Out with the old in with the new

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Myles

Out with the old, in with the newWhen is a good time, or the right time, to work on a new business plan?

Have one, three and five year business planning cycles come to the end of their useful place in our management toolkit?

We are in a new economic climate, where the pace of change may have made obsolete the established business planning practices.  In small or medium sized businesses business plans were anyway at best often irrelevant or at worst simply ignored.

Yet planning is critical to successful organisations if we hope to set goals, manage performance and give employees a sense that they belong to an organisation that knows where it is going.

This sense of confident purpose, or absence of the same, is also readily apparent to clients, prospects, suppliers and wider stakeholder community.

So, if owners, leaders and managers fail to show certainty or a common understanding and belief in the key messages they are communicating, internally or externally, the best marketing, processes and plans will not hold up sales and customer relationships.

As the key drivers of change (market economics, technology, regulation, competition and societal changes) continue to impact relentlessly on our businesses the need to update, modify or adapt business plans becomes even more essential.  So are quarterly, monthly business plans still the order of the day?Business failure, derelict buildings

Failed business, derelict industrial buildingsThe need for these business plans to be live and lived, understood by everyone involved in an organisation, is more important than ever.  The need to be able to quickly plan and change plans will determine who wins in a world where you have the choice to be quick or dead.

There is a clear need to accelerate growth with a new approach to business planning.  Success will depend more than ever on leadership in the implementation of these plans.   Individual leaders, or leadership teams, need to develop more effective behaviours.

To find out more about how we are working with clients to create great business plans and win in this new challenging market, contact your local PCA representative or attend one of the evening and lunch time events we are organising around the UK.

Leadership Skills

Posted on September 29, 2012 by Myles

Empowering Leaders no longer means developing the right to have, and the skill to exercise, authority.

Forward thinking businesses and organisations are seeking new ways to develop a new kind of leadership in the executive team and in key senior managers. They aim to empower individuals with the ability to get the best out of the people in their organisations in a non directive way.

Dr John Collins of PCA spoke recently at two significant events that paved the way for a new approach to building successful organisations (key aspects of these events will be posted in future blogs on this site UK event, European event).

Last week PCA was delighted to welcome leaders from management organisations, professional associations, consultancies, support organisations and growing businesses, gathered from around the UK and Europe, to hone a new set of skills to compliment the way they run their senior management teams.

This workshop series introduces new management techniques and tools, developed by PCA’s partner Adler Learning International, specifically designed to accelerate change and access hidden potential.

This workshop will be repeated at venues through the UK over the next few months to learn more or reserve a place please send your contact details to info@pcacoach.com .

Person In Command

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Andy

Stress is just the start – when a business leader is feeling the stresses of keeping a business afloat and (facing the task of) steering it through a hazard of challenges, (the changes they undergo in themselves) their behaviour can have an increasingly negative impact on those around them.

In this series of blogs we explore some of the key issues leaders need to overcome at times of major (stress and uncertainty) change (within the marketplace).

• Show of confidence – confidometer – factors – trust, reward, praise, pers dev, tone, mindset, exaggeration of personal confidence, behaviours
• Clarity of thought – the need for process and structure, goals and measures make a plan real
• Understanding the full range of choices – avoiding the stress blinkers
• Making strong decisions – deferring the inevitable and dealing with the ugly frog
• Communicating effectively and in a timely manner – when, how, how much, how often, to who, why, understanding the risks
• Recognising and limiting a Judging mindset
• Survival economics – cost focus rather than investment or revenue

Growth preventing silo mentality