The Biden presidency continues on its’ merry way with a series of impulsive decisions (taxation, Afghanistan), and the latest a lifting of travel restrictions into the country for UK and EU residents. A decision that clearly very few outside the inner sanctum of the White House were aware of or privy to based on the lack of answers to simple questions.
Whatever happened to the talk of “bringing people with you”, after the last guy?
The belief that we must pack into a day as much as possible, often stems from a very early childhood and lousy parental advice. Yet for some people, it is hardwired into their belief system, and manifest in work and life calendars where there is a constant state of overwhelm, excessive tiredness and a feeling of helplessness. Until that premise is challenged, nothing will ever change.
A great many small businesses are chasing business at prices, which is unsustainable today. Why? The fear (missing out on good and bad business), guilt (how could I charge so much?) and “servant of the customer” belief (we are lucky they’ll consider us) is creating a huge problem for another day.
If their intent is to move from surviving to thriving, and they trust their own judgement and talent (value), why wouldn’t their prices reflect that? The answer of course, is they don’t.
Until the “cause” of those behaviours is addressed, the owner and/or manager’s self-worth, they cannot shift out of a never-ending survival mode.
I am frequently asked at the moment by entrepreneurs, whose best laid plans have been thrown up in the air by Covid for names of people with a high potential need for their value. Rarely is it specific, names, title or organisations or indeed, clear who they want to be a year from now.
If you cannot answer both questions, you have immediate work to do to get back on your feet.
If you cannot figure that out within a month, get professional help with your transition.
If it sounds like too much effort, perhaps the uncomfortable truth is that you are not best suited to an entrepreneurial career. Most people aren’t.
The return from summer gathers a pace in London, kids back in school, increasing traffic congestion and the London Evening Standard carrying pictures of glum-faced workers crossing London Bridge on a daily commute they hoped never would return. Casual drinks conversations start with what the employer’s policy is on working from home or the office? Some bosses bang the table, strident in the view that now is the time for the “great return”, others tiptoe around or trumpet their innovative flexible working guideline. All of it seems rather pointless. Why wouldn’t you let real client business drive how the firm organises itself, and the real-time responsiveness to your clients and prospects’ existing and anticipated needs?
After all, doesn’t your expensively designed website and marketing collaterals talk colourfully about your “client-centric approach to working”? Oh, perhaps your really didn’t intend to take it that far?
What is the point of a promise if you don’t keep it? If leadership is largely “earned respect”, simply darting from one populist position to another that directly conflicts with prior commitments made to your employees, your investors and your business partners, says more about your insecurities as a leader (quest for power) than the decisions you are or have made.
Starved of live events, the virtual event platforms have flourished but here is the kicker, the content needs be more provocative, more thought-provoking, and in the moment, to keep the viewer’s attention.
Is there anything more dull than a pre-recorded interview with a corporate executive, who is largely answering stock questions with stock Company PR puff? The audience starved of asking their own questions, it is the Pravda interviews of the Cold War all over again.
I don’t care how many big names you get on your agenda, the viewer experience is dull, dull and dull!
