Monthly Archives: May 2016

Berlin, Business management, coaching, consultancy, management, start-ups, vision

Mini-series: Business Management 4

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Team is everything

The long-term success of any company lies in the quality of the leadership and vision, finance, the quality of the product, good marketing and, very importantly, team-work. Many leaders only pay lip-service to team work since it is the nature of who they are that they deep-down often believe that they can do everything better themselves. Yet this fatal for two reasons: first it breeds a sense of insecurity into the employees and secondly it will lead to burn-out since the leader simply cannot do everything, especially as the company grows.

So, if team is so important, how can a good team be created?

  • invest quality time in discovering the strengths and weaknesses of your team members, in particular with regards to their knowledge, skills, aspirations and motivations. There are well-know tools such as Belbin and Myers-Briggs that can help you with this important analysis.
  • do everything you can to align or re-align your team member’s skills with the vision, values and requirements of your company
  • hold regular, meaningful team meetings that give your employees a real sense of being a very significant member of your team
  • never talk negatively about one team member to another since this breeds a culture of mistrust throughout the company
  • provide opportunities for your team to get to know one another outside of the work environment
  • be aware that if you ever put anything, however important it may be to you, before the above points, you are sending the message that the team is not that important to you. Actions always speak louder than words.

More to follow in the next few days ….

 

Business management, coaching, consultancy, management, new writer, start-ups, vision

Mini-series: Business Management 3

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Taking on staff

Taking on staff is one of the biggest commitments a leader or manager makes. Here are some principles:

  • it may sound rather harsh, but it is for everyone’s long-term benefit: be slow to hire and quick to fire
  • in the early days, you may not be able to attract the perfect employee who has both the skills you need to get important tasks achieved and who can represent the values of your company. If you cannot find the perfect employee, in the early days it is better to employ someone who can get the tasks done efficiently in order to free you up from things that you shouldn’t be doing, but in the longer term it is critical that you employ people who can represent the values of your company
  • this also means that you need to be aware that you will need to adjust both your staff and your employment criteria as your company grows

There’s still more to come in this min-series in the days to come …

Useful links:

http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7155-startup-hiring-tips.html

http://www.smallbusiness.co.uk/running-a-business/employing-staff/

http://humanresources.about.com/od/recruiting/tp/recruiting_employee.htm

http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2015/05/15/6-tips-for-hiring-the-right-employee/#64686ff9377f

Berlin, tourism

Berlin Tourist Tips

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Here are a few ideas about some places to visit in Berlin. Spring, Summer and Autumn are all great, and the Winter is okay at Christmas and if it snows, but January – March are best avoided. A bike is the best way to get ground the city. You can hire one from Fat Tire Bikes at the Zoo or Alexander Platz.

I have some much cooler ideas (see the photo below) that will take away from the main tourist attractions but leave you with indelible memories of this unusual city. Write me if you would like to know more.

Click here to download > Berlin sightseeing 2016

Flughafensee

 

 

Berlin, music, new writer, video

Video of Berlin

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Berliner Lichtgrenze November 2014

One of my hobbies making videos. This one is very special to me because I filmed it and edited it solely on an iPhone 6 over the weekend of the celebration of 25 years since the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

The great song is sung by Adel Tawil. A few weeks after I had been to his last concert, I bumped into him near Tauentzien Straße in Berlin. He was really friendly, even when my youngest jumped into the driving seat of his red Ferrari.

I hope you enjoy it and if you understand German, you may notice some meaningful moments, not many of which, to be honest, were planned. But I guess that lies in the mystery of art.

Clicking on the image will take you to Vimeo. The password is “berlin”.

Schönhauser

 

Business management, coaching, consultancy, management, new writer, start-ups, vision

Mini-series: Business Management 2

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Vision and values

Vision is about how you see the future. It is not your mission statement, which is something quite different. A clear and inspiring vision is critically important to you and your company in every way. It is therefore worth investing time in being sure about what your vision is. Of course, a vision alone is not enough. You need to be clear about your values too since a vision will ensure that others will join you but values will determine whether they stay with you. Then, of course, you need a great team whose effectiveness is greater than the sum of its parts. You will also need to be clear about which vehicles you invest your precious resources into in order to make your vision become a reality. If you think about it, these things alone, not a large bank balance, have enabled individual leaders and managers to grow the most successful businesses in the world.

Articulating your vision

It is a good principle to be able to articulate your vision in the following formats:

  • one short sentence that sums it up (this often ends up as part of your company logo)
  • a three-minute summary that explains the vision in a little more detail
  • a thirty-minute summary that you could give, say, as a presentation to a new audience.

If you are unable to do this already and you are finding the management of your company to be a real challenge, then you have probably just made a very significant discovery!

Articulating your values

It is important also to be clear about your values. Most companies have about five core values, and the most important thing about values is that they should permeate absolutely everything that you do. It is also unlikely that your values will change much over the longer term.

Articulating your vehicles

Vehicles are the action plans, tasks or projects that you and your company will need to focus on in order to take you from A to B.These vehicles have to be carefully monitored and may need to change over time. Most companies have about five vehicles. If you have more than five, not only will they become difficult to monitor,  but it might be an indication that you are trying to be all things to all people instead of focusing on your unique vision and USP(s).

 

Business management, coaching, consultancy, management, start-ups, vision

Mini-series: Business Management 1

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Over the next few weeks I thought I might share some of my experience from business management. Comments and thoughts welcome, as always.

Principles of business management

Business culture

Managers and leaders determine the culture

It is important to remember that managers and leaders determine the entire culture of a business, even when they are not conscious of doing so. Typical examples include:

  • time-keeping (if managers arrive late to work, so will their employees)
  • lack of praise (if managers don’t use praise and encouragement often, neither will their employees)
  • poor team culture (if managers don’t emphasize the importance of team, their employees will neither feel part of a team nor behave as if team is important)

Take a look in the mirror

If you either want to know how your employees are feeling or are concerned that the atmosphere and work ethic in your company do not feel right, the number one principle is to ask yourself how you are feeling.

If you are feeling unduly stressed, overworked, frustrated and working too many hours, the chances are that your employees are feeling very much the same. This of course means that if you want to change how they feel, you need to make changes in how you are working.

I will have more to say about that in future posts.

Links:

Brian Tracy International

Harvard Business Review

Management Skills Blog