All tagged scaleup

Are you getting your kicks in all the wrong places?

A lot of the senior leaders I work with find they’re low energy because, as natural high achievers, they get their buzz from doing things and getting results. They find that rather than building a whole list of things that drain them, they actually end up feeling as though they just don’t have a very big list of things that energise them.

As you get towards the top of any organisation, two things happen. Firstly you now have a team who are eager to do things and get results themselves and secondly the external validation that tells you you’re doing well, and that high achievers thrive on, starts to diminish.

The new business metrics you need to pay attention to

With recent announcements feeling a bit more positive and the first signs of spring emerging, I’m allowing some cautious optimism to creep in! But there’s still a great deal of uncertainty, and a lot of change still to come right?

If you’re feeling tired, or finding it difficult to get clarity at the end of this very tumultuous time, you’re not alone. Change makes us feel out of control, which in turn makes it very hard to think.

Not just that but significant turmoil or change can make it hard to make sense of your business based on the usual metrics or KPIs. Often the numbers simply don’t make sense when the contextual change is so enormous.

What's next for the office?

Last week I saw a quote from the CEO of Unilever - '5 days in the office seems so old fashioned now’.

It stayed with me, as important ideas often do. I started thinking about how quickly that sense of obsolescence has manifested. But then I started thinking about all the conversations I’ve had over the years, with colleagues, with clients and with myself! And I thought - no - 5 days in the office doesn’t’ seem old fashioned NOW - it always has!

Ever since my days in middle management corporate roles I found that the 9 to 5 really didn’t suit me. I was more than willing to come in at 5 am some days, stay til 10 pm on others but what I wanted was a credit debit system.

Be More Gazelle - How to grow your business at speed...

A week today I attended an event called Be More Gazelle - How to grow your business at speed...

I’ll start with a confession… before this event I had no idea what a Gazelle was. Obviously I know it's a kind of deer like mammal but in business terms, not a clue! It turns out I probably should have done because it’s exactly the kind of companies I work with. According to The FT it's an extremely fast growing company (20% + YOY) that maintains consistent momentum. 

 

Are you a secret Gazelle? I can’t be the only person that doesn’t know what one is?!

 

The event was run by Upstream – a fab initiative that's aiming to redress the silicon roundabout East-West imbalance and make Hammersmith and Fulham the best place to do business in Europe. What an exciting vision! Are you in the West of London? Look it up and get involved. There were far too many business advisors there and not enough actual businesses and I'd love to feel as though I was part of a growing and thriving community of great businesses.