management she was looking to move up to a Director position but was disappointed not to get promotions on two occasions...

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a collection of techniques that help people do more of their good ‘programmes’ and change their unhelpful ones. The techniques get your conscious and unconscious mind working together for you, making it much easier to make changes than by will power alone...

There was a time when doing any kind of coaching, self-help or personal development was a bit taboo - you had to be a hippie or have serious issues to spend your time and money on such things. Times have changed and now anyone who’s anyone has a coach and purchases of self help books are at an all time high...

If you work in a warm and friendly team environment, the chances are you have a number of affiliation driven people in your team. Harvard Psychologist David McLelland defined three primary motives that drive people Power, Achievement and Affiliation which are the key to understanding behaviour in the workplace...

Do you find it hard to say no? The problem many people have with saying no is that they don’t want to offend or upset people, or they are afraid it will damage the relationship in some way. Here are some top tips for saying no and being polite from Time Mastery; Banish Time Management Forever...

It is all too easy for our social life and family time to end up as the ‘thing we do when everything else is done’. And yet if people were asked on their death bed, what they wished they’d done more of in their life - very few people would say ‘worked more and cleaned the house more’...

Have you ever wondered why the projects that excite you don’t seem to appeal to other people? Why some people love certain elements of their job that other people hate? Why ‘motivational’ talks inspire some people and turn off others?...

Visualisation techniques are so popular nowadays that Coaches, Trainers, and Consultants use them freely without considering that they might not work for everyone. They are commonly used for setting goals, business and personal and in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) they are used extensively for anchoring techniques, phobia cure and for timeline work...

Our minds love stories, some social psychologists believe it’s a major contributor to our evolution over other animals. The use of stories and fables to teach and pass on important information through generations is well documented. It has prevented us as a species having to re learn skills that have already gone before, important when our average life span was only 35 years...

You are training people, all the time, on how to treat you. Your behaviour constantly gives other people messages, some subtle and some less so, about how to behave towards you and how to communicate with you...

All or nothing people are often very happy to tell you that, and there are many things all or nothing people do well. They can be highly committed and enthusiastic about things making them an inspiring and creative leader, employee or life partner...

It’s a sad fact that eating our lunches at our desk has become an accepted norm. Apart from being unhealthy - just think of all those germs and rotting bits of food that fall onto your desk or trapped in your keyboard...

Small talk, in particular, is littered with land mines when it comes to putting your foot in it...

When someone is struggling, it is natural to feel for them if you are a caring, kind person. There is an important difference in how you deal with this feeling. Sympathy is the ability to feel concern for someone else but not the ability to step into their shoes and experience it from their perspective...

We all know them, the space invaders and the time suckers. To deal with people who waste your time you need to become highly skilled creating and maintaining good healthy boundaries. Boundaries are the physical, mental and emotion ‘line’ between us and other people...

Did you know that other people are picking up information from you ALL the time? Even if you aren’t speaking or doing anything, you are still communicating. Many people don’t know the unconscious messages they are giving out, partly because you can’t watch yourself the whole time...

New research conducted by PWC ( Workforce of the Future; the competing forces shaping 2030 ) found that 74% of people are ready to learn a new skill or completely retrain to keep themselves employable...

Don’t wait until the new year to make big plans for 2018. Every year millions of us form New Years Resolutions that few people ever achieve. If you want to be different from the crowd, get thinking now about what you want to achieve and make a plan with the top tips:

Here’s Part 2, tips for the big day itself. 

If you’re still planning and organising you can read Part 1 here...

Imposter Syndrome describes high achieving people who are marked by their inability to internalise their accomplishments and a fear of being exposed as a fraud. They will dismiss their achievements as luck, timing or attribute them to other people. A recent study found that 70% of people experience Imposter Syndrome, which actually makes it a normal human condition. If this is you or someone in your team here are some ways to help people overcome this?

Tis the season to be merry - and also stressed if you are organising Christmas this year. At such a special time, you want to get it right, but many people race up to the big day and are then too exhausted or stress to enjoy it. There’s a reason why Christmas Eve is a peak day for people getting colds. Here are our top tips for making Christmas a breeze...

Confidence is both an inside feeling and an outside behaviour.
Both are important, if one is out of kilter you will appear incongruent and inauthentic, therefore lacking impact.

Selfish - it doesn’t even sound good does it? That is because for many of us it takes us back to childhood when a well meaning teach or parent used it to tell us off.
The problem with ‘selfish’ is that all too often people use it to judge and scold others or to stop themselves from doing what they want to do. Where does self respect, self esteem, self determination end and selfishness begin?

Is is that time of year again? Time to organise the team away day or strategy day. To be successful Strategy Days need to generate ideas, be done in an environment that stimulates freedom of thought and involve the right people. Without a clear plan and enough structure you cannot have a successful strategy day.

Everyone can recognise that familiar tug of war inside us; go out or stay in and catch up on work, make a fresh dinner for the kids or finish catching up on e mails; work late or go to the gym? These are common everyday dilemmas we all face but have you ever stopped to consider that this constant tug of war could be impacting your health?

Toxic team dynamics are behavioural or communication patterns which destroy a healthy workplace. Key signs of a toxic team are:

For many organisations, change is neither desirable nor simple. How can you help your people feel in control during times of transition? How can you minimise the ‘loss’ which often comes with change? What can you do to reduce conflict and build healthy teams, even when the rate of change keeps increasing? What behaviours help people thrive during change? Use these top tips from the experts:

Do you find it hard to say no? The problem many people have with saying no is that they don’t want to offend or upset people, or they are afraid it will damage the relationship in some way. Here are some top tips for saying no and being polite from Time Mastery; Banish Time Management Forever...

People often tell us they find asking other people for their time, help and support difficult. This is particularly tough when asking a loved one to help out, it can feel like grovelling, being demanding or disrespectful depending on how you think.

Procrastination is a stress response. People procrastinate when they feel overwhelmed or anxious about moving forward pushing their brain into ‘freeze’ mode. It can happen to us all and putting pressure on someone who is procrastinating will only make things worse.

Do you find it hard to say no? The problem many people have with saying no is that they don’t want to offend or upset people, or they are afraid it will damage the relationship in some way. Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) explores how to use language in a way that sets clear boundaries and respects other people. Here are some top tips for saying no and staying friends:

Everyone at Monkey Puzzle is busy working on their personal and business goals for 2016, and it’s set to be an exciting one. Here’s just some of the things we are looking forward to in 2016:...

Tis the season to be merry - and also stressed if you are organising Christmas this year. At such a special time, you want to get it right, but many people race up to the big day and are then too exhausted or stress to enjoy it. There’s a reason why Christmas Eve is a peak day for people getting colds. Here are our top tips for making Christmas a breeze:

Remember that when you are communicating to other people about your time you are basically training them in how to treat you. We all have natural habits in how we respond to requests for our time. Let’s look at ways in which you can increase your choices of response to requests for your time adapted from our new book Time Management; Banish Time Management Forever.

Getting together with the family at Christmas should be full and fun and joy. In reality though the fun and joy rarely happens as spontaneously as it does on those Christmas TV ads. The secret to a successful Christmas with the family to think ahead and be prepared by considering who you’ve got coming with these three steps:

Beware the boundary violators - we all know them, the space invaders and the time suckers. They waste your time, make you feel uncomfortable and seem to make you say and do things you don’t want to.

 A lot of people have issues with setting and maintaining boundaries with others. Boundaries are the physical, mental and emotion ‘line’ between us and other people. Some people’s boundaries are too rigid and they push people away and some are too sloppy and this allows other people to violate their boundaries and get into their personal space. The good news is that once you are aware you can do something to enforce your boundaries and teach others to treat you appropriately. Here’s some top tips:

When we hear the word Psychopath we commonly think of mass murderers and other criminal elements. Did you know that people with psychopathic tendencies make up 1 to 2 percent of the population? We encounter them frequently in our lives and they are particularly well designed for high power corporate positions! Not naming any names of course but we have probably seen a number of them in the news recently. 
Lets look at some of the characteristics of psychopaths:

People often tell us they find asking other people for their time, help and support difficult. It can feel like grovelling, being demanding or disrespectful depending on how you think. This can often make requests appear clumsy and awkward. Being able to ask for help well builds relationships and is a key factor in managing your time well, as you can’t do everything yourself. Here are our top tips straight from our forthcoming book: 

Do you ever feel like you have to over justify yourself or defend yourself against petty gripes and accusations? Some people can be naturally over critical. This creates an atmosphere of constant defensiveness which can destroy relationships, not to mention your self confidence if you have someone close or work with someone who is like this. Get yourself out of the corner you feel backed into and avoid getting drawn into the negativity with our top tips:

Your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. What is called multi-tasking is actually your brain flicking from one thing to another so that each task gets a bit of your attention and the processing power of your brain. You will divide your focus over a number of things and none of them will get your full attention. When someone thinks they are multi-tasking their brain is actually trying to track a number of different thoughts and activities in their mind at the same time. This drains your energy and reduces your thinking capacity. People multi task because it ‘feels’ productive, rather than an objective analysis of results and output.

When people come on our certification courses in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) they are always blown away by the power of the interventions to change behaviours, how we feel and how we behave. It’s easy to love the big powerful stuff, but the small changes we make in our thinking are often the thing that ensures long term success because they create good habits which serve you for life. Here are our top tips to try:

Tis the season to be merry - and also stressed if you are organising Christmas this year. At such a special time, you want to get it right, but many people race up to the big day and are then too exhausted or stress to enjoy it. There’s a reason why Christmas Eve is a peak day for people getting colds. Here are our top tips for making Christmas a breeze:

Have you ever wondered how to end ‘blame game’ behaviour at work? Here are the top tips from the experts:

Eleanor Shakiba; author of Difficult People Made Easy

Over the last 15 years we have been working in the field of leadership development we have become fascinated by the questions people ask us about leadership: What makes a good leader? What makes a bad one? Does the world need leaders who are strong, single minded and driven to get things done quickly or leaders that are flexible, able to listen to everyone’s opinions and who take time to reflect and consider before doing anything?

The words we use matter. When we speak or hear a word we make pictures and sounds in our minds, and that impacts how we feel and behave. So it’s important to be clear about what we are saying, to ourselves and others. In this series, John will explore the meaning and impact of common words we use and ask the question ‘Do we know what we’re saying?’

A lot of people don’t want to be ‘that person’, the one who is always bragging on about how great they are, how good their work is and the ‘proven track record’ they have. However, in our wish to avoid being seen as arrogant or stepping on peoples’ toes, we can get left behind - along with the profile our great work could have given us.

How do you maintain pace and quality of work, without burning out your staff? It’s a concern expressed by many people we work with in innovative, creative, and high pressured environments.

As organisations return to work and take stock of the past few weeks, the conversation is shifting from ‘how to work at home during lockdown’ to ‘what remote working will mean to the future remote based organisation’. It’s a far reaching strategic issue.

Could it be that predictions about the end of office life have been a little premature? New YouGov research shows a sizeable percentage of the UK wants a return to office life just as it used to be before the pandemic. With lockdown restrictions lifting, the topic of exactly where we’ll soon be working and how much time we spend there is very much a current talking point.