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Tackle the pinch, don’t wait for the crunch.
Imagine you’re in a meeting, and on more than one occasion, a colleague seemingly hijacks your ideas and raises them as their own. You might – quite rightly – feel irritated. In their book, Connect, authors David Bradford and Carole Robin identify this feeling as a ‘pinch’. Those little feelings of resentment, irritation or annoyance which…
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LinkedIn – the blurred boundaries between professional and personal
LinkedIn is my main social network – I’m on Twitter, I tried Instagram (then left after realising that I too was susceptible to the odd mindless scroll – god those guys are good) and I have a decent grasp of what else is out there, but professionally – and personally – it’s the channel I…
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Video: How to retain clients and grow a successful agency (is there a secret sauce?)
In this video, I chatted to David Price from The Grove Media – a successful media planning and buying agency that opened its doors in 1997. The Grove Media team successfully manages an incredible 250+ clients across a broad spectrum of industries – retaining them for well above the agency average. In fact, the average…
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The army of litter pickers taking the rubbish crisis into their own hands
I’m hardly the first person to feel angry that people still drop litter, but rather than simply whinge, this article from Positive News recognises an impassioned litter picking army emerging in our parks, along our pavements and out in the beautiful British countryside. A great read with a lot of resources. Will you be taking the rubbish…
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How to answer the question, not simply accept the answer
Ever received an unexpected piece of news from a client and thought ‘what the hell?’. This article is a reminder that often, when a client brings you a piece of information, they are often in fact bringing you an answer to a question rather than a question itself. And unless you get to the root,…
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The great attrition. People are leaving their jobs, how are you dealing with it?
This brilliant article from McKinsey follows on from our recent article on re-recruiting your staff. It highlights the ongoing (and worrying) trend that a record number of employees are quitting or thinking about doing so. More than 19 million US workers—and counting—have quit their jobs since April 2021, a record pace disrupting businesses everywhere. The full article is…
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Struggling to work with a colleague?
Struggling to work well with certain colleagues? Find yourself having the same issues time and again despite promises to change? If you identify yourself or a team member from the scenario below, then hopefully I have a few ideas which might make you reframe your approach and have more clear thinking to create a better,…
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Re-recruiting your team – tips on how to reward and retain your employees
We spend a lot of time and effort recruiting in business, but recruitment efforts are worthless if your company is a revolving door for employees. Once you make great hires, it’s more important than ever to keep showing those individuals why they should want to work at your company. You need to keep winning them over. The…
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On not minding what happens (a thought-provoking piece)
Eventually, in virtually every spiritual and religious tradition, you’ll encounter the same advice when it comes to time: that we’re better off confining our attentions to the present moment than struggling to manipulate what’s coming next. “Trying to control the future is like trying to take the master carpenter’s place” cautions one of the founding…
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Lego and an exercise in productivity (and a giveaway)
I did some work with Lego in the past. In meeting rooms, they had bowls of bricks, and everyone was encouraged to play with them throughout (the team claimed it encouraged more creative thinking). This memory has always stuck with me, and yet I’ve never returned to it with much deliberate action or intention. Then,…
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Returning to the office will be hard. Here’s how you can make it easier…
A nice little article I read on Harvard Business Review by Constance Dierickx and Dorie Clark. As many leaders begin encouraging more time in the office for their teams – there are a number of ways to make sure you’re supporting the transition. Leaders and managers tend to think of employees in two opposite groups: those who…
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This is the moment you make your worst decisions
Things are taking longer to get done. Bl**dy remote working! This is what a very capable agency owner said to me recently. To expand: “It’s taking longer to get things done. Nothing is as easy as it was. Remote working just makes life difficult. I know people want flexibility, but I think I’m going to…
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The financial year does not exist
This article is a simple reminder about the artificial and arbitrary deadlines we all set ourselves as business leaders and founders. This musing came about following a regular catch up with one of my clients. This client had – it’s fair to say – had an absolute belter of a year in 2020, bolstered by an…
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Tips on leadership from an ‘accidental leader’
There is so much to be said for being completely authentic. Being honest about your successes and your failures (and the feelings associated with both those things) is so incredibly important for building connections. It is perhaps the single most wonderful thing as a coach and non-exec when I get to hear real, honest emotion…
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Inspiration (A Poem)
We all have ideas. Ideas are immortal. They last forever. What doesn’t last forever is inspiration. Inspiration is like fresh fruit or milk: It has an expiration date. If you want to do something, you’ve got to do it now. You can’t put it on the shelf and wait two months to get around to…
