Non-executive directors can be extremely valuable to growing businesses – if you let them
For start-ups, the presence of a prestigious industry heavyweight can open doors, helping the founder win new customers and backers. For these and for more established firms alike, NEDs can also serve as a much-valued voice of experience. Perhaps they’re a veteran CEO or founder themselves and have experienced the growing pains of a dynamic […]
Do you run your business like an army or a farm?
Something that once was used to store several decades’ worth of half-read family Christmas presents suddenly became a prestige piece during video calls. A little game developed where eagle-eyed, amateur psychologists tried to discern a CEO, politician or professor’s character traits based on his or her book collection. The more erudite, usually, the better. One […]
Good growth in a recession: It’s not either-or
When Martin Luther King Jr said those words, he was referring to the civil rights struggle in the USA, clearly a time of great challenge and controversy, when taking a stand for what was right took great courage. But the message applies today: what we do in hard times shows our character. These are hard […]
A quick reality check for your strategy
You have goals you are trying to achieve, competitors who are trying to beat you to it, and a set of rules that govern what you can and can’t do. Like most complex games, success is dependent on having a sharp strategy and a plan for how you can win that cascades into smaller plans […]
Leading over the holidays: 3 festive rules
The figure of Ebenezer Scrooge looms large at this time of year. Charles Dickens’ most famous character is also the most famous Christmastime boss, and a yardstick of sorts for the rest of us. Needless to say, it’s a comparison few would like to earn. But getting leadership right over the holiday period is a […]
What they don’t tell you about leading flexible teams
That prognosis still probably holds in the long term, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see a relapse over the next year. The cost of living crisis and recession are focusing minds. People are unlikely to be as insistent about their working conditions if they’re worried about meeting mortgage payments. At the same time, the […]
5 leadership horror stories
Her own Nightmare on Downing Street will surely go down as a case study in disastrous leadership. Miscalculations, intransigence, betrayal, screeching U-turns and a collapse in authority, all in the space of a few weeks. For leaders in less rarefied and unenviable positions, it can be useful to reflect on a cold, near-Halloween night on […]
How to find your purpose (a sceptic’s guide)
Simon Sinek’s bestseller Start With Why hit a nerve in 2009 with a message that was both revelatory and obvious: great businesses and great leaders are not determined by what they do or how they do it; what mattered was why. Purpose duly became the business buzzword of the following decade, no doubt helped by the global […]
5 black leaders you should know about
In 2021, something unusual happened – a fact made the news! This fact was one that most people in the headhunting world could have told you: there were at the time precisely zero black CEOs, CFOs or chairs of FTSE 100 companies. Progress has been made, according to the recent Parker Review, with 96% of FTSE 100 […]
3 characteristics of inclusive leaders
The Black Lives Matter protests that reignited after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 belatedly made these business issues too. Many firms have since ventured into the somewhat uncomfortable political territory of standing up for a cause, if for no other reason than because consumers and employees expect it. Sometimes, they get into hot […]
