The temptation can be to get into a boozy huddle with one’s clique. And why not? ‘Tis the season to be merry, after all. But here’s why you should spare a thought for the outsiders…

The BBC is spending £87 million of taxpayers’ cash to make the EastEnders set more realistic. Is that okay?

“I’m embarrassed to be British,” you’ll hear people say today as the party in government stands up in the middle of its flume ride to Brexit in order to have a fight with itself. Well, I’m not embarrassed, and I’ll tell you why.

“People join firms,” management guru Marcus Buckingham observed, “but leave managers.” In our splintered world, you are the glue holding your bit of the organisation together, and you have a big influence on the happiness and productivity of the people around you.

The people you’ll talk to today may be on the verge of suicide, so be humane, and treat them with respect and kindness. Hopelessness, anxiety, dread, the feeling of failure, can strike any of us at any time. We can lose control of our thoughts and feelings.

“Middle management” is a bad word these days, signifying deadweight bureaucracy that resists change. I used to feel that way, but now I’m not so sure. Managers matter, and here’s why.

What happened to Theresa May’s Brexit plan? Simple: the world messed with it. By ‘the world’ I mean systems, the interlinked networks of forces that always get in the way. The control we have over systems is practically nil, but that doesn’t mean we can’t respond.

While writing my book on delegation, I was conscious of the fact that we don’t master an art by having it accurately described to us. You have to immerse yourself in a live setting so all your senses learn. It’s rarely comfortable.

A Big Conversation is one where the delegatee is held to account, but in good way, a way that builds mutual trust and confidence. Few of us know instinctively how to hold such a conversation, so I wrote a recipe.

When someone you’re working with really ticks you off in an email, it’s so tempting to respond angrily, especially if they’ve been disparaging or wilfully obtuse. By all means write an angry email in response, but remember to do this …

If the people in your team really trust each other, you can push yourselves to bigger results through an approach I call “Managing by Request and Promise”. The secret sauce is the ability to say no …

You tell your team your big plan. “Any questions?” you ask, and all you get is blank stares. Your heart races. You really need them on board but they’re looking at you like you’re on another planet. Here’s a tip.