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Below is a selection of articles from this month’s issue, and we hope you enjoy the read!
Better Business Focus: Expert Inspiration for a Better Business.
Better Business Focus is the essential key for business owners and managers. It achieves that by focusing on the way in which successful businesses compete and manage their organisations. It focuses on how people are recruited, coached and developed; on how marketing and selling is undertaken in professional markets as well as in markets with intense competition; on how technology and the Internet is reshaping the face of domestic and home business; and on how people are being equipped with new skills and techniques. In short, it offers expert inspiration for a better business.
November 2021
This Month’s articles include:
- David Finkel
How to streamline communication with your remote workforce: For many of us, working remotely is now the new normal. Your team has been doing it for months now and you likely have discovered a few issues or areas where your communication channels break down. In my 25 years of experience working remotely and helping others do the same, most businesses fall into one of two categories. - Thom Dennis
14 ways to help your staff’s mental health this winter: World Mental Health Day was on 10th October and after unprecedented global change and trauma, where many of us became ill, developed long term chronic symptoms, lost loved ones, lost jobs, weren’t able to socialise, had to home educate our children, developed an increasingly poor work/ life balance, weren’t able to go on holiday, were furloughed, were pinged and isolated, mental health has never been more important. Today many employees are still facing worries about redundancy, face a lack of opportunities or suffer from bullying, harassment, or workplace stress. - Anthony Mills
Four traits your next CEO must have for your organization to thrive: CEOs come and CEOs go. Some – like Steve Jobs at Apple, Jeff Bezos at Amazon, and Richard Branson at Virgin – are excellent. They generally ‘get it’. Others – like Steve Balmer at Microsoft, Jeff Immelt at GE, and Dick Fuld at Lehman Brothers – not so much. They really ‘don’t get it’. - Dr Lynda Shaw
Why its good to fail so you can succeed at work: Failure. A word we all dread. Failure can make us feel less competent, confident or intelligent, yet it is inevitable. We have all experienced failure in our lives, and whilst in the short term it can be debilitating, it can also be a springboard to a new learning experience and can sometimes be life-changing for the better. - Greg Satell
The “Trigger” strategy for driving radical, transformational change: There’s an old adage that says we should never let a crisis go to waste. The point is that during a crisis there is a visceral sense of urgency and resistance often falls by the wayside. We’ve certainly seen that during the Covid pandemic. Digital technologies such as video conferencing, online grocery and telehealth have gone from fringe to mainstream in record time. - Mike Shipulski
A Recipe to Grow Revenue Now: If you want to grow the top line right now, create a hard constraint – the product cannot change – and force the team to look for growth outside the product. Since all the easy changes to the product have been made, without a breakthrough the small improvements bring diminishing returns. There’s nothing left here. Make them look elsewhere. - Urko Wood
4 ways to capture opportunities for breakthrough growth: Most people think that innovation is inherently risky and messy. That’s not an unreasonable conclusion given an estimated 70-90% of new products fail. And yet, study after study has shown that the number-one cause of new product and service failure is misunderstanding customer needs. That’s a fixable problem. Maybe the way that most organizations are going about trying to understand their target customers’ needs is inherently risky and messy, not innovation itself? - Jane Gunn
How can you report bullying if the bully is your boss? It is not uncommon for someone to be bullied within an organisation for several years before it is tackled because the issues around bullying are increasingly complex, according to internationally renowned mediator and conflict specialist, Jane Gunn, especially if the bully is your boss or someone in HR. - Sunil Bali
Be pretty….. In his book, “Dying for a Paycheck,” Stanford Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer says that the workplace is killing us, because the blinkered focus on profit above all else is leading to very high levels of psychological and physical ill health. - Janet Sernack
Re-skilling and upskilling people & teams: The pandemic has increased the pace of change in a digitally accelerated world, and at the same time, it is forcing organizations, leaders, and teams to become more purposeful, human, and customer-centric. Where managing both the future and the present simultaneously requires people to unlearn what has worked in the past and relearn new mindsets and behaviours as to what might be possible, useful, and relevant in the future. - Braden Kelley
AI has already taken over the world: I don’t know about you, but it’s starting to feel as if machines and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have already taken over the world. - Bob Apollo
The critical role of trust in sales: At a time when the level of public trust in the UK’s elected politicians has never been lower, it’s an opportunity to reflect on the critical role of trust in sales, which is what I chose to focus on in this article from the latest edition of the International Journal of Sales Transformation… - iPhoneLife
How to Use iPad Keyboard Shortcuts: This tip only works if you have an external keyboard, whether it be Apple’s Smart Keyboard or a different external keyboard. It will not work with the on-screen iPad keyboard. Different apps have different shortcuts, so play around with this tip to see what shortcuts are available in all your apps! - Paul Sloane
Six things I wish I had known before I accepted the position of Chief Innovation Officer: I was pleased and proud to be appointed to the position of CIO (Chief Innovation Officer). It seemed like a great opportunity to join a dynamic executive team and help drive the growth and ambition which inspired the company. Unfortunately, things did not work out well and there are some hard lessons to be shared. - Debra Murphy
Lead generation strategies for small businesses: For every business, obtaining leads – people who are interested in your products or services – is an important marketing activity. Without generating leads, your business will not have any customers. In order to consistently generate quality leads, you need to plan your lead generation strategies that will work for your business. - Peter Thomson
How to write a book for your business in just 5 days: A well-written book is the ultimate lead generation marketing tool, helping you to establish your credibility, attract potential clients and increase marketing sign-ups. Learn how to write a book for your business in just five days.