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Ideas and Insights from the eGurus Community www.eGurus.info 22nd November 2010
Thinking Ahead is a collection of blog posts from members of the eGurus Community. Each contributing author retains their copyright for their individual content. The material contained in this publication is general and is not intended as advice on any particular matter. The authors expressly disclaim all and any liability to any persons whatsoever in respect of anything done by any such person in reliance, whether in whole or in part, on this publication.
22 November 2010
Thinking Ahead www.eGurus.info
ROSS CLENNETT
media and social networking, great tools that they can be, mean many people are starved of human contact, in fact people are telling me they are craving real conversations with real people in real time.
Interview with 2010 FEMA Recruiter of the Year: Neil Galvin from Talent2
When was the last time you met with some one face to face with no agenda just a genuine catch up? My resolve is to stand out by being the king of personal contact. How about you?
NOV 23, 2010 04:57P.M. Be the difference you want to see in the world Ian
Amongst the many awards available at the respective SARAs, FEMAs and REAs, there is only one individual award, and that’s the FEMA Recruiter of the Year. Last year Melbourne-based executive recruiter for McArthur Management Services, Darren Condon-Green took home the prize and this year Sydney-based recruiter for Talent2, Neil Galvin was
Founder Differencemakers Community Catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit
the winner. Originally from the UK, Neil has been
Sign-up here for a least one free resource per month and to get your complimentary copy of my ebook Differencemakers - how doing good is great for business.
DIFFERENCEMAKERS COMMUNITY BLOG NOTES FROM THE WORKPLACE GARDEN
Are your messages cutting through the clutter?
Making a difference NOV 23, 2010 06:48A.M.
NOV 23, 2010 08:53A.M. It’s a great feeling to do some gardening and actually see a substantial difference at the end as a result of your efforts. Recently I requested to work in the backyard garden at the Northey Street City Farm (www.nscf.org.au). This is a small area that has been put together to show people how productive the average backyard can be. It is full of edible plants that are actually harvested and used to make the daily lunch that is prepared for volunteers. Whilst I was involved in a few tasks during the morning, including picking native raspberries (sadly, there weren’t enough to make them into a dish for lunch so we had to eat them ourselves . . . the sacrifices you make as a volunteer!), the task that gave me the most satisfaction was staking the tomato plants.
Once upon a time I could send one email to my contacts in a given city and fill the room for one of my seminars. Not any more. To get 20 people to a seminar recently, in the city where I work the most, and have my largest database, I sent 6 emails to my list over 8 weeks, and made more than 100 phone calls! I also called people to find out why they didn’t respond to what I thought was a very compelling message on a topic that would help them to build a better business faster and give them a competitive edge. The following were the three responses I received the most:
They were a real mess. Whilst some had been staked when planted they had grown so much the stakes were ineffective at keeping the fruit off the ground. The area was also full of weeds which I took great delight in removing along with a few other random plants that had somehow found their way into the bed. By the end of the morning session I felt like I had actually made a difference and given the tomatoes a much better chance of ripening. What do you think?
I don’t reply to emails anymore unless I am specifically asked to? I get so many emails unless they really grab me in the moment I delete them. I would not have given the seminar a second thought if you hadn’t called me. Personal contact stands out today. Are your messages cutting through the clutter? The clear message for me was the power of personal contact. Social
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Prior to the arrival of my client, the receptionist popped her head back into the meeting room and asked whether it would be okay for her to pop downstairs to ‘feed the meter’ for me. I had started to wonder how I was going to manage the parking situation given that a large period of my 60 minutes had been ‘chewed up’ waiting for my client to arrive. The awareness of the receptionist, Crystal, to help me was just terrific. Crystal realised that I might be starting to worry about my car and that the parking issue could end up being a problem for me should the meeting last longer than the now available 30 minutes. To me Crystal’s actions highlight the importance of awareness and how it is directly linked to service excellence. Crystal could not control whether my client’s availability, but she was able to control her awareness to relieve a problem before it occurred.
I realise this will not always be the case. Some days you can put in lots of work and seem to make no visible difference but on the days you do it feels great. It’s the same with being a leader. It is great to make a visible difference. For example, to get your people new equipment that makes
That is exactly what awareness does. It ‘heads problems off at the pass’, before they have a chance to take effect.
their job easier, more pleasant or less stressful. But you also have to get a sense of satisfaction when you do things that aren’t as obvious, like going into bat for an idea at a meeting or setting in motion a change process that will take a long time to implement but will be worthwhile in the end. These efforts aren’t always so visible but they matter.
What are your examples of how awareness has both enhanced service excellence and resolved a problem before it occurred? Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Even those short and seemingly insignificant conversations you have with your team members can make a difference in the long run. I have heard many examples of employees who were blown away by a comment from their manager but the manager never realised at the time the impact their words had. I think that turning up every day, doing your best and having good intentions behind your actions will eventually lead to measurable results. So keep doing your bit to make a difference even if today you can’t see the results.
GIHAN PERERA
Social Media Forum: Free Webinar on Wednesday NOV 22, 2010 05:00P.M.
GARY RYAN
Awareness matters! NOV 23, 2010 05:51A.M. The scene I had been asked to attend a late afternoon meeting with a client in a different part of the city to which my office is located. I decided to drive to the meeting so that I could drive home. As luck would have it, a one hour meter4ed carpark was available immediately outside the client’s building.
What would you like to know, learn, ask, share or contribute about the way you use social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and the like?
Upon arrival the receptionist asked where I had parked. I informed her that I had parked in the one hour zone out the front of the building.
Come along to this webinar, which is an open forum for asking and answering questions about the way you use social media effectively in your business.
I was shown to the meeting room and some cool, fresh water was provided. I was informed that the person I was meeting had been held up in another meeting off-site and was on his way, possibly being 30 minutes late.
This is NOT a presentation by me or anybody else. I’ll facilitate the discussion, but it’s really for us all to share ideas, experiences and expertise.
The moment that mattered
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It’s on Wednesday 24th November, 9-10am W.A. time, noon-1pm AEST, 2-3pm NZ time.
websites, packaging, brochures and newsletters, even in your presentations: this is all copy.
Register here - there’s no cost. The more adept you are at writing copy yourself the better. Often you’ll have the deepest understanding of your customer, which benefits and advantages matter most to them - and equally importantly, their language. You don’t, however, have to do it all yourself. With the emergence of sites such as www.elance.com or the abundance of quality local copywriters you can always outsource good creative content. As with any outsourcing, though, the clearer your overall understanding of what makes good copy great, the better your results.
BILL JENNINGS FROM TIME & SPACE
Good Man Profile # 1 NOV 22, 2010 04:56P.M. This week I’m passing on the insights of some Year 7 boys (about 13 years old) and their dads (or mentors) from a school in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
Let’s start at the top:
In the last blog post, the question was raised, ‘What are the characteristics of a good man?’ Headlines: Nothing grabs your reader like a headline. Make it controversial, make it witty, make it stand out. Catch your readers’ attention. Look at newspapers, and daily news websites. They’re experts at the headlines. They’re punchy. And they point to one of two things: people’s pains or dreams. To test this out I just picked up a paper. The headline? Clinging To Hope. That’s a golden headline as it points to both: pains and dreams.
Here’s what one dad wrote... I remember as a small boy my family travelling in the car & my dad stopping to help a drunk woman on the footpath. It spoke to my heart deeply & I have never forgotten the impact in regards to loving those in need. What are the characteristics of a good man? Or, who is a good man that you know and why is he a good man?
The First Paragraph: call it our limited concentration spans, call it limited time, call it what you will. The first paragraph is the most important. This needs to do two specific things.
You are welcome to write your thoughts in the space below. Give your answer. Share your story. Bill Jennings http://www.time-space.com.au
1. Hook your reader. 2. Give us much of the relevant information as possible.
MICHAEL NEAYLON
As we don’t have any guarantees that people will read anything past our first paragraph it’s important we get us much of the important info upfront without overwhelming our reader. That’s why hooking them with an offer, a quick story, or a tantalizing overview is helpful. The bonus is that if you give your reader a seductive first paragraph then they’ll be more likely to read on.
Creating Killer Copy NOV 22, 2010 03:36P.M.
Think Benefits: Picture your ideal client. What’s in this for them? More time with their kids? More money to escape them? What keeps them up at night? What pressing problem can your solution solve? We’ve discussed these before, yet as many clients struggle with this differentiation (and I’ve also worked to get my head around this), I think it worth revisiting. Always think about what’s in it for your audience.
The more compelling your copy, the greater your chance of captivating your audience - on-line, off-line, in sales letters, sales scripts, on
Rhythm: Play with the language. Dance with it. Let it swing and sway.
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Have a conversation with your reader. In any environment this is much more memorable than data dumping.
to link up.
If you’re a retailer or wholesaler please feel free to let us know about your Christmas or New Year sales. We’ll gladly advertise here at no charge over the next couple of editions. First in, best dressed.
Tone: On top ranked multi-million dollar TV series they conduct tone meetings very early on in the episode’s life. That’s how important it’s seen. For our purposes, seek to match the tone of you and your brand with that of your audience and / or offering. At the time of writing this I’m also writing for a major telco. In their brand file they’re big on two things: the tone of their brand and the best way to match it to their audience.
Your Event This fortnight it’s our distinct pleasure to welcome Woody Woodhouse to the stage.
Exercise The 10% Rule: This is something I picked up from master storyteller Stephen King. He says in his excellent book, On Writing, that
Woody is a successful MC, musician, performer, presenter and teacher with over 15 years experience. Woody has performed and produced
a major turning point in his career was when he took the advice of an editor to trim all his writing by 10%.
entertainment for GPT, Lend Lease, Perpetual, McDonalds, Stockland and many other large companies. He has also performed at and MC’d many small company events, weddings and private gatherings.
End With A Call To Action: Take an offering you’re passionate about and write a paragraph to sell it to someone whose life you know will be the better for it. By taking the tone that you know it will benefit for them - and that they’ll happily accept your offer - you won’t be data dumping, forcing, manipulating or delivering a sermon - you’ll be helping out a friend. And that, in my mind, is killer copy. Give your reader no other option but to call you now.
Find out more about Woody here
That article’s a snippet from the book. I’d love your feedback. Does it help? Need to know more? Email me
Like the Brand Stand? Please forward to a friend or colleague to sign up here
Your People
To your success Michael Neaylon
Author of the forthcoming book ‘Marketing Makeovers: How to Bring in Big Money for Your Small Business’.
This week we’re sending out invites to get more people onto our facebook page as the blog gets updated there and gets increasingly good response. We also have a growing network of businesses joining so encourage you
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DR JENNY BROCKIS
time even when driving familiar routes?
How good is your sense of direction?
When we are finding our way from point A to point B we can use visual cues such as landmarks, to help orientate ourselves and work out where to go. This is called spatial navigation strategy. Or we can use our sense of “autopilot” turning left and right in a series of repetitions to get to our destination. This is similar to what we experience when using a GPS.
NOV 22, 2010 10:47A.M.
Researchers from McGill University have been conducting studies using fMRI scans to show that when we use landmarks as cues i.e. our spatial navigation system, we activate our hippocampus, the area of our brain that is involved in memory and navigation, and how we can devise short cuts and new routes. As we age, our brain appears to look for less effort. Studies have shown that younger brains tend to spontaneously use the spatial approach, while older brains go for the response strategy. This change may not be good for us. Our hippocampus is one of the first areas to be involved in Alzheimer’s disease where we lose the ability to orientate ourselves in space and also develop memory problems. More studies now indicate that if we continue to practice using our spatial memory, then we may be able to maintain our hippocampal function as we age. Those who practice spatial strategies maintain a greater amount of grey matter in the hippocampus and perform better on standardised cognitive testing. Associate Prof Veronique Bohbot from McGill University has suggested that we use spatial memory techniques as a means of building cognitive reserve.
One of my 21st Birthday presents was a calculator, given to me by my then boyfriend. Pretty exciting, huh? Yes, I thought so too at the time. The thing was, calculators were just coming in to regular use and it was actually a big deal having one’s own pocket calculator. Not that it would have fitted into a pocket, as it was the size of a brick.
So you don’t have to toss your GPS into the bin. However, maybe it is a good idea to turn it off for routine driving routes and use it only “as needed”. Taking those extra couple of minutes to work out your route and using visual cues will keep your brain working better for longer.
At the time, some people were expressing concern about their introduction saying it would erode our ability to do maths. In my case as someone who could never do maths it meant I might actually get the answers right from time to time.
(From studies presented by McGill University Montreal, Quebec, at the Annual Society of Neuroscience Meeting 2010.) Related Posts
Now it is hard to imagine not having a calculator to either do the sums for us or to double check we have the correct answer.
• Our brain reveals it has a second way to store memory.
Today, I now hear similar concerns being expressed about the use of other technologies such as the GPS, the “must have” navigation tool in our cars to allow us to get to our required destination. Now that I have to put my reading glasses on to be able to read the street names on the map, maybe that’s not such a bad thing either. Or is it?
• What Is The One Most Important Thing You Can Do To Keep Your Memory Razor Sharp? • Why speaking more than one language is good for your brain. • DHA (fish oil) Of No Benefit Once Alzheimer’s Disease Is Present.
Maps have traditionally been used to help us get from our current location to a new point that we weren’t familiar with. This could be finding a particular store in an unfamiliar suburb, or negotiating around different towns when on holiday.
• Are today’s 70 year olds smarter than their predecessors? • Women:The face of Alzheimer’s disease.
But how many people now have their Tom-Tom® or GPS “on” all the
• Why Our Brains Need Us To Walk
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• Now we know our brain has two methods of learning.
bit.
• How stress affects our kids brains too.
Other theories
• Kids brains need exercise to be able to learn.
There have been other theories of late, such as a diet rich in omega-3 fats from fish helps protect against acne, but there is no clear link between other aspects of the diet and pimples. There has been conjecture that dairy foods, like skim milk, increases the risk of acne by increasing Insulin-like Growth Factor (IGF-1) production, a hormone that elevates the sex hormones that cause acne. The jury is out on that one. The most convincing evidence remains for the high Glycaemic Load diet.
GLENN CARDWELL
Food and Zits NOV 21, 2010 11:27P.M.
What does it all mean? For a start, there doesn’t seem much point in trying to scare those with acne into thinking that avoiding jelly beans and soft drink is a solution. Avoiding the occasional treat is hardly going rid the skin of pimples. What is clear is that it has been particularly difficult to isolate one aspect of the diet that promotes or defends against acne, meaning that other factors are unavoidable, with adolescent hormones being an obvious one. For example, when you lower the Glycaemic Load of the diet (ie get people to eat better), people of ample size often lose weight and one wonders if the weight loss is equally helpful as low Glycaemic Index (GI) foods in reducing the incidence of zits.
About a year ago I wrote about the link between chocolate and pimples and found the evidence poor. Since then there have been a couple of reviews of the diet data so I thought I would share them with you.
On the other hand, eating well seems to be the most effective way to put diet in your corner for the acne battle. Choosing low GI foods is helpful, except GI is such a difficult physiological concept to get across, so maybe just telling people to eat mainly minimally processed foods will help. Getting them to do so is not so easy.
Good parent, bad teenager
References:
Parents have long handed out dietary advice to reduce pimple production, seemingly based more on socially accepted dogma (avoid sugar, soft drinks and confectionery) rather than any good quality research. No doubt, it suited the good parent/bad teenager model of family life. Since the turn of the century there has been some, but not many, well designed studies to try and determine whether our diet does influence acne.
Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 2010; 63: 124-141 Clinics in Dermatology 2010; 28: 12-16
Glycaemic Load I took a look at a couple of review papers and both agree that the best evidence is that a low Glycaemic Load diet has the greatest ability to control pimples, that is, a diet that has the least effect on blood glucose levels. For example, it means less rice crackers and crispbreads, cornflakes, crumpets, one-minute oats and more fruit, legumes, nuts, vegetables and dairy foods. Of course, many people are adamant that certain foods trigger their acne, and there is no argument from me. It is plausible that for some folk specific foods or greasy takeaways can be manifest on their face the next morning. Trying to give general anti-acne diet advice to all is the tricky
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GLENN CARDWELL
BETTER CONFERENCE CALLS
Vinegar and your Blood Glucose
The Three Key Roles in a Conference Call
NOV 21, 2010 11:24P.M.
NOV 21, 2010 10:45A.M. There are three key roles in a conference call: • Organiser: You’re the person who schedules, arranges and brings the conference call together. You might also be on the conference call itself as the “host”, either participating actively or playing more of an administrative role managing the technology. • Chair: You’re the person running the meeting during the conference call itself, just like the chair of a face-to-face meeting. • Participant: You’re a participant in the conference call. Of course, this includes the chair as well. There’s some overlap between these roles, and they’re not necessarily always done by different people. However, all three roles are important, and all play a part in making the conference call successful.Each of the three roles has different objectives. It’s important to know these objectives as well, so the call runs smoothly.
When you eat well you limit the excursions in your blood glucose levels, generally making it easier to control your weight, your pimples and your diabetes, should they be problems. It has been known for some time that adding a tablespoon of vinegar to a meal (eg vinegar in your salad dressing) can reduce the blood glucose response to the meal by 30%.
Different people take on different responsibilities during the call. Broadly, the organiser takes on primary responsibility before and after the call, and hands over responsibility to the chair and participants for the call itself.
The theory is that adding vinegar to a meal slows down the rate at which food empties from the stomach and enters the small intestine for digestion, therefore slowing the absorption of glucose. A recent paper (Eur J Clinical Nutrition 2010; 64: 727-732) indicates that the vinegar effect is more pronounced after high GI meals and not the low GI meals we suggest for good health (and less zits). They used a wine vinegar. I assume the effect is still present with a flavoursome 4clover leaf balsamic.
Note that we’re only talking here about responsibility for the call. Everybody involved must still take personal responsibility for their own outcomes. Chair Your main objective is to conduct the business of the call, whatever that business happens to be. Even if a meeting is dominated by a vocal minority – or even a vocal majority – that doesn’t mean their view should prevail. It’s up to you as chair to manage the call so the overall objective is met. Organiser Your main objective is to help the chair achieve this objective. Think of your role as removing obstacles for the chair – things like: • Technology obstacles • Scheduling obstacles • Preparation obstacles
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• Agenda obstacles
But many men are not parents. So the question... ‘what are the characteristics of a good man?’, has stayed with me.
• Participant obstacles The thought has occurred that many would have their own answer to this question. So this week, I’ll be blogging a fraction more than usual. The journalist asked a fine question. I suspect that my own answer will always be incomplete but I’ll give you what I’ve got after the next few posts. The next posts will present the answers some others have offered some men and some Year 7 boys who wrote their thoughts on this theme at a recent Time & Space program in Ballarat.
• Time obstacles Focus on the things that make the chair’s life easier.Participant Your main objective is to contribute appropriately to meeting this objective. Your contribution will take on different forms, depending on your formal job description, your expertise, your seniority, your brief, who else is involved in the call and other factors. However, keep in mind the overall objective of the call, and use that to guide your contribution.
And feel free to offer your own answer here in the space below - ‘What are the characteristics of a good man?’ Bill Jennings http://www.time-space.com.au/
BILL JENNINGS FROM TIME & SPACE SAM MAXWELL
Copping a good question
Michael “the Emu” Freiberg to ride International Track Cycling Grand Prix this weekend
NOV 21, 2010 02:22A.M. I copped a real poser recently - a great question that has seeped into my mind and heart. It went something like this... What are the characteristics of a good man?
NOV 19, 2010 10:10P.M.
I was asked this during a phone interview for The Mercury in Tasmania.
Australian cyclist Michael Freiberg, the newest edition to the Sam Maxwell Sports Management stable will be looking to burn up the track tomorrow evening at the Chevron Australia, 2010 Perth International Track Cycling Grand Prix.
So many questions shoot off from this. Can’t the same characteristics be those of a good woman? How is it possible to be definitive? I remember running a panicky inner dialogue something along these lines, “Oh no, that’s a tough one... c’mon Bill you’re the parent-child program guy... you should know the answer... all your work started in the father-son area... she’s trying to write some good news about the two boys’ schools you work for in Tassie... c’mon Bill, say something profound and expert-y’.
The event will see the Commonwealth Games gold and silver medallist alongside fellow Australian representatives in Cameron & Travis Meyer, Josie Tomic, Melissa Hoskins, Sarah Kent, Jack Bobridge, and Scott Sunderland. Joining the Australians are a host of world class international riders from the USA, Canada, The Netherlands, South Africa, Lithuania, China, the Philippines, as well as a full-strength German team that includes the Union Cyclist International No. 1 ranked sprinter, Tobias Wachter.
My recollection is suggesting something about how a good man can regulate his anger. A lot of blokes push all of their emotions through the funnel of anger because paradoxically, anger feels ‘safe’ - it is standard ‘bloke’ mode.... and just because your blogger runs parent-child programs, doesn’t mean he doesn’t go ‘off-tap’ on occasions. C’mon - I’ve got two teenage kids!
The Grand Prix will be the first time that Perth will be able to see Freiberg and the whole Australian Track Cycling team in action since its dominant performance at the Games. A packed crowd is expected at the Speeddome with the few remaining tickets available for purchase through Ticketmaster.
I think I might have said something about the man, who is a dad, giving his kids time... not even quality time, just time.
Doors open at 4.30pm with qualifying starting at 5pm. Finals will begin at 7pm before an expected finishing time of 10.30pm. Additional information is available from VenuesWest.
That’ll do I thought. In one sense, the answer given captured the two things I have to say (at this stage) to parents... 1. No one is perfect. 2. Half the battle is ‘being there’.
On a lighter note, Freiberg will be pleased that tomorrow’s race is indoors and not in the hills of Mundaring where he was last week attacked by an Emu while training.
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Originally posted on Twitter, the story appeared in The Sunday Times last week with Freiberg declaring that it was “the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me on a bike”.
To have a vision, you have to allow yourself to imagine something that doesn’t presently exist. Author Jonathan Swift said “Vision is the art of seeing the invisible”.
“I was out training through Mundaring and I was climbing up through the weir and the emu ran out of the bushes behind me. It started running up the road behind me,” he said.
It’s so nebulous, but so important.
“I started sprinting and looking behind and it crossed the road and disappeared into the bushes. I’ve seen kangaroos before, but I didn’t even think there were emus out there”.
_____________
Given his height, size and speed, the name Michael “Emu” Freiberg seems to have stuck!
GIHAN PERERA
21st Century Marketing Tactics for Speakers
DIFFERENCEMAKERS COMMUNITY BLOG
Vision - Strategy’s Secret Sauce
NOV 19, 2010 04:00P.M.
NOV 19, 2010 06:17P.M.
I noticed that Chris Brogan and Rohit Bhargava, two Internet experts I respect, have both recently written blog posts about how to get speaking engagements.
Most strategic planning starts with a discussion of “What’s your vision?” and that’s the first place where people get stuck. Everyone gets frustrated with trying to “wordsmith” the perfect vision statement. I prefer to think of a business strategy having a “built-in” vision. I find that a vision tends to crystallize during the strategy discussion.
Both posts are well-written, well-considered and highly valuable for all experts who want to do more speaking. They talk about making it easy for people to find you, sharing your expertise on-line, building your personal brand, and more.
Why is vision important? In particular, I like this particular thing Chris Brogan says: Strategy needs vision to give it life. Without vision you have no direction, and are stuck doing what you’ve always done. Without direction, you have no clarity about where you want to go and what you want your business to be.
“If you’re not blogging about your message, no one knows what you’re going to say on their stage.” Here are the full blog posts:
Vision gives you focus. Without an understanding of your vision, your staff have no clarity about the organization’s purpose or what they should be doing to achieve it. That’s demotivating. Without a unified sense of purpose, performance suffers. There is a wastage and leakage of energy, rather than a sense of “pulling together”.
• Chris Brogan: Build a Stage for Public Speaking • Rohit Bhargava: Why I Get Invited To Speak At Events (And How You Can Too)
Ambitious and energetic people like working in an organization that has a clear sense of direction. If the business seems to be drifting, they are likely to look elsewhere for a position where their contribution can have more impact.
Even if you’re an experienced speaker, don’t look down your nose at their advice. They’re talking about how speakers should be marketing now, in today’s interconnected Web 2.0 world. And that’s important for all of us!
I’m sure you’ve heard all this before. It’s very easy to say “We need a vision”. So why is it so hard to have one? To have a vision, you need to be able to imagine something beyond the current reality; something you haven’t seen before. It should be aspirational, rather than a statement of the current situation. A vision is not just an incremental step. Your vision might not currently be possible, but could be achievable over a given time-frame. It’s important to have a unique pathway in mind.
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DIFFERENCEMAKERS COMMUNITY BLOG
DIFFERENCEMAKERS COMMUNITY BLOG
Reinvention and Redefinition signs of the times
Why workplace trust is a challenge
NOV 19, 2010 09:48A.M.
NOV 19, 2010 05:34A.M.
In the past 2 weeks I have given several presentations in Australia, Macau and United Kingdom; all to senior business leaders, and on two occasions for large corporations with significant brand recognition. There has been a reoccurring theme - redefinition and reinvention.
The challenge with workplace trust, whether from leaders to employees or employees to leaders or employees to employees is that to trust another person you must be willing to be vulnerable. That is, the act of trusting someone means that you are opening yourself up to the ‘risk’ that whoever you are trusting could ‘break’ your trust.
Like it or not business leads the way forward. In a recent interview the Managing Director of McKinsey, Dominic Barton, said the common theme of his interviews with over 300 CEO’s in the past 12 months is transformation.
You see, trust cannot be broken unless it is given in the first place.
If successful businesses are focusing on redefining, reinventing, or transforming themselves, what does this suggest for us?
This is one of the factors that makes trust within an organisation so hard.
Whether this be from leader to employees, or from employees to leaders. The same is true.
This week I have also taken some time to tune in to the Reinvention summit organised by Michael Margolis of Get Storied fame, and others. The stories we tell others and the ones we tell ourselves are key to our evolution and growth, and to our willingness and ability to make a difference. What stories are you telling?
In this context leaders must be able to demonstrate that they are willing to be vulnerable by trusting employees, and employees need to demonstrate that they too are willing to be vulnerable by trusting their leaders.
In Birmingham United Kingdom last Tuesday I was asked by a member of the group I presented to How often do you reinvent yourself and how often do you redesign what you do and how you do it?
I’m suggesting that trust is built by demonstrating trust and being open to the vulnerabilities that come with trusting others.
I answered daily, weekly, fortnightly, quarterly, yearly and that I have specific processes and methodologies for doing so. How about you? Be the difference you want to see in the world Ian Founder Differencemakers Community Catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit
What are your experiences of organisational trust? Gary Ryan is the founder of Organisations That Matter and has published his popular first book What Really Matters For Young Professionals!
Sign-up here for a least one free resource per month and to get your complimentary copy of my ebook Differencemakers - how doing good is great for business.
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22 November 2010
ANN ROLFE’S MENTORING WORKS BLOG Times may be tough now but times change. Markets expand and contract. There is an ebb and flow in skills demand and people compete for jobs. What does not change is our need for relationships that provide encouragement and support, a sounding board for ideas and a stimulus for new thinking. We need conversations that are both nurturing and challenging so that we see options, make choices and are empowered to
Resilience NOV 18, 2010 06:48P.M. What is it that allows people to bounce back from misfortune? How do some thrive in spite of adversity? Why do some recover stronger than they were before, after a crisis?
take action. That’s how mentoring works.
Over twenty years ago, Australia was hit with the “3 Rs”: recession, restructures and redundancies. The impact of job loss, or the fear of it, was catastrophic for people who were let go and many who staid. I was privileged to work with hundreds of people in what was known as career transition, teaching the fourth “R”, resilience.
GIHAN PERERA
Out Of Office NOV 18, 2010 06:43P.M.
My mentor was Paul Stevens, founder of Worklife, a pioneering Australian company leading the field in career counseling. Paul’s own experience had shaped the formula he shared. I was one of a team of trainers imparting the tools and techniques that would enable people to regain control of their lives and shape their future, rather than remain victims of circumstances. In workshops, people were able to look at their values, prioritise what was really important, assess their skills, interests and preferences and take stock of wants and needs, desires and constraints. We equipped people with job-seeking, resumé writing and interview skills and encouraged them not to take just any job but to target occupations that would bring them satisfaction. It was radical stuff for shell-shocked bank managers who’d only ever known one employer, insurance super-sales people suddenly told their services were no longer required and IT people in shrinking computer companies.
In previous podcasts, we’ve talked about ways in which the Internet helps you work with people who aren’t in the same office, the same city or even the same time zone. Today we’re going to put a structure around that, and explain a number of options to help you use the Internet to get get more freedom in your work life.
A few years later, I was running the same sort of workshops but this time they were called “career development” and aimed at empowering and retaining talented staff. Some of these were people who had tons of potential, great skills and valuable corporate knowledge but who did not know that they could proactively manage their career and their future. Some were people with clear ideas of where they wanted to go who felt confined by their circumstances and some were high-flyers, very successful in their roles yet unsatisfied and unfulfilled.
Download the MP3 File Subscribe to the podcast here. Notes The Out Of Office lifestyle can take a number of different forms – and broadly we’re going to describe three of them:
Both career transition and career development involve enabling people to effectively manage change. Resilience and empowerment, in the context of career, are the same. Paul Stevens’ formula allowed people to take stock of themselves then chart a course forward. When people feel they have no choice, they feel powerless and that they have no control over life. In other words, they are victims of circumstance. On the other hand, choice = power = control. So understanding that there are choices is a first step.
1. The “Cross-Worker”, or part-time telecommuter, who spends part of their working week Out Of Office – for example, in a home office. 2. The “E-Worker”, or full-time telecommuter, who spends all their work time Out Of Office, but in a separate office (such as a home office).
A mentor does not just preach “positive thinking”, they demonstrate a positive attitude combined with a practical approach. A mentoring conversation allows a person look at where they are, where they want to be and develop strategies for getting there. The mentor shares the journey as plans are implemented.
3. The “Digital Nomad”, or location-independent worker, who also spends all their work time Out Of Office, but isn’t necessarily confined to a single work place.
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For each of these three scenarios, we’ll consider three factors: • You – and the main purpose in choosing this situation • Your Team (colleagues, clients, suppliers and others) – and the way you interact with them • The World (everybody else outside your work environment) – and how you engage with it
Cross-Worker The first real Out of Office environment we’ll consider is the “CrossWorker”, or part-time telecommuter. Again, you have fixed working hours, but now you have two workplaces – typically your office and your home. Some of your colleagues might also be doing the same, or they might not. This applies to business owners as well. For example, in the early days of his business, Gihan made a decision to spend Fridays away from the office - deliberately cut off from clients and client work.
Off-Siter In fact, we’ll start with a situation most workers find themselves in, which is not one of the three Out of Office situations, but is very common.
• Your purpose now is convenience, because you can schedule other things around your “at home” days • You’re not isolated from your team, and you need to cooperate with them when they need your help (and vice versa). However, you don’t necessarily have to be as fully available to them on your Out of Office days, because you do spend some time in the office each week. So it’s more a matter of managing access and ensuring you are available if needed.
The typical office environment is where you work full-time from a common office - that is, you have fixed working hours, and a fixed workplace. This is sometimes disparagingly referred to as being a “desk jockey”. If you do work from somewhere else, it’s rare and usually because you want to work “off site” for some reason – for example, when you need quiet, uninterrupted time to focus on an important task. This is, strictly speaking, working “out of office”, but it’s only a small part of your work life.
• You do still need to keep out the world, because it’s tempting to be distracted and unproductive on your Out of Office days.
If we look at You, Your Team and The World: • Your purpose is to focus, and eliminate distractions • You remain separate from your team – in other words, this is “Do Not Disturb” time • You shut out the world, so it doesn’t distract you
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The E-Worker
Digital Nomad
The next Out of Office scenario is that of the full-time telecommuter, who either works from home away from colleagues or doesn’t have any colleagues - that is, a solopreneur. You still have fixed working hours, and now have just one fixed workplace – but it’s a home office rather than the shared office.
Our final Out of Office scenario is the Digital Nomad, where you get maximum flexibility, not just in where you work but also when you work. You have no fixed workplace, and you often don’t have fixed working hours either. This is often seen as being only possible for independent business owners, and that’s certainly the most common scenario; however, that isn’t necessarily the case. Even full-time employees can live a Digital Nomad work style, if they choose it and their employer accommodates it.
We’re dealing with this differently from the Cross-Worker, because in this situation you don’t have the luxury of spending time in the office each week. So you’re more fully committed to a home office, and need to set it up accordingly.
• Your purpose now is freedom – to live by your rules, and still get paid to do so
• Your purpose is primarily the comfort of working full-time from home.
• You now need to accommodate your team (and clients), because they don’t necessarily know when and how you’ll be available in their work day
• Your interaction with your team is now different. It’s no longer good enough to simply cooperate when required; you need to be able to collaborate with them, as effectively as you would face-toface. • meetings, chat rooms, sharing documents
• Finally, you have the opportunity to embrace the world – for example, by spending some time each year in a new city or even a foreign country
• You now let in the world, in order to call on them for help, and also to avoid the social isolation of a full-time telecommuter.
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Summary
even if he does tend to wander off on tangents on a regular basis. The section on the garden is proving quite interesting, particularly hearing about how gardening styles have changed over the centuries and who have been the key influencers.
There’s a lot of overlap between these areas, so we’re not suggesting you have to fit into only one of them. But it’s convenient to think of them this way, and make smart choices.
There is one name I have heard mentioned before but never knew the story behind it. The man is Lancelot Brown, or as he became known Capability Brown, and he was influential in the mid to late 1800s in England. He developed a reputation for being able to look an estate and to announce that it had “capabilities” and hence the famous nickname. The truth is he could also have been called Drainage Brown as he was responsible for installing complex drainage systems in gardens that are still working 250 years later. He designed a number of famous British gardens and changed the way that people thought about landscaping. Now that doesn’t mean he was popular with everyone. There were actually plenty of people around who didn’t like his “modern take” on gardening but enough did that he made a healthy living and earned a
GARY RYAN
Teams That Matter Webinar Recording NOV 18, 2010 02:48P.M. Webinar Recording, November 2010. Gary Ryan introduces the seven key elements for creating Teams That Matter. High performing teams are rare, but they don’t have to be. Discover the key elements that will help you to create a high performing Team That Matters.
solid reputation that lives on until this day in gardening circles.
Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Wouldn’t it be nice to think that you might have that type of reputation in your industry or organisation. The thing about reputations is that, like personalities, we all have one. It’s just a matter of whether it is positive or negative, whether it is one that people want to emulate or one that people use as an example of how not to lead. When I starting writing this post I have to admit that, unfortunately, the leadership reputations that immediately came to mind were things like:
NOTES FROM THE WORKPLACE GARDEN
Slash and burn . . . cut costs to make yourself look good but leave a path of destruction
Please contact me if you would like to learn more about how I can help you create a Team That Matters.
What is your reputation as a leader?
Seagull . . . swoop in, make a mess then leave Phantom . . . be such a mystery that no one can recognise you
NOV 18, 2010 06:19A.M. So then I had to get thinking much harder to come up with some positive leadership reputations I have encountered. Now remember, as with Capability Brown, not everyone will appreciate these styles and sometimes their true value will not become clear for a long time. So have you ever encountered the: Visionary . . . makes decisions that will create long term benefit even if they don’t benefit them personally in the short term Teacher . . . passes on their knowledge for others to benefit from Enabler . . . helps people to realise their own potential and puts their needs first If you can think of any other positive leadership reputations to add to my list then please comment below. I am currently reading the latest book by my favourite author Bill Bryson. Called “At Home: A short history of private life”, it analyses the past to look at why we live the way we do by explaining where certain household items, terms and practices came from. It is fascinating stuff,
These are the kinds of reputations organisations want to get out in the marketplace to help us attract good people and to retain the good people they already have. Whilst having one senior leader with a great reputation is a good start, the ideal is to have a whole team of them so
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that the leadership style stays consistent (the subject of another recent post). So what are you going to do this month, this week or even today to start building a positive reputation as a leader? Who can you look to, from the present or the past, as inspiration? What do you want to be remembered for, long after you have gone?
• Stay in touch Quality networking is about who you’re talking to and more importantly, what you are talking about. Network with intent. Hang out with smart people. Add enormous value to the conversation and their world. It’s not just who you know that‘s important anymore, it’s also what they know. It’s the convergence of networks and knowledge that matter now.
MATT CHURCH
Who you know is important, and what they know is even more so!
M@
NOV 17, 2010 08:09P.M.
GIHAN PERERA
Matt Church
Make More Sales By Invoking the Principle of Reciprocity
It is no longer enough to be the most connected person in your field. The data deluge and information overload we all experience has increased the demand for quality. Once upon a time we networked with a volume intent. This involved getting as many business cards as you could from the room. Now it’s as many friends on Facebook or followers on Twitter you can get. The aim was to get as many business cards as you could so you could flog them stuff and hassle them after. I have no idea what the future of Facebook or Twitter is, or even what’s around the corner. What I do know is this… a quality network is more valuable than a large one over the long term.
NOV 17, 2010 04:00P.M. A researcher conducted an experiment in 1971 to determine how he could influence people to buy from strangers. In his experiment, two people were invited to take part in an “art appreciation study”. However, unbeknownst to the other, one of them was a stooge planted by the researcher.
The Thought Leaders Directory 2011, is this week’s gift, and will give you an introduction to some of the Thought Leaders in the community.
During a short break, the stooge left the room and returned a short time later. In some cases, he returned with two cans of Coke, one of which he offered to the other person as a gift. In other cases, he returned emptyhanded.
When I created Thought Leaders in 2001, it was driven by a double need. Firstly, the need to improve the quality of my thinking and secondly, to improve the quality of my connections. Henry Ford said that you should surround yourself with people smarter than you and get out of their way. This has certainly been my experience. Indeed the quality of my network is directly proportional to my personal growth. Better thinking leads to better conversations. From there, anything is possible.
Later, in a seemingly unrelated way, the stooge said that he was selling raffle tickets, and offered them to the other person. The researchers discovered that the people who had been given a free Coke bought twice as many tickets as those who hadn’t! This is the rule of reciprocity: When you do somebody a favour, they feel an obligation to return the favour.
Here are some ideas for building a quality network... • Meet with people live
It doesn’t even matter if you like the other person. In a variation of the experiment, the stooge did various things that made him likable or disagreeable to the subject. Even when the stooge was rated as not likable, the subject still felt the urge to repay the favour.
• Present at gatherings • Handwrite notes
It goes even further. In another variation of the experiment, the stooge who gave the gift said “The Coke machine accidentally gave me two cans, so here’s one for you.” Even in this case - when the gift was seemingly the result of an accident - the subject still felt obliged to buy more raffle tickets.
• Care a bit about their world • Grow and learn • Meet and share
How do you use this on your Web site? • Discuss ideas not people You’ve probably figured out already while reading this that one very effective technique is to give away something free on your site. It could
• Be your best value in the relationship
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be a free e-book, a useful spreadsheet, a free entry in a competition, a gift voucher, a self-assessment quiz, a free sample, a training course, or any number of other similar things.
Sales Strength: The key to building a muscle is repetition. You often need to do at least 4 sets to concentrate on that particular muscle to attack it. You might keep a particular routine for a certain period of time and then change your entire routine. It’s a paradox: just when the muscle is built through repetition, and your body has found a way to cheat (we don’t go out of our way to cheat, we just find little tricks and shortcuts), you purposely attack the muscle differently. You shock the muscle out of comfortable and stretch it in new ways. The same goes for sales campaigns. Just when you’ve found an approach that works, one that you’re comfortable repeating and you hit a peak it’s time to try a new strategy. This will keep you fresh in your sales approach.
One particularly effective technique is to write a special report that establishes your credibility and promotes your business. This report is a simple document you create in Microsoft Word and convert to PDF. In it, you identify the top 5, 7 or 10 problems your clients and customers face, and then you briefly describe how to solve them. Don’t fill it with promotional material for your business - focus on providing value, and let the reciprocity principle work its magic for you.
Keep Up Your Cardio: Part of overall fitness is being physically fast and adept. This keeps you reflexive and responsive- great for new or challenging campaigns. It will also help with the only constant in sales: change. Just any good trainer will encourage you to mix up your cardio to keep interest, mix up your sales routine. Give it some variety, make it
MICHAEL NEAYLON
Sales Fitness NOV 17, 2010 02:54P.M.
fun. Without losing focus, give your sales routine variety. Plus, a tactic or approach you discover in a meeting on one campaign you might be able to transfer to a phone call on another. Another tip from a trainer; my personal trainer told me after we’d been working on perfecting my pushups for a while to just do as many as I possibly could simply to stretch myself. Some days I do the same with phone calls or meetings. I just dive in and do as many as possible. I keep doing this because the results are always such a good return on energy, and it always increases my sales fitness. When’s the best time to do this? On the days you least feel like it. (I didn’t say it was easy). Stretch Between Sets: This is one of the biggest sanity savers. I find people either fall into 2 camps. The constant doer or the person who works best in short, sharp bursts. Neither is better than the other in my mind. Both work. Sometimes the same sales person will go through periods of both ways of working. However, you’ll generally fall into one pattern or the other. Either way, pace yourself, and give yourself downtime between sets. Whether it’s the long marathons of travel or back to back meetings, give yourself time to recover, breathe and stretch wherever you can. You’ll have renewed energy and vigour for the next sale.
Here’s a quick power workout to increase your sales stamina. Sales, for the most part, are an energy game. Depending on the sales environment you also require different degrees of strong communication and interpseronal skills, such as rapport building and maintianing client relatiionships, Then there’s your personal, product or service presentation to think about - sometimes all three, often all at once. You’ve also got to be a swift and adept information and research gatherer.
Recovery: One of the best lessons personal training has taught me is that we can often bounce back much faster than we think. Much, much faster. In sales we can bounce back from rejections, disappointments, time wasted on fruitless leads and any other of the mistakes made in strategy or execution. The key is in reminding ourselves that we can. I found abs challenging for quite some time until my trainer told me that abs are highly resilient if exercised properly. You might feel like you hit the point of exhaustion. That’s when it’s good to dig deep. You’ll be surprised how much you have in reserve. Perhaps you, like me, will find that the last call of the day, the one you had to force yourself to do, is in fact the most fruitful.
For this workout let’s start with the energy. Let’s get sales fit. Warming Up: Most warm ups only need to be brief. Whether it’s the Monday morning meeting or choosing the list you’re going to work with, you only need to get warm. You don’t need to do the whole workout before you actually work out. Why? You’ll lose too much energy in analyzing that could actually be spent on doing. I’m not saying that strategy isn’t important. Far from it. But don’t get bogged down in how to play the game. I often find strategy is a review process. Try something. Get momentum up. Check to see whether it’s working, Identify what is, what isn’t and then keep moving.
Cool Down and Stretch Some More: This is longer than the rest between sets, this is the relaxation part. If you’ve done a good work out (teleesales campaign, trade fair, series of sales meetings), then you owe it to yourself to relax, take stock, reflect on what worked, what didn’t and
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why. This way you give yourself – and your team if you manage one - the chance to reenergize and refocus. And as with any good strength building program, the muscle will actually be built during the rest and repair time.
• Gary Ryan: Research shows that part time work and volunteering pay off
This is an excerpt from the book. What do you think? Let me know: michael@mcme.com.au
• Dr Jenny Brockis: How should we measure intelligence?
• Gihan Perera: Simple Ways to Survey Your Webinar Audience
• Charge and be charged! To Your Success • Blog: Some Quick Relaxes Michael Neaylon • Are You Blaming the Messenger? Author of the forthcoming book, ‘Marketing Makeovers: How To Bring In Big Money For Your Small Business
• Ann Rolfe’s Mentoring Works Blog: Getting What You Want From Mentoring
GIHAN PERERA
• differencemakers community blog: What triggers our worst behaviour also presents us with an opportuntity for our best behaviour
Thinking Ahead Journal 15th November 2010
• Gihan Perera: Why the Internet Will Fail
NOV 16, 2010 06:07P.M. • Dr Jenny Brockis: Why speaking more than one language is good for your brain. • Gihan Perera: Treat Your Business as a Boutique Experience • Gihan Perera: How the Social Web Has Changed Internet Marketing • Gihan Perera: Internet Marketing Tools Part 3: Simplify and Automate Your Internet Marketing • Notes from the Workplace Garden: Being new on the team • Matt Church: Start before you need to • Ross Clennett: Atlassian Recruitment: November 2010 update Every week I collect the most recent blog posts from my clients and members - all leading thinkers about business and life - and assemble them into the Thinking Ahead journal.
• Ann Rolfe’s Mentoring Works Blog: On a bad day... • Michael Neaylon: Shifting Shape
Download the 15th November issue here. • Gihan Perera: Thinking Ahead Journal 8th November 2010 What’s in it: • Dr Jenny Brockis: New role for brain’s immune cells discovered. • Gary Ryan: Why workplace trust is a challenge • differencemakers community blog: Performance reviews deservedly getting a poor review • Ross Clennett: Skilled Migration - where are we at? • Ann Rolfe’s Mentoring Works Blog: Central to Success - The Mentoring Coorindator
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LIFELONG FITNESS GARY RYAN
Don’t exercise to lose wieght
Why workplace trust is a challenge
NOV 16, 2010 06:06P.M. One of the most inspiring stories to come out of the Commonwealth games was the amazing comeback of Australian swimmer Geoff Huegill. For those non-Australians who don’t know the story, Geoff’ retired from competitive swimming in 2004 after the Athens Olympics. Like many competitive athletes who retire, he stopped training and became a party animal. Needless to say, his fitness plummeted and he put on weight. 45 kilograms of fat to be precise. Geoff’s life and health spiralled out of control as his weight ballooned to 138 kilograms. Fortunately in 2007 he realised he was on a path to self-destruction and decided to do something about it. He obviously changed his diet but
NOV 16, 2010 03:54P.M. The challenge with workplace trust, whether from leaders to employees or employees to leaders or employees to employees is that to trust another person you must be willing to be vulnerable. That is, the act of trusting someone means that you are openning yourself up to the ‘risk’ that whoever you are trusting could ‘break’ your trust. You see, trust cannot be broken unless it is given in the first place. This is one of the factors that makes trust within an organisation so hard.
importantly he got active again. In fact, not only did he start exercising again, he decided to get fit. And that’s the lesson in Geoff’s amazing story for all of us. If Geoff had set himself the goal to lose weight he would probably have cut his calories drastically low in an attempt to lose weight fast. This is what most diets and fast weight loss programs suggest. And it would have worked initially. He would have lost weight but he wouldn’t have got any fitter and his metabolism would have slowed down. Not what a fit athlete or a person trying to maintain their weight loss needs. (I read about a diet in the paper this morning that promised I’d lose 5kg in 7 days or I’d get my money back!) Most weight loss programs and diets tell people to exercise at a low intensity as this burns more fat. The reality is, the fitter you are, the more effective and efficient your body is at burning fat. Not only that, the other metabolic changes that come with being fit help protect you from many of the conditions that accompany obesity. Just losing some fat doesn’t necessarily make you healthier; it’s the changes that happen in the cells and tissues that improve your health. By focusing on getting fit, Geoff lost weight and turned his body into an efficient fat-burning engine. He could do more, felt better and felt better about himself. I doubt he would have achieved all that if he had just tried to lose weight. But because he set out to get fit, he not only lost weight, he got the added benefits I mentioned above. What’s the lesson again? If you want to lose weight, don’t exercise to lose the weight. Do an exercise program to get you fitter. Monitor if your fitness is improving rather than what the scales are saying. It may take a bit longer to see any changes in your weight (you’ll probably put on some muscle) but in the long term you will be healthier, happier and better able to burn fat.
Whether this be from leader to employees, or from employees to leaders. The same is true. In this context leaders must be able to demonstrate that they are willing to be vulnerable by trusting employees, and employees need to demonstrate that they too are willing to be vulnerable by trusting their leaders. I’m suggesting that trust is built by demonstrating trust and being open to the vulnerabilities that come with trusting others. What are your experiences of organisational trust?
Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
THE ALMOND EFFECT NOV 16, 2010 08:57A.M. Why don’t you quit your job? Sorry – only joking! But seriously, how many of you want to quit your job and get another but are procrastinating for some reason?
Note – Numerous studies have shown that it is better to be fit and carry a few extra kilos than unfit and normal weight.
“It’s not the right time, I’ve just come back from leave, they were really understanding when my mother died, they were generous when we had our baby, I don’t want to let my team down, I’d feel like a rat leaving a sinking ship. What would I do? What else can I do? I’m too old or not old enough, haven’t got enough experience, am overqualified, they paid for my Masters, my boss would bad mouth me etc. I will do it soon.”
Focus on fitness, not fatness.
Any of those phrases resonate with you? Any of them come from you?
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Why are you holding back? What evidence is there to say that the feeling is justified? If there is evidence, how much have you developed personally since the last time?
The problem with suffering this dilemma is that you are probably unhappy, getting grumpy with your family, are dissatisfied with what you are achieving, hate going to work, feeling stressed and tense and not performing in your job to the best of your ability.
Considerably I am sure and now you are much better able to manage the situation and any negative impacts that you went through last time you changed jobs.
In the worst case scenarios, you could end up alienating the people at work who you want to ask to give you a reference or even precipitate some performance management counselling. At the least you are increasing your chances of a stress induced illness.
You stand a better chance of managing your emotions if you ... Act: Take some steps. Set aside time to update your resume. Let me know if you would like the name of someone who can help you with this.
What’s holding you back? It’s probably The Almond Effect® - your inbuilt human survival system is mistaking the thought of changing jobs for an ambush of sabre-tooth tigers and showing up as avoidance, delay, excuses – in other words,
Next, cut out or print some job ads that could interest you. Study them and highlight the parts of the job that really interest you, that you can already do and the parts that would challenge you. Make sure there are plenty of the latter.
you’re resisting change and finding plenty of valid reasons to do so. Is that you?
Then start applying.
Have you changed jobs before?
Rewire: Every time you have either an interview that doesn’t go so well or a ‘not at this time’ note, review what you are doing well and what you can do differently.
If you’ve moved on to other roles in the past, please think about how that worked out. You might have been unlucky and it was not a good move. If that is the case, then the STAR suggestions are definitely for you.
If you take the time to do this and focus on thinking about and repeating the actions that are working for you, you’ll strengthen those new synaptic connections which will make the whole change job process easier each time.
If you have successfully changed jobs in the past, then in addition to STAR, think about what is the same about your current situation and what is different?
You can’t erase the fear yet Neuroscientists are getting closer every day to understanding how our amygdalae work and how it will be possible to eradicate bad memories.
What was good about the previous move? What wasn’t? What were you afraid of then, if anything, and how is that different to this time? What can you build on out of that past experience? Use the STAR approach to sort this out
When they can do that, we’ll have the ethical question about whether we can have some neuro-cosmetic intervention to allow us to selectively inhibit our responses to certain stimuli.
Stop: You have to find a circuit breaker to stop the worry words from dominating your thought process.
Until then, if you are unhappy in your job or simply need to move on for more experience, more money and/or a fresh challenge, don’t let The Almond Effect® stop you.
Curiously the best way to do this is to focus on the feelings you have and put a name to what you actually are experiencing.
It evolved for us to stave off real predators not the ones you imagine will jump out at you when you hand in your notice.
I have created two Wordles to help you choose the words: one is of positive emotion words and the other of negative ones. Naming your emotion calms down your amygdala and engages your prefrontal cortex. Then you can... Think: Once you’ve put your ‘almonds’ on hold, now think carefully about why you are feeling the way you are.
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NOTES FROM THE WORKPLACE GARDEN
• Group coaching sessions
Small business leaders banding together to help each other
• Business incubator centres The idea is to allow each leader to learn from the others and to also be able to help the others, maybe even showing off their accomplishments a bit like a fellow gardener showing off their prized pumpkin. When other people who understand what you are going through are able to show appreciation for your efforts and the results you are achieving you don’t feel so alone.
NOV 16, 2010 08:43A.M. The dilemma of the small business leader is that they tend to lead on their own, particularly when they are starting out. Even as they grow, there can be an unwillingness to connect with people like themselves in other organisations for fear of exposing their weaknesses. However, it is vital to their growth that they do just that. Leadership can be a lonely path. A lack of external input can leave you making decisions in a vacuum, unaware of other options. It can also lead to high stress, long working hours and strained personal relationships which, if you think about it, are often the very things that drive people from the corporate world into self employment in the first place.
If you are a small business leader who feels they are operating on their own or know someone who is, why not look into the idea of banding together with other likeminded people to see if you can inspire each other to produce better results.
This is where small business owners can learn a lesson from allotment gardeners. It is a different model to the community gardening I’m involved in, which is basically a group of people pitching in to help maintain one big space. The allotment garden model involves individuals or family groups being assigned a small piece of land they tend to with others working their own allotments alongside them. People then exchange and barter excess produce so everyone benefits. The gardeners find that when they can link up with other like minded people their gardens start to flourish. They are able to exchange tips, tricks and even plants. Their ideas, and plants, cross pollinate allowing everyone to benefit. There is also the companionship associated with gardening as a loose collective. There is no formal structure but that doesn’t prevent people from helping each other. If someone is sick and they can’t water their garden or harvest their produce, then a neighbour often steps in to help knowing that the favour will be returned at some point in the future. This is because most gardeners cannot stand by and watch a garden die without taking some action, a bit like the guerrilla gardening concept I spoke of in an earlier post. So what is the small business leader’s equivalent of an allotment garden? Well, there are a variety of options including: • Professional associations • Chambers of Commerce • Networking groups
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Regular Contributors Gihan Perera
www.gihanperera.info
Hugh Gyton
justaconversation-hugh.blogspot.com
Ian Berry
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Matt Church
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Glenn Capelli
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Glenn Cardwell
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Sharonne Phillips
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Anne Riches
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Matt Hern
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David Beard
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David Thomas
thinkglobalblog.blogspot.com
Ross Clennett
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Peter Webb
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Sue-maree McEnearney
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Helen Macdonald
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Ann Rolfe
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Michael Harrison
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Gary Ryan
www.garyryans.com
David Penglase
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Neil Mattingley
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Karen Schmidt
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Sam Maxwell
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Sue and Andrew O’Brien
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Michael Neaylon
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Andrew O’Brien
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Bill Jennings
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Sharon Burke
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Kit Grant
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Dr Jenny Brockis
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Steve Simpson
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Jani Murphy
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Peter Dhu
www.peterdhu.com.au/journal/
Brandon Munro
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Ruth Sligo
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