This post is based on an article I wrote for the Q3 edition of the Institute of Water magazine Background Over the last ten years I’ve done a fair bit of interim management, doing nominally full-time roles on a three-day a week contract. And, yes, I had days off, worked on other projects and had […]
Gifts that keep giving
Repositioning a curtain rail the other day, it struck me that most of the tools I was using were many years old. Everything was at least five years old, and the drill was, at over 40, the granddaddy. The tools are an example of Gifts That Keep Giving. Originally used as an advertising slogan in […]
Managing remote teams
A big deal or just business as usual? Over the last 40 odd years I’ve gained lots of experience of running local and remote teams, often by finding out by what didn’t work first, then learning how to fix it. One of my best discoveries, and yes I learned this the hard way, was that […]
What Will My Successor be doing on Thursdays and Fridays?
A Lighthearted but potentially serious question This post is based on an editorial piece I wrote for the Q4 2019 Institute of Water Journal which was focused on leadership and management Would you like your managers to be looking for work to do, rather than struggling to meet objectives? And having time to develop their […]
Mining Rough Diamonds
Or why the best candidate may not be the obvious one This post is based on an article I wrote for the spring 2019 edition of the Institute of Water’s magazine The problem What do you do with a team member best described as a rough diamond, technically brilliant but a challenge to work with? […]
Building a team of many talents
In the summer of 2017 I was offered a three month contract as Interim Water Quality Monitoring Manager with Southern Water to help implement a new Compliance and Resilience directorate. Writes Bob Windmill Eight months later (yeah, I know) I had led the creation of an entirely new team of six monitoring scientists and a […]
Three things I value: Part 1 – the cheap but effective
Reading the post you will see why I value a device that cost less than thirty pounds, that at various points caused me to pull my hair out, but yet I wouldn’t want to be without. Writes Bob Windmill So what’s the cheap but effective example, then?
Solving the right problem
And not the one you thought it was… Have you ever wrestled with a problem, spending hours and days getting nowhere? Where what ever solution you come up with just wouldn’t work? This post is about a recent example of my own making. Happily the consequences were not serious but it was a sharp reminder […]
3×3 Management : 9 key things every manager should do – Part 3
In my first post on 3×3 Management I gave my thoughts Leadership and the three key ideas of management styles, effective recruitment and personal values. In my second post I looked at people management and the three key ideas of treating people with respect but setting limits, recognising good performance and addressing poor performance, and […]
3×3 Management : 9 key things every manager should do – Part 2
In my first post on 3×3 Management I gave my thoughts Leadership and the three key ideas of management styles, effective recruitment and personal values. In this post I will look at people management and the three key ideas of treating people with respect but setting limits, recognising good performance and addressing poor performance, and […]