I desk-top researched the question of ‘the top 10 SME owners’ biggest challenges?’ I found that the answers to be: Reducing operational costs Finding and keeping new business Quality improvement of both products/services and processes Growing the business Improving profit Staff issues, including hiring and culture Improving productivity Reducing time constraints Dealing with uncertainty Competition […]
Small to medium enterprises are our biggest employer group, have a huge impact on our economy, and yet are the most vulnerable! The major challenges they face are: People - their own and their customers Cashflow Business processes Marketing and sales Productivity and innovation The biggest influence on those challenges is the workplace culture of […]
Small to medium enterprises are the engine room of the economy. They employ a staggering 99.8 of the Australian workforce.1 Yet they are also the most vulnerable.2 For example, they are vulnerable to: fluctuating banking policy and behaviour; inability to fund growth and innovation; the buying and marketing power of large enterprise; the ebb and […]
There are those leaders who become losers when Sucking the sauce of seeming special, Sanctioning suspect strategy Studying spreadsheets Selling spin and styles of slavery. They may be busy, but they are not engaged leaders. Because of the law of gravity They are the primary cause of Employee disengagement Poor performance Pathetic productivity […]
Why do some of us insist on making assumptions and holding expectations? Assumptions are just guesses and expectations are assumptions about others’ behaviour, actions and outcomes being in line the holder’s thoughts or opinions. I waste no time with assumptions. What I do instead is ask questions to get answers that are factual. If the […]
Andy (not his real name), was a good team member, but had been distracted from his work by family matters – his wife had been diagnosed with cancer and his daughter’s partner had mental health issues. Andy’s performance had fallen and his supervisor, my client, spoke with him and designed a plan to support Andy […]
Adam and Eve are very different to their biblical namesakes. They had followed similar paths earlier, as university graduates and then fast tracking to executive roles. Whilst they haven’t met each other, they know of each other, because they are both my clients. I met Adam first, when he was the chief operating officer of […]
Michael (not his real name) was the CEO of a family owned company, with about 100 employees, that has a niche market serving custom marine, aero and road vehicles, including motorcycles. (I’ve also altered enough description to ensure confidentiality) The company is sixty years old and Michael is the grandson of the founder. He’s young […]
There are two ways to read that headline, and both are correct. The leader’s behaviour creates, or tolerates or influences the culture. The leader has a primary responsibility for setting or adjusting the culture. You can walk into a business and spend about an hour working and conversing with the people and be able to […]
There’s a severity about our overall culture that seems to be embedded in our workplace. It has to do with judgement, punishment, revenge and isolation. We are quick to demonise others’ transgressions, forgetting our own errors and lesser choices of behaviour. Once a person is judged, s/he is ‘branded’. We hold on to our judgements […]
