Can managers be both agreeable and successful?

In a recent article, Adrian Furnham, professor of psychology at University College London, argued that the most successful business managers are disagreeable people. In his words: "Agreeable people are certainly more popular than disagreeable people. But agreeableness is not an asset in the boardroom, the courtroom or on the battlefield. Being competitive, critical and sceptical of others’ behaviour and motives works well for people in business. You have to be vigilant for the tricks of your competitors. Business is about survival of the fittest: it is not a gentleman’s game."

However, in my opinion, this is complete rubbish!  From a personal perspective, I remain close friends with several of the bosses I have worked extremely hard for in the past and I am still friends with many of the people who have worked for me.

If you are a good manager, friendship, kindness and appreciation are not traits that need to be confused with performance, efficiency and effectiveness.  But what are your views – do you think people work best for a bully or for someone they like?

Click here to read the full article on the Extensor website, or here to read the article by Professor Furnham.

Brilliant Bank Holidays!

Have you ever noticed how Bank Holidays are some of the best days off work you ever have?  They are not like holidays, not like work days and not like the weekend – they are unique!

The reason that they are unlike holidays is because holidays bring with them their own stresses – making sure you get to where you are going, that you have all your luggage, that you remembered the passports and, worst of all, that you don’t waste a single moment of that precious time off!

The reason they are not like weekends is because by the time the Bank Holiday arrives, you have already had the weekend.

Bank Holidays are the best days off because they are a bonus – completely free time.  Not so much that you can plan a holiday and no so little that you can’t achieve anything – just a random day off.  And that is why they are so relaxing!

In fact, the only bad thing about Bank Holidays is that you can’t choose when to have them.  Just think how brilliant it would be if you were told you could chose when to take your Bank Holidays, but why can’t you?

Next time you are planning how you are going to use your annual holiday days, why not plan in one or two “Bank Holidays” of your own?  Schedule in an odd day off, all by itself, with nothing planned for it other than to be lazy and do nothing in particular.

If people say that Bank Holidays are the best days off they ever have, why not have more of them?

Looking After Your Pearls

Recently I got an email entitled “How to Look After Your Pearls”. Being in the personal performance business I opened it expecting some wisdom on life. I was somewhat amused and a little disappointed that it was actually about caring for pearl jewellery. But it got me thinking about what it might have said…..

What are the “pearls” in your life? You might think about pearls of wisdom which have helped you with difficult choices or situations. They might be principles which guide you, enlighten you or simply clarify things for you.

For many of us, the relationships in our lives are like a string of pearls: sometimes prominent around us and sometimes overlooked. Relationships bring some of the most precious experiences in our lives: love, fun, friendship, support, respect, encouragement and validation. They play a pivotal role in our working lives bringing access to monetary reward, intellectual stimulation, information, knowledge and opportunity. How those relationships are working makes the major difference between a good day and a bad day or even a good job versus a bad job.

Like pearls, relationships need some care and attention to be their best. They need regular contact to keep their lustre.

Pearls are susceptible to contaminants like water and perfume. What contaminants creep into relationships? Poor communication? Perceived lack of respect?  Loss of openness and honesty? Forgetfulness? Contaminants are best acknowledged and dealt with quickly and appropriately.

Damaged pearls need attention and replacement or they affect the look and value of the whole. Relationships change over time. We have to face the need to polish them up again or let them go and replace them with more fitting ones.

New pearls – well they may well be valuable assets too. In business, taking the opportunity to make that network call or ring that sales prospect might well lead to new and rewarding things you can’t yet see. A lot of people shy away from networking for all sorts of reasons. But an effective network, well maintained, quickly brings you knowledge, insights, opportunities, connections to others and recommendations. So the investment can pay back many times – you just may not know when.

The email may not have been on the subject I was expecting, but looking after your pearls is definitely good advice.

Hung Parliament

Despite the dire warnings, we have ended up with a "hung parliament". But is this really so bad? After all, many other countries have coped with this situation for years, for example, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Canada, to name but a few.

And is it really so bad for business? When Italy found itself withy a hung parliament the then US President Ronald egan asked the US Ambassador to Italy, Joseph LaPalombara, whether the markets would react badly? “No, Mr President,” answered LaPalombara. “Quite the contrary. Without a single party having a majority, no populist political action will be taken. It will be business as usual. The markets quite like it.

A diametrically opposite view was once put by Lord Reith, who said that the best form of government was a dictatorship tempered by the threat of assassination.

What is your view? Do you think a hung parliament will be good, bad or indifferent for your organisation?

Spring forward

At the end of March, every year the clocks change and I always have to think hard if I am going to lose or gain an hour of sleep. The mantra “spring forward, fall back” helps with my thinking; however it also holds a message about the mood of the upcoming seasons. Spring is about longer days, lighter nights, growth, sunshine, potential and happiness – and maybe “fall” is about nurturing, warmth, reflection, hibernation!

Let’s stick with the spring message. Spring heralds colour, blooming plants, daffodils in the local parks – and our psychology can mirror all that growth and possibility. But sometimes we want to languish in the winter days, spending a little longer under the duvet than we should, wrapping ourselves up and making excuses.

Get a spring in your step, throw off the duvet and abandon the winter – here are some ideas:

1. Write a list of all the easy, simple things that you have done or would like to do that would make you smile or laugh or simply brighten your day – and then do one or two of them, or more! This will get you in the mood to reenergise. My list contained the following: Playing noughts and crosses with the kids, pillow fights, eating a ‘99’ ice cream, listening to Take That, watching a Billy Connelly DVD, having a hazelnut coffee at Starbucks, telling jokes with my mates.

2. Get excited about your goals – talk to others about them, build anticipation about how you will get there, get inspiration from your past successes and from other people. It is important to feel excited so you move towards your goals as excitement is a real magnet.

3. Socialise, don’t be isolated. Spend time with your support network and talk to them, keep it simple, have a coffee, go for a meal, to the cinema, bowling – whatever, but talking and sharing has a hugely positive effect on your energy and motivation.

4. Get outdoors – many GPs state that the most sustainable treatment for depression is exercise – not anti-depressants – and outdoors is the best. Bill Oddie, the BBC presenter of Springwatch, has no doubt that contact with nature has helped his depression. Our caveman friends saw lots of daylight; getting up at sunrise and going to sleep at sunset. Exposure to sunlight for 30 minutes a day helps keep your internal clock set. This circadian rhythm helps to regulate our sleep/wake cycle and insures a good night’s sleep which in turn, helps our physical and mental health.

So, when you read this, it may well be raining, but trust me, spring is here, the daffodils prove it, so pull yourself up and get a spring in your step!

I hope you enjoy the ‘99’ ice cream as much as I did!

Author: Gill McKay

Coping with emergencies

No matter how good you are at maintaining a good work-life balance, unforeseen emergencies will occur and throw your best laid plans out of the window.

How well you cope in a crisis and how quickly your recover from it are both aspects of resilience.  So what are the key approaches that can improve your personal resilience?

First there’s the state you are in when the emergency occurs. The more energy you have in reserve the better able you are to handle a crisis. If there’s already excessive stress in your life, you will have less to draw on to handle the unexpected.  That’s a good enough reason to have a sound work-life balance in the first place! If you already have too much to cope with, what’s going to happen when a crisis hits?

Second, how well prepared you are?  It is amazing how many crises could have been avoided with a bit of additional knowledge or planning.  For example, most people would struggle if they lost all the contact details of people stored in their mobile phone or if they had their laptop stolen, but relatively few people take the trouble to learn how to back-up their important data and to then do so on a regular basis.  Sometimes you can get the impression that people’s approach to the thought of crisis is to convince themselves that it will never happen!

Thirdly there the question of how well you react in a crisis.  Broadly speaking people’s reactions tend to fall into one of three categories; those who freeze with fear, those who panic, and those who act sensibly according to what the situation calls for.  Unfortunately, unless you have ever experienced a real crisis it is impossible to tell how you will react but you can be prepared.  Experts in the field always tell people to slow down, to take deep breaths and not to allow yourself to be rushed into making bad decisions.

Lastly there is the question of how quickly you will recover following a crisis.  There are no quick answers or simple techniques here, but all the experts point to the importance that friends, family and, in extreme cases, professional counsellors can play.

As a final thought, don’t be superstitious! Preparing yourself to better handle emergencies doesn’t make them happen!

Author: Nick Woodeson

Planning for Success

Society is gradually becoming more and more risk-averse – children are being stopped from playing conkers or climbing trees for fear that they might hurt themselves, the annual cheese-rolling competition in Gloucestershire has been cancelled on health and safety grounds, and in the latest act of madness, Northamptonshire Police Force have delayed the introduction of bicycles for its officers until they have each received 10 hours of training.  

The same is true in business where managers are increasingly being encouraged to plan for the worst:  What if we fail?  How much contingency is there in the plan?  Have you completed a risk assessment?

Against this background it is not surprising that very little effort is dedicated to the risk of success.  But just as an unanticipated risk can cause more damage than an anticipated one, so an unanticipated opportunity can result in reduced profitability over one that was anticipated.

Indeed, since profit is, by definition, the reward for risk, it may even be that viewed in a different way, even the risks themselves may present new opportunities.

In the same way as large companies will have contingency plans for the outbreak of Swine Flu, for terrorist attacks or for what would happen if their head office burned down, should they not also dedicate a similar amount of effort to ensure that they are just as prepared if a major competitor went out of business or if demand increased significantly?

Click here to read the main article on the Extensor web site.

Two Cow Capitalism (A Simple Lesson in Economics)

Whoever wrote this should be congratulated on simplifying and explaining an otherwise complex subject.

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

EUROPEAN UNIONISM
You have 2 cows.
The EU takes one because otherwise you would be ‘over-quota’ in milk production, milks it, stores the milk in the form of milk powder in warehouses all over Europe so an not to perversely depress the global price of milk, taxes you to the hilt via your national Government and then gives the money to people who don’t produce milk in exchange for their commitment to continue not producing milk.

CAPITALISM ACCORDING TO INVESTMENT BANKERS
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt-for-equity swap with an associated public offering so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.
You sell one cow to pay yourself a massive bonus, leaving you with nine cows.
When you file for bankruptcy the Government bails you out as what you have done is so complicated that no one knows what the consequences would be if they let you go bankrupt.
The Government then takes the credit for saving the economy while the public is forced to buy your bull.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you wish you had more.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You bred cows at a rate faster than anyone would have believed and sold them all over the world.
Now you have to recall hundreds of thousands of cows due to a milking problem and explain yourself before a Senate committee in the US. However, there is a possibility of you getting off by blaming the udder guy.

A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month and milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don’t know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least you are now a Democracy.

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

A FOOTBALL CORPORATION
You don’t have any money but you would like some cows.
You borrow massive amounts of money from a bank securitised against the value of the cows you then buy.
You pay the cows vast sums of money to play football only to find they are not really very good at it.
When the money runs out you go bankrupt, but it doesn't really matter as you paid yourself fabulously and can now afford to retire.