When running a business, you go all in right from the start. It’s your baby and you want to give it the best chance of succeeding. Therefore, it’s no wonder that your enthusiasm and motivation are at their highest. You want to have satisfied customers/clients and you work on that day in and day out.

And so, many times you automatically think that the same motivation you have translates to your team. However, the reality is that it is not always the case.

You’ll soon realise that there are two types of people (i.e. workers). And that having both on your team means that it will not be performing as you had hoped it would.

Let’s explore who those are, and how you can create a team of wonderful people that will drive your business forward.

The first type of worker is the unproductive worker (or the laid-back comfort seeker). It is these slackers that can lead to missed deadlines, decreased morale, and ultimately hurt your business.

If we think about why they are so detached from the c...

How many times has a client asked you to do something and it’s prompted an automatic YES from you? 

And then you end up readjusting your calendar and wondering where in the world to put the extra work you’ve just agreed to.

I think it’s happened to all of us, but today, I’d like to dive deeper into what this sort of behaviour leads to and how it can be prevented.

The first example that comes to mind is the time leading up to Christmas (but it could be any other holiday or your annual leave for that matter). Before we take that break from work, all projects must come to a close. We all have it planned out, don’t we?

And you probably already know that it is at those exact times, a client or two will come to you with an urgent request. There’s this one extra thing that they need done before the break. You accept their request and add this to your workload (although it’s already full) because it’s your client and you want to leave a good impression.

The results of just blindly saying ...

How many times have you heard that strategy is important? 

I bet a heap of times!

And even though you know it’s important, it’s the first thing to get neglected or let go of when you get busy.

It’s easy to get caught up with all the day-to-day activities - dealing with challenges, resolving problems, providing for your clients, etc.

And at some point, you bring your head up from being stuck in the weeds and putting out fires all day long and you realise that you are going in an unknown direction, or not the direction you were hoping for.

This is where I need to remind you that one of the essentials for business success is revisiting your strategy on a regular basis.

So what does that look like? First, you allocate some time every month or quarter to review your strategy. And then, each time you have that strategy review slot, you need to ask yourself several simple questions.

Let’s dive into those now. 

Q1: What is my long-term business vision?

So this is where you ask yoursel...

Well here we go - we're into the run into Christmas! What a year!

What I notice at this time of the year is that leaders and business owners start to get complacent and take their foot off the pedal.

It’s been a hard and full on year - I know. But if you want to finish this year strong AND set the start of your 2023 up right - then you have to keep going.

This is where consistency matters.

It’s the little things you do every day that really matter and allow you to build momentum - and momentum generates results!

Watch and listen for those little voices in your head that tell you things like:

• “It's been a hard year - just take the rest of the year slowly.”
• “Don't worry about following up that client / proposal / opportunity - leave it until the new year.”
• “I can't be bothered having that hard conversation with a team member or client - I'm tired and don't want the angst.”

Use your calendar to your advantage here. This way you are physically creating the time and the space i...

Today I want to explore with you a super interesting concept that I’ve been playing around with in my own life and in my own business.

It’s called the 80 / 20 rule for getting ‘stuff’ done.

This concept is all about being conscious, being intentional and accessing the appropriate energy and emotions within yourself to get done what you need to get done.

Let me explain.

You see most of us go about our days and our weeks not been hugely intentional with the energy, the state and the emotions that we’re in in order to get things done. Most of us stay in fairly comfortable emotions and a fairly comfortable state of being, acting, operating and behaving. We like being this way because it’s familiar to us.

And most of us, if we really analyse the energy and the emotions that we operate out of every day - it’s one of being nice to others, it’s one of been quite laid-back, it’s one of not wanting to do things that rock the boat and being fairly calm and considered.

And to be honest - I’m...

Procrastination is single-handedly the biggest productivity and goal achieving killer.

Do you find yourself regularly doing things that you KNOW aren’t really that important?

Do you even catch yourself, acknowledge what you're doing isn’t that important - but keep doing it anyway??!!

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself:

 "I know this isn't that important - so why am I doing it?"

 "What's the REAL reason I'm procrastinating here?"

This week I explored with my clients on our coaching call the real and underlying reasons why you ACTUALLY procrastinate.

Think about it for yourself - what do you do when you're procrastinating?

Some of the answers from my clients on the coaching call to this question:

• Eating / snacking.
• Getting another coffee.
• Mindlessly responding to or cleaning up emails.
• Talking to colleagues about things that just aren’t important.
• Surfing carsales.com!!

Then we got to the heart of what is REALLY going on when I asked WHY?

Some of the responses:

• F...

I hope you are super well and are having an amazing start to your week.

I've just finished a live coaching call with everyone in my Boardroom program. Today was a clarity call, so helping all of my clients in the program get unstuck, move past roadblocks and clear the way to make good quality strategic decisions.

It was a really powerful call, and my main takeaway was really that no matter what is going on in your world – good, bad or coasting - there are always going to be challenging and difficult things to do. 

Growth is hard. Consolidation is hard. Winning work is hard. Losing clients is hard. Hiring is hard. Firing is hard. 

There are always going to be things that we have to do that are uncomfortable.

And this is some of the advice that I gave everyone on the call today – when things get hard or difficult or challenging - it's so important to come back to your why. 

Who am I doing this all for?

When you have a hard decision to make. When you've got an uncomfortable thing t...

Today I'd like to explore with you a really simple, but highly effective technique my clients are using right now to set their weeks up so they win.

It all comes down to being really intentional with how you start your week.

Most leaders and business owners get to work or get to their office on Monday mornings and they just start 'doing'.

They just start answering emails or phone calls and get stuck straight into delivery mode. 

I'd like you to do something completely different with the start of your week. I'd like you to block out 2hrs somewhere on Monday morning which will be your time to get intentional and strategic about your week.

In this 2hr block I'd like you to think about, strategise and get clear on your actions around the following:

1)  Business development. This could mean reaching out to a potential client for coffee or lunch, strategising about who you're targeting next with your BD strategy or even sitting down to write a proposal.

2)  Existing client relationshi...

As an engineering leader or business owner in the industry at the moment - building and showing the traits of a resilient leader is so critical right now.

The people around you need someone to steer the ship. They need someone who is calm under pressure and who makes decisions quickly when they need to. 

Your team and your business can't afford to have someone at the helm who is unsure, hiding and cracks under pressure.

Now resilience is a difficult skill to master - particularly when you are trying to navigate your own emotions, thoughts and feelings through this busy period as well as being there for your team and your business.

Today I want to give you 3 strategies to become a more resilient and more effective leader during these busy times.

1) Build Awareness

The first step is building awareness of yourself, your thoughts, your feelings and your emotions in any given moment. The easiest way to do this is to set reminders for yourself on your phone throughout the day as a remi...

Today I want to explore with you an area that a lot of engineering business leaders and business owners aren't getting right at the moment.

Everyone is rushing around so busy, with a million things on their action list and just trying to get enough done to keep their head above water.  

Because of all the rushing - rushing to do BD, saying yes to everything, rushing to get projects done, rushing the delegation process to internal teams etc. - no-one is pausing long enough to get clarity on what it is that they're actually supposed to be doing and actually trying to achieve.

The problem with rushing and the problem with taking action without clarity - is that it leads to mistakes, it leads to rework, it leads to unhappy clients who may start looking elsewhere, it leads to wasted money and resources and it leads to not profitable projects - all of which is completely unsustainable.

If you're looking to thrive right now (which I know you are) then you need to be ensuring that you and ...