Coaching Businesses to Success News Update

I'm always fascinated when politicians get a bloody nose. Sometimes things happen which make you smile, just like the votes against the European Constitution this week.

Now I don't know much about the Constitution as such, but I have a deep tendency to vote 'No', just like the French and the Dutch have. I think this comes from a deep desire not to be forced to do anything, by anyone, as well as a personal issue about whether things are 'fair'. So from my personal standpoint, I'm getting two strong messages not to vote positively. The imposition and the unfairness which surrounds Europe and it's fat cat lifestyles.

On the radio this morning, there was a phone-in on BBC Radio 5-Live. There had been some comments about us getting our own country out of the poverty many people suffer. A caller came on to say that any poverty in this country was nothing like the meagre existence in Africa, where so many have to try to eke out a living on less than $1 a day.

And a child dies every 3 seconds.

Truly there are different measures of poverty and I realise that there is no simple answer.

Todays blast, therefore, is all about politicians taking their own direction and not that of the people who elect them (albeit only 22% of the electorate did this time).

Somehow there is a need to get some common sense in the world. I for one feel the urge to support someone like Pumpaid, which at least has a very focused way of being - delivering water pumps to the third world. Not much could be simpler than that.

Don't get me onto the challenges of the G8 to all come out together (including the US) to break the back of poverty.

June 2, 2005 19:35 - A Scent of Trust in the Air

I was listening to the radio this morning. On it was a piece about an American company who have developed a new inhaler which makes people more likely to trust others.

It is said that the value will be for those who find social interaction very difficult, so that they will be able to, I guess, get out more and make better of their lives.

There was no possibility that it could be abused, the representative said, as it's formulation was such that it could not be 'slipped into someone's drink' - sort of thing.

Trust is such a commodity in business. Such a commodity, yet as you may have read from what I have been saying recently, many organisations have abused their people so much in recent years, that they have lost all trust and faith in them.

It's a sad thing, but people mean little any more in many organisations (especially - and, yes, I know it's a big whinge of mine - I need a coach to exorcise it from me! - where fat cats are lining their pockets with obscene amounts of money - for what I ask - I digress)

So a 'Trust Scent' eh? I wonder how that might work.

You see in business, trust has to be earned the hard way - through living and breathing realtionships (I see that's a typo - interesting, I meant relationships) with your people, one-on-one.

It is just not something that can be made to happen, nor can 'culture' either, or 'motivation'.

These things have to be earned the hard way, over time and through many tests.

It would be disappointing if a natty spray was to be used to get around it. Maybe another dilution of corporate integrity.

Psst! The new CBTS Newsletter is now out! Checkout here.

June 3, 2005 16:48 - Employee Motivation - Get The 8 Basics Right First

To motivate your people, it is vital that you start off with understanding that there are some things that need to be fixed first, before you can get on with the above the line actions which develop a strong and engaged culture.There are eight things you need... (Read Article)

June 3, 2005 17:37 - Customer Focus - Just 5 Simple Things You Need to Think About

In all the businesses we conduct, there are customers. And they are the life-blood to us. It's TRUE! Despite all the million and one things we are doing - we've got to have paying customers! Nevertheless, just five things will dictate success or failure.... (Read Article)

June 3, 2005 17:37 - Stuff

In a world of such technological advancement that you can barely go to the loo without being contacted, we are in danger of real overwhelm. In fact the blurring between what is your time and company time has never been so great.

At Hogg Robinson, they take this matter seriously and following a seriously detailed employee survey, highlighting work/life balance as an area of concern (how often have we heard this over the last few years), HR decided to develop a small team to look at the issues and find creative ways to ease up.

Their view was that if people don't get the breaks they need, they won't be in any fit state to do their best when called upon. So it's the win-win thing again.

Now they have a policy which identifies all the issues around W/LB with a view to making their people's lives much more tolerable.

They even have e-mail free Fridays so that people can go-and-talk-to-each-other again. How cool is that!

It's also important to be clear about what it important to others and not just yourself. If you are a manager, what do your people need in terms of that dividing line between work and home? Have you asked and got it really clear amongst you and all of your team? When can you call them and when not - in fact when is it an emergency and when could it wait?

By agreeing this openly and honestly, and respecting them fully, many of your people will respect those times where you might just need to call on a day off or an evening - as long as you respect their home time.

Hmmm, that respect word cropped up several times there, didn't it?

The same goes for taking breaks, holidays and recognising that little extra someone has put in.

In many cases a small thank you will do - surprisingly often even this small courtesy doesn't happen.

If you want the link to the article written in January 2005 by David Radcliffe, CEO at Hogg Robinson, then it's on the Management Today website here. And if you want a great online employee survey system that is, I have to say, outstanding value, try AlphaMeasure. It's radical because it's simple - yet, you have to make sure that what you do with the information makes a difference, just like Hogg Robinson did.

So, with a couple of bonus articles below, I'm going to 'walk my talk', switch off and relax this weekend - see you Monday - hope you have just a great weekend!

June 6, 2005 19:24 - Transparently Clear

When you are in management, it's an OK job. In fact, despite the pressure, it's nothing like as challenging as compared with doing a day-in/day-out job at the sharp end. This came to me once when I became an employee rather than a boss. In fact I was an employee all the time, but as a 'boss' on a site of my own, it was almost as good as it being all mine (except for the dictated stuff from above, but let's not go there for the moment!).

Being 'done to', rather than 'doing to' is a lot worse - trust me.

So as a 'boss' you need to be very transparent. Very, very fair. Very honest. Very open. All these if you want to take your people with you, in a collaboration rather than a very 'you and them' situation.

The 'them' bit being way distant behind you, when it comes to supporting you, being proactive and going the extra mile for you. Way distant. Miles behind even.

They will drop you like an emotional stone. There will be no loyalty, poor morale and a distinct lack of motivation and enthusiasm. (Of course those managers who are not alert to their own behaviours will blame everyone else and never themselves - one manager I came across recently, decided to 'sort out' some key people by telling them they 'were crap', literally!)

So often, I've come across organisations where employees would only get involved in as little as possible. Why is that? Yet again there are places where you wonder what the employees are on! Who gave them permission to have such fun, to fix things fast, to be creative in what they do for their customers? (If it's still there, checkout the MamboCafe in Swansea!)

It's amazing.

So when you need to ramp up the service you give your customers or clients, think about making conditions right in your business or organisation.

And that, my friend, starts with you, the manager and the way you behave. In fact, I'll go further, it is utterly reliant on you and you alone. That's what you get paid for and actually, by doing the right, supportive, honest, loyal, fair, reasonable, transparent things for each and every one of your people, to bring them all into the team, you will make your life much, much easier. There's a little story right here which you might like to read - where loyalty got earned months even years before...

June 7, 2005 22:31 - Sometimes it all works out

I'm sorry, but tonight I have to get all wimpy on you.

In fact I'm old enough to remember Wimpy in it's original iteration - a rather greasy spoon version of McDonalds, which I see is starting to be reinvented (like the Skoda). For some reason, I recall especially a particulary nasty example of one in Newport, Gwent (and for that matter, the worst McDonalds I ever visited, in Salem, Massachusetts, but hey, funny how things stick in your mind).

I'm shattering the image I want to propose to you.

Now where was I - ahh yes, motorways. Today I had to get to Reading - a pretty easy journey for me - skip along the A419, Junction 15 on the M4 and about 40 miles.

Not today!

Listening to Radio 5 Live, I hear that there is an accident and traffic is stacked back as far as Junction 13 - about 15 miles, at least! So a quick rethink and I decide on the A420 up to Oxford and then back down. It's not a lot of fun, but I have the time and it's a beautiful day.

I love poppies! I've always loved red and their flimsy orangy red translucency is just a perfect flower. Adding the symbolism related to the first world war and the image, for me is complete. Now seems to be their time and they are visible on the edge of the road, in hedgerows and occasionally fields.

Somewhere around Fyfield, along the A420 northbound, there is a field full of poppies. The fullest field of poppies that I've ever seen - in fact as many poppies as in that famous painting by Claude Monet - Red Poppies at Argenteuil. You know, the one with the woman with the sunshade. (I've just downloaded off this site for my wallpaper for a while - go on, right click and set as background, you'll love it!).

Anyway that field I saw was full of poppies. Full of them - a whole field.

And as I sped past, making a mental note of where it was, so maybe I'd go back, I was happy that I'd been forced out of my way this day.

Sometimes it pays off to go with the flow. I got everything done today (pretty well). I had a few pieces of good news (Elaine, my business partner said it would be a better week, this week!), but I have etched in my memory that glimpse of a beautiful field of poppies - a view that will likely stay with me till I die - funny, as I said earlier, how things stick in your mind.

And you can't ask for much more than that from a day.

If you can hear music in the back ground on the audio version, it's a great replay of the BBC Late Junction show - but be quick, it expires Thursday around 10pm UK time.

June 11, 2005 10:00 - Future Business Success - What Does Good Look Like?

You know things aren't working out right just now, yet you can't put your finger on quite why. You know that your business could be performing better, but it isn't. It's easy to realise when things aren't going to plan and a great first step is to get really... (Read Article)

June 11, 2005 10:00 - Employee Performance - If You Want the Best, Get Personal!

Best performances from every one of your people - that's what you want. Yet many managers or business owners treat everyone pretty much the same. But you need to be smarter than that. Here's how... This is a story about a man and three dogs. I walk... (Read Article)

June 11, 2005 10:01 - Vision, Goal and Challenge

It's been a really challenging couple of weeks for me. I've done a couple of new things I've never done before, both of which scared the pants off me, but went well on delivery. It's always the hours just before where you have those little niggly doubts. When you are in there, it's just fine or at least so I've found.

I've also had a couple of challenging business issues which have required my optimism meter to be set on Gas Level 7, or I might have lost heart.

Added to all this are new ideas, real stretches, challenges and learnings that I put my hand up for and realise now that it has been a bit the wrong time to devote my mind to them.

I've often said that life can be a straight(ish) line if you let it be, and that's OK (if a bit boring, for me) or you can go with that sine-wave (remember your O'Level, or I suppose GCSE, maths?) curve of highs and lows for a while as you seek your path.

Yet here I am, a bright Saturday morning, doing what I love best - writing - with some new potential solutions to the bigger challenges and, now I see it, all the 'above the line' (in that sine-wave), projects, are still doing well too. So, my foot on that optimism gas pedal (interesting, two 'gas' related metaphors in one piece?) has pulled me through. It has been a challenging period though.

Sticking to my big picture Vision, with it's independent activities towards specific goals - all wrapped up in the daily challenges we all face, has got me through it.

Luckily, one of my biggest challenges was a very positive thing. I went to see a business who were looking for new coaches to supplement their existing team. I had a pleasant but challenging interview with their HR manager one afternoon and was called back to meet with the MD the next day.

What a business! What a culture!

All that I have philosophised about is in this business. The MD was quite challenging, whilst charming and intellectually very stimulating, but you know, what impressed me most was what he said at the end. Would I be able, within my ethical responsibilities and thus without breaching confidences, to help him understand what he needs to do better with his people. Oh Joy!

Thankfully, I got the piece of work with them and I will look forward to the challenge of helping this exciting business break through their ceiling - and I already know they will.

June 14, 2005 14:17 - Bandages and Dreams

Ever since I went last year, I've fallen in love with Venice, so much so that I truly believe I could live there. So, as a consequence, I've taken to reading books that really get under the skin of living, of real life, in Venice.

The first book I found was called 'Venetian Dreaming', a lovely, intense and quite energising book about the place. A journalist who takes a year or so out and writes a book I guess. Not a novel, more a factional account of that time. I was quite disappointed to get to the end of it.

And so with great excitement, I was listening to Radio Four, purely a coincidence as I happened to be in the car at the time and 'A Thousand Days in Venice' was being critiqued. Excellent - must get it! A few weeks went by - but this weekend I found time to go and seek it out. I haven't got that far as yet, but a small piece at the start really rang a bit of a bell.

A metaphor I wanted to share with you.

Since it's very early in the book, I won't be spoiling it for you, but the writer is, in Venice, well, rather stalked by a man who basically fell in love with her at first sight, and then had to wait till she goes back and he sees her again. He describes his life as if he has had his eyes bandaged and then says this:-

'Sometimes I would squint and look out under the gauze to see if I could still catch a glimpse of the old dreams in real light'.
This was the bit that resonated for me. How I, and I guess we as a whole population, lose sight of our dreams - we hide them under a mass of emotional camouflage over the years - probably from those early days when someone asked us what we wanted to do when we 'grew up' and we said a 'fireman' or a 'train driver' - and they laughed and/or belittled us

Those dreams got hidden, but never destroyed. The guy is called Fernando and follows his new love to St Louis, from Venice, within days of them being parted for the first time.

My question to you is this.

What dreams have you hidden away and when will your 'tipping point' be? Will you ever go to that point where everything else gets subsumed by your passion for that dream - and well, forgive me, but what's stopping you?

And, before you ask yes, it's a question I ask myself.

Ooops! Forgot to record the audio! Here it is now!

June 16, 2005 21:00 - To Be or Not To Be - That is the Question...

In the car today I heard two phone-ins. One was about the current possible changes to maternity/paternity leave. There were the usual pros and cons about whether this should be available and then one guy who spoke about how his employer treated him.

He was a bookshop manager and as his first child was born, he asked if he could have additional time off. He would arrange that his co-workers would cover for him and that he would be at work for at least some of each day. His employers valued him and his contribution to their business and they agreed. At the same time they agreed that other members of their staff could do the same, with a few little provisos.

The manager made the very valid point that his employers realised that they had some good people and if this was a way to build a stronger, more trusting relationship, then they would - hopefully hanging onto more of their people for longer.

In a second conversation, there was a discussion about two members of the RMT who had been sacked for listening to the Liverpool European Cup victory, whilst at work.

I wonder who you would choose to work for.

Of course there are 'rules' and discipline and processes (and don't weak managers hang grimly onto them!), but, you know, there are also people who can make realistic decisions and start to build great relationships with their people.

Do you want to hang onto your good people for longer, or help them make a decision to walk away, possibly to a competitor - for me, it's a no-brainer. But then again, perhaps there are people out there giving the impression that they have no brains at all.

June 18, 2005 17:03 - Is it Easy - If You Try?

An old friend rang me unexpectedly yesterday afternoon. In fact she was a coach of mine for a while and responsible for such an awakening in my creative spirit that but for her, you probably wouldn't be reading this right now. Amanda Seyderhelm taught me in the few short months we worked together, that I truly do have a creative side, whatever I thought; whatever I'd been brought up in my 50 years to believe.

In many ways, her work with me was something of a condensation of thoughts that I'd had since I stopped being an employee. And since that time, I've written a website of around 120,000 words, probably over 100 articles and 8 months of this blog!

Using writing as my 'blank canvas' that with such fortune I can come out to play on each day or two.

In terms of where this life is going, it's a bit of a mystery and no less joyful because of that (although sometimes yes, it does get quite challenging too!), but as someone said to me recently, perhaps reflecting a little of the energy I bring to the directions I sometimes go,

"You may find it challenging to not yet know where you are going, but at least you know where you've been."
Thanks Jilly Shaul for your immense wisdom in sharing that.

Finally. Italians - well, I finished my book, 1000 Days in Venice, by Marlena di Blasi. It is an immense tale about her transfer to Venice following a stranger who loves her. (You can find a fuller review of the book on the SAGA (yes SAGA!) review page here).

One magnificent piece of wisdom that fell from the book was about the Italian way of life. It generated a shift in me, which is the first time for a while (us coaches can get them quite often, you know!)

Italian culture is not so much about 'manana', or lets put it off till tomorrow or later - it's more about let's prioritise. Marlena calls it 'triage', where life's urgencies and priorities are decided by values and not externals. It's more about the value of time with friends drinking expresso, than picking up an extra job. It's about saying NO, big bold and strongly.

Perhaps because in the timeless world in which Italians try to remain, this is life and not the hurly burly of making an extra few pounds or so.

It has changed my thinking.

And as she is making the time to spend with her own art, Amanda would not forgive me (well, she would, but hey!), if I didn't point you in the direction of her art at minigallery.co.uk

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend...

June 22, 2005 23:18 - Three Stories from Steve Jobs

My friend and coach colleague Ali Giblin sent this to me today and it is so inspiring that I thought I'd use it in it's entirity tonight.

A friend and colleague of mine sent this to me today....I thought it had some really thought provoking stuff. Thought you might like it too.

Steve Jobs Speech to Graduates

(My colleague and friend, Tom Peters, just emailed me a copy of a speech that Steve Jobs delivered to the graduates of Stanford University this week. Drawing from some of the most pivotal points in his life, Steve Jobs, chief executive officer and co-founder of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, urged graduates to pursue their dreams and see the opportunities in life's setbacks -including death itself.)

"I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life.

So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life.

But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky - I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me - I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.

Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much." - Steve Jobs - June 2005

June 23, 2005 19:21 - Off to College Then...

This week has been a busy week so far, with a meeting in a very hot London hotel Monday, then off to Cambridge with the delightful people from Intercept on Tuesday. With a long return journey on Wednesday, I'm almost caught up now.

You'll see that I've introduced a new free e-course at the top of the page. This is a fabulouso tool to kick-start your ongoing management development skills. It costs nothing, is easy to use and fabulous development to use and share with your key people.

The power of Intercept became clear in the time we spent with Ivon and Tanya Lacy who are the originators of this 'soft skills gap analysis tool', becoming such a powerful introduction to the UK coaching scene. I will be adding a 7-day e-course to help with some of the possibilities that using such a great programme offers shortly for you, my avid readers!

The day we had with them both in Jesus College was very apt. In a seat of such awesome learning, it felt very appropriate to be with them. The group of us learnt so much more than our accreditation, which we gained last December. Using a tool like Intercept enables coaching to be so much more focused and efficient - it truly is the missing link in the coaching profession.

As coaches, you would expect us to be 'balanced' in our day - so we were! A delightful setting for the business part; a punt on the Cam; and a wonderful dinner in the cloistered (it was a former nunnery) dining hall in the evening. I even felt it appropriate to walk most of the way back to my hotel.

It truly has been a wonderful week.

June 26, 2005 14:06 - When Customer Relationships Get in the Way

It was written on a sheet of A4 (or legal pad size if you across 'the pond'). Clear, thick black pen on crisp white paper. It was positioned full square in the glass door - the only one that opened of the two doors available), at the entry to the shop.

We do NOT provide change for parking
Clearly the provision of change was an imposition placed on the shop by customers and passers-by. So they were making it very clear that they didn't (maybe there's a whole piece somewhere about clarity too).

It got me to thinking about other signs I'd seen around shops. "No Entry" is a favourite. Another is "We do NOT give refunds for sale items".

And I wondered why these businesses go so out of their way to alienate their customers and potential customers.

It also happened to me recently when I wanted to change renew my mortgage deal. I have already mentioned this before, but it involved me taking out a huge chunk of my spare mortgage capacity for 3 weeks (when they would also charge me for having that amount sitting dormant in my bank account), because that's the way it works. Get real folks - that is the way you want it to work for me to do business with you - hello, I'm your customer (and I will get my own back shortly!).

Sometimes I'm in awe of how hard businesses make it for their customers, because they, the business, like it that way. This is about their systems, their small discomforts and ultimately not about what their customers would find useful or helpful.

If anyone reading this comes up with any strict rules about what businesses or organisations will or will not do for you as a customer, I'd love to hear them!

P.S. It just occurred to me as I caught up on a little light entertainment, that the current Malibu advert is a great example of how organisations get it so wrong when it comes to customer service. At the start there are two guys behind a counter on a market stall (selling melons!). One says to the other, 'I want you to focus on customer satisfaction'.

The first customer asks for a 'regular' melon, not one with a special offer sticker, and is told 'these are all the melons we have'.

The second customer is told to take a numbered ticket and join the queue.

The third customer says he just wants to buy a melon!

A great example of saying that you are going to be focused on customer service and then delivering what's important to the organisation.

Interesting.

June 28, 2005 21:51 - Six Billion Perspectives and Counting

I bumped into a friend of mine yesterday. He started in business around about the time I did and he has built a very successful professional business in a field where he is truly an expert.

After a life in a corporate environment, working for himself was a challenging and rather scary prospect at first, but he has persevered and done really well.

Yet fate conspires against us a little. In April, he moved into new office from a home, (or rather dining room table!) office; he shifted all his computer systems and he had negotiated a rather special agreement based on the value he was creating for a client.

As well as the day job of bringing in revenues.

The client he was dealing with, on the special deal, had given a few warning signs upfront, about how he would question every element of the contract. But my friend inhabited a world of trust and honour, so he persevered.

After work was being completed and unpaid, with haggling on the agreed and contractual rate, my friend eventually put his foot down and decided no more work would be done until payment was delivered.

He was met with pleadings and scorn and put matters in the hands of his legal people. Amazingly, and fully aware of the legal matter now being dealt with, his client rang and asked if he would be interested in more work!

We are all different, yet we tend to polarise to being with friends who share our standards in life. In business it isn't always easy to spot where those standards are being breached. We meet unknown clients, trust our judgements and have to learn as we go. My friend did. He has a slightly bloodied nose and he has learnt something valuable, and no doubt value-creating for the future. He is sanguine enough to appreciate it.

We are surrounded by an infinity of people who see the world, their responsibility and their standards by another infinity of many different rules. And it's a tough call. We have six billion and more different psyches to work with - and sometimes we are found a little wanting.

Time to listen to your gut, put aside your nicest behaviours and get really, really honest with yourself - and with others. It's a bit of a bitch actually. In fact, it's a tough lesson to unlearn from where we have been and who we have chosen to work with in the past.

The law of the business jungle.