Tag Archives: Business Leadership

Questions…

Recently Business Chicks posted on its FaceBook page an open invitation 'what would you ask an entrepreneur if you had the chance?' Well that is para phrasing really... but I thought I would tak on answer the questions posed. Q: Sarah Louise What is the one piece of advice you were given as you were [...]
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Coming up this week.

I had a great time at the Business Chicks lunch this week.  The photo is of Janine Allis, myself, Kristina Karlson (Congratulations on her EY Entrepreneur of the Year Southern Region win) and Natalie Bloom – who popped in to support the conversation. One of the questions from the audience was on mentoring - and [...]
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The Election we had to have.

I usually keep my blogs to share things that I have learned and discovered in the pursuit of building a business. But as a business leader this week of course I have been left bewildered. Recently I wrote about the disgrace of both major parties advertising and promotional campaigns  And clearly I was not alone [...]
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Grow!

Each trimester at RedBalloon we galvanize the plan by announcing a theme. The theme is always based on what is the most critical thing for the business to achieve right now! Last trimester the whole company got behind a ‘Red Dawn’ theme. Everyone chipped in as we launched the new version of the website. Some [...]
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Where is Naomi… this week

Speaking with my new RedBalloon colleague Philippa Lowe this week, she has joined the business to support the communications efforts. She asked me the obvious question ”What do you do in a week?” I mentioned what I get up to and she responded “well if I’m interested in what you are doing other people might [...]
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What is bothering me…

Trust is such a fragile thing. One knows that to be trusted is to trust. But what if you give trust – and it is not reciprocated. Is it a one off, can never ever be regained? Does trust need to be earned back, or proved? Isn’t this a contradiction in terms. Jim Collins told [...]
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Communication about Bad Apples

Bad Apples can still do damage even after they have left the organization. Cleaning up the damage and rebuilding culture will take consistent and considered effort.  My previous post 'Bad Apples' raised the question of authentic communication to the rest of the business - to ensure that culture is not impacted. At RedBalloon being completely [...]
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Bad Apple

In the last few posts I have been talking about what it takes to be a Great Place to Work. It’s all about trust and purpose. One of the questions I had recently at a speaking engagement is very relevant ‘What if you have a rotten apple inside your organization– someone who is not just [...]
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Have Faith

I have trawled through online articles featuring best employers and companies with high engagement scores (I'm curious as to what others do of course) and I can’t help but notice the negative comments some attract along the lines of “it’s easy for you” from people all over the world. The truth is any organisation no [...]
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Thoughts from a RedBalloon veteran

On Friday it was time to farewell an original RedBallooner - Sarah was with us in the very early days - and has seen the business grow from 9 people to its present 50. She has caught the entrepreneurial bug and started her own show a named ‘Lady Bug’ as a fully fledged interior designer. [...]
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