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What to do when you don’t trust your team
I have quite a lot of conversations with clients about trusting their teams. In my upcoming book, Emotional Overdraft, ‘Trust’ is one of the ten key drivers I identify as having a detrimental impact on how successfully leaders are able to healthily build and grow their businesses. There are lots of reasons you might not…
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Internal recruitment referrals – why you should stop being stingy
When I ran agencies, there was one recruitment idea that changed the game. It was so incredibly obvious, and yet it took quite the tussle with members of the SLT to get it approved. It was around internal recruitment referrals. “Not a new idea.” I hear you say. Whilst that might be the case, the…
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“When you set a budget, you’re taking control of your future.”
“When you set a budget, you’re taking control of your future.” This quote really struck me when I saw it on one of the social media channels. It’s the kind of thing I’m talking to my clients about all the time. The thing people find difficult to grasp is that setting a budget is not…
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‘I expected more from them’ – performance punishment
Over the years, I’ve seen performance punishment (and the fallout) in action countless times, so this article felt important. Performance punishment, what is it? Performance punishment is a phenomenon whereby high performing employees are given additional tasks, subjected to increased scrutiny or criticism, and/or expected to work longer hours because of their extreme efficiency and…
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Watch: Life fright – living with high functioning anxiety
An enlightening TedX talk from a comedian and performer, Jordan Raskopolous about the dichotomy between being supremely confident in one area of life and cripplingly anxious in another. I wanted to share this as a reminder that ‘ShyLoud’ is a real thing, to highlight this specific anxiety disorder to anyone who might find themselves resonating,…
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The leaky bucket fable – a hopeful message
I loved this reframe. A hopeful message that we can all contribute in our own ways… The Leaky Bucket Fable Two buckets lived in a village. They carried water every day from the river to the people. One bucket was old, warn, and cracked, and lost half it’s water by the time they reached their destination. It felt terrible not…
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‘Start Yesterday’: 7 female founders share their tips for success in the creative industry
Creative Boom marked International Women’s Day by featuring seven female founders from creative agencies in the US and UK. These founders shared their experiences and tips for building an agency from scratch. While each founder’s story is unique, all seven women share a common thread: they had a passion for creativity that they couldn’t ignore…
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Is your salary competitive for everyone, or just for people who look like me?
I’ve written before about my thoughts on salary transparency. I always encourage my coaching clients to make sure they’ve done salary benchmarking research and to always include salary expectations on job adverts. The reasons for including salary from the off are both obvious and varied, but include: This post focusses on one specific benefit of…
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10 AI companies to watch
Ten AI companies that investors and founders are keeping a close eye on. Like many people, I’m fascinated by AI’s capabilities. I’ve read this article from The Generalist twice now. It’s hard to get your head round – and remarkably straightforward at the same time. Although written from an investor POV, I think it’s useful…
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Leaders coaching leaders: an exercise to accelerate high performance teams
I’m sharing this simple stepping-stone exercise that can help a good leadership team accelerate communication and transform into a high performance team. — A client of mine has an effective, functioning leadership team. They’re strong and aligned but are struggling to step it up a notch into a high performance team culture. The leadership team…
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Assertive vs aggressive communication / a graphic
I previously wrote and article about the difference between being assertive and being aggressive, and the fact many people confuse being aggressive with being assertive. Being rude with asserting. I liked these eight reminders about the difference between communicating aggressively versus assertively. Andy.
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Watch: Dork or nerd?
Powerpoint punchlines and proof if needed that more nerds should be comedians. Enjoy! Andy.
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Foreign Exchange Benchmark SIREN FX appoint Andy Brown as Non-Executive Director
Leadership coach and advisor, Andy Brown, has been appointed as a Non-Executive Director at SIREN FX, working with CEO, Paul Duprey, the Siren FX founders and the leadership team as they step up to become the leading force in foreign exchange benchmarking. “It’s a pleasure to become part of the Siren FX team as Paul, the founders, and the leadership team continue to build a fully transparent, lower-cost…
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Find out. Face your fears…
Watching SAS Who Dares Wins the other day and I was struck by what at first seemed a very simple act of empathy and compassion. One of the contestants was exhausted and clearly suffering. This triggered some horrible memories for one of the other contestants – a big, muscular lorry driver. I was struck by…
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“We are not as endlessly manipulable and predictable as you think”
If you reward a behaviour, you get more of it. If you punish for a behaviour, you get less of it. Right? Well, no, actually. This fantastic video reminds us that the time is now to get past the ideology of carrot and stick. Now it’s true, that if a task involves only mechanical skill,…
