How Business Owners and Managers Can Overcome Biases in Negotiation Most negotiation blow-ups don’t start with a ‘hard’ commercial issue. They start with a story you tell yourself. ‘They’re being unreasonable.’ ‘They’re trying to take advantage.’ ‘They’re acting in bad faith.’ Once that story takes hold, the conversation changes. You stop exploring options and start […]
Using Contingent Contracts to Break Negotiation Deadlocks Most negotiation impasses don’t occur because one party is unreasonable. They occur because both sides genuinely believe they are right. You forecast strong growth. The other party is conservative. You believe performance will improve. They doubt it. The discussion circles around projections, spreadsheets and assumptions – and progress […]
Win-Win Negotiation Strategies for Business Owners and Managers Most business owners don’t set out to ‘win’ negotiations. They set out to keep the client. Secure the supplier. Protect the relationship. Keep things moving. But somewhere along the way, margins get squeezed, terms drift, and agreements become harder to manage. You agree to a lower price […]
The Fundamentals of Negotiation Every Business Owner Must Understand Most business owners don’t think of themselves as negotiators. They think of negotiation as something that happens in boardrooms, in legal disputes, or in high-stakes corporate deals. In reality, if you own and run a business, you negotiate every week. You negotiate with: suppliers, clients, landlords, […]
How to Recruit the Right Team Members: What Owners Must Clarify Before Hiring Most recruitment decisions in owner-operated businesses don’t fail because of a lack of candidates. They fail because the owner is under pressure. Work is backing up. Clients are waiting. Standards are slipping. You’re working nights again. So, the decision gets made: we […]
Employee Recognition & Feedback: The Leadership Skill Most Managers Underuse Most business owners don’t avoid giving feedback because they don’t care. They avoid it because: they’re busy, it feels awkward, everything seems ‘fine’, or because past conversations didn’t go as they hoped. As a result, feedback gets delayed, softened, or skipped altogether. Recognition becomes occasional, […]
Maximising Employee Performance: Lifting Engagement, Retaining Talent and Driving Results Most business owners don’t lie awake at night worrying about ‘employee engagement scores’. What keeps them up is different, why: They’re still the decision bottleneck Standards slip the moment they step away Some staff seem busy but don’t really move the business forward. And why […]
What Makes Teams Successful? The Habits That Turn Groups into High-Performing Teams For many Australian business owners, the biggest constraint to growth isn’t a lack of opportunity – it’s the reality of running a business that relies too heavily on them. When teams underperform, owners compensate. They work longer hours, make more decisions themselves and […]
Why Teams Fail and How to Fix Them Although many business owners and leaders recognise that effective leadership and collaborative teams are critical to success, they often fail to understand what makes teams successful, why teams fail and how to fix them. Whether you are a start-up or an established business, you must have clarity […]
The Golden Rules of Asset Protection Asset protection means protecting your accumulated wealth from losses and is essential to enjoying the success you create over the long-term. Regrettably, many business owners don’t put sufficient emphasis on asset protection. But this is a mistake because: The more successful you’ve been, the more you have to lose The […]
Ignore Business Risk at Your Peril Regrettably, many business owners don’t put sufficient emphasis on managing business risk (particularly downside risk) and, therefore, protecting the wealth they create. Typically, business owners underestimate downside risk because they haven’t previously suffered material loss and discount both the level of risk they face and its potential impact. Disproportionate […]
Innovation, Uncertainty and Risk Management Life and business are full of uncertainties, giving rise to unexpected events that result in opportunities and threats and, therefore, a need for risk management. You must manage risk and uncertainty to develop innovation as a core competency so that you can effectively capture opportunity and mitigate threats. Risk management […]
