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Stop Mentoring People. Start Sponsoring Them.

james — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:08:28 +0000

On inclusive leadership in professional services.

I once asked a senior partner how many people he was mentoring. He lit up: six, maybe seven, regular coffees, always happy to give advice, door’s always open. Good man, genuinely. Then I asked a different question: in the last year, whose name had he put forward, in a room they weren’t in, for something that mattered? He thought about it for a while. The honest answer was nobody.

That’s an important gap. He believed he was developing people. What he was actually doing was being pleasant to them. And the difference between those two things can be the difference between a career that moves and one that quietly stalls.

Mentoring is advice. Sponsorship is risk.

The distinction sounds like semantics until you look at what each one actually involves. A mentor talks to you. Shares experience, offers guidance, helps you see your own strengths. It’s valuable, it’s generous, and it costs the mentor very little beyond time. You can mentor someone for years without ever putting yourself on the line for them.

A sponsor talks about you, in rooms you’re not in. As one widely cited framing puts it, a sponsor has three jobs: to go out on a limb for their protégé, to spend their own organisational capital pushing for that person’s advancement, and to provide “air cover” when the protégé takes a risk and it doesn’t come off. That last one matters. Sponsorship means tying a piece of your own reputation to someone else’s performance, and being willing to lose a little of it if they stumble.

That is why sponsorship is rare and mentoring is everywhere. Mentoring is safe. Sponsorship is exposure. Most leaders, if they’re honest, have quietly chosen the safe one and told themselves it was the same thing.

The numbers are not subtle

This isn’t a soft, feel-good distinction. The advancement gap between the two is measurable and large.

Research from the Center for Talent Innovation and others has consistently found that sponsorship, not mentorship, is what actually moves people into senior roles. And the people who most need it get the least of it. Women tend to be over-mentored and under-sponsored: they collect advice while their male peers collect advocates. Analysis by Payscale found that employees with a sponsor are paid a “sponsorship premium,” earning up to 11.6 percent more than otherwise comparable colleagues without one. Gallup’s research adds another layer: employees with a formal sponsor are 48 percent more likely than those with only an informal one to strongly agree that their workplace offers everyone an equal shot at senior roles. It isn’t just having a sponsor that matters, but the firm deliberately putting the relationship in place. Sponsorship done on purpose changes how fair the whole place feels.

The UK tells the same story. The Pipeline’s Women Count report, which has tracked FTSE 350 executive committees since 2016, points to a lack of sponsorship as one of the reasons female representation on those committees fell in 2024, the first drop in eight years. The pattern repeats by race: Business in the Community’s research found that 31 percent of Black employees wanted a sponsor, against 12 percent of white employees. Wanting one and getting one are different things, and that gap is where careers quietly diverge.

And here’s the part that should interest any self-interested partner: sponsoring is good for the sponsor too. Harvard Business Review research found that senior managers with a protégé were 53 percent more likely to have been promoted in the previous two years, and entry-level managers with one were 60 percent more likely to have received a stretch assignment. The story that sponsorship is pure altruism (a tax the successful pay) turns out to be wrong. It’s a relationship that lifts both people.

Why professional services makes this harder

In a billable-hours world, sponsorship runs into the same wall everything else does. Advocating for someone, staffing them onto the visible work, defending a decision to put an unproven name in front of a client: none of it shows up on a utilisation report, and all of it carries personal risk.

There’s a subtler problem too, well documented in the research: people tend to sponsor in their own image. Sponsorship runs on trust, and trust forms fastest with people who remind us of ourselves. So left to its natural course, sponsorship reinforces exactly the homogeneity it could be used to break. The senior cohort sponsors the juniors who look and sound like a younger version of themselves, and the cycle quietly repeats. Which is precisely why the people who’d benefit most from a sponsor are the least likely to be offered one.

UK law firms show exactly this pattern. The Law Society Gazette has reported that when women do get a senior sponsor they’re promoted at the same rate as men, but twice as many men have one, because the people with the power to sponsor are still overwhelmingly men, and most of them sponsor other men. The Law Society’s own guidance on the partnership track makes the timing point too: sponsorship needs to start three years or so before someone would be considered for partnership, not in the year it’s decided.

That’s not an argument against sponsorship. It’s an argument for doing it deliberately rather than letting it happen by instinct.

What good leaders actually do

The leaders who get this right do three concrete things.

They sponsor on purpose, not by chemistry. They notice when every name they’ve championed in the last year fits the same profile, and they treat that as a signal, not a coincidence. They deliberately back people whose talent they rate but whose face doesn’t fit the usual mould, and they do it publicly, because the whole point of sponsorship is the visibility.

They put their capital where their mouth is. Advice is free; advocacy costs something. They are willing to say “put her on the pitch” and mean it, and to wear a bit of the downside if it doesn’t land, because they understand that’s the entire job, not a regrettable side effect of it.

And they keep mentoring in its place. Mentoring is good. Have coffees, give advice, keep the door open. Just don’t mistake it for the thing that actually changes someone’s trajectory, and don’t let “I mentor loads of people” become the alibi that lets you off the harder hook.

Something to think about today

So, the question worth sitting with:

Picture the last big opportunity you had real influence over: a pitch team, a secondment, a name floated for promotion. Whose name did you put forward, and whose name did it not occur to you to put forward?

Because everyone you advise over coffee will tell you you’re a great mentor. The real test is the list of people whose careers moved because you were willing to spend something of your own. If that list is short, or if everyone on it looks like you, then you have plenty of mentees and you are nobody’s sponsor.

Who is one person, right now, whose name you could put in a room they’re not in this month?

Sources

– Sylvia Ann Hewlett / Center for Talent Innovation, research on sponsorship and the advancement gap.

– Payscale, analysis of the “sponsorship premium” in pay.

– Gallup, “Mentors and Sponsors Make the Difference,” 2025.

– The Pipeline, Women Count Report, 2024, on sponsorship and FTSE 350 executive committees.

– Business in the Community, Race at Work, research on sponsorship requests by ethnicity.

– “Want to Be a Better Manager? Get a Protégé,” Harvard Business Review, 2019.

– “Sponsors Need to Stop Acting Like Mentors,” Harvard Business Review, 2019.

– Law Society Gazette, “A helping hand: sponsorship programmes.”

– The Law Society, “Breaking the partnership barrier

The post Stop Mentoring People. Start Sponsoring Them. appeared first on The James Nathan Experience.

The First 90 Days Decide Everything (And Most Firms Get Them Wrong)

james — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 08:07:18 +0000

A managing partner once told me about a senior hire he’d spent eight months chasing. Brilliant track record. Perfect cultural fit on paper. The kind of name that makes competitors nervous.

Eleven months later, that person was gone.

What happened in between? Nothing dramatic. No scandal, no blow-up. The hire just never quite landed. The introductions that should have happened in week two happened in month four. The mandate everyone assumed was clear turned out to mean three different things to three different people. By the time anyone noticed, the momentum was gone.

So here’s the question worth sitting with: if you’ve poured months and serious money into landing someone senior, why do so many firms treat the first 90 days as an afterthought?

We hire for fit and then leave fit to chance

In professional services, the onboarding gap is sharper than almost anywhere else. You’re not bringing someone in to operate a machine. You’re bringing them in to build relationships, win trust, and generate revenue off the back of their judgment.

And yet the typical onboarding plan reads like an IT checklist. Laptop, logins, a welcome lunch, maybe a deck about the firm’s values. Then the new partner is expected to “hit the ground running.”

Running where, exactly?

The work that actually determines whether a senior hire succeeds — who they need to know, what political currents to read, where the real influence sits — is the work nobody writes down. We assume a good hire will figure it out. Most do, eventually. But “eventually” is expensive, and some never get there at all.

What good onboarding actually looks like

The firms getting this right treat onboarding as a structured campaign, not a courtesy. A few things they do differently:

They define the mandate in writing before day one. Not the job description — the actual mandate. What does success look like at 90 days, at six months, at a year? Who decides? Vague expectations are the single most common reason senior hires stall.

They build the relationship map for the new hire, rather than leaving them to draw it themselves. Who are the five people this person must build trust with quickly? Who are the quiet power-holders? Someone internal should be making those introductions deliberately, not hoping they happen organically.

They assign a sponsor, not just a buddy. A buddy answers questions about the coffee machine. A sponsor is someone senior who has skin in the new hire’s success and will actively clear obstacles.

And they check in honestly. Not a tick-box review at 90 days, but real conversations at week two, week six, week twelve. The early warning signs of a hire going sideways are almost always visible by week six — if anyone is looking.

Where this is all heading

Here’s where it gets interesting. The next few years are going to reshape executive onboarding in ways most firms haven’t clocked yet.

Data is starting to make the invisible visible. Firms are beginning to track what actually correlates with senior-hire success — relationship velocity, early revenue signals, engagement patterns — rather than relying on gut feel and the occasional check-in. The firms that measure this will stop losing expensive hires to preventable mistakes.

AI is going to compress the ramp. A new partner who would once have spent months learning the firm’s history, deal patterns, and internal who’s-who can now get there in weeks, with tools that surface the right context on demand. Tools like Claude or internal knowledge systems are already doing a version of this. The advantage won’t go to the firm with the most data — it’ll go to the one that makes its institutional knowledge instantly accessible to someone new.

And onboarding is starting earlier. The smartest firms now begin the process during the search itself — shaping the mandate, mapping relationships, building the sponsor relationship before the contract is even signed. The line between “recruitment” and “onboarding” is blurring, and that’s a good thing.

The firms that win the war for senior talent over the next decade won’t just be the ones who hire well. They’ll be the ones who land their hires well.

Your challenge this week

Think about the last senior person your firm brought in. Could you, right now, write down what their 90-day mandate was? Who their sponsor was? Who made the introductions that mattered?

If you can’t answer those questions for your last hire, you’ve got your answer about your next one.

What would it take to fix that before the next offer goes out?

The post The First 90 Days Decide Everything (And Most Firms Get Them Wrong) appeared first on The James Nathan Experience.

The Inclusion Illusion — and What Comes Next

james — Tue, 26 May 2026 10:16:23 +0000

A few years ago, I was running a leadership workshop at a mid-size consulting firm. Smart people, strong culture — or so they thought. We did a simple exercise: everyone had to name one colleague whose voice they felt was genuinely heard in the room. The room went quiet. Not because people couldn’t think of someone. Because they all named the same three people.

That told me everything.

Inclusive leadership in professional services isn’t a new conversation. But it is, still, largely an unfinished one. And as the landscape shifts — generationally, technologically, globally — firms that think they’ve sorted it are probably the ones most at risk.

What “inclusive” actually means in practice

Most firms have the policies. The ERGs, the DEI statements, the unconscious bias training that everyone sat through and promptly forgot. That’s not inclusion — that’s compliance.

Real inclusion is about whose ideas get acted on. Who gets the interesting client work. Who gets sponsored, not just mentored. Who can challenge a senior partner without it quietly ending their career trajectory.

It’s the difference between a firm that says it values diverse thinking and one that actually restructures how decisions get made because of it.

Why professional services is a particularly tricky environment

The billable hour model does something interesting to culture. It creates pressure to reward what’s visible and immediate — client hours, client relationships, client billings. The things that build genuinely inclusive cultures — sponsoring junior colleagues, rethinking team composition, slowing down to hear a quieter voice — those don’t show up on a utilisation report.

So the incentive structure actively works against the stated values. Until firms address that tension directly, the words in the annual report and the reality on the ground will stay miles apart.

What good leaders are actually doing differently

The leaders I see getting this right aren’t doing dramatic things. They’re doing consistent, deliberate small things.

They notice who’s not speaking and create space for them. They ask “who else should be in this conversation?” before they assume the usual suspects are enough. They sponsor people who don’t look or sound like them — and they do it publicly.

They also ask harder questions of themselves. Not just “am I biased?” — because most of us will answer that with a comfortable no — but “whose absence am I not noticing? Whose discomfort am I making invisible?”

The future: where is this heading?

Three things are going to reshape this area significantly over the next five to ten years.

First, generational expectation. Gen Z is not willing to quietly absorb a culture that doesn’t match its stated values. They have options, they talk to each other, and they leave. Firms that treat inclusion as a brand exercise rather than a structural reality will lose talent faster than they can hire it.

Second, data and transparency. Clients — particularly global corporates — are increasingly asking about workforce composition, pay equity, and leadership diversity before they sign. This is no longer a soft consideration. It’s a due diligence question. That changes the conversation internally, quickly.

Third, AI and the bias problem. As firms adopt AI tools in hiring, performance management, and business development, they’re going to embed historical biases at scale unless they think carefully. The firms that get ahead of this — auditing their models, involving diverse stakeholders in AI deployment — will have a meaningful advantage. The ones that don’t will face a reckoning that’s harder to manage because it’s structural, not interpersonal.

The question worth sitting with

Here’s the thing I’d ask any leader in professional services right now: if inclusion disappeared from your firm’s agenda tomorrow — no external pressure, no client scrutiny, no reporting requirements — would you still be doing what you’re doing?

If the honest answer is no, then what you have isn’t an inclusive culture. It’s a programme. And programmes end.

The firms that will lead on this in ten years are the ones building it into how they work, not bolting it onto why they work.

What’s one structural thing your firm could change — not a training session, not a statement — that would actually shift who gets heard?

The post The Inclusion Illusion — and What Comes Next appeared first on The James Nathan Experience.

Your potential clients are asking AI who to call. Are you the answer?

james — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:39:00 +0000

I had an interesting conversation with a Partner at a Professional Services firm recently. He was telling me about all the work they’d done on their website over the past couple of years — the investment, the content, the SEO. He was really proud of it, but the results they were getting weren’t as good as they had hoped…

So, here’s the thing: When did you last Google something yourself rather than just asking ChatGPT?

Can you actually remember, or do you jump straight to a AI app?

The way your potential clients find professional services firms is changing, and its changing fast. Not in that vague, “digital transformation” way that people talk about at conferences but changing in a very specific, very practical way that directly affects whether you get the call or not.

And very few firms have caught up yet.

So, what’s actually happening?

For years, the game was SEO — Search Engine Optimisation. You optimised your website so that when someone typed “employment solicitor Manchester” or “corporate tax adviser London” into Google, you showed up near the top. Ideally, you got a click, then a website visit, and then a genuine enquiry.

SEO still matters, but it’s no longer the whole story.

Because more and more, your potential clients aren’t typing things into Google at all. They’re asking ChatGPT. They’re asking Gemini. They’re asking Copilot. And more and more they’re asking Claude.

And those tools don’t give them a list of websites to click through. They give them an answer. A recommendation. A name.

And if that name isn’t yours, you’ve not even in the running — before anyone picked up a phone, before anyone visited your website, before you even knew they were looking.

This is what the marketing world is calling AEO — Answer Engine Optimisation — and GEO, Generative Engine Optimisation. Don’t worry too much about the terminology. The point is simple: the question isn’t just “does my website rank well?” anymore. The question is “when someone asks an AI who to call, do I come up?”

Why this matters more for Professional Services businesses than for most

Think about how your clients actually make decisions. They don’t buy professional services the way they buy a book on Amazon. There’s no add-to-basket moment. There’s research, there’s conversation, there’s trust-building — and increasingly, there’s a stage that happens before any of that, where someone asks an AI to help them understand their options:

“Who are the best M&A advisors for a mid-market deal?”

“What should I look for in a recruitment firm specialising in financial services?”

“Which accountancy firms are strongest on international tax?”

Or something more complex and more specific.

These questions are being asked right now. Every day. By people who could be your clients. And the AI is giving them answers — names, firms, descriptions of what makes each one credible.

If you’re not showing up in those answers, you’re not on the shortlist. It’s as simple as that.

What’s more, with traditional SEO, a prospective client would land on your website and you’d still have a chance to impress them. With AI, the impression is already formed before they get to you. The AI has already described you — or it hasn’t. That’s a very different kind of invisibility.

So what actually makes AI recommend you?

This is where it gets interesting — and where I think there’s genuinely good news for firms that are serious about their expertise.

AI doesn’t recommend you because you’ve spent the most on your website. It recommends you because it understands you, trusts you, and has seen consistent evidence that you know your stuff.

That means a few things important things in practice.

It means writing content that actually answers questions — clearly, specifically, and in plain English. Not vague thought leadership that says a lot without really saying anything. Proper, useful answers to the questions your clients are genuinely asking. If someone asks an AI “what should I consider when restructuring my partnership?” and your firm has written something genuinely helpful about exactly that, you’re in the running.

It means being consistently visible in the places that build credibility — industry publications, professional directories, rankings, awards, even your individual partners’ LinkedIn profiles and published articles. AI pulls from all of these. Your Chambers ranking isn’t just a badge for your website. It’s an authority signal that AI systems pay attention to.

And it means making sure that what you say about yourself is clear, structured and consistent. AI gets confused by firms that describe their services differently in different places. It favours the firms that make it easy to understand exactly who they are, what they do, and who they do it for.

What can you do?

Open ChatGPT, or Copilot, or Gemini, or whichever you use. And type in the kind of question your ideal client would ask when they’re starting to look for a business like yours.

See what comes back.

Do you appear? How are you described? Are your competitors there instead?

That search — that simple, two-minute exercise — will tell you more about where you stand than most marketing audits I’ve seen.

If you’re not showing up, or if you’re being described in a way that doesn’t reflect what makes you genuinely good, that’s the gap you need to close. And the way to close it is the same way you’ve always built your reputation — by demonstrating real expertise, consistently, over time — just done in a way that AI can find, understand, and trust.

The firms that will win new clients in the next five years are the ones that show up in the answer, not just in the search results.

Is yours one of them?

The post Your potential clients are asking AI who to call. Are you the answer? appeared first on The James Nathan Experience.

The Conversations You Should Be Having Every Quarter

james — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 13:47:24 +0000

If there’s one thing I’ve learned working with thousands of professionals over the years—lawyers, accountants, consultants, recruiters, and everyone in between—it’s this:

Most client problems come from the conversations we didn’t have.

Not the big, dramatic ones. The small ones. The ones we put off because we were “busy.” The ones we assume the client already understands. The ones we think will “wait until next month.”

But clients don’t leave because of one catastrophic mistake. They leave because the relationship slowly cools. They feel less seen… less understood… less valued.

And the antidote?

A simple, deliberate rhythm of meaningful conversations.

Quarterly conversations that keep relationships warm, relevant, and profitable—without being salesy, pushy, or awkward. They’re practical, human, and incredibly effective.

Quarterly conversations discussing your value to them, future plans, risk, introductions, feedback, opportunities, and personal catch-ups — keep you aligned with clients, deepen trust, and surface both risks and opportunities early. By asking simple, human questions, you strengthen relationships, stay relevant, and create space for natural new work without ever sounding salesy.

These small touches make you memorable, trusted, and valued—the kind of person they want to keep working with.

And here’s the thing:

Most people skip this one entirely. Don’t be like them!

It’s the glue that holds everything else together.

A final thought….

Clients don’t remember your pitch decks, your credentials, or your technical brilliance. They remember how you made them feel. They remember the moments you truly listened. They remember the conversations that mattered.

If you want deeper relationships, stronger loyalty, and more effortless growth… start with conversations.

Quarter after quarter.
Client after client.

It changes everything.

The post The Conversations You Should Be Having Every Quarter appeared first on The James Nathan Experience.

The Sales Prospect Has Changed, and We Need to Catch Up

james — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 09:59:47 +0000

Sales prospecting isn’t what it used to be. Gone are the days when calling 200 phone numbers or blasting out generic emails was enough to fill the pipeline. Back then, sheer volume was the strategy — and it worked. Today, that playbook is obsolete. Sales professionals must evolve, or they’ll be left behind.

Why? Because the modern prospect has changed. They’re more informed, more selective, and harder to reach. They place a far higher value on their time. If we want to succeed in this new era, we need to stop treating people like numbers on a call list and start building genuine, thoughtful connections.

This hasn’t actually changed that much, and the best business have always known this, but its definitely time for the rest to catch up.

The New Prospect Is in Control

First, let’s address the obvious: prospects are no longer tethered to their phones or emails. They’re spread across digital platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and even messaging apps, and they decide where they want to engage. We can’t expect them to adapt to our outreach methods; we have to meet them where they are.

Second, they’re overwhelmed. Inbox fatigue is real. A Harvard Business School study found that email traffic has increased during the pandemic, with messages being sent more frequently, to more recipients, and often after hours. Prospects are inundated, and our outreach risks being buried under a flood of competing messages.

Finally, the bar for engagement is higher than ever. The pandemic taught all of us to value meaningful interactions over surface-level chatter. Prospects want to feel like more than just a name on a list; they expect authenticity and relevance.

A New Approach to Prospecting

So, what’s the solution? The answer isn’t to abandon prospecting altogether — it’s still a vital part of the sales process. But we need to rethink how we do it.

1. Personalisation Is Non-Negotiable Personalisation has moved from a “nice-to-have” to a “must-have.” It’s not just about account-based marketing anymore; it’s about account-based sales. This means understanding their company, their challenges, and even their communication preferences.

2. Technology Is Your AllyLet’s face it: keeping track of every interaction with every prospect is impossible without the right tools. Customer relationship management platforms are essential for staying organised and ensuring you have the context you need to deliver meaningful outreach. Without them, you’re flying blind. So if you have one, please stop playing lip service to it. And remember, LinkedIn is the database everyone owns, its not special anymore.

3. Research, Research, Research A little homework goes a long way. Of course, start at their websites. But, if you’re reaching out to a listed company, dive into their investor reports. For smaller businesses, set up Google Alerts and scour their press releases, and social media feeds. The more you know, the more value you can bring to the conversation — and the more likely you are to stand out.

4. Be Flexible With Channels Not everyone wants to take a call, and not everyone lives in their inbox. Some prospects might respond best on LinkedIn, while others prefer a handwritten note or even a thoughtful gift. The key is to experiment and adapt. If one approach doesn’t work, try another. There is no wrong way to try.

It’s Time to Step Up

The truth is, sales prospecting has become harder. It takes more time, more thought, and more effort than ever before. But that’s the reality of the modern sales landscape. Prospects demand better — and if we want their attention, we need to deliver better.

The days of high-volume, low-effort outreach are over. Success today requires a smarter, more strategic approach. It’s not easy, but if we embrace the challenge, we’ll build stronger relationships, close more deals, and ultimately, thrive in this new era of sales.

So, what do you think?

The post The Sales Prospect Has Changed, and We Need to Catch Up appeared first on The James Nathan Experience.

Why training matters more than you thought in retaining your best staff

james — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 16:46:50 +0000

In the competitive world of business retaining top talent is not just a challenge—it’s essential to long-term success. High turnover disrupts team dynamics, harms client relationships, and drives up costs. One of the most effective yet underutilised strategies to combat this is investing in training and development.

Training equips your team with the tools they need to excel, fosters a culture of growth, and strengthens your business. Let’s explore why training is so critical for staff retention and how recruitment business owners can implement it effectively.

Why Staff Retention Matters

High turnover doesn’t just affect internal operations—it also impacts client satisfaction. The professional industries are people-driven, and losing skilled team members can lead to inconsistencies in client service. Moreover, replacing employees is costly. From recruitment and onboarding to lost productivity, the expenses can add up to twice an employee’s annual salary.

Retaining experienced people reduces these costs, preserves institutional knowledge, and maintains consistent client outcomes. This makes effective training a cornerstone of your retention strategy.

The Role of Training in Staff Retention

1. Boosts Engagement and Loyalty Employees who feel supported and valued are more likely to stay with your organisation. Training programs demonstrate your commitment to their growth, fostering loyalty and motivation. When staff see clear opportunities for advancement, they’re less likely to seek them elsewhere.

2. Improves Job Satisfaction Work can be high-pressured, and the right training can alleviate stress. By equipping your team with the tools and skills they need, you’ll empower them to succeed. This leads to increased job satisfaction and reduces the likelihood of burnout.

3. Supports Leadership Development Succession planning is vital for any growing business. Leadership training prepares your team to take on more senior roles, creating a clear pathway for advancement. Employees who see potential for career growth are less likely to leave.

4. Fosters a Culture of Continuous Learning A strong learning culture attracts high performers and promotes innovation. When training is embedded in your organisation’s culture, it encourages collaboration and resilience, keeping your team engaged and forward-thinking.

5. Delivers Better Results for Clients Well-trained staff are more effective at delivering results for clients. This not only boosts client satisfaction but also enhances team morale. Employees who see the impact of their work are more likely to feel fulfilled and stay committed to their roles.

How to Implement Effective Training Programmes

1. Identify Needs Conduct regular assessments to identify skill gaps and areas for improvement. Tailor training programmes to meet these specific needs, ensuring they remain relevant and impactful.

2. Utilise Technology Online platforms to make training accessible and flexible. These tools allow employees to learn from anywhere, in shorter sessions and fit development into their busy schedules.

3. Encourage Peer Learning and Mentorship Pair junior team members with seasoned people to foster knowledge-sharing and on-the-job learning. Mentorship not only accelerates skill development but also builds stronger interpersonal connections.

4. Provide Regular Feedback Establish a feedback loop where employees can share their training experiences and suggestions. Use this input to refine your programmes and ensure they meet evolving needs.

5. Recognise Achievements Celebrate milestones, such as completing a certification or applying a new skill successfully. Recognising these achievements reinforces the importance of training and motivates employees to continue learning.

The Long-Term Benefits of Training

Training is more than a cost—it’s an investment in your team and your business. By prioritising employee development, you’ll reduce turnover, enhance performance, and build a loyal, high-performing workforce. This not only improves your bottom line but also strengthens your company’s reputation as an employer of choice.

For all business owners, the takeaway is clear: the time and resources you spend on training today will pay dividends in the form of a committed, skilled, and engaged team. Start investing in your people, and watch your business thrive.

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James Chats with Matt Jenkin on the Moorcrofts Means Business Podcast

james — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 12:47:10 +0000

The post James Chats with Matt Jenkin on the Moorcrofts Means Business Podcast appeared first on The James Nathan Experience.

Taking Inspiration and Being Remarkable – Thinking the Seth Godin Way

james — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 11:47:52 +0000

Like a lot of business people, I enjoy reading business books. I read on all kind of topics, but find myself regularly coming back to the writers who really fire my imagination.

Two of my favourites are Tom Peters and Seth Godin. Tom I enjoy, but Seth inspires me.

Seth’s words help me to look at what I am doing and how I focus on my business and my marketplace.

Seeing the obvious

Seth and I have never met, but if he likes it or not, Seth is a mentor to me. He mentors me in a very specific and cool way. I read his words, or listen to one of his books on audiobook, and I start to see the obvious. Of course, things are only obvious once they are pointed out to us.

We all need this kind of inspiration in our working lives. We need to find the work or words of others to help us broaden our minds. If we don’t have that inspirational role model, we are stuck with only our own thoughts and ideas.

Yes of course this is obvious. But only obvious once you see it

The beauty of the e-world we live in is that we don’t have to wait for an author to publish a new book, we can subscribe to their blog feed, follow them on Twitter, or like them on Facebook. More often thank not we can also watch them on YouTube. We can take bite sized chunks of their thoughts and use these to help us think about our own businesses.

Being remarkable

Seth talks a lot about being remarkable. Being different and standing out, finding your ‘Purple Cow’. Taking the lead, and remaining a leader in what you do.

Getting to that point however, requires us to think about what we want to achieve, how we want to be known and how do we get there. It requires us to take time away from our desks, open our minds to the endless possibilities around us and formulate a process, a direction, a goal to chase.

In its simplest form, a business plan.

Most of us will have planned our start up, our next 12 months, our new division. But the constant appraisal and re-appraisal of our businesses and ourselves by seeking inspiration from others can be the difference that it takes to make us get to remarkable.

Be remarkable. Take inspiration.

(And, read Seth’s Blog, you will be pleased you did.)

Contact me

For more on developing yourself, your staff and improving the profitability of your business, please do get in touch. You can email me at james@jamesnathan.com, or call me on 07736 831151. Follow me on Twitter at @jamesnathan, or connect to me on LinkedIn.

I look forward to being in touch.

The post Taking Inspiration and Being Remarkable – Thinking the Seth Godin Way appeared first on The James Nathan Experience.

Excellent Customer Service – Stop Cutting Corners and Remember What Made You Great

james — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 10:01:59 +0000

I am often really amazed at how easy it is to make a great difference to our clients’ experience of us, in very small and easy ways.

Today I visited the dentist. I’d broken a filling and needed to have it replaced. I don’t like going to the dentist, I have no logical reason for this or any phobia, but I just don’t enjoy it.

But, today was different. Today my dentist had a final year school student there on work experience. And as he worked on my tooth, he explained everything that he was doing, as well as the reasons for it all. I was more engaged, more interested and actually enjoyed the whole experience (until the bill, but hey, you get what you pay for!).

Cutting corners

So why doesn’t he do that every time I visit. My guess is that he doesn’t for the same reasons that many of us don’t add enough value to our clients’ experience. He hasn’t thought about it, or perhaps he used to but over time has forgotten to do what he was good at.

And, if every experience I had of visiting the dentist was like that, then I am sure I would refer business to him far more often.

We all get better and faster at our jobs as time goes on. We all find ways to be more efficient, and in doing so often start to cut corners. Sure, you get more done, but if you cut the wrong corners, then you risk reducing the quality of what you do.

Put the quality of service back in

Whether, like my dentist, this is explaining what you are doing, or it is spending enough time with a client at an initial meeting, taking the time to keep in touch regularly on the phone, or being genuinely interested in someone you work with or for. Cutting corners rarely makes us better in our clients’ minds. It just makes us feel less interested, less empathetic and less human.

We all know that people buy people, and that it is the personal relationship and rapport that you have put so much effort into building with them, that has allowed the client/trust relationship to develop. This is how you made that person you met at a networking event, or who was referred to you into a fee paying client.

Take action now

Take some time this week to think about your client relationships and processes. Look at those longer term relationships and ensure that you are still doing all the right things. Look at your newer relationships and ensure that you are doing those things to start with. All the things that made you great and successful in the first place.

Think about the simple stuff, how you answer a phone, how you make contact, whether or not you still take time to ask about someone’s well being as well as what they want from you, or you them.

Think about excellence (in a Tom Peters kind of way) – “when the going gets tough, think excellence…. In tough times, the pressure is such that there is often the temptation to cut corners. Think “Excellence”. Don’t cut corners.”

Think about it, and then do something about it. Being the best you can be in your clients’ minds often takes no more than refreshing what you know already.

Contact me

For more on developing yourself, your staff and improving the profitability of your business, please do get in touch.

You can email me at james@jamesnathan.com or call me on 07736 831151, follow me on Twitter at @jamesnathan, connect to me on LinkedIn, or follow me on Facebook.

I look forward to being in touch.

The post Excellent Customer Service – Stop Cutting Corners and Remember What Made You Great appeared first on The James Nathan Experience.