Your move – winning the family business generation game
Apprehensive, scared and excited are just some of the words to describe those about to take over the reins of the family business – of which there are around 4.5 million in the UK. While seeking the same key business performance and profitability goals as every other company in today’s tough climate, family businesses face additional challenges and we’ve previous looked at issues including... [Read more]
Avoid being drenched by economic storm clouds
Before reading our economic forecast which sees more storm clouds looming on a dark horizon, take a few moments to celebrate your business success. Congratulate yourself and your team on surviving one of the worst economic and business periods in recent times. Then when you’ve read the predictions from respected behavioural economist Roger Martin-Fagg – check out my tips on how to plan objectives... [Read more]
Stop trying and start doing – in three simple steps
Picture the iconic in the Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back when Yoda asks Luke to harness the power of his mind to retrieve his sunken and disabled spaceship form a bog. Luke thinks this is impossible. Sure, he’s moved stones around this way – but a spaceship is completely different. Or is it? When Yoda explains that it’s only different in his mind Luke reluctantly agrees to ‘give... [Read more]
7 ways to achieve consistent and measurable progress
Setting the right tempo and pace for your business is just as important today as it was back in 1912 when Amundsen beat Scott in the race to the South Pole. In his book Great By Choice Jim Collins dramatically demonstrates how setting the right pace – a daily 20 Mile March differentiates success and failure. Amundsen and Scott both venturing out into the unknown, faced the same weather conditions... [Read more]
How to break your company’s stranglehold on your personal happiness
The most important ‘happiness moments’ are centred around the family, but how can you improve your personal happiness score? According to What If? Forum members – who completed a two day retreat on the Queen’s estate in the Forest of Bowland – spending time with the family when the business is going well; preparing a bucket list of things you want to do before you die; and having the... [Read more]
How Happy Are You and What Are You Going To Do About It?
This is the question my team of business owners and leaders will be exploring today as part of their annual retreat. In a safe confidential environment they will address all aspects of the issue and look at the different ways in which they can each improve their own happiness. We all know happiness has a big role to play in both our business and personal lives, yet so many of us ignore our own happiness... [Read more]
3 essential ways to be a positive leader
As best-selling author and speaker Jon Gordon said in a recent blog about the value of developing positive relationships with the people you lead: any hard-charging leader can create success in the short term, but it would take a positive leader with a people and process-driven approach to build a successful organisation for the long term. As John Maxwell said, “If you are all alone at the top,... [Read more]
Win the retail war by daring to be different
With the January sales in full flow – brace yourself for the most vicious retail battle for years. In the jungle warfare in which ailing high streets’ New Year sales do battle with internet shopping, standing out from the crowd and breaking with tradition is key to success. A great blog via Open Forum highlighted how one social shopping site which successfully did this is the increasingly... [Read more]
How to dissolve the ‘information overload’ headache
Little wonder when we often feel our head is fit to burst when are now bombarded with five hundred times more information on a daily basis than we were in 1986. This blog was inspired by Holly Green, CEO of The Human Factor who reports that each year a typical American reads 100 newspapers and 36 magazines, and watches almost 2,500 hours of television. When you add to this more than 700... [Read more]
Leadership defined in 20 questions
A recent interviewer of pre-eminent US publisher and leadership specialist Michael Hyatt impressed him with 20 questions that aspiring leaders would do well to consider when discussing routes to the summit with existing power brokers. The questions impressed me to want to share them with you. Who had had a tremendous impact on you as a leader? Is it someone who has been a mentor to you? Why and... [Read more]
