Everyone needs a break: 5 ways to stop feeling guilty about taking holidays

As business owners, we work bloody hard. But for what? If you’re not taking time off to enjoy the proceeds of your hard work, what’s the point? This article looks at the importance of taking a break and how to fully switch off when you do. So that instead of working through your ‘holiday’, you […]
Freedom Day? More Like ‘WTF’ Day

There have been problems with mixed messages from our leaders during the whole pandemic. From U-turns to blatant rule breaks, their actions haven’t matched their words. This quick article looks at some of these mixed messages and highlights how you, a business owner, can avoid their mistakes when managing your own […]
The problem with ‘leader’ and ‘manager’ labels for small business owners

If you scroll through LinkedIn, it won’t be long before you read a post about how everyone should be a leader and not a manager. Leaders are said to roll up their sleeves, inspire, and get in the thick of it while managers are painted as dictators who dish out orders and […]
5 Top Tips To Guarantee Your Team Fails (An Anti-Advice Article)

*WARNING – Extreme sarcasm detected* Your team may have had their lives turned upside down for the past 15-or-so months, but that’s not your fault, is it? They’ve had ages off. They’ll be well-rested and ready to get back to work! Everything will be natural, easy and seamless. Like a Mercedes Formula 1 pit change. […]
Your Lizard Brain, Going to The Pub and ‘Just One Hug’: The Psychology of Group Behaviour

April 12th. The day the ‘world started getting back to normal’. The day you’d been waiting for. To get a haircut, go to IKEA, go to the gym, and the pub. The start of the road to recovery. Socially, mentally, physically, and economically. This quick article looks at the […]
Organisational Development and Liverpool FC: Is Klopp’s Leadership to Blame for This Season?

Your business’s Organisational Development (OD) is a system. Winning and maintaining success take the effort of your whole organisation. Despite this, when things aren’t going to plan, so many business owners think there’s a magic wand that’ll solve all their problems. They know there’s more than one problem, yet still expect there to […]
Case Study: How Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Helped Tennick Accountants Achieve A Record Month

It’s September 2019. Graeme Tennick, CEO of Tennick Accountants based in Newcastle upon Tyne, calls me after hearing about how a Manchester-based accountancy firm used a personality assessment tool so effectively they’d noticed measurable results. Keen to see if I could help with something similar, we put a plan in motion that would see his […]
Five Lessons 2020 Taught Us That’ll Keep Us Sane In 2021

Do you practice what you preach? It’s something I struggle with. I’m quick to tell my clients how important a proper break is, but I’m terrible at actually taking one. So before 2021’s challenges of running a business, being a mother, and (more recently) homeschooling my children take over, I thought I’d take my own […]
Five things business can learn from Game of Thrones

This article contains no plot spoilers Whether or not you have watched it, irrespective of divided opinion on the final series, Game of Thrones has been one of the biggest television sensations of recent years. As our TV watching habits have changed fewer of us watch episodes as they’re aired opting instead to watch […]
Leadership Jurgen Klopp style and the importance of passion

Across Europe, people everywhere, including in cities with no vested interest, are today discussing last night’s football. Klopp’s Liverpool FC pulled off an unprecedented, unexpected and seemingly impossible comeback against Barcelona. Watching his interview afterwards was, for me, the best part of the night and left me wondering why it hadn’t been expected. Of course, […]