The January effect…

I believe I’m right in saying that Janus was a Roman God famed for his ability to look in two different directions at once. In my view, that is a very neat trick and one worth copying at this time of year whatever business you may be in.

Use the January effect to simultaneously look back on 2014 whilst focusing intently on what’s coming down the track for you in the New Year too. It’s probably an obvious thing to say but the benefits of doing it may not be so readily appreciated until you have tried it for yourself.

Because of the symmetry created around the end of one year and the start of the next, it’s possible and indeed very easy to make meaningful comparisons. For most of us the obvious one to make is between the final quarter of the year just gone and the first quarter of the year you are just entering. If your tax year coincides with the fiscal year, you have a final quarter left to either make up ground or press on and reach some loftier target.

Whatever state your business is in, this extra degree of focus is very useful and shouldn’t be ignored. I look on it as a great opportunity to increase motivation, remind everyone of where we are trying to get to and redouble efforts where some slippage may have occurred.

But there’s a second compelling reason why this is a good time of year to review progress of business against objectives. That is of course the chance to harness some of the optimism that always flies around at the start of a New Year. Don’t fall into the trap of those who take out gym subscriptions in January and give them up by the end of February! Make sure your plans are grounded and realistic – viewed against the backdrop of the calendar year just ended, are they achievable?

Use your comparisons proactively and put some real effort in now. That equivalent of a gym subscription for your business must earn its keep.  What do you aim to get from the outlay – be specific and realistic against the track record and then nail down some specific outcomes.

When the going gets tough, as it usually does, your objectives will bear comparison with what you know is achievable but will get an extra boost from the seasonal lift we all get from starting afresh. When you friends and colleagues start drifting away from their new regimes you will stick the course. Emboldened by additional knowledge and a doubly magnified fresh perspective, you can lead the way as if you had the strength of a God.

Get your facts right!

This is the response of the Governor of the Bank of England recently when a journalist dared to suggest his thinking on forward guidance was muddled:

“Muddled? You’re muddled I’m afraid. We’ve had two phases of forward guidance that we’ve given. The first phase is exactly as you described – 7 percent threshold at a point where we thought there was considerable excess supply in the economy. In February we put in place the next phase of forward guidance and that next phase, as we said in our last minutes, as we said in our previous minutes, as we said in the April minutes, as we said in the March minutes, as we said in the February inflation report and the February minutes, that guidance is entirely consistent.”

I suspect that journalist may think again before challenging Mark Carney to explain his “muddled” thinking!

What interests me about this exchange is not how the Governor responded but how he got into the position to be able to fire off a memorable response like that in the first place. All the evidence points to the fact that the Governor had his facts very much at his fingertips. He was completely relaxed, in command, and as a result, was able to fashion a stinging reply with detail, repetition and a crescendo effect. He would certainly not have been able to do that had he been scratching around for relevant facts to fire back at the unfortunate hack.

Of course, we can’t all be as articulate as the Governor of the Bank of England. Luckily, by the same token, we don’t all have to soak up the kind of pressure he is subjected to. However, I would suggest we can all apply some of the principles at play here and use them to good effect in any business.

In today’s business world it sometimes seems we value speed and appearance of response over accuracy and quality of content. It might feel terribly out of date now but who can deny the continuing validity of that old expression – failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

Subject matter expertise (SME) is not something anyone in business can afford to ignore but a little practice and a few hours homework can make it a lot easier to grasp than you might have thought.

There are few things more impressive or memorable in the world of business than someone who really knows their stuff and can manipulate content to achieve their goals. It’s motivating of course in itself and there is a great deal of satisfaction to be had from mastering a brief and operating seemingly on automatic pilot. With the confidence that comes from knowledge, it’s possible to relax, get into a controlling position and drive your business to where you want it to go.

As in the words of the well-known advert – don’t you just love being in control!

Get yourself noticed!

My eye was drawn recently to a story in the paper about the famous North West business Daisy Group. No. I’d never heard of Daisy either but the name of the entrepreneurial founder Matthew Riley did ring a bell somewhere. As I read on I realised where I’d heard the name Matthew Riley before – he enjoyed a bit of fame via Dragon’s Den. Or perhaps the word should be notoriety as hid job was to shatter the dreams of some young hopefuls by pouring a great deal of cold water over them and their dodgy CV’s.

Great TV, if you like that sort of thing, but also great marketing by Matthew Riley. What he did on the show by using edgy language – one candidate was told his business plan made the reader feel sick and their growth strategy smelled suspiciously like bulls**t – was to establish himself as someone with a personality and the chutzpah to show it off. Now that’s not rocket science but it established Mr Riley as confident, knowledgeable enough to criticise firmly and probably having a good sense of humour as he was clearly using hyperbole for dramatic effect.

By this simple means and getting himself on TV via his pal Lord Sugar, Riley has ensured that I was hooked enough to read on when I next came across his name in the media. In best Californian tradition, his business was launched from the garage and he is now aiming to become a Northern telecoms champion with all the job creation opportunities that no doubt brings in its wake.

We don’t all have the possibility of getting on national TV but we do have the means to work on our business persona and get it noticed. That really tired old expression about people buying people is coming to mind as I write these words.

Take some risks; get some PR out there even if you do it yourself. As the world gets busier and messages proliferate at a rate of knots it still makes perfect sense that standing out is a good idea if you need promote your business.

Mr Riley is a good example to follow in many other ways too. He left school at sixteen, prefers hard work to a flash lifestyle and professes to “like all the boring and mundane stuff like cost cutting” which he carries out from his base in Nelson. This is not really a celebrity image – rather someone who knows how to use publicity methods often favoured by celebs but in this case to drive an acquisitive business empire founded on solid growth plans.

Don’t give up!

As a rallying call to business, they probably don’t get much more relevant than this and yet it would be hard to imagine a simpler phrase. So how come something so simple can profoundly alter the course of a business and often yield success when disaster appeared to be looming?

The uncomfortable truth, I think, is that this line of thinking relies heavily on gut instinct and a deep-seated conviction which is impossible to put into words. For that reason, not giving up often looks like an illogical course of action and who likes to be thought of as someone who acts without proper thought and consideration of all the issues?

 Over the years I have been fortunate enough to witness past masters in the art of not giving up and I like to think a little of that experience has rubbed off on me. Think of the animated cartoon character that runs off the edge of a cliff and still tries to get back by spinning his feet fast enough to somehow defy gravity – in the same way, business people who just don’t give up appear to be able to perform magic and bend the rules of nature.

This may sound a little fanciful but I believe there’s more than a grain of truth in the theory. Why not harness that feeling of pushing the boundaries and achieving something extraordinary – I think it’s what I’ve been doing for years, if only by instinct.

Of course, this is all tied up with the concept of risk and any business needs to take risks in order to grow. So why not think of adopting this strategy for a small part of your business and see what can be achieved before scaling up fully?

As well as the downside of appearing out of control or deluded there are many upsides to weigh in the balance:

The fear factor itself is liberating and energising. The success is going to taste all the sweeter for having been won against the odds. You will gain infinitely more respect from all the parties involved for demonstrating unswerving faith and perseverance in pursuit of your goals. What’s more, the benefits for that action will be multiple and probably come from all manner of unexpected and very welcome sources to help you grow in new and exciting areas.

You may also appear to be something of a magician as you pull a rabbit out of the hat when all around had given up on you. Who in business doesn’t need a trick or two in their repertoire to keep the target audience coming back for more!

Relax…

No, not another column about being lazy! I’m back from the summer holiday now and moving on from extolling the virtues of laziness. What I’d like to offer this week is a little reflection on how difficult it can be to achieve business goals without being properly relaxed.

For me, sport and business are pretty well connected – indeed the very concept of coaching, now rightly so popular in the world of business, originated in the world of sport. So, I often draw parallels between business and my particular sport, which is running. Having started again to run later in life, I’ve benefitted greatly from expert advice when warming up for a large event. The bigger events where money is being raised for charity often have professionals on hand to help you warm up thoroughly. It is no coincidence that these are the events where the best times are always achieved.

With a professional to guide you, it’s easy to make sure your muscles are relaxed and supple enough to cope with the stresses and strains that are about to come the way of your ageing legs. I know this is a physical phenomenon and the stress in business is very often mental but the connection is very definitely real.

After all the brain is a muscle and that’s often where business problems start and finish – inside your head. Physical relaxation very often leads to mental relaxation and it’s a great place to start if you’re looking to improve your business and overall performance levels.

I also know from personal experience that physical relaxation aids focus and clarity of thought – the very tools you absolutely must have to help you cut through complex business issues. It stands to reason that relaxed people perform far better that tense ones but how often do we ignore that fact and plough on regardless?

Ignoring the need to relax can have disastrous effects far beyond a malfunction on the day. To continue the sporting metaphor, muscle damage can ruin a footballer’s season or even end his/her career so the effects can indeed be long-lasting. High stress levels can of course be damaging in a business context and very often the answer to the problem comes from within.

Of course, there are many ways to relax and I can clearly remember a situation that mattered for me. Having failed my driving test on more than one occasion, I was indebted to the instructor who finally got me over the hurdle. His secret of success was very simple – he relaxed me with humorous stories before the test and got me to put my nerves out of mind. Jokes and humour are obviously very light-hearted things but when used to good effect as on this occasion the results can be life-changing.

Don’t be afraid to relax – we all need to warm up like professional athletes, especially in a business world that often requires mental marathons of us!

Think ahead…

I’ve worked for a variety of businesses in my time and seen many different approaches to the question of whether or not to try and forecast the future. Of course I don’t mean the future of the planet and this kind of forecasting has nothing to do with crystal balls although they are often mentioned in a vain attempt to inject a bit of humour into what many regard as a lost cause.

But if the thought of forecasting sales or  future economic circumstances makes you smile or even laugh at the futility of the exercise, why not just pause for a second to reconsider? You never know – you may just gain a little advantage that gets you ahead and who wouldn’t want that?

So, for me, a forecast of some sort is absolutely vital and a very powerful weapon in my business arsenal. There are a few reasons why I say that – namely focus, creativity and targeting. Taking these concepts in order, I’ll try to summarise what each of them means to me and my business.

Forecasting helps me to focus on where my opportunities lie and where I might encounter obstacles. That may sound obvious but if that’s the case why are so many business people reluctant to do it? Clearly, it requires discipline to set aside time and conduct the exercise but would you plan a cross country hike without knowing the terrain so you could dress and pack provisions accordingly?

Forecasting helps me to unlock my creative side (and we’ve all got one!). It’s impossible to do a forecast without allowing yourself a decent stretch of free time and once you’ve done that the creative juices start to flow automatically. Enjoy the benefits of thinking differently, seeing different angles and adjusting your output accordingly to take advantage.

And finally, forecasting helps me to target my business effectively. I don’t say I will hit all my targets but if I’ve forecast them then they have an identity and a kind of reality which brings them to life. Chasing targets requires self-motivation and who can motivate themselves with just a number? Far better surely to get acquainted with the detail and inject a bit of enthusiasm into the whole exercise to keep you going when the road gets harder!

Maybe, in the last analysis it is sensible to pour a little cold water on forecasting and occasionally ridicule it but just maybe it might be a friend to you when your business hits a bit of choppy water ahead…  

Take a holiday…

At this time of year a lot of us are actually taking holidays or thinking about a sitting on a beach in some faraway destination. In France the whole country heads for Le Midi for an entire month and, in many ways, why not?

Working in business in today’s difficult economic climate where we’re all obsessed with time, I propose that every now and then it does you good to deliberately waste a bit of it! In the age of “brush-by” meetings and “leaning in” to stay in focus and on-track with a punishing schedule, we can be forgiven for forgetting what the benefits of laziness might be.

Enforced laziness has a unique value that should not be underestimated, according to Schumpeter of the Economist magazine. Ronald Reagan famously believed in not overdoing things – “It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?” Lord Melbourne, Queen Victoria’s favourite prime minister, praised the virtues of “masterful inactivity” and Asquith employed a policy of “wait and see” when he was in power. In the world of work, Jim Collins, famous author of Good to Great, exhorts us to create a stop-doing list to complement our to-do list.

I guess the point really is that occasionally we all need to get off the tread mill to figure out if there is a better way of doing things. In my view, that’s more necessary than ever today as we are plagued by phenomena such as email where our ability to manage the task is compromised by the constant need to respond within seconds. We are sucked into the vortex as we earnestly lean in to hear the “conversation” and before we know it we’re agreeing to the terms of an unknown email assailant who has just pushed his or her way to the top of our agenda.

Email is only one facet of the way we do business today but it’s a good indicator of where we are. According to a recent survey, 80% of us continue to work after we’ve left the office, 69% can’t go to bed without routinely checking the email in-box and 38% check their emails whilst at the dinner table!

So, if you’re lucky enough to be taking a holiday this year, my advice would be to truly enjoy it.
Big chunks of uninterrupted time are like gold dust – lean back a bit, enjoy the silence or the view or whatever’s available and the next time you need to lean-in you might find it’s not so difficult from your position of relaxed readiness!