Metronomics, Facebook competitor, Incompetent Leader, Morgan Stanley & Business Plan
Hope you’re Thriving!
It’s been a super busy week, with two x 2-day annual strategic planning workshops, one in Perth and one in Sydney. With a day of travel in between. Yes, after 482 days, I boarded a plane again for the first time. It’s relevant because pre COVID I used to board an aircraft around every 25 days. I even remember in November 2019 going to the USA twice in one month.
Of course, the one thing I didn’t want was an outbreak that would interrupt my travel plans or, worse, put me into quarantine. It was undoubtedly an anxious time as an outbreak did occur in Sydney, with a few cases recorded, but fortunately, I made it through without needing to quarantine.
I’d been working with the team in Sydney to who I travelled for around 15 months now. We started when COVID began and only met in person for the first time last week. It’s times like that I think just how much the world has changed.
One of the things this week’s events has made me think about is that the world will never be the same again. We will never go back to the way things were in 2019.
After World War 2, the world could never be the same as it was before the war. After 9–11 in the US, the world was never the same again.
Sure, maybe we will stop wearing masks, and borders will open up. Perhaps we will travel overseas again. But things will never be the same again.
I was emailing a coach in the US this week who said he was changing his business to stop travelling and only focus on a small online business. He’d been coaching across the US for 15 years travelling and running strategy workshops. But the pandemic caused him to re-evaluate his life, and if it wasn’t online — or a 30-minute drive — he wasn’t doing it anymore.
Sure, that’s just one person, but the way that online video has become routine and online retail has accelerated so quickly, amongst other things, I get the sense more than ever that the world will never be the same again.
Metronomics book launch
A lot of people write business books. Many of those books are often only calling cards. Many of those books aren’t relevant for the mid-market and are targeted at large organisations. Yet, a few people have written outstanding books that are both useful and aimed at mid-market businesses seeking to Scale Up.
One of the people who have accomplished both is my good friend Shannon Susko, author of The Metronome Effect and 3HAG Way. And this week, she has done it again with the release of her new book Metronomics: One United System To Grow Up Your Team, Company, and Life.
From the book’s description.
“As a business leader, you’ve read dozens of books by the top thought leaders, learning from their research, principles, and tools. Each book dives deep into a specific area of expertise — strategy, execution, cash, people, culture, and leadership. All share powerful concepts on what to do to grow your business. But how do you efficiently unite these tools into a regimen that works for not just one specific area of your business but for your entire team, company, and life?
Metronomics unites top business thought leadership with over twenty years of proven practical experience. The outcome is a prescriptive progressive growth system for every business. In this book, you’ll learn how to build a high-performing business team that achieves superior results with ease, speed, and confidence. You’ll learn the practical progression that ensures your team is fiercely connected to your strategic execution system. No matter what level you and your team are at right now, Metronomics will meet you where you are — and grow with you to the next level and beyond.”
A Facebook competitor with a chance emerges
Softbank, who famously applied a virtual flamethrower to mountains of cash with their investment in WeWork, has just invested $170m in IRL, a substitute for Facebook groups and messaging for people who aren’t using Facebook because they are young (too cool). With a valuation of $1B, 12 million monthly users and over 1 Billion messages sent, they are one of the few companies in the past decade to take on the social media giants and actually have a chance.
The tech giants of today won’t last forever. And this is the type of strategy that will win.
Read the interesting story here IRL is a new social network taking on Facebook groups.
The Most Common Type of Incompetent Leader
The popular media is full of examples of bad leaders in government, academia, and business. But the most common kind of incompetent leader isn’t the ranting, narcissistic sociopath that might immediately come to mind. Rather, it’s the “absentee leader” — those in leadership roles who are psychologically absent from them. These people were promoted into management and enjoy the privileges and rewards of a leadership role, but avoid meaningful involvement with their teams. Absentee leaders kill engagement and productivity.
Research shows that being ignored by one’s boss is more alienating than being treated poorly and that the impact of absentee leadership on job satisfaction outlasts the impact of both constructive and more overtly destructive forms of leadership. The chances are good, however, that your organisation is unaware of its absentee leaders, because they specialise in flying under the radar by not doing anything that attracts attention. Nonetheless, the adhesiveness of their negative impact may be slowly and silently killing your organisation.
Read the HBR article here The Most Common Type of Incompetent Leader
Quick Clips
Ted Pick, a lifer at Morgan Stanley, has gone from the basement to the boardroom and is vying for the CEO’s position. Tales of his dedication and ambition abound. For example;
“Along the way, he gained notoriety for a unique style of leadership. After getting worked up about the size of another executive’s office, feeling it was too big for his position, Pick called in a construction crew over the weekend and had the walls moved to shrink the room.” Barely Hired at Morgan Stanley, Trading Savior Nears CEO’s Perch
Ever wondered about latitude and the distance from the equator? Here’s an interesting article from an Australian perspective. Australia’s latitude in perspective
Crypto Price Mayhem: Data Reveals Bitcoin Is Braced For A ‘Short Squeeze’
Why crime could kill crypto. “46% of bitcoin transactions conducted between January 2009 and April 2017 were for illegal activity.”
This week on The Growth Whisperers podcast
This week on the Growth Whisperers, we’re talking about your plan for your business.
What’s your plan?
Are you planning to keep, or are you planning to sell?
Or, if you don’t have a plan to keep or sell, are you stuck in what we call the mediocre middle?
That is, you’re not planning to sell, and you’re not planning to keep, and you’re suffering the consequences of inaction in the middle.
And it’s not consciously that you’re doing it.
You’re busy running your business.
And that takes a lot of time.
But sometimes we don’t even realize we need to decide what we’re driving to actually and being committed to selling in three years, for example, or keeping it for 30.
And we ended up floating around.
And we really challenge you to make a decision. Sell and make the decision, march in that direction. Or plan on having it for 20, 30, 40 years, and probably make many different decisions versus just floating around.
This week in part 1 of 2 we discuss what it means to be stuck in the mediocre middle and the cost that you pay for not having a plan either way.
Are you planning to sell or planning to keep your business? Or are you stuck in the mediocre middle? (Part 1 of 2)
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Keep Thriving!
Brad Giles
