Improve your company’s productivity by 30% and create a functional framework for future growth Three questions CEOs often ask themselves… “Am I, as CEO, the bottleneck holding back the company’s progress?” “Where are my energies focused – on Today, Tomorrow or the Future?” “How engaged are my teams and how much energy and focus are they delivering?” And how […]
Continue readingFrom defining self-confidence to explaining confidence coaching… here are my latest thoughts. But first, a little quotation… “Confidence and deference are not mutually exclusive, and it’s usually a lack of deference rather than excess of confidence that gets powerful people into trouble.” – Adam Galinsky and Maurice Schweitzer Confidence has proven hard to define over the years. […]
Continue readingStrategic Direction The majority of business owners manage their strategic planning process by making annual sales and revenue forecasts towards their financial year end, for one to five years. Is this you? Have you also identified how well the functional areas in your business interact and whether they are appropriately proportioned to the whole? If you […]
Continue readingCoaching & Mentoring For the umpteenth time I had yet another one of those frustrating circular conversations with a ‘fellow executive coach’ at the recent EMCC International Coaching and Mentoring Conference in Edinburgh. It went a little like this… FELLOW COACH: “What does CoachDirectors do?” ME: “We provide executive coaches with commercial acumen to businesses. All our coaches […]
Continue readingCustomer RetentionThere is an extraordinary variation in the success companies achieve in customer retention. Why is this and does it matter? One need only watch the current challenges faced by the big high street retailers to understand that it does matter. Customers that might buy again are way easier to source than brand new ones and […]
Continue reading“Let’s touch base offline, we’ve got some blue sky thinking to run up the flagpole before close of play.” As corporate life stands today, the above business jargon probably wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. Strange to think however that this infestation of ‘management speak’ has its roots in Russian Mysticism.According to the book Business Bullshit by […]
Continue readingThe power of company culture Company culture is one of the most powerful forces on the planet, according to Daniel Coyle, author of the bestselling book ‘The Culture Code’. Its presence is tangible in successful companies, just as its absence or toxicity is equally clear. He maintains that its impact can be measured on the bottom […]
Continue reading“What a great conversation…” I’d hear that phrase often as my parents rescued me from my indifferent babysitter. I didn’t care much for the after-dinner party debrief, but I’d remember being fascinated by the art of the conversation. Oddly though, try as they might, they could never seem to remember what this great conservation had […]
Continue readingHuman Connection: Are we losing it? As a species, we are hurtling through technology at speeds hitherto unheard of. Our planet is now so small we could circumnavigate it over a bank holiday and talking to people in different time zones is such a common occurrence that we seldom notice we’re doing it. The truth is […]
Continue readingRobots taking over We know it’s coming, we’ve been warned repeatedly. Robots are going to be taking over our jobs. Previous predictions have suggested that manual jobs were likely to be the first to go and if you work in manufacturing, logistics or the service industry, now would be a good time to take that course you […]
Continue readingFor many leaders, a lack of sleep can sometimes be seen as something to take pride in. In the office, people often mention how little sleep they’ve had as if this fact demonstrates their effectiveness, dedication, or ambition. It may seem like the best way to get ahead of the pack is to skip out […]
Continue reading“I don’t think I could think of a single thing that’s more isolating than being famous…” Lady Gaga It’s lonely at the top and it can be a terrifying place. You spend your whole life climbing that mountain only to arrive at the summit to realise that the only way on from there is down. Being […]
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