Tag: management strategy

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What do good leaders do?

In a recent meeting with Jo Burston, CEO of Inspiring Rare Birds, a very successful entrepreneur, I noticed that she rattled off statistics of her business really quickly and easily.

I couldn’t help but wonder do successful business leaders walk around with a few key statistics in their head? Why do so many of us women shy away from numbers ?

Financial literacy is something we aren’t born with, it’s learned and yet it seems when we were younger we were either exposed to it from our families in business or if we weren’t, we had to make a conscious effort at school or uni to study accounting. As adults we often say, I’m not good at Maths or I don’t really understand the numbers in my business, that’s my accountants role!

In a recent education session with Jo Burston, CEO, Inspiring Rare Birds, we discussed the importance of knowing Revenue, Gross Profit (GP) / Operating Expenditure (OPEX) and Net Profit after Tax (NPAT) in your business and comparing these year on year.

When dealing with business facts, Jo says “choose 2- 3 key facts and write down the stats on a post it note on your desk and then when you need them they are there.”

Another thing many of us women were never taught is how to evaluate a business or how to get involved in investment of other companies. I love companies like SHEEO who make it easy to invest $1000 in a growing female led business, it makes it easy to put some skin in the game. You can find out more here https://sheeo.world/activators/

In a world where we need to learn so much to stay ahead in business, I realise that to be an effective leader we can’t shy away from the numbers, we must take time to travel the financial literacy journey and remember to walk around with a few key stats in your head, be ready to sprout them as loudly and as often as possible!

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What will you be doing in 2019?

The last few weeks I have been speaking to people about their focus and hoe they want to spend their time.

Will you be effective in 2019?

The people I hang with are smart. Smart and passionate. They care about personal identity, about the government’s new encryption rights. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/dec/12/encryption-laws-will-allow-targeting-of-those-suspected-of-minor-crimes-experts-warn

They are advocates for privacy and decentralisation of data. This is a noble cause and I can’t help but get caught up in the passion.

If you have one cause in 2019 what will it be? How much time will you spend on it?

If you have 4 key focuses what will they be? Do a quick whiteboard session about how you are spending your time. Does it look effective or are you spending 90 percent of your time on non revenue building activities? If you are you need to fix this fast.

In 2019, I will be focussing on things that matter to me: women in technology, education, helping my clients retain and helping them to fine-tune their teams. i.e. Helping my clients to be successful.

Take a moment at the end of the 2018, pre-Christmas frenzy to re-allign your focus for Q1 2019, you will be very happy you did! Learn to say no to the things that you don’t have time for in your top 4.

Build an effective time management strategy, I use calendal (https://calendly.com) for meetings and block out the times when no one can book meetings at the time when I am most effective.

Say no to pointless meetings and coffees that just don’t make sense. Delegate to trusted parties the things you don’t have time to do yourself.

Make 2019 your most effective year!