Negotiation plays a central role in the workplace. The sales process for example, the lifeblood of commence, is based on matching a willing buyer to a willing seller, and on a process of negotiation, over specification, price, quality and delivery to ensure that each side’s interest are met. But the negotiations that are currently taking place between political parties are just the beginning of a process. Once the deal is struck, players from each side will have to learn to work together.

And so the most important lesson for politicians to learn from the workplace is that of team building. It has long been recognised that in order for companies to succeed their staff need to work together successfully. Politicians in a  power shaping negotiation have far less control over who their partners will be than companies do over whom they employ. But when it comes to working with their partners, they will be working as a team and not as diverse parties. Political organisations already employ team building techniques within their own groupings, they now need to learn how to apply the same techniques across the parties.

If the electoral system is indeed to change then we will see many more coalition governments, and consensus will replace confrontation as the main driver of political decisions. Political trainers now need to be looking at team building and negotiating models from industry in order to ensure that the changes taking place in our political system are managed effectively.

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Exhibitors displayed the usual range of HR services, including training, coaching, payroll support and employee care. Just as I was beginning to think that this was a worthy but fairly predictable cross section of HR services, my colleague Justin Culver asked me to come across to see something that had just caught his eye.

It was a bit like walking into a food hall and seeing a row of similar looking coffee shops, the ones you see in any high street, selling standard fare. Then spotting amongst them a small outlet staffed by people proudly displaying earthy, home-made drinks and cakes, that they had made themselves.

Except it wasn’t a home-made food stall. It was a stand selling a low-tech, hands-on kit for creative group work. The display  had none of the brash marketing impact typical of most stands. No chocolates, champagne, free pens, bare chested men in briefs, flashing screens or any of the other gimmicks adopted by most exhibitors. Instead it was staffed by one very approachable gentleman who turned out to be the father of the developer of the kit, Joanne Tippett. She had created it in Africa to help villagers to plan a better future by getting them to think and plan as a team. And now it was being offered to HR professionals in the UK, to help them to get people to think and work together.

The kit is called Ketso. I haven’t tried it so I can’t testify to its effectiveness, but its simplicity and the testimonials that accompany it suggest that it does exactly what it claims to do. It is made from sustainable materials and does not dazzle one with its technology. Instead its endearing feature is its simplicity and freshness. It was a joy to discover that in this high tech, corporate world such things are still made. And can find their way into the HR world.

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There are several types of leader. There is the charismatic person to whom everybody flocks, the natural leader. There is the leader who is picked out from the team because somebody needs to do the job. There is the grafter, who sets her ambitions on leadership and works hard to get there. There is the manipulator, who is not up to the job but whose ambitions override his sense of reality, only to be hit hard when things go wrong. And there is the visionary who also may not be up to the job, but believes in his vision so much that he will do whatever he can to get into a position to make it come true.

Companies who invest in leadership training need to be aware of these distinctions, and other leadership profiles. There is no such thing as one-size-fits-all when it comes to leadership development. At Career Energy we have developed a nuanced range of leadership programmes, in which we begin by understanding what sort of leaders the group is made up of before the programme starts, and create solutions targeted specifically at them.

So what do you do as a leader if your team starts walking away from you? Well the first thing to so is to be clear what type of leader you are. Without that knowledge you cannot begin to formulate a strategy. Then get in touch with us and we will work on your skills and tactics with you. Leadership is not a talent to be wasted, nor a status to thrown away lightly. But it cannot be taken for granted.

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