The Social Housing Complaint Handling Code: the ‘Positive Culture’ approach
Complaints. No one wants them to happen, and no one wants to have to deal with them. But last year (2023-2024) the Housing Ombudsman1 received over 5,000 complaints and made 21,740 orders for social landlords to put things right for their residents, representing a more than threefold increase compared to the previous year. The Annual Complaints Review revealed an increase in maladministration across the board, with 73% of all decisions resulting [...]
How the Customer Centricity Triangle can transform your organisation
As a leader of a housing association 'customer centricity' is something you'll think about, talk about, and write about daily. Delivering a truly customer-centric experience is layered, all encompassing, and it can seem overwhelming at times. This article will help you think about customer-centricity through the lens of the something very simple – a triangle. We refer to this as the Customer-Centricity Triangle. The Customer Centricity Triangle When something is [...]
8 Self-Actualisation Traits And How They Make You More Successful
Self actualisation is a school of thought which emerged in the 1950s, spearheaded by Abraham Maslow, American Psychologist. His theories turned psychology on its head from a prior focus of studying the intricacies of mental illness, instead to nurturing positive mental health. Self actualisation is the concept of fulfilling your potential - harnessing the skills that lie within you for maximum effect and success. This could be in any area [...]
All You Need To Know About Emotional Intelligence For Business Development
Business managers have often risen to their positions because they are good at ‘doing’. They organise teams, manage projects and ensure the smooth running of operations. What gets regularly overlooked however is the importance of ‘feeling’ in management. Going beyond the tasks, and understanding the importance of emotional intelligence in business development. Despite the rise in AI, business, when it comes down to it, is about people. People are not [...]
How To Inspire Positive Change In Your Business
If your business has been doing the same things in the same way for a long time, it could be stuck in a repetitive rut. More commonly this is a result of a poor company culture, which takes perseverance and consistent commitment to combat.We’ll discuss this in more depth later. There’s a reason that 94% of executive plus 88% of employees point to having a distinct workplace culture as an [...]
The Truth About Success: How To Improve Customer Service For Growth
Customer service is the foundation of every business. No matter what you’re doing or selling, you won’t be successful if your business is built on bad service. And that can’t be viewed in general terms, or the overall effectiveness of your customer service, or the average level of your customer satisfaction. It’s about the whole experience, every single member of your team pulling in one direction to create a cohesive [...]
The Most Overlooked Strategy For Business Growth And How To Use It
In business, everyone is looking to succeed. To grow their operations, expand their client base, branch out into new areas, and gain recognition as the best of the best in their field. Everyone you talk to has a different secret to this success. Everything you read offers up different solutions. How do you know which strategy is the key to accelerating your business growth? The truth is, there’s no one [...]
7 Easy Ways To Dramatically Improve Manager Performance
Management is no easy task. Yes, it’s about ensuring the smooth running of business operations, and all those daily tasks and problems that have to be dealt with. But ultimately successful management depends on mastering the ability to inspire others to deliver commitment, rather than simple compliance. A poor manager will not only damage productivity, but will also undermine your company culture, and stunt employee morale. Poor management results in [...]
How To Easily Use Agile Working For A Business Success
Agile working is a buzzwords that’s become very popular in recent years, yet really all it means is finding non-traditional work methods to elevate your thinking and the way you do business. You’ve likely heard of agile working before, and may have taken steps to instigate agile practices into your company. But are you really agile, or just limping along using outdated work formats? The days of suffering under the [...]
How To Empower Your Leadership Team
For business success now and in the future, you need a great leadership team. By this, we don’t simply mean managers. Managers are vital to keep operations flowing, but we’re talking about your leaders – those that inspire your workforce to reach higher, dream bigger and believe in your business. You may have a team in place that you believe are the right people to lead your employees. But without [...]
How To Cultivate Business Innovation For Success And Growth
Innovating is one of those things all businesses think they should be doing, but may not know how to actually go about it. Your business may have already come up with a game-changing idea or product in your industry, but that doesn’t mean you should stop there (did Apple stop innovating after releasing the iPod?) Or you might be looking for a way of making a splash or putting your [...]
How To Transform Your Managers Into Leaders
There’s a huge difference between management and leadership. In an ideal world, your managers will offer a balance of both – the skills to organise workloads and projects, and the inspiration that drives teams to excel. Often, employees are promoted to management level in a company because they have been successful in their role, not because they have shown particularly strong management or leadership traits. This means that when [...]
Why Procrastination Has Stalled Your Business (And How To Fix It!)
There’s no doubt about it, procrastination is bad for business. It stops you achieving to the highest level, stunts productivity and breeds complacency. No matter how efficient, proactive and motivated we may think we are, we’re all guilty of procrastination sometimes. This is when you repeatedly put off something that should be done today until tomorrow. Why do we do it? Some tasks are just not that appealing; either [...]
How To Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone And Grow Your Business
The UK business climate is changing at lightning speed. From AI to Brexit, there’s always something around the corner to disrupt trading conditions and buying habits, and stunt your business growth. Businesses that survive this rocky ride are those that are willing to get out of their comfort zone; changing their processes, people, service offering, or even their whole culture. Treading water is not an option in 2019. Businesses need [...]
The Power Of Habit: How To Fix Bad Business Practices
Habits are hard to break, especially if we don’t know we’re doing them. In business, some habits can have a negative impact on your ability to grow and succeed. It’s easy to get tied up in the day-to-day needs of your business in this 24-hour, infinitely connected world. Daily management and short term problem solving can take up your whole attention, leaving little room for reflection. You’re so busy ‘doing’, [...]
The Junior Lawyers Division: How To Use Transition Coaching
If you’re looking to uplevel your team and aid them as you navigate a big shift, like a merger, transition coaching probably isn’t the first thing that springs to mind. It may not even be the second. Yet the right transition coach is an incredibly powerful force, capable of easing your business through the restructuring of your business, the acquisition process, or other major changes within your company, and ensuring [...]
Gareth Southgate and Collaborative Leadership: What Leaders Can Learn
England has come crashing out of the World Cup, but our players are coming home heroes having gotten further in the competition than any team we’ve put forward since 1990. Their success is being credited to manager Gareth Southgate and his leadership style; calm, authoritative, and above all collaborative. What can business leaders learn from him to propel their teams to greater success? It’s not just about donning a [...]
Transition Coaching – How Does It Work?
Any career goes through many phases and sometimes professionals need a little help to smoothly transition from one role to another. Whether moving up to management level, leading a new team or division, or returning to work after a break, the right support and training is vital for successful transitions. Rather than an optional extra, transition coaching has become an essential tool for the modern business. Enabling staff to [...]
Eight Steps To More Empowered Teams
The key to a happy and productive workforce is making sure they feel important and valued. Follow our eight steps to staff empowerment and help them reach their full potential. If you’re a manager, your success depends on the success of your team. Empowering your employees unlocks their full potential, increasing productivity and creativity. A workforce that is engaged, supported and challenged will not just ‘survive’ in their roles, [...]
Making A Success Of Change
Implementing changes in your business, big or small, is a challenge. From switching to flexible or mobile working to bringing in new management or a complete overhaul of your processes, seeing those changes through successfully is a tough task. Companies often spend huge financial and people resources on change programmes, and yet according to Towers Watson via Forbes, only 55% of change management objectives are met and only 25% [...]