Does being the boss mean you have to be the smartest person in the room? And could your ego be holding back your team, your business and your own success?In this solo episode of Not Finished Yet, Mark Kennedy draws on more than 35 years of experience in business, management and leadership to explore one of the biggest challenges facing managers, business owners, directors and CEOs: the need to always be right.We've all encountered leaders who believe their job title makes them the most knowledgeable person in the room. They dominate meetings, dismiss challenges, take credit for other people's ideas and surround themselves with people who agree with them.But does confidence equal competence? And what happens when employees become too frightened to tell the boss the truth?Mark reflects on his own leadership journey, from being a young manager determined to prove himself to becoming an experienced business leader who recognises that the best people in your organisation should know things you don't.Because leadership isn't about proving how clever you are. It's about creating an environment where other people can succeed.In this episode, Mark explores:• Confidence vs competence: Why the loudest person in the room isn't necessarily the most capable.• Leadership and ego: How the need to be right can damage decision-making and business performance.• The danger of yes-men: Why surrounding yourself with people who always agree can be disastrous.• Hiring people smarter than you: Why strong leaders aren't threatened by talented employees.• Giving credit where it's due: Why taking recognition for your team's achievements destroys trust.• Experience vs arrogance: Why 35 years in business doesn't automatically make yesterday's solutions right for tomorrow.• Creating a culture of honesty: Why employees stop telling management the truth — and the consequences for a business.• Listening without losing authority: How to consider different opinions while still making difficult decisions.• Admitting you're wrong: Why changing your mind can demonstrate strength rather than weakness.• Developing future leaders: Why your success should be measured by the people you help develop.The uncomfortable question every leader should askAre you more interested in being right, or getting the right result?Mark challenges the traditional view of leadership and explores why some of the most valuable knowledge in a business comes from people on the shop floor, dealing with customers or managing everyday operations — not necessarily those sitting around the boardroom table.He also examines how leadership must evolve as responsibilities grow, and why the manager you were at 25 shouldn't necessarily be the leader you are at 55.The Not Finished Yet TestAs with previous solo episodes, Mark finishes with seven questions every manager, business owner and CEO should ask themselves, including:When was the last time somebody genuinely changed my mind?Who in my organisation feels comfortable telling me I'm wrong?Am I employing people who are better than me?And am I more interested in being right than achieving the right outcome?Whether you're stepping into your first management position, leading a growing business, managing a larger team or operating at C-suite level, this episode offers practical leadership lessons, personal reflections and some uncomfortable truths about management.Because the higher you climb, the less important it becomes to prove how clever you are — and the more important it becomes to recognise the abilities of the people around you.After 35 years in business, Mark is still learning, still challenging his own thinking and still discovering that experience doesn't mean having all the answers.And that's why we're Not Finished Yet.#Leadership #LeadershipDevelopment #Management #BusinessLeadership #LeadershipSkills #BusinessOwners #CEO #EmotionalIntelligence #ManagementMistakes #NotFinishedYet

What are the biggest mistakes business owners make — and what do you only learn after years of running businesses?In this episode of Not Finished Yet, Mark Kennedy looks back on more than 35 years in business to talk about the mistakes, decisions and lessons that have shaped the way he builds and runs businesses today.This isn't a story about getting everything right. It's about what happens when you get things wrong — hiring the wrong person, keeping someone too long, chasing turnover instead of profit, underpricing to win work, taking on the wrong customers, trying to do everything yourself and continuing with decisions long after the evidence tells you they aren't working.Mark explores 10 common business mistakes, including:• Confusing turnover with profit, cash and genuine business success• Believing every customer is a good customer• Underpricing just to win the work• Hiring people because you're desperate rather than because they're right• Keeping the wrong person in the wrong role for too long• Becoming the bottleneck in your own business• Failing to properly understand your financial numbers• Building a business around individuals instead of strong processes• Throwing more money at decisions because you've already invested too much to stop• Assuming a bigger business automatically means a better businessBut there's a bigger question running through the episode:When does a bad decision actually become a mistake?Mark argues that some of the most expensive mistakes in business aren't the original decisions that turn out to be wrong. They're the moments when you know something isn't working and carry on anyway — because of pride, ego, loyalty, fear, sunk cost or simply because changing direction is uncomfortable.The episode also tackles one of the hardest questions for any entrepreneur or business owner:Have you built a business — or have you simply built yourself a very demanding job?If everything depends on you, every decision comes through you and the company can't function when you're away, what have you really built?Mark finishes with the Not Finished Yet Test: seven questions for business owners and leaders to answer honestly about their customers, people, profitability, decisions, systems and their own role in the company.Whether you're starting a business, growing a company, running an established SME, leading someone else's business or considering becoming an entrepreneur, this is a practical and personal look at the lessons that rarely appear in a business plan.Because 35 years of experience doesn't mean you stop making mistakes.Hopefully, it means you stop making the same ones.Not Finished Yet with Mark Kennedy — real conversations about business, leadership, management, experience, reinvention and what comes next.#Leadership #BusinessOwners #Entrepreneurship #BusinessLessons #NotFinishedYet

Congratulations. You've got the job.Maybe it's your first management role.Maybe you've just been given a bigger team or more responsibility.Maybe you've started your own business and suddenly realised that employing people means becoming a manager as well as an entrepreneur.Or perhaps you've stepped into a senior leadership, director or C-suite role where the decisions are bigger, the consequences are greater and the people around you expect something different from you.Whatever the reason, there's a problem.Nobody really teaches you how to manage people.We often promote people because they're good at what they do. They're technically strong, commercially successful, experienced or ambitious.Then one day we give them responsibility for other people and expect them to know how to lead.But the skills that got you the job aren't necessarily the skills you need once you're in it.In this solo episode of Not Finished Yet, Mark Kennedy draws on more than 35 years of experience in business, management and leadership to explore what really happens when your level of responsibility changes.Because this isn't just a conversation for first-time managers.It's for anyone who's reached that point where doing the job yourself is no longer the job.Mark explores the mistakes managers and leaders make at every level: refusing to let go, becoming the bottleneck, believing your way is the only way, avoiding difficult conversations, confusing being busy with actually leading and feeling that, because you're now the boss, you're supposed to have all the answers.The episode explores:• Making the transition from doing to leading• Stepping into your first management position• Taking on a bigger management or leadership role• Becoming a business owner and employing people• Moving into senior management, director or C-suite leadership• Why being great at your old job doesn't automatically make you a great manager• Delegating without losing accountability• Why experienced managers can still become bottlenecks• Managing people who think and work differently from you• Having difficult conversations before problems become bigger• Creating people who make decisions rather than constantly asking permission• Why saying "I don't know" can make you a stronger leader• Building trust and accountability• Creating a culture where people are prepared to tell you the truth• Understanding that leadership changes as your responsibilities growAnd perhaps the biggest lesson of all:Every time you move up, your job changes.What made you successful as an employee may not make you successful as a manager.What made you successful managing five people may not work when you're managing fifty.And what made you a successful manager may not be what you need when you become a business owner, director or CEO.Mark finishes with the Not Finished Yet Test — five uncomfortable questions for anyone responsible for other people, including:What is it actually like to be managed by me?Whether you've just been promoted, started employing people, taken responsibility for a larger team or stepped into the C-suite, management isn't something you master once and then forget about.You have to keep learning.Because the higher you go, the less your success is about what you can do — and the more it becomes about what you enable other people to do.You're not finished yet.#managertips #managertips #managment