Tag: company strategy

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Anonymous Career Advice

Knowing it’s time to leave vs unfinished business

unfinished business?

This week’s anonymous career advice is going to be applicable for many people over the next quarter, with more people returning to offices and continuing working in the hybrid environment, we will see staff of all levels question is it time to leave or complete your role at your current company.

Dear focus, I have been in a director of role for the last three years and a director of for two years before this at another company, although I feel like I have Unfinished business, I’m not sure if it’s time for me to leave and take on my next challenge. Can you help?

You are encountering something that many people will be wrangling with over the next six to nine months. 

Regarding your specific question, there are a few layers to unpack.

Service:
The job market has shifted a lot over the last 18 months, there are many businesses rehiring, there are many companies growing and expanding headcount, there are others making the calculated risk to hire and mature their teams with more senior hires. 

Gone are the days in many markets you stay with a company for over a decade most tenure is under four years, so you have been with this company in a senior role for a good time period. 

Service and tenure can work for you and against you, one thing to ensure is ‘have you used up your social capital’ and have you become part of the furniture vs adding real value and being listened to? 

Regularly this can be understood by speaking to those around you and those above you, if your influence has declined and you feel like this is hurting your career, it might just be time to explore and get back to high performance and being valued. 

Title:
Many titles can be misleading, it doesn’t necessarily indicate your influence within the company or the level you operate at externally. 

If you are disheartened about the same title or not being able to take a V title or a c-suite title, there might be ways to ask for the timeline when this might be available. 

Is promotion an important thing to you? Are titles important to you where you are at? If yes, you need to understand the timeline and understand how you are considered internally, often this is harder to gain feedback on, however speaking to your boss, your colleagues on the same level and HR can help you understand this. Be prepared for tough questions and honest feedback loops. 

Know Your Worth?
Something an old boss used to say to me and what Netflix tells their employees, take the meeting or the interview see what you are worth or what might be out there. 

An important question to ask yourself is do you doubt yourself or have you lost some confidence in your current role?

If yes, it’s probably time to look at updating your cv/resume and start having conversations with recruiters and headhunters. 

If you have been unhappy in this role and need some help I suggest reading the professional injuries blog post to help you break down what is happening and why. 

To answer if it is unfinished business or time to leave, you will know in your own mind, you will have a feeling, unfinished business is often a reason why many people stay in their role when they don’t know what they want to do or where they want to go next. 

I would really question if you having doubts, you should start proactively making a change,  start with LinkedIn, CV and start having conversations, external conversations will help you make the right decision. 

Sometimes better the devil you know other times it takes the right step forward to catapult your career onwards and upwards.  

I recommend you to use a Risk vs benefits framework you can easily see what risks you have staying and what benefits you might have.

You can then apply the same risk vs benefit analysis for leaving. 

Once you complete the analysis you will be in a better place to answer this question for yourself and for your future. 

I always recommend writing a professional SWOT when you are at a crossroads. This is likely the time to put yourself first.

Consider introducing interview practice runs into your department as it will help your colleagues and help you prepare for what might be to come. 

If you are looking for other advice and tips for virtual interviews read this leaders letter.

My personal experience is, if you feel like you have unfinished business and you can make the changes required, you should map this out in detail and if you have the feeling it is time to leave don’t leave it too late as you will kick yourself and you may feel like your career has gone backwards. 

Best of luck with your decision, if you are asking the right question – you are on the right track. 

Categories
Focus News hybrid office

The Future State Of Work Podcast

This week Nick and I discussed the future state of work, obviously, this is very topical with the return to the office and the chatter around how Basecamp has changed their policy and saw backlash, how Google are not giving clear communication to their employees and how the likes of Twitter, IBM and Slack are suggesting you can work from wherever you like vs having to be in one HQ or a satellite office.

With so much of this discussion being relevant to Focus, I wanted to share this specific episode for you to read and share with your executive team.

On the podcast we discuss:

  • The hybrid office and why it is the future
  • The relationship with Company culture and why hybrid is going to be a gift and a challenge for so many HR teams and poor managers
  • How company performance is going to thrive or drop depending on how good your management skills are
  • Why company strategy, is essential to making work work, and hybrid being a driver for positive change in strategy

The future can be hard to predict, however, Nick and I have broken down what and how as much as possible for businesses of all sizes.

This podcast helps you understand how you can overcome some challenges, how to be smarter with hybrid, what your options might be and how to learn from big companies like Salesforces approach to feedback loops and maybe on the other side, Coinbase and their move to close their HQ.

If podcasts are not your thing, happily read the full transcript below.

Useful Focus Resources:

If you would like to subscribe to the podcast

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Continue reading “The Future State Of Work Podcast”
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Business Performance

25 Meeting Recommendations

The 25 Meeting Recommendations To Improve Your Companies Performance

 

Meetings take up to 15% of all time within work. In very few organisations they teach you how to run successful meetings, how attendees are supposed to participate and what success looks like at the end of each meetings.

Company success is often shaped as much by meetings as their company strategy. 

Bad meetings impact company culture and often are the causes of teams misaligning and interpersonal conflict. 

With the number of meetings increasing, the lengths of meetings reducing but the frequency of repeat meetings, it is essential we reduce the friction of meetings and help to structure, optimise and improve meetings. 

On our mission to fix the broken world of work, we collated our 25 most suggested meeting recommendations to help your organisation to succeed. 

  1. Ask the question: does this have to be a meeting?
  2. Answer: Could this be a memo? 
  3. Whole company agreement: No meetings to have another meeting 
  4. AHA: Always Have Agenda’s 
  5. Keep track of ‘meeting moments and movements’ – centralise all notes, decisions and actions and share across to all invitees and if open allow all to view
  6. Always answer what is the objective of this meeting
  7. Agendas are great for meetings that require structure 
  8. Always have refresh agendas – with 50% of meetings repeat and agendas recycled you are fighting against yourself 
  9. No agenda = No attendance can work if enforce top to bottom 
  10. Agendas remove creativity – think of this when brainstorming and problem-solving 
  11. Always explain to each attendee why they are attending, what their expected role is and how they can help move the meeting forward 
  12. HiPPO’s have to encourage and support employee first engagement 
  13. Have no spectators rules – Steve Jobs would remove people who did not contribute to meetings 
  14. Remove awkward starts to meetings 
  15. If the meeting fails quickly gift people their time back 
  16. Feedback is a gift, survey attendees and asks for feedback sessions in the last five minutes of meetings (open documents for open feedback) 
  17. Always have a social element to meetings, never dive straight in, scientific studies and cultural differences have proven no social elements break social bonds and trust in the work environment 
  18. Meeting recovery syndrome is a hugely under-recognised issue within businesses, reduce the number of meetings and 
  19. Employees need help to manage calendars especially in hybrid environments, help to manage and have a meeting champion to share tips and best practices and offer training 
  20. Hybrid meetings are challenging, applying the same attention to those remote as those in the office, you must follow the no a team (in office) and b team (working remotely). Checking on remote attendees and asking for their opinions will be equalisers. Reviewing meeting notes and document updates will be important 
  21. Have meeting attendance guidelines. The quality of meetings drop the more that attend
    1. Other companies rules:
      1. 10 people (Google)
      2. 6 people (Apple)
      3. 2 pizza rule (Amazon) & 7 people + approval by senior meeting
  22. Remove meetings after 16.00 – least productive and often rushed.
    1. If you are an international or tri-time zone company consider how you can rotate these meetings  
  23. Silent start meetings are great for longer-form meetings requiring insights, discussion and alignment. 
  24. Keep and update your decision document to keep clear communications and a canonical home of decisions 
  25. Remember how we are engineered, information architecture is essential, an easy way to find out information and find relevant historical notes for those who were not at the company helps understand how to be successful.
    Meeting name > Date > Project > Department often works best  

Important Related Reading To Improve Business Performance:

Categories
Friday Focus

Friday Focus – 16th April

5 questions and statements you should always ask and answer

This week’s five for Friday to focus on breaks down 5 things you are told are bad ideas or silly but are essential parts of the business world.

Ask The “Stupid” Question 

Why? Very often in a meeting with more than three people, there is a fear to appear stupid or ask the most obvious question no one else is asking. Ask it, stupid questions clarify situations.

State The Obvious (when no one else is) 

Why? In busy environments, it is essential you have a centre point, an agreed place where you are operating or the problem you are tackling. Very often the obvious needs stating to align and drive projects and campaigns forward.

Think Bigger & Longer Term

Why? In the majority of businesses they are often only thinking of the next few weeks (aka the tactical level), businesses commonly operate with a few weeks cycle, you should know to drive a business forward you need a couple of smart future seers to think and plan while others action.

Remember the Focus approach to company strategy:

  • Think 5 years ahead
  • Plan 3 years ahead
  • Action 1 year ahead

Ask If Your Boss Is Ok 

Why? It is rare unless you have a direct or personal relationship that you ask the boss or your boss if they are ok. This will likely come as a shock to most leaders (they are just not used to being asked) however it helps to understand how your boss is feeling and if they need to talk or run things past you. Company culture and organisational health have to work for everyone from the least experienced to the most experienced and most senior.

Say “I Don’t Know, I’ll Come Back You”  

Why? Not knowing an answer is completely ok, not wanting to make something up or take a guess is completely acceptable and responsible. Often coming back with the right data, the correct information and being a few steps forward will ensure progress. Many businesses are powered by the quick answer, not the right answer or smart approach.

Looking to become a better or more thoughtful leader? Sign up to the Focus Newsletter

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Recent Focus Blog Articles To Help Your Business

Reducing Anxiety & Returning To The Office Checklist
Are You Creating The Right Company Culture?
Self-Taught Manager Issues?
Designing The Hybrid Office Guide
Leaders Letter 44
Categories
Anonymous Career Advice

Will An Off-Site Help My Team Connect?

Will An Off-Site Help My Team Connect?

This week, we have had a couple of questions around how will team and business leaders get their teams to collaborate together or will specific activities help bring teams more closely together. 

Dear Focus, my team haven’t spent any time together for over a year, will an offset help them to connect? 

For many, the last year has been a year where many have struggled to keep in touch with their colleagues and connect at a deeper level vs when in person.

As humans we are built to connect at a deeper level, small talk and social cues are essential to us to understand where we are and if we are safe. 

Knowing how you connect peer to peer helps bonds form, herding to happen around collective goals and then tribes to form.

What we lost when remote is the connective layers of relationships, we need to start repairing this, creating events where we can connect firstly as people, but then importantly as teams, departments and companies.

For the most part of the last twelve to fifteen months: survival and sanity have been the name of the game. 

High performing teams can take up to and over six months to connect without any changes. We have a year of change to address.

We have had to put ourselves first and ensure we have a job, we have some security and we get through 2020 and 2021 as safely as possible. 

Off-sites are often a brilliant way to connect a small group of people, typically a quarterly event is a great way to organise and create alignment around common goals and important bonds you wouldn’t get to know outside of an organised event. 

Unfortunately, the side many do not talk about is some offsites can be challenging, often hard work and many around the table will not want to open up and trust can be lost, all of these things need to considered and engineered to encourage openness, airing issues and talking through issues. 

There are obviously a few questions you will have to answer: 

  1. Is this going to be safe? 
  2. I haven’t been around a group of people in a year, can you ease teams into this? 
  3. I don’t want to time with these people, why should we?  
  4. Can we not do this remotely?
    Or in hybrid? 

It is important you answer the first three directly, I will help to guide you with 4.

Be Deliberate: Being hybrid will be challenging, you will always seem like a B team player when remote, technology is still not ideal for remote people in offsites, it can however be done by ensuring you have the best tech available, they are asked their opinion and you have signs and a chair to help guide the hybrid event. 

Two More Factors: There are two core factors you should consider when looking at off-site or on-site. 

The first is to connect the team first and then let work talk take over, you will need a schedule but allow it to be more flexible than previous off-sites and have an agenda and pre-reading everyone reads and provides feedback on. 

The second factor is connecting teams around delivering a dedicated workstream that is just for that group. The project is important to achieve a sense of achievement together and build a connection to winning something as a group. 

Wider Company Connections: An off-site or series of off-sites will help form a company subculture, a team bond or leadership team bond, it won’t answer the bigger issue of addressing a company-wide cultural connection issue.

Doing something grand and reviewing strategy will be essential however these have long lead and success time and connecting to a project that you can win around will be key to connecting.

So the TLDR answer is an offsite will be essential when safe to reconnect in person and it will provide you with a way to connect colleagues together.

The important element to success is being able to connect around the campfire, around food, stories and experiences.

Good luck and enjoy planning those on-site and off-sites.

Remember the office as an arena is a way to think about organisational design and success.

Here’s how we can help you.

Categories
Company Culture

The Culture As A Service Movement

2020 and 2021 have been hard, extremely hard.

It has been some of the toughest mental challenges we have had to face as a globalised population.

We have seen many teams just survive, we have seen a few do well and a tiny percentage thrive the last 15 months.

In recent weeks we have seen huge investment into the software side of company culture.

This is great news.

Human First Hybrid Company Culture vs Software First Culture 

(Company) Culture as a service or CaaS for short is an area so many businesses are going to have to look at in the hybrid world of work. 

Company Culture (aka organisational health) has often been seen as an important and unique aspect (a USP to some) to many businesses success and if you ask a mid manager to senior exec they will make a comment of how important company culture is and why it is central to their company goals. 

This has not always been true and often a crafted narrative companies use to attract staff or manage internal expectations.

A Reminder: Perks Are Not Culture

This is the same way perks were confused as company culture from tech firms and have failed to keep colleagues happy once these were removed or rightly seen through. 

As we are on a mission to fix the broken world of work, Company culture is one of our core pillars, Focus have called out the importance of company culture and drive for organisations to add as much weight to company culture to the one company-wide overarching strategy.  

As we are planning the post pandemic return to the office it vital we understand the right steps to take forward.  

In the hybrid office world, we have seen the culture shift, we have seen virtual first communications and virtual first connections disconnect many teams and even the closest of colleagues. 

Deliberate & Hybrid 

In the hybrid office future, where the office will turn into a performance centre and be seen as an arena, it is clear that we have to be even more deliberate, we have to be deliberate in reconnecting teams, we have to be deliberate in connecting teams to their departments and co-build the right hybrid environment for cross-functional collaboration for your company to succeed from the short term to the long term. 

Sharing Moments 

The sharing of moments, the unplanned collaboration, the unplanned problem solving and getting around the whiteboard has been missed by many however in this new world of work we have to make these occurrences as seamless as they would in person and as hybrid as possible. 

Company Culture As A Service 

Company culture requires two things,
1/ willingness to want to address the issues and
2/ taking internal and external ownership of a company culture issue or truly co-building a company culture that you are proud of. 

Software Second  

The right software can help however it is imperative to understand that the right human-first approach is taken and then the right tools and software are introduced to complement connection, understand a deeper level to surveys and engagement feedback, providing an opportunity to address any underlying issues or the foundation to improve company culture. 

Listen To & Hear From Everyone

Leadership, HR and staff of all levels need to be heard, have open and transparent conversations and treated as equal partners. This is the way you build connective culture and not a series of subcultures,
“the we are always going to outperform many solo me’s”. 

Software and tools are often the go to procured solution to company culture however the right internal and external agencies or culture consultants will guide you and your company forward in the right approach for your company and your current and future employees. 

Culture Is More, It’s Deeper

On-demand Culture and (CaaS) culture as a service are going to see huge areas of growth, many businesses have already thought about the importance of culture but allowed it to peter out or implode in the work from home experiment.

It is essential that business place company culture and strategy on the same level and plan an intentional and deliberate plan of attack for improving and building company culture. 

Tools will always be important, software is central to 95% of our days but our people, the beahviours we co-create, the chemistry and connections we build peer to peer and the environment we build and nurture helps to shape company culture and success. 

Remember when making a choice between an internal team and an external company or software, you remember collaboration is key to success, hiring the right partner for the quick wins is important but company culture will take a long term partnership, a dedicated and flexible plan and most importantly everyone to be on the same page, it cannot be dictated to or from the 10 bad HiPPOs sitting around the conference room table. 

Contact for company culture help
Categories
Company Culture

Why The World Of Work Is Broken

Why the world of work is broken and how focus is addressing this

At Focus we are on a mission to address the many foundations of the broken workplace.

Simply put, here are the most common broken elements to the workplace.

Company Culture

  • Bad and toxic cultures
  • Company Culture is seen as a soft skill
  • Company Culture is shaped by the wrong people, leadership and HR are too far removed and dictate, don’t hear or feel what is broken
  • Company Culture is not traditionally connected to company performance – this is incorrect

Communication

  • Bad communication habits became the default
  • Under communicating important decisions and why actions were taken
  • Hiding behind statements and buzzwords – rather than being deliberate and taking the time to write clearly
  • Communication live and die by the spreading of the most valuable pieces of information, being kept in private channels, chats and emails do progress businesses forward

Strategy

  • Lack of one company-wide strategy
  • Everything became a strategy to become important
  • Tactics and action plan is mistaken for strategy – this is confusing teams, departments and companies
  • Deliberate plan of actions that do not connect, it breaks companies progress

Leadership

  • Leaders are too busy to lead, let alone manage
  • Managers have no leadership training or coaching
  • The best staff members are often promoted to become a manager to lead people, when they are not capable of leading
  • Leaders do not manage, they do not coach, they do not mentor – this is not leadership

Busy

  • Lack of feedback and open conversations lead to everyone being busy and people being deliberate
  • The badge of honour everyone has had to wear
  • Busy became an excuse to not deliver
  • No one has owned removing busy to become effective

Bad Meetings & Too Many Meetings

  • Default to decisions being made in meetings
  • Back to back meetings have become a hiding place for staff of all levels
  • Virtual meetings happen to update poor managers
  • Status updates that have to happen in a meeting as blinded by meeting culture

These are just four examples per broken functions of work.

The Focus mission is to fix the broken world of work and help businesses evolve.

Find Out About Our Service Fixing The Broken World Of Work

Important Related Reads To Help You Improve The Broken World Of Work

Prefer watching videos? Here is the focus manifesto

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Categories
Friday Focus

Friday Focus – 19th March

5 podcasts - friday focus 19th March 2021

This week I offer five podcasts you will want to check out to help improve your business culture and company performance.

The 5 Podcasts

1/ Hitting The Wall Podcast

I join Ash Taylor to talk leadership, company culture, why the arena as an office will help improve connection, why the future of work is hybrid and work will be flexible for the employee, not the employer.

Key Quote:

Yeah, so there’s a is a combat and conflict, which a lot of people teach.

So a lot of the time it’s done to sentiment, right. So being combative tends to mean sort of banging heads and enforcing something conflict can be, and it can be enabled to have in a conversation and the right conversation. I think it comes down to you as a, like, if you’re a leader trying to trying to address it.

Or trying to move things forward. I think you need to understand people at a human levels. You need to understand them individually and you need to know their motivations. If I was ever going to say the best way to, to understand people is just to know how they’re motivated. So if you’re an introvert and ambivert or an extrovert, everyone’s going to be motivated differently.

So I would say like no people stages, so know how they can be on stage. So some people are extroverts what love and argument, because it enables them to step up and perform and be this different person. Whereas introverts can be the greatest people when it comes to conflict or combat, because they’ve taken a step back.

They’ve digested, what people have wanted to say, and then they’re, they can be far more articulate. When it has to, when they want to be able to, it has to happen. Now I know I’m, I’m the ambiverted when I need people, I’ll go to them. And when I don’t want them, I’ll run away and get back in my shell. And, and that’s, you know, some teams needs an extroverted leader because they need someone who’s going to put on a performance and be strong and talk it through.

So for me, it’s a way of enabling the right conversation, but also telling people that we. It’s been able to be confident enough to say we’re going to have this conversation. If you’re confident now or comfortable now it’s, it’s the right time to be able to come back and have your say and it’s it’s for a chairperson to go around and ask everyone’s opinion.

Yeah. So, you know, Dave, what do you think, Ahmed? What do you think, Sarah What’d you think? Zara, what do you think? Is important, you go around, you know, and you ask people their opinion. Some people aren’t ever going to be confident, or comfortable in talking in front of a group, but you can always say here is thirty minutes where you can go away digest it.

A conversation with Danny Denhard of Focus – Hitting the Wall

In this week’s episode I chat to Danny Denhard from Focus who’s on a mission to change the world of work. We discuss all things culture and leadership, digging into how businesses thrive when they put culture in the workplace first. You’ll learn about the power of creating personal eco-systems, and why enabling conflict in the workplace is a good thing. We talk about business being a badge of honour, prioritising culture before the workplace collapses, and why gossip is so important. Danny also takes through his personal manifesto for change, why being back-to-back is damaging productivity and whether the new habits we’ve created in the last 12 months are beneficial to people and businesses A fascinating discussion Weekly digest Of the best articles from the week you likely haven’t read – https://mustreads.substack.com Weekly inspiration every Monday on improving leadership – https://blog.focus.business/leaders Focus aka fixing the broken world of work Website https://www.focus.business/ Manifesto – https://www.focus.business/manifesto Connect on social media with me https://dannydenhard.com/linkedin https://dannydenhard.com/twitter

2/ The Science of Networks

Marissa King joins host Patrick on Invest Like The Best and discusses her book Social Chemistry: Decoding the Elements of Human Connection and the three types of social networks.

Key Quote: “What we know from close to three decades of research in the social sciences is you can break down social networks. What’s common to all of these is they propagate on social networks. So we can think about our networks, just the traces of interaction that connect us all. And those traces can actually be boiled down into three fundamental elements.
So I call these in my book brokers, expansionists, and conveners when you’re applying them to the individual. But by starting to understand those three very basic fundamental pieces, it’s really what makes the world small.”

Marissa King – The Science of Social Networks – [Invest Like the Best, EP. 217] – Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

My guest this week is Marissa King, a professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management. I was fascinated by Marissa's work after coming across her book, Social Chemistry: Decoding the Elements of Human Connection, earlier this year. Our conversation covers the three types of social networking styles, the surprising impact of COVID on social networks, and what her research tells us about building high-performing teams. This episode covers many topics I haven't explored before that I find fascinating. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Marissa King.      For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. —— This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus has built the most extensive primary information platform available for investors.   With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 10,000 calls on Affirm, Teladoc, Roblox, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. Visit tegus.co/patrick to learn more.   —— This episode is brought to you by NordVPN. NordVPN is the best VPN to keep your internet experience private.   It has over 5,500 servers in 60 countries to ensure super-fast internet while protecting your information no matter where you are. As working from home and remote work become more prevalent, now is the time to protect your personal and business information without any data logging.   NordVPN works on all popular platforms, including Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, and supports up to 6 simultaneous connections across your devices.   To get started, go to nordvpn.com/patrick or use code PATRICK to get a 2-year plan plus 1 additional month with a huge discount and a 30-day money-back guarantee. —— Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:04:04] – [First question] – Origin of her career and topics she is focused on [00:04:06] – Social Chemistry: Decoding the Patterns of Human Connection [00:04:09] – Priya Parker Podcast Episode [00:05:41] – Why the focus on Autism and some of the trends around it [00:08:07] – Prevalence of mental health and substance abuse vs. raised awareness [00:09:16] – The eureka moment for her in this research [00:10:16] –  Pattern in growing large social movements [00:11:43] – The Expansionists group and their role in large social movements [00:14:31] – Acid test for the Brokers group [00:15:35] – How she developed the categories of people that drive social movements [00:17:35] – Most memorable moments of discovery in the development of these categories [00:18:58] – Important categories for overall network science [00:20:20] – Behavioral changes we can make to improve the nature of our social connections [00:23:21] – The pitfalls for each group and how they can invest in their own network [00:25:29] – Conveners and what they need to improve  [00:26:34] – Downside of being a broker [00:27:58] – The attachments styles of secure, anxious, or avoidant [00:30:07] – Velocity of interactions possible today and what it means for research [00:32:02] – How men and women develop networks differently [00:33:55] – What is unique in organizational behavior through the lens of her research [00:36:19] – Best practice for creating high output interactions [00:37:33] – Putting together the perfect team [00:38:42] – Largest pitfalls in putting together a good team [00:40:00] – Role of conversation in effective network building [00:41:15] – Being a great listeners and distractions [00:42:47] – Eric Maddox Podcast Episode [00:43:41] – Good policy for running a network, being attentive to the network [00:46:40] – The power of touch [00:48:39] – How movements become societal and what role technology has played [00:52:46] – How this applies to a business [00:53:34] – Biological underpinnings of Dunbar’s number [00:57:13] – Kindest thing anyone has done for her  

3/ Eat Sleep Work Repeat – Ripping Work A New One

Scott Galloway Joins Bruce Daisley on Twitter Spaces (so has more beeps than typical podcast) to discuss the importance of cities, the office for the young and why the power of touch is so important in the workplace.

Key Quote:
“There’s usually three people up for a promotion, it’s usually the person who has the strongest relationship who gets it”

Scott Galloway rips work a new one – Eat Sleep Work Repeat

A recording of a Twitter Spaces discussion with Scott Galloway. We talk remote working, why cities will never die, why working hard is Scott's top career advice. Along the way we talk about the power of touch, Goldman Sachs, missing humans and what will come next for work.The Twitter Spaces app also blings a lot too, sorry about that. I've edited about 200 of them out.Scott's book Post Corona is a bestseller.Sign up for the newsletter.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

4/ Finding Your Own Superpower with Jo Malone.

Jo Malone CBE talks candidly about her career, how dyslexia helped guide her thinking, her fight with cancer and why people’s energy is so important.

Key Quote:
“I still didn’t let that define my dreams, I am a dreamer, I dream big“

Jo Malone: Finding your own superpower – The High Performance Podcast

Jo Malone CBE, is the Founder & Creative Director of Jo Loves, a household name and one of the world’s most successful businesswomen. There aren’t many people who haven’t had a product of hers in their home at some point. From modest beginnings, Jo fell in love with fragrance and built an incredibly successful brand, Jo Malone London, that she eventually sold and left the business before launching her ‘Jo Loves’ range inspired by the memories and moments in life that she loves.But there have been periods to her life that have been challenging to say the least. From cancer to career upheaval, and a set of decisions and dilemmas on a scale most of us are never faced with. Listen to the lessons Jo’s learnt from an extraordinary life. We absolutely loved this conversation!A big thanks to our partners Lotus Cars. Remember, you can get extended episodes of the podcast on our YouTube channel bit.ly/HPPYouTube and follow us on Instagram @highperformance.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Here are Focus’ favourite must listen to high performance podcasts.

5/ Annie Duke: Decision Making Secrets

I am a big fan of Annie Duke and her books, thinking in bets is a great read and the way Annie challenges how you think and record good and bad decisions is invaluable to business leaders.

Key Quote:
“lets think about what a great decision is and a great decision is the forecast of the future,”

Annie Duke: Decision-making Secrets from a World Series of Poker Champion – Starting Greatness

(04:51) – Explaining what makes a decision good or bad (6:36) – On how memory creep impacts our view of Hilary Clinton’s 2016 campaign (11:30) – On the use of a knowledge tree to inform decision making (16:59) – Looking at Pete Carrol’s controversial decision in the Super Bowl   (26:16) – On founders falling into a trap around pricing their product (38:08) – When to make informed decisions and follow a process
Categories
Friday Focus

Friday Focus – 12th March

Today’s Five things to focus on this Friday and the week ahead is answering five important questions that will challenge and improve you and your business for the next quarter months ahead.

5 Questions To Tackle:

  1. What are we doing to improve our company culture?
  2. What are we planning to roll out to help reduce fatigue and burnout in our teams?
  3. How are we thinking about the hybrid office?
  4. How are we setting up our office for return to the office? AKA the office an arena, to ensure we have the right space, the right energy and the right tech in place?
  5. How are we helping to reduce meetings? Have we created a no meeting transitional plan?

Resources that will help you answer the 5 questions:

  1. What makes a great leader
  2. The future of work and the workplace
  3. Create a company-wide decision document
  4. Three questions to build better internal relationships
  5. How to review your working from home with a retro
  6. Proven tips to reduce WFH stresses
  7. Personal and professional SWOTs
  8. Improve fight, flight and freeze reactions
  9. Building strategy right with beliefs and bets
  10. Undercover and embracing your hidden leaders
Categories
Anonymous Career Advice

What Makes A Great Business Leader?

What Makes A Great Business Leader?

In this anonymous advice column, we tackle what makes a great business leader.

Dear Focus, I want to understand what makes a great leader?

For me and with two decades of work, a great leader is someone who knows the importance of the following:

  • Unwavering ability to push a vision and help those around them guide their teams 
  • Have compassion for their staff and teams 
  • Inspires in almost every message 
  • Storyteller 
    • Never appears to be bored in pushing direction and acting as the compass for the company 
  • Leads from the front when they know that what the company or departments need 
  • Understands when to manage, coach, mentor or train  
  • Knows when to drive or be the passenger 
  • Knows when to 
    • Create time
    • Apply pressure  
    • Speak from the heart
    • Speak from the head 
    • When to ask the big question
    • When to ask the small questions – the why, the how, the when 
    • Take a step back when others cannot, see and guide the BIG picture  
    • (importantly) Knows when to ask for help and guidance on those they are not as knowledge

Typically, not one leader has all of these components, however, great leaders work towards improving daily, having goals to improve themselves and those around them.

Actions To Take:

Thanks and best of luck.

Danny Denhard

Submit your own anonymous question:

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