Resistance to feedback at work can be interpreted as people being defensive, closed, or unwilling to change. But instead of reflecting attitude or intent, it may relate to how feedback is experienced psychologically within a specific cultural context....
Before teams can collaborate well, challenge decisions, learn from mistakes or improve performance, psychological safety and trust between colleagues have to be in place... teams perform better when people feel safe to speak up, ask for help and admit uncertainty...
Workplace cliques show up in many organisations, across sectors and industries, yet we rarely talk about them openly, and even less often do we understand how to manage them....
Last week I delivered a conference keynote speech on culture change in healthcare, focused on how doctors can make appraisal conversations more human-centred. I’ve often been invited as a conference speaker to talk about organisational culture, leadership behaviour and psychological safety,...
What is one small behaviour you could do today that demonstrates respect and humanity at work? Workplace civility is built one interaction at a time. When we get the small things right, the bigger things become easier....
Organisational culture matters. But what does good culture look like and how does it translate into performance? I explore how organisational culture influences outcomes, what the evidence says about links with performance, and how you can map the path from culture, to engagment, to results....
Flexible working only works when it supports culture and performance. It’s often treated as a perk. But the research is clear: when flexibility is designed around people, not convenience, you improve mental health, job satisfaction and output. Flexible working reshapes: how people...
Role clarity shapes how you work, how you feel and how well your team performs. When roles are unclear, you get confusion, lower performance, and rising stress. This post explains why role ambiguity drains performance and wellbeing, and what you can do to fix it. Role ambiguity shows up when...
Values workshops excite teams and leaders alike. But the real work begins when everyone returns to their day-to-day roles. Sustaining momentum after a values workshop means embedding new norms into everyday behaviour. Too often, values become a one-off event rather than an ongoing way of...
Leaders rarely fail because they don’t care. They fail because they assume awareness equals action. Many leaders say they’re self-aware, but evidence suggests otherwise. Research consistently shows that self-awareness is overestimated and often untested through objective feedback. Without...
Every team has ghosts. Unspoken conflicts. Forgotten promises. Legacies of past leaders that still impact upon behaviour. These hauntings linger in workplace culture, influencing how people think, interact and perform. They don’t appear on engagement surveys, but you can feel them, in low...
The BBC recently launched its Call It Out scheme - a confidential system that allows staff and freelancers to report poor behaviour in the workplace. The initiative follows an independent review into organisational culture that found some senior managers and presenters “behave unacceptably” and...
Even in “values-based” workplaces, good people can unintentionally enable bad behaviour. Leaders often wonder how teams that talk about respect and inclusion still tolerate incivility, cliques or subtle exclusion. The answer lies in behavioural drift in teams - the slow shift in what’s...
Culture debt builds up when you overlook small issues in how people behave at work. Like financial debt, the longer you leave it, the more interest it accrues. A missed opportunity to address an eye-roll in a meeting, an off-hand comment, or a subtle exclusion can turn into something much bigger:...
Leaders and HR professionals spend a lot of time addressing overt workplace bullying. What often slips under the radar is the quieter, subtler version that occurs via workplace cliques. These small, tight groups can seem harmless, even positive, but they carry a hidden cost. In hybrid workplaces,...
Fear of lost revenue or performance if they go. “Too hard to replace” skills or client relationships. Leaders avoiding conflict. Mistaking bullying for “drive” or “high standards.” Managing up well while managing down badly. Results trump respect. Rules are...
Employees aren’t quitting quietly anymore, it seems they’re hanging on. The buzzwords may change, but the underlying story is about how people respond to uncertainty. A couple of years ago, the headlines focused on disengagement: employees doing the minimum as a way of protecting themselves...
When most people think of workplace bullying, they picture shouting, insults or open confrontation. But bullying can also be subtle - hidden behind gossip, cliques and social exclusion. This is called relational aggression. Relational aggression in teams uses relationships as the weapon....
Compassionate leadership is characterised by empathy, active listening, fairness, support, accountability and authenticity, It fosters trust and psychological safety at work, promoting staff well-being, engagement, retention. It can be instilled through leadership development and inclusive policies....
A curt interruption in a meeting. An eye-roll when someone speaks. Leaving a colleague out of a decision they should be part of. These behaviours might seem harmless in isolation. But together, they corrode trust. Micro-behaviours are subtle actions that communicate disrespect or exclusion....