New Minds

Why is succession planning so important for founder-led consultancies?   According to research by Deloitte, 86% of business leaders view succession planning as an urgent priority, yet only 14% of leaders are confident they're doing it effectively.   Considering that over 50% of executives fail within the first 18 months of being hired or promoted (HBR), the potential impact on business performance is concerning, particularly if you're a founder. Creating the right conditions for sustained success is essential ❗   Succession planning is not just about replacing a leader; it’s about driving the long-term health, stability, and sustainable growth of the business. For consultancies, it's about moving from founder-led to founder-inspired.   Effective succession planning requires a forward-thinking strategy that aligns leadership development with your long-term business goals, while continuing to uphold the firm's values, culture, and reputation.   Does your business have a plan to move from founder-led to founder-inspired?

"How can we get more out of our people?"   It's one of the most common and 'loaded' questions I get from our clients, and my response typically depends on what gaps they've identified in their workforce.   However, more broadly speaking, businesses don't grow because they squeeze every drop of productivity out of their people.   Companies successfully and sustainably grow when the employees have purpose and feel excited, accountable, and motivated to contribute to the mission.   📈 So here are my top 5 suggestions for how to increase people performance:   1. Be purposeful with your communication and stay goal-oriented. When your teams understand their role, their purpose, and the business mission, they're more likely to reach the goals set for them and feel as though they're contributing to the bigger picture.   2. Provide feedback and development opportunities. According to McKinsey, employees who receive regular, constructive feedback and opportunities to grow are more engaged - and engaged employees are over 20% more productive.   3. Unlock the full potential of your people by understanding their natural preferences, strengths, and gaps. Personality, motivation, and behaviour profiles explain up to 70% of performance in an organisation. If you're not already using a psychometric tool backed by behavioural-science to understand your current and future workforce, you should start asap! (At New Minds we use Clevry, which is BPS accredited).   4. Celebrate wins. According to HBR, employees who receive regular praise and recognition are 10-20% more productive. Building strong and trusting relationships will help to enhance team dynamics and collaboration.   5. Regularly analyse performance metrics. This can help you to identify key areas for improvement and measure whether you're seeing a change.   ❓ Have you explored each of these areas in your business?

It's now been a week since The Consultancy Growth Network's incredible Annual Summit and I've had a little bit more time to digest the expert talks and the engaging panel discussion and interview. I found the 'golden thread' of Generative AI and leadership to be particularly interesting given the number of questions raised over how the two areas will crossover in the future (which is closer than you think). I left with some topics and strategies to explore internally, as well as with our clients, but I thought I would share 2 of my takeaways for anyone who couldn't make it:   Generative AI's incredible value 🤖: The potential of AI to transform our industry is undeniable. From improving efficiency to accelerating growth, AI is a game-changer. If you haven't begun developing an AI strategy for your business, you're already falling behind. However, as we integrate these powerful tools, it's important to remember the human element - consulting is relationship-driven after all. Many of us became great consultants because we learned and developed our craft through experimentation and failure earlier in our careers. What will happen to future workforces if we replace these human learning opportunities with AI and automation?   Optimal leadership levels 📉: What percentage of your time are you realistically operating at your optimal level as a leader? For a lot of us, this percentage is alarmingly low due to time, capacity, and pressure. While AI can increase our efficiency as an individual, developing the ability to effectively empower and elevate our future leaders will have a bigger impact on the growth of our business, and leveraging a 'servant leadership' approach might just be the key. But of course to do that, we need to have the right people around us. Capitalising on behavioural science to better understand our people will support us to drive the right culture and plan for succession… and maybe even eliminate individual targets!   📖 I've just started reading 'Leaders Eat Last' by Simon Sinek, which explores the importance of putting the needs of your team first (thank you Dom Moorhouse for the recommendation). 🔍 What steps have you taken to explore what the future looks like for your business?

Struggling to Win New Clients? Can you answer these key questions?... 48% of consultancies say securing new clients is their number one internal challenge.* Despite this, only 38% have clearly documented where they expect their next 12 months revenue to come from!*² In our FREE workshop ‘The Ultimate Sales Strategy’, Marc Jantzen will cover the three questions you need to be able to answer: 1. Where will your revenue come from in the next 12 months? 2. What are you doing to deliver improvements at every stage of the sales process? 3. How do you best manage your pipeline to enable you to make informed business decisions? Marc has spent the last 20+ years’ working in and with boutique consulting firms, advising dozen of clients on their growth journey and he has a deep passion for sales. Ater all, without sales you have no business. This webinar is designed to provide you with actionable insight that can help you close deals faster, build stronger relationships with your clients, and ultimately, drive your sales numbers up. This event is open to ALL consultancy leaders. If you can’t attend, consider sending a senior team member. Register your interest here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eeJTusiq 🗓 Date: 4 November 🕐 Time: 13:00 GMT TCGN members are welcome to attend, or you can rewatch the original session on the Growth Hub - https://lnkd.in/erwnphMN *The Consultancy BenchPress 2024 report *² The Consultancy Sales Maturity Assessment Luke Badiali | Oli Hoade | George Berrington | Charlotte Campbell | Alison El Moghraby | James Hurman | Amy Rashbrooke #Consulting #SalesStrategy #Leadership #ConsultancyGrowth

The New Minds team are excited for The Consultancy Growth Network Annual Summit on Thursday this week https://lnkd.in/eH8g53bM. It promises to be a fantastic event with some incredible speakers and we are looking forward to seeing many of our clients and contacts then. If you are also attending, drop me a note and we can make sure to find time to catch up! Ben Palfreeman Phil Smith Marc Jantzen #TCGNSummit