Our Insights

If youre in business, you should be aware of the changing nature of accounting software. Historically the most common business accounting software for small business was MYOB or Quicken. However the past few years has seen a seismic shift to Cloud accounting.

Enter Xero.

When selling a house making sure that the gardens are tidy, the interior is clean and pest treatments are up to date are all simple matters that can be taken care of before inspection times. This will attract the eye and cheque book of the purchaser with little need for negotiation.

A shortfall in this gap can have a significant impact on your retirement plans, forcing a re-think on your desired standard of living in retirement. Not ideal. Or worse - it may mean you cant afford to sell!!

Well, Ive come to the final leadership series blog. Focus.

I'm sure everyone will recognise the need to focus when they're involved in a task or action.  Something like driving the kids to school takes focus to keep on the right side of the road, all the while with warring factions and arguments going on in the back seat.

We generally think of competence as the ability to do something. Catch a ball, drive a car, perform CPR. Or lead.

A competent leader will leader by example, to show that they can and are willing to do what needs to be done.  They show up each day ready to get stuck in and are consistent in their approach.

Communication. Seems to be a problem at one time or another in each and every business and personal relationship.

Im sure there are plenty of marriages and business partnerships that would be still humming today if the communication had been better.

All around us every day we commit to different things. We commit to a new diet or exercise regimen (generally at New Years celebrations). We commit to a to do list.

Commit to a course of action like getting through that round-a-bout ahead of that oncoming bus to make sure we're not 3 seconds behind.

And we all know someone who we would say is charismatic. But without other qualities they're not a great leader.

But what is charisma and how does it relate to leadership?  Heres how I see it;

I regularly see clients who for years have driven their home mortgage down by paying higher repayments than the minimum payments required.

While on the surface this seems like a great idea, there are circumstances where it can come back to bite you on the bum.

But I harked back to one of the first managers I dealt with many years ago, a man named Warren McLennan. He was a gentle man who, despite his position in the company, mixed extremely well with everyone.

He had the ability to get people behind him as he moved the business forward, and would show the way rather than just point.