Enhance.training — Listen to the Podcast

Enhance.training

A Management , Business and Entrepreneurship podcast

#72 in Management · 🇨🇦 #88 in Management · 🇵🇰

About the show

Want to learn and develop more skills to propel your career or business forward? The Enhance.training team share our business knowledge built up over decades of working with top business including Innocent Drinks, Cadburys, Unilever, PA Consulting and many more.

Newest episodes

How To Persuasively Sell Your Ideas At Work (Beat 99% of Coworkers)

Nov 12, 2026 11 min

Selling your ideas at work – to bosses, to coworkers and to your team is not always easy. Plenty of great ideas go no-where. Successfully pitching an idea at work is about communication and building support. Getting your great ideas implemented is a great way to progress your career (from any level) I share 5 critical actions to persuasively sell ideas at work, to improve your effectiveness, deliver more and get yourself noticed. --- Our resources to help you solve specific management problems quicker and with less effort https://enhance.training/team-and-business-management-resources/ --- So stop selling ideas. People don’t care about the actual idea. They very much do care about how your proposal AFFECTS THEM. Selling the outcome from your idea is the critical mindset change to make. Next – don’t try to convince groups in the first meeting to support your idea. For example in a meeting. Instead work to get support from individuals before the meeting or signoff decision. I share exactly how you should do this very successfully. There are nearly always objections. Not everyone thinks like you do. Not everyone will see the change you are proposing as beneficial to them personally. Others might want the resources you will need. There are ton of reasons. I explain how to find and overcome objections during the process. Do not position your idea as an opinion. Everyone has an opinion. It is not persuasive. Instead I explain how to use evidence and patterns in how you communicate your idea, so the other party is ready to say yes. Finally, anything big, risky or untried is nearly always going to get a no. Use a specific technique to reduce the perceived risk and get to a yes far quicker. If you have any questions on “How To Persuasively Sell Your Ideas At Work (Beat 99% of Coworkers)”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

5 Proven Ways Managers Overcome Fears to Build Accountability In Teams

Nov 5, 2026 14 min

To build accountability in teams, managers firstly have to overcome fears that prevent them taking action. Knowing what to do is obviously important. Actually taking action, every single day is somewhat harder, particularly if fears of making things worse prevent you. I share 5 proven ways managers overcome fears to build accountability in teams. ---- Our resources to help you significantly increase the performance of your team AND remove people problems in your team much faster, with less effort and with a lot less risk to team trust and motivation. https://enhance.training/2f2 --- What stops accountability in teams is usually the manager and their fears. Most of these fears are unfounded. Taking sensible actions also reduces the risk of negative reactions in team members. It is what you do before and after conversations that makes the difference. To help managers overcome accountability fears I have included a couple of proven and practical actions for any managers to take to remove the downsides to having corrective conversations. Remove the risk and managers have a lot more conversations, which are needed to build accountability. Actions count and are critical. With greater accountability in teams, a manager is able to help the team significantly increase team performance without working harder or being pushy. If you have any questions on “5 Proven Ways Managers Overcome Fears to Build Accountability In Teams”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you Jess Coles Enhance.training

Average to Great: the Team Performance Strategy Every Manager Should Use

Oct 29, 2026 12 min

To transform team performance from average to great, I take you through a team performance strategy that every manager should use. This is great to remove the impact on team performance of underperformance, disruptive staff, problem behaviours and tension and conflict in the team. ---- Our best resources to help you remove people problems holding your team performance back. Learn how to transform team performance by removing your team anchors. https://enhance.training/2f2 ---- Take specific action with any team member so stop performance problems in teams. Increasing performance in a team is a process, a set of strategies and tactics. Weaker employees, disruptive staff, people problems … all act as anchors to team performance. You can work really hard as a manager and not improve team performance because you have not FIRST removed team anchors. Managing conflict, managing underperformance, having corrective conversations and providing corrective feedback are all A LOT EASIER and a lot more productive when you have a clear strategy. There are actions you should do before you have corrective conversations (and afterwards). These actions make the conversations easier and a lot more effective. If you feel you are having conversation and conversation and not much is changing, you are missing out critical actions. Take these actions and your conversation will transform. Most individuals will start improving. Learn exactly what to do so you never feel the team’s performance is in some else’s hands. If you have any questions on “Average to Great: the Team Performance Strategy Every Manager Should Use” please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

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All episodes

The newest 50 of 315 episodes

How To Persuasively Sell Your Ideas At Work (Beat 99% of Coworkers)

Nov 12, 2026 11 min

5 Proven Ways Managers Overcome Fears to Build Accountability In Teams

Nov 5, 2026 14 min

Average to Great: the Team Performance Strategy Every Manager Should Use

Oct 29, 2026 12 min

7 Practical Ways to Respond to A Critical Boss or Undermining Boss

Oct 22, 2026 12 min

It’s very stressful to have a critical boss. It can be hard to maintain motivation, a good opinion of them or belief that you are doing a good job. Even worse is a boss that actively undermines you. I am sharing 7 practical ways to respond to a critical boss or undermining boss to keep your confidence high, to know your contributions remain valuable and to win you critical boss over so they reduce their criticism. --- Our resources to help you solve specific management problems quicker and with less effort https://enhance.training/team-and-business-management-resources/ Our courses to help you accelerate team performance (and your career) https://enhance.training/courses/ For senior leaders – our coaching options to improve team and business performance https://enhance.coach/ --- There are lots of reasons why bosses put you down. Most of these reasons has nothing to do with you. They relate to the fears and insecurities of the other person. This is why peers and bosses undermine. The best way for how to respond to a critical colleague is to start asking questions. The tone of your voice is critical. Don’t let anger, frustration, annoyance or doubt creep in. Asking questions gives you more information which will help you improve (if constructive criticism) or helps shut down the criticism if there is no substance behind it. The worst thing you can do is nothing … this encourages the other person to continue criticising or undermining. The action you do take should aim to reduce tensions not escalate them in the first instance. A great way to do this is NOT react in a predictable way. When your boss is critical with the aim to help you improve, there are several actions you really should take to acknowledge what has been said and to make it clear exactly what is expected of you. When you meet and beat those expectations, even the toughest of bosses are impressed. Use these clear, practical and proven actions to respond to criticism in the most po...

Powerful Links – Why Trust Changes Team Behaviour And Performance

Oct 15, 2026 11 min

Managers should understand why trust changes team behaviour and use it to increase team performance. I talk about trust and people problems in teams and share 5 great practical ways to build trust in teams that any manager can use very successfully. ---- --- For any manager or leader, it is important to understand how trust impacts team behaviours. If you don’t you are likely to make mistakes that damage trust, damage team performance and damage your personal prospects. How manager trust impacts team behaviours very directly impacts overall team performance. Imagine a team that does NOT trust their manager to treat them fairly, be consistent and be reasonable. They spend a lot of time and effort protecting themselves and avoiding situations in which they might not do a good enough job. This environment reduces learning, responsibility, accountability, development and team performance – by a surprising amount. The lower team performance, the higher manager job insecurity and the lower the personal career prospects for the manager. I explain the psychological impact of trust on team behaviour and what that means for team, business and manager. Everything a manager does should be considered in reference to trust. How trust improves employee behaviour is a critical tool for managers to build high performing teams. If you have any questions on “Powerful Links – Why Trust Changes Team Behaviour And Performance”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

Winning Team Trust Quickly – Trust building for high team performance

Oct 8, 2026 9 min

Winning team trust quickly and continually increasing trust across the team is essential to get brilliant team results and performance. Building high levels of trust means a manager has an easier time in nearly every aspect of their jobs – setting direction, getting tasks done, co-ordinating, creating teamwork, resolving people issues, maintaining standards and more I share 3 detailed examples of the actions to go through to build trust in teams. --- --- Trust is one of the most important currencies as a manager. With trust your job becomes much easier, quicker and more enjoyable. Everything you do as a manager should be considered for its impact on trust with the team (and bosses). Without trust staff do the minimum to keep their jobs and spend a lot of time protecting themselves rather than push the team towards targets. Actually building high levels of trust in teams and doing so quickly is not easy. It takes self-awareness, determination, courage and discipline. To gain the trust of a team takes a lot of little actions, all shouting the same message to the team. Trust is built in drips and lost in buckets. I share 3 detailed examples of what I do for winning the teams trust quickly. Many managers don’t realised how far you need to go to create and maintain deep levels of trust. Trust underpins relationships. Relationships underpin teamwork. Teamwork drives higher performance. Better team performance means better manager rewards, including earlier promotion. Increasing team performance starts with building trust. If you have any questions on “Winning Team Trust Quickly – Trust building for high team performance”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

Stop People Problems Becoming Big: Difficult Conversations Made Easy

Oct 1, 2026 10 min

Stop small people problems becoming big. Difficult conversations made easy – I sharing what to do to achieve this. Managers, take action to stop difficult behaviour at work, stop negativity, stop underperformance and have a much more successful career. ---- Take a look at all our resources to help you have difficult conversations and stop underperformance at work and be better at conflict resolution. https://enhance.training/2f2 ---- There are people problem in every team. The best managers don’t have less problems to deal with. The best managers know what to do to keep these problems small and short lived. The problems that get managers into trouble (poor appraisals & job losses) with their bosses start small. These managers have known about the problems for a while. They are not a surprise. Knowing what to do and when is crucial, to stop difficult employees and stop difficult behaviour at work. The most important thing you can do is TAKE ACTION. Having difficult conversations with employees is scary. I still get a bit nervous before starting a difficult conversation, even after having hundreds of them at work. I share mental tricks that will help you take action. Knowing what to talk about and why so you don’t upset or offend the other person is also really important. Avoid trigger big emotional responses – if you do, they won’t hear what you say. This is a key part of emotional intelligence in these situations and good communication skills. If you have any questions on “Stop People Problems Becoming Big: Difficult Conversations Made Easy” please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

Closing The Hidden Gaps between Senior Manager and Board Director

Sep 24, 2026 11 min

How to become a director of a company and make the jump from senior manager to board director is bridging the hidden gaps between these two levels. Promotion from manager to director is massively helped when you know how to avoid 6 hidden gaps between senior manager and board director. I share how to turn a challenge into an advantage to get promotion to director. --- Free Webinar to Win Board Promotion Months to Years Earlier https://enhance.coach/get-board-promotions-months-to-years-faster-culp015b --- There are many hidden gaps between senior manager and board director. When you know what these gaps are, you can consciously work to bridge those gaps. Because board director roles have such an impact on the business, if you have not bridged these hidden gaps, then getting promoted is a lot harder. There are 3-10 senior managers for every board director in most companies. You do the maths. Plenty of senior managers never make it to board director. These are all key leadership skills for managers and are incredibly useful for how to get promoted at work regardless of where in your management career you are. These are all great leadership development strategies. If you have any questions on “Closing The Hidden Gaps between Senior Manager and Board Director”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you Jess Coles enhance.training

Political Skills for Leaders: How To Influence For Success

Sep 17, 2026 12 min

Good political skills for leaders and senior managers is knowing how to handle office politics ethically - to get support, resources, visibility and build influence so you can get things done quickly Learn 7 tactics for how to improve political skills at work. --- --- Have you every delivered a strong business case, only to have it ignored? Have you suffered resources that you needed being giving other less valuable projects? Put forward great ideas that were not used? Or realised too late that a key stakeholder was quietly blocking your initiative? We have all be on the receiving end of political mistakes. How to navigate politics at work is essential to deliver impressive results quicker than everyone else (or at all). I am sharing more than office politics tips. I am sharing the approaches I have used for decades at board level for how to handle company politics. These are practical tried and tested political leadership skills in action. When you get to middle management and certainly in senior management and board level, you cannot ignore the politics. If you do, your ability to influence and deliver drops dramatically. Developing political skills is developing influencing skills and you can be very ethical in how you use them. If you have any questions on “Political Skills for Leaders: How To Influence For Success”, please leave a comment below and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

How To Speak With Your Boss To Gain Trust, Appreciation And Progress

Sep 10, 2026 10 min

Your boss holds the keys to your happiness, success, development and career progress at work. How to speak with your manager so they are confident in you, trust you and come to depend on you is crucial. I share 4 key approaches to consistently put into practice to gain trust appreciation and progress. --- --- When thinking about how to communicate with your boss, the most important factor to keep in mind is every boss is DIFFERENT. What might work brilliantly for one boss may not cut it for another. Another very important consideration when thinking about how to talk to your boss is the situation your boss (and you) are in. If you don’t know and understand their pressures, goals, ambitions etc, then how are you going to align your efforts to meet their expectations. I share tips and approaches to increase your understanding so you can build trust and confidence with your boss. You need them to see you as a dependable supporter, not another problem they have to manage. Think about how to educate your boss with the updates and communication your provide your boss. They are so busy you need to proactively do this. Towards the end, I share probably the most important approach – how to frame all your communications so your boss really understands the value in what you deliver. If you have any questions on “How To Speak With Your Boss To Gain Trust, Appreciation And Progress”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

How To Make Change Happen Quickly At Work & Much More Successfully

Sep 3, 2026 11 min

How to make change happen quickly at work and for that change to be successful, is nearly always about how well you manage the people involved. You can do all the organisational things well and still FAIL BADLY at creating quick and successful change if you get the people part wrong. I am sharing actions and approaches that will help you manage the people side of change brilliantly when you do them well. --- --- People expect change. Change in itself is not the problem. Sudden or unexpected change creates problems. Giving people time and space to adapt to proposed changes will make that change easier and more successful To speed up change at work, help individuals and teams through their emotional reactions to change. Fear of being personally worse off is nearly always at the heart of resistance to change. I explain tried and test practical approaches to turn fear into acceptance and support (and it has nothing to do with PowerPoint presentations!) How to make change happen at work must include getting your bosses onside. Without their permission and support, change will simply not happen (outside of your team). How to get permission to create change at work is learning how to position change and create compelling business cases for change. Think about the people benefits as well as the business ones. Another set of ways to make change happen quickly at work is to target a specific people in the group that is affected by change. This same human group dynamic should be used when approaching bosses. Learn what this is and use it. Remember, lasting change is about persuading people, and they will only listen to you AFTER you have listened to them. If you have any questions on “How To Make Change Happen Quickly At Work & Much More Successfully”, please leave email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you Jess Coles enhance.training

8 Critical People Skills for Management Success & How To Improve Them

Aug 27, 2026 13 min

I share 8 people skills for management success that I think are vital to concentrate on. There are a lot of skills you need but some make a bigger difference to your success than others. Get good at these people skills for managers and you will do a better job, have more influence, create more impact and more your career forward faster. --- --- The first of the people skills needed for success as a manager is to keep your ego in check. Thinking you are better than team members, or you are always right, or you have better solutions than team members … is a sure way to alienate your team and lose trust and respect. Keep your ego in check is one of those vital people skills for leadership success. The next of those vital people skills needed for leadership success is to stay curious and keep learning. Starting as a manager is effectively starting a new career. You have to learn quickly to become good at what you do and get promoted again. The next of the people skills needed for manager success is demonstrating empathy. Empathy is putting yourself in others shoes and communicating your understanding of their position or situation. One of the really good people skills to have. It will also make you better at some many other management skills. I share great tips to be more empathetic. The next of the people skills needed for success as a leader is showing good emotional self-management. The higher you climb the more important this people skills for leaders becomes. If you can’t manage yourself, how are you really in a position to manage others? The next of the people skills you need for leadership success is listening skills. Listening is half of communication. If you only practice speaking, you won’t be as good at communicating. Practice listening every single day to become better as a manager. Another of the people skills needed for manager success is learning to communicate honestly, diplomatically and concisely. It is the combination of these elements tha...

3 Ways To Build Work Relationships To Be Very Effective & Influential

Aug 20, 2026 11 min

I am explaining the best ways to build work relationships to increase your influence and effectiveness – in professional and management roles. Relationships are hugely important in doing a great job at any level and far too few people focus enough time and effort on their relationships within the workplace. The ones that do usually get ahead a lot faster. --- --- Productive professional relationships increase your effectiveness at work. Very few roles work in isolation. Colleagues provide input work, information and more to enable you to do your own work. Just imagine the difference between dealing with a person that doesn’t know you or worse doesn’t like you, compared to a person who likes you and owes you a few favours. Strong work relationship create a performance differential. Good professional relationships reduce your barriers and speed up how quickly you and your team can complete work How to build work relationships starts with helping others. I share over 15 practical actions that you should take to improve and strengthen the relationships you have with colleagues. Finally, I discuss two of the biggest relationship mistakes that people make in the office. Don’t fall into the trap of making either of these. If you have any questions on “3 Ways To Build Work Relationships To Be Very Effective & Influential”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

The Secrets Of Saying No At Work To Gain Time & Be A Higher Performer

Aug 13, 2026 8 min

I share ways to say no without offending – a clear formula plus 5 examples of how to say no at work. Saying no well is ESSENTIAL to be happy at work, to delivering what you promised and to progress your career faster. Learn exactly how to say no to gain time and space to do a great job. --- --- Saying no at work can feel risky, can annoy bosses, can damage relationships and can do bad things to your career prospects … IF you do it BADLY. Many people think that saying no creates the impression or reputation of being a bad team player, of being difficult and disruptive. Saying no in the right way and at the right times is an ESSENTIAL part of doing a GOOD job and being able to deliver great results. So learn to say no at work, learn how to say no to my boss and learn how to say no professionally at work. This a vital workplace skill no matter what your level. As you get more senior, you are expected to get better and better at saying no without offending. Put into practice the tips and action we suggest. Use the examples we share to develop your own way of saying no at work so you enjoy work more, deliver what you promise and progress your career faster. If you have any questions on “The Secrets Of Saying No At Work To Gain Time & Be A Higher Performer”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

Master internal networking to do a better job and be promoted faster

Aug 6, 2026 10 min

When you master internal networking, increased number of and better relationships within your organisation enable you to do a better job AND help you get promoted much faster than peers. How to master networking for top personal performance – I am sharing 5 practical actions I have been using for years. I got 13 promotions all the way up to board level, in part, because of how I networked internally. You can gain the relationships and reputation to achieve similar levels of success with good intelligent networking. --- --- How to network brilliantly starts with knowing and believing how important relationships are to your success. The more relationships and the stronger those relationships are, the more influence you will hold within your organisation. Master internal networking in your business to increase your influence. Next, for how to network brilliantly in your business avoid 3 key networking mistakes that many make. Networking is not the same as intelligent networking with purpose. You are probably time poor, so maximising the time and effort invested is sensible. Then I share 5 key actions for networking in the workplace. For effective networking at work, you should be systematic and authentic to build your network. Networking is another vital communication and relationship building skill that will help you improve personal and team performance. If you have any questions on “Master internal networking to do a better job and be promoted faster” please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

Diplomatic Communication – Speak Directly & Be Appreciated By Everyone

Jul 30, 2026 12 min

Learning diplomatic communication has a very direct impact on your ability to manage and lead teams and do a good job. Master the art of diplomatic communication and you can speak directly and be appreciated by everyone. I share 5 diplomatic practices that any manager and leader should work at getting good at for being diplomatic, to improve communication skills, to build stronger relationships and to increase team performance. Building diplomacy at work is vital to win promotion quicker and get a lot more done compared to less diplomatic peers. --- --- Being diplomatic or build diplomatic skills - at heart - is about maintaining constructive relationships and preserving trust and cooperation. Very few people work in isolation. How to be diplomatic at work starts with understanding the other parties’ interests, ambitions, motives and pressures. When you understand, you can tell it how it is without offending or speak your mind without upsetting or offending. Being diplomatic at work is NOT about being nice, buttering people up, always agreeing etc. How to speak diplomatically is avoiding taking sides too quickly. Find out the context of requests, of complaints, of decisions before taking sides. Diplomacy at work is learning how to disagree without upsetting, offending, causing offense or angering. How to talk diplomatically is using neutral language rather than works or statements that inflame, annoy, or push hot buttons. Finally diplomatic communication is learning how to communicate your emotions in a constructive and aligned way to support your message rather than conflict with it. If you have any questions on “Diplomatic Communication – Speak Directly & Be Appreciated By Everyone”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

BEST Actions To STOP MISTAKES At Work + How To Overcome Your Mistakes

Jul 23, 2026 10 min

If you are worried about making mistakes at work, these 12 actions will help you stop making mistakes at work and overcome your fear of making mistakes at work. Making mistakes it NOT a problem in itself. WHEN you make mistakes and WHAT you do about those mistakes is the difference between being perceived as reliable, dependable and producing high quality work and being the opposite. --- --- Firstly, to stop making mistakes at work, you need to create time or prioritise time to do one very important action. How you create time to reduce mistakes is important. You don’t want to annoy or create a reputation for being difficult to work with. If you are thinking “How do I stop my mistakes?” I share the best actions I know to end mistake making for good, or at least the mistakes that damage reputations and relationships. You will make mistakes. Everyone does. The best performers know that not all mistakes are equal – in fact they are usually very unequal! Limit you mistakes to the areas that have low impact, low visibility and low knock on consequences. Areas with high impact, high visibility and significant consequences – you have to stop making mistakes. Another really important fact - making mistakes leads to success IF you LEARN from each of your mistakes and do something better the next time. Real success is built on mistakes. Mistakes are part of the learning process. If you have any questions on “BEST Actions To STOP MISTAKES At Work + How To Overcome Your Mistakes”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

Resilience Transforms Leaders – How To Become an Unstoppable Manager

Jul 16, 2026 12 min

Building resilience gives you a huge advantage if you want to become good at anything in life. With a lot of resilience, you reach tough demanding goals. Resilience transforms leaders because leading others is a hard, tough job where you get plenty of knocks, setbacks and disappointments. Learn 4 practical approaches to INCREASE your resilience. Give yourself multiple paths or routes to making all the challenges, setbacks, disappointments and failures feel a lot less daunting and be less painful --- --- Build resilience to be a successful manager! As a manager, all the knocks are magnified and multiplied. Resilience helps you get back on your feet, dust yourself down AND it helps you learn quicker. For these reasons, resilience for managers is a huge competitive advantage. You will simply pull ahead of your less resilient peers. The path to becoming good at something involves disappointments, setbacks and failures. Without resilience you give up because carrying on feels too hard, too painful. Build resilience for management success How resilience transforms leaders is the mindset and approach to challenge, adversity and setbacks. Resilient leaders do get down, stuck or defeated for long. Leader resilience at work shows in the speed at which these managers and leaders learn, improve and get on with their jobs in a positive way. Build resilience to enable you to become great at what you choose in life! If you have any questions on “Resilience Transforms Leaders – How To Become an Unstoppable Manager”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

How To Unlock Faster Career Progression – Get Promoted Way Faster

Jul 9, 2026 13 min

How To Unlock Faster Career Progression Without Needing To Work Crazy Hours? Getting Promoted Way Faster Than Your Competition Is NOT About Putting In More Hours, Or Being Better Than Them, Or Sucking Up To Your Boss. I share 5 brilliant approaches that will speed up your next promotion and your career progress for years to come. --- --- The first critical strategy for faster career progression is to create and capture your achievements. If you do the same as everyone else you will be average at best and invisible in terms of promotion. Be proactive. Don’t be passive. I share key actions you can take to build up impressive achievements for your specific level. The second critical strategy to unlock faster career progression is develop your successors. Far too many managers don’t have the confidence to take this step and it hinders them getting promotion. This is key to getting promoted, give you more time AND to improve team performance. Succession planning is critical. Next to be promoted ahead of all your peers you need to win your boss’s support. Your boss can be any amazing advocate for your promotion, or they can absolutely kill your promotion prospects. I share 5 key actions to win your boss’s support. Next, you do need to actively market yourself. The more senior you become the more vital this stage is. I take about how to do this without appearing self-serving, crass or too obvious. Finally, the last approach is probably the most important of all. If you don’t do this step well, getting promoted simply will not happen. If you have any questions on “How To Unlock Faster Career Progression – Get Promoted Way Faster”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

5 Powerful Changes That Instantly Gets Your Team Listening To You

Jul 2, 2026 12 min

Teams and people don’t listen to job titles. They listen to leaders they know, like, trust and want to follow. I am sharing 5 powerful changes that instantly get your team listening to you. These 5 powerful changes work so effectively because they play directly to human behaviour and group dynamics. --- --- Why isn’t my team listening to me? It is frustrating, painful and insulting when a team or team members don’t listen to what you tell them or ask them. To get team members listening to you, one of best actions you can take immediately, is invest some time to listen more to your own team members. Listening is a basic curtesy. Listen to them and they feel obliged to listen to you. This simple investment works brilliantly. This is a key leadership listening skills Why staff don't listen to you might be because how you communicate is hard to follow and understand. I have listened to many managers and leaders who are NOT concise, take a long time to say their key point, with rambling statements. If this is you, it is probably why team members don't listen to you. It is too much hard work. I share 5 key tips to change this situation for you. The third change is a very simple change. It takes about 10 seconds after you have said your piece, and it produces great results. Over time it changes behaviour, builds authority and helps build trust with teams. The fourth change is providing the clear context with everything you say. This has a ton of benefits for the listener and makes it a lot more likely they will listen to you. Developing the skill to get teams and team members listening carefully to you and then taking action will help you massively in increasing team performance. If you have any questions on “5 Powerful Changes That Instantly Gets Your Team Listening To You”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

Top Delegation Skills – Achieve More In Less Time Than 9/10 Managers

Jun 25, 2026 11 min

Build top delegation skills and you will achieve more in less time than 9/10 managers. To have a successful management career you have to learn how to produce your best work through others. Learn top delegation skills and you will be managing more and more people and they will be doing the work. Don’t learn delegation skills very well and you will be stuck doing a lot of the work yourself as a junior manager. Which appeals to you more? I share 5 great actions to delegate brilliantly --- To assess your delegation skill and for more resources on improving your delegation skills quickly, type enhance.training/2c2 into your browser --- To delegate better than 90%+ of managers you have to get to know your team well. Not just their birthdays and interests outside of work. I share 7 areas you should assess your team in to enable you to treble your delegation effectiveness. This is the first step to improving team performance in any situation with any team. Next, to delegate better than 90%+ of managers it is very important to think carefully about what to delegate to whom. There is not a formula for how to delegate effectively, but you should consider 6 important factors. Improve in this area alone, and team performance will increase. Good effective delegation increases speed of work and quality standards which is how you achieve more in less time vs 90% of managers. Next to delegate better than 9/10 of managers, carefully define the goals and more importantly plan how to achieve them. I give you tips on both. Next for how to delegate work as a leader, I talk about context and resources should be used to improve your delegation and the outcomes your team produces. Finally, I cover the art of following up, which is an area far too many managers struggle with for a variety of reasons. If you have any questions on “Top Delegation Skills – Achieve More In Less Time Than 9 out of 10 Managers”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you...

Stop Team Drama Fast – 4 Powerful Actions To Prevent Conflict In Teams

Jun 11, 2026 12 min

Conflict in teams create a lot of drama and is a big distraction for everyone. I am sharing 4 powerful actions to prevent conflict in teams A lot of conflict in the workplace can be prevented, and you are in a brilliant position to minimise conflict. Less conflict means better team performance. Great for your team, business and you --- For Resourses to stop conflict = enhance.training/2f2 --- Every team and organisation suffers conflicts. In the best teams, these conflicts are minor and very short lived. In underperforming teams, big conflicts hang around and cause major problems. To prevent conflict in your team, or as much of it as possible, the first action is to create a lot of alignment. This means that everyone in your team knows exactly what is expected of them and each other, where the boundaries of responsibility start and stop. To reduce conflict in your team further, get everyone clearly moving in the same direction with common shared goals. This will reduce conflict between team members. Communication is another powerful tool to stop conflict in teams and reduce conflict at work. Understand the other person position through talking to them, and incorrect assumptions and unspoken frustrations are reduced or removed. I share 5 practical steps for conflict resolution in the workplace. This is brilliant for manage conflict between team members and how to manage conflict in a team. If you have any questions on “Stop Team Drama Fast – 4 Powerful Actions To Prevent Conflict In Teams”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

Brilliant Steps to Turn Difficult Employees Into Great Employees

Jun 4, 2026 15 min

To turn difficult employees into great employees, interdependent steps are needed. Improving beats removing hands down (less effort, faster, less risky & more). Too many managers have not been taught what to do to get improvement. Doing a few actions or taking a piecemeal approach does NOT turn difficult employees into good employees, as most managers find out. Learn what you need to do and why each step is important to building pressure and enabling change and improvement. --- --- In my experience it is very worth trying to turn difficult employees into good employees. If you start knowing 9 out of 10 people want to do a good job AND that there are 6 main barriers in the way to improvement, then making the effort feels more sensible. Any time you manage difficult employees, it is not easy. Even having the first conversation is pretty daunting (even after you are used to them!). I have found making these conversations straight forward is all in the preparation. Take a few straightforward steps in the right other, and the team member expects you to speak to them. How to deal with difficult employees starts with setting expectations. This can feel obvious yet actually setting really expectations is not nearly as straight forward as most managers would expect. Hence, plenty of manager don’t set clear expectations when they think they have. Turning difficult employees into great team members is 100% in your interests and much easier, quicker, more enjoyable and less risky than removing them. Why go through all the extra hassle and pain to get a similar result? The next challenge is that one or two actions won’t create much change. To get improvement you need to approach your difficult employee with a campaign of interdependent (linked) actions. To turn difficult employees into good team members, I share 8 interdependent actions to take. If you have any questions on “Brilliant Steps to Turn Difficult Employees Into Great Employees”, please email me at s...

6 Differentiating Behaviours For Managers To Be NOTICED By EVERYONE

May 28, 2026 12 min

The most visible managers aren’t just “competent” – they display visible, repeatable behaviours that signal leadership potential and business impact. I share 6 differentiating behaviours for mangers to be noticed by everyone AND avoid being average as a manager. ---- ---- The behaviours to stand out as a manager start with building courage. Managers need to be courageous to stand out. For example, it takes courage to speak up when you have a different opinion from the rest of the room. Be brave to stand out. I explain tips to build that courage. Group think – where everyone agrees because they don’t want to be different is one of example of why being safe makes you invisible. Also average equals invisible in the eyes of senior managers. For how to stand out in your company, be yourself. Have your own ideas, views and opinions and express them. For how to stand out as a manager, start by owning the bigger picture. That is always keeping in mind the function and company goals and work hard towards achieving those goals with everything you do. This alone is a great for how to stand out at work. Another important differentiating behaviour that makes you much more effective at work is building strong relationships ACROSS the business. For managers this helps you increase team performance as you get more support for your team, resources when you need them and suffer less blockages. For all 6 differentiating behaviours for mangers to be noticed by everyone, including practical tips to do each every day, watch the video. If you have any questions on “6 Differentiating Behaviours For Managers To Be NOTICED By EVERYONE” please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

Become A Great Negotiator: Be Amazing At Getting What You Want At Work

May 21, 2026 10 min

Become a great negotiator at work and get what you want and need to be successful. How well you negotiate defines what you work on; what goals, objectives and targets you have to hit; and the resources available to you and your team to deliver what has been asked of you. Personal and career success is resting on your negotiation skills. I share 6 tried and tested approaches to improve your negotiation skills and to make getting what you want at work so straight forward it almost feels like cheating. --- ** Coaching Options https://enhance.coach/leadership-coaching-directors-managers-culp002/ --- To be a brilliant negotiator at work, start with being very clear about what you want. What are the goals or outcomes that you want from the negotiation. Be specific, quantifiable and clear, NOT vague, general or unclear. This is core to be able to get what you want at work. The next negotiation technique is to understand the negotiating field. That is both the boundaries that you have to operate within (imposed by your company) AND what the other party wants. There is a ton you can do to work out the other sides goals. This informs your negotiation strategy and negotiation tactics. Negotiating at work should involve asking a lot of questions and listening. You want the other party talking about what they want. The more you know about what they want, the better your negotiating approach will become. This is another one of those key negotiation strategies. How to negotiate must also include trading options rather than just saying yes or conceding. You have a ton of variables to work with, and I explain how to use them to get what you want at work. If you have any questions about “Become A Great Negotiator – Be Amazing At Getting What You Want At Work”, please email at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

How to Create a Hard Working Team WITHOUT Demotivating Or Upsetting

May 14, 2026 11 min

How to create a hard working team to deliver more is about creating motivating ENVIRONMENTS rather than increasing pressure. More team hours worked often does not move the “value produced” dial much UNLESS you combine it with another important action. I share 4 approaches that motivate your team to work hard because they WANT to work hard --- --- The goals and expectations you set for a team determine how hard they will work. It is like telling a runner they have a race the next day or telling a runner they have a 10km race the next day and they need to finish it within 45mins. Goals drive planning, which in turn drives work levels. Goals are part of the picture to persuade your team to work hard. There is a art to setting goals. Setting any arbitrary goal won’t motivate and might even be de-motivating. You want your team to WANT to work harder. Trying to force them or pressurise them to work hard rarely works on its own. If fact you often get less work i.e. it is counterproductive. A hard working team that creates a lot of value chooses to work hard. A team will only work as hard as its manager. If you don’t work hard, there is zero chance of your team working hard. What you WORK ON is just as important. Show you are working for the team rather than for you. The leader of a team has a HUGE influence on the success of a team. The leader creates the environment, the rules and the expectations. It is like a micro-climate within a larger climate (or company culture). There is a ton of thing you can do to push your team to work harder while motivating them, keeping them very happy, and significantly increasing the value produced by the team. Finally, nothing stops a person working harder than when they feel unfairly treated. Balance is really important. In fact, the best managers offer slightly more to the team than they ask from the team. If you have any questions on “How to Create a Hard Working Team WITHOUT Demotivating Or Upsetting”, leave email me...

Why Hard Work Doesn't Get You To The Top – What To Do To Get Promoted

May 7, 2026 15 min

“Work hard and you will get promoted” is a big lie. I am covering why hard work doesn’t get you to the top and what to do to get promoted. In my career, I was promoted 13 times in as many years, from trainee all the way to board director level of a large company. I share how to be promoted as a high performer. --- --- Firstly, there are three huge reasons why hard workers don't get promoted. Being brilliant at your current job doesn’t mean you will be brilliant at the next level. If you don’t demonstrate your ability (or potential) at the next level, it is so much easier for your boss to keep you where you are. This is why high performers don't get promoted just because they are good at their current job. Why top performers don't get promoted can also be about the strength of their relationship with their boss. You need your boss’s support. If you don’t have it, that is a classic reason why you are not promoted. This can also be why top performers don't get promoted. Even more important: 5 actions / tactics you should put into practice today for how to get promoted at work. These are very effective (I was promoted 13 times) and should be used at EVERY LEVEL from trainee to board director. Hard work doesn’t equal success. It is NOT the hours that you put in that count. What you do with those hours DOES count a lot. The more value (/profit) you can create for business, aligned to business goals and needs, the quicker you will get promoted. It is that simple. I know personally, how valuable moving teams and business closer to their goals are in the eyes of bosses thinking about who should be promoted next. Communication of the value that you create is a very close second to actually creating that value. If bosses don’t know about it, they can’t appreciate it. Proactively and regularly communicate to bosses to put yourself in contention for promotion. IF you have any questions on “Why Hard Work Doesn't Get You To The Top – What To Do To Get Promoted”,...

Become A Great Facilitator: Actions For Facilitating High-Output Meetings

Apr 30, 2026 16 min

Facilitating high-output meetings is one of the most important tools a manager has to increase team motivation, culture and performance. Learn exactly how to facilitate meetings that really drive team performance while saving you a ton of precious time. You can use these group facilitation skills to get the best from any group: facilitate workshops, facilitate groups, facilitate teams at work. How to be a good facilitator in a meeting starts with being really clear about the purpose of the meeting. Defining and communicating the meeting purpose can easily reduce the meeting time by 20-40% and still get the results you need. When facilitating groups at work this will save you a ton of time over every month and year. The next part of how to facilitate group discussions is to create clear structure for the discussion. Without structure the discussion and meeting will drift, go off on tangents and waste time and energy. I share 5 important sections to include when facilitating group discussions. When you facilitate group problem solving, or facilitate group discussions, how you start the meeting will determine if attendees believe the meeting will be useful or just another waste of time. I explain exactly how to start meetings to instantly get attendees focused, energised and moving in the direction you need. Very important for effective meeting facilitation. To become a great facilitator or be a great facilitator, I share six vital techniques to control the meeting and to keep the group focused and moving towards achieving the meetings goals. These meeting facilitation tips will help any manager or leader get more from each meeting. If you have any questions on “The Time‑Strapped Manager’s Guide to FACILITATING High‑Output Meetings”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

Best First Time Managers Tactics - New Manager Success Guide

Apr 23, 2026 15 min

I am sharing the best first time manager tactics I know. I wish I had been more aware of and more focused on these tactics from the start of my management career. I would have progressed faster, with a lot less effort and stress. Included are over 30 practical actions that you can put into practice today in this new manager success guide. --- --- In this first time manager success guide, we discuss how your new role is more about enabling others to be successful than focusing on doing the work yourself. This is one the best new manager leadership tactics you can employ. You will still have a lot of work to do directly yourself – you probably still have most of your old job. To enable you to manage, delegate as much as you can and help others do as good a job as you did. This is some of the best new manager advice to give. Another of the essential new manager actions is to focus on building trust. This is even more important to consciously do for first time managers. When others trust, they are much happier to follow your lead. Another of my best new manager tips is to focus on creating clear goals and expectations for the team. This takes courage, confidence and working with your boss. The clearer the goals and expectations you can communicate, the safer, more engaged and better performing your team will be. Communication is another key area. Far too managers don’t communicate enough. New managers should aim to communicate twice as much as they think they need to. How you communicate is also vital. I share a ton of my best new manager tips on communication. Another of my best first time manager advice is to focus on feedback for your team. Employees love and desperately want feedback. Feedback provides safety, development, and another communication tool to your team. Aim to provide feedback at least every day to team members. Finally, I have 7 areas you should find out about for each of your team members. Get to know your team well. The better you k...

5 Ways to Keep Your Team Engaged Through Change & Performing Well

Apr 16, 2026 11 min

Keeping your team engaged through change is not easy. The longer the change takes to implement, the harder it is to implement or the less clear the benefits of changing, the harder it is navigate your team through change successfully. I share 5 ways to keep your team engaged through change & performing well. --- --- Leading a team through change starts with explaining why change is being made. The why reduces resistance, increases acceptance and motivates. Changing takes effort. Explaining the why is essential when taking teams through change. I share a lot of tips on how to do explain the why at the start of the change process. To keep teams engaged through change it is really important to find out and understand their fears. Every person in your team will have something to gain and something to lose personally. Find out what these are. This is a really important part of the change management process. I share tips on how best to find their fears. To successfully create change in the workplace, tackle the teams fears openly and honestly. This part of navigating change at work is daunting. In most cases, this part of managing a team through change is easier than many managers fear. Do a lot listening and you will be halfway to succeeding when making a change at work. To keep a team focused through change break down every big change into a number of smaller changes. This is psychologically much easier to deal with. Finally, when managing teams through change, keeping them accountable for the change needed is pretty important. I share how to do this effectively. If you have any questions on “5 Ways to Keep Your Team Engaged Through Change & Performing Well”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

Be More Visible At Work – Practical Senior Leadership Visibility Tips

Apr 9, 2026 12 min

To be more visible at work, I am sharing 10 practical senior leadership visibility tips. To stand out at work, to get noticed at work, you need more than hard work. Use these tips to increase your visibility at work by creating a clear and effective plan and put this INTO ACTION. This is how to stand out at work, regardless of your current position – trainee all the way through to senior management. --- --- Before we talk about how to be more visible at work, it is important to know and believe that in general better visibility in the workplace means more influence, more impact and faster promotion. Creating visibility at work, to be more visible with senior leaders, is about developing specific communication skills. Anyone can become more visible at work. You don’t need to be super confident or have a special set of skills to start improving your visibility. You just need to know what to do and then take action. To increase your visibility with senior leadership, focus on the work, activities and projects they actually care about. This may seem obvious yet so few managers really put this into practice in reality. Find out exactly what you bosses care about. I share tactics and tips on how to achieve this. Next in how to build visibility at work, aim to solve your leaders’ problems. This is a brilliant way to be noticed at work for all the right reasons. I share how you should go about finding and solving your boss’s problems. To become more visible at work, consciously and deliberately educate your bosses and leaders on the work you do and the results you achieve. Be proactive. Plan out how you are going to educate and take action. I share the methods and tactics I have used over two decades and 13 promotions to achieve this. This is great for career advancement. I also share 10 practical actions that you should be using every week to increase your visibility with senior leadership. Each of these has worked brilliantly for me. If you have any que...

Be Confident In Work Meetings – How To Speak Up, Stand Out & Impress

Mar 26, 2026 14 min

How to be confident in work meetings is what we are covering. Use these 5 actions so you become very happy to contribute in work meetings and stand out in work meetings. You will have a clear path to gain the confidence for speaking up in work meetings, with really practical actions you can start using immediately. ---- ---- How to contribute in meetings start with being clear on the value you can bring. There will be a least one or two areas (probably a lot more) that you will know a lot more than anyone else. When you are clear on the value you will be much clearer on how to be more confident in business meetings. I share 7 questions to ask yourself to find your high value areas to add to work meetings. Next, I take you through the preparation to be confident in business meetings. Most people don’t or can’t do much or any preparation before the meeting. A little preparation goes a long way as a result. I share 5 more questions you can ask yourself – another of the ways to be more confident in meetings at work. After doing your preparation, to be confident in meetings, and to impress in work meetings, how you deliver your information is important. A few minutes practice before the meeting will massively boost your confidence in work meetings and develop your speaking skills. Finally, I take you through 8 important techniques to speak well and demonstrate your confident in work meetings. Do each of these actions and you will present very well even when you are nervous or slightly intimidated by important people in the room. IF you have any questions on “Be Confident In Work Meetings – How To Speak Up, Stand Out & Impress”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

Shout About Your Team Wins At Work – Praise Your Team To Your Boss

Mar 19, 2026 11 min

Shout about your team wins at work. Praise your team to your boss. Too many managers stay silent and hope their bosses notice their good performance If you don’t communicate your team wins at work, you are going to get lost amongst the sea of hard working people. Shout about your team achievements and your team progress. ---- Some managers shout too often and too loudly about themselves. This creates more problems and creates visibility for the wrong reasons. Instead shout about your team at work. Everyone appreciates managers shouting about team members. Very importantly – a manager’s performance is their team’s performance. Shouting about team wins to your boss and others is indirectly shouting about yourself. A much better route to self-promotion. Create a plan about how to shout about team progress at work and action it. Bosses and stakeholders expect you to shout about your team wins. This is part of good communication in a business. Create opportunities to shout about how your team has done. I would suggest you communicate wins to boss and team a few times a week. How you do this is important. I share 5 really important actions to take to carefully and clearly shout about your team wins without coming across as promoting yourself. It is really important bosses and stakeholder LINK actions taken by your team to the success and results they deliver. How you communicate and shout about your team creates those links. If you have any questions or comments on “Shout About Your Team Wins At Work – Praise Your Team To Your Boss”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you Jess Coles enhance.training

Passive Team Management – Why Your Team Is Struggling to Reach Targets

Mar 12, 2026 12 min

Passive team management is damaging to team performance. In my experience, over 50% of managers are TOO passive, and as a result their teams struggle to reach targets. I share 5 actions every manager should do well to improve team performance and be show active team management. --- --- Many passive team managers feel like that are adopting a hands off approach to empower the team yet their passive behaviour leaves the team confused, unsupported and disengaged. I have worked alongside plenty of board directors that display passive leadership and a very passive management style whose teams struggled to improve in any meaningful way. My point – passive team management happens throughout the management ranks. There are too many passive managers, in part because they have not been taught what good active management looks like. I share 10 signs that you might have too much of a passive management style. By reducing these behaviours you join the group of more active team managers. There are a lot of dangers of passive team management, such as lower co-ordination and teamwork. These dangers stop your team performing nearly as well as they might. Active managers avoid these dangers by having a much more involved team management approach. Finally, I take you through 5 actions you should do more of right now for better active management. These actions are a great starting point and ANY manager can do them. The better you do these actions, the more likely your team will beat targets. If you have any questions on “Passive Team Management – Why Your Team Is Struggling to Reach Targets”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

3 Methods To Improve Strategic Thinking Skills For Managers

Mar 5, 2026 11 min

I share 3 methods to improve strategic thinking skills for managers. Demonstrating strategic thinking skills, as a manager, opens doors and elevates you in your boss’s eyes. You can help them solve some of their biggest problems. --- --- The first of the methods to build strategic thinking skills starts with the patterns around you. The more you work to understand the context of the team, function and business that you are in – big picture thinking if you will – the more equipped you will be for how to improve strategic thinking skills. Think about your company strategy and how it fits into this landscape. Does your company strategy enable the company to win? Does it provide clear advantage? How do you and your team help support and implement the company strategy? The second of the methods to build strategic thinking is all about your mindset. The more curious and open you are to others ideas, views and outlooks the more equipped you will be to deal with the uncertainty and ambiguity of strategic thinking. How to improve strategic thinking is in part how to improve your openness and willingness to see the world through different eyes. Lastly, in how to think strategically, and to actually influence and impact company strategy, structured thinking and problem solving is pretty vital. You have to bring a lot of people with you. Creating clear structure to your thinking and to the build up of your strategy ideas and direction will massively help you get agreement and alignment behind your ideas. If you have any questions on “3 Methods To Improve Strategic Thinking Skills For Managers”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you Jess Coles enhance.training

5 Ways To Build Collaboration In Your Team To Step Change Performance

Feb 26, 2026 13 min

I am sharing 5 proven practical ways to build collaboration in your team. The higher the collaboration in your team, the higher the team performance. There is a lot you can do to build team collaboration. I take you through the actions for cultivating collaboration in teams. --- --- If you don’t have trust, you don’t have a team. To create team collaboration you first have to build trust. I share 8 proven ways to build trust in teams to get high levels of team collaboration. The leader of the team has a huge influence on the levels of trust in a team. Next, to improve team collaboration and get great team collaboration you need a lot of communication. Without communication there is not collaboration. Show the team how to communicate. Demonstrate what you expect of them and keep encouraging high levels of communication. The next of the actions to improve collaboration in teams is to help or persuade the team to work together. Create lots of opportunities for team members to work with each other. Ge them talking, problem solving, planning etc. The next of the actions to build collaboration in teams is to build a helping team culture. There is a process to achieve these which needs a bit of work and discipline. Creating a helping team culture is one of the best ways to build collaboration in your team. The final of the actions to encourage collaboration in teams is to remove conflicts in teams quickly. Conflict stops collaboration in the team. Step in to resolve conflicts quickly. If you have any questions on “5 Ways To Build Collaboration In Your Team To Step Change Performance”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

6 Actions To Create Clear Direction To Consistently Beat Team Targets

Feb 19, 2026 12 min

Top managers create clear direction in their teams to be able to consistently beat team targets. How top managers create clear direction is exactly what I am sharing today. As I am sure you have worked out, creating clear direction in teams in not straight forward or easy. It takes work to set clear team direction. What you get back in improved performance is worth every single minute spent. Learn the top six ways for how top managers create clear team direction --- --- How top managers create clear team direction starts with choosing one way (or less than 5) to measure or define direction. Most companies have a lot of data. There are so many different ways of measuring progress, it can be tempting to follow lots. Don’t. To create clear team direction choose one. Next for how the best managers create clear direction, managers translate company strategy into simple language. People don’t follow what they don’t understand. Jargon or corporate speak is not useful. Make sure each individual in your team has targets and goals they can relate to aligned to company and team direction. Essential for setting team direction. In communicating clear team direction, you can’t say your message once and expect it to be enough. People lead busy lives and there are a ton of distractions every single day. Keep repeating your message to set clear direction and for instilling team direction Next in giving direction to teams work to foster engagement and buy-in from the team. I share really practical tips on how to achieve this fairly quickly. Always keep your direction and any KPIs you use visible. Keep reminding the team every day and week about progress and the goals. If you have any questions on £How Top Managers Create Clear Direction To Consistently Beat Targets” please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

7 Great Ways To Handle Employee Push Back on Ideas-Solutions-Requests

Feb 12, 2026 12 min

I am sharing 7 great ways to handle employee push back on ideas, solutions and requests. It can feel like a massive drag, difficult and even undermining when you get challenge from employees. Team member push back sucks up your energy and time. Turn what could be a hassle into incredibly valuable feedback that can easily double the value you create as a manager. I share the best ways to deal with team member push back – constructive AND undermining --- --- How to deal with team member push back starts with thinking about all the different reasons employees push back. Sometimes they do it for negative reasons. MOST of the time it is because they don’t understand, they have different idea or solution, or they have spotted something wrong. There are loads of ways to handle team member push back really constructively, so you and they get something from the exchange. You should never let a team member damage manager authority through publicly undermining you or trying to make you look silly. Towards the end I share 4 vital ways to stop employees undermining manager authority. I think as a manager you WANT challenge from employees and constructive push back. I know helps you do a much better job as a manager. To ensure you get the right kind of push back, I share what you should do to encourage it WHILE in parallel stop employees undermining your authority. The more negative push back you prevent, the less you have to deal with. I share 7 straight forward steps to handle constructive challenge confidently. These are practical actionable steps that I have been using for decades. How to manage staff who undermine your authority through push back? That starts with asking them questions about why they are challenging or pushing back. I share 3 other really effective steps that will make any team member think twice before they attempt undermining manager authority. If you have any questions 7 great ways to handle employee push back on ideas, solutions and reques...

5 Habits For Clearer Communication. Actions To Speak Like Top Leaders

Feb 5, 2026 13 min

Every time you speak at work, people judge you. By getting into these habits for clearer communication and improving the confidence you display EVERY TIME you talk, you change and improve their perceptions of you I share 5 habits for clearer speaking, teaching you how to express your thoughts clearly. --- --- The first great habit for clearer communication is to say less. A lot of people say too much. They write or speak what is their head without organising it first. For clearer communication just think about the core message you want to send and focus on that. I share a set of steps to go through to condense down for how to express yourself clearly at work. The next of the habits to speak coherently is about structuring what you say or write. I share several very simple structures that will help you do just this. Structure helps the other person take in and understand your message without their brain having to run a mental marathon. This is one of most important actions to speak clearly. The next of the actions to speak coherently is to be explicit. This is obvious yet so much of our speak is not direct or explicit. We hedge. We add in emotional or provocative language. We ask permission. We show deference. Etc etc. We speak unclearly because we are worried about upsetting. Being explicit is a core part of communication skills and one of the great communication tips to focus on and PRACTICE. Next to communicate clearly create emotional predictability for your audience. This is about reducing distractions, so your audience only has to concentrate on your message. Put all these communication skills into practice and you will speak with confidence and speak clearly all the time. If you have any questions on “5 Habits For Clearer Communication. Actions To Speak Like Top Leaders” please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

How To Sound Assertive Quickly – 11 Tips To Speak Confidently At Work

Jan 29, 2026 11 min

Learn exactly how to sound assertive at work. When you speak confidently and assertively, you are more likely to communicate clearly, constructively and get your message heard, taken in and understood. To help you sound assertive quickly, I am sharing 11 tips to speak confidently at work. --- --- How assertively you speak at work has a direct impact on everyone’s perception of you. The more confident and assertively you speak and communicate, the more willing others will be to do as you ask and follow where you lead. Being confident and assertive, when backed up by being good at your job, is going to help you progress your career faster than those who are not as confident. Communication in any job matters more than most people think! How to be assertive and speak powerfully starts with being very aware of your intend behind the communication. I cover 4 different communication styles. For how to be assertive and confident you want to stick to the assertive style and not use the others. Your mindset drives the styles used. The first of the tips for confident communication is all about what you do with your message before you speak it. Some mental preplanning is needed. The next of my tips to speak confidently, is to keep the emotional language to a minimum. The next of my tips to instantly sound more confident is use a lot of “I” language. The last of my tips to talk confidently is to remove most (/all) of the deference in your language. How to be assertive when communicating is also about how you deliver your message. I share 7 tips to talk confidently at work. All of these will help you with how to communicate assertively. IF you have any questions on “How to sound assertive quickly – 11 tips to speak confidently at work”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

How To Establish Authority As A Manager Quickly Without Needing A Job Title

Jan 22, 2026 13 min

How to establish authority as a manager quickly and effectively without annoying, alienating or upsetting. The more manager authority you have, the quicker you get work done, the quicker others do what you ask, the less push-back you get and more able you are to influence and impact team performance. I share 5 super important approaches to how to earn authority as a manager quickly, regardless of your job title or confidence levels. --- --- Why increase authority as a manager? In short – it enables you to do a much better job, be more influential, have a great impact and get a ton of personal rewards … when used in the right way. How to build authority as a manager, without relying on your job title or position, starts with building trusting relationships. With good relationships, you will be a lot more persuasive to those people, get a lot more help, get a lot more done, … in short be much more likely to have a performing team. This is massively important to gaining authority as a manager. To increase your authority as a manager make the time to understand the team and the situation in depth. When you really understand the problems being faced, you can create good solutions. Jump into action too fast and you risk making poor decisions or making things worse. Exactly what you don’t want when getting authority as a manager. Publicly removing problems that impact the team is a brilliant way to increase manager authority. You demonstrate 4 key areas of expertise and show you can help the team. This is great for building authority as a manager. I explain why consistency of direction and expectations is so important for gaining manager authority. A lot of managers make easily avoided serious mistakes that damage your attempts at getting manager authority. Learn how to avoid these mistakes. Finally, for how to establish authority as a manager a lot quicker, borrow credibility from your boss, peers and leadership team members. I explain how this dynamic wo...

7 Practical Proven Actions To Improve Your Worst Employee Quickly

Jan 15, 2026 13 min

Every team has a worst employee. When you improve your worst employee, you increase overall team performance, usually by a lot more than the contribution of one person. Any manager with people skills can improve their worst team member. You just need to know what to do and take action. I share 7 practical proven actions to improve your worst team member quickly --- --- One of the most important tactics to handle your worst employee is to not ignore the problems, especially when they are relatively minor. Problems get worse over time if left alone. Problems are much easier to fix before behaviour patterns become established. How to handle low performers or those missing your expectations starts with understanding what is holding them back or causing them to be your worst performer. This is a really important step to do well. Another key step in how to handle the worst performer in your team is to ask yourself “Is their potential worth developing?” Will the effort you put in to improve them be worth the gains you get or are they a lost case? The next steps in what to do about low performers is set out your expectations. This is not talking about a bunch of financial targets. Setting expectations well is not easy and I share tips on how to set expectations quickly and effectively. Next in how to handle your worst employee, give them lots of direct and honest feedback. Comments like “Good job” or “well done” or “work harder” do not count as useful feedback. If you want o give your worst team member a realistic chance of improving, you must help them improve. Finally, if you don’t get improvement after trying to help them, or they are not putting in the effort, you must remove them from your team – into a more suitable job or out of the company. If you have any questions on “7 Practical Proven Actions To Improve Your Worst Employee Quickly”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

4 Powerful Ways To Energise Staff Who Do Not Take The Initiative

Jan 8, 2026 10 min

Staff who do not take the initiative are very frustrating and time consuming to manage. There are a number of reasons that stops staff taking the initiative. The manager is in a great place to remove these reasons and encourage staff who don’t take the initiative to be a lot more proactive. I share 4 powerful ways to energise employees who do not take the initiative --- --- Staff who don't take the initiative are a real anchor on team performance. As a manager you can almost see your bonus shrinking. There are a number of factors that stops staff showing initiative. Some of these are environmental which the manager can change. The others are to do with the individual. Either of these stops staff being proactive. To encourage staff to be proactive, it is really important the manager doesn’t make classic mistakes like micromanaging or punishing mistakes. I list more mistakes managers much avoid that stops staff thinking for themselves. To encourage proactivity, the manager should take several actions to build and maintain psychological in their teams. Trust and safety are key starting points. I list more actions for the manager to undertake. When managers don’t align their actions with what they ask staff to do – this create confusion and damages trust, which in turn will stop employees being proactive. On the positive side, there are lots that a manager can do to develop confidence and capability in staff who do not take the initiative. Often this can be because staff simply don’t know what to do. To build real confidence quickly, I suggest you take 4 key actions with staff who are not proactive. Finally, towards the end, I share how you should adapt your management style to the person and situation to encourage any staff not taking the initiative to be a lot more proactive. If you have any questions on “4 Powerful Ways To Energise Staff Who Do Not Take The Initiative”, please lemail me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Je...

5 Proven Actions To Transform Poor Teams At Work Quickly & Effectively

Jan 1, 2026 14 min

I am sharing 5 proven actions to transform poor teams at work quickly & effectively. That is take the WORST team in a company and transform it into one of the BEST teams. Any manager with people skills can implement these actions to significantly improve team performance. I share lots of practical tips that you can put action straight away. --- --- How to transform the worst team in a company? It has to start with building team trust in you, the leader. In your capabilities and how you are going to help the team. I share 9 practical actions that are great to start transform underperforming teams. I have transformed the worst team into the best team, in multiple different companies, generating £’millions in additional profits in the process for the business employee us. It does take confidence to improve the worst team at work. One of the best first actions is to identify what is holding the team back. I share 6 areas that I nearly always investigate in transforming poor teams. These will give you plenty of ideas for what to do to transform the worst team in a company. Next, invest your time, and resources, into removing problems publicly and privately. The more problems you remove, the more able the team is to improve their performance. Without some time investment at least, it is very hard to improve poor teams at work. I share how you should approach prioritising your time. Next, plan a path to achieving team goals and walk with the team. The better and clearer the plan of HOW to achieve goals, the more likely goals will be achieved. The HOW part is vital. Poor performing teams often lack the expertise to perform well. Teach and coach the team. Finally, doing great work and NOT shouting about it within the company is doing yourself and your team a disservice. Make the time to market and communicate your team’s achievements and successes. I share a lot of options for how to do this. If you have any questions on “5 Proven Actions To Transform Poo...

Struggling With Boss – Transform Your Most Important Work Relationship

Dec 25, 2025 11 min

Struggling with Boss? I share 3 vital approaches to transform your most important work relationships The worst mistake in boss relationships is to do nothing or try to ignore the situation. Taking the right action will transform their perception of you. Want more respect, more appreciation, more praise, better development opportunities, a bigger bonus, a promotion … take these actions to transform your most important relationship at work. --- --- When you are struggling with manager relationships, the first vital approach to transform the relationship is to be perceived as good at your job. This is not about working harder (another common mistake in boss relationships). WHAT you work on and HOW you communicate it is vitally important. i.e. your boss’s perception of you I share 5 core things you must work on to ensure you are perceived as good at your job. Doing these are vital if you are not getting on with your boss or you have problems with your boss. To improve your relationship with your boss you have to communicate. Relationships are built on communication. Don’t make the biggest mistake in relationship with boss – communicating less when things are not going well. I explain how to do this and give a ton of practical tips plus discuss frequency of communication. Another vital action to take to improve your most important work relationship is to find your boss’s pains and help reduce them. I have been using this technique for over 20 years, and it works brilliantly. (13 promotions demonstrate its effectiveness). I talk you through how you can find out your boss’s pain points and give you ideas for how you might create solutions to reduce common pain points. Always make the time to look after the relationship with your boss. There is not other more important relationship nor one that will have a bigger impact on your success and enjoyment of being at work. If you have any questions on “Struggling With Boss – Transform Your Most Important Work Rela...

Managing Effort or Outcomes. Improve Your Management Approach

Dec 18, 2025 13 min

Managing effort or managing outcomes – which is best? Get it right and you get a ton of benefits – better team performance, happier staff, more time plus more. Get this right more than you peers, and you will enjoy better team performance, better pay and bonuses, higher status and more. Get it wrong and team performance suffers, you have unmotivated staff and you have a lot less time available personally. I share 7 factor and approaches to maximise the benefits you get from getting a better balance between focusing on effort or outcomes. The best managers get it right by considering each of these 7 factors. --- --- What to focus on - managing activity or results – is not always easy. It can even harder when it you struggle in measuring activity or results. You can’t manage what you can’t measure. I start by explaining exactly what we mean when we talk about managing activity or managing effort. This is when a manager focuses on managing each step in a series of steps to get an end desired result. One extreme of this is micro-managing. Then I explain the difference between managing effort and managing results. This will help you focus on activity or results, or get a better balance between the two for everything you and your team does at work. Why results matter more than activity comes down to results are end result of a lot of activity. If the results are good, the activity to get those results is very likely to be good too. Good activity doesn’t always give you good results. Finally, I take you through 7 factors you should consider every day in deciding about what balance you strike between managing effort or outcomes. There is rarely a right or wrong answer. There is certainly better or worse in terms of creating great team performance and impressive results. If you have any questions on “Managing Effort or Outcomes. How The Best Managers Get It Right”, please email me at support:enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Cole...

5 Tips To Have Better Relationships At Work For Likeability & Confidence

Dec 11, 2025 10 min

Having better work relationships makes being at work a lot nicer, more enjoyable and certainly a lot more rewarding. I share 5 tips to have better work relationships, to increase your likeability, confidence and influence. Take actions today to create better work relationships! --- --- The first action to build better relationships at work is to think about other people and not yourself. We all have very busy lives and spend a lot of time focused on ourselves. You cannot think only about yourself for how to create positive relationships at work. To build great relationships at work, focus on those around for at least part of your day. I share tips on exactly how to build relationships at work when you don’t know the other person at all. The next action for how to have great relationships at work is to make it easy for others to work alongside you. Some people you would work alongside all day, others 5 minutes is too much. What creates the difference. I share 10+ tips on how to build professional relationships at work. Next, to build better work relationships, focus on making sure you are not dragging down your colleagues and making their life harder. This is really important in any group setting to create the best conditions for others to like you and want to work with you. Fourth, doing this action is absolutely brilliant for how to have great relationships at work. I have used this action all my career and it builds great work relationships, a lot of respect, a lot of influence and a lot of appreciation. If you take no other actions, take this one. Lastly, to build and maintain relationships at work, show your interest in and appreciation of coworkers, colleagues and bosses by taking this vital action. When you are a leader or manager, you must take this action every day to enable you to do a great job with you team. If you have any questions or comments about “5 Tips To Have Better Relationships At Work For Likeability, Confidence & Influence...

Deliver What You Promise – 4 Vital Stages To Beating Expectations

Dec 4, 2025 11 min

Deliver what you promise at work, and you will probably be happy and very successful in whatever career you choose. I share 4 vital stages to beating expectations, week after week. Beat expectations and you build a ton of trust, colleagues want to work with you, bosses appreciate you and you get the best tasks and projects to work on. ---- --- Before you set expectations to beat, take time to mentally plan out how you will deliver what you are being asked. Don’t say yes until you have done this or you make setting expectations at work ten times harder. When you know what you can and can’t do, THEN you can start negotiating. If you do this stage after saying yes, you are going to look bad and have to go back to the other person. Be very careful what you agree to so you can set expectations you can meet. In my experience, bosses prefer to be sure a person can deliver what they agree when they agree it compared to a person than just says yes. Bosses expect some questions and some level of negotiation. This is the sign of a person good at managing expectations and who will action what you promise. Another key stage to set expectations you can beat is negotiating on resources alongside the goals or expectations. Don’t do this stage later. If you don’t have the right resources, the work will take longer and will be harder to do. Get the right resources or the best resources you can from the start. I share tips for how to do this. Finally, the best workers and managers ask for assistance and help. From co-workers. From managers. From people who are better than they are at x. Playing to strengths is what makes them so effective at their jobs. I share how they create the goodwill and trust to enable them to ask for help and assistance so effectively. Always do what you promise. If you have any questions on “Deliver What You Promise – 4 Vital Stages To Beating Expectations”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhanc...

Stop Being Nice At Work – Managers Cant Be Nice & Increase Performance

Nov 27, 2025 10 min

Stop being nice at work. Managers cannot be nice and still increase performance personally and of their team. I explain what managers should do instead and take you through 7 actions to stop being nice at work will helping improve team performance. --- --- Leaders and managers cant be nice and lead a team effectively. There are so many difficult decisions and situation where being nice is detrimental to you and your team. There are a ton of problems with being too nice at work for anyone: 1. You get swamped with work you can’t possibly deliver 2. You are seen as a walk over and people take advantage of you 3. Respect, appreciation and authority are drastically reduced 4. Your ability to your job is a lot lower (for pretty much any position) I share some of the classic signs of being too nice at work and explain why they cause you (and your team) such big problems. Stop being too nice at work. Being very nice to others does not actually win you more people who like you. In my experience, it creates the opposite effect because you are not being genuine and honest and people sense this. People don’t like those they don’t trust and know. This is also the problem with being too nice at work – being too nice is harmful. I then share 7 actions you should take (particularly as a leader or manager) at work to stop being too nice and position yourself to do a better job and/or increase team performance. Be fair not nice at work. Stop being too nice to people. If you have any questions on “Stop Being Nice At Work – Managers Cant Be Nice & Increase Performance” please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

14 Signs You Are Losing Your Job + 10 Actions To Increase Job Security

Nov 20, 2025 10 min

Losing your job is very traumatic and very stressful, not to mention painful for your bank balance. I share 14 signs you are losing your job to look out for. I also share 10 actions you should take especially if you see signs you may be fired. Taking these actions will improve your job security --- --- Firstly, I list out 10 signs you may be losing your job due to your personal approach or performance. Looking out for these signs enables you to take action to stop being pushed out of a job. Don’t ignore these signs you are being pushed out. These signs you are being pushed out of your job also give you indications if your bosses are not happy with you or thinking poorly of you. Being fired is a very unpleasant experience. Next are listed 4 signs you are going to lose your job due to issues within the company – for example cost cutting. It is harder to take effective proactive actions to avoid losing a job in these circumstances. If you are in the top 50% of employees in terms of performance and attitude, you are generally a lot less likely to lose your job. Finally, if you ever see signs you are going to lose your job, knowing what to do to prevent it, is really important. The 10 actions I suggest you take significantly improve job security at any point. I suggest you put each action into practice throughout your career. Each action has worked very well for me, both in terms of increasing my job security but also in terms of getting promotions and advancing my career. If you have any questions on “14 Signs You Are Losing Your Job + 10 Actions To Increase Job Security”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

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Podcast details

Created by: Enhance.training
Status: Active
Latest episode: Nov 12, 2026
Episodes: 315
Release period: Weekly
Avg. episode length: 11 min
Explicit: No
Language: English

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