What are the biggest challenges business leaders are facing right now?

Our Patreon members get exclusive episodes like this one. So today we're sharing it on YouTube and other platforms, so you can get a taste of our leaders' strategy direct, an online community hosted on Patreon, where you can attend live workshops with Mike, get exclusive episodes like this one and so much more. Hello and welcome to all you leaders' strategy and welcome back to a Patreon only episode. This is the ones which we produce "Puny for you, our Patreons." So season four now has been running for quite a few months and I get a lot of questions from the viewers and listeners but more often than not they don't put the questions actually in the chat itself and that's because it's confidential and they want to have a one-on-one with me. So they will either message me on LinkedIn or they'll email me directly. So I thought it'd be great to gather up some of those questions and for me to share them with you and give you the answers that I gave them when the questions came in. Now clearly I'm going to change the questions slightly and I will change my answer slightly just to stop any breacher confidentiality and effectively to protect the innocent. But these are the questions. So what I'm going to do first is is explain the episode that prompted the question, read the question and then give you my answer. So inspired by the first of the episodes which was "Top Tips for Business Leaders," I was asked this question, "How do I know which piece of leadership advice actually applies to me?" So that's a great question because advice is only powerful when it's relevant. Here's my rule of thumb, if a piece of advice makes you feel uncomfortable challenged or called out, it's probably the one you need most. Growth rarely happens when you're inside your comfort zone. You need to be challenged and driven on to improve and get better. So the next question was inspired by the great interview that we did with Gus related to LinkedIn and how you make money on LinkedIn. And the question is, how do I avoid sound and write everybody else on LinkedIn? I thought this was great when it came in because it is a challenge for all of us. How do we stand out? How do we make sure that we don't sound generic? Now my answer was that the biggest mistake people make is trying to impress instead of just being honest. You can stand out by just being yourself, share real stories, lessons learned, mistakes you've made behind the scenes insights. Let's be honest, authenticity, trance, a polished, approached every single time. So the next question was prompted by a nepisode that I did called AI versus Mike Harris. And the question was this, how do I know which parts of my business are the risk for my eye? And this is the art I gave. Anything repetitive, rules based or low context is going to be the first thing automated. And don't be worried because as business leaders you're going to be very difficult to be replaced by AI. It replaces outdated processes. Your job is to turn your people into innovators, not administrators. And therefore a business is always going to need leaders. So next question which was prompted by the episode that we did with Yemi about customers and customers experience was this, what should I do if my top customers make up most of my revenue? Now I come across this a lot of times where people have two or three key accounts. All of their work comes from those key accounts. And then all of a sudden one or two of those customers disappear. In fact, I had that in the previous job that I did while I was working in a particular market. And because of changes in the marketplace and changes with the client base, we went from having five long term established clients down to two. And it was a major problem. So what you need to do is this, one deeper the relationships with those top customers. So that you are able to make sure that you know if there's changes that are taking place and they fill a place to tell you are those changes so you can adapt with them. But also actively diversify so that if you lose one customer it's not catastrophic. I tend to work with a rule of thumb that your key account should equate to about 60 to 70% of your business. Therefore you're still going to reasonable as chunk with other companies that are out there. And if a customer does fall away you've got others that you can bring forward from casual customers to repeat customers without it being so much of an issue. Remember this, if losing one client would break your business, this isn't a customer problem. It's a you problem. Work out how to manage that risk best. So next question was inspired by the first episode that we did in season four, which related to the business plan review that every leader should do. And the question I got asked was this how do I know if my business plan is still relevant? The answer I gave to that person was this look for three warning signs. Are your assumptions more than six months old? Have your behaviors changed since you put the plan together? And does your plan assume markets to abilities that no longer exist? After all I say this regularly a business plan is not a document that you produce and then put on a shelf and forget. It's got to be live. You've got to be constantly reviewing it, putting it out there, discussing it with your employees, discussing it with your clients and adapting and changing where necessary. So the next question I'm going to look at was inspired by the Christmas special that we did regarding values. And the question was how do I ensure my company values actually mean something? Well you've heard me say it before that values only matter if they're real and influence what you do in the business. We could all come up with words like honest and integrity and teamwork as the company values, but unless they really mean something and drive your business, they don't actually mean something. So the values matter most when they guide real decisions. They influence for instance who you hire, which customers you work for, what opportunities you follow or you decline. If the values don't lead you to making tough decisions, they're not values. They're just slogans, as I say, things that I just put on our website. So the next question was inspired by the new year special that we had looking at what successful look like for business leaders in 2026. And the question was should my definition of success change from 2025 to 2026? And the answer I gave was absolutely. As we move from one year to a next successful change, very reason why we did the first episode looking at doing a complete review of your business plan and strategy to see what's changed and what impact it has on the business. And even in that short period going from 25 to 26, it forces you to think about things differently. Is the customer relationship the same? Is technology evolving and outpacing you? How does AI affect you? What's the effect of global events and economic decisions that have been made at government level? If your definition of success is never evolving, your strategy won't evolve either. So the next one is inspired by another top advice for business leaders episode. And the question is what advice from top leaders should I act on first? So what I said was start with the advice that solves your biggest kind of challenge. Strategy isn't about doing more, it's about doing what matters most at that point in time. Don't collect advice, implement the right pieces at the right time. By watching the podcast, it gives you lots of advice. Your job is to take that and use it when it's appropriate, when it's needed. And of course, you might watch an episode today that actually doesn't become relevant for a few months, but at least when that problem arises, you can think, oh yeah, might cover that in a previous episode. I'll go back and watch that. That might help me. So the next question which was inspired by two episodes actually, the one related to business planning review and also the AI episode that I mentioned earlier, the question was this, how do I make good decisions when data keeps changing? Well, the truth is you don't need perfect information. What you need to be doing is gathering the best information that you can from your clients, from your supply chain out from the market. And you've got to triangulate that to get to the best possible interpretation that you can of that information. And then you act upon what that's telling you and you constantly review it because something you learned today, my influence or decision you made week ago or two weeks ago. So therefore constantly get that information and constantly adapt. But if you get Get it from lots of different sources. They're new, as I say, they're new, can triangulate it and try to interpret that data the best that you can. - This episode is sponsored by Strategist Consulting, Expert Business and Leadership Consultancy for everyday businesses and professionals. What if the key to your business's next growth phase isn't a mystery by the proven process? Is your business at the ceiling with profits flat, daily chaos, and scaling up, feeling like a risky leap? You're not alone and you don't have to solve it alone. Strategist Consulting is your partner for structured transformative growth. Led by my carers, a proven strategist and project manager with expertise in scaling businesses, bid management and delivering results. We provide clarity through our call service, the business review workshop. This isn't just advice. It's a deep dive analysis that delivers a clear actionable roadmap. We identify your bottlenecks, uncover hidden opportunities, and give you the precise steps to move from stuck to strategic execution. Visit www.Stratigist Consulting.com right now and transform your business trajectory. - And the last question that I'm gonna talk about today inspired by two different episodes, one which was linked to the episode that we did related to customer retention with Yemi, and the other one was linked to the episode that we did on making money on LinkedIn with gas. And this was a question, how can I discover what customers really want, not just what they say they want. And the truth is you got to not just take what they tell you, but read between the lies and what they're saying. But more importantly, watch their behavior, because quite often they will behave differently to their statements on what they tell you. Customers vote effectively with what they spend their money on, not just on the opinions they give. So track what they constantly engage with, request and return to. That's the truth behind their needs. So there you have it. The top 10 questions that I've received so far on season four, and hopefully they are ones that will assist you and will be useful for you with your business. I've really enjoyed this actually revisiting the questions. I always enjoy when they come through. And if you've got any questions here on Patreon, then let me know and I can answer with a particular episode specifically for you, the Patreon answering your questions. I'll see you then, cheers. (upbeat music)