If you’re very close to your business, it’s easy to miss the key points in its development – you only notice looking back months or years later that something has changed. Here are the signs to look out for and how to adapt most effectively to the change. There are two key points in the development of organisations. The first is around the £1m – £5m turnover mark, when there are… read more →
As you’ve risen up your organisation and become a senior manager or even CEO, the balance of your ‘day job’ has had to shift. If you work in professional services you probably retain some of the client-facing work and it’s likely that you still have a financial target. But at this point in your career you have to learn to deliver your expertise and client-facing skills through other people, in… read more →
Do you get confused over the distinction between ‘doing’ the job, ‘managing’, and ‘directing’? Here are some distinctions: Doing: Carrying out a deed or action, especially when held responsible for it. Managing: Getting people together to accomplish goals through interpersonal relations, information processing and decision making. Directing: Setting direction, establishing policies, controlling resources and overseeing the activities of an organisation. In a small business, you may sometimes have to carry… read more →
You’ve heard of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People? Well, here’s our selection of the seven habits of highly incompetent ones! Take a look at yourself, and those around you, for these key indicators of management incompetence: Bias against action: You can always find plenty of reasons not to take a decision, to wait for more information, more options, more opinions. But real leaders display a consistent bias for… read more →