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. I’ve seen this a lot in many leaders, including CEOs. Sometimes, it’s because the choices are genuinely difficult to compare. Other times […]
Strategy
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 see so many businesses ruin […]
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 to get somewhere specific. It prioritises […]
Sometimes you need to quit to win
This is an interesting article from Fast Company. Especially for those of us schooled with the discipline to always finish what we start. Some things have to be finished (yes mum, my plate). For instance, one my most intense periods of work was when I had just taken on a demotivated team of 60, who […]
Generating activity makes problems harder
“Generating activity is not a problem; in fact it is easy. The fact that it is easy makes the real problem harder to solve. The problem is getting the right things done – the things that matter, the things that will have an impact, the things a company is trying to achieve to ensure success. […]