I was invited to observe a meeting with a client last week. Ten of the invitees arrived on time but the meeting didn’t start on time because a couple of ‘key’ people were missing. And then, when it finally got underway, I realized that most of the attendees weren’t sure what the meeting was all about. As the conversation progressed, one or two peo...
Read MoreAn area that people get wrong all the time is pricing. Some people price high based on the profits they hope to achieve. Some base it on some sort of average industry “cost plus” rule. Some are afraid to charge too much. Still others simply add a few percent to last year’s price. So before you set your next price or quote your next deal here are A...
Read MoreAt a recent event organized by Peter Jaskiewicz at University of Ottawa and the Ontario CPA, the above participants each weighed in on a family business case study to provide succession advice based on their expertise. And while each piece of advice was excellent, I couldn’t help thinking about the old adage of ‘when you have a hammer – everythin...
Read MoreYou have at least 10 projects sitting on your to-do list grinding away at you every day. Whatever you do, you feel you should be doing something else instead. So, which one should you do next? There are only so many hours in a day, only so many people to help you get things done, and yet so much to do. A question that crops up regularly from clie...
Read MoreIf you are in business, you have stakeholders. They are all the people that have an interest in what you are doing or could be affected by what you are doing. At a recent Stakeholder Management workshop that I was running we were wrapping up and it was question time. There is always some bright spark that asks the question that attempts to cram a...
Read MoreI was talking with one of our fast-growing coaching clients the other day. Inevitably, with growth comes a little pain. The current pain for this CEO was that he had to let go of some control, and hand more responsibility to his staff so that he could spend less time in the business and more time on the business. It's not an unusual situation.
Read MoreThirty years ago today, I was travelling along the main street in Bar-le-Duc in North-eastern France in a small Renault 4 driven by a rather large Corsican. I remember the car leant slightly to the left with the distribution of weight. I was working in France at the time and still learning French and developing a strange mix of accents: fast Parisi...
Read MoreHave you ever wondered what the difference is between a leader and a manager? Which do you think you are? How can you tell? OK, so that was a bit of a red herring sort of question – I deliberately tried to mislead you, which is the whole point of this blog. Now, answer this question (not a red herring this time): do you have anyone working for you...
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