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Building Trust – Make, Keep and Repeat
Building Trust - Make, Keep and Repeat “Trust takes years to build, seconds to lose, and forever to repair” - Anon by Andrew Cooke, Growth & Profit Solutions There are three key steps involved in building trust. These include: Make – making public a clear, defined commitment that is specific, measurable and has a clear date set to it. This removes ambiguity and holds you to a commitment to which you can be held accountable. Yes, you as the manager
Discipline Without Punishment
Discipline Without Punishment “We need to understand the difference between discipline and punishment, Punishment is what you do to someone; discipline is what you do for someone” - Zig Ziglar by Andrew Cooke, Growth & Profit Solutions Disciplining people has always been a difficult matter for managers with many being uncomfortable with its adversarial nature. This often leads to the performance or behavioral issue being avoided and left unaddressed (which exacerbates the problem), being addressed inconsistently (which makes the manager
Message Distortion – What You Said Is Not What Is Heard
Message Distortion - What You Said Is Not What Is Heard What you said is not what is heard... by Andrew Cooke, Growth & Profit Solutions Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle wrote his first Sherlock Holmes story in 1886. The fictitious character was based on a real man, Dr Joseph Bell, a renowned forensic scientist at Edinburgh University. Conan-Doyle wrote 60 adventures in total. The collection is known as The Cannon. All but 4 stories are narrated by Holmes’ loyal sidekick Dr
The Only Two Ways of Making Money – Bundling and Unbundling
The Only Two Ways of Making Money – Bundling & Unbundling Is the whole greater than the sum of the parts anymore? by Andrew Cooke, Growth & Profit Solutions When we look at some of the changes brought about by changes in technology we find that it has effectively, and literally, taken products, institutions and industries apart. In essence it has unbundled them. Unbundling is the process of taking something and breaking it down to its constituent parts so they
The Challenge of Business Speeding Up
The Challenge of Business Speeding Up It.is not how fast business goes that matters, it is how and if you can keep up! by Andrew Cooke, Growth & Profit Solutions The pace of doing business is speeding up not slowing down. Each year the pressure grows on all areas of a business including its people, cash-flow, leadership, innovation, business models, technologies and ability to implementation strategies successfully. This pressure can lead to issues arising across the business that ultimately impact
The Four Most Important Words Employees Need To Hear
The Four Most Important Words Employees Need To Hear How to get your people to engage with you. by Andrew Cooke, Growth & Profit Solutions In a recent interview with the New York Times, Bill Marriott, chairman of the Marriott Hotel Group, shared this useful piece of advice. He explained that as a young officer in the US Navy he was responsible for the stewards who served in the officers' wardroom. New to his role, and being in a military
The Leadership Shift
The Leadership Shift How leaders need to change how they lead to succeed. by Andrew Cooke, Growth & Profit Solutions The demands on leadership have changed over recent years, but many leaders have failed to adapt how they lead to adapt to the new environment we find ourselves working in. In part this is because the words leadership and management are often used interchangeably. In fact, they are very different but are complementary. In essence the difference between the two
What Do Effective Leaders Do?
What Do Effective Leaders Do? The one thing effective leaders do. Do you do this too? by Andrew Cooke, Growth & Profit Solutions When you ask people what do effective leaders do you will get a range of responses – set strategy, provide direction, develop people, motivate people, create alignment of activities, and so the list goes on. All true, but they are all facets of one thing, To discover this, ask yourself what should an effective leader do? The
Measuring Performance Doesn‘t Help, Measuring How You Perform Does
Measuring Performance Doesn‘t Help, Measuring How You Perform Does! It is not what you do that matters, but how you do it that does! by Andrew Cooke, Growth & Profit Solutions Significant effort, time and resources are spent by companies in assessing the current level of performance in order to be able to determine what we need to do to perform at the right level. This focuses on the result. This is backward thinking. This is like managing for profit