People Problems?

"We're recruiting to a key role and we can't afford to appoint the wrong person. We need to be really clear about what we want and then take a more in-depth look at the short-listed candidates"

"We're spending lots of money on graduate trainees. Maybe we should be more scientific about how we select them."

"We've got a change programme going on but people aren't really behind it. There's a lot of resistance from certain middle managers, and we can't seem to get any lasting change."

"As the business is changing, I've tried to change my behaviour, but when the pressure's on I always seem to 'revert to type'. What can I do?"

"To achieve our challenging growth targets we need all managers to manage their teams' performance and inspire them to give their best. We need to create a buzz about the place and we don't have the leadership skills to do that right now."

"We've got a lot of young, high potential managers in very stretching jobs who we need to retain. We need to give them a guiding hand to keep them on track and help them move through the business."

"This team is new and people don't know each other very well. We need to get the team to gel quickly because we've got a lot of challenges ahead."

"Everyone's working away in their functional silos and not collaborating properly, and it's affecting the customer. We need to define the processes that go across functions and make sure everyone understands their role in making things happen."

"Innovation and NPD are the life blood of our industry. We need to stimulate creativity and capture bright ideas from everyone, at all levels in the business."

"Our team has been brought in from outside to introduce new ideas, but they always get blocked because people say they're too radical, so the business loses out. How can we break through this?"