Bite Size Business Tips

Bite Sized Business Tips

Quick reads for the values-led business leader about meeting our responsibilities to our team, customers, owners, communities and suppliers. We strongly believe that context is everything for high level leadership, so don't take these as dogma, but simply to stimulate thought.

Don’t be a people business. Be a business that recognises its individuals

Treat your team as individuals, rather than your company as a "people business". I've been rereading two books by Oliver Sacks, "Awakenings" and "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat". Both are wonderful books, as enjoyable in the second reading as they were when I read them first ...
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Help your teams be impactful, not busy

I've sat in leadership meetings where "the boss" feels a need to ensure that everyone has actions. Strategy sessions where they've visibly mentally scratched around to create something to do. Because that's what a boss does, right? Always has something for their team to do. And so we create high ...
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Look after your values, and culture will follow

I'm always astonished by companies that say that culture is important, but do no work on their values. Look after your values, and your culture will follow. A strong set of organisational values, lived by the leadership and reflected in how your company does business will end up creating the ...
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Dismissal is hard enough – don’t make it inhuman

The hardest thing I've had to do professionally was to make people redundant. It can be easy to forget how much harder it is for the person going. If it's unavoidable (and I've resigned over being asked to do it when I believed it was entirely avoidable), then make sure ...
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Motivation by KPI

One of the dangers of our increasingly digital and data-driven world is when managers are encouraged to overuse data. This is especially pernicious for new and upcoming managers, as data becomes a crutch for them to lean on. It robs them of the hard work and opportunity to manage through ...
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Swearing isn’t unprofessional. Or is it?

Do you swear at work? Often if leaders do, they set a tone. Which is *really* unprofessional. Because people don’t go to work in order to feel like extras in a Tarantino film. But I don't think people go to work to feel like extras in a Mary Poppins film ...
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Authenticity is transient

You had one chance at leading authentically. That was when you were born. If you didn’t do it then, you’ve blown it! Because the only person who can be completely authentic is the one who has learned nothing and not grown since the day they were born. Authenticity is continually ...
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Context is Everything

Context is Everything. I once directly managed a team of 60 people. Every HR consultant will tell you that’s wrong, and that you won't do right by your team. A management catastrophe. So what was the outcome? The outcome was that the team doubled in size (while I still directly ...
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