Zig Zigler said, "You don't build companies, you build your people, and your people build the company". Last week, when exploring where to start when you want to bring improvements to your culture, I said that by a VERY significant margin, the most important element in a positive culture is RESPECT. And I asked if your staff feel respected?There...
Read MoreMost CEOs and company executives in North America now recognise that improving their corporate culture would have a very positive impact on their business' performance. They recognise that culture is up there with strategy, marketing, brand, finance, and IP in terms of importance. And most also admit that their culture is not where it needs to...
Read MoreSun Tzu said many things concerning the art of war that are just as applicable to the art of business. For example, "In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” There are many aspects to the world today that we could describe as chaos, and in each there will be opportunity for those that care to
Read MoreThose elephants just sneak into the room with you, hide in plain sight whilst tucked away in corners, and cause havoc with your company’s performance. If only we could do something about that. Humans have an amazing ability to see and notice things that are different or changing, but we are generally less good at seeing things that don't change....
Read MoreI have worked with senior managers and executive teams who wouldn't recognise strategy if it bit them on the proverbial; conversely, I have worked with great strategic thinkers in the most unexpected places with much less responsibility. The ability to think strategically has nothing to do with your role or seniority, although one hopes that execu...
Read MoreWe often have a strategy for this and a strategy for that - and we have strategic plans etc. Having quantized approaches to achieving goals can work well, especially when you know where you are and you well understand the nature of the system around you. However, when we are running businesses, with bigger, fuzzier and further out goals and much m...
Read MoreAnyone remember VUCA? It’s an acronym that stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. I’ve used VUCA as a strategic planning tool when trying to understand what was going on around me and so increase the chances of coming to an optimal course of action. As a concept, it was first described by the leadership guru Warren Bennis in...
Read MoreA recent UK employee study paints a rather troubling picture of company life. It found that: The study went on to identify that roughly half the people would leave a negative on-line review about their company, and that nearly 50% wouldn't even apply to a company that had negative online reviews. At a time when so many companies are struggling to...
Read MoreWe intuitively know the correlation between company culture and company success (including success in attracting and retaining great people). Research shows that companies who’s staff describe their culture as good or excellent seem to be thriving in all respects. We also know how to build an outstanding culture:
Read MoreWe often use the term 'a square peg in a round hole' to describe someone that in some way just doesn't fit either in the role, the office, or just the culture. That interpretation comes from an early 19th-century philosophical treatise* that considered people and their situations as a wide range of shapes - including triangles and oblongs, and...
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