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Choose a decision, don’t try to decide…
Oliver Burkeman in his book Four Thousand Weeks, nailing it again. “In his 2011 book ‘Time Warrior’, the coach Steve Chandler refers to this sort of decision-making as “choosing”, and contrasts it with “trying” to decide, or trying to figure things out. You could waste months trying to figure out how to (say) write a…
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An example of great feedback – something to latch on to
I recently left a little review for The Suffolk Latch Company, a business that makes cast iron door furniture (because great products and service really do deserve feedback). They replied a couple of days later to thank me and to ask – ever so politely – if I’d mind spreading the love a little further.…
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AI inspired music
Creating an AI programme and filling it with “the entire terms and conditions of LinkedIn, the ancient poem Beowulf, 400,000 4Chan forum posts and the teachings of Confucius” and using it to inform an album’s lyrics, song titles and artwork creation. It might sound slightly out there, but this is exactly what band Everything, Everything…
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How to define company culture – a framework
Company culture can be a fuzzy and nebulous topic. Honestly, I’ve often struggled with it. It can be like juggling jelly, trying to understand what a company is really like. And yet we’re all striving to somehow create a great culture within our organisations. This belter of an exercise from Phil Dearson at N2D is…
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Winning new business isn’t the problem anymore, delivering the business is.
No time to read the full article? Listen instead … — Remember when what kept us awake at night was new business? Now it seems that what keeps us awake at night is how we’re going to deliver that new business. The challenge of securing great talent to deliver work, existing and new, has become the…
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Slack – The Jury’s Out.
Has Slack turned into an all-day meeting with no agenda? A couple of days ago, I hosted a small LinkedIn session with some business leaders to discuss their thoughts and opinions on Slack. It had come to my attention that more and more of my clients were re-evaluating their use of the internal comms tool,…
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Watch: how to speak up for yourself
Speaking up is hard to do, even when you know you should. Learn how to assert yourself, navigate tricky social situations and expand your personal power with sage guidance from social psychologist Adam Galinsky. — People confuse being aggressive with being assretive. Being rude with asserting. Lots of introverts can’t do it, but it is…
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The Next In-Demand Job Title: Head Of The Future Of Work
When the C-suite has a new management priority, a new job title often follows. This article in Forbes – kindly sent to me by Cameron at Neon – is an interesting take on how senior role job titles are emerging to reflect the need of businesses to take remote working and future work seriously. I particularly liked…
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Client Feedback and Gauging your NPS Score as a Service Business
Just do it. I recommend client surveys to all my clients. Invariably, it’s hugely valuable, surfacing things that you knew but could do with corroborating, and throwing up interesting feedback that you might not have anticipated. It also shows your clients that you value their opinion and their custom, and that as a business you…
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Watch: Ogmio’s School of Zen Driving
Utterly brilliant. Ogmio’s School of Zen Driving – if you haven’t already watched it, you must. Take a zen trip with Ogmio as he captures London through his dash cam. “The shadow… coming to a morgue near you.” “The double wave.” “Clutching a can of the cold hard truth.” Soon to be classics. You’re going…
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CEO’s have a shelf life, but should they move over, rather than move out?
Jack Dorsey, the recently resigned co-founder and CEO of Twitter said: “There’s a lot of talk about the importance of a company being ‘founder-led.’ Ultimately I believe that’s severely limiting and a single point of failure…I believe it’s critical a company can stand on its own, free of its founder’s influence or direction.” The adage…
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Technology doesn’t conquer all, teams do.
This C suite career advice from Callum Adamson, the CEO and co-founder of Distributed, is well worth a quick read. From my point of view, the key point for business leaders is twofold; That speed of improvement and speed of execution is critical. That technology is not the most critical factor for success, great teams are. As…
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WATCH: Simple stories. Packaging and Productisation with Josh Butten, boosst
I frequently talk to my clients about naming their products and services, and about creating ‘simple stories’ that are easy for their own clients to understand and buy. In this video, I spoke to Josh Butten of boosst financial about the impact of packaging and productisation of complex services and the positive effect naming your…
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Sir Anthony Hopkins – On Letting Go
Let go of people who aren’t ready to love you. The words below from Sir Anthony Hopkins are particularly powerful. On reading them, I was reminded of a conversation over a year ago between myself and my own coach, Bruce. During our chat about general ‘busyness’, it became apparent that I was metaphorically beating myself…
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Saying ‘No’ Pt 2 – why do you need to get better at it?
Following on from my article in December about ‘How to say ‘no’ without feeling guilty’ – I wanted to share this article and five brilliant pointers by Michael Hyatt and Co reiterating why saying ‘no’ is so important. In short, you make your ‘yes’ more valuable by setting your default to ‘no’. — I have…
