Nigel Lim 🚀's Linkedin Analytics

Setting goals? Easy. Choosing the right actions to reach them? That’s the real challenge. I was having a conversation with an SME owner the other day. They had a SMART goal — Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. It looked perfect on paper. But something felt off. The team was busy. Meetings, updates, endless to-dos. Yet progress toward the goal was minimal. And that’s when it clicked. It’s not just about having clear goals. It’s about aligning daily actions with those goals and being willing to ask the hard questions when they don’t. Because sometimes, the work that feels urgent is actually just noise. And noise kills momentum. If you're a business owner, ask yourself: Are your team’s efforts truly pushing toward the goal, or just keeping everyone occupied? Real clarity doesn't just come from setting SMART goals. It comes from making sure your actions are just as smart.

Our very first client said yes before we even had a product. . . That’s Gutsy. And so is the team at Mazars. Led by Bianca Consigliere, Senior Manager - HR & Payroll, the Mazars crew partnered with us in the earliest days of Gutsy — when we were still figuring things out. Here’s what we learned working side by side with them: 👉 Payroll teams don’t have time to waste 👉 Bulk import isn’t just a feature, it’s a lifesaver 👉 If a tool doesn’t save time right now, it’s not worth it Before Gutsy, they were spending 5 minutes customising every single report Now? They’re saving 10 hours a month just on reporting. That’s the impact of building with your clients, not just for them. To Bianca and the Mazars team, thank you for trusting us, challenging us, and helping shape what Gutsy is today 😊

2020 taught us some tough lessons. But one of them became my biggest mistake. We hired aggressively for a few months. The team ballooned quickly, but it wasn’t sustainable. Within a short span, I had to let go of up to 10 people. Why did it happen? I was green, new to management and HR and I made every mistake in the book. In the rush to grow, I overlooked some key things. Here’s what I learned the hard way: ❌ 1/ Rushed hiring = poor culture fit. We brought in people who didn’t align with our values, and it showed. ❌ 2/ Skipping emotional intelligence testing. Skills are important, but emotional intelligence is what keeps teams cohesive. ❌ 3/ No structured interviews. We winged it, and that led to inconsistent results. ❌ 4/ Hiring for the moment, not the long-term. We filled seats, but didn’t think about future growth or adaptability. ❌ 5/ Onboarding was an afterthought. We didn’t set our new hires up for success, and it showed in their performance. ❌ 6/ Not enough focus on team involvement. We didn’t involve the existing team in the hiring process, and they felt disconnected. ❌ 7/ Focusing too much on speed. We should have slowed down to get the right people. The result: We had to backtrack, make tough decisions, and rebuild. Hiring mistakes can cost you not just money, but time, energy, and team morale. But every mistake was a learning moment that helped shape our current hiring strategy at Payboy + TheGrowthProject. The key takeaway: Hiring is about building the future. Build a team that’s in it for the long haul. What hiring mistakes have taught you the most? If you’re planning your growth strategies for 2025 and you want to align your People and HR, we’re doing free audit calls for SME owners with a team of 10 or more. Drop me a DM to book your slot.

Everyone talks about OKRs. Very few people use it effectively. The problem: They ignore how it cascades top-down. Without it, your OKRs are just wishful thinking. Andy Grove, the guy who practically invented OKRs at Intel, Nailed it in his book “High Output Management.” He laid it out plainly: “OKRs should flow from top to bottom, aligning everyone with the big picture.” That’s how you turn strategy → action → results. 1. ‘Objectives’ from management 2. Broken into ‘Key Results’ for teams 3. These in turn become OKRs for each individual and it cascades When done right, this creates alignment across all levels: ↳ Your leadership focuses on strategy. ↳ Teams tackle execution. ↳ Individuals understand how their daily tasks contribute to the bigger picture. But cascading OKRs isn’t enough on its own. What matters just as much is how you communicate them: ↳ Share the “why” behind your objectives. ↳ Revisit them in regular team discussions. ↳ Measure progress—and don’t be afraid to adjust course. This is the difference between OKRs that inspire action versus a list that collects dust. This fosters ownership and alignment of goals. So everyone works together in a cohesive way. Start with the cascade and follow through with communication. Do you agree?