The 7 Steps to Turning Round a Failing Project

When you’re brought in to rescue a project….

1: Get everyone to agree there is a Problem. 

Unless you get this agreement, you’ll have limited ability to do what you must do next, which is...

2: Pause the project. This buys the time and space to think it through and create your new plan - because you definitely don’t want to be implementing someone else’s wrong and failed plan, do you ?

3: Reassess the facts and reasons for the project in the first place. Things change – there’s no point trying to fix a problem that isn't what it was.

4: Measure the potential RoI accurately. The project may be pointless now, because peoples’ opinion of what is important changes (often much more often than they'll admit).

5: Measure the time and effort needed to succeed. Forget previous time and cost estimates, do your own. Even small technology changes can make a massive difference.

6: Compare this project with the current workload. This project may have been at the top of the pile when it started, but are there more important things to achieve now ?

7: Rebrand: kick off your new project with a new name. It’s not the same project is it? It’s not a repeat of a past failure, is it ?

My Top 10 Time Thieves

1. Fire fighting
   Fire Fighting is defined as working on effects not causes. If all you do is react, fixing stuff that’s broken because it wasn’t done right in the first place, things will never change, will they ? Yes, you must react and respond, provide workable solutions. But this isn’t the real job of a manager or a leader: the real job is to change the way things are done, change the methods and techniques, and sometimes the people, so that the old problems go away. 
2.  Fighting the wrong battlesIn all ball sports, shot selection is critical: you need to play good shots. But just as important, often much more critical early on, are the shots you choose not to make – the balls you leave alone. In business, your success will be decided just as much by the battles you decide not to fight as those you do. Let some things stew for a bit; just as not every conversation is a battle to be won, not every issue is a war to be fought. 
3. DIY instead of delegatingOk, so you can probably do most things faster, and much better, than many. But in the long run, as long as it gets done, does it really matter it took a day longer and was only 80% as effective ? Thought not. So treat this as a coaching opportunity, where you can help someone else learn. And spend your time on doing the difficult stuff that really deserves your attention.
4. Forgetting about facts
   How long is spent in meetings and conversations drifting around opinions and assumptions ? If nothing is checkable, every lame half-baked idea is valid, and the lack of clarity and inevitable frustration ratchets up the emotional temperature. Break that cycle by asking: “What don’t we know ?” A few relevant facts move issues on rapidly.  Ask: “Can we test that assumption ?” At the very least it stops the whinging and gets people moving and directed. If there are no obvious pointers as to what to do next, then create a theory, and test it. It might be completely wrong, but the really good news is that you now know what not to do: only one step nearer wisdom, but it’s a massive leap from ignorant thrashing about.
5.  Thinking that all technology is goodTechnology isn't all good. There is a horrible paradigm amongst the generation that have grown up with Windows that Everything Is Miscellaneous. “Why tidy up my Inbox when I have Search ? Let the technology remember everything for me, I can look anything up whenever I need it, can’t I ?” The consequence of this is a life lived in a continuous present (just like Twitter, in fact), where the last thing to appear is the most important. This destroys any sense of perspective and context, and means irrelevances are given undeserved airtime, and everything needs to be learned afresh every day. Such childlike innocence is seen as invigorating, when in fact it is desperately dangerous, arresting peoples’ development, blinding them to wider truths, and gives them every excuse to drop solid, properly thought-through plans on a whim.
   
   So get the Inbox cleared out every day. Clear your desk. Review your Big Rocks. Write down your do list, with the Big Rocks in BLOCK CAPITALS. Turn off Twitter, Facebook, Yammer, Outlook and your phone. Go on, get on with it.
6. Buggering about working on the Little RocksA Zen master was asked how to make big changes happen in a busy world. The master began by putting large rocks in a pot. Only three would fit. He asked his pupils if it was full, and they said ‘Yes Master’. So he took some stones, and used them to fill in the space around the rocks. Again, he said: ‘Is the pot full ?’, and the answer came back ‘Yes Master’. So he poured some gravel into the pot. By this time the students hesitated when he asked if the pot was full, but still said ‘Yes’. So the Master piled sand onto the rocks, and shook the pot till the surface was completely level. ‘Is the pot full now?’ ‘Oh yes Master’ they said, but were amazed when he poured water into the pot and it took a surprisingly long time before it started spilling over the edge. ‘Students,’ said the Master, ‘the pot is now full. But what is the moral of my story ?’ One student replied ‘No day is so busy that we cannot achieve more.’ ‘Yes,’ said the Master ‘that is true, but not my real point. The really important point is that if you don’t put the big rocks in first, they will never go in at all.’
   To achieve major change, focus uninterrupted time on the big, different things you want to happen.
7.  Letting email and the phone interrupt youYou decide what you do with your time, nobody else. Pick up email and voicemails every few hours and then turn them off again.
8. Other peopleAre you a SNIOP ? Are you Susceptible to the Negative Influence of Other People ? If so, don’t despair, we all are to some extent. But now you know the concept, it won’t happen so readily, will it? Worse than negative people, are the poisonous ones: they’re maybe not doing it consciously, but they’re doing you no good whatsoever. The malicious ones are easy to spot (and luckily there aren't that many of them anyway). The hard ones are those who are doing you no favours through their own attributes: they may be incompetent, lazy, or just incompatible. Gently cut your ties with them.
9. Feeling less than positive about a situationYour attitude is your responsibility and no-one else’s. How you feel when you walk in the door in the morning has nothing to do with your Boss or the company. “No-one has the power to change my attitude without my permission” Eleanor RooseveltIf something’s not right then stop wallowing in self pity and do something about it. And if you can’t, and you really don’t like the job then stop whinging, get off your backside and find a better one. As Ted Turner said: “Lead, follow, or just get outta the damn way”.
10. Being a Wimp“Self-pity and resentment are amongst the most toxic of drugs.” John Gardner. Be gentle with other people, but mercilessly hard on yourself. As my brother used to say: "when you look back on your business career, you could always have been much braver than you actually were." What are you waiting for ? Get on with it.

Firing

Saw this on Chris Dixon's Blog...

Firing

Firing is awful. You can try to avoid it, but even the most selective founders make serious mistakes. Here are a few things I’ve observed about firing:

1) The good people bounce up, the bad ones bounce down. I was told this by my boss once when he was firing one of my friends. At the time, I thought this just made him feel better about himself. Over time, I’ve seen the wisdom in what he said. Some people who get fired react by fixing their weaknesses. Others spiral down.

2) Do it early. If you think you’re going to fire someone over the next six months, you probably will. Don’t wait too long. Too many founders do. It’s better for management and employees if it happens fast.

3) It’s awful. You’re in control of a situation that will meaningfully hurt someone. It’s an awful place to be. The fired person will go home and tell his/her family about how terrible it was. It was your fault. Perhaps your mismanagement caused it. Who knows. You’ll question it, and perhaps you are right to do so.

4) The other choice is firing everyone. You’re the founder of the company. If you run out of money, you’re forced to fire everyone. If you don’t fire the bad employees, you risk everyone else’s jobs. It’s an impossible situation.

5) The feeling is more likely to be mutual than you think. Most of the time, the person getting fired was already about to quit. The antipathy you feel is likely reciprocated. It’s surprising how often this happens and management doesn’t see it coming.

It would be great if startups were all about growth, hiring, and success. But the reality is that founding a company is a brutal job and lots of the pain gets passed down to employees. Creative destruction sounds nice in textbooks, but in the real world it means telling friends to go home, stop getting paid, and find new jobs.

The 3 Aspects of Fixing Support Calls

It's very easy in a busy support environment to just be happy that the call queues are manageable, and you're working within the target SLAs. That's the job right ? Not really - it's only the first step of three...

• Resolve the technical problem and complete documentation
• Ensure the customer believes the problem is resolved
• What is their level of satisfaction ?
• Do they have other issues that need looking into ?
• Research the cause of the problem, and fix the process, to prevent it happening again

The last is particularly important. Firefighting is defined as time wasted working on effects instead of causes, and it's only if you try and work backwards to prevent future calls can you say you're doing a proper support job.

The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives

Sydney Finkelstein researched why 50 former high-flying companies failed, and defined the Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives (SUEs) . . .

Habit # 1: SUEs see themselves and their companies as dominating their environment
SUEs vastly overestimate their influence over events and vastly underestimate the role of chance and circumstance in their success. They believe that everyone else in the company is there to execute the SUE’s personal vision for the company.
Warning Sign for #1: A lack of respect

Habit #2: SUEs see no boundary between their personal interests and their corporation’s interests
SUEs use their companies as private empires, and act as if they are king of their own country, free to spend any amount they choose on themselves.
Warning Sign for #2: A question of character

Habit #3: SUEs think they have all the answers
All executives have to develop rapid decision making skills, handle many crises simultaneously, and quickly size up situations that have stumped everyone else for days. But SUEs only listen to their own words, shut out other points of view and are closed to learning anything new at all.
Warning Sign for #3: A leader without followers.

Habit #4: SUEs ruthlessly eliminate anyone who isn’t completely behind them
By eliminating all dissenting and contrasting viewpoints, SUEs cut themselves off from reality. And with only yes-men left, who’s there to warn them that the world’s not as they would like it to be ? Or come up with a new and different approach ?
Warning Sign for #4: Executive departures

Habit #5: SUEs are consummate spokespersons, obsessed with the company image
Beware high-profile executives, constantly in the public eye, with little time for operational details.
Warning Sign of #5: Blatant attention-seeking

Habit #6: SUEs underestimate obstacles
SUEs are afraid of appearing fallible, so they avoid admitting mistakes at all costs. They’ll especially avoid accepting that the obstacles they casually waved aside are more troublesome than anticipated.
Warning Sign of #6: Excessive hype

Habit #7: SUEs stubbornly rely on what worked for them in the past
Many SUEs owe their careers to a “defining moment”: the one thing they’re known for and what gets them all their subsequent jobs. This, combined with some or all of Habits 1-6, means they have only one point of reference, and don’t consider the wider range of options needed to address new circumstances.
Warning Sign of #7: Constantly referring to what worked in the past

Finkelstein’s bottom line: If you exhibit several of these traits, now is the time to stamp them out. If your boss or several senior executives at your company show them, start looking for a new job.

Three simple negotiation rules

I have a shelf full of books on negotiation, all promising to change my life. But sometimes you find a simple rule set that really helps.

Recently I came across Larry Brilliant’s 3 rules of How to Negotiate. Google him if you’ve never heard of him, but they’re dead simple, and dead right:

A) Have more points to discuss than the other side.
In wanting a conclusion, it’s only too easy to run out of big things to talk about, and then the other side can start pressuring you for a close. If you’ve lots of points important to you, you always have another reason to call, more concessions to offer (make them small !), and stay centre stage right to the end.

B) Have a mathematical formula.
Invent a calculation that justifies your desired outcome. It will of course be high: not too scary, but definitely ballsy. Of course it will be challenged, and you can discuss the assumptions, the multipliers, the variables, and any qualifying factors. But your initial, calculated (and hopefully daringly high) start point anchors a value in peoples' minds, and stops them replacing your value with theirs.

C) Have alternative outcomes.
If you don’t have walk away options, you will lose out. If you're selling a business, have other financing or exit options. If you're selling products and services, work as hard as you can to build a full pipeline.

How to handle media interviews

It's been a while since I did live TV, but I still remember how surprised I was that they don't give you advance warning of the questions you'll be asked. If you have to deal with papers, radio or TV, it'll be the same: "30 seconds Mr. Sidwell....then 5-4-3-2-1 and you're live !"

So here are the rules of engagement.

1 Understand that journalists are focussed on the story: they don't care about you. It's taken you a lifetime to build up your reputation, and an unguarded public statement can destroy it in seconds.

2 Don't, whatever you do, answer the journalist's questions ! No, no, no. You're being interviewed, right ? So you decide what's said, don't you ? So before you start, think carefully of the 3 main points you want to make. Ideally they will be based on strong facts, benefits, good news, etc. The really good news. Write down the key words for the 3 points, and either sellotape them under the camera lens or write them on your cuff. Now, this is really important: whatever question you're asked, pick the point that most nearly answers it, and spin it as the answer. Then when question two comes, you have two answers to choose from. And yes, question three gets the final remaining message. If there are further questions, don't go off piste: choose the most appropriate of your three points, and repeat it, just changing the words slightly. Only give the answers you want to give.

3 Never, never, ever, say yes in an interview. If you say yes, you'll find the journalists take their ambiguous, multi-dimensional question, rephrased and reinterpreted as if you'd said it. In interviews, whatever the journalist says, even if you 100% agree with it, always say No. Even if you then say exactly the same thing in your own words.

4 Be very careful with your choice of words, particularly if you're handling a difficult situation. Issue, situation, position are all excellent words - even if they're quoted out of context they're not interesting enough to be news. You can acknowledge the seriousness of the situation, and fully understand people's concerns blah blah blah. But do not use words like problem, worry, concern, or broken: they make wonderfully attention grabbing headlines and invite only more questions.

5 It's best not to go off record.Yes, sometimes, it helps no end if you can explain something tricky off the record, before going on the record once the journo understands. But in reality, it's best not to do this: if it's juicy enough, they'll find some other way of corroborating your private explanation, and you're sunk just as surely as if you'd blurted it out in a bar.

6 At all times stay icy calm, and don't get into an argument. You can say: "No, that's not the way I see it and then explain your point of view (see point 2 above). But don't argue. Keep in mind the old advice warning of the dangers of arguing with a pig: you'll both get dirty, but the pig likes it.

7 If your back is really against the wall, be silent. Don't say No comment, or respond in any way. Shut the door, walk away, look down, show no emotion, be completely passive: don't give them anything to hang a story on.

Be careful out there.....

How to find at least another hour every day

There’s nothing new in the world: Peter Drucker in 1967 recommended that you should “…reserve large blocks of time on your calendar, don’t answer the phone, and return calls in short bursts once or twice a day.”

I recently turned off remote email access on my iPhone. It's as if I have another hour every day. Why ?

1. Rather like not missing TV when you're on holiday, you just don't miss your email when it's not available. It means your attention is not fragmented, and you can focus 100% and be fully engaged with the moment.
2. Reading email on the phone was pointless: only very rarely did I reply to it remotely, but waited till I was in front of a proper keyboard...so why process messages twice ? And if anyone wants me urgently, then text or phone call is much, much better in all cases.
3. And above all this, I found I was becoming hooked on checking it, simply because I could. I am much happier now I've taken back control of my behaviour.

Go on, try it, what's the worst that could happen ? It won't hurt, I promise. You'll have more time, and be happier too. How many pieces of free advice can deliver that so easily ?

No-one is indispensable

There are plenty of indispensable people in the grave yard, even those who thought they were the most powerful.....

A farmer has an ox and a mule pulling his plough. The soil is stony, and life is hard. The ox is clearly the biggest and strongest animal, but is tired of shouldering more of the burden than the mule.

One winter's morning, it's dark and frosty outside, and the ox decides to throw a sickie. It lies in the hay, pretending to be ill. The farmer is full of concern, mixes up a bucket of warm oats, wraps him up in a blanket, and sets off with the mule to plough the fields. That evening when the mule returns, the ox says "Did the farmer say anything about me ?" The mule replied, "No, not a word. He helped me pull the plough, and it's late now but we got the work done."

Next morning, the ox was warm and comfortable in the hay, and decides to act ill again. The farmer wraps him up warm and leaves him hot oats, and spends the day with the mule in the fields. When the mule returns, tired out, the ox asks again: "Did the farmer say anything about me ?" The mule replied, "No, not a word. But he did have a long talk with the butcher on the way home."

How to set up a productive strategy/planning session

Some people shudder when they hear the word strategy. To them it means expensive days away in chain hotels, management consultancy jargon, endless opinionated chatter, well-rehearsed disagreements, and back in the real world nothing changes. Because poorly managed planning sessions can be so frustrating and pointless, they avoid them, and stick with the day job: however hard it is, it's easier than herding cats on a strategy day.

But without plans, things only change by accident, or when they're so broken it's easier to change than not. Many companies are like a ship of fools, management's perpetually rushing around, doing what they’ve always done, busy working in the business, but with no time to work on the business. I actually heard someone say once: ‘Yes, I have a plan, I just haven’t written it down yet.’

However, if you keep the language simple, and reframe the word strategy for both yourself and your team it’s possible to reset attitudes and arrange a positive, productive planning session.

• Reframing for you: ask yourself: ‘Does my company respond to strategy, or pain ?’ Of course you want it to respond to strategy: instant attitude shift.
• Reframing for your team: Don’t describe the day as a strategy day: in the invitation, call it ‘A meeting where we’re going to agree what we will do differently’.

As you start the meeting, insist on laptops and phones being turned off. Then...

• Go round the room, and ensure everyone (including you !) has 10 minutes to say whatever they want. Ensure everyone can speak their mind without interruptions or discussions (although questions for clarification are ok).
• After each 10 minutes, summarise their input and get their agreement you’ve understood.
• Then have a 5 minute tea and pee break to get your thoughts together.
• When you get back, summarise everyone’s thoughts, and set the agenda for the meeting using the theme ‘Here are the areas where we're going to do things differently.”

What to do if good staff aren’t performing

If something in your car is broken, you can press and press the accelerator and all you get is more engine revs, but no movement: something may be broken in the machinery.

This happens with even the best people: for no apparent reason they can sometimes become less effective, and you know your words aren’t making any difference.

Sometimes…

• peoples’ attention is fragmented, continuous swapping between jobs means lower output: they need help in shutting themselves away, preventing interruptions, taking control – or possibly you’re putting them in an impossible position, and you need to make changes elsewhere to reduce the interruptions
• people have information overload and are confused: perhaps you need to help them rationalise the data and refresh their plan and deliverables
• even the best people can be overwhelmed, and their wheels start spinning, they start to flap and productivity drops: they need help prioritising, and then setting others’ expectations of when deliverables will be appearing
• people trying to please impatient bosses end up letting them down because they hadn’t been briefed properly (or didn’t ask the right questions) but now don’t want to admit they weren’t really ready to start.

Time to take a different tack. Take the person to a quiet room, with the list of what was expected of them, and go through it, slowly, one by one:

• Was she briefed well enough for each task ?
• How long did she think it would take her ?
• How long did it actually take her ?
• If it took longer, then why ?

Once you properly understand the detail, rebuild their work plan with them, change processes if you need to, and refocus them. Yes, this takes time. But you’re a good manager aren’t you ? You’re in control of your time, aren’t you ?

How to make big changes happen when you're busy

A Zen master was asked how to make big changes happen in a busy world.

The master began by putting large rocks in a pot. Only three would fit. He asked his pupils if it was full, and they said ‘Yes Master’. So he took some stones, and used them to fill in the space around the rocks. Again, he said: ‘Is the pot full ?’, and the answer came back ‘Yes Master’. So he poured some gravel into the pot. By this time the students hesitated when he asked if the pot was full, but still said ‘Yes’. So the Master piled sand onto the rocks, and shook the pot till the surface was completely level. ‘Is the pot full now ?’ ‘Oh yes Master’ they said, but were amazed when he poured water into the pot and it took a surprisingly long time before it started spilling over the edge.

‘Students,’ said the Master, ‘the pot is now full. But what is the moral of my story ?’

One student replied ‘No day is so busy that we cannot achieve more.’ ‘Yes,’ said the Master ‘that is true, but not my real point. The really important point is that if you don’t put the big rocks in first, they will never go in at all.’

And in today’s business world, with phones and emails and texts, being busy can take up all our time. If we want to achieve major change, and make big, important differences, we must regularly turn our phone off, shut down the email, and focus uninterrupted time on the big, different things we want to happen.

Be careful !

A pen and pencil together cost £1.10. The pen costs £1 more than the pencil. How much does the pencil cost ?

Most people's gut answer is 10p, but they'd be wrong.

Very few of the really good business people I've met would have been fooled. Not because they're better at maths, but because they don't take things at face value. They question, query, seek to understand, reach answers for themselves, and are not swayed by others' opinions.

Only when they feel they have a good grip of the situation do they come to a conclusion.

Got the right answer yet ?

Great interviewing questions

If you've read my previous post on great recruitment interviews, you shouldn't need these, but it never hurts to ask a few tricky questions, to gauge how they handle awkward situations.

1 What are seven sevens ? Yep, you already know it's 49, but if they don't answer it in a flash, they can't add up, and don't hire them.

2 How do you spell accommodation ? OK, here it's not so critical they get the answer right, but you'll be amazed by how many flap when asked this. And you don't want to hire someone who can't handle a bit of stress, and fear failure, do you ?

3 What shouldn't I know about you ?

4 If I were to ask your previous bosses about you, what would they say were your strengths ? your weaknesses ?

5 Describe the person you have least liked working with. How did you adapt to working with them ?

6 Let's imagine that you have increased profitability by 15% and you can increase this to 30% by shedding staff. What do you do ?

7 It's human nature to play up your strengths and play down your weaknesses...which traits are you playing up right now ?

A final tip. If you want a straight answer to a question, such as their actual earnings last year, ask it completely out of context, to give them no warning that it's coming. Eg, "Do you take milk in your tea ? Sugar ? What did you earn last year ?" You'll tell straight away if they're telling the truth (the answer will come without hesitation) or avoiding the truth (they'll hesitate). I once asked this question when a candidate was driving me to the station and he nearly crashed the car.

Great recruitment interviews

Recruitment isn't easy. How can you predict how good someone will be until they've been doing it a while ? But there are some tried and tested ways to weed out wrong folks early.

1 Ask the receptionist. If the candidate doesn't leave a good impression with your receptionist, don't hire them. If they aren't able to make a good impression when they're really trying, they'll be hopeless when they relax.

2 During the interview, don't ask how should, how would, and how could you questions. All they teach you is how good the candidate is at answering hypothetical questions. Try instead to get stories about how they've reacted under specific circumstances in the past. Ask "Tell me about something in your career you're proud of." Then drill down, look for STARs:

• Situation: what was the position before ?
• Task: What needed to be done ?
• Action: What did you do ? (keep asking: no, you personally, what was your exact contribution ? and if they say "we did this", "we did that, be especially nosy)
• Result: What was the outcome ?

Now ask ""Tell me about something in your career when things went horribly wrong." Then drill down again, look for STARs, but in this instance you'll find out how they reacted to stress, turned things from negative to positive.

3 Do they talk with interest and authority about your industry and market sector ? The folks you really don't want are those for whom this will be just another job. Good people are interested in the trends in the sector, how your market works, the products in it. With the really good ones, you're just privileged to pay their wages while their career passes through your company.

4 Ask yourself: Would I like to spend an hour in the pub with this person ? If not, then will your existing staff, prospects and customers like them ? Probably not - so are they a good bet as an employee ?

Good interviewing doesn't mean you spot the great ones easier, but it does mean you can weed out the wrong ones with much greater certainty.

How to increase email response rates

Does it frustrate you occasionally that important emails, calling for action, aren't answered ? Is it because you're writing to multiple people with one mail ?

There is an identified social phenomenon known as the Bystander Effect. Test after test has proven that groups of people do not act, but individuals do. For example, in a study done at Princeton University where an actor faked an epileptic fit in the street, if over 5 people were present, there was only a 1 in 3 chance that someone would stop and help: most hurried on by, not wanting to stand out from everyone else. But when only one person was walking by, there was an 85% chance they would stop and help.

So how to get maximum response to your important emails ?

Send it to only one person at a time.

Measuring Customer Satisfaction

There are some things that sound easy but quickly become really challenging, and one of them is measuring customer satisfaction.

It's easy to become mired in weighted averages, and median responses, and what do they really mean by satisfaction ? The more accurate you try to make the data, the more unreliable it seems to become, especially if you're trying to use it as a trigger, for example to make staff bonus payments.

And let's not talk about how the scope can start creeping into how can we turn them into advocates, or and tap them for case studies or referred leads.

Just One Question

So let's keep it simple. Let's ask just one question. And how much simpler could it be ?...

Ask: On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you like us ?

The average response to this question over time will tell you if what you're doing is working or not. Dead easy.

Now we don't want to make work for ourselves do we, but could also take the opportunity to ask a second question.

Ask: Why ?

...and this'll save us from having to think too much about what to do next.

Why do things the difficult way ?

Answering difficult questions

It happens to us all: things are going so well, and then suddenly a question arises we have no idea how to answer - sometimes you genuinely don't know the answer, other times you definitely don't like the direction the question will take the conversation.

One word is all you need to remember: REFRAMING...

Step 1: Repeat the question, check you've understood tight (you know most people like the sound of their own voices, they sometimes let you off the hook by just carrying on talking...:-)

Step 2: If it's still up to you, then reframe the question: go back in time, how did we get into this position ? what are the real issues at stake ? what did we both want out of this situation in the first place ? what's changed since then ? then you can say: so perhaps the real question is.....and ask it in its new shape.

At least then it's a question you'll be happier to answer.

Take Theo's advice

Having just read Theo Paphitis' 10 Rules for Business Success, thought you might find them inspiring and very practical too....

1 Reduce risk (get all the information)

2 Don't fool yourself (don't believe your own bullshit, check the facts)

3 Cash is King (you can live without profit but you can't live without cash)

4 Embrace change (sell on the Internet)

5 Make decisions (don't hesitate, ask for help, just don't stop making decisions)

6 Weigh up the opposition (don't underestimate them) and yourself (don't overestimate...)

7 Start small (DIY so you know everything first)

8 Get your staff on board (most important people in any business ? not owner, not customer, but the staff)

9 Capitalise on others' ideas (active execution is much more important than having the idea)

10 Turn your dreams into reality (go for it, determination is the difference).

You can find the original at http://www.smarta.com/advice/general/theo-paphitis-10-rules-for-business-success

How to Command Action

OK, you have a plan, but how to communicate it without any ambiguity and as crisply as possible ? Perhaps we can learn from the military – they use the acronym SMEAC to communicate and direct action.

SITUATION: ….where are we, what’s happening ?

MISSION: ….what are our goals, what’s our purpose ?

EXECUTION: ….here’s what I want you to do

ADMINISTRATION: ….specifics: who’s going to do what, how you’ll work together, what supplies will be needed, and how you’ll get them

COMMAND AND CONTROL: ….what to communicate, when, how to do it, what authority you have if you can’t ask.

It gives me confidence using a technique that’s proven on battlefields all over the world !