Next Level

Laurence Udell

Description

The Next Level is not a conventional business book. It sets out to challenge assumptions and offers an alternative approach to old, traditional ways of business thinking. This book takes a refreshingly new look at how you, as a Leader, can achieve success with sustainable profit and growth, through an alignment of both yourself and your business. Laurence Udell utilises his own tried and tested thinking, life experience alongside research from leading edge philosophers, scientists, psychologists, and management thinkers to develop the 4 A's Strategy Model. Through this profoundly inspirational model, the book demonstrates how to work with your current business strategy, its dynamics, patterns and underlying root issues, to create a changed world for your business and yourself, the outcomes being greater financial success and a clearer understanding your own unique role and purpose. The Author's premise is that the health of an organisation is directly attributable to the spiritual, psychological and wellbeing of the leader and the leadership team. With The Next Level he advocates that long-term success and shareholder value can be achieved alongside ethical, authentic leadership and community spirit.

Sujets

• Gestion et management

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 16 novembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780956428424
• Langue: English

Extrait

Title Page

THE NEXT LEVEL

Aligning Business Success
and
Personal Fulfilment


by

Laurence Udell


Publisher Information
First published in March 2008
Revised edition published 2009 by
2QT Limited (Publishing)
Dalton Lane, Burton In Kendal
Cumbria LA6 1NJ



Digital Edition converted and published by
Andrews UK Limited 2010
www.andrewsuk.com

Copyright © Laurence Udell March 2008
The right of Laurence Udell to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that no part of this book is to be reproduced, in any shape or form. Or by way of trade, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser, without prior permission of the copyright holder.

Cover design G1 Creative
Images sourced by iStockphoto.com

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my amazing wife amanda,
My two extraordinary sons, garreth and marcus,
And in honour of my father and mother.
All of you continually take me to the ‘next level’.


Quotes

‘ Investment in people is fundamental to the success of any business. UdellGroup’s ability to bring out the potential in people is amazing. What they say they will deliver is exactly what they do; their unique style is engaging and their results speak for themselves.’

Alistair McGeorge - CEO, Matalan


‘Laurence Udell’s track record as a consultant is impressive. In this book, he pulls together the philosophy that underpins much of his work and presents it in an intriguing and compelling way.’

Professor Colin Gilligan


‘ The UdellGroup are not like a traditional consultancy company. They focus on the vision and goals of the business, and work with individuals and teams to improve their performance, and drive the strategy forward.’

Executive Director, Global Media & Broadcasting




Foreword

Success in business cannot be guaranteed, but I think we can all agree that there are certain common factors that have to be in place. Having known and worked with Laurence for five years, I was intrigued when he told me was writing a book about business. I knew it would be thought provoking, insightful and focused, but I didn’t expect the book that arrived on my desk would challenge those common ‘success’ factors so incisively.

The Next Level is certainly not a conventional business book, and will almost certainly challenge many people’s assumptions about how business works at its best. When I have looked at the various companies I have worked for, one factor has stood out consistently: getting more from what we already have, critically the people. This factor alone is the multiplier for everything else. Finding, igniting and developing those people, at all levels, has been as consistent a focus for me as developing the business itself. When you invest in individuals, then that has a direct impact on performance at work because then they have confidence, clarity, take responsibility, and make things happen. Those are the people you want in your business if you really want it to have a long-term basis for success and market leadership.

These things are not always seen as being of the greatest importance, but to be truly successful you have to have a solid foundation so you can expand, see the bigger picture, and always be thinking ahead. Laurence looks at that foundation from a different angle, and his view is based on the vast experience I know he has of working with multinational corporations and with individual CEOs and Presidents. His take on what makes a successful business is unique and is much more focused on how to take the business, and the individual to The Next Level . When running a successful company that is exactly what I want to see, because the ‘quick fix’ mentality does not work in the long term and it is the future of a business, as well as its present day success, that concerns me.

We have all known executives who have ‘burnt out’ and Laurence tackles the reasons why people fail to achieve their maximum potential in business by somewhat controversially addressing the issue of work-life balance. I have never seen this posited as anything but a good thing, but The Next Level makes a provocative argument that by accepting this at face value we may have been looking in the wrong direction. Yes, we need work life balance but just calling it that creates separation and more stress, and Laurence suggests that we have got to be honest with ourselves and others, take full ownership and responsibility of ourselves and how we are. The story he has created allows the characters to really begin to identify what fulfilment looks like to them, and then how to use that knowledge as both framework and criteria for the decisions they make in the whole of their life.

Within this book there are a number of things to identify with, and two big messages that I took away from it. First, that all of us in the business world need to wake up to the fact that there’s more to what goes on in life than transaction, there is also transformation through taking both responsibility and ownership for the whole of your life. Secondly, we need to understand that as human beings we have become very good at trying to match and outsmart other peoples expectations of us. The consequence is that we are perpetually busy, just trying to run faster and faster to keep up, and that results in stress and burnout, which profits neither the individual, nor the company.

In my own life, I often look for the meaning behind things, and what the bigger purpose is. I know from my own experience that aligning actions with a bigger purpose is important, not just because it’s logical – although it is – but because I have seen the quantum leap in results that occur when you get past the facts of the matter, to the heart of the matter!

Life is not all about work and that is one of the most important themes in the book for me. My family and friends are as important to me as my work, and I have set the agenda for my life so that they get the priority they deserve. I enjoy my life, and being fulfilled is for me an indicator of success and my performing at my best. Being truly honest is not usually considered a measure of business success; Laurence champions this idea in a way that makes it seem not only logical, but the inevitable outcome of following his 4 A’s model for aligning business success and personal fulfilment.

Honesty is at the root of it, and let’s be absolutely clear about this; it can be very hard and painful work. However being honest, passionate, and creating a desire for your results and outputs as Laurence would say, ‘is what is needed, this opens us up to taking responsibility for our actions and behaviours.’

If you want a successful and fulfilling life, then that fulfilment has to be earned and the rewards are tremendous. If you want to wake up, and move up, then The Next Level will give you the stimulus and tools to live an authentic, aligned, fulfilling, and successful life, both personally and in business.

Richard Baker
Chairman – Virgin Active Group Ltd
(Formerly CEO – Alliance Boots plc)
May 2008


Introduction

This book is primarily principally about business and how to get the best from your business and the market in which it operates. However, it is neither a traditional business book nor an orthodox approach to how you and your business can operate at its best. It will not provide you with a new theoretical model or present you with case studies about those businesses that are currently deemed to be successful. It will help you to explore how you can move to ‘the next level’ in the whole of your life and how doing so enables you to deliver very powerful results through leading a more meaningful and purposeful life.

It is aimed at those who have become key players within business; people who are in a position to really affect change within their organisations and within the communities and networks of which they are part. The title of this book, the next level, is significant. If you have attained such a position, you have by any standards been extremely successful and have reached a certain level. You are an intelligent and streetwise person. You have climbed the corporate ladder and managed the politics well, and to your advantage. You have attained a comfortable, perhaps even lavish, lifestyle. You hold a position within society and, to all intents and purposes, you’ve made it. You have it all. Or do you?

The next level therefore poses this challenge to you. It will dare you to look at how and why you are in business and how you can have a much greater impact for yourself and for your shareholders. It will also ask you to look at how you operate in the other aspects of your life and how you can have a much greater impact here both for yourself and for your loved ones. It will challenge you to look at the world at large and the legacy that you will leave.

It encourages you to take a fresh look at yourself and your business; you will seriously and earnestly examine who you are and why you are and the impact that you have on yourself, other people and the world in which you live. The next level will help you to look at how you can achieve not only a leve