tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94784542024-03-13T18:53:48.107+00:00ExtensorEditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.comBlogger112125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-54732678689488233242016-11-03T11:34:00.001+00:002016-11-03T11:34:21.401+00:00Good Service is Good Business<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Having worked in service industries all my life I hold customers in the highest of esteem, yet many of the organisations that I am a customer of seem to treat me with near contempt.<br /><br />During the past 12 months I have had clashes with a variety of large organisations. They all have very polite and caring staff but are unable to make a decision based on my predicament.<br /><br />In most cases they could have solved my problem at virtually no cost to themselves by simply being flexible on tiny matters of policy. If they had done so, not only would they have retained me as a customer but I would, most likely, have become an advocate.<br /><br />On every occasion they retort with the response; "I can't do that". The real answer is that they could, they are either not allowed or they don't know how. But what kind of a policy is it that leaves your customer fuming?<br /><br />As a result of my background I am well aware that the cost of acquiring new customers is many times that of retaining existing ones. My frustration is therefore based on the fact that not only could they solve my problem easily by simply being a bit more flexible, but that it would also be good for their business!<br />
<br />If you work for a company that has a so-called 'customer services' department, ask yourself whether the staff who work there are empowered to provide customer service, or simply to answer questions on company policies. Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-49422386761542032142016-11-03T11:08:00.000+00:002016-11-03T11:08:11.047+00:00Priortise<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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You’re half way through the week yet you still have a To Do List that is longer than your Outlook tasks window. How about prioritising? What are your Red Star items? A signed order form? A great client meeting resulting in more business? The finished article that got approved? Go for them first! They are the ones that make you rich and famous. Red Stars are the stuff that brings the most prominent results.<br /><br />After that think about your Blue Stars. Thes are actions that are essential to the schievement of Red Star actions, such as aranging an important client meeting, producing a brochure, sharing information with your team. They are important but they can often be delegated.<br /><br />This brings me to the most annoying bit – White Stars. These are e-mails, internal meetings, admin that can take 80% of your time. Reduce them! Delegate them and concentrate ruthlessly on your Red Stars. Use the language with your team. When being disturbed, ask them: Is this a Red Star? If the answer is no, send them away to solve it by themselves. Soon you'll have fewer questions and more time, and your staff will be learning how to do more things for themselves. Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-12815788345801373302016-11-03T10:45:00.000+00:002016-11-03T10:45:00.078+00:00Harmony vs Diversity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When you're looking to engage someone new, often the most important consideration is the "fit." This is extremely important -- having someone who doesn't get along or share the same ideals with the rest of the group can cause havoc and tension and make life at work uncomfortable.<br /><br />That said it doesn’t mean you should be aiming to recruit someone just like you and/or your friends.<br /><br />We often choose our friends because they think like us, like the same things we do, and laugh at our jokes. (At this point, you may think that this is wrong as you have, for instance, many political debates with your friends. But this just means that you both like arguing about politics.)<br /><br />This makes for great fun, but it's not what’s needed in business - if you and your team agree on everything, you're going to be looking at things from the same vantage point and you're more likely to miss something -- perhaps something important to your business.<br /><br /><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink" target="_blank">Groupthink</a></b> is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within groups of people when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints.<br /><br />The most well-known example of Groupthink is the United States Bay of Pigs Invasion. The invasion plan was initiated by the Eisenhower administration, but when the Kennedy White House took over, it "uncritically accepted" the CIA's plan. When some people, such as Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. and Senator J. William Fulbright, attempted to present their objections to the plan, the Kennedy team as a whole ignored these objections and kept believing in the morality of their plan. Eventually Schlesinger minimized his own doubts, that is, he performed self-censorship. The Kennedy team stereotyped Castro and the Cubans by failing to question the CIA about its many assumptions, including the ineffectiveness of Castro's air force, the weakness of Castro's army, and the inability of Castro to quell internal uprisings.<br /><br />Groupthink is more likely to occur in a highly homogenised team that lacks disparate views and challenge.<br /><br />This doesn't mean you should take on someone just because she's different. Like any other contender, she also needs the qualities and experience and knowledge to do the actual job. And your new member does need to get along with everyone -- different doesn't mean disagreeable.<br /><br />But if you normally recruit alumni from your school, or friends of current employees, you might want to expand your reach. Instead, try networking, social media, local job fairs to broaden your reach.<br /><br />Otherwise, if you continue hiring people who think just like you do, you'll find yourself rapidly losing any type of outside perspective. And that box that you're not thinking outside of will become much, much smaller.<br />Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-39404952702564952172015-06-05T12:32:00.000+01:002015-06-05T12:32:37.304+01:00Whose standards are they anyway?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Many of us have lives dictated by rules telling us what we should be doing. Unconsciously, our inner demands flash through our minds as we struggle to live up to our own expectations about how the world should be. In so doing, we rob ourselves of freedom and choice, and we create unnecessary feelings of guilt or shame for falling short.<br /><br />Some inner demands are necessary. They make up your value system - values like telling the truth, not stealing and not hurting other people. But other “shoulds and musts” create unneeded conflict such as the house must always be clean or I must never be late.<br /><br />Think about it. Do you ever say to yourself things like “I can’t take a risk”, “I must lose weight”, “I should go to the gym”. Sounds familiar? We all have a set of self-imposed rules that we first learned from our parents, teachers, role models and peers who taught us what life requires. These became unconscious to us but have formed beliefs that dictate the way we behave.<br /><br />In extreme cases, a person’s failure to live up to their own standards can set them on a downward spiral to lost self esteem, unhappiness and depression. <br /><br />Look at the size zero trend today. Whilst external pressure is huge and the media and fashion industry have been named the “big bad boys”, it is in fact the girls themselves who have lost control of their priorities, giving in to the external pressures and their inner demands. Have you ever truly seen a fulfilled and happy size zero girl as she chomps on her lettuce, whilst sipping water?<br /><br />The first step to changing your inner demands is to be aware of them. Take some time to write a list of the demands you place on yourself, and then make a conscious decision as to which ones you will keep and which ones you will abandon.<br /><br />Next, listen out for yourself saying things such as SHOULD, MUST, OUGHT TO, HAVE TO, then give yourself time to ask why? <br /><br />Finally, give yourself the freedom to fail, to be less than perfect and a bit unsure. Once you cut yourself some slack, you open yourself up to the possibility of becoming a person who doesn't know how things have to be and can begin to be relaxed about letting things be as they are.<br /><br />I am now off to eat a chocolate bar, by choice – and I am going to enjoy it!Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-10774091454809262142015-06-05T12:14:00.003+01:002015-06-05T12:14:46.016+01:00Rules vs Common Sense<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Staff Sgts. Fred Hilliker and Robert O'Hair were boarding Delta Flight 1625 in Baltimore for the last leg of their trip home from Afghanistan with 32 others in their U.S. Army unit when their homecoming came to an abrupt halt. Delta personnel told the soldiers they needed to pay $200 for each person that had a fourth bag with them, even though their military orders stated that these bags were covered.<br /><br />Unable to gain resolution with Delta, the two Staff Sgts filmed a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiTRG2ZMBjE" target="_blank">YouTube video</a> about the incident. The story generated considerable buzz for an obvious reason: the Delta employees were following the rules to the letter but failed to exercise any judgement or initiative. If they felt the fees were wrong, why didn’t they just waive the fees?<br /><br />The Delta situation highlights a trend in management that favours the fulfilment of quantifiable, top-down metrics. Many of us have had a ‘computer says ‘no’’ experience. It is frustrating and pointless and seems to occur more and more. As psychologist Barry Schwartz has observed, many areas of life are increasingly bound up with rules that limit the ability of individuals to use judgment and make the best decision for the specific situation.<br /><br />It would be wrong to place all the blame on workers for their failure to take initiative. Rather, the blame lies with management that sets rigid rules and metrics that disable employee judgment and makes employees jump through many hoops for mundane decisions, that the overworked employees say, "Why bother?"<br /><br />It's not hard to see how we got here. Performance metrics are a critical tool for achieving excellence and motivating outcomes. But as important as performance metrics are, problems arise when performance metrics become overly dominant as a managerial principle, as they are in too many organisations.<br /><br />Metrics earn an outsized role because managing by the numbers is easier than managing people. Employees make mistakes, their actions are difficult to predict, and the outcomes of their decisions are hard to measure. When employees make wrong judgements the resulting mess, in terms of customer satisfaction and legal liability, can often be difficult and expensive to clean up.<br /><br />Rules are comfort food for management.<br /><br />Yet customers need more judgement, not less, from the employees they come in contact with. When customers contact a call centre, it's because there is an exception within the existing process and they need judgement that only employees can provide. Corporations need to build guidelines and values — not absolute rules and measures. "Doing what's right for the customer" is a value that can drive appropriate action. Judgment requires coaching, practice and training.<br /><br />There are many exceptions to these rules bound cultures. See our later email on Zappos, a highly successful, customer focused retailer who recruits solely on culture fit and then gives employees huge discretion to solve customer problems.<br /><br />However, without investing in your front line staff you'll be managing a group of automatons who, when confronted with situations outside the rigid rules, will be virtually guaranteed to make the wrong judgement.<br /><br />Metrics, policies and scorecards are not bad per se. There are many benefits when used appropriately. The pendulum seems to have swung too far away from employee judgment, though. <br /><br /><br />Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-73648392683159526642015-06-02T16:52:00.000+01:002015-06-02T16:53:45.015+01:00Apologies for my bad language<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I must apologise to everyone who did not receive our last newsletter – this was entirely as a result of my own incompetence in including an item entitled ‘Don’t be a Tosser’, which referred to Northamptonshire County Councils anti-litter campaign of the same name.<br />
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Obviously the purpose of the campaign name is to gain attention through the use of a double entendre, although the dictionary (the proper one that is rather than the ‘urban dictionary) defines a tosser as ‘one who tosses something’, for example, a pancake-tosser. It therefore appears that if I wrote an item detailing the antics of a typical Shrove Tuesday at our local primary school that the over-zealous puritans who produce spam filters and the such would block that too.<br />
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In a similar instance a few years ago I was struggling to get an email through to one of the Directors in a large UK company. Eventually we determined that it was due to the use of the phrase ‘cross-pollination of ideas’. Once the phrase was removed the email went through without any difficulty. It appears that the smutty-minded authors of spam filters can even see sexual innuendo in a horticultural reference!<br />
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Wishing to clean up my act I thought I would investigate what words spam filters would deem inappropriate. According to Mailup the list is huge and includes outrages words and phrases such as ‘stop snoring’, ‘free installation’ and ‘mortgage rates’. According to Karen Ruben, author of The Ultimate List of Email SPAM Trigger Words, the list even includes terms like ‘laser printer’, ‘terms and conditions’ and, most bizarrely of all, ‘stainless steel’.<br />
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Why would anyone want to filter out anything contain the words ‘stainless steel’?<br />
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However, the phrases that concerned me the most were; ‘win’, ‘winner’, ‘winning’, ‘won’ and ‘you’re a winner’. This could explain why I am yet to receive my email from the National Lottery telling me I have won! Better give them a call just in case.<br />
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PS – If you are not of an overly-sensitive nature and feel robust enough to have a look at our offending newsletter, click <a href="http://www.extensor.co.uk/newsletters/2015/Apr/Apr2015.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-39812002205575666292015-03-31T11:48:00.000+01:002015-03-31T11:48:05.492+01:00Attributes of a Truly Great Place to Work<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">More than
100 studies have now found that the most engaged employees — those who report
they're fully invested in their jobs and committed to their employers — are
significantly more productive, drive higher customer satisfaction and
outperform those who are less engaged.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">But only 20
per cent of employees around the world report
that they're fully engaged at work. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">It's a
disconnect that serves no one well. So what's the solution? Where is the
win-win for employers and employees?</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Tony
Schwartz of the <a href="http://theenergyproject.com/" target="_blank">Energy Project</a>, has identified a set of attributes of a truly
great place to work. How many of these attributes exist in our own companies?</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<ol start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Pay
employees a fair wage and give them a stake in the company's success, in
the form of profit sharing, or stock options, or bonuses tied to
performance. If the company does well, all employees should share in the
success, in meaningful ways.</span><o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Design
working environments that are safe, comfortable and appealing to work in.
In offices, include a range of physical spaces that allow for privacy,
collaboration, and simply hanging out.</span><o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Provide
healthy, high quality food, at the lowest possible prices.</span><o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Create
places for employees to rest and renew during the course of the working
day and encourage them to take intermittent breaks. Ideally, leaders would
permit afternoon
naps, which fuel higher productivity in the several hours that follow.</span><o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Offer
a well equipped gym and other facilities that encourage employees to move
physically and stay fit. Provide incentives for employees to use the
facilities, including during the work day as a source of renewal.</span><o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Define
clear and specific expectations for what success looks like in any given
job. Then, treat employees as adults by giving them as much autonomy as
possible to choose when they work, where they do their work, and how best to
get it accomplished.</span><o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Institute
two-way performance reviews, so that employees not only receive regular
feedback about how they're doing, in ways that support their growth, but
are also given the opportunity to provide feedback to their supervisors,
anonymously if they so choose, to avoid recrimination.</span><o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hold
leaders and managers accountable for treating all employees with respect
and care, all of the time, and encourage them to regularly recognize those
they supervise for the positive contributions they make.</span><o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Create
policies that encourage employees to set aside time to focus without
interruption on their most important priorities, including long-term
projects and more strategic and creative thinking.</span><o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Provide
employees with ongoing opportunities and incentives to learn, develop and
grow, both in establishing new job-specific hard skills, as well as softer
skills that serve them well as individuals, and as managers and leaders.</span><o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Stand
for something beyond simply increasing profits. Create products or provide
services or serve causes that clearly add value in the world, making it
possible for employees to derive a sense of meaning from their work, and
to feel good about the companies for which they work.</span><o:p></o:p></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">How does
your company measure up? What's the impact on your performance? Which needs
would your company have to meet for you to be more fully engaged?</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Crispin White is a </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Partner at interim
management agency <a href="http://www.talentfield.co.uk/" target="_blank">Talentfield</a></span>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-16451292548189878522015-03-30T18:36:00.000+01:002015-03-30T18:43:24.330+01:00Choose Your Attitude<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The other day I was reminded of a time I was listening to my kids bickering. My youngest had run up to me and announced that her brother was making her upset. Difficult as it may be for a 4 year old to understand, I told her that she was choosing to be upset and she could respond in a different way! It may have confused her, but at least it stopped the bickering for a while.<br />
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It is so true that anything is possible if you have the mindset and attitudes that support your success. Many people spend a lot of time looking at the negatives in their lives – how they hate their jobs, their smoking or don’t want to be overweight. By conditioning yourself to concentrate on what you do want, positive results can be achieved – and quickly. What you hear and tell yourself on a consistent basis has an effect on your thinking and wellbeing – marketing people know this to be true and use it often to motivate people to buy. Similarly, people who praise you will build your confidence. Many of my coaching clients who are lacking in confidence have consistently been surrounded by negative talk – from others and then their own inner dialogue. This affects the world they are in and permeates into their mindset, becoming a negative belief that they then hold as true.<br />
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What you say is what you get! Often what we say to ourselves dictates our results in life. The good news is that we can make some choices to help us become more focused and bust our old beliefs. We need to raise our awareness of what we are telling ourselves – what stories we are running in our minds and like any new behaviour, we need to consciously make choices and control our inner voice, until it is replaced unconsciously with a positive voice. Here are some tips:<br />
<ul>
<li class="normal">We can control our feelings through physiology – just by altering our posture. It is well known that exercise makes you feel happier and reduces the effects of stress – when we are down we reflect this in our body so check your posture and become aware!</li>
<li class="normal">Take pleasure in whatever you are doing, whether it is ironing or booking a holiday. For most people the latter holds more excitement and anticipation, however if you adopt the attitude of “I’m going to do a job and I’m going to do it well”, then choose to smile and allow yourself some satisfaction around it – isn’t it great to see that pile of freshly ironed clothes?</li>
<li class="normal">Write a list of what you do really well and make choices to repeat them in different situations</li>
<li class="normal">Learn to praise yourself for a job well done. Choose to praise yourself at least 10 times a day. When you catch yourself criticising your actions, stop and turn it around – ask yourself what you can take from the actions to become even more effective next time. Start noticing when you do things well and congratulate yourself for it. Sometimes it helps to congratulate yourself out loud – go on, do it, it works!</li>
<li class="normal">Make small, conscious changes in your behaviour to break a cycle. For instance, turn your mindset from “I don’t contribute at meetings” to just making a small observation or agreement or even a nod at the next meeting you are at – it’s all contribution, you don’t need to plan to contribute in a big way, you may be waiting for a perfect opportunity to chip in, that may not come and at the end of the meeting you will reinforce your belief that you don’t contribute. So small steps make big differences!</li>
</ul>
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The really good news is that research at the University of Texas has found that having a positive attitude to life can delay the aging process – and that people with an upbeat view on life are less likely than pessimists to show signs of frailty.</div>
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I am reminded of Victor Frankl, the internationally renowned psychiatrist who endured years of horror at the hands of the Nazis, who lived to 92.</div>
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<em>"We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one's predicament into a human achievement." </em></div>
<div class="normal">
Victor Frankl’s quote was a bit too much for my daughter – but she did go and tell her brother that she had chosen to cry – and it was his fault! Still some more coaching to be done there.</div>
Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-52594878349242632922015-03-30T16:19:00.000+01:002015-03-31T11:21:12.996+01:00Don't be a Tosser<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DQWIZrefolc/VRln1nXCvII/AAAAAAAAAmE/UrOguWxbhc8/s1600/right_bar_rant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DQWIZrefolc/VRln1nXCvII/AAAAAAAAAmE/UrOguWxbhc8/s1600/right_bar_rant.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have just returned from a holiday in the French Alps and,
as a result, have had the pleasure of driving more than 1,000 miles across
France and Switzerland. I say ‘pleasure’
because that is what it is. The roads
are well maintained, the service stations (or Aires) are clean with good coffee
machines and you can cover huge distances relatively quickly. But the thing that impresses me most of all
is the lack of litter.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Contrast that with the journey this side of the Channel to
and from the ferry port at Dover. Setting
aside the much higher levels of congestion, as that is simply a function of the
level of economic activity and population relative to the size of our country, road
works on at least some part of the journey are almost constant and there is
hardly a square meter of verge that doesn’t have at least one item of litter on
it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After returning home some volunteers in the village I live
in had organised a litter pick on the roads into and out of the village. In just a couple of hours ten people
collected 58 sacks of rubbish – larger cans, fast food containers, cigarette
packets, old tyres. All of this despite
the fact that the same verges were cleared of litter only twelve months
earlier.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is it about the British that makes us such a messy
lot. Clearly the French and Swiss manage
to resist the temptation to through unwanted items out of the car window. And in my experience so do the Germans, Belgians,
Italians. Even in America, the ‘land of
excess’, roadside litter is nowhere near the problem it is in Britain.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But finally people are starting to fight back. A number of Town and County Councils across
the UK have launched ‘Don’t be a Tosser’ campaigns - the latest being in
Northamptonshire. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The wording of the campaign may seem a little strong, but
the truth is that to call people ‘litterlouts’ or ‘litterbugs’ trivialises the
act. Did you know that research suggests
that litter in the streets near your home can reduce its value by as much as
12%, that he Highways Agency cleans up more than 180,000 sacks of litter from
motorways and A roads every year, that fly-tipping on land owned by Network
Rail costs £2.3 million a year to clean and that local authorities in England
spend close to a billion pounds a year picking up litter.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That billion pounds is money that could come off your tax
bill. Or alternatively it could be put
to better use. For example, a billion
pounds would fund 38,633 social care workers, pay the running costs of 4,400
libraries, or pay for 33,200 additional nurses.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With the looming election there is a possibility you may
bump into a prospective parliamentary candidate during the next few weeks. If so, ask them what they intend to do to
reduce littering in your area.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-20193962778088521332015-02-02T13:50:00.000+00:002015-02-02T13:50:54.156+00:00Are you an over-thinker?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WcG2AxezizQ/VM-Aidts0sI/AAAAAAAAAlg/xnr8hXDGuZU/s1600/right_bar_soundbite_gill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WcG2AxezizQ/VM-Aidts0sI/AAAAAAAAAlg/xnr8hXDGuZU/s1600/right_bar_soundbite_gill.jpg" /></a></div>
I have a friend who loves to analyse and evaluate all aspects of her life. This habit has served her well in many ways and has led to good, well thought out, weighted decisions. Indeed I admire her measured way of thinking things through before acting. However in the last few years she has realised that her analytical skills sometimes limit her and get in the way of reaching a decision, even leading to the situation of “no decision is better than the wrong decision”. She has become one of life’s over-thinkers and in so doing she magnifies problems so that they becomes bigger and more frightening than they actually are.<br />
<br />
Over-thinkers can end up holding themselves back and just doing nothing. They analyse and deconstruct things in order to create meaning and make sense out of the world. They even over analyse positive parts of their lives so they don’t seem so good anymore! So they end up self-sabotaging the good news in their lives which results in a spiral of negative thinking, inaction and then beating themselves up. And so it goes on…..<br />
<br />
So here are some strategies to help.<br />
<br />
Recognise you can’t control everything. If something doesn’t work out in the “best” way (whatever that means) at least you have had a go. And had the opportunity to learn.<br />
<br />
Disrupt your thinking – when you are in a spiral of over-thinking, break the pattern by moving into another environment, changing the scenery, filling your senses with different stimuli.<br />
<br />
Practice the third person technique – pretend you are your best friend observing your over-analysis as if they were a fly on the wall. What would they say to help and coach you? Hear their voice, take their guidance.<br />
<br />
Be more in the moment – don’t think about the possible mistakes of the future – remember the future hasn’t happened yet!<br />
<br />
Set yourself a rule for quick decisions – when you catch yourself over analysing allow yourself say 30 seconds or 1 minute to get to a decision.<br />
<br />
Teach yourself a simple analysis technique to guide your thinking – something like a SWOT box (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). With practice, you can “speed-SWOT”, trust the method, get to a quicker conclusion and move on.<br />
<br />
Don’t let previous mistakes fuel your over-thinking. Remember yesterday’s failure could be today’s opportunity. Today is a different day with a whole new context.<br />
<br />
Think of the bigger picture – say goodbye to the minor things – will it really matter this time next year or even next month? Don’t sweat the small stuff.<br />
<br />
Over-thinking is often a strategy to stop us moving out of our comfort zone. But there will have for sure been times in the past when we dipped our toes in the water of something new. Being an over-thinker can stop us enjoying the possibilities that the world can offer us if we let it. Over-thinking limits us, doesn’t allow us to progress and we end up standing still. So practice the ideas above and in the words of Disney’s frozen “Let it go”.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-91543379548213169572015-01-26T20:10:00.000+00:002015-01-26T20:10:52.286+00:00How Failure Breeds Success<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GBHlEBLGtkw/VMaesVHpTSI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/zdXf0KU_oNc/s1600/right_bar_bie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GBHlEBLGtkw/VMaesVHpTSI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/zdXf0KU_oNc/s1600/right_bar_bie.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The UK and
the US have historically viewed failure in very different ways. Here in the UK
we see ‘failure’ as a dirty word.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But is that
changing?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The
unpalatable truth is it is rare that any business is an overnight success; much
more likely it's going to be an incredibly long, hard slog with a fair number
of false starts. In fact, for many, failure is just the beginning of the
journey.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">David Gann, professor of innovation
and entrepreneurship at Imperial College, cites the example of the Millennium
Bridge across the Thames, which had to be closed after two days because of its
famous wobble. 'Everybody said it was a big failure, but it was turned into a
success because the engineering company behind it, Arup, learnt about what had
gone wrong with the bridge design, published its findings and then actually won
new work off the back of it. So it turned it into a business success as well.'</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">British
engineer and entrepreneur James Dyson famously described the inventor’s life as
‘one of failure’ after it took him 5,127 attempts to get the prototype of his
vacuum cleaner right. And, of course, Thomas Edison said about the light bulb:
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that wont work."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">However, we
are still not as generous as our American counterparts when it comes to the
belief that failure is merely a pit stop on the road to success.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">'One of the
reasons Silicon Valley and the US system have been so successful,' says Oscar
Jazdowski, head of origination at Silicon Valley Bank UK ‘is that entrepreneurs
are allowed to fail quickly.' Indeed, failure is so central to the start-up
model in Silicon Valley, there's now a sell-out annual conference dedicated to
the topic.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">'Keeping
businesses going too long is the kiss of death. You look back and say:
"You know what, we should have closed this company down a year and a half
ago,"' says Jazdowski. Imperial's Gann agrees. His institution gives
fledgling entrepreneurs the space (and crash mat) to try things and fail
'safely', he says.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And their
success is our success. As we've heard from David Cameron time and time again,
the UK's entrepreneurs could be the ones to pull us from the doldrums. And a
true entrepreneurial economy can thrive only in a culture that allows people to
make mistakes, learn from them, and try again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As Henry
Ford once said: 'Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time
more intelligently.'</span><br />
<o:p></o:p>Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-64462559614573510832015-01-26T19:04:00.001+00:002015-01-26T19:04:40.606+00:00It's time to invest in something useful<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
I have long since been irritated by the continuing
proliferation of wind turbines that keep appearing across the country, many in
some of the most naturally beautiful areas of the countryside.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My irritation is compounded by the fact that they rarely
seem to be turning. Sometimes this is
due to a lack of wind, at others it is due to the wind being too strong, and at
other times it is because the grid is at full capacity and the turbine owners
are paid to switch them off. Industry
figures reveal that in 2014 £53.1 million was paid to green energy companies
for shutting down turbines.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The reality is that wind-generated electricity is ludicrously
inefficient. It has received billions of
pounds in subsidies from UK taxpayers as a result of ill-conceived and
misguided Government policy, yet it still only manages to contribute a pitifully
small amount of electricity to the national grid. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Between 5 pm and 5:50 pm on Monday 19<sup>th</sup> January
2015 UK electricity demand hit its highest level this winter – 52.54 gigawatts,
yet despite the fact that the UK now has more than 30,000 onshore turbines,
wind contributed less than 1% of the total (Gas 42%, coal 29%, nuclear 16%,
hydro 5% with the remainder being imported). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are interested, you can view a summary of recent
consumption by clicking <a href="http://www.ukenergywatch.org/Electricity/Realtime" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am not averse to either energy levies or taxation money
being used to develop and subsidies green energy technologies, but I do object
when Government spends our money in idiotic ways. The UK once led the world in power generation;
be it coal, hydro, gas or nuclear, but now we lag behind other nations in all
forms of power generation including solar and, most importantly of all, nuclear
fusion.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
We should therefore stop the stupidity of subsidising
ineffectual and unwanted wind projects and divert resources into the types of
projects that have the potential to provide for our energy needs well into the next
century. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-90564197792403941622014-11-19T15:04:00.000+00:002014-11-19T15:04:03.416+00:00Getting emotional with customers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Science has shown that humans remember information better when their emotions are involved. <br />
<br />
As early as 1890, psychologist William James observed that emotions “leave a scar upon the cerebral tissue.” Since then, the number of studies on the connection between emotion and memory has skyrocketed.<br />
<br />
Only a small fraction of the business world, however, applies this widely accepted psychological concept to customer service programs. When a customer has an emotionally pleasing experience, it almost always goes to his or her long-term memory. Of course, the opposite is also true: an emotionally traumatic customer service experience won’t soon be forgotten - service failures stick like glue in customers’ memories.<br />
<br />
The link between emotion and memory is critical when we come to Customer Engagement and brand loyalty. Trust plays a huge role in building loyalty, however, trust is one emotion that can be built or lost in a flash. Just one five-minute interaction might be enough to entrust a customer to your company for years to come - or to demolish any trust they had in you, and even drive them to complain about you to friends and family.<br />
<br />
So what should companies do to take advantage of the fact that customers never forget? Committing to and delivering on their service promise is critical. This includes having an effective and responsible complaints handling process.<br />
<br />
Collecting feedback that seeks to measure customers’ emotional response is useful including how customers are responding to the brand on a real time basis. <a href="http://www.netpromoter.com/" target="_blank">Net Promoter</a> is a customer loyalty metric developed by (and a registered trademark of) Fred Reichheld, Bain & Company, and Satmetrix. It was introduced by Reichheld in his 2003 Harvard Business Review article "The One Number You Need to Grow".<br />
<br />
Companies obtain their Net Promoter Score (NPS) by asking customers a single question on a 0 to 10 rating scale: "How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?" Based on their responses, customers can be categorized into one of three groups: Promoters (9-10 rating), Passives (7-8 rating), and Detractors (0-6 rating). The percentage of Detractors is then subtracted from the percentage of Promoters to obtain a Net Promoter score.<br />
<br />
Proponents of the Net Promoter approach claim the score can be used to motivate an organisation to become more focused on improving products and services for customers. This is something that we use at BIE and it has produced some interesting results. <br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-79149476087510894872014-04-01T12:39:00.001+01:002014-04-01T12:39:29.766+01:00Being Happy is Hard Work<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Some time ago the Government proposed supplementing GDP with a measure of GWB (General Well-being) to measure the nation’s happiness. The Archbishop of Canterbury also suggested that people seek real happiness, above and beyond economic and material wealth. And most organisations would freely admit to pushing happiness and well-being higher up their people agenda, perhaps as an antidote to the depressing financial times.<br />
<br />
But one important and often over-looked finding in the psychological research is that being happy takes effort. This may sound odd, but there’s a lot of truth in this.<br />
<br />
In 2005, psychologists analysed the mainstream well-being research and identified that about 50% of happiness is inherited – i.e. genetic – while about 10% is down to our economic and cultural circumstances. The remaining 40% is believed to be down to effort. This means investing time in deliberate and intentional activities that will make us happier.<br />
<br />
In other words, it is necessary to put effort into maintaining happiness, through activities such as being deliberately optimistic when problems crop up, or being consciously appreciative of our circumstances.<br />
What is really interesting, though, is that psychologists Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2006) monitored people over a period of several months to identify what impact these activities actually have on our happiness. They found that a change in circumstances, such as gaining more money or moving to a new area, made people happy for a limited time only. Clearly the novelty of the change wears off.<br />
<br />
On the flip side, they found that those who invested time and effort in a range of ‘happiness’ based activities led to longer-term increases in psychological well-being. In their conclusion, the researchers stated that ‘both effort and hard work offer the most promising route to happiness’.<br />
<br />
So, when the Government and the Church tell us to be happy, they – and organisations – need to know that this doesn’t just happen. It takes hard work that has to be sustained, supported and measured. In other words, if you really knuckle down and apply yourself, you’ll be a lot happier as a result…<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-28616698619570555732014-04-01T11:27:00.001+01:002014-04-01T11:27:22.166+01:00Life Lessons to My Older Self<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Reading an article entitled “Life Lessons for My Younger Self” got me thinking about how you can apply time travelling wisdom to your own life in a useful and practical way. So here is my radical alternative: “Life Lessons to My Older Self”!<br />
<br />
My thinking goes along these lines. You can shape and influence your Older Self, helping him/her to be happier, more true to himself/herself and more successful. Understanding now what matters deeply to you, allows you to either express yourself fully now or shape your steps to do so in the future. If you look at what you regret spending time on in the past, it can help you look at how you are using your time today. It helps you understand what more you want for yourself and others going forward.<br />
<br />
Nelson Mandela had a very clear picture of what he felt was most relevant to him, saying he wanted his epitaph to read just “Here lies a man who has done his duty upon earth” and no more. Duty for him came before all else. For others the heart searching questions about how you have lived your life will be different but no less important.<br />
<br />
Those questions may change over time too. In my twenties I acted like the all-important question was “Have you been successful?” Unsurprisingly, the Rosie Miller that I was then was very earnest and hard working. Today I wonder whether the all-important question might be “Did you enjoy your life?” or “Did you make the best of your talents?”. With this mindset I am looking at ways of having more fun and laughter in my life and ways to fully express my set of talents. I still want to be successful at work but I am challenging my Older Self to live a different balance in life – one which meets a clearer definition of success on my terms. <br />
<br />
So how can you rebalance your life and focus to enable your Older Self? One way is to run a self-audit every five years or so. Many of us have 8-9 key life areas to consider (in no particular order): parent, family member, romantic partner, work or career, friends, health/fitness, interests, community involvement and possibly spiritual/faith. You can adapt these to your own list of roles and priorities. Look at how you are performing across the different areas in your life versus what you would like to be true. It helps you take a helicopter view so that you can identify imbalances and think about what drives them. What would you like to do to help your Older Self have a better audit score? What will it feel like to achieve that?<br />
<br />
I found doing a self-audit especially useful a few years ago when I was heavily engaged in a demanding job. The results showed that I was still responding to the same drivers as in my twenties. My work-orientation meant I was only expressing myself and contributing well across half the areas in my life. The much needed change has taken a few years but has paid off enormously in terms of happiness and satisfaction.<br />
<br />
What then is my key life lesson to my Older Self? Keep asking yourself these questions:<br />
<br />
<b>Are you living a life that helps you fully be what you truly are? </b><br />
<br />
<b>If not, when will you permit yourself to do so? </b><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-44320294541153114532014-04-01T11:01:00.000+01:002014-04-01T16:05:32.722+01:00Self-knowledge is the starting point<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Work-life balance is a uniquely human concern. It’s not something that animals, living in tune with themselves and their environment, face. Obvious statements of course – but it’s worth considering that the reason work-life balance can be of concern is that as humans we have the ability to override our natural instincts and feelings, rather than just respond to them as their arise. It’s our choice, and choice is, after all, what makes us human.<br />
<br />
So we can continue working when tired, we can force ourselves to do what we’ve decided it is necessary to do. We can work hard, sacrificing family and personal time, for the promise of later reward, rather than needing instant gratification of our desires and wishes. All this has been to the good – if humanity had not pushed itself to the limits, our world today would be without the greatest works of art and scientific discovery. <br />
<br />
But there is a hidden danger – people can become so good at overriding their instinct, feelings and messages their body is trying to give them that they don’t even hear the message anymore. Many people who are suffering stress for example, don’t even realise they are. Yet you can’t suppress feelings forever. Trying to do so will eventually result in burn-out.<br />
<br />
My point in writing this is that the first thing anyone needs to do is to learn to listen to themselves and observe. Taking action is secondary to understanding your situation. It can be obvious things - how much time are you spending forcing yourself on when you’d really rather be somewhere else for example. How much caffeine, sugar and other stimulants do you need to get through a day? Do you suffer irritation or mood swings without always being able to put the finger on why? It can be in simple behaviours too – I once realised I was stressed when I found my hands were saw from continually gripping the steering wheel too tightly!<br />
<br />
Listening to yourself does have to be learnt. My recommendation for anyone who thinks they may have work-life balance or stress issues is to keep a diary for a month and simply note your feelings and observations about what you do, and always ask the question “why do I feel what I feel”. Work-life balance ultimately is about being satisfied and fulfilled in your life – and that begins with self-knowledge.<br />
<div>
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<br />Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-26572335317293024412014-02-03T12:23:00.001+00:002014-02-03T12:23:24.847+00:00Working to your natural rhythm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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According to a recent survey, over one third of workers are consumed by thoughts of work from the minute they wake, and one in four only stop thinking about it before they sleep. This difficulty or inability to relax and switch off is widely known, and there is abundant advice available on how to relax and unwind after the working day.<br />
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What much of this advice misses, however, is that the reason we find it difficult to switch off is that our patterns of work effectively train our bodies and minds to stay switched on and override our natural cycles. So it’s no wonder then that when we want to unwind we find it difficult.<br />
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Let me explain. We all know about the 24 hour circadian rhythms of sleep and awake, and that if you travel or for any reason change your cycle you suffer the experience of your body clock having to readjust. What is less known is that as well as circadian rhythms there are ultradian rhythms that are shorter than 24 hours.<br />
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These were 1st discovered by the sleep researcher Nathaniel Kleitman in the fifties who introduced the concept of REM (rapid eye movements) to the world. He discovered the basic rest-activity cycle demonstrating that when we’re asleep we progress in 90 minute cycles through the five stages of sleep. <br />
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He also considered that this 90minute ultradian rhythm continued during the day giving a cycle of energy every 90 to 120 minutes. We all experience this – we are able to concentrate well for a period of up to 2 hours, before our mind starts to wander, or we lose focus. That’s a natural rhythm occurring. The trouble is, many of us override it. Working without beaks, boosting our energy with caffeine and sugar and so on. What’s more, to comply with our request to work on, the body releases adrenalin and stress hormones. <br />
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Yet, the natural cycle of peak performance is well known by many athletes and concert classical musicians, who organise their training and practice into 90minute sessions with a rest break in between.<br />
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The solution then to not being able to relax at end of the day is to learn to follow your own ultradian rhythms. If you can learn to take short breaks regularly and actually go with the cycle, there are lots of benefits – it can actually boost your productivity as well as reducing your stress levels.<br />
<br />Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-71145900913675258922014-01-31T15:49:00.001+00:002014-01-31T16:04:17.205+00:00Brainstorming properly<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We've all experienced brainstorming sessions: a group of people, often chosen largely for political reasons, begin by listening passively as a moderator (often an outsider who knows little about the business) urges you to 'Get creative!' and 'Think outside the box!' and cheerfully reminds you that 'There are no bad ideas!'<br />
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The result? Some attendees remain stone-faced throughout the day, others contribute sporadically, and a few loudly dominate the session with their pet ideas. Ideas pop up randomly - some intriguing, many preposterous - but because the session has no structure, little momentum builds around any of them. At session's end, the group trundles off with a hazy idea of what, if anything, will happen next. 'Now we can get back to real work', some whisper.<br />
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It doesn't have to be like this. By undertaking better preparation and providing structure throughout a brainstorming technique, organisations can greatly enhance their chances of generating better ideas that will be implemented.<br />
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<ol>
<li>Know your boundaries: One reason good ideas hatched in corporate brainstorming sessions often go nowhere is that they are beyond the scope of what the organization would ever be willing to consider or to implement. 'Think outside the box!' is an unhelpful exhortation if external circumstances or company policies create boxes that the organization truly must live within.<br /> </li>
<li>Ask the right questions: Build the workshop around a series of 'right questions' that the team explores in small groups during a series of idea generation sessions. The trick is to identify questions with two characteristics. First, they should force your participants to take a new and unfamiliar perspective. Why? Because whenever you look for new ways to approach an old problem you naturally gravitate toward thinking patterns and ideas that worked in the past. Research shows that, over time, you'll come up with fewer good ideas, despite increased effort. Changing your participants' perspective will shake up their thinking. The second characteristic of a right question is that it limits the conceptual space your team will explore, without being so restrictive that it forces particular answers or outcomes.<br /> </li>
<li>Choose the right people: The rule here is simple: pick people who can answer the questions you’re asking. As obvious as this sounds, it’s not what happens in many traditional brainstorming sessions, where participants are often chosen with less regard for their specific knowledge than for their prominence on the org chart.<br /> </li>
<li>Use subgroups: To ensure fruitful discussions, don't have participants hold one continuous, rambling discussion among the entire group for several hours. Instead, have them conduct multiple, discrete, highly focused idea generation sessions among subgroups of three to five people - no fewer, no more. Each subgroup should focus on a single question for a full 30 minutes. Why three to five people? The usual behaviour in groups of this size is to speak up, whereas the norm in a larger group is to stay quiet.<br /> </li>
<li>Brief them first: After your participants arrive, but before the division into subgroups, orient them so that your expectations about what they will - and won’t - accomplish are clear. Each subgroup will thoughtfully consider and discuss a single question for a half hour. No other idea from any source - no matter how good - should be mentioned during a subgroup’s individual session. Tell participants that if anyone thinks of a 'silver bullet' solution that's outside the scope of discussion, they should write it down and share it later.<br /><br />Also, whenever possible, share 'signpost examples' before the start of each session - real questions previous groups used, along with success stories, to motivate participants and show them how a question-based approach can help.<br /> </li>
<li>Follow up quickly: Decisions and other follow-up activities should be quick and thorough. Of course, we’re not suggesting that uninformed or insufficiently researched conclusions should be reached about ideas dreamed up only hours earlier. But the odds that concrete action will result from an idea generation exercise tend to decline quickly as time passes and momentum fades.</li>
</ol>
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Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-74241800914232641642014-01-31T15:14:00.001+00:002014-01-31T15:14:57.873+00:00Go on – take the first step<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The mornings may be getting lighter, but at 6.30am in January, it is still more appealing to ignore the alarm and keep snuggled under the duvet. But today, instead I ignored the lure of a final half an hour of coziness and donned my running shoes for a blast of exercise. Yes, it is a resolution for 2014 – and we all know what often happens with good intentions – but the difference this year, is an attitude of “just do it” (thank you Nike). And of course to “just do it”, I had to stop talking about wanting to run and literally take the first step.<br />
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A coach’s job is to help unispring ideas and motivation within their clients – coming from the belief that we all have the resourcefulness within us. So we often know what changes we have to make, whether it is exercise, taking a decision to move jobs or to deal with a non performing team member. The trick is to get started! Sure, discuss your issue at length, build a plan of action, evaluate best routes, think things through, but there will be no change unless you actually do something. Here are some ideas<br />
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<ol>
<li>Break your pattern, do something spontaneous, whether it is going for a 10 minute walk or sitting at a different desk. There is nothing like a change of scenery to change your perspective</li>
<li>Perfectionists beware! Break down your goal into bite sized chunks and then bite off the first one. Overwhelm is the enemy of action. When I realised I could start my running campaign with just 10 minutes – and in that I could walk as well – all of a sudden it wasn’t so hard to start</li>
<li>Identify what is stopping you. Is it laziness, a move out of your comfort zone, fear of the unknown or failure? Face it. No excuses - bite sized chunks of action make your excuses smaller. And remember, if you don’t start, nothing will happen anyway</li>
<li>Get support. If you are truly stuck ask a friend for help – to provide the motivational rally cry, the encouragement from the side of the sports field. Peer pressure works</li>
<li>Shout about it. Hit the social networks and drum up your cheerleaders </li>
<li>Become accountable. Diarise when you are going to do it. Put it in your diary now</li>
<li>Be mindful. Take some time away from the world of screens and stimulation. Remove your distractions. Use that time to visualise success and recall feelings of success you have had in the past</li>
<li>Change your evening pattern. Ensuring restful periods of time before sleep helps us have a balanced approach to life and helps us to knock through barriers and excuses</li>
<li>Honestly assess the consequences of not getting started. Procrastination can make events spiral into even more complex challenged</li>
<li>Think through your rewards. What benefits and impact will making this change bring to your life?</li>
</ol>
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I love this quote from Martin Luther King which can be applied in any context - “Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase.”<br />
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Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-29149880000900837472013-12-02T13:30:00.002+00:002013-12-02T16:38:29.371+00:00Power and Politics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I am sick to death of hearing politicians from all parties bleating on about the evil energy companies. Let’s not forget that it was the Conservatives that privatised the electricity and gas industries, thereby moving their primary purpose away from the maintenance of supply to the provision of shareholder returns.<br />
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Successive governments of all persuasions have then stood idly by while those same companies have been snapped up by foreign firms (EDF - French, e-on and Npower - German, Scottish Power - Spanish), some of which have very good reasons for branching out from their own domestic markets. Take the French firm EDF for example; in France price increases have been strictly limited by their domestic regulator, so EDF are selling electricity more expensively in the UK than they are in France. According to the official <a href="http://www.energy.eu/" target="_blank">EU Energy Portal</a> the average price of a kWh of electricity during May 2013 in France was €0.14466 whereas in the UK it was €0.17078, more than 18% higher.<br />
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Although I support the objective of greenhouse gas reductions, when the Labour Government signed the Kyoto Protocol they did so without any means of delivering on their commitments. They therefore skewed the energy markets by forcing companies to buy a proportion of their power from ‘green’ sources, by subsidising everything from solar panels to wind turbines and by forcing energy companies to insulate people’s houses either for free or at below-cost prices. And to pay for these ludicrously inefficient technologies, they imposed ‘green levies’ on all of our energy bills that now account for around 10% of the average household bill. <br />
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Our countryside and coast is now covered in windmills that spend most of their time doing nothing and every second house is covered with solar panels generating minute quantities of electricity.<br />
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At the same time, successive governments have allowed our power generation industry to decline to such an extent that, whereas the UK once led the World in nuclear power technology, we are now having to go cap in hand to the French to build new power stations.<br />
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Yet these same politicians have the audacity to point the finger of blame at companies that are simply doing their job in delivering profits to their shareholders. And who are the shareholders? You guessed it – through our pension and investment funds many of us will be shareholders in the major energy companies.<br />
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What we need is a sensible strategy and a long-term view – but unfortunately that is as unlikely as it is that a politician would admit to the possibility that today’s problems may have been as a result of their party’s decisions. Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-61878327308226562992013-12-02T11:22:00.002+00:002013-12-02T15:32:45.462+00:00Balancing your short- and long-term goals<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One of the perennial challenges of virtually every aspect of life is balancing the achievement of
our long-term goals and aspirations with the short-term imperatives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In theory balance should be easier to achieve
at work where we are free of tasks such as cooking a meal, cutting the lawn or reading
a bed-time story. In practice, it often
seems harder at work where it is not uncommon for people to say that it is not
until 5:30 that they finally got the time to start working on the bigger
objectives they set out to achieve that day.<br />
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While all the literature and training courses on the subject of time management will advise
you to set aside time to work on your bigger goals, this is easier said than
done when the short-term objectives are typically more urgent. </div>
Personally I think it is better advice to encourage people to take time to reflect and set
out a plan – and the Christmas break provides the ideal opportunity.
My suggestion is that you draw three circles on a page (as shown below) and label them short-term
imperatives, long-term objectives and personal goals. In each circle write a list of the things you want/need to achieve.
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<text-align: left="">
I am sure you can see where this is going, but I would caution that it would be naïve to
believe that there are simple things you could write in the overlap area between all
three circles. What you could do however
is appraise each list and see what elements in that list could contribute to
the achievement of your other circle goals. For example, suppose one of your personal goals was to retire early, but
to achieve that you would need to earn more. It might be that you could increase your chances of promotion at work if
you were more closely associated with the attainment of one of the
long-term objectives and if you prioritised the short-term tasks set by certain
people or departments over others.</text-align:>
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The objective is therefore not simply to write things
in the overlap area (if they were that obvious you would most probably
already be working on them) but rather to define and create your overlap area
by steering everything you do towards your bigger goals.
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I hope you have an excellent Christmas.Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-38736581003372490922013-11-28T15:26:00.000+00:002013-12-02T16:44:26.766+00:00Increasing Engagement to Deliver Big Goals<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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How many of your goals – especially your corporate goals - are exciting for you and the people who must deliver them? Have you even asked yourself the question?<br />
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For most of us the emotions that a goal engenders, such as excitement, are simply not considered or discussed. But research shows that it’s the emotional reaction to a goal that ultimately dictates motivation and engagement in the people tasked to deliver it. <br />
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Shane Lopez, a leading psychologist on hope, resilience and motivation says in his latest book “<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1451666225/extensorlimit-21" target="_blank">Making Hope Happen</a>”: “The truth is our rational strategic thinking about goals is spurred on by our emotions. As a result we invest the most resources and make the most gains on goals we are excited about”. This may seem blindingly obvious, but in my experience it is not often considered!<br />
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Let’s take a real life example from someone I was coaching recently. Her team was handed down a very challenging corporate goal. They were tasked with generating double digit growth in a mature and declining market in which they already held high market share. This was in support of a plan for uninterrupted dividend pay-outs throughout the company’s entire existence of over 100 years. She said it was like being asked to climb Mount Everest without oxygen - impossible to achieve. Put yourself in her shoes and imagine how you would have felt in the same situation. A typical response could be fear and de-motivation, leading to risk aversion, closing the mind to innovation and a tendency towards a blame culture. <br />
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Could the leaders that set that corporate goal have done it differently? I would say yes. They could have followed this 5 step approach to create engagement and a positive emotional response:<br />
<ol>
<li>Acknowledge the size of the challenge – acknowledge that a fear of failure, anxiety and of feeling overwhelmed would not be a surprising response.</li>
<li>Remind people of other seemingly huge goals they have achieved in the past and draw out the strengths they used to do that.</li>
<li>Let people talk about it – explore and critique, offer different perspectives and test the assumptions. This starts engagement.</li>
<li>Turn around the “story” to make it more meaningful and exciting for the delivery teams e.g. acknowledge it is a huge task but “think about how special it would be to be part of the team that achieves it”</li>
<li>Start asking what might be possible, what could happen, and what might be needed to create possibilities, pathways and buy-in, even if they do not fully deliver all of the goal now.</li>
</ol>
Using this process should increase the positive emotion associated with the goal, getting more engagement and commitment from the teams tasked with its delivery.<br />
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A key learning from recent research is that leaders need to anticipate, create and manage the right emotional response in themselves and others in order to deliver big goals. In most corporate cultures leaders try to rationalise and almost “de-emotionalise” business goals. Whilst it’s true that this generates rational, concrete goals that appear logical, what emotions are they creating – fear or excitement?<br />
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Positive emotions like excitement create the will to engage fully, to innovate, problem-solve imaginatively and to go the extra mile. So when goal setting add an important question to your process “What’s the exciting challenge here?”
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Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-79626948759954836492013-11-03T12:34:00.000+00:002013-11-03T12:34:19.124+00:00Jump off the Hamster wheel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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These days, time seems to be the most precious of our resources. It is used as a universal excuse “If only I had more time, I would write a book”, “I would get better grades if I had more time”, “I have no time for exercise”. We have all heard these, and most likely use these time-based excuses ourselves, without even noticing it! <br />
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In coaching, I am increasingly finding my clients so focussed on being productive – and being seen to be productive – that work has become almost an obsession. People become trapped in a “too-busy” cycle, combining activities such as a lunch break with catching up on emails or going to the restroom as an opportunity to mentally draft a report, or a traffic jam being the ideal place to chair a conference call. Super-efficient to some, for most this lifestyle isn’t sustainable and can result in overwork, overwhelm, stress and ultimately illness. It is like the hamster continually turning the wheel in its cage round and round.<br />
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Breaking out can be hard, not least as we continually seek to affirm our actions so having no spare time is likely to be part of our “current normal” - part of our day to day routine. There are many things that we can do, but all require conscious awareness and choice to disrupt the current routine and create a different space for yourself. Here are my top tips to reclaim your time:<br />
<ul>
<li>Find your show-stoppers – make a list of 3 or 4 things that are most important to you and commit to checking in on them every day.<br /> </li>
<li>Find your timewasters – even if you think you enjoy these activities, take a typical work and weekend day and chunk it down to how you live those precious 24 hours. Did Facebook, Coronation Street or Twitter make the show-stopper list? If not, drop them for two weeks and see what time you created – and assess how painful the “detox” from these timewasters was.<br /> </li>
<li>Diarise – it sounds so obvious, but unless you have a formal “appointment” for an important activity, the power of being sucked back into your “current normal” is such that you won’t get started on it.<br /> </li>
<li>Consolidate – why do something 4 times a week when you could consolidate it into once? It is like batch processing in a factory – do your email in one chunk a day, not continuously: go to the supermarket once a week, not every other day.<br /> </li>
<li>Keep your daily task list to the three most important things you must achieve in the day. It doesn’t mean you won’t get more done, rather it will help you to achieve the most important things as well as not feel overloaded.<br /> </li>
<li>Do your “Big Rocks” first – The author Steven Covey uses this powerful metaphor to explain that our lives are full of grains of sand, gravel, trickles of water, and rocks. If we liken our day to a bucket, if we don’t fit in the big rocks first, then by the time we have finished with the sand, gravel and water, there will be no more room in the bucket.<br /> </li>
<li>Learn to say no – remember that every time you say yes to something, in a full day, it logically means you must be saying no to something else. Work out what you can say no to immediately, say goodbye and scrap those activities from your life.<br /> </li>
<li>Change your routine – how often do we examine our “current normal” and appraise it for its effectiveness? Now is your chance. Ask yourself, is there a better way of doing things? Make a new routine that is more balanced, more optimal, more filled with activities you love.</li>
</ul>
We all have the same amount of time, and it’s finite and in great demand. But some of us have made the time for doing the things we love doing, and others have allowed the constant demands and pressures and responsibilities of life to dictate their days. So reclaim your time and create the life you want. When you run out of time to think, you then start operating on automatic pilot – and what is the joy in that? Jump off that hamster wheel right now!Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-85254189718951733702013-11-03T11:56:00.000+00:002013-11-06T10:22:38.285+00:00Balancing the real, virtual and home office<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Since 2001 in the USA there has been a 100% increase in the amount of people working from home. There are significant advantages for both the employer and employees. Companies are spending less on real estate and, according to recent research from Stanford university, working from home can deliver a 13% increase in productivity. For the workers there is the advantage of flexible working, less commute time and potentially a better work/life balance. <br />
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Alongside this, there are some important downsides and disadvantages. Remote working can breed social isolation. Not being in an office diminishes social interaction and relationship building between colleagues and in teams. People can also end up identifying less with the organisation they work for and, significantly, they can earn less respect. A recent MIT survey indicates you are 9% more likely to be considered dependable and responsible if you put in “face time” and show up at the office. <br />
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Technology and management advice is continually developing in an attempt to address these disadvantages. Cloud computing, video conferencing, remote meeting software and so on are already in wide use. There are newer technologies too. <a href="https://www.sococo.com/home" target="_blank">Sococo</a> provides an office layout on screen, where workers with little face icons can walk about the virtual office and pop into different people’s offices and meeting rooms. People can even meet by a virtual coffee machine for a chat. The company <a href="https://www.anybots.com/" target="_blank">Anybot</a> is going further. They can provide you with what is called a telepresence avatar – it’s a mini robot with wheels, a face and a screen that you can see through, hear through, speak through and drive about a real office remotely from your PC at home. You can park your robot in a real meeting for example. The only problem is they haven’t yet overcome the “Dalek syndrome” – the robot can’t go up or down stairs!<br />
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On the management advice side there are numerous recommendations ranging from increasing personal contact with remote workers, promoting networking amongst remote workers, ensuring managers are accessible, developing trust and ensuring people feel respected and so on. There’s also plenty of advice for the qualities needed for a good tele-worker – self discipline and independence being paramount. <br />
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Remote workers themselves, together with new virtual office businesses, are also taking initiatives to reduce social isolation. Many cities now have boutique style co-working clubs, where home workers can work independently or together. The style is different to a typical business centre – its more coffee bar style combined with work spaces. <br />
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But can all these initiatives overcome the disadvantages of remote working? Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, seems to not think so. She recently and famously issued a memo requiring all home workers to now work from offices. She is of the clear belief that innovation, decision making, turning a company around all require real people working in real time in real offices.<br />
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She may have a point. Despite all the technologies there has been an increase in home workers across the board at least putting in some real office time.<br />
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Whatever the future holds companies and individuals need to find an effective balance. Companies need to balance the cost benefit of home working with the need to create a real and collaborative company spirit and culture. Individuals need to balance the advantages of home working with the need for social interaction and real life engagement with management and colleagues that can help them feel an integral and valued part of the organisation they work for. Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9478454.post-59248930897932445582013-10-30T15:44:00.000+00:002013-10-30T15:44:15.470+00:00Emotional Intelligence<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There are dozens of management theories about what makes a great leader great.<br />
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If we can learn something from each of these, then surely that helps our own development towards becoming a better leader.<br />
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The concept of “social intelligence” has been around since the 1920s, but it wasn’t until 1995, when Daniel Goleman wrote “<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0747528306/extensorlimit-21" target="_blank">Emotional Intelligence</a>”, that this theory was applied to leadership and organisational performance. <br />
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Emotional intelligence grabbed the headlines as the scientific evidence quoted by Goleman suggested that only 20% of a leader’s success is down to IQ with the rest down to EQ (as emotional intelligence is often called).<br />
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People high on emotional intelligence demonstrate a number of characteristics….<br />
<ol>
<li>They’re articulate and engaging…</li>
<li>They’re good team players…</li>
<li>They create positive work climates… It has been reported that Fred Goodwin, the ex CEO of RBS, was authoritarian and cultivated a climate of fear in the corridors of his Edinburgh HQ. Authoritarianism is the antithesis of emotional intelligence….</li>
<li>They know themselves well…</li>
<li>They’re good at coping…</li>
<li>They’re responsive and empathic…</li>
<li>They are very self controlled…</li>
</ol>
Some of these characteristics are deep seated and hard to develop – such as an ability to deal with stress – but the starting point in developing emotional intelligence is through increasing self awareness. <br />
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Research by the Centre for Creative Leadership has found that the primary causes of derailment in leaders are those low in emotional intelligence, particularly in handling change, not being able to work well in a team and poor interpersonal relations.
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What examples have you of working with emotional intelligent leaders? Do you agree that EQ beats IQ hands down every time? Which of the EQ characteristics do you think is most important?
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Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147708982012526671noreply@blogger.com0