Bite Sized Business Tips
2 minute reads for the values-led business leader
Snippets for purpose and values-led business leaders about meeting our responsibilities to our team, customers, owners, communities and suppliers. Context is everything, so these aren't dogma - rather a stimulus for thought. Subscribe below.
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Don’t build a mansion on cardboard foundations
I'm stunned sometimes by how often the basics get overlooked and then bite your business in the most painful way. Founders are often visionaries. We have a dream of what we want to build. We have strategies. Purpose. Missions. Challenge is that the business needs to be continually fuelled while ...
“How do you drive the endless supply of money that is business into doing good?” – Neal Gandhi of The Panoply
This episode of #TheKarmicCapitalist podcast is so back-to-back full of real life, practical lessons that it was nigh-on impossible to fit it into our standard time limit. But that's no surprise. Neal Gandhi and his team have taken The Panoply from a standing start to a publicly listed, £1/4 of ...
The power of values for simplifying
Clear Values Simplify. Company values should do 3 things. Align: clear expectations make decisions easier and more delegatable; Attract: aligned customers, team members and investors; Inspire: creates a platform and belief for positive change. A while back, I was talking to a client about the role of values for his ...
The best companies are communities
With all the talk of servant leadership, we forget the need for servant followership. And that all of that service is to the community. Companies that create the most good run like well functioning communities. And thriving communities work because the collective interest of *all* (aka purpose), is more important ...
Heading back to the business of business is business
Is the business of business just business? And if so, how far does "business" go? Are benefits business? Internal committees? I've always been a fan of the ethos of Basecamp. I love how they simplify. I really like their readiness to do the things that make sense, rather than the ...
In plateaus, do you learn or do you defend?
Plateaus are insidious. Because although they're not a good place to be, there's not so much pain that you rip off the plaster to do something different. There are some common patterns in most companies that hit The Plateau... ... There's always a good reason why doing things differently won't ...
Choose Greatness over Size
In Bo Burlingham's magnificent book, Small Giants, he talks about a special type of company. A company that evokes a human connection. A company which, as per the subtitle of the book, chooses greatness over size. At the heart of these companies leaders have "deep emotional attachments to the business, ...
If you’re frustrated with your leadership team, the feeling’s probably mutual!
"It annoys me how often I need to tell my leadership team what to do. But if I don't, they just won't do the right thing." (How to upset everyone in one fell swoop. But it needs saying, so here goes...) If you're a CEO frustrated with your leadership team ...
If you don’t like choosing between horrible and cataclysmic, don’t become CEO.
Hard choices often end up in one of two ugly places:
- Analysis paralysis - no decision, but just an ongoing slow pain, or
- flip-flopping decisions - often depending on who you're speaking to.
Hire the right people, and then trust them
People problems in companies tend to boil down to one of two things. Wrong people hired, or right people hired, but then not empowered. We need to both (1) hire the right people to bet on, and; (2) place our bet. Doing either of those well isn't easy. But I ...
Teams are good, but networks make them stronger
Suppose for a minute that there's this country with a government comprised largely of an old boys' network from the same schools, universities and degrees. Crazy, but just suppose. That's the kind of scenario that (rightly) gives networks get a bad rep. But inside a company, networks can create real ...
Strategy Sessions are a waste of time
Strategy sessions (especially, bit not only) in SMEs are usually a waste of time. Mostly because they don't turn into what the company does. In my experience, it usually comes down to a combination of these issues.
- No coherence. The strategy is a smorgasbord of ideas rather than a plan ...