As your business grows and matures, it is important that your leadership style evolves alongside it. This will mean that there is total alignment between your actions, the directions you give and where you want your company to be.

It is vital for the further growth and development of your business that you do not let ‘OK syndrome’ take hold. This is where aspects of your organisation might be deemed acceptable, without any intention to improve them.

One of the most difficult aspects of being a leader is concluding relationships that do not profit your organisation. However, this is necessary if you want your business to progress in line with its potential.

Gather data to inform decision making, but be conscious that some of the numbers will be more influential in leading your company effectively.

Consistency is often credited as a key contributor to sustaining business success, but making all stakeholder interactions as predictable and uniform as possible is not an effective strategy.

A vital aspect of my coaching is encouraging my clients to make their businesses better before bigger. From an outside perspective this might seem like I am discouraging leaders from aiming for growth; this is not the case.

As the birdsong becomes that chirrup sweeter and the green returns to the trees, this is a great time to feel optimistic. Springtime offers a host of new opportunities, natural, personal and professional, so harness that spirit of goodwill to revitalise your energy and stimulate success.

Sustainable success is achievable for your business, but requires dedicated action. In this article, I outline three steps leaders can take to produce long-term growth and higher profits.

We all have uncertainties that play on our mind; they might worry us unnecessarily or restrict our actions in some way. These limiting beliefs may be triggered by an experience, such as a bad interview, but often they live within our head, troubling our perception rather than reality. Whether conscious or subconscious, it is important we challenge these restrictive thoughts and build confidence in areas of uncertainty.

It can be too easy to let the gap between the organisation you actually run and the business you would ideally want to run grow. Conscious action must be taken, because aligning these two things will not happen naturally. Continuing as normal and leaving those aspects that frustrate and overwhelm you is not an option, because their inhibiting influence will only increase. It requires you to take the first step.

With the increasing influence of technology, opportunities to communicate with potential stakeholders are abundant. However, amongst a variety of competition, their attention is more difficult to captivate than ever. It is vital that your brand resonates with your clients and potential clients, because having the best offering is not enough, if you don’t have the reputation to back this up.

Managing and reviewing data can often be an overlooked aspect of running a business, but it is vital for assessing performance and effective decision making. It can often seem tedious to trawl through spreadsheets and daunting if you are not mathematically inclined. However, as a leader, having the correct numbers to inform and justify your actions is an asset you cannot afford to disregard.

Having a tactical focus will be the default position for many leaders. This means dealing with current opportunities and challenges to ensure short-to-medium-term results. As important as this is, not just for overall performance and morale, it is vital that organisations have a more far-reaching strategy for the future. This will facilitate longer-term success that is sustainable and ensures all shorter activities run in a consistent direction.

It can be easy to fall into the mindset that anything bigger must be better. As business leaders, we can often put pressure on ourselves to constantly push for growth, as this seems like the ultimate and expected target. However, I would like to suggest that being the best, rather than the biggest, is not only more achievable, but a far more fulfilling and sustainable solution.

Over the past eighteen months, I have moved from working on my own to welcoming three new members to my team. Together we can offer a greater diversity of content, which presents the philosophies I advocate in a variety of ways and across more platforms. I look forward to 2022, where our skillsets can combine to create more relevant content and offerings than ever before.

Introducing the ‘three marketeers’…

A modern business can be submerged in numbers. As collecting data becomes easier and more widespread, with the introduction of new software, it can be understandably difficult to keep on top of. Many business leaders will rely on their financial department, or resident maths boffins, to make sense of these details and feedback the relevant information. However…

Going into a supermarket hungry can be a big mistake; being surrounded by shelves of tempting treats can frequently lead to unnecessary purchases. The chocolate bar you pick up just before the checkout may seem like a good idea at the time, but in truth you never intended to buy it, it’s not nutritious and it’s not filling. Having a clear idea of what you want and sticking to it should be the strategy, but succumbing to short-term desires can often be the outcome…

Take a look at your company. What would you identify as your areas of particular strength? This could be a product, a service, or your communication with customers. As it stands, these company competencies are the reason people do business with you. Therefore, you should look to build your organisation around them for the best chance of success…

If we personally suffer from short sightedness (myopia) there are a few well proven options, glasses, contact lenses, etc., to correct this condition. Unfortunately, when organisations suffer from a similar condition, in terms of anticipating the future, the solutions can be more difficult to implement. Sometimes a degree of denial can be in place, which can make admitting this condition more complex. For humans, myopia is not terminal but inconvenient; for companies it can be far more serious…

As an effective leader, visualising the future has no value if you cannot communicate it.

Storytelling has been a valued art since the beginning of human civilisation. Those who could most effectively communicate gained authority and prestige. The fact that Homer’s Odyssey is still studied on syllabuses today is testament to the value our society puts in telling a good tale. Beyond fiction however, creating an engaging narrative is also a vital tool in inspiring others and recruiting them to your cause…