Blind Spots.

In cars, we have blind spots where we can’t see what is going on right around us. The larger those blind spots are, the more dangerous we are.

We can have blind spots in our life as well – things and behaviours that we do that we don’t understand or appreciate the impact that they have on others and in ourselves. In her book, Fearless Leadership, Loretta Malandro, PhD., identifies 10 behavioural blind spots that can derail leaders.

Click here to find out what these 10 blind spots are and how you can spot them:

Understanding is the first step. Identifying our own blind spots is the harder part. One way you can do this is to ask a few trusted confidants to work closely with us and point out where they see our blind spots.

This is a hard exercise but one that is very beneficial. We don’t like to hear about our faults. Others don’t like to point them out. But if we are open to growing and learning, then by identifying our own weaknesses, we can start the process of improvement and become more effective leaders.

Are you a fan of Dragons Den? I think you would agree It's probably the toughest interview panel that you could ever come across.

How would you perform  if you got the chance?  Would you hear the immortal words 'I'm out!' or could you convince them to invest in you?

We've got a great event coming up in a few weeks when one of our Presentations Programme Graduates, who's actually been in the Den himself and lived to tell the tale will be telling you the secrets behind how you;

• Convince Theo Pahitis to spend his grand childrens inheritance?
• Get Peter Jones to become your business partner?
• Sell your ideas to the toughest interview planet on the planet?
• Reach the world biggest businesses with your products?

Its a great story!

Join us at our next Sharing Business Excellence Event, How to Pitch to the Dragons and Win! on May 11th and you will find out how it's done. You really shouldn't miss it!

This New and Innovative Business Networking Event brought to you by Performance Development Group and the Centre of Excellence Bradford is designed to share with you practical ideas and proven strategies that have helped some of the UK's most successful business leaders and entrepreneurs ahieve their personal and business success.

Our May event will feature a real life ‘Dragons Den’ winner, Richard Enion from BassToneSlap  who will share with you his experience of what it’s like to face the toughest interview panel on earth and come out on top!

After an initial rejection from 3 of the dragons he stood firm and  eventually got the backing of two of the most demanding Dragons, Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis!

At Richard’s presentation he will share with you;

•    How to sell and pitch your ideas in the toughest of environments.

•    How to turn rejection to success.

•    How to reach some of the biggest companies in your marketplace.

•    How to achieve all this and maintain a great work life balance

And above all else you’ll get to know what it takes to convince Theo Paphitis to spend his grand-children’s inheritance!

Please join us for what promises to be both inspirational and packed with practical ideas you can apply to your business tomorrow!

It’s also a great opportunity to network with some of the regions senior business leaders.

Click here for more details

Venue: The Centre Of Excellence Bradford. (top of the M606)

May 11th 2012, 8.30am-10.30am

Cost £25 inc vat.  Breakfast is provided.

Special offer,  pay for one place and bring a guest for FREE

Secure you place by emailing michael@performancedg.com or call Ella Smith on 01274 900375

Places are limited reserve yours quickly.

Please forward this invitation to anyone you feel would like to know about this special event.

We hope you will be able to join us.

Captain James T. Kirk is one of the most famous Captains in the history of Starfleet. There’s a good reason for that. He saved the planet Earth several times, stopped the Doomsday Machine, helped negotiate peace with the Klingon Empire, kept the balance of power between the Federation and the Romulan Empire, and even managed to fight Nazis. On his five-year mission commanding the U.S.S. Enterprise, as well as subsequent commands, James T. Kirk was a quintessential leader, who led his crew into the unknown and continued to succeed time and time again.

Kirk’s success was no fluke, either. His style of command demonstrates a keen understanding of leadership and how to maintain a team that succeeds time and time again, regardless of the dangers faced.

Here are five of the key leadership lessons that you can take away from Captain Kirk as you pilot your own organisation into unknown futures.

Click here to read the Captains Log

5000 years ago, a set of books known as "The Pentateuch" called it "zeal." 2000 years ago, another set of books known as "The Bible" called it "faith." 70 years ago, clergyman Norman Vincent Peale called it "positive thinking." 20 years ago, psychologist Dr. Martin Seligman called it "learned optimism." 2 years ago, Professor Shawn Achor called it the "happiness advantage."

But when you do a Google search on these terms, most people seem to lump them together and simply refer to them as "attitude," "positive attitude," or "positive thinking." There seems to be a general feeling ... that whatever you call it ... these terms have a lot to do with success in life and success at work.

And they're absolutely right. As Achor writes, "Recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology have shown that ... when we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work."

Even the "Harvard Business Review," on the cover of their January-February 2012 issue, featured a yellow smiley face with dollar signs as crinkles at each end of the smile. Superimposed on the face is the title, "The Value of Happiness: How Employee Well-Being Drives Profits." Inside, the article proclaims: "Emerging research from neuroscience, psychology, and economics makes the link between a thriving workforce and better business performance absolutely clear."

Here are some amazing tools that make us better people and more valuable to our company."

Here's how its done...

Our bookshelves are lined with habits that successful people do on a daily basis. We read about them and implement them into our routines and practices. Quite often these practices improve our productivity and make our lives better as a result. But that’s not what this article is about. It’s not about what successful people do, but what they did.

Here’s a brief study of 10 things that these hungry and unstoppable people did to see the success they all eventually achieved.

Click Here To Read The 10 Things Successful People Live By Before They Make It

Tired of hearing about the economic recession and struggling businesses?

Would you like to hear a testimony to triumph and overcoming tough situations? If so read on...

Performance Development Group in partnership with The Centre of Excellence Bradford, are delighted to announce the start of a new and exciting venture for our clients and customers.

Together we have launched a New and Innovative Business Network that will share with you practical ideas and proven strategies that have helped some of the UK's most successful business leaders and entrepreneurs achieve their personal and business success.

Our first event promises to be something really special!

We're delighted to announce that Andy McMenemy,World Record Holding Ultra Athlete and Successful Businessman is our first guest speaker.

Andy's presentation will challenge your limits and demonstrate how you can triumph, overcome tough situations and win in today's demanding business world. His experiences of setting himself extreme goals, and then pushing himself to the very limits of endurance to achieve them, always fascinates and intrigues an audience.

Why? Because they can see that he's an ordinary person who just happens to have chosen to do extraordinary things. His aim is to make each individual realise that they too, can achieve their goal, if they truly set their mind to it.

He recently completed a world record of running 66 ultra-marathons in 66 days in each of the 66 Cities of the UK to raise emoney for ABF The Soldiers Charity.

Prior to all this he rose to Senior Management positions in £1.3 billion and £500 million turnover companies.

In 2011 Andy was awarded the Richard Whitely Award for Inspiration at The Yorkshire Awards.

Andy's story of triumph over adversity, perserverence, how to buck the trend and succeed in tough times is one you really should hear.

Please join us for what promises to be both inspirational and packed with practical ideas you can apply to your business tomorrow! Its also a great opprtunity to network with some of the regions senior business leaders.

Venue: The Centre Of Excellence Bradford. (top of the M606)

March 9th 2012, 8.30am-10.30am

Places are £25 inc vat per person, Breakfast is provided.

Secure you place by emailing michael@performancedg.com or call Ella Smith on 01274 900 375

Click here to read more about the event.

We hope you can join us.

What’s the dumbest thing you’ve seen a leader do?”

In a recent Leadership class we got to talking about some of dumb things they've seen some leaders do.  In no time at all we had quite a comprehensive list.

Seems that behaving like a numpty might not be as rare as you think.

See which ones you recognise in others that tell you they're not as smart as they think they are.

You might also be able to add your own to the list.

Please email me with you suggestions.

Here they are:

Hope that 2012 has kicked off in a positive way for you.

Here at PDG we are excited about what the year ahead looks like as we have a range of new products that we are about to launch as well as bringing a new dimension to our offering with the addition of a new member of the team.

We are delighted to announce that Rebecca Leppard has joined the team.

Rebecca's has a great backround in talent and leadership development including coaching at a Senior Executive level.

Our plans involve developing a range of coaching and leadership programmes as well as offering a new dimension of one-on-one coaching that draws on Rebecca's proven background supporting senior executives within the NHS.

We think she is one of the most talented business coaches that you will come across and are delighted that she has joined us.

Click here to read more about Rebecca.

Watch out over the next few weeks and months as we announce more about our new and exciting leadership and coaching programmes, designed to help you raise your game in todays challenging business world.

I often come across pathetic managers who are so poor at noticing performance that their team simply tolerates them. In some cases these managers are threatened by the success of others. They are de-motivators.

Successful managers build morale, motivation and enthusiasm, by using low or no cost rewards that highlight performance.

Rewards let us know what we do matters.

Honouring high performance reinforces high performance.

Within limits, you get more of what you reward. In a world of tight budgets here’s how to reward performance without breaking the bank.

Click here to read more:

We have been asked on many occasions “is there a simple test that can quickly determine an executive’s leadership ability?” The short answer is yes, but keep in mind, simple and fast aren’t always the same thing as effective.

There are a plethora of diagnostic tests, profiles, evaluations, and assessments that offer insights into leadership ability, or a lack thereof. The problem with these efforts is they are overly analytical, very theoretical, and subject to bias. That said, they are fast, easy, and relatively inexpensive. The good news is, there is a better way. If you really want to determine someone’s leadership ability, give them some responsibility and see what they do with it. Leaders produce results. It’s not always pretty, especially in the case of inexperienced leaders, but good leaders will find a way to get the job done.

One of the primary responsibilities of leadership is to create more and better leaders. John Maxwell said, “There is no success without a successor.”

It’s important to realise that just because someone is in a leadership position, doesn’t necessarily mean they should be. Put another way, not all leaders are created equal. The problem many organisations are suffering from is a recognition problem – they can’t seem to recognise good leaders from bad ones. Here’s how to spot ineffective leaders pointing out a few things that should be obvious, but apparently aren’t:

Click here to download the article.