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 20, the granddaddy. The tools are an example of Gifts That Keep Giving. Originally used as an advertising slogan in […]
3×3 Management : 9 key things every manager should do – Part 1
My journey to today A while ago I was asked the question: “why have you been so lucky with the teams you’ve had? They all seem to do great things while I struggle to get mine to do the basics”. I can’t remember exactly what I replied, but I’m guessing that it probably wasn’t particularly […]
Managing Business Money – The webinar questions
A while back I wrote a blog post about me experiences of recording and delivering a webinar on the subject of “Managing Business Money” for the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women. This was what could best be described as an interesting experience, one involving trips to London, a live video screen the size of my […]
The Cherie Blair Foundation – A webinar experience
Getting started: A happy chance I first found out about the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women following a chance conversation with a foundation mentor on a train. As a great believer in the power of mentoring, and using it to to develop high performing people and teams over a 40 year career, it seemed natural to explore what the […]
Writing a business plan
Let’s get one thing straight at the start: there is no mystery to writing a business plan. If you can describe how your business works to your friends and colleagues, you can write a business plan. At its simplest a business plan is the story of how you expect you business to operate and make […]
Why saying “No” to your customers can be good for your business
When learning about customer service, most of us discuss and debate the famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi: “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not […]
How to say “No” to your boss
And not get fired….. Even better, not only not get fired, but make you boss appreciate you even more. For many people this seems wrong. Surely bosses want people who are willing to take stuff on? How can saying “No” make them happy with you?
Hobbies helping work
Can what you learn in your hobby help you at work? My experience says that it can, even if I did find out the hard way. In the beginning I started my career as a trainee laboratory technician with Anglian Water. At the time it seemed like a pretty dead end role, washing test tubes and […]
Doing well at work: Understanding money and business
Introduction My name is Bob Windmill and I am the Managing Director of Windmill Insight Solutions Ltd.My passion is helping people and organisations become better at what they want to do. My blog is a way of sharing with you the sorts of projects I am involved in. I also write about how you can […]