Are your teams flexible and adaptable? | Issue #114
WHY HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS NEED TO BE FLEXIBLE AND ADAPTABLE
Change. It’s everywhere. Never have we existed in a more volatile world than the one that surrounds us today. COVID has accelerated massive shifts in the way we live and work. Nothing seems inevitable or predictable any more.
The recent upheaval in workplaces has made one thing clear. Flexibility and adaptability are vital qualities in your staff. Businesses need teams with the agility to take advantage of the opportunities that are undoubtedly appearing because the potential for rapid growth is enormous.
Take it from me – I’ve scaled two UK businesses from zero revenue to £30 million in just five years. Both were during recessions and relied on high performing teams with the versatility to transform as we grew.
So why are flexibility and adaptability so important?
The Mechanics of Employee Ownership Trusts with Chris Budd
What do you do if you want to keep your business going after you exit? What processes can you put in place to ensure your business survives without you? How can you extract maximum value from your life’s work?
Chris Budd is the founder and former CEO of Ovation Finance. He is also one of the UK’s foremost experts in selling your business to an employee ownership trust. Why is he an expert in this? Because this is the route he chose to exit his own business.
“What I wanted, which, at its essence, was to see the business continue. I wanted to be able to exit but not see the business broken up or sold or merged with another company, I wanted to continue because I have a big ego. And I’m proud of the business.”
As well as writing the book on it The Eternal Business, Chris also advises business owners how to follow suit. By creating an employee ownership trust and selling your business to an employee ownership trust, and then moving out the way is how to do it.
But how do you do it successfully? It’s all linked to purpose, culture and happiness, says Chris. This is a fantastic episode, we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
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Procrastinate Much? Manage Your Emotions, Not Your Time.
In the early 1980s, Douglas Adams was struggling to make progress on the fourth installment in his beloved series, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” The great sci-fi humorist had learned from writing the previous books that good ideas usually came to him in the bath, so he would spend his mornings soaking in the tub until he had a eureka moment. Then he would get out to start writing, only to forget the idea while getting dressed, which meant he had no choice but to head right back to the tub.
Sid Sijbrandij knows the perils of working from home. In 2018, after years of toiling exclusively from a small room in his 47th-floor apartment in a San Francisco high-rise, the entrepreneur developed foot problems. So he moved in a treadmill desk alongside his Zoom-friendly green screen and three monitors.
Agility in the time of COVID-19: Changing your operating model in an age of turbulence.
Before the coming of COVID-19, business and technological forces already required organizations to manage change and make decisions more quickly than ever before. The pandemic has vastly intensified those needs. Never have companies of all sizes felt so much pressure to make their business models fit changing requirements. And the need for speed won’t be temporary—digitization, globalization, automation, analytics, and the other forces of change will go on accelerating too. It’s been said that “The pace of change has never been this fast, yet it will never be this slow again.” That quip dates from 2018 but is even more apt now.
Recommended Reads
Have you ever had a new idea or a goal that excites you… but not enough time to execute it? What about a goal you really want to accomplish…but can’t because instead of taking action, you procrastinate? Do you feel like the only way things are going to get done is if you do them? But what if it wasn’t that way? What if you had a team of people around you that helped you accomplish your goals (while you helped them accomplish theirs)? When we want something done, we’ve been trained to ask ourselves: “How can I do this?” Well, there is a better question to ask. One that unlocks a whole new world of ease and accomplishment. Expert coach Dan Sullivan knows the question we should ask instead: “Who can do this for me?” This may seem simple. And it is. But don’t let the lack of complexity fool you. By mastering this question, you will quickly learn how billionaires and successful entrepreneurs like Dan build incredible businesses and personal freedom.
It’s Not Luck by Eliyahu M Goldratt
There has been a shift of policy at board level. Cash is needed and Alex Rogo’s companies are to be put on the block. Alex faces a cruel dilemma. If he successfully completes the turnaround of his companies they can be sold for the maximum return: if he fails they will be closed down. Either way Alex and his team will be out of work. It looks like lose-lose, both for Alex and for his team. And as if he doesn’t have enough to deal with, his two children have become teenagers. As Alex grapples with problems at work and at home, we begin to understand the full scope of Eli Goldratt’s powerful techniques. It’s Not Luck reveals more of the Thinking Process-techniques that consistently produce win-win solutions to seemingly impossible problems.
MEANINGFUL ACTION FOR MONDAY
PLAN YOUR FUTURE ORG CHART
Work on your future org chart in three years time. What roles are you going to need and who is likely to do them? Speak to your team about these new roles and what they look like. And how each of them is going to need to change to fit these roles. Frankly, most of the time, people assume the promotion is naturally theirs. It doesn’t occur to them that the job might get too big for them. Whether you’re a CEO or the manager of a team, the thing that will undermine you is hiring people better than you quick enough. But you won’t be able to step up if you haven’t recruited someone else to do your job. Be aware of this mental stumbling block.
Upcoming Events
PRESCRIPTION FOR GROWTH WORKSHOP – 27TH OF JANUARY
A special workshop presented by Justin Roff-Marsh (author of The Machine) and hosted by Dominic Monkhouse at Foundry Farm near Salisbury. Join 21 of your peers (owners and senior executives from mid-sized businesses) and design a simple (but detailed) plan to expedite the growth of your organization.
SCALING UP BUSINESS GROWTH WORKSHOP – 18TH OF MARCH
When the going gets tough, attitude trumps everything. Don’t let COVID-19 beat you into the ground and take your business. Treat this pandemic as an accelerator. The “one thing” you’ve been looking for to pivot, re-evaluate or simply get shit done. Join us on our farm in Wiltshire to walk through our Scaling Up growth programme.
ACETECH SUMMIT, WHISTLER – TBA – APRIL, 2021
An exclusive annual gathering of high-growth tech CEOs. This powerful three-day summit will transform how you define success and deliver growth in 2021 and beyond.
Quote of the week
‘The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.’
Albert Einstein
Dominic Monkhouse
Dominic offers business coaching and management development, strategy planning and organisational change, using tried and tested methods to launch your organisation onto an unparalleled growth trajectory. His programme is a function of his broad experience, his deep expertise and a proven process used by over 2,700 firms worldwide.