About Us

We started Vinehouse in 1995 because we wanted to show that managing people didn’t have to be difficult or complicated.

Initially we ran training programmes for companies ranging from medium sized to global.

We used to produce huge manuals for people who came on our workshops. Hardly anyone ever read them, so we started to produce small booklets containing just the key information people needed.

In May 2003 we sent out a copy of the first booklet, “How to Write Objectives That Work” to all 33 people in our database.

Charlie had a call the next day from Deutsche Bank asking if there was a discount for 5000. (There is.)

So our focus now is to boil everything down to its key components so we can keep everything short, simple and easy for you to digest. This is the basis of how we work.

The Vinehouse core team

Nancy Slessenger is responsible for the content of all our materials, products and training. The goal is to include down-to-earth, practical techniques in our products, training courses, coaching and consultancy.

Charlie Hall makes sure that you get your products when you need them and that everything runs smoothly. She’s also the one who works out special deals for you.

Ros Munton keeps control of all the money. She makes sure our invoices go out on time and we pay our suppliers on time (and pays us on time too).

Caroline Hogarth keeps all the technology, particularly our website, working.

What we do. We help you to manage your team, yourself and your dealings with other people.
We specialise in:

•  SMART objectives 
•  Performance management 
• Giving feedback that improves performance
• Negotiation skills
• Time management
• Dealing with bullies and other difficult people
• Appraisal skills
• Coaching

Grapevine

You can sign up here for regular tips on key topics including:

• SMART objectives
• Performance management
• Bullying
• Difficult people
• Time management
• And much more

Sign up now and get this special report that:

• Defines SMART – what it is and what it REALLY means
• Goes through each step of SMART, identifying how your objectives can be SMART but still completely wrong
• Explains what you need to do to get your objectives right
• Identifies what objectives are really for – you may not know this
• Shows how it is that all the people in a department can achieve all their objectives but the department still fails
• Clearly identifies the manager’s responsibilities as far as objectives are concerned

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Grapevine Blog

Nancy also writes a regular Blog. Many of her readers take this opportunity to join in a discussion on the topic of the moment and share their own experiences. We are hoping to take this idea forward and create discussion forums which you will be able to access in the near future, but in the mean time we welcome your input as comments on the blog.

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more about How We Work