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The hazards of a ‘nice’ company culture
I’ve touched on ‘niceness’ before in my Rambling On articles, but I recently read a great article from Timothy Clark for Harvard Business Review which condensed the hazards of a ‘nice’ company culture into the problem, the reason and the cure into one. Well worth reading if you’re concerned your ‘nice’ company culture may not…
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Always be closing.
An old age adage indeed. And yet this very advice is as relevant now as ever before. No one is asking you to promote pushy, aggressive sales tactics, but ‘always be closing’ (applied with a lot of emotional intelligence) should, without exception, be at the back of your mind if you’re an agency leader or…
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Amy’s Advice to Andy
This week, one of my lead articles got pushed back a week and was replaced by this piece. A gentle but important reminder that you should take a moment to take the foot off the pedal when your energy is low. For the last week or so, I’ve been undertaking a seemingly trivial activity, using…
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Grid of emotions – plotting a route to honest conversation
We should all be aware by now of how incredibly powerful clear, simple systems can be. This is never more true that when you’re preparing to spend more than 70 days alone on the Arctic Ocean’s floating pack ice, in pursuit of becoming the youngest person in history to ski solo to the North Pole.…
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Office refuseniks – what to do when team members don’t want to participate in ‘back to the office’ or face-to-face
Before anyone hunts me down or goes all keyboard warrior, I’m caveating this video and article by saying that I’m not anti-remote working, in fact I’d say that flexibility is one of the greatest things to come out of the pandemic. Nevertheless, I’m having regular feedback from clients and friends about members of the team…
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Winner of the Outstanding Non-Executive Director 2021
It’s always slightly awkward to announce that you’ve won an award, or at least it is when there’s isn’t a teammate who could casually do it for you, but nonetheless, I’m delighted to say that I’ve been announced as the winner of the Best Business Awards ‘Outstanding Non-Executive Director’ 2021. The entry was based on…
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‘Let me interrupt your expertise with my confidence’ How to respond when you’re interrupted in a meeting
I saw this great cartoon below the other day and it got me wondering about these dynamics and how to deal with it – especially because the vast majority of us are either interrupted (or do the interrupting) on a daily basis. It really is something to reflect on. Who interrupts and why… These little insights…
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Do you want to be rich, or King? Why is it so hard to recruit senior staff (and some self-reflection)
First, in the spirit of togetherness, I’d like to simply say that it’s not just you that struggles with hiring senior people into your team. Almost every business leader I’ve worked with has, at one point or another, decided that the ‘time is now’ to bring in a new senior member of the team, but…
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If your energy goes on chasing rainbows, you’ll never find gold – an insight
An incredible little insight from David Hieatt. The takeaways as I see them… 1.) Tell the truth, not what you want people to hear 2.) Some things take time (lots of things, actually.) — An acorn visits a growth hacker. It went seeking a quick win. The initial consultation seemed to go well. But at…
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Scope Creep – don’t let the margin disappear in the run up to Christmas
Scope creep. See also, kitchen-sink syndrome, requirement creep, feature creep and focus creep. Scope creep refers to the uncontrolled changes in a project scope. In short? It’s where the margin disappears. Scope creep is problematic all year round for agencies, but as we head into the seasonal Christmas project frenzy, the implications for scope creep…
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Watch: everything you need to know about taking on an apprentice through the government Kickstart Scheme
Everything you need to know about taking on an apprentice through the government Kickstart Scheme. A discussion with Jemma Atkinson from Gradfuel and business leaders.
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The 100-day challenge
September 16th marks 100 days until Christmas. But this isn’t one of those ‘oh bloody hell where did the year go’ articles – rather a reframe to say, “that’s three months during which we can really make a change!’ I’d like to challenge you and your team (as I have already challenged my own clients)…
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Clear-Thinking
Coming very soon – the radical, experiential approach to help you see things more clearly and to stop your own thinking from holding you back. Clear Thinking is etc’s new approach to help you crack many of the limiting factors that have been holding you back. Are you seeking Clear Thinking about relationships? Need Clear…
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Watch: Make Rules Not Decisions – A Life Hack
People don’t argue with rules. Decisions are hard and there’s a reason people do things to limit the decisions they make each day. They wear the same clothes, have the same thing for breakfast, drink the same type of coffee, and so on. After a long day of work, making dinner, and taking care of…
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But what did the raisins cost? How to approach ‘cost breakdown’ conversations with clients
I recently had an extended conversation with a client about a pricing issue she was wrestling with for two prospects. The background My client quoted for two jobs and both prospects came back and asked her to give a breakdown of the costs she had outlined for the projects. They wanted to know how much…
