Business Goals
How to be the smartest person in the room
Who is the smartest person? The person who knows the most? Or the person who learns the most? Conversation When you are trying to connect with somebody, you probably won’t pull out a PowerPoint and give them a 20-minute presentation. You will engage in a conversation, which means more than one person speaking and some…
Read MoreTo find success, define success
A few weeks ago we established that “failure” is not a moment in time, an ending, or an event. But what about success? Success, it turns out, is also not final. It isn’t like a movie we are watching, with a defined endpoint, when success has been achieved, the music begins, and we fade off…
Read MoreFailure usually isn’t (what we think it is)
“It was a complete failure. All the time: wasted. Everything I tried: wrong. Now I’m doubting everything I do.” Statements that, unfortunately, sometimes happen in a business environment. When I heard this one I took issue with, well, all of it. Something had indeed gone wrong. But no time had been wasted and I didn’t…
Read MoreThree easy ways to keep your brain curious.
Curiosity is good for business. It improves collaboration, keeps your business goals fresh, and can lead to greater innovation. Most importantly, curiosity has been shown to increase adaptability, an essential trait for running your business in the long term. When you demonstrate curiosity in what you do, others will start to emulate that approach. But…
Read MoreWhat is Information, and how should you use it?
What makes a small business work? Information. Whether it is information about clients, about projects, about people, about jobs, about plans, or about goals, that information has to move throughout the business for everybody to know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. But when is information reliable? Here are…
Read MoreWhich work should you delegate?
Delegation: it’s a chore. Don’t you sometimes wish you could delegate the task of delegating? After all, it takes just as much time to have to explain something as it does to do it yourself. Here’s a trick to make delegation easier and last longer: Don’t delegate tasks: delegate responsibility. Start by deciding what you…
Read MoreWhy scaling is better than growth for your business
Growing your business means adding parts. More clients, more employees, more desks, more anything. Scaling your business means that your revenue increases, but your resources stay about the same. More clients, but without more of everything else. Why scaling is better than growing If doubling your client numbers means doubling the resources you need to…
Read MoreHow To Be (and not be) Innovative in Business
Your clients like what you offer. And you want to keep it that way. But then, suddenly, your competitor metaphorically drives by in a shiny new vehicle with apps and features you had never considered. And now you also want that metaphorical new car. How not to be innovative So you start developing your product…
Read MoreWhere do you get your best ideas?
A global pandemic is a rare and unusual form of disruption. Although the whole point is that we never see it coming. Disruption comes from unexpected places, and even hindsight is often short-sighted on learning its lessons. Let’s walk through three lessons from three highly disruptive episodes of recent business generations. Disruption story one: Uber…
Read MoreThe Glue Your Business Needs Every Day
What has to happen in your business? When people think of business functions, they tend to list marketing, sales, finance, human resources, maybe production as well. However you make your list, there is one fundamental business function that ties all the rest together; the glue that makes it work, if you will. Management. Collaborate more…
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