Tag Archive for: Culture

Characteristics of Successful Leadership in Business: A Comprehensive Guide

Leadership is one of the many buzzwords used in business today. Yet, when you challenge someone to define what they call leadership, often there is nothing but silence. When you look around the world at some of our pronounced leaders, leadership is perhaps the last word you would use to describe them. Unfortunately, this is also very true in many business operations. As individuals, business owners, business coaches, employers and employees, we have a collective responsibility to define leadership for our collective benefit.

Characteristics of successful leadership

From my experience in small, medium and corporate businesses, the best leaders I … Read More

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The Benefit of Honest and Timely Performance Appraisals

Staff can be the greatest asset in your business, but for any service based business – they typically will be the greatest expense – whether they are an asset or not.

Perhaps its my corporate background, my genuine desire to improve things (people and businesses), or it might simply just be my objective to see a larger number at the bottom line – but regardless of the driver, I have consistently found that well delivered performance appraisals work AND….that most small and medium businesses don’t do them.

Well performing and engaged staff are truely a great asset to any business. … Read More

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Critical Components of a Good Job Description

Job descriptions are a valuable tool for both staff and employers and unfortunately, they tend to be absent in many businesses.

For the staff member, a good job description provides clarity around the role, what the core responsibilities are, outlines the accountabilities/delegations and shows the associated performance criteria.

For the employer, it provides important boundaries for the staff members to operate within, noting that they are only one staff member in what is typically a larger group. Frequently, it’s only the owner/manager who has full line of sight of all roles, so clear definition of “who is … Read More

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Tailoring Your Business Communication for Success

Have you ever read a business note, perhaps an email or a letter and thought – huh, what’s that about…..as the tone or content of the note is as if its been written for someone else? Well perhaps it has!

In business I have found that the principle of writing for a “third party” audience, is actually not that uncommon. Often these days its in email format, with the note written more for the benefit of the person checking or reviewing the document than the recipient. The third party could be the boss, a manager, … Read More

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Is Business Change Possible? Exploring the Possibilities

Is business change possible? – absolutely unequivocally yes…but it takes action. A great man once said, “If you always do what you’ve always done, then you will always get what you’ve always got” (Henry Ford) – so…..if you don’t like the outcome you’re getting at the moment…..then you have to change something!

It’s at this point that that the problems normally start.

“We have always had the ideas – but getting something to happen has been the problem”

This is the classic catch cry of many in business when confronted with the need to change. Frequently the ideas of … Read More

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Succeeding with Business Succession Planning

Succession is an inevitable bridge that needs to be crossed for all businesses. For some, the decision is made in a millisecond – whereas for others, it can be an all-consuming dilemma. This article is to help those struggling with this dilemma.

It is important to recognize that succession can be a very difficult and sensitive issue for the business owners to confront. Regardless of whether they founded the business or succeeded into the business themselves – the notion of handing over the reins to someone else can raise all manner of concerns.

Confronting the issue of needing to plan… Read More

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When Good Times Go Bad: Navigating Challenges in Business

How much risk are you carrying in your business – do you know……and what are you doing about it?

Someone once explained Operational Risk to me as the classic, ‘good times gone bad’ situation, where one or more of the things which have made the business successful, suddenly go wrong – and often….very wrong!

Perhaps a clearer or simpler description of operational risk is; a failure in the people, internal processes or systems of the business, or an external event that could have financial or reputation impacts.

For a typical SME business this could look like –

    • Poor password
… Read More
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The 10 Commandments of Business: Guiding Principles for Success

Many business owners are time poor and simply don’t find the time to read the more comprehensive articles. So if you are looking for a bunch of potent tips for your business – then this short article is for you. 

Aptly named the 10 Commandments of Business, these are 10 activities which will add bottom line value to every business.

Thou shalt…

  1. … plan for the business. This should be aligned to a clear vision of what the business is seeking to achieve, along with its key strategies and measures to get there.
  2. … understand your cashflow. Cash is
… Read More
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Is Your Business Viable? A Comprehensive Evaluation Guide

Is my business viable?

This question comes in various forms from concerned business owners – but for me, it’s not so much a case of whether the business is viable – but more of whether the product/service they are selling is viable.

So the better question is really; is my product or service viable?

Running a successful business is all about having a number of business elements all working together to provide a solid outcome or profit. If any of these elements are not correct or are out of alignment, then performance suffers – which is around the time the … Read More

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It’s Never the Message, Always the Delivery: Secrets of Business Communication

How many times have you been given some news and reacted badly; triggering a sudden or violent reaction, not gaining an understanding or getting the full message?

In finance, most bad news revolves around loans – the words that most clients don’t want to hear from their Banker include;

  • No!
  • Declined. 
  • …there’s a problem….

These are of course simple words – nothing more, but we tend to attribute lots of meaning to them and often far more than the actual message intended. Equally the shorter the message, the less context comes with it – so our minds … Read More

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