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47. Cut the crap - prioritize

"We wants it. We needs it. Must have the precious!" Gollum (Andy Serkis) in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Gollum knew the value of prioritizing. He knew what he wanted - to the exclusion of everything else. Now there's a dedicated creature for you.

I used to work for a manager who was fond of asking who we worked for. If we said ourselves, he shook his head. If we said him, he shook his head. If we said the directors, he shook his head. And on and on. The only answer, he said, was the share­holders. And the only reason we worked, he said, was for the profit. Everything else was padding. Fair enough. We do work for the shareholders - whoever they might be. It might be yourself if you are a one-person band. They might be the directors if it's a family owned firm and not trading on the stock market. They might be millions of little people who have all invested.

So cut the crap. There is only one reason for being in business, no matter what anyone says - profit. To make money If you're making your figures, good. If you're not, clear your desk out. Simple. Now you have a neat yardstick to judge everything you do. Ask, 'Does this contribute towards the profits I am making, or not?' If it does, keep right on doing it. If it doesn't, chuck it out.

When all is said and done, that is what it's all about. No money, no business. No business, no job. No job, no mortgage, car, bread on the table, holidays in Tuscany.

I bet if you sit down and look at everything you do, a lot of it will be padding. Time to prioritize. Cut the crap and dedicate yourself to one thing and one thing only - the bottom line. And that's what separates a really sharp manager like you from all the others. That clear focus, that vision, that dedication. Go Gollum, go.

48. Cultivate those in the know

"There's no point trying to hide from the fact that people know people and that possibly along the line they might well use those connections to 'further their career'." Obi from 'Active Slaughter' (anarcho punk band)

Always remember it's not who you know, but whom you know. And in business there are movers and shakers and there are worker ants. You need to know who the movers and shakers are - and cultivate them. Often senior management have PAs that act as guards - you don't get to talk to God but you do get to be brushed off by God's right-hand PA. You have to get on the right side of the PA and that means charm and politeness, tact and discretion, gamesmanship and ruthless cunning. I once worked for a boss who used a business consultant as his sort of unofficial PA - she shielded and protected him from having to talk to his staff. Her surname was Burton and everyone called her Mrs Burton except those in the boss's inner circle who called her JB.

I started to call her JB also and the first few times she looked at me quite horrified - 1 was only a junior manager and not entitled to do so. But I got away with it. After a few weeks the boss heard me call her JB and assumed I had been accepted into her inner circle of close chums and colleagues. He started to give me more responsibility which meant she started to give me respect as I was obviously one of his favourites - and they bounced off each other, each believing me to be the other's accepted one and I got prefer­ential treatment from both.

Lots of people think that a) the 'old school tie' system is dead, or b) if it ain't dead it ought to be, or c) it is dead and therefore a new system has taken its place and having to know those in the know no longer counts, and/or d) raw talent will always shine through.

Some of the above may be true. The old school tie thing will never be dead because those in the know are the ones who still run that particular club. It might not be school anymore, instead it might be the golf club, charity work, breakfast clubs, university, family previous places of work, old friends, whatever. People in the know like to collect round them people they also know and therefore can trust. You have to get to know those around those who need to be known: cultivate them, then become one of those around those in the know - and then become one of those in the know. What you do then is entirely up to you.

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