Archive for the 'Business Mentoring' Category

Forced Versus Unforced Errors In Business

The controversy surrounding forced and unforced errors in tennis centers on the subjective, inconsistent, and often arbitrary way these statistics are recorded, as they are determined by human scorers rather than objective data. Unforced errors are typically defined as mistakes made when a player has time to prepare and position themselves, while forced errors occur […]

Training Is Quite Simple But Hard To Do

Training is based on the concept of Operant Conditioning, best demonstrated with this adorable puppy… The HARD part with training people is that they RESIST and RETURN to their DEFAULT modality even when they’re motivated and incentivised to make the chance/shift. This is the perennial problem every leader/manager needs to overcome. If you’re trying to […]

Consultant, Advisor, Strategist, Mentor, Motivator: What’s The Diff?

Most business owners don’t fail because they lack effort. They fail because they hire the wrong type of help for the outcome they actually want. Here’s the uncomfortable truth: If you confuse types, you’ll get what you asked for and you might not be happy with the results. Before you spend a dollar, you need […]

Too Many Ideas Can Kill Your Company

I think we can all agree that COMING UP with ideas is fun (and easy). That’s why so many entrepreneurs indulge in the HABIT of coming up with them, but don’t “quite” get around to deploying them — profitably. Jeff Bezos explains this predicament well in this short 3-minute video. So, what should you do […]

Beware Of Having Too Many Rules

This is deep. Re-read it a few times. Take the time to let it sink in. You want thinkers, not tickers, taskers or thoughters! To avoid this, you need to TRAIN instead of teach and tell!

Confusing Contradictions and (Internal) Conflicts

I see this pattern over and over again when I sit across from founders, CEOs, and senior leaders. They’ll say something like:“I feel pulled in opposite directions.”Or: “I don’t know why this feels so hard—I know what I should do.”Or my personal favourite: “Am I just being inconsistent?” Most of the time, they’re not inconsistent […]

Bandwidth, Cognitive Tunnelling, Reactive Thinking: How (Even) Smart Business Owners Unknowingly Sabotage Themselves

If you’re a small business owner–operator, let me start by putting you at ease. There is nothing “wrong” with you. In fact, if anything, you’re probably highly capable, driven, conscientious, and far more resilient than the average person. The very traits that allowed you to build a business from nothing are also the traits that […]

What is “the putative central governor”?

In extreme sports, the putative central governor is a proposed regulatory process within the brain that limits physical exertion and causes the sensation of fatigue to protect the body’s internal stability (homeostasis) and prevent catastrophic organ damage. Proposed Mechanism: The model suggests that the subconscious brain controls how many muscle fibers are recruited during exercise. […]

Thoughting Versus Thinking

What is THOUGHTING? THOUGHTING is a word I made up to describe the intellectual equivalent of speed dating: Quick, shallow, and often leaving everyone involved feeling unsatisfied. THOUGHTING is superficial thinking disguised as deep analysis. It’s when Bob from accounting confidently declares, “The marketing budget should obviously be cut by 30%,” after glancing at a […]

Ticking, Tasking Versus Thinking

If you’ve ever walked into your office and felt like you’d stumbled onto the set of “The Office”—but without the laugh track—you’re not alone. Many small business owners find themselves surrounded by staff who are physically present, dutifully checking boxes, but mentally checked out. The coffee is strong, the Wi-Fi is (mostly) reliable, but the […]

Inbox Management Checklist for Productive Remote Professionals

This is your go-to reference for keeping email from draining your time and energy. 1. Use the Eisenhower Matrix to Prioritise 👉 Sort emails into 4 categories: Urgent & Important: Respond or action immediately. Important, Not Urgent: Schedule time to handle it. Urgent, Not Important: Delegate if possible. Neither: Archive or delete. 📍 Helps focus […]

Crystal Clear Communication

Picture this: Two passionate table tennis players, Alex and Janet, are practicing in the the office recreation room, completely absorbed in discussing their technique and equipment. In the adjacent room, Sarah, a new office employee, is completely unaware of the context of their conversation. Alex (adjusting his paddle): “I’m having trouble with these loose balls […]

Telling versus Training versus Teaching

Sarah stared at her computer screen, her coffee growing cold beside her keyboard. The spreadsheet before her was a technicolor nightmare of mismatched data, courtesy of her newest team member, Jake. For the third time this month, the client billing report looked more like a modern art piece than a financial document. “Not again,” she […]

Great advice about toxic team members…!

I could not have said it better myself… But then again his name is Mark <– with a K, which I can overlook! Click here to read what Mark Bouris thinks of toxic staff.  

Branding Blunders To Avoid When Choosing A New Business Name

As I previously blogged, coming up with a great business name is not easy. Especially now that we have to deal with other businesses from around the world that might be using the name. With the Internet, we need to think globally instead of locally. I followed up my original blog article with a 9-point […]

Road To Success – There are no shortcuts

I can’t vouch for the authenticity of this photo – but the message remains vividly clear – there are no shortcuts to success. Yet we see it every day – people who buy into the “get rich quick” schemes promoted by the spruikers… If it’s too good to be true… It is. That doesn’t mean […]

2016 Australian Holidays

If you are planning an event or activity this year, you’ll want to have a look at the 2016 Australian Public Holiday and School Holiday Calendar. You often hear about value creation as a key to business (sales and marketing) success. Creating something like this calendar for your clients, friends, suppliers, creates value – quite […]

Overheard at a recent private workshop

If you are a subscriber or regular reader of this blog, you’ll have noticed that the frequency of my blog posts has been reduced quite substantially over the past few years. I have refocused my time, effort and attention on my most elite, high performance clients – my Platinum Program Members. Since these are private […]

Women In Business Resource

As you (should) know, I am a huge advocate for more women in business and a proponent of female entrepreneurs. If you would like to know how much progress has been made and what still needs to improve, have a look at this valuable up-to-date infographic on women in business….  

Exponential Marketing 101

Today’s topic is the example of a good idea that could have been great. First, have a look at this IT workshop Money Back Guarantee proposition… Don’t get me wrong, it’s different and will probably resonate quite well with the target audience, but can you pick up the sub-optimal presupposition? It’s not obvious… Re-read it […]