the best management ideas ever

Do you let business come to you naturally or are you constantly nurturing prospects? Trick question - you should be doing both. If you're good at what you do and you invest in ongoing marketing efforts then business will come to you naturally. But, it's also important to do some business development nurturing. 

It's like when you're decorating your house. You invest in a houseplant, but then you fail to invest in taking care of that houseplant. It needs nurturing care. Sometimes specialized care. Or it won't last. 

Meetings can be contentious things. Done poorly, they take time away from working hours and make participants feel as though their time isn't valued. Worryingly, some 67% of meetings a considered a failure - with these collectively costing the economy $37b a year. 

However, managed well, meetings can be a high-value endeavor. They can be a great way to share ideas, make progress on projects, oversee decision making, and bring the team together. With middle management spending some 35% of their time in meetings and upper management a huge 50%, leading effective meetings is a must for productivity and profitability.

Here's how. 

Ever asked a colleague about an email or task, only to get sidetracked talking about something else entirely? At StellaPop we call these moments "squirrel time," after Doug the notoriously distractible dog in the film Up.

Not all squirrel time is bad. We all need a break every now and then, and sometimes squirrel time can result in valuable discussions or insights about a client, a task or a process. But how do you control squirrel time so that you don't go nuts?

Here's how we ensure that we stay on task and meet our deadlines - while still allowing for occasional office chit chat and discussion. 

Every new project starts first with conception. Conception is when the germ of an idea is born. That idea is then brought to fruition by creativity, sweat, and a healthy dose of humility if you’re doing it right. You have to be humble because the path from first iterations to final approval is a dark road littered with twists and turns and peppered with umpteen revisions.

The beginning of the year is often flooded with goal setting. Goals are wonderful. They're motivating. They're often a way of tracking your success. Goals are great. 

But let's get one thing straight. A strategy isn't the same thing as a goal. A strategy is the how and the why. It's choosing what to do and what not to do. 

And a business without a sound strategy fueling its actions is sunk no matter how good you're at setting goals.