There is no doubt that we need leaders and managers, and that being the case we need to find some way of developing their potential. And that’s about where the agreement ends.

What we tend to disagree about is how to carry out that development. As a trainer and coach I’m quite often asked to provide management and leadership development. And I always need to get the client to define what they mean by that – what is it that they want to change or make better?

For me LMD falls into two broad categories continue reading…

There are a few articles doing the rounds about how Introverts can be overlooked in the workplace. Well, I guess that could be true if you work somewhere that whoever shouts the loudest usually gets their way.

Personally I believe that all types of personalities add value to the workplace, but you have to give them the right job to do. And that of course means that you need to be able to identify their personality type in the first place.

Personality profiling doesn’t seem to have advanced much since Carl Jung came up with his typologies back in 1920. But of course, he was working with Intoversion and Extroversion, which is a different concept to being an Introvert or Extrovert and it’s not always easy to spot just by observing someone’s behaviour. continue reading…

The 20 Levers Of Successful Business Growth

Lever Number 4

Lever Number 4 staes that: “You only get paid while you are solving your customer’s problems.”

That may seem obvious, but there is more to it than you might think! You see, your business consists of 7 core components and only one of them will make you any money. If you want to know what they are, then please watch the video below.

You can get access to a free seminar that explains all 20 levers in greater depth at The Business Growth Club.

continue reading…

The 20 Levers Of Successful Business Growth

Levers 2 and 3

Hi and welcome to the second video in the series.

The video below will walk you through Lever Numbers 2 and 3.

These levers are about what your business actually does. It will challenge you to define more specifically what your business does and more importantly, why your customers should pay you any money!

If you want to run a profitable business you better make sure that you get this bit right!

You can get access to a free seminar that explains all 20 levers in greater depth at The Business Growth Club.

continue reading…

The 20 Levers Of Successful Business Growth

Lever Number 1

The video below will walk you through why you need to pay attention to Lever Number 1.

Lever number 1 is about the purpose of your business – and it might not be what you think! Forget customer service or quality products. These just allow you to achieve your business’s true purpose. If you have forgotten what that is, then please watch the video below.

continue reading…

Value Chain Analysis is the first step in beginning to understand how your business makes money, it is at the heart of understanding your profitability.

If you have already watched “How To Be Your Own Business Guru” you will know that every business has 7 component parts. You will also know which of the six possible business models you are running.

If you haven’t seen it yet you can get it at The Business Growth Club. If your not yet a member it’s free to join.

So how do these seven components fit together? continue reading…

I find it strange that some people are absolutely certain about their environment. The truth is that we create an impression of our environment based on the information we gain from our senses; but can you trust them to provide all the information there is?

First off, let’s look at a little science. Don’t worry this is not going to be complex.

Normal human hearing lies within the frequency range of 20 to 20,000 cycles per second (20kHz). So if we just believed our senses then we would think that sounds do not exist outside our hearing range. But we know that dogs can hear sounds up to 60kHz, mice up to 90kHZ and bats up to 120kHz. Clearly there is a lot of continue reading…

Now here is a challenge; writing an article on the human psyche. It doesn’t matter what I write, there will be someone who disagrees with me. And that’s OK. You see, what you have to understand is that it is just a model of how I (and others) think the human psyche is made up. As with all things, it is not true, but it is useful. The reason it is important is that your psyche drives your behaviour. So if you want to control behaviour then you need to know what drives it.

The art of psychology (I don’t personally think it is yet a science) is only about 150 years old; although people often think it is older. If that seems a lot, then think of engineering, which has been around for centuries. The result is that if you put a large group of psychologists into a room they would start debating about what is the right way – and in fact there is no “right way” there is only what works and what doesn’t work. continue reading…

The Foundations of Leadership

There are as many theories about leadership as there are theorists. When I ask business owners, or even employees, they tend to know it when they see it but have great difficulty in defining what it is. I guess that is no different to my approach to Art – I know what I like, but I have no idea why.

And for most of us, that is just fine. However, if you have aspirations of being a leader, then you need to understand the foundations of leadership.
Just to be clear, in this article I am talking about business leadership. While there is some commonality with leadership in other contexts, I am making the supposition that you are reading this because you want to lead your business to success.

So what are the core competencies that you need to lead a business? continue reading…

This is one of my favourite video clips and I don’t even know which film it is from. If you do, please let me know, because I would love to see the whole film.

You already know that you are capable of far more than you currently deliver, because it is easy to quit when the going gets tough.
Please take the time to watch this clip and remind yourself that you are so much more and can deliver so much more. continue reading…