Websites Are Going Out of Fashion…
Not long ago, I asked whether websites were going out of fashion…
Call it coincidence, but barely a week later, I got an answer in the form of a YouTube video!
The presenter (who makes money out of showing people how to “get their business found”) made a number of extremely useful points which show just how rapidly things are changing. The first point was that websites are definitely less powerful in getting business. Why? Because people are using other spaces to find suppliers.
Originally, companies focused on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to make sure that, when somebody googled (say) “Plumber”, your website came up as one of the first in the Google search engine. Companies invested considerable time and resources in making sure that they were always at the top of the list and that, once you clicked on their website, the words used in it built the confidence you needed to approach them.
What’s changed is that people are using AI instead of Google (I confess, I’m not one of them!) and ChatGPT is the main search tool. 43% of users have (apparently) used an AI assistant to search for service providers and one in four states that AI is now their main source for recommendations.
The key advantage of AI is the ability to take voice input as we “lay out our situation” much as we would in a conversation.
Now here’s what shocked me: when AI generates answers to whatever query we dictate into it, where does it get its answers?
YouTube!
Previously, reddit was also a popular source but the main point is that AI may not even refer to a website as it knows that “nobody checks these”. YouTube videos, however, get viewed by everyone (guilty as charged!). The result: organisations with a great YouTube channel get the business. It doesn’t matter whether they have 2,000 or 2 million viewers, AI “scrapes” every source available to get information.
So, now YouTube is becoming more important than a website (although the latter still has a place). Because a recommendation from AI seems to be “warmer”, people pay more attention. They still may need to choose between one of three suggested suppliers, but if they’ve input the right conditions into their AI search, those suppliers are far more likely to be able to meet that person’s specific needs. We’re told that 53% of users use AI to compare and narrow down options and that 85% still double-check through other sources.
Now we come to the website. It still has a meaningful place, but it needs to be “done differently”. Instead of having numerous pages describing different services, these get made into well-produced YouTube videos. The AI “Claude” tool can write and design websites which sound like anyone else, but YouTube videos (the claim is) can’t be faked.
When producing your YouTube video, you need to answer two different types of question.
Logistical questions - “Questions you get all the time”:
- They’re asking about hiring you. Here, you answer one question with one video (the most important, of course, will be indicative pricing). Don’t worry about competitors knowing your pricing - they probably already do through other means. Your videos could address pricing, comparisons of processes and other products, how long to see results, how to choose a supplier and any of the other “questions you quote always get”. The key point is, such videos are “made for humans” and preferably use a “real Live” employee of the business.
“Claim Jumpers” - What You Specialise in And Who You do Your Best Work For:
- This answers which clients would choose you over other suppliers because you meet their exact needs. This could be case studies of clients (if they’re willing to participate), mentioning whom you work with, choices of topic and to what sort of client your business is the “obvious answer”.
Here’s the interesting bit: it apparently takes 3 - 6 months to see results once you start loading up YouTube videos, but AI can find and recommend you from Day One of that!
What role for your website? As mentioned above, it’s where you send people – to book a meeting or call - and where you close the deal. A website alone is predicted to become far less useful within the next year unless it has AI “pointing” at it. The website now becomes the last step in your sales process after making potential customers aware through YouTube of how you meet their specific need.
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Customer Care, Selling, Strategy
Answering Matters
These days, we’re under more pressure than ever and I suspect that the advent of AI is only going to make things worse!
Most workers, particularly in the “knowledge” industry are under pressure to do more in the same amount of time thanks to so-called “labour saving” methods that are constantly being introduced.
Unfortunately, you can’t pour more into a glass than that glass will hold.
One thing that I’ve noticed is the increasing number of complaints from applicants for jobs, customers emailing suppliers/service providers and others that they aren’t getting responses, let alone in a “timely” manner.
As I said above, people are under more pressure than ever before. In this case, what “gives” is their ability to respond to messages in a “timely” manner (if at all). It’s very possible that a message from one person may quickly get “buried” under the messages that come in after it.
The person handling those messages has only 24 hours in a day to handle those messages. In those same 24 hours, they have to do their “day job” as well, eat, sleep, attend meetings, help children with homework, support elderly relatives - the list is endless.
That said, what’s the solution to the “no answer issue”? Most of the time, my questions, queries and requests aren’t what I’d call “time – sensitive”, meaning that they don’t require an instant response. I don’t need (or want to) make a call every time something pops up. It’s unnecessary, maybe expensive as well if I’m calling overseas, and like as not I’ll get an automated response mechanism or an AI “chatbot” that’s incapable of making the intuitive leaps that are needed when dealing with humans.
How do we feel when we don’t get a response? Basically, that we “don’t matter” or “aren’t important enough” to deserve one.
We remain at the impasse of no response from what are probably “overloaded” workers. Just as the client waiting for a response feels “unimportant”, no doubt the workers tasked with responding feel “pressured”, “undervalued”, “misunderstood”, “unappreciated”.
Statistically speaking, the more a business grows, the more it can expect questions and queries from its customers. Dedicated phone lines and AI chatbots, however, can’t handle the volumes and yet employing “real humans” to deal with them increases costs…
This problem isn’t going to go away soon. We do need to be aware of its potential for reputational damage and lots of business, though, if we are to continue keeping our customers happy and, therefore, coming back for more.
We can start by asking questions such as:
- What are the typical queries we get?
- RR processes set up to handle them in a timely manner?
- What are the obstacles preventing a timely response from going out?
- Are we losing business as a result?
- What are Customer Services and surveys telling us?
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Customer Care, Productivity, Strategy, Teamwork
Not Everyone Has Access…
… all of the time!
I’m talking about being able to access the internet, whether through a 5G connection or Wi-Fi.
Has anyone else noticed how many organisations now development apps that rely on A 24/7 internet connection?
It’s great whilst it works but, as the “automation paradox” tells us, the more we rely on technology, the more we struggle when it fails.
Another problem is that some of the mobile banking apps that I’ve encountered require authentication through a phone call to the user’s mobile. When that user is travelling and using a different country’s SIM for service in that country, it’s highly unlikely that they’ll be available on the phone number linked to their “home SIM”. Unfortunately, some developers don’t seem to consider this a possibility…
There’s no doubt that the internet has significantly changed and improved our lives. We can access information, services, financial transactions all with the press of a button or the tap of an icon. What I find myself wondering, though, is whether the developers consider that there may be instances where internet won’t be available either because of blackouts, poor mobile service or other conditions.
It’s not going to stop developers developing apps that take advantage of the power of the internet. Hopefully, though, they’ve worked out that if anyone has a smart phone on which they can download the app, they will have internet access at least some of the time.
Where we as businesses rely on an “app” or internet connection to service our customers, should we be considering what happens when they can’t access our services? If so, what can we do in those (hopefully rare) cases?
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Customer Care, Productivity, Selling, Strategy
Stop the Scripts?
It seems increasingly that the operators in Help or Call Centres are being obliged to follow a set script when dealing with customers.
This may be to ensure that they don’t say anything that might compromise their employer; hence no deviation from the “approved wording”.
The flip side is that this makes customer interactions longer than necessary. For customers whose time may be limited, the process of allowing the “conversation” to run its course can be frustrating and result (as it has for me!) in loss of patience as some poor operator is obliged to read out pages of legalese, statutory warnings or cautions.
It’s not their fault. If they don’t do it, they could land their employer in trouble. The world is becoming more regulated and proscriptive (no pun intended) at the expense of satisfactory customer experiences.
Some businesses may have no choice (particularly in the financial services sector where a slip could cost an institution millions). There must come a time, however, when the customer’s needs matter more than potential corporate liability.
Equally, if the problem in question doesn’t fall under the “standard script”, operators are often left not knowing what to do. This is especially the case where there seems to be no escalation procedure for them to hand the customer over to a more experienced colleague (although in some cases I believe this is improving).
What’s the solution? First of all, if we can, hire staff with the right “qualifications”. Yes, they may be more expensive, but in the long run if there’s increased customer satisfaction when dealing with our businesses, isn’t that worth it?
Another solution might be to provide proper training on call handling rather than simply putting them at a desk with a phone. I suspect this does happen, but that the training simply involves using the “approved scripts”.
I’m sure some people will suggest that AI is the way to go. In the future, it may well be but at present my experience of AI “chatbot” is uniformly poor. The AI needs to be trained a lot more before it can successfully handle a customer interaction, especially in cases where escalation is needed.
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Customer Care, Productivity, Selling, Strategy
A Retinal Retrospective
In 2023 I received what for me could be called a major “reality check”.
Whilst having dinner with friends and trying to dislodge a piece of food stuck between my teeth with a toothpick, I suffered a detached retina. For anyone who doesn’t know, this is when the layer of cells responsible for your sight literally “peels off” the back of the eyeball, releasing blood into the liquid inside the eyeball. For me, it was like somebody had poured treacle into my eyeball and my vision became blurry.
One month later I finally managed to get an appointment with an eye specialist who took one look at me and immediately called their colleagues at the local hospital to schedule a full checkup and surgery. Apparently, I was on the point of losing sight in my right eye!
The next day I was examined at the hospital, taken straight up to a ward and operated on early the following morning. The surgery was a success but they did warn me that at my age, it was highly likely that a cataract would form. This, however, could be treated with a standard lens replacement operation.
True to their word, the cataract did form and for me it was like looking through a heavily frosted glass window if I looked out of my right eye only. After the surgery, the vision in my right eye was just short of “perfect”!
The reason I describe this as a “wake up call” was that it showed me how dependent I was on having good eyesight. I drive, enjoy reading and watching films and I’m what people might call a “visual” person. It terrified me to think that all this could have disappeared if the doctors hadn’t seen me in time. Yes, it was only one eye, but losing the site in that eye (which was my “dominant” one) would have been a serious inconvenience for me.
However, the ending was a happy one, I can see almost perfectly and even now, three years after the operation for the detached retina and two years after the one for the cataract, I still sometimes forget to put on my glasses when I leave the house. This just shows the incredible skill of the surgeons who operated on me.
Yes, I’m more or less back to “normal”, but I now take my eyesight and hearing a lot more seriously and attend “religiously” all scheduled health checkups and appointments that my age requires.
Question: what would you do if you were deprived of one of your senses? How would it impact your life, family and business? Are you making sure it doesn’t happen? More to the point, apply this to your team: is there that “vital” person with whom you can’t do without? What about buyers? If you lost business from one, would that bring down your business?
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Crisis Management, Customer Care, Leadership, Strategy, Teamwork
Failing to Plan?
Two countries attacked a third at the end of February 2026. The business lessons we can learn are:
- Define the goal: the purpose of doing anything is to accomplish something. In this case, there was a degree of uncertainty in what the goal was. It was separately described as: destroying that country ’s missile capability, destroying their nuclear enrichment capability (which had, apparently, being “obliterated” in 2025) and to destroy its navy.
- Without a clear goal, we can’t plan how to get there. This is somewhat like asking a builder to build us a house but not providing any plans specifying how many floors it should have, construction materials, number of rooms, fixtures and fittings and so on.
- The what/why/when/how/where/who? Some may recognise these as Rudyard Kipling’s “Six Honest Serving Men” but they help to define all parts of a strategy. Without them, we tend to flail around.
- Contingency planning: in this case, allies in the region and further afield were hit by drones targeting both military and civilian installations.
- How will we know when we’ve achieved success? A gain, without a clearly defined goal and measurable steps to achieve it, we don’t know if we’ve succeeded or not.
For someone who claimed to be one of the world’s most successful businessmen and dealmakers, it’s surprising that the head of state in question didn’t follow these steps, resulting in leadership and economic chaos.
As business leaders, our job is to set direction with clear goals to achieve our desired objective. Yes, that objective can change depending on circumstances, but with proper contingency planning, we can adjust to those changes and still achieve what we set out to do.
Our second job is to empower our people with the correct knowledge, tools, financial resources and any other that they may need to achieve that goal.
The third is to monitor progress, intervening where required to move things along.
Finally, when we “get there” we need to lead the celebrations!
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Leadership, Strategy, Teamwork
I Don’t Understand What You Do
This was the phrase a recruitment agent (or “headhunter”) used with me once.
Thanks to my varied international leadership background, I didn’t fit into any one neat little “box” that they could relate to. I’d run retail banking operations, middle office operations, trade finance operations, worked in HR and also as a corporate lending manager. I’d overseen correspondent banking relationships for Asia and worked in an investment bank on the client management team. Before all that, I’d been a ships agent in the South of France!
I’d worked in nine different countries, each with its own separate culture leading teams there. To be honest, I don’t think these poor people had ever encountered anyone with the same experience before!
No wonder they were confused!
At the time I thought it was their job to work out what I was good at and could offer to others.
No.
After having run countless CV writing and interview sessions where I tell my delegates that quite often, they have to “make it easy to understand them”, I realised that I’d failed to understand where the recruiting agent was coming from. Their job was to match up the right candidate with the right job.
What they needed from me was what I felt would be the right job. I had plenty of transferable skills, but people want to know where those skills will help them.
I don’t think any “headhunter” ever refused to meet me (some even called me out of the blue!) but I understand now why they found it difficult to “place” me. I needed to help them understand what I could do better. That was on me and I didn’t realise it at the time.
As people go through either the job hunting or interviewing process (either as an interview or interviewer) we fail to understand the other person’s position. Interviewers want to know, quite simply, whether we will help their organisation succeed in its goals and it’s up to us to understand the organisation, the industry in which it operates and its goals through diligent research. Knowing this, it’s far easier to relate our past experience and our current skills to what the employer may need in our view.
One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given by one of my university tutors was, “Always assume that the person reading your essay is an idiot,” he then added with a grin, “especially if it’s me!”
Those words have stuck with me ever since. He didn’t mean that I should assume I was more intelligent than anyone else but rather that sometimes people think in different ways and need help understanding another person.
I now understand better where I went wrong and can help others overcome this in their job searches or when they’re interviewing others. It’s taken time but I can now pass that hard-learned lesson onto others.
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Career, Selling, Strategy
Some Employees Aren’t Easy to Replace…
Yes, you can replace the body, but not someone who’s dependable, hard-working, dedicated, knows the systems and customers.
Unless we’re running a sole proprietorship, we depend on people to make and/or to deliver the products/services that our business provides to its customers.
Not every one of these people will be a “high-flyer” destined for the “C-Suite” or chairmanship. Many more will simply be, as already mentioned, dependable, hard-working, dedicated, good with their customers and “good at their job”. It makes little sense to destroy this value - how much does it cost us to replace someone in terms of lost goodwill, knowledge (both of the business, its products and systems and of its customers)?
Some organisations are said to take the view that they should be removing the lowest tier of performers on an annual basis. Part of the reason is to give the “up-and-coming high-flyers” a chance to move up the ladder (until they’re finally promoted as far as they can go) or perhaps to encourage all employees to perform at the highest level (but there'll still be "lower-performing" people). Whilst admirable in its own right, the risk of such a policy is to promote unhealthy competition, back-stabbing, resentment, low morale and loss of systems and customer knowledge.
We don’t want people to feel complacent because they’re “indispensable” but we do need to maintain a balance between “removing dead wood” and simply promoting a toxic climate of fear.
In our own business, experience is what counts the most in the advice we give. We’re lucky enough to have people who are dedicated and hard-working when needed, but the only time we would ask someone to leave is if they’re being “carried” by the rest of the team. Mercifully, this has happened only once. The only other occasion has been when the member of staff concerned destroyed morale in the team. The day after they had left, the change in atmosphere and attitude amongst the team was incredible!
People management is never easy. However, we need to be aware of the “move out the low performers” attitude dominating our business and distracting us from our true purpose: serving our customers.
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity, Strategy
It’s What We Can’t Imagine That Matters
I came across one of the most telling points about risk management: it’s the risks we can’t imagine that matter most.
Humans aren’ t good at managing risk because it’s all about imagination. We’re great at responding to things or crises that have just happened as we take the view that what has just happened is most likely to happen again. Where we fall down is imagining a crisis before it happens and taking action to prevent it.
As someone who’s often charged with assessing “risk”, it made me sit up and think. Am I guilty of the same weakness as others? Does it help, when identifying and assessing risk, to do it as a team project where, with luck, one team member may imagine the exact risk that will occur?
There’s an anecdote about the special forces operation that captured Osama bin Laden. When the operators were planning and were asked what the worst thing that could happen might be, one of them replied “Suppose one of the helicopters crashes?” Some told him not to put a “jinx” on the mission. However, that was exactly what happened!
We don’t know if the other operators paid attention to what he said. Luckily, they’d planned for it and we know that everybody got out.
Our problem is, we can’t imagine things that are outside our experience or horizons of imagination. In day-to-day life, I come across occasions when people don’t seem to “get” certain situations. This isn’t their fault, it’s just that they simply have no frame of reference for that occurrence whereas others do.
In the end, the question we need to ask ourselves is not, “what’s the worst that could happen?” so much as, "What’s the worst that could happen that we're unable to imagine at this point?”
At the moment, the only conclusion I can draw is that we have to deal with what happens that we haven’t been able to imagine when it occurs (the eruption of the COVID pandemic is a prime example).
Another solution may be to have “risk brainstorming” sessions that involve panels of people chosen from different functions, areas and levels of experience of the world. Adopting an “I can do it all attitude” maybe our surest route to the very disaster that we want to avoid.
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity, Risk, Strategy, Teamwork
The Dead Horse Theory: A Simple Lesson for Leaders
Muhammad F reminded me of a great theory in LinkedIn in October last year: “If you realise you’re riding a dead horse, the best thing to do is get off.”
But in many organisations, instead of getting off the horse, people often:
· Use a stronger whip to try to make the horse move.
· Form a team to study the horse.
· Send employees to training on how to ride dead horses.
· Rename the horse to make it sound better, like calling it “energy-challenged”.
· Promote the dead horse to a higher position, hoping it inspires others.
The Lesson:
When something isn’t working any more, whether it’s a plan, project or strategy, we need to stop wasting time and energy on it. It may be an unwillingness to admit we’re wrong to others, an inability to see there’s a problem or other causes.
As leaders, our job is to understand what’s going on, admit that there’s a problem, let it go and focus on something that works.
Happy New Year.
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Crisis Management, Leadership, Productivity, Strategy, Teamwork
Leading Through Crisis
Something I’ve discovered through experience is that most of the time, we’re not judged by how we handle “business as usual” but rather by how we respond in a crisis.
My first ever experience as a newly qualified manager in one of the world's global banks was when our bank was asked to absorb the business of another which was being closed for a number of reasons into which I won’t go here. Our business literally doubled overnight and we had neither the systems, manpower nor infrastructure to cope. We did it because senior management showed the seven qualities outlined below.
A “crisis” could be anything:
- A competitor suddenly launching a new product.
- An unfavourable change in legislation.
- War breaking out.
- A customer complaining.
- A pandemic (most of us will remember this!)
“Crisis management” is very different from “business as usual management”. Most of us can probably remember a time when a “crisis” erupted and someone let us through it calmly and successfully.
Harry Karydes identifies seven key qualities of a good “crisis leader”:
They stay calm. Fear is contagious, so is calmness. Some people just seem to remain calm, whatever's happening around them. They're the ones around whom people gather when things get tough. Rudyard Kipling in his poem If sums it up well: “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you… you’ll be a man, my son!“
They acknowledge that there’s a problem. If you’re the only one pretending everything‘s okay when others can see it isn’t, who do you think they’ll trust? Be honest: point out the challenge but give hope.
They give direction: people are looking for what to do. We need to remind them of what we’re really looking to “get to”, not just what we’re looking to “get through”.
They communicate: if they know something, they share it and also they share what they don’t know! Assumptions fill the place of the confusion caused by silence.
When they make decisions, they do it based on principles rather than because “they must do something”. They base their decisions on values.
When people make an effort or achieve something (however small) they recognise that effort and praise even small wins. They also offer support.
They act as the “thermostat” rather than the “thermometer”. This means they set the tone in the crisis, remaining steady, strong and “human”.
The loudest person in a crisis isn’t a leader - they’re more likely to be a liability. They don’t panic instead, what they do is provide clarity, direction, support and praise.
My own experience has shown me that it’s all too easy to get caught up in “crisis mode”. The pressure to do something can be enormous and everyone is looking at the leader to do that thing. Panic simply breeds more panic, fear and confusion.
Equally, we’re all taught to have “crisis plans” to cater for various contingencies and events. Whilst these are a great framework, as one person so rightly pointed out, “crises don’t come with instructions. Nor do they give any warning.”
What gets us through crisis is “resilience” - that indefinable ability to stay calm, analyse the situation, understand the underlying issue/cause and then be clear about how to go about it.
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Crisis Management, Leadership, Strategy, Teamwork
The “3 CS” of Career Development
The “3 CS” are a concept developed by consultant Gorick Ng to describe three key areas to the land jobs and further one’s professional career.
To summarise, they stand for:
- Competence
- Commitment
- Compatibility
“Competence” is best described as “can you do the job?” Any lob requires a certain amount of experience and skill (even if it’s very little, such as we might find in a fresh graduate).
More important, it requires that hard to define quality: “attitude”. This means a person’s general predisposition towards doing something (or avoiding it). There’s a famous saying, “hire for attitude, train for skills”, meaning that some people are naturally predisposed to certain jobs. Examples may be “customer service” people. They naturally “get” and can empathise with customers and are therefore ideally suited to this role. Others may not have this predisposition; that doesn’t make them “bad people”, it’s simply means they may be better suited to, say, back office operations where they will shine in managing processes and systems. We all have different “attitudes” but it’s important to ensure we have the right “attitude” for the right job as well.
“Commitment” is that blend of energy and enthusiasm for a particular job. How “hungry” are you for it? Will you quote go the extra mile” to make sure something is done and done well (this may also come under “attitude” above)? One of the more interesting ways an employer might test a job applicants’ “commitment” is to ask, “what do you know about our organisation?” If the applicant knows nothing, they clearly weren’t committed enough to do even basic research.
“Compatibility” means “are you someone we can work with?” I’ve seen complaints in our local paper where the writer commented that they couldn’t get a job despite being the “best qualified” candidate out there. Here, the problem may have been that whilst they were indeed the “best qualified”, they weren’t a nice person!
When someone encounters a hold in their career, it may be due to one or more of the Cs above. Experience and anecdotes from others suggest address that it’s mainly around the “commitment” and compatibility” areas. I’ve certainly experienced a case where, once a boss had cause not to believe in somebody’s commitment, that person became incompatible with them.
My view? It ends up being a “two-way street”. Employees and employers use the “3 Cs” as a framework for development of careers and teams.
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Career, Leadership, Strategy
How Robust is Your Recovery Plan?
Some may be aware of the fire that closed Heathrow Airport in March 2025.
The result: thousands of stranded passengers and questions about how resilient Britain’s infrastructure was.
The problem that caused the fire was in a transformer to the North of the airport. What happened was that moisture entered the “high voltage bushings” in a transformer, sparking an electrical fault and causing it to catch fire.
The potential problem was reported in 2018 but nothing was done about it by the National Grid, who owned the transformer.
So, the problem arose because of a third party’s failure to maintain its equipment. The question for all of us as business leaders is: “How reliant are we on third parties to ensure that our contingency and recovery plans work as they should?”
The problem with an event such as the fire in question is that some might consider it a “Black Swan Event” - an event considered “highly unlikely” to occur (as is the incidence of black swans). What made this event less of a black swan however was that, although the reporting process for the problem worked, the process for addressing it broke down. The event wouldn’t have occurred if the National Grid had addressed the problem when it was reported.
Think back to the COVID pandemic – countries had plans, bit they relied on other countries being able to produce the PPE, etc needed. Problem: everyone closed down because of “social distancing” requirements preventing workers going to work.
This could happen to anyone at any time. If our recovery plans rely on another party to provide a vital service and that organisation finds itself unable to, then we’re back to square one.
We can plan, make contingency plans, and contingency plans for contingency plans. There comes a point, however, when it’s no longer realistic to have plans covering plans covering plans covering plans.
In many cases our only solutions are:
- Run regular tests with the third parties concerned OR…
- Have a contract with a service provider that stipulates that penalties and litigation will follow should that provider fail to maintain their goods and services in a state fit to perform as intended OR...
- Hope that things will work out...
I know which one I’d rather adopt.
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Crisis Management, Leadership, Productivity, Strategy, Teamwork
Are We Forgetting How to Plan?
Modern communications and business practices mean that, generally, we can communicate faster than we did before and respond likewise.
Pressure of competition has led more and more businesses to respond at ever increasing speed to client needs. After all, if you don’t reply in what your client considers a “timely manner”, they can go somewhere else. The only exception to this are government services and monopolies who don’t have to worry about competition.
When I first started studying the art of time management, one of the first lessons was that we have no control over other people or external events (although we may be able to influence them). This meant we had to allow for delays, being on leave, and all other factors. Nowadays it seems that no one understands this concept and expects an answer almost as soon as they’ve sent their text or email message.
An added challenge is that things can change so fast these days, that plans made last month may be rendered irrelevant this month (remember COVID?). How do we plan for an increasingly uncertain world?
It does suggest that the art of planning is disappearing. Our counter parties have other things on their minds apart from us and we need to take that into account and, indeed, respect it. The exception is when we hold the “upper hand” over the other and can demand action. However, demanding turnaround of one’s request within 24 hours is just as likely to result in a botch job due to lack of time to give it full consideration.
Time management is a skill that every individual needs. The ability to plan comes not only with understanding time management but also as one gains in experience.
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email
Labels: Career, Crisis Management, Leadership, Productivity, Strategy, Teamwork
Should We Ditch “Traditional” Performance Reviews?
Performance reviews can turn into the bane of one’s life either as an appraisee or appraiser.
As leaders, part of our job is to encourage our team to be the “best they can”. Equally, anyone with ambition wants to improve their performance and make themselves more valuable. Yes, there are people who are “happy where they are” but others want to see how far they can push their personal boundaries.
The problem with performance reviews was that they’ve been through a cycle of being:
- Annual events to…
- Quarterly events to…
- One-on-one periodic sessions
To make things more complex, there’s a feeling that the more complex the performance review process is, the more “scientific” it must be. From performance metrics to behavioural trait assessments to 360° peer reviews, everything is thrown into the proverbial pot. This makes them an ordeal for both appraisers and appraisees.
What finally seems to matter in most cases is whether the appraisee “gets on” with their peers, their juniors, their bosses and their bosses’ bosses. The risk here is that competence becomes less important as people spend more time “fudging” their results and playing politics.
The move now seems to be more towards a more organic, practical process of on-the-spot feedback positive and negative), acknowledging success in team meetings and through company email or private check-in when needed. Some feel that this makes them faster, more honest and connects them more as a team whilst at the same time freeing them up for more actual work.
How the process described above operates, I don’t know. I suspect there still must be a degree of “getting on” with others but, at the very least, one doesn’t have to wait until the end of the year to receive a potentially “nasty surprise” when one thinks one has done well but it turns out that nobody else (for whatever reason) is of the same opinion.
Is the “traditional performance appraisal” a relic of the past? In some ways, perhaps yes. However, appraisal is still very much a live topic. My view? If the team enjoys working together and produces results, they’re effective and that deserves a good appraisal.
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Career, Leadership, Strategy, Teamwork
