Uncertain times may well favour the brave, but the keys to survival and growth are agile and pragmatic responses to changing circumstances. To maintain momentum, you need to constantly review all aspects of your business or career.
Responses to disruption vary from fearful avoidance to an unhealthy over-indulgence. To convert our anxieties about invasive innovation, we need to work with it rather than be driven by it.
We often make big plans about things to do over the next year. Maybe we should try to do less.
Big financial words often describe business concepts you already intuitively apply. You can become more literate by applying some simple arithmetic to your thinking.
Intense focus can yield great returns, but to move forward in business or life we need to take our attention beyond our immediate tasks. You can't expect much inspiration to enter your brain if you don't make any room for it to enter.
Sometimes some of our best thinking comes about when we are not thinking at all. Alan suggests a few effortless ways to help new ideas arrive over the holidays.
Your business or your career can tick along quiet nicely, but are you optimising them? Exploiting untapped business opportunities and building fulfilling careers often means taking a risk. Your challenge is to take some and not take too many.
Leadership is crucial in critical situations. It doesn’t mean you should charge head on into troubled waters. Real leaders don’t shy away from the situation. But they assess it rationally, clarify it for their team and get everyone working on the best possible solution. It may not work, but it will give you the best chance of survival.
In this age of entrepreneurial mania, it seems everyone wants to start their own business. There are plenty of arguments why you should. Here's six reasons why you shouldn't.
The test of any new idea is not how clever it is. It's whether it makes something easier to do.
Great leaders don't do everything. They get the best people they can find to do all the things that they aren't good at.
We can waste a lot of time stressing about things we can't control. What if we focus that energy on the things we can control.
We know that feedback loops can generate a lot of momentum, both good and bad. The good ones for your business are often just simple adjustments to the way you already do things
We have this idea that somewhere out there is a place where everything is balanced. There isn't. Managing life and coping with change requires us to be fluid, not static.
Many statements about leadership are just cliches that often lead to management dysfunction. Effective leaders have humility. They look at how they can serve their people. They know that great leaders donât just solve problems. They grow great people and they do so by focusing on how they themselves can serve others.
Research shows that most forecasts or predictions are wrong. That makes it hard to get your strategy exactly right. What can you do to hedge against uncertainty?
A start up needs money to get traction, but is your great idea 'investment ready'? You will be a shareholder too. Before your commit a couple of years of your life and most of your cash, check that this makes business sense. Are you ready to invest in yourself?
A successful business can often end up with too much cash on the balance sheet. What should you do with it?
We often get stuck thinking the best product has to be the most sophisticated one. Instead, look to the ordinary strengths of you and your business. Great successes often come from simply optimising what you've already got.
Is there an issue you have been avoiding? Try addressing it. Your leadership style will always be a work in progress. Don't miss the chance to work on it.
There are simple ways to make your 'to do' list more manageable. One of the best is working through it with a friend.
Micromanaging is the opposite of effective delegation. To achieve the latter, you need to let people get on with it. To make it work, apply some simple rules.
The best way to get the most value out of selling your business is to leave a lot of value behind.
Startups often fail when their idea doesn't get market traction. But the main reason good ideas don't make it is lack of cash. How cheaply can you get your startup off the ground?
There are many reasons why teams should collaborate. You get more diverse input, you generate more innovative ideas and productivity is usually higher. But it's not just good for teams. It's also good for you.
It’s easy to overlook basic cash flow management. Yet simple processes that help you improve your cash position have a disproportionate impact on the value of your business. Every dollar you save is worth more than a dollar.
Total avoidance of risk can lead to total business stagnation. Firms that stay at the leading edge make a conscious decision to maintain a sensible level of risk.
Ever get that feeling you can’t do it all? You’re right. You can’t. What can you do to make your to do list more ‘doable’?
Ever felt short of management confidence? You are in the job because you are good at some thing. What are they?
It's hard to shift from 'command and control'. To get people working together, start by delegating tasks to two people rather than one, and preferably different ones too.
