tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335798512024-03-01T23:50:18.914-08:00Transforming organisationsTimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.comBlogger286125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-17184015452655145632012-10-21T02:16:00.000-07:002012-10-21T02:16:55.342-07:00Investors in history
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Many of the gongs, industry awards and competitions that
businesses, especially SME's, can enter are a waste of time, energy and money.<br />
<br />
MD Claire and I were talking about why this should be. I attended a recent
event where the presenters were encouraging business delegates to make a
commitment to the Investors in People (IIP) Standard. <br />
<br />
IIP had a role when it was launched 20 years ago. In those days there were
regional and national celebrations for organisations that met the Standard. You
could display the IIP logo on your headed notepaper, and yes, we did it too.
But now the Standard is cumbersome, some say unintelligible but certainly
irrelevant, despite the underlying content, to the needs of 95% of SME's today.
<br />
<br />
Methods of internal and external communication have now emerged, and continue
to emerge, that are just about the only way that small businesses can develop
and sustain competitive advantage. <br />
<br />
Claire hit the nail on the head. She said "Unless a business has a very
specific need for external accreditation, it should concentrate on feedback
from the people that really matter: colleagues, staff, stakeholders and
customers."<br />
<br />
And you don't need a blue badge on the wall to do that.</span></div>
Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-24774569367611223712012-09-28T23:45:00.000-07:002012-09-28T23:45:59.448-07:00
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Money doesn’t talk..........</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">We have worked with many people who have made a lot of money
in business, and some who have inherited family prosperity to invest in or
develop a business. But it is this perception and the reality of wealth that can
give rise to all sorts of dysfunctional relationships. </span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I couldn’t understand why two members of the senior management
team were not included in the 360 degree appraisals that we were planning. The
Managing Director replied that two of them “don’t like you”. Now this business
has several blue chip clients in the oil industry and regards itself as the
market leader in its sphere of expertise. I had questioned this.</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So Dave replied that one of his directors Jill, was a
personal friend who had been with the company for twenty years. He said that
she thought my approach was “too abrasive”. </span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">“And what about the other?” the finance director, I enquired.
“Ah, well” Dave said. “I would hate to lose Suzanne because she looks after my
personal finances as well as those of the business.”</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So I said “What do you mean lose, we are only looking at
what each member of your board can do to improve their performance in order to
improve the performance of your business?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">A genuine danger to any business is where hidden agendas,
duplicity and politics are rife at the top. In these cases, Bob Dylan is right
when he sings “Money doesn’t talk ........ it swears.”</span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></span></div>
Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-66304077332334648312012-09-17T08:38:00.000-07:002012-09-17T08:38:55.178-07:00No hiding place
<span style="font-family: Arial;">It is quite common for Managing Directors to invite you into
their business to improve both sales and profit.... until they find out what
they personally need to do to enhance business performance.</span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Paula asked me in to her organisation for just that reason. As
a national vegetarian food distributor it was increasingly hard to deliver
certain outcomes with both key income streams and certain gross margins in
decline. As usual we started our work with the Senior Management Team and it
required a level of openness and honesty to actually agree what the Bull’s Eye
for this client was to be for the next three years. </span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">During early discussions it was already clear that some directors
had different ideas from each other about the best way forward. So I invited
them to tell me who had personal responsibility for each of the eight segments
on the Kidson Diagnostic Wheel. Again there was disagreement and lack of
clarity. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Without any director appraisals no one knew what they needed
to do either individually or collectively to change the business model. The
upshot was that I chose to appraise each of the directors in turn, at the same
time in order to determine exactly who did what. On the due date for the work
the MD not only refused to agree that she had any development points but then promptly
invited me to leave the building.</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The problem for Paula is that the work we have already done
in the space of two half days has exposed the fault lines in her own leadership
and management style. She can now deny it, she can cover it up or she can try
to forget it, but the fact is that the jugular issues we uncovered will not go
away, and they could well get worse.</span></div>
Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-24638352897473211752012-09-06T22:49:00.001-07:002012-09-06T22:49:13.515-07:00
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Grow and grow</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">As the children get bigger, and the twenty somethings turn
into thirty somethings, we wouldn’t be human if occasional thoughts didn’t turn
to our own mortality. But it doesn’t have to be like that with the business.</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So many family businesses can take off and fly through
successive generations. One engineering company dad said to me recently, “Well
I am so lucky to have my son David and daughter in law Jane to carry the
business on.“ I replied, “Yes John, and they are so lucky to have such magnificent
parents that started this business 35 years ago.”</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Another seventy plus parent who founded a nursery that now
employs one hundred people said, “I’m just the delivery driver here, you need
to talk to Jessica, if you can catch her!” And the mother of a long standing
retail business said, and she is eighty this year, “I just come in and open the
post.”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">But all these people actually do so much more with their
presence, their experience and their wisdom. And as far as the business is
concerned senior players are continuing to add more and more value, providing
that they themselves want to carry on learning and developing, providing that
they know how and when to hand over the reins.</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I am facilitating the appraisals of some seventy year old directors
today. So never mind all the siblings, let’s hear it for the elder statespeople
that are still in there, doing the business.</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></o:p></div>
Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-53330600154087338072012-06-15T23:27:00.001-07:002012-06-15T23:27:52.303-07:00<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Anger</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">When the directors of a business cannot seem to agree on the
Bull’s Eye for their business, the single most common reason is a lack of trust
between them.</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The finance director was red with rage as she denounced her
colleague, director of marketing, in front of me, for half baked ideas. “You
bring projects to the table that might sound interesting, but you have nothing
on paper, nothing on projected sales and PBT, nothing on cash flow
implications.”</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Silent, open, hostility.</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Then Amanda spat her reply “And if it was left to you and
your ability to have any new ideas at all, we wouldn’t even have a business.
You are just a bean counter!”</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">When you share your tacit knowledge with a colleague, however
this happens, it will always result in business reward.</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Even if this means a parting of the ways.</span></div>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-45188722119991115842012-06-14T23:07:00.002-07:002012-06-14T23:08:42.275-07:00<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One night stand </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some leaders are excellent
at relating to some people in some situations but not good with others. How can
this be? Surely we are either good at engaging with people or not?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MD Mandy was in
trouble with her own people. Despite running a successful and growing business,
the staff survey feedback talked about remoteness, inability to focus and being
distracted from core business. Yet if this was true how come the same person
had grown the business so well from a standing start?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had experienced
several instances of the same thing in various organisations recently so what
is it all about? Part of the answer is that it is one thing to sell your
product and service to a whole succession of customers or clients. It's a kind
of formula we can all learn: we can turn on the charm, give it charisma overload
and win the order, time and time again. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But try the same
approach with colleagues and staff, the same people that you have known and
seen day after day, week after week, maybe for years, and it simply doesn't
work. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In addition, there
are some colleagues and staff that you instinctively and intuitively like and
respect. There will be others where it feels like hard work every day, every
time you have a transaction with them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So if you are
struggling to relate to some of the business people in your life, ask yourself
whether you are doing all the work that is required for a committed
relationship between two people. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Or are you simply
going through the motions of a one night stand?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-54559955887680924202012-06-05T03:07:00.002-07:002012-06-05T03:08:19.481-07:00The Line<span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">The older I get and the more clients I work with, the less I
think I understand about any of them. There is a kind of invisible line between
every client / supplier relationship, especially on the service side of things.
</span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">A solicitor client was rehearsing a talk he is giving soon
about commercial property. The purpose of the presentation is to help members
of the audience prepare and deal with some of the mechanics of the transaction
so that they can avoid unnecessary fees. “But surely,” I said, “there are people
who do not want to deal with title deeds, due diligence and banks? They just
want the result.” “You are missing the point.” he replied.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Yesterday another client surprised me with the strength of the
criticism she levelled at their company accountant.
She said “This bloke wants to flog me all sorts of add on packages that will
help me manage my business better. I don’t want all that. I told him to go and
manage his own business better.”</span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">And this invisible line moves all the time. I got a call
from someone I haven’t worked with for ten years this week and she told me exactly
what she wanted. I said that there are better people out there for this than me.
She just replied, “Tim, you are the man; we have not considered anyone else.”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;">One could argue that the product side of business is largely
transactional, but there is no doubt that the service side of things, between
the right people, can be transformational.</span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">With each and every client you just have to try and know
where the line is.........</span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-12556645630582118632012-06-04T00:11:00.004-07:002012-06-04T00:11:27.525-07:00Development points<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The most
powerful way to achieve performance improvement in organizations is to clarify
exactly how the leaders intend to improve themselves both individually and
collectively.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Of course
this can be personal and sometimes painful for all concerned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Three
summers ago we had our last family holiday with our two teenagers. As the years
had passed they had both become more and more assertive, not to say rebellious
about their parent’s choice of holiday destination. By the time the boy was 17
and the girl 18 dialogue had more or less broken down. So we chose to spend a
week in Bruges. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Neither
child knew much about Bruges and it was only when we were on the platform
waiting to catch the Eurostar out of London that they started to find out more.
Gradually their comments became more and more scornful as we tried to assuage
them with promises of delights and excitements to come. But it was no use and
it got even worse as the Eurostar sped off in one direction whilst we were left
on a wet platform to take the suburban train further into Belgium.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Something had
to be done. I invited the other three to say just one thing each about my demeanour
and or behaviour that they thought I could improve in the interests of their
individual and collective health and temper. Now they all thought that this was
a good game. They entered into it, including partner Sharon, with what can only
be described as ‘enthusiastic gusto’ and I had to restrict their comments to just
one each. They were just starting to enjoy themselves a little more when I
advised that the game was not over, but that we now needed to turn our
attention to each of them in turn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The
exercise resulted in an atmosphere of mutual openness, trust and tolerance that
had seemed unlikely beforehand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Three years
on and our daughter is in Thailand having a wonderful time with two girlfriends.
They are all strong characters and Ursula texted me from the departure lounge
to say that they had just played “that game.......”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">It works in Boardrooms
too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-4086212407984516302012-06-04T00:01:00.002-07:002012-06-04T00:01:51.083-07:00Hay<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: EN-US;">All leaders
must take time out to simply forget the business for a while whether they want
to or not.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: EN-US;">There were lots
of ways to deflect the mind in Herefordshire this week. We chose the Hay
Festival of literature and the arts. After the glorious weather recently we
were all decked out in sandals and tea shirts, but unbeknown to us office types
the last 36 hours had seen a change in the weather.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: EN-US;">Despite the
Kilvert Hotel proclaiming 'enjoy the sun' the town was waterlogged and 15
degrees C colder than when they put the sign out. People wielding umbrellas
were a constant threat and those that were only half wet by the time we caught
the Hopper to the pavilion, need not have bothered because the enthusiastic
volunteer bus drivers found the deepest puddles with which to drench us all as
we waited to board.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: EN-US;">Some
consolation in the pavilion may have been the thought that there were some
pretty famous people about. The fact that I had bought tickets for Ian McEwan
the writer when I thought we were seeing Ian McKellen the actor failed to
dampen spirits. But queuing to get to the event involved nipping smartly
between adjoining tents; the people in front did it but then unaccountably
stopped, leaving me stranded between them and the group behind. My reward, as
the wind gusted, was a short, sharp, shock of icy water that raced down from
neck to toe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: EN-US;">After the event
it was smartly to the Hopper stop to get back to Hay in time for a bevvy.
Wheezing, freezing and sneezing I was first on and grabbed the front seat. But
this is the spot where the following passengers look up the bus to see where
they might sit so, as they purposefully flourished their umbrellas in and out,
they showered a wretched, sodden figure cowering behind the door trying to
reawaken frozen limbs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Back home now and I didn’t think about work at all, you
could try it yourself, since there are seven days left.</span></div>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-13809215307015974182012-05-31T23:14:00.001-07:002012-05-31T23:18:24.779-07:00<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Addiction or habit</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many of the successful people I meet put a lot of time
and energy into their business, but they often pay a price with dysfunctional
families and abandoned hobbies.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The female MD referred to her partner as the 'home
husband' and then she laughed as she explained that he does have a job but it's
only "nine to five". Heading up a fashion enterprise that employs
forty people, Jenny does not shirk the long hours and is home most weekends
with the children. But her partner says she may be there physically but she is
"miles away" emotionally. And on Sunday she "catches up" on
the laptop.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We talked about this pattern of behaviour and how it had
come to be the norm. And we wondered aloud whether this was merely a bad habit,
that both parties actually want to change, or whether it was some form of
addiction.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We agreed, rightly or wrongly, that a habit is something
you can change and an addiction is something that maybe you can't.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jenny thought for a minute and then said that she is
prepared to put in the hard miles for another five years and then she would
sell up and collect her bag of gold.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That is an addiction.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<br /></div>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-26371437439960671852012-05-21T00:46:00.000-07:002012-05-21T00:46:17.949-07:00Eyes and ears<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Some
business leaders think you can do everything in business with the right
software; yet others think you can’t do anything worthwhile with any sort of
technology.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I watched
the MD of a plc tapping away on his computer whilst we were waiting for a
meeting to start. “What do you think of this?” he called. I walked round the
desk to see him trying to complete a questionnaire about his fellow directors.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">There were ten
questions on eight different management competences and he had eight directors.
That’s 640 clicks. He was being asked to score these people on a scale of 4 for
excellent down to 0 for abysmal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">His mind was
wandering; he hardly knew Joe Hayes, a recent addition to the Board, so he went
down the middle with a succession of two’s punctuated with the occasional one
and three “just to balance it up.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">“So what do
you think?” he asked.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I advised
that he had never wasted his time more completely. Further, if he is looking
for genuine performance improvement from self and colleagues then the only way
to appraise anyone is face to face, eyeball to eyeball.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<br /></div>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-12055987479758375622012-05-08T01:50:00.001-07:002012-05-08T01:54:14.920-07:00The bullyIt's not hard to spot the bully at the top of organizations. Unbeknown to most of them, they give away their preferred way of dealing with people in a variety of well rehearsed ways.
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Some are renowned for the speed of change in their moods. One minute they can be affable, amusing and generous. Within a split second that same person can be critical, abusive and cruel. No one knows what presses the button.
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Others see themselves and their business from first position; that is to say through their own five senses. It is only when you try to discuss, say team working (second position) or maybe competitors (third position) that you notice their words, their tone of voice and their body language are actually saying something different. This known as congruence, or lack of it in this example.
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This is not to say that an element of bullying is not a useful and sometimes necessary element in the make - up of some very successful leaders. It is more that their approach can simply demean, devalue and even destroy some people’s lives.Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-55525657673447966522012-04-15T13:49:00.003-07:002012-04-15T13:55:06.551-07:00Booked upOne of the secrets of successful businesses everywhere is<br />the following: Of the two sorts of knowledge in the world, there is good and<br />bad news for each. On the one hand, explicit knowledge will be handed down for<br />the benefit of future generations. The downside for explicit knowledge,<br />wherever found, is that it is generally decreasing in financial value. Tacit<br />knowledge on the other hand is increasing in value but it only has value whilst<br />life lasts.<br /><br />Staring absent mindedly at 40 years of books and manuals on<br />the office shelf, I marvelled at such a collection of thinking, learning and<br />wisdom in all those pages. It must have been a different experience reading<br />some of those tomes at thirty years of age, than more recently at sixty. I wondered what my head had done with it all, if anything.<br /><br />A few days later I was in the London Boardroom of a large retail<br />chain. In response to my question, the HR director assured his colleagues that<br />the appraisal system was well established and very effective. So I asked who<br />appraised the directors and by the way, what are their development points?<br /><br />Silence.<br /><br />I gently advised the HR director that much of the time, energy<br />and money spent on appraisals is wasted. Then turning to the Managing Director<br />I continued that “unless the appraisal process starts with the externally<br />facilitated review of you and your colleagues, in the same room, then almost<br />all of the resources put into the appraisal process are wasted.”<br /><br />Unique tacit knowledge. Find out what yours and that of your<br />colleagues consists of, learn how to apply it, then use it.Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-41405933999615131042012-03-28T06:15:00.001-07:002012-03-28T06:15:59.385-07:00Too tiredYou sometimes wonder just how tired you have to be before<br />performance, the excellent performance we are all trying to deliver, starts to<br />decline.<br /><br />The owner looked drawn as he said to me that “Well sales are<br />pants – all the marketing in the world won’t bring customers in to spend money<br />at the moment.”<br />At the renewable energy business the director seemed<br />resigned to recent changes in legislation as she hissed, ”You can always rely<br />on the government to mess up any exciting new business initiative.”<br />And the transport company are contemplating fuel price<br />changes in the pipeline and wondering whether, after the next hike in diesel,<br />the business will continue to be viable, let alone profitable.<br /><br />There is no doubt that stress, weariness and even depression<br />can stem directly from adverse trading conditions. The same symptoms however,<br />can also be caused by unrealistic business and / or personal material wealth<br />expectations.<br /><br />It is a wise person that knows the difference.Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-66358852459227627662011-11-22T03:57:00.000-08:002011-11-22T04:09:51.653-08:00Great Expectations<div><br /><br />There is a lot of loose talk around customer care or<br />customer experience. Lots of business people talk about it but few organisations<br />actually deliver excellence consistently, over time.</div><div><br />At Pearl Lake Leisure Park in Herefordshire, Glenn Jones and<br />his team have been working hard in this area over many years. They have tried<br />to look at just about everything they do from a customer perspective.<br />This beautiful venue is primarily for holiday homes, but<br />touring caravans and campers are also welcome. </div><div><br />One day a honeymoon couple arrived, but shortly after erecting their<br />flimsy little tent, the skies opened and prolonged rainfall meant that the new<br />visitors were soon cold and very wet. Glenn and the team simply re housed the<br />couple into one of the superb new holiday homes for the duration of their stay.<br />All their kit was cleaned and dried by the team........</div><div><br />As Managing Director, Glenn is never, ever satisfied that he<br />is doing enough for his customers. Perhaps that is the reason he has taken his<br />2001 Customer Survey score of 80% to a staggering 91% in 2011. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coHs_sPC3Ac">Let’s listen to how he does<br />it.</a><br /><br /></div>Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-15833039255765978032011-09-29T05:24:00.000-07:002012-04-15T13:54:33.389-07:00Below the water lineIn any business there are always jugular issues, below the water line things, that if left unresolved to the satisfaction of all parties, will sink the ship.<br /><br />Twenty five years ago our Relate counsellor said, “You’ve come here today because your relationship is in some kind of ditch. Well, after a few meetings with me you will both climb out of the ditch. If you climb out on the same side you will go off and have another go at your marriage. If you climb out on opposite sides, there will be a parting of the ways.” I looked across at my first wife; she nodded her assent and so we went for it.<br /><br />It’s exactly the same in the Boardroom. I’ve had many situations over the years where, during this process of self discovery that we call the Growth Cycle, one or more parties have stormed out of the room in a highly charged emotional, verbal and sometimes physical state.<br /><br />Eventually, no matter how upset they may be, the best option for both themselves and their business, is to return to the table and face the issue that caused the problem in the first place. And yes, they will find out which side of the ditch they and their colleagues are on.<br /><br />And that is a result for all concerned.<br />Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-15064799247564244762011-09-18T00:23:00.000-07:002012-04-15T13:54:33.393-07:00ValueThe demands of business are such that we can so easily lose sight of our values, or even worse, forget what it is that really matters to us.<br /><br />Back in 1955 a well meaning uncle gave me a copy of Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing by Bernard Venables. It is a paperback of cartoon sketches showing Mr Crabtree and his young son Peter fishing for various species during the different seasons of the year.<br /><br />I read that book so many times as I grew up that the pages eventually disintegrated and fell out; my favourite fish became the perch. When I was 28 and looking for a place to live the words on page 95 of the book kept flashing across my mind, even in the middle of the night ....”if you want to catch really big perch ....fish the River Wye at Hereford.”<br /><br />So one day in 1977 I visited the place, walked over the old Wye Bridge by the Cathedral, down the bank and scooped out a handful of water to drink. In that moment I determined to spend the rest of my life living in this lovely city. Two weeks later I arrived with nowhere to live, no work and very little money. <br /><br />And now, thirty four years on, it is great when a client postpones a meeting at short notice; I can be on the river in under six minutes.<br /><br />Someone once said to me “You know the price of everything, but the value of nothing” They may have been right, the book cost five shillings, but how do you put a value on that?<br />Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-68746373203584410062011-08-30T02:44:00.000-07:002012-04-15T13:54:33.397-07:00Engaged to be......<br />It seems that there is more pressure than ever from people and organisations that want to engage with us, in one way or another, all the time.<br /><br />It is easy to see why this could be when cars, banks, hotel rooms and even beer could be seen to be more or less all the same, whatever the branding says. How else do we differentiate our product and /or our service without the relationship element?<br /><br />Lucy Kelloway, who writes for the Financial Times is all for this development; she claims that certain professionals, especially those that work random hours, need to be more flexible on holiday. This means taking your smart phones, laptop and mobile internet along with your bucket and spade. She has invented a new word to go with it; we need to go on "worlidays" now, spending at least some time every day in touch with our business.<br /><br />But I don't see it that way. Having just spent twenty one days in a tent somewhere in deepest France without a Blackberry or a 'to do' list, the engagement was with French people, the language, the countryside, the food and the wine.<br /><br />The key thing here, for all of us, is to choose if we can, with whom, how and when we engage.<br />Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-19891958662097255092011-08-22T02:48:00.000-07:002012-04-15T13:54:33.400-07:00Fishes and wishesA holiday break is a great time to review one’s life, to think about the things that are working for you and the things that could be better. For many of us it is that often elusive balance between work, family, hobbies and community.<br />I was on a lake recently and fished hard for six hours without seeing or hearing a solitary fish. I consoled myself with the thought that next day I had been invited to fish a well stocked commercial fishery. That day was spent catching or dropping fish of all shapes, colours and sizes on every single cast for the entire visit.<br />On reflection I am not sure which was the least pleasant experience – having too little, or having too much.<br />I meet business people all the time that want to set themselves extremely ambitious Bull’s Eyes. Often it is the older ones that have this irresistible urge to turn a lifetime of hard work into a more tangible and evident symbol of success. A chap in his sixties told me “I’ve always dreamed of driving the grandchildren round town in a Rolls Royce.”<br />When we do not have enough it is not a good place to be. But there is often a high price to pay for having more than enough. And is it worth it?<br /><br />Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-64592746070691748982011-08-22T02:36:00.000-07:002012-04-15T13:54:33.403-07:00Natural causesNo matter how you or I may want to run our business, there are some natural laws that, sooner or later, whether we like it or not, simply have to be obeyed.<br />I was asked to work with a family business recently where the issues were not so much with the business model or the quality of the products or services. It was all to do with the feuding and rivalry between the two sisters and the brother that had inherited the business from their father. With father having passed away recently it seemed to me like the leadership of some forty staff was in freefall.<br />Despite being equal shareholders, one of the sisters wanted to correspond with me directly but without copying in her sibling directors. I replied to her very first email and copied the other two in. Indignantly she replied that the business wouldn’t have any problems “if the other two would just listen to me”.<br />The more open and honest transactions can be in business the better it is for the organisation itself and for the relationships between the people running the business.<br />In family businesses it may mean trying to change the habits of a lifetime but everyone will be a winner in the end.<br />Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-40019546352543870692011-06-02T05:50:00.000-07:002011-06-02T05:52:50.945-07:00Nonsense and social media<strong>Point<br /></strong>The problem for those businesses that are preoccupied with all the various social media options is that a lot of activity is not actually a route to market, but more of a dead end street.<br /><br /><strong>Story<br /></strong>I know someone who offers professional services in the HR field. Paula really does spend a lot of time and energy working at the many social media strings on her bow. She blogs on a regular basis and these blogs are available on her website. She is active on Linked In and has joined a variety of groups where there are frequent online discussions. This person spends a good deal of time on Twitter; she follows a lot of people although not many people follow her.<br /><br />Paula is a PowerNetworker member of Ecademy and attends some of their events in London; she goes to various breakfast meetings and a number of other face to face activities where people swap business cards. She enters everyone’s business cards details on her Outlook contacts. She’s recently set up a small room at home all kitted out to do podcasts.<br /><br />Now Paula has been working at this business for some five years in conjunction with various associates; people that she has met on the way. She does no customer surveys, she has no facilitated appraisal and she has no testimonials. I asked her if she was making any money. The answer was “no”.<br /><br /><strong>Application<br /></strong>Any service provider needs to offer high quality content to clients and customers; you have to be able make an immediate difference to their businesses and / or their lives.<br /><br />Secondly you have to be excellent at building relationships with people that want to work with your particular expertise. There will be plenty of people that don’t and that is fine too.<br /><br />These two points are more important to a growing business than all the social media put together.Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-4292638555628372732011-04-28T08:56:00.000-07:002011-04-28T08:57:42.554-07:00Down and upThere’s so much in the media about all the 40/50 somethings that are out of work, but it’s a great place to be if you know what to do about it.<br /><br />We know lots of these people that are now in the market place and there has never been a better time to set up and run a business from home. The single most important thing to do is to find out what particular expertise you would like to take to market. It never ceases to amaze me how many people do not know the answer to the question: “What is it that makes you special?” It may be the journey of a lifetime to find the exact answer, but we don’t need to be that precise. At this stage we are just finding out where the direction of the business is likely to be.<br /><br />Secondly we have to start developing great relationships with colleagues, (and this could be the person you sleep with) stakeholders and ultimately customers and or clients. We have to get closer than ever before to these people – we are looking for people that are on a similar journey towards excellence that we need to be on. And excellence is all around us when we look for it. <br /><br />We need to get over a lack of regular money. There are different ways of looking at money in this context. We sometimes have to start to think differently, do things differently and behave differently. The battery hen gets regular feed, but now you are about to metamorphose into a free range chicken with all the liberation and excitement that means for many. It might be the first time in your life that you are in a position to determine the work life parameters for yourself and your family.<br /><br />And what could be better than that?Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-34157746811876554072011-04-27T08:57:00.000-07:002011-04-27T08:59:26.806-07:00Finding your levelWe aspire to excellence; we have to in this global economic climate. So we work hard, we do the learning, we do the personal development, get the results and maybe some publicity and ......and then.......someone notices.<br /><br />I remember Dr Taylor. When I was a boy he worked as a GP in a surgery on a local council estate. He was a very well spoken, tall and dignified man. People said he was a wonderful doctor and that he could relate to, and help literally anybody that walked through his door.<br />The local press reported that he had won awards for his work and that he had been invited to form part of a practice in Harley Street. The press insisted that Dr Taylor was interviewed at length; he was asked about this new opportunity in London. He smiled, he was very patient with the reporters who asked all sorts of questions. Finally Dr Taylor was asked how he would enjoy the commuting, every day from Redhill in Surrey to London Victoria and then the tube. It was then that he replied that he was not going to do any commuting. And there was silence in the room. <br /><br />He added quietly, “Thank you for inviting me to discuss this recognition, and I am grateful for the awards, but I intend to stay here in Merstham, working as a GP on the council estate until I retire.”<br /><br />So yes, we do indeed have to continue to try and get better at what we do. But that doesn’t have to mean pastures new. We can carry on doing what we do, where we are, right now.Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-71098031137782739592011-04-22T01:12:00.000-07:002011-04-22T01:50:02.354-07:00In HouseThe world is so complex that there will always be limits to the knowledge we have, but there may be no limit to the knowledge we need.<br /><br />I was interviewing the MD of an award winning internet / retail business that has doubled its High Street presence in the last couple of years.<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJFC8_yu5hg">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJFC8_yu5hg</a> <br /><br />I asked about the advice he would give to the many people out there that are looking to set up a similar business model. He replied that he had chosen to take the necessary expertise in house; he has people on the payroll that know how to create, develop and run an internet business. The alternative he added is to use external support, but these people are not and can not be up to speed with what is actually going on, on a day to day basis. This means there is always expensive ‘catch up’ time to pay.<br /><br />So what do we do? Well it depends on your business model, it depends on how often you need the expertise. I prefer to ‘pay as you go’ because there is no day to day requirement for support in our business.<br /><br />We make a list of internet based things we would like advice on over a period of weeks and then have a day’s worth with our adviser.Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33579851.post-10453836848998483542011-04-14T05:06:00.000-07:002011-04-14T05:07:02.925-07:00SimplicityIn a world where complexity seems to advance upon us from many sides, there is genuine value in simplicity <br /><br />As if it is not sufficiently challenging to conduct the internal affairs of a business. From outside we may also need to consider political and economic factors. Some businesses are subject to regulatory and legislative controls; yet others need to be aware of social and environmental considerations. And all of us are trying in one way or another, to work with the sheer speed and intensity of technological developments.<br /><br />So simplicity when we look for it, and when we find it, can feel like a breath of fresh air. Innovation and creativity are sources of simplicity; sometimes we can find quicker, simpler and more effective ways of doing things. For example:<br />* our dentist no longer phones to remind us, she now sends an auto text with the date and time of the appointment<br />* some organisations understand that people learn in three different ways, so they make sure that all communications with and between people are made visually (seeing), auditorily (hearing) and kinaesthetically (feeling).<br />* other organisations recognise that a superb route to market is for a talented speaker, speaking to potential customers, is one of the fastest and most direct ways of creating new business.<br />* openness, honesty and transparency is the way to develop great relationships with colleagues, staff, stakeholders and customers. The better the quality of these relationships, the better will be the performance of the business.<br /><br />Simplicity, like excellence, is all around us if we look for it.Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13026648925700745892noreply@blogger.com0