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Showing posts from April, 2018

Why competitors are like milk... (3-min read)

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I was thinking about competitors earlier today and realised that with the training work I do there are quite a few of them out there. There are global companies with Australian offices, large, medium and small Australian training companies, along with dozens of sole traders like me. Then I looked at my sales funnel and realised that the top of it was looking a little bit thin, I started worrying about all those competitors. My thought process was getting negative, so I decided it was time to take a break and make breakfast. As I was pouring almond milk on my cereal I realised that my competitors and I are a bit like milk. Bear with me here... I’ve never liked cow’s milk, even as a kid I didn’t drink milk by itself - I only ever had milk on cereal, or in a glass carefully placed on top of two-inches of Milo in the bottom (damn that Milo was good). However, a lot of people like cow’s milk, some like full cream, low-fat or skim. Others like soy milk, or almond (the best), co

LEADERSHIP PART TWO - Why Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast...

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As covered in Part One, see below for the eight critical areas and behaviours which I think a leader needs to focus on if they want to be successful in the 21st century. For this Blog Post I am only going to tackle the first point below on CULTURE, and I’ll throw into the ‘breakfast fry-up’ a little bit of the second and third points as well. Build and reinforce the right culture (promoting gritty and growth mindsets) Be authentic and have a purpose Aim for alignment Reinforce an open communication policy (internal & external) Practice active listening (be curious and empathetic) Do  not  be the smartest person in the room Support and promote the team over the individual Have a plan and take action  NB: The majority of these practices are not mutually exclusive, and often the theories supporting the concepts either reinforce each other or are connected - much like bacon, sausages and egg. A definition of culture: “Culture can be defined as the values, ide