Avoiding Ambushes: Leading Change Effectively
In private equity-backed businesses, change isn’t just a part of the job — it is the job. Delivering a value creation plan inevitably requires rapid evolution: new systems, restructured teams, revised strategies, and different ways of working. The challenge isn’t whether change is necessary — it’s how to execute it in a way that sticks.…
Discipline Wins: How Leading Measures Drive Performance
When I was going through Royal Marines training, the Physical Training Instructors had a mantra: “Give 100%, trust the process.” There was no talk of passing the Commando Course. No discussion about the final test or what it would feel like to wear the green beret. Just relentless focus on the next hill sprint, the…
Why the Comfort Zone will kill you…
Necessity is the mother of all invention. Unless something is truly necessary, there is no need for it. It is one of the reasons that wars drive such a pace of innovation. Creating new ways to win becomes absolutely necessary when you are in a fight for survival. People have to focus on the threat…
A Great Strategy is useless without Great Leaders
It doesn’t matter how great the strategy is if the leadership can’t execute it… I have had a few requests from people asking to contribute to this blog. This is the first time that I have accepted though. I think JB (who wishes to remain anonymous) has a strong understanding of what is required to…
4 Differences between Effective and Efficient People
Everyone is looking for ways to be more efficient. Ways in which they can get more stuff done in the limited amount of time that they have. The trouble is that few people focus on being truly effective, and there is a massive difference between a person being effective and a person being efficient. Effectively…
How Organisations Set Leaders Up for Failure
You wouldn’t fly with an untrained pilot – so why would you want to be led by an untrained leader? Why is it culturally acceptable to train people for some roles yet others are just left to get on with it? First Jobs The first job I ever had was working as a ‘temp’ for…
What’s your Purpose, Mission and Vision?
I believe in leading by example. I believe that it forces you to hold yourself to account and maintain high standards. People respond to what we do, not what we say. It is one of the reasons that people who smoke, tend to have children that smoke. It is your behaviour that creates the example you set…
Mental Models: Choosing your Reaction
On the weekend, I was witness to an argument in a park in South London. A group of teenagers somehow got into an argument with a woman that was sat adjacent to them on a picnic table. I don’t know what was said initially and only realised that an argument was starting as people’s voices…
The OODA Loop: From the Battlefield to Business Success
The OODA Loop is one of the most valuable – yet poorly understood – theories that exists. This article is my attempt to explain what the ooda loop is by using examples from business, the military and sport to demonstrate how universally applicable it is. History has proven that favourites don’t always come out on…
The Principles behind a Great Career Conversation
You can’t lead people if you don’t know where they want to go. Career conversations are a crucial part of line management. Helping people to clarify what they want to do and where they want to go is one of the most important tasks you need to complete as a leader. This is not something…
The Art of Delegation: How to Win with a Delegating Leadership Style
Delegation is a core leadership skill and key to the ‘Delegating Leadership Style’ If you can’t effectively delegate, you will hit a point where you are become totally overloaded and you’ll become ineffective. But few companies teach people how to effectively delegate. It’s one of those things that everyone assumes you pick up as you…
Do you plan using your energy levels?
Time is the most valuable resource because you cannot get more of it. Learning how to use our time effectively is not a lesson that we learn. It is a lesson that we have to keep relearning because how we use our time changes as we grow and develop. As a young father, I am…
Why Perseverance is important but might not be such a good thing…
Why is Perseverance Important? Perseverance is a good thing. It is a value that drives us towards success and achievement helping us to overcome challenges along the way. Many great achievements have been the result of the quality of perseverance. Is Perseverance a quality? There is no doubt that perseverance is a quality, but it…
The Theory of Winning – Part Three
Last week, I expanded on mental models and explained how you implement decentralised decision-making. This week, I want to concentrate on focus so that your resources have the greatest possible impact. I also want to explain some simple tools that you can implement immediately to help you get more bang for your buck. Surfaces and…
