1.     Be generous with praise – it’s so easy and praise from the top goes farther than you might think. Make it a habit to look for good things that people have done and say thank you. Once you’re comfortable delivering praise 1 to 1 with an employee, try praising them in front of others.

2.     Coach not play - Make your ideas theirs. People hate being told what to do. Instead of telling people what you want done; ask them in a way that will help them decide what to do.  “I’d like you to do it this way” turns into “What options have we got to get this done?”

I'm looking to add a new person to our Inside Sales team so it was interesting to spend a couple of hours yesterday with Jacky Misson from Rise Sales Development. The workshop was run by the MD HUB and covered Rise's excellent Precruitment process.

Jacky puts a convincing case forward that small businesses generally get it wrong when hiring sales people.

As business owners we're always looking to get the best performance from our employees and one of the tools to help us is the performance appraisal.

However, when I speak to people about how to get started with appraisals there seems to be a myth that it is a complex and time-consuming process.  Many people have had bad experiences with appraisals in a large organisations but it doesn't have to be that way.