Enhance.training

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Episodes

312

Latest episode

Oct 2026

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EN-GB

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.

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60 recent

October 22, 202612 min

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

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 positive way for you. If you have any questions on “7 Practical Ways to Respond to A Critical Boss or Undermining Boss”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

October 15, 202611 min

Powerful Links – Why Trust Changes Team Behaviour And Performance

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

October 8, 20269 min

Winning Team Trust Quickly – Trust building for high team performance

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

October 1, 202610 min

Stop People Problems Becoming Big: Difficult Conversations Made Easy

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

September 24, 202611 min

Closing The Hidden Gaps between Senior Manager and Board Director

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

September 17, 202612 min

Political Skills for Leaders: How To Influence For Success

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

September 10, 202610 min

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

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

September 3, 202611 min

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

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

August 27, 202613 min

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

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 that makes your communication effective as a leader or manager. I share practice tips for how to achieve this combination. Being good at all of these skills are vital to improve team performance. If you have any questions on “8 Critical People Skills for Management Success & How To Improve Them” please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training

August 20, 202611 min

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

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