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20th June 2011 / Posted in: Bourne International Community College (BICC), Development, Education, Finding employment , General, Voluntary work
World of Work Day
The Bourne International Community College in Southbourne is running a day for its year 9 students on 13th July. It's a bit like a mini 'Apprentice' and it's success depends on support from local business people. If you can support their venture please get in touch with Lorraine Daughtrey at ldaughtrey@wsgfl.org.uk.
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18th May 2011 / Posted in: General, Management, Operational management, Productivity, Strategy
What Keeps You Awake At Night?
What stops you sleeping? Other than your partner snoring, or car alarms going off in the night, we sometimes find ourselves lying awake mulling over business concerns such as cash flow, cost control, sales pipeline, winning new business, retaining existing business, managing clients, competitor activity, staff performance, being too busy and not having enough time for everything, work-life balance, etc. Every business is different, as is our individual capacity for managing stress, so I’ve chosen just three worries which have given my clients, friends and me sleepless nights.
Start with the end in sight
I’ve been asked this same question by business owners who work for themselves and have a really unique set of skills and experiences, and others growing their business. The question they both want answered is whether, or when, they should take on staff. My answer to both is a question - ‘What is your exit plan?’ Do you want to turn the lights off, close the door and go home when it’s time to move on to the next thing, or do you want a business to sell? If you want the former then you’ll need to manage the business to maximise your revenue streams.
The latter is more complex because if you’ve been doing everything yourself, and your business is ‘your baby,’ you may have difficulty letting go. You may not be the best person to analyse your strengths, and the complementary skills required to share the load, so taking professional advice may save sleepless nights in the long term.
Taking your eye off the ball
If you’ve been in business a number of years, and you have a number of long standing clients, a good sales pipeline and you’re reasonably effective at winning new business you probably enjoy what you do and feel quite pleased with the way business is going. But, it’s easy to feel too comfortable and take your eye off the ball in such a subtle way that you don’t even notice you are doing it. Compared with the early days you deliver services to your clients more efficiently, you’re more familiar with your clients, your hunger is less pronounced and you’ve drifted out of the habit of challenging yourself to ensure you’re going the extra mile. Your clients seem happy. Nothing is broken so there’s nothing to fix. You’ve become complacent, you haven’t noticed and it’s a dangerous place to be.
Then disaster strikes. What seems like a insignificant oversight really damages a long standing client relationship and they either terminate the contract or ask you to re-tender. The mistake seems disproportionate to the client reaction. Either way, you feel devastated and you lie at wake feeling guilty and worrying about your other client relationships.
This isn’t an unusual situation and one I’ve experienced as an employee. The reality is that statistics show clients move on every 7 years. Your oversight just provided the trigger.
Don’t lose more sleep - learn from your mistake to avoid repeating the disaster:
- if you’ve had clients for 5 years or more, start succession planning - don’t wait until you lose a client
- business is dynamic. If you haven’t refreshed your offering for the last couple of years it’s time you did
- don’t put off a periodic review because business is going well and you think the relationship will stand it, and don’t make it a repeat of the last review
- keep watching your competitors and your clients’ competitors
- put your self in your clients’ shoes. What would make them move to another supplier?
- remember that going the extra mile when the client relationship started is very different from what you need to do for a mature client business
- your priorities are not your clients’ priorities (see below)
- clients hire you because of your personality and the perceived added value you would bring. They probably selected two or three competitors for the original pitch but it was something about you that won the business. Over time this uniqueness can fade so it’s important not to get too comfortable in a relationship. Most relationships that fail - whether personal or business - do so because of poor communication.
The waiting game
Have you ever sent a proposal to a client and heard nothing for weeks, sent information a client needed urgently and heard nothing, found yourself waiting for a signed agreement or purchase order to progress a project you’ve agreed with the client? Most of us have been kept waiting, and probably lost sleep over it thinking the worst.
What we forget is that our priorities are not our client’s priorities, and most of our clients have many responsibilities and priorities we don’t even know about, so the trick is not to worry. In my experience if clients are unhappy they’ll waste no time telling you. If you have a deadline to meet - don’t rely on e-mail - pick up the phone. Leaving a message or speaking to a colleague conveys more urgency than an e-mail. If there’s no deadline then give the client a week then e-mail or call. I had a client whose capability intimidated me. I was approaching a deadline, had heard nothing so plucked up courage to pick up the phone. It was a great decision. The client was clearly much happier to discuss the issues on the phone than ping e-mails back and fore. And, guess what - I feel more in tune with my client and I’m no longer feeling intimidated.
If I request information from someone I always e-mail a thank you as I think it’s bad manners not to do so. However I’ve found that my standards are not always the same as those of my clients or suppliers which can leave me feeling nervous when I've sent them something and heard nothing. It can be true that no news is good news as if you get it wrong you'll hear soon enough so if you hear nothing leave it a few days then call to check what you've sent has arrived safely.
It's easy to fall into the trap of being less formal about aspects of managing relationships with clients. To ensure everyone has the same perception of what was agreed at a meeting it's a good idea to write a succinct contact report, and when meetings are arranged verbally don't forget to send an e-mail confirmation.
This blog was written as a guest blog for Sussex Enterprise and published on their website in April 2011.
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23rd February 2011 / Posted in: General, Human Resources, Management, Operational management, Productivity, Time management
Let’s follow the US and take a lunch break!
I’ve always been a firm believer that it’s good to take a break as doing something completely different is invigorating and I work far more effectively as a result. It’s why I like going abroad for the weekend as the different language and culture gives you the feeling you’ve been away for ages.
At work it isn’t realistic to do something as different at lunch time but some fresh air (or different air) and a change of scene is something we all need. However when I’m really busy and it’s pouring with rain, I too am guilty of taking lunch at my keyboard then at the end of the day I’m drained and not always pleased with my achievements. The reality is I know I’s have found time if I’d had to cope with unplanned interruptions.
In December I came across a blog, on the Harvard Business Review website, by Tony Schwarz entitled “Six ways to refuel your energy every day” and it really struck a chord. Although I’m not a big reader of business books I immediately ordered a copy of his book “The way we’re working isn’t working” and started followed him on Twitter. I’m a real advocate of what he says and regularly dip into the book to remind myself of how to work really effectively.
Last week he tweeted about “Take back your lunch” – a movement across America which encourages workers to take a collective lunch break every Wednesday. It’s a great idea which I think is worth sharing so I hope that today, and at least every Wednesday, you take a proper break at lunch time.
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24th January 2011 / Posted in: Business efficiency, General, Management, Operational management, Productivity, Strategy, Time management
How much of your time is spent profitably?
My day last Friday started with a networking breakfast with the Chichester Chamber of Commerce and Industry at Vicars Hall. I wasn’t wholly focused on networking and eating as, in a moment of weakness, I’d agreed to do the 10 minute presentation. Consequently my mind was preoccupied with pre-presenting nerves and whether my Taurean tendencies would deposit fried egg and coffee down the front of my crisp white shirt.
My shirt remained unscathed and judging by the feedback, on Twitter, e-mail and text, my presentation – “How much of your time is spent profitably?” – which only touched the surface of the subject – was very well received. It’s a great feeling when things go well and although a number of people requested copies of the slides I thought a blog would be more useful, so here goes …
How much of your time is spent profitably?
My background is in operational management which centred around developing businesses to reach their full potential through utilising their resources effectively. As people are usually one of their most important resources, particularly in smaller organisations, I became HR qualified.
There isn’t a magic answer to using your time more profitably – but if you want different results you probably need to change the way you work. It’s easier said than done given that a staggering 95% of our behaviour happens out of habit – either subconsciously or as a result of external demands. That’s why we keep doing what we’ve always done – because it’s comfortable and familiar. We also have an infinite capacity for self deception so it’s easy to convince ourselves that if we want to work more profitably we just need to work longer hours.
Central to every (serious) business is its strategy, and writing one takes an enormous amount of time and effort, particularly for small or medium sized businesses. In my experience once the strategy is written and agreed, everyone involved gives a sigh of relief and moves onto something else. It’s always struck me as odd that we go to so much effort to write a “recipe” for success then fail to refer to it regularly.
Many of us prioritise what we want to do, or what someone is shouting for, rather than focusing on delivering our strategy. That’s often because the strategic priorities take us somewhere we don’t like going – outside our comfort zone. But, for your strategy to become part of your priorities – what I call “making strategy reality” – it needs to be part of every working day for you and all your staff. After all if your staff aren’t all working towards delivering the strategy, what are they doing, what are you doing ….. and why are you paying them?
To make your strategy reality means recognising your strategic priorities – even if you are continually bombarded by non strategic demands. This quote by Dr Stephen Covey says exactly that – very succinctly –
“The key is not to prioritise what’s on your schedule ... but to schedule your priorities”
You can make your strategy part of every working day by:
- identifying the objectives, goals and actions needed to deliver your strategy and translating them into manageable, achievable chunks for everyone in the organisation.
- using your diary – not just for appointments but for scheduling time to focus on your strategic actions. In my experience if it’s not in the diary it won’t happen. Electronic diaries are great as you can colour code everything. Don’t be tempted to fill your diary up with long sessions thinking you’ll get something cracked because it’s been proven that we can’t stay fully focused, and work intensively and productively, for more than 90 minutes at a stretch. (see The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working by Tony Schwartz)
- making two “to do” lists. It’s something I’ve adopted and it works. I write it in a book and on the left hand page I list my strategic priorities for the week – I often call them revenue generating and on the facing page I list all the rest. I’ve found it works better than the traditional way of identifying important and urgent. I schedule time for the strategic priorities, for breaks and for time to get the other actions done.
This may be sounding like it’s creating more work for you – firstly I’ve asked you to change the way you work, then to add your strategic priorities to your workload – so how are you going to fit all this in? Take look at yourself and the demands on you at work. Do you:
- Pursue what you love – always work to your strengths and passion. Do you have the skills, passion and application to deliver the strategy? If the buck stops with you it doesn’t mean that you actually have to do all the strategic priorities
- Spend 80% of your time doing what you are best at
- Review your work load in light of what you love and what you are best at and ask yourself – “Am I the best person to do this?” If you aren’t then the most effective solution is to delegate or outsource
I’ve suggested some big changes which will involve a lot of personal effort, self-discipline and commitment – or you could just stay doing what you’re doing and put your prices up to make more profit.
- by making strategy reality your business will fly
- you’ll have the best people doing every job if you delegate or outsource which brings competitive advantage
- you’ll have more time to focus on what you are really good at
So in summary your business is more likely to reach it’s full potential …. and so are you.
I’ve only had time to touch on this enormous subject very briefly and would like to leave you with a one final thought about how our busy busy lives are affecting us. It’s a quote from Tony Schwartz:
“Is the life you are leading worth the price you are paying to live it?”
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