Recently, during a growth planning workshop, a client team challenged me to re-engineer my well-proven approach to thinking about business worth. They wanted to attribute a value to “doing good” in their planning. They wanted to find a way to quantify kindness. [Spoiler: we haven’t succeeded yet – but we
There is a remarkable power that is borne out of saying thank you. Promotions and salary increases are one thing, but as organisations face strained budgets and burned-out workforces, the time is now to thank your team, and regularly. Research shows that people don’t really ‘hear’ praise, so you need
I read an article in Harvard Business Review recently which I thought was worth a share. As agency leaders and founders, we all want the best people. And despite the call for a ‘culture-fit first’ strategy, there are many times when a person’s talent must outweigh their potentially abrasive personality,
It would be impossible (and frankly presumptuous) to try and summarise how everyone has felt over the last year, and so instead I reach for the very small but real knowledge I have gleaned from my agency leader clients, of whom all have had to navigate through change, uncertainty, and
Take solace (if you can) that over-servicing is something pretty much every agency does. A dirty little secret if you will. Except, it’s not really a secret, more something that has become so commonplace that it often barely registers as a problem. But a problem it is. Recently, I was
A really interesting TEDx Talk from Rasmus Ankersen on the learnings businesses can take from the viewpoint of a professional gambler. His story starts by eloquently walking us through the rise and dramatic fall of Nokia, who went from 50% global market share to just 3% in less than five
As an advisor and non exec to agency founders, I wonder if it’s surprising or not to know that I also have a coach myself? My coaching sessions differ somewhat from the sessions with my own clients, focussing less on knowledge of business strategy and predominantly on how as an
I’ve been listening to the Beyond Busy podcast, hosted by Graham Allcott. If you haven’t delved into it yet, I’d really recommend it. An episode I listened to recently struck a chord, and I think it’s something worth considering for all agency leaders and founders. The topic? Giving regular, effective
If a member of your team came to you and asked for a pay rise, what would your initial reaction be? Would you be happy they felt they could discuss options with you? Would you be open to a discussion about the possibility of more money? Or would you –
You know those budget holders within existing client businesses that you don’t work with but are desperate to get your hooks into? It’s those people who are really your client. One of the founders I work with recently lost a six figure account apparently out of the blue. They were
