When you’re evaluating leadership potential in your team, remember that all the metrics you have are proxy metrics. You can’t easily evaluate such a complex concept as leadership. If you’ve assigned them metrics, or SMART (spare me) objectives, again you’re measuring proxy. The best leaders go beyond them and do the bigger right thing. You […]
Bite Size Business Tips
“Employees First” isn’t the path to a successful business
Business Half-Truth #2: Look after your employees first. I’ve seen too many turn this into making customers a distant second (or third). Yes, team is important. And if you treat your team as an investment, rather than a cost, then your business should reap rewards. But “employees first” works well ONLY IF you have a […]
Succeeding at school may be harming your entrepreneurial career
There’s a reason that many successful business starters didn’t have sparkling academic careers, and why a lot of people who shone at school failed at startups. If you’re an academic success at school, you become conditioned to prize being right and fear being wrong. And being right is definitely a good thing. But over time, […]
Your business can’t be about you
Entrepreneurship and business become noble when you’re doing it to improve the lot of those around you, not just yourself. I love this from Nassim Taleb. “Some people take risks and some people labor in the fields. You have the option of doing either one or the other. But my point is you should never […]
Authenticity can hurt your business
Authenticity is today’s buzzword. And like most buzzwords, although it can make sense in many contexts, it is now overused, inappropriately applied, and often plain wrong. Everyone tells leaders to “be authentic”. But what if you’re a prize arsehole? A sociopath? A bigot? A despot? Will you still take the advice of every coach out […]