As your company matures, your role within it will also evolve. This can be understandably challenging, to adopt new responsibilities and potentially alter the dynamic between you and your colleagues. It might be the case that you have assumed a position you were not intending to take. If this is the case, I can assure you… Leadership is learned on the job.

Most leaders would suggest that a degree of openness and trust with their employees constitutes being transparent, but beyond this there is another level at which the highest performing businesses operate - radical transparency. This is characterised by truthful interactions, not just within the business, but also with external stakeholders such as customers, suppliers and shareholders.

Not all business owners love numbers. In fact, most don’t. However, numerical understanding is an imperative for leaders who want to run profitable companies, not a luxury.

One of the great challenges of leading a business is properly attending to your various stakeholder groups. How do you communicate with your most junior employees? Are you so sales focused that you’re only considering your customers? When was the last time you touched base with your partner companies?

Change can be both an exciting and daunting prospect, as it brings forth something as yet unexperienced. For this reason many people are willing to keep-on-keeping-on, rather than introduce an extra element of uncertainty. However, I would suggest that the most successful people, particularly in business, are those willing to find a different way.

Your current offering represents your ‘buy-in’ to the market and in much the same way as poker, if this is insufficient, the player (you) cannot compete. This ‘table stake’ could be a price point, or specific feature your offering has, that makes it an option to a potential customer.

Letting your organisation slip into inertia is easier than you think. Allowing this situation to occur does not mean the leader(s) at the top are negligent. They’re probably so busy dealing with operational challenges that those aspects that require improvement are pushed to the back of their minds. Don’t get stuck in this loop.

As time has gone by, the role of company leader has changed. Treating your employees and colleagues with respect is more likely to obtain better results. Whilst it is important the relationships with your staff remain professional, modern leaders are expected to have greater emotional intelligence and demonstrate this in the way they interact with others.

Different structures work for different organisations. This sounds like a truism, but it’s important to remember that there isn’t a prescribed formula for an efficient organisational structure. Company size, industry and maturity will each affect the method of internal collaboration between employees and departments. Therefore, what follows are some suggestions of good practices, which I’ve found are beneficial to developing companies…

A paradox is the presence of two seemingly contradictory qualities within a single entity. Running a business will present leaders with a number of paradoxes they must balance, where making right or wrong decisions is far from black and white. In this article I will be covering one of the most pressing and relevant paradoxes that modern companies face…

Whist external factors and restrictions definitely play their part in affecting our moods, reaching a goal is largely related to belief in one’s ability. Having the right mindset is all about your personal confidence, your perception and your ideas for the future. You must believe you can lead at the next level to make this a reality...

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.

If you can align every aspect of your business, so you advancing in one unified direction, this massively increases the chances of sustaining your company’s success, whilst making your job and roles of your colleagues more fulfilling too.

As collecting data becomes easier and more widespread, with the introduction of new software, it can be understandably difficult to keep on top of. The key to utilising your data is identifying what key performance indicators are most relevant and communicating them clearly to the right people.

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.

Short sightedness, or giving insufficient attention to the future, can develop easily. Working within our comfort zones can become increasingly tempting as a company grows, where decision-making can seem less vital. This can result in leaders disregarding innovation, believing their existing approach to be successful and therefore, being no need for adjustment.

For company leaders particularly, a week in the office can seem like being pulled in a hundred different directions as they tick off, firefight, or deal with a great variety of tasks. Whilst nobody could accuse these leaders of a lack of diligence, does having a lack of coherent focus mean their business is running below potential?

Frustration occurs when reality falls short of an expected outcome. Leaders will be familiar with this feeling, as running a functioning company isn’t easy, even for the most experienced businesspeople. Therefore, if we accept that discontent will be present at some point or another, then it’s how we should approach these situations that is worth considering.

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.

Ensuring your people, processes and systems are running to the best of their ability, sounds like the logical thing all businesses should doing, but it is surprising how easily this gets forgotten. Amongst the natural evolution organisations undergo as they scale, maximising efficiency can get lost, as new initiatives take up the finite resources and energy available.