“I’m sorry to say so but, sadly it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you” Dr Seuss – Oh the Places You’ll Go   You can’t escape change.  The march of time and gravity is relentless. What’s changed over the last five years in your work-place?  Bosses change, colleagues move on, there are …

Creating high performance always sounds like a good idea. Right now, as we adjust to a world that is changing very fast around us, delivering high performance is probably more important but more challenging than ever. We are surrounded by negative news. Our British culture has a strong tendency to enjoy swapping anecdotes of how bad things are and we enjoy black humour as an art form.

In a 2007 article The McKinsey Quarterly used the following example to make the point that nasty people don’t just make others feel miserable; they create economic problems for their companies:

Too many people blame circumstances or those around them for the stress in their life. The first step to self-leadership, and ultimately to great leadership of others is to learn to take responsibility for and manage your own responses to stress.

Obedience diminishes with education and connection. Obedience is not replaced with disobedience, so much as it is replaced with personal responsibility. As people are better educated and more connected they become more willing and more capable of taking responsibility and less willing to submit to authority.

Here’s a thought-provoking piece from Brian Bacon, Chairman & Founder of the Oxford Leadership Academy:

Teamwork has become the default way of working in organisations. Many of us have a long-lasting romance with teams, yet we rarely stop and question the assumptions. Like breathing, we just do it. Is teamwork still a safe bet or is it ‘last century’?

We have the ability to develop leadership skills that can help us live a more fulfilling and meaningful life. While having a mentor or coach is helpful, with the right guidance and resources we can teach ourselves to become effective leaders in the area that matters most – leading our own lives.

Small businesses that survive from generation to generation are few and far between, but all business owners can learn from what they do well. To survive recession, adapt to changing trends and new technology, and to maintain your place in your market, takes certain key attributes. Here are some tips for building a business to last:

You have probably never focused as tightly on driving revenue and reducing costs as you do today. People in business are working under great pressure; job security is a thing of the past; and the only thing that really seems to matter is ‘making the numbers’.