Coaching for leaders in the tech industry
There are many instructive parallels between playing a game of chess and the challenges of running a business. To win in chess, you have to plan your attack carefully and anticipate your opponent’s moves. While you are attacking, you must not neglect your defence. Moving a piece into an attacking position but allowing it to…
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‘There’s no smoke without fire’ is a phrase I remember from my childhood, but these days it seems to have fallen into disuse – or at least into much less frequent use. If you have a wood-burning stove at home, as I do, you can observe the truth of this statement quite literally. If…
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May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face … Those are the first few lines of a traditional Irish blessing and, for me, they are all about making life easier for the person receiving the blessing. Regular readers will…
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Do you expect your customers or your team to react logically? You will often be disappointed if you do! Fans of the Star Trek series will remember Leonard Nimoy playing the character Spock, who was half human and half Vulcan. The emotional human half was suppressed by the unemotional Vulcan half and Spock often found himself…
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What do your customers think of you – do you know? Have you asked them? If they think you are great and rave about you all the time, that’s perfect. If your objective is to satisfy your customers you may fall short from time to time, and even if you don’t you are vulnerable to losing customers…
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In banking and financial services there’s a set of regulations called Know Your Customer or KYC for short. If you’ve opened an account in another country in the past few years you will have experienced the process which can be administratively complex! One of my clients was opening an account in Hong Kong and the…
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That’s a Chinese proverb that you can apply to many aspects of your business. It’s pretty obvious in its application to customer service. If you can’t make your existing customers happy, they are not going to refer new clients or customers to you – and a “satisfied” customer is only ever one step away from becoming…
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John held up the ball in his hand and asked his Chris “What colour is this ball?” to which the angry young man replied, “it’s red, of course – what that got to do with it?” John replied “Actually, from where I am sitting, it is blue” John rotated the ball, and Chris could…
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Some time ago I visited the London Eye. It gives you a unique view of the capital. I’d expected the attraction to be really busy – and it was! We had a voucher, but no one seemed to know to which desk we were supposed to go to redeem it. Eventually, I found the…
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It’s much easier to sell to an existing customer than it is to a new one, but many businesses don’t have a formal program to retain their customers. When you measure all the effort that goes into winning a new customer, all the money and management time you spend acquiring those new customers, compare that…
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