Observations From The Trenches

This months observations of the successes and challenges of businesses and organisations are: 1. When recruiting, keep emotion out of it. Don't want the potential candidate more than they want you. Go with initial gut instinct and do thorough background checks. Don't settle for those who have the technical skills and abilities back lack drive and enthusiasm. Ask the hard questions. 2. Resilience is built from challenging and discouraging times. A strong tree is one that has faced many strong winds and yet remains the better for it. 3. When discouragement hits and it will at times, sometimes it's best to do something that re-energises you rather than just plough forward. Take a step back. Read, cook, shop, walk the dog, sleep...whatever it takes - a few hours of downtime will significantly increase your uptime. 4. Successful business owners and managers that I work with are those who are not afraid of owning their shortfalls (whether business or personal), actively deal with them whilst maintaining hope. 5. Working on frontline expansion and revenue generating activities, along with ensuring the foundations of the business are strong - whether they be financial, people, systems etc, is a great model of moving forward. 6. Success is born from a number of things, one of which is significant investment into organisational and personal development. 7. Those organisations who exercise tight financial management can make 'just in time' adjustments. Those that see their accountant once a year for an update and rely on how much money is in their bank are always making decisions twelve months in arrears.