There is one word that I can't stand - HUSTLE......

It seems to have become a massive buzz word in the world of leaders, business owners and entrepreneurs.

I firmly believe that if you set your team and your business up smartly and you have the right systems and processes in place - then you don't need to hustle. Your team is performing well, your clients love you and the work you do for them and your project pipeline is full.

But today I'm going to break my rule and talk about one area that does require an amount of hustle....

...and that is in the follow up!!

Most people think that a potential client will either love them or hate them after one coffee meeting. They think they'll either get work out of them straight away or it wasn’t meant to be.

But that’s absolute nonsense.

If you're a stats person (which most engineers are!) then the latest stats are that a new client will need on average 8 touch points from you before they will make a purchasing decision with...

So many of us know that as leaders and business owners, we need to be more strategic with our days, weeks, months and years.
 
We know we need to spend more time on big picture thinking, thinking about where our market is going, thinking about how to solve our clients’ problems in a new and unique way, thinking about and forward planning for the pipeline of work coming in the door and making sure the team and the people around us are performing to the best of their ability.
 
So why do so many of us find it difficult or get uncomfortable when we think about or even go to take some time out of our weeks to stop and think creatively and strategically?
 
The answer lies in the conflict in your mind between the different parts of your personality.
 
Let me explain.
 
You see, you have different parts of your personality that want different things for you.
 
You have a driver / achiever part of your personality that only ever wants you to be actioning things,...

I was talking with a client recently about a common frustration in the engineering market at the moment - which is that it’s really hard to find good people.

There is work on everywhere, but business leaders and business owners are finding it hard to actually deliver the work because they don't have the teams in place to deliver good quality work to their clients.

When this happens, there can be a tendency to just hire the next person that walks in the door....regardless of their personality, skill or ability.

A bum on a seat is better than none........right?.........wrong!!

Today I want to explore with you a concept to help you ensure that you are recruiting the right person – every time.

Recruit slowly!!

Don't rush the recruitment process. Find the right person to fill the role, even if it takes WAY longer than you want it to - otherwise you will forever be paying the price.

Yes, it can be hard when clients are frustrated that you aren't delivering quick enough - and...

Today I want to explore with you why being busy means that you can't and won’t be a good leader or business owner…

Big statement I know!

You see, most of us are so conditioned to being busy. We think that being busy and ticking things off our to-do list, running around all day every day and getting to the end of every day exhausted is the way to achieving the success that we want to achieve.

However, the issue with being busy all the time and trying to get things done all the time is that you're never slowing down and taking the time to think strategically about where your team or your business is going.

Let me explain.

By being busy all the time you are robbing yourself, your team and your business of your ability to think creatively, your ability to think strategically and your ability to set a vision for where your team and your business is going.

So by being busy all the time and rushing around all the time and trying to fill your days full of busyness all the time...

Recently I ran a webinar called 'How To Avoid Competing On Price', where we explored how to increase your prices, get paid what you’re really worth, how to generate more profit and how to have happier clients in the process.

One of the aspects we explored in this webinar, was your potential blocks from a mindset point of view, as to why you don’t increase your prices, ask for variations and in general get more hungry when it comes to chasing new sales and new clients.

Today I want to explore with you these blocks in a little bit more detail.

Now if you’ve noticed that you procrastinate or choose to do other things when you know you need to be talking to a client about a variation, or that you shy away from having sales conversations with clients or in general feel uncomfortable when it comes to sales, marketing and business development - then you should definitely read on!

The first block I want to explore with you is an unconscious aversion or a negative viewpoint...

Today, I want to talk to you about the importance of building momentum.

The success of your team and the success of your business relies on you being able to build momentum and keep the same level of cadence in all areas of your team and your business.

I'm sure you've experienced this for yourself, that when you have momentum, things feel like they get a life of their own. They feel like they just continue to build steam and build speed and continue to generate really great and profound results for your team and your business.

And I'm sure you've also experienced what it’s like when you lose that momentum. How hard it is to then get going again, that things just become really difficult and you feel like you're pulling teeth! 

And so in order to build that momentum, you need to be ensuring that you are taking action on what's important to grow your team and your business each and every week. 

The way to do this is to make sure that you are firstly aware of these areas...

One of the biggest areas I see needing to be addressed right now, is the viewpoint taken by many leaders and business owners which is that they need to take on everything and do everything in their team or their business. 

With the market as busy as it is right now, it’s easy to feel like you 'could' and 'should' be doing everything. 

With this mentality of taking on everything and holding everything so tight and so close, burnout and overwhelm is a very real possibility for many. 

Today I want to talk to you about why delegation is so important. 

Many leaders and business owners feel guilty and feel like they’ll lose the respect of those around them if they start to delegate out work. 

I want to talk to you about why this is so not true, and in fact a complete sabotage to the growth of your team and your business. 

You see the reality is you can’t do everything. There are only so many hours in a day and doing one thing takes you away...

Today I want to talk to you about how to build your confidence in yourself as a leader.

Now, let's be honest, we all have areas of growth and development. To think that right here, right now we have all the skills we will ever need to be an effective leader and to lead and grow our team or business - is a complete non-truth.

A true growth mindset says that we always have the ability to learn, to grow and to get better.

So with this approach to life, who you are right now is absolutely not the person you’ll be in 5 or 10 years time. 

And the person that you grow into as a leader in the next 5 or 10 years time is absolutely up to you. Who you become and who you grow in to will be the sum total of the decisions and the choices that you make today, tomorrow and the next day.

So when it comes to leadership and developing a level of confidence in yourself as a leader, it really boils down to you looking at your skill set right now and then looking at the skill set you want to...

I hope you’re having an amazing week! 

With everything being so hectic and so busy at the moment, today I want to talk to you about the importance of leveraging your time. 

The reality is that you can’t do everything. And as a leader or business owner, you need to have your attention across all areas of your team or your business. 

That means you need to be across winning work, new business, client relationships, team performance, an aspect of project delivery, as well as the strategic direction and growth of your team or your business. 

You get it, “all of the things”. 

If you try to be deeply across all of the areas of your team or your business that I’ve just mentioned above and you try to take responsibility for all of these areas, you’ll simply blow up and burn out. 

So, if you want to be successful and grow a really profitable team and business, you have to get really good at leveraging your time.

Leveraging...

With the market as busy as it is right now, as well as there still being levels of uncertainty in our economy, building resilience is such a key skill for you to master. 

Now resilience is absolutely a skill that can be developed and learnt, but it requires a level of self-awareness, self-reflection, a willingness to get a bit uncomfortable and to take consistent action to build this skill over time.

You see, resilience is essentially the way at which you view life circumstances, life situations and what is happening to you or around you. Resilience is also then the action that you choose to take in response to adversity and ‘negative’ things happening to you. 

Let me tell you - if you get flustered, or overwhelmed, or want to bury your head in the sand and hide every time something doesn’t go your way, or a negative situation occurs in your day - then you aren’t going to be an effective leader and you aren’t going to be able to achieve the...