How To Accelerate Implementation Across Departments
One of the most frustrating and wasteful drags on implementation speed is having to wait for people in other internal departments to do things.
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Everyone An Innovator
The most valuable innovation opportunities are often not technological, even in high tech companies.
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Issues for Senior Executives
The Importance of Customer Experience is Nothing New – But it IS Important
I read recently that "customer experience is the new battleground". Is there something to this, or is it just another take on customer service?
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Is There Anything New Under The Sun?
We’ve all heard it said that “there’s nothing new under the sun”, and that “everything goes back to the Greeks” (although there will sometimes be someone who triumphantly points out that the Greeks didn’t have laser surgery, WiFi or international jet travel). Which new trends are more than just a fad, and what's old but timeless?
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Are Virtual Teams Better Than ‘Real’ Ones?
Virtual teams appear to offer some huge benefits, including massive savings of travel time and costs, increased organisation-wide access to talent, an advantageous new contract between organisations and contributors. But are they as good as the 'real thing'? Perhaps surprisingly, they could even be better.
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Articles on talent management and development in professional service firms
Putt's Law has it that "technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand." Professionals, by contrast, can sometimes understand too much about what they manage.
Read Part 1: The Succession Pipeline
Read Part 2: The Road Ahead
Aligning Strategy & Execution
What's a Strategy For?
There are many approaches to strategy, but in general there's too much emphasis on favourite methodologies, and not enough on the results a strategy should be delivering.
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Sidestepping Business Growth Pitfalls
Growth has its pitfalls - some financial, and others to do with people. Success can depend on your ability to handle them both simultaneously.
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Making a Merger More Successful: the crucial role of 'culture shock', and how to prevent it
(Appeared in Business & Finance Midlands Magazine, March 2008)
Once the 'deal heat' cools post-merger, someone has to figure out how everyone can work together. On the evidence, just expecting them to get on with it doesn't do the job.
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Strategise First, then Plan
Although it is often attempted, trying to merge planning with strategic thinking can lead to disappointing results. Why?
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Building High Performance Teams
Five Themes for High Performance Teams
Whether your current team is not functioning as you feel it could, or you're doing well but want to boost performance to the next level, here are five key areas to look at for improvement.
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The Hallmark of True Teams
Most so-called teams really aren't teams at all... here's how to tell what you've got.
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How to Prevent Mad, Bad or even Dangerous Meetings
Nothing is more demoralising than a time- (and money-) wasting meeting. And sometimes groups can make mad, bad or even dangerous decisions that their individual members would never dream of when acting alone.
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Leadership and Executive Effectiveness
Real Leadership Development: Less about 'charisma', more about learnable behaviours
Organisations need to work with and through humans, not supermen.
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Who sets your personal strategy - you or your inbox?
This article accompanies the presentation of the same title that I gave to Birmingham Future on 4th June 2008. A look at career strategy in an unpredictable world, with clear suggestions for action.
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How to Develop a Range of Leadership Styles
Looking around at the successful leaders of both the past and the present, it is obvious that there isn't 'one best way' to lead.
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Andrew Bass's 8 Steps to Effective Delegation
Benefit from other peoples' efforts, aid in their development, and get more from your time into the bargain - all while increasing your control.
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Don't Just Present - Call to Action!
It matters less what they think about your presentation than what they do as a result of hearing it...
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Ten Top Tips for Presentations
"I had an impromptu speech to make and your hints came in very handy indeed!" - Anthony McCourt of Wragge & Co, talking about receiving the award for Birmingham Young Professional of the Year, 2008.
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Building Relationships and Communicating Value
When relationship-building doesn't work: your three options for handling procurement professionals
To procurement professionals, your bespoke service is just another commodity. They are tough negotiators who are not interested in a relationship. Here are your options.
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Articles on building a sales culture published in Managing Partner Magazine
While they have been traditionally coy about the idea of selling, many professional service firms now recognise that modern sales and sales management is an idea whose time has come.
Read Article 1: Boosting the Top Line
Read Article 2: Road Map to a Sales Culture
Articles on business relationship development published in Legal Week
A professional service firm has three key intangible assets: its technical excellence, its brand, and its relationships. Of these, the third has to be built one person at a time, and professional education does little to prepare a firm's people for this commercial reality.
Read Article 1: Keeping in Touch
Read Article 2: The Competitive Edge
How to boost your perceived value through judicious questioning
How two extra questions can make all the difference in a sale of sophisticated services.
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Stakeholder Management
Tilting the Cultural Playing Field in Your Direction
Remember the Myth of Sisyphus? The gods condemned him to roll a rock ceaselessly to the top of a mountain, and when he got it there, it would roll back down again. If you ever feel like poor Sisyphus when you're trying to change behaviour, you might need to look at whether your culture with you or against you.
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