ON Tools
Practical knowledge for better management
When a problem needs a tool, we can build it. Here are the ones we’ve created from real company problems, and the guides with what we’ve learnt running companies.
Guides and articles
15 practical guides on management, leadership, operations, people, sales, finance and transformation, written from what we’ve lived through running companies.
Strategy and management
Where is the company heading and what comes first?
4 guides
Companies don’t stall for lack of ideas
Most of the stalled companies we’ve seen had good ideas. What they lacked was the ability to decide and execute. Analysis paralysis, shifting criteria and endless meetings: here’s how to spot it and how to fix it.
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From multinational to SME: what carries over and what doesn’t
We’ve led with the resources of a multinational and built businesses with our own. SMEs have something big companies envy, and big companies have something SMEs lack. The goal is to keep the best of both worlds.
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Deciding without all the data
Waiting until you have all the information is also a decision, and usually the most expensive one. Here’s how we decide fast without playing roulette: calculated risks, five questions and a date to review.
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Why most strategic plans die in a drawer
A plan doesn’t fail when it’s written. It fails when nobody turns it into weekly work. These are the reasons plans die, and our three rules for making yours happen.
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Leadership and teams
How do I build a team that’s autonomous and accountable?
10 guides
Goleman’s 6 leadership styles, from our experience
Goleman proved that a leader’s style drives results. After more than 15 years leading teams, these are the styles we use, the one we’ve never needed and the one that cost us dearly.
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Eleven countries, one problem
We’ve led teams in Europe, America and Asia. The language, the hours and the way people say things all change. But the underlying challenge is always the same: people.
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The indispensable managing director is the bottleneck
If your company doesn’t work when you’re away for a week, the problem isn’t your team. Here’s how we stopped being the engine of everything, what we found hardest to let go of and why the result was better than if we’d done it ourselves.
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Situational leadership: why delegating the same way to everyone doesn’t work
Not everyone needs the same thing from their boss, and the same person doesn’t need the same thing in every task. We learnt that by delegating too quickly. This is what we take from Hersey and Blanchard’s model, and what we don’t.
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Conflict in the team: the Glasl ladder
A conflict doesn’t explode all at once: it climbs steps. On the first ones, a good conversation fixes it; higher up you need a third party, and in the end all that’s left is to decide. Knowing which step you’re on is half the solution.
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Culture is what happens when nobody’s watching
Your company’s culture isn’t in the values hanging on the wall. It’s in what you tolerate, what you reward and how you react when someone brings you bad news. And you’re the one who defines it, even if you don’t realise it.
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The mistakes we made learning to lead
Nobody is born knowing how to lead. Neither were we. These are the mistakes that taught us most, what we changed after making them and the advice we’d give anyone who gets promoted tomorrow.
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The 5 dysfunctions of a leadership team, in the Spanish SME
Patrick Lencioni explained why leadership teams fail through five dysfunctions arranged as a pyramid. In Spanish SMEs we mostly see two. We’ll tell you which ones, why they appear and what we’d add to the model.
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Radical candour: demanding without breaking the relationship
Caring about someone and telling them things straight aren’t opposites. They’re the two sides of a good boss. Keeping quiet so as not to hurt is almost always the cruellest option. This is how we prepare for a difficult conversation.
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Emotional intelligence for managing directors who don’t believe in emotional intelligence
If it sounds soft to you, this article is for you. Emotional intelligence isn’t about hugs: it’s about not deciding in the heat of the moment, reading your team and getting people to want to follow you. And that shows in the results.
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Finance and purchasing
Am I making money, and am I in control of it?
1 guide
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