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October 5, 2005 17:44 - Traveller's Rest!
Well, after a couple of week's away, firstly on holiday in Northern Cyprus and then in Finland on business, I've arrived home and can get my time-zone back to normal.
Fortunately, arriving back in the UK on a Friday evening and then off again on Saturday lunchtime was made a little easier with the time zone I came from being the same as the one I was going to, just several thousand miles to the north, though not as much a difference in the temperature as you might think.
Cyprus, whilst still nice an warm, starting it's Autumn cool down, whilst Finland seemed to be unseasonably warm - so I survived what could have been a significant temperature challenge better than I might.
And what a contrast in cultures as well. I found northern Cyprus rather chaotic and developing, whilst Finland was very clean, organised and attractive in a natural sort of way, many lakes and trees, with Cyprus being dramatic mountains and seaside, with a very laid back culture. Both had much to offer.
Finland was exciting as it started a new business opportunity for me and although European, the people were very different to work with than the UK. Finnish people are very precise and controlled and I have to thank those participants in Oulu for their capacity to be challenged and come along with me as they took part in the Coaching for Success management development programme as part of their personal development for the future.
I was made most welcome, as well as having a great bunch to work with. I feel I may have been a bit of a strange beast to help them develop and they were a very game group. I look forward to returning there, perhaps when the temperature is lower and there is snow on the ground!
Now to bed to get my two hours time difference back in line, for a few weeks at least!
October 6, 2005 19:19 - Trying too Hard
As I said, I'm just back from a great vacation in Cyprus.
I was delighted to find that there was a huge pool, like 30m long.
No advanced swimmer at school, but once having swum 1/2 a mile (mainly on my back, I hasten to add!), I've always been able to swim OK, but nothing exceptional. I'd probably be able to make the lifeboat if the ship was sinking (and a shark was following!) - good enough for me.
But over the years, I've taught myself first to breathe as I'm doing breaststroke and then to do crawl, a stroke I'd never done at school.
I taught myself this in a pool in Majorca over 10 years ago, by standing up and mimiking someone else who could do it. So I was OK - without the breathing thing.
Rather unsustainable then!
So then I worked a little each year on vacation to try to work out how to do this as well - never really that successfully, but getting there. And crawl is very hard work too!
This year, I worked out the length of the pool and promised myself I'd swim 1/4 of a mile, without a break, each day, which I reckoned was 14 lengths - then three days from the end, I decided I would up the last few days to enable me to reach three miles over the ten days I'd been there and add some crawl into my usual repertoire of breaststroke (with breathing!).
So I reckoned I'd need 21 lengths a day - but I bodged it by doing 30 lengths the first day (though not all in one go, I maintained one of the sessions at 14 lengths).
So, I needed a new challenge. I introduced some crawl, with breathing. At first I introduced one length every session, at the end, because I was just knackered after the one length, so I decided to change my style a little - I went slower with my crawl.
This made a big difference, so that I was able to alternate between breaststroke and crawl at first and in the end, use crawl throughout, with a few coughs and splutters though!
What I did learn was that I was trying too hard with my crawl, especially at first. Indeed, I was able to speed up as I got towards the end of mys stints and get a good workout, but pace myself better at the start.
This works in business too. Starting new projects needs a little time to bed in, so my learning to share is, at the start, pace yourself gently and build as you get more confiodent with where you are going. You might surprise yourself at what's possible.
Like I did.
October 7, 2005 22:16 - Want to be Richer?
I have to admit it, I've been outed. A book that I had lying on my shelf for 12 months has shown me up for what I am, an exposé of someone else :-(
My reading on vacation included "The Richer Way", by Julian Richer. A detailed guide on customer service, Richer (whose UK hi-fi stores have for the last 10 years shown the highest sales per square foot of any retailer in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records), really focuses on getting inside the heads of his employees, or 'colleagues'.
It's not especially clever, but it is incredibly insightful how Richer gets to the nub of how to get the very best from every one of his people - and a model for anyone out there in any sort of business and organisation.
Many of the ideas in the pages of my website are reemphasized by Richer and when he provides the evidence of how it truly does deliver a very profitable business, you need look no further than the way you treat your people.
Yet he is no soft touch, as Richer Sounds truly works it's people hard, but in a way they totally engage in; in a way they love.
It was like reading my own thoughts, experiences and the observations I've tried to share with you in these pages - the evidence therefore supports the actions you can take, to make your team, your business, your organisation as a whole great, successful and above all a human place where your people love to come and work, have fun and get fulfillment from their contribution.
Get the book here (it immediately goes into my own top ten of all time!), read it and have a lot of fun delivering it!
October 9, 2005 17:57 - Unpaint Your Corner
The expression 'painted into a corner' means that the history you have for yourself, takes the shape of the reality you exist in right now.
So the behaviours you display, in the way you do your work and where appropriate, manage your people, are where you have placed yourself, over the years. It's who you've become; who you've let yourself become even.
So, how about 'unpainting yourself' out of that corner. For this to work, you'll need to be doubly sensitive to what you do in your relationships and in the way you think and act.
No big deal then!
It's about analysing how you would typically respond to all sorts of triggers and checking whether there might be a different way, in as dramatic a way as possible.
Are Your Ready for This...
I want you to consider doing the opposite to what you would normally do, 90% of the time.
Yes, that's right - the opposite.
I suggest you reserve the other 10% where you do respond typically, for those times where it might be a bit too critical to 'do the opposite'. At least initially :-)
When you are trying out to do the opposite, notice what happens and the responses of others. Try it for a week maybe - hey, it's only a week!
Yep, it isn't forever, though you might find that if you do try this, it might be the start of something real big!
October 11, 2005 12:32 - Absence Management
According to the CBI's 2005 survey, absence fell by 4.5% in the last year - great news, you might think. But that fall still left UK business with 168M days absence!
Absence, and Absence Management, therefore, seems to figure large in the bottom line considerations of most businesses and organisations.
This according to an excellent report in the Daily Telegraph's BusinessClub page last Tuesday (October 4th).
The article goes on to debate the benefits of two key ways to solve the problem, the 'carrot and stick'. That is, to offer incentives to come to work more regularly (!) and the alternative is to 'beat up' your people to scare them into popping in to do a bit now and then.
There is a third way - a much more value-creating way. The third way that has stimulated an article from me and a new web page, both of which will be ready shortly.
Absence, in my experience, is caused by a number of things, all of which can be relatively easily resolved, but take some key action steps on the part of managements dealing with the matter.
Here is a top level list of ten things you can do which will significantly improve attendance (note the positive spin!)
- A clear system, communicated and understood by all as to how absence will be managed.
- A commitment by all involved in this process to deliver fairly, consistently and without fail
- A culture which is supportive, encouraging and developmental for every one of your people
- A management sensitivity for when things are not right with each member of their team
- Those accountable for managing the absence process actually do it, visibly
- Every one is given valuable work to do, and is appreciated for it
- Boredom is ruthlessly targeted in whatever radical way possible
- Challenging opportunities are provided for everyone who needs new goals and opportunities
- Management recognises early on whether their people are having to work in unjust conditions and this gets fixed quickly
- Employees work the hours they are contracted to and encouraged to get off home after that (and take all their holidays)
It seems a simple enough thing to achieve, but in many, if not most organisations, Absence Management is achieved poorly at best and at worst, contributes to an overall decline in morale and motivation. The culture sucks!
October 11, 2005 20:11 - 25,000 Up!
You will know that I have lots of articles on this site (if you don't check-out here!).
There are quite a few more of mine located at ezinearticles.com - in fact 86 at the last count.
However, the point of this little update is that these 86 articles have been read now by over 25,000 people, since last November, which is a fantastic result. It's a result for the common-sense ideas to be found on this site being spread around the world - really!
In fact articles from this site are now to be found in over 3,000 other locations (all part of the cunning plan to bring back interested parties right here, where they can get much more useful, yet easy to use, information about how best to work with people in their business). As well as wanting to make a difference on my part, of course.
I try hard to ensure that it's kept simple, rather than complicated.
Here's a thing though - what would you like me to write about? If there are any special topics that you'd like me to explore for you, sharing both my 25+ years as a manager as well as over 350 hours one-to-one coaching, well, just let me know.
Depending on the numbers, I'll get them written and out there asap. It's my intention to have 250+ articles out there by December 2006 - can you help make those even more productive than they have been up to now?
Whatever your preference, leave up to five topics/titles in the comments box below or e-mail me through the contact page right on this website (I don't show an e-mail address because there are nasty little internet programs that go out and 'farm' e-mail addresses in order to SPAM people - so I practice 'safe e-mailing' and use a contact page!)
This is a free and fun opportunity for us to help each other.
I will even respond to specific issues that you might indicate to me, in the form of a 'how-to' article, if that helps!
Thanks John, for triggering this thought in me from your posting...
Tip of the day - for the € symbol, press Alt Gr and the 4 key - usually works! Just found it myself!
October 13, 2005 23:04 - Accepting Help
Shopping in a store today, I found that I had some change in my pocket - just enough to make it easier for the assistant to give me a note back, rather than a load of coins. So I offered it, so that could happen.
Instead, she said, 'No, that's fine I have plenty of change, thanks'.
Whilst I appreciated that she said it for the right reasons and was trying to help me out, I rather felt rebuffed. Not only was I trying to make it easier for her, but it was good sense for me as well - less coins to lug around in my pocket.
Sometimes, although we are trying to be courteous and do our job, whether it be serving a customer in a shop, or even as we manage others, we sometimes feel that accepting help isn't right. We don't feel comfortable accepting help - like that it shows us lacking somehow.
In fact accepting help is a fantastic tool for building relationships. It creates a partnership which cements a relationship powerfully.
If someone didn't really want to offer help, but felt obliged, then accepting it helps them decide in a more authentic way in the future ("hmmm, so if I offer they might take me up on it...").
Rarely do people offer help if they don't want the other party to accept it. If they do and it is accepted, then they quickly stop doing it!
The acceptance of offered help is a win-win.
In management terms, acceptance of offered help not only releases a manager from some of their workload, but it is hugely developmental for their people, creating a feeling of accomplishment and feeling valued, which stimulates engagement and the thirst for more.
Accepting help is OK.
October 14, 2005 22:03 - Standing Still
It's a busy world. We all work in hectic environments, attempting to keep up, ahead of the wave.
Yet sometimes it's worth spending time doing very little at all.
For many years, the concept of MBWA - Managing By Walking About - proved very successful and still does. Woe betide any manager who isn't inquisitive and sensitised to what might be happening that is out of the ordinary. To get that level of intelligence, you have to be aware. To be aware, you have to be out there, being just a little (or very!) nosy about what is going on.
Yet, within this, there is space for 'standing still'. You see, the bustle and rush of all the 'walking about' means that you don't always have the time to notice.
The challenge is within you. It feels uncomfortable to seemingly do nothing, but stand and watch to see; to absorb just what is going on. It also takes some little time for your people to get used to it as well. The concept of you just standing, watching, checking, catching them out.
Maybe.
So part of this is about watching and not finding things wrong, more about catching your people doing things right and gaining intelligence.
How you use that intelligence, needs care and focus and without doubt, to be constructive and positive.
You will be surprised what you find out about your business, by being calm with yourself, giving yourself the permission to stand around and watch.
Give it a try.
Further reading.
"Slack" - Tom De Marco
"The Lazy Way to Success" by Fred Gratzon 
October 17, 2005 21:54 - Catch 'Em Young
Last Saturday, I made my once a year trip north to the football ground of my youth.
I, unlike many football supporters, have followed my team from the age of around 6 and for many years every alternate Saturday home game, come what may, both weather and form wise, until eventually I moved away, to the deep south.
Many times it's been a cross to bear.
This weekend was little different. They lost after a 'streak' of not losing for 4 games, I was a spectator and they lost. My absence from their games has often been on the excuse that if I go, they lose. I try not to feel the guilt for Saturday too much.
At the interval, they usually have a troupe of amateur cheerleaders, ranging in age from about 7 to 17 maybe. This week was no exception, with four rows of the younger members falling in behind older girls.
At the end, with a ripple of applause from those spectators not in a long queue for a Balti Pie and a pint of bitter (standard fare for such experiences!), the troupe made their way from the pitch, one row at a time, so that they had a long line exiting the arena around the perimeter path. Each row 'leader', leading their row.
One of these older girls was very noticeable (to a management coach, anyway!) as she spoke regualry to each of her younger charges, one by one all the way round the pitch. The other 'leaders' didn't.
I pondered on who she would become in the future. How would her clear 'people skills', which naturally led her to talk with each of those little people, help her in her future. Would she make a great manager?
I think she might.
Despite the disappointment of the lost game, it was easily made up for with the meat and potato pie, chips and mushy peas after the game.
As someone famous once said, 'Luvverly, jubberly'!
October 18, 2005 22:22 - How Different People Are
If I was completely non-judgemental, I'd have described him as a lout.
Whatever, he was, he wasn't much less than that. In my eyes, anyway.
Watching people is a lot of fun, but we always see things from our own perspective.
What did the 'lout' do? Well, from the moment he sat next to me at the football match, and at regular intervals, say every three or four minutes or so, he raised two fingers to the opposition supporters, who were seated right at the opposite end of the pitch (that's if 'seated' and 'supporters' isn't an oxymoron (one of my favourite words and one which I use far too rarely!)).
I was really puzzled about the value of such exercise. It couldn't make a lot of difference to the away supporters, none of whom could possibluy see my co-supporter. But what difference did it make to him?
I just don't know.
But what it did bring home to me was how everyone is different, so different.
As managers, it is just so vital that we don't expect others to see things the way we do. Indeed, if we start from the premise that we are trying to get messages over which will be misinterpreted, then maybe, just maybe, we'll get most of what we intend across.
Otherwise, we may be raising our two fingers to others who will never make sense of it, even if they see it at all.
October 19, 2005 09:26 - Airline Food - and All That!
Adventure is my top value in life. I'll do (almost!) anything once (although sometimes once is enough)!.
I have to say that there are one or two things I will miss out on before I meet my maker. Bungee jumping will be a miss and as I get older, I rather dislike anything that turns me upside down much.
But generally, I'm game for most experiences.
Take flying. Fortunately, both on business and for pleasure, I really like flying - mind you, I was relatively pleased to miss out on a trip later this month which would, due to my schedule, have involved me in two overnight flights to Dubai and back in four days! It needs to be a bit more leisurely than that.
I even like airline food, as part of the adventure. It might not be that 'haute cuisine', but it is a change from the usual. And I also believe, that as I am lucky enough to be able to travel in this way, for whatever reason, that perhaps I could appreciate that my life has taken enough of the right turns for me to be enjoying my values so much.
Many people, through choices they make, avoid the challenges that would allow them to get a lot more from their lives.
As I read recently, between the date of your birth and the date of your death, on your tombstone, there is a 'dash'. It's what you do with that 'dash' that's the important bit.
October 20, 2005 22:46 - Motivation Basics
I an article in the Independent last week, there was a decription of a number of very costly consultants who were being used by the great and good to 'gee-up' their employees.
Mary Grober has been brought in by Marks and Spencer at a reported cost of over £10M and has been seen running 'mass staff sessions' at the NEC in Birmingham for all 56,000 staff!
In my experience, you cannot overlay 'motivation' where basic needs of individuals are not being met.
Take one major high street retailer (not M&S as far as I know), who has not been able to get it's payroll right all summer, with some individuals months out in their salary being paid correctly.
In 'Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs', recognised as the basis of the psychology of motivation, absolute core is the ability to feed and shelter ourselves. Unless you get that right (and pay facilitates these), then no end of high jinks will pay dividends.
There are other basics too. You can find a whole raft of thoughts here) which have to be met before you spend anything like £10M on a guru.
And the value getting those basics spot on will generate much more profit than playing games in a totally unrealistic setting, which will be memorable for it's lack of being memorable.
Perhaps Marks and Spencer's basic standards are in place. My next question will be how fulfilled their people are in their work - achieving that will be a true result.
October 24, 2005 06:45 - Ryanair and Customer Service
It's a really interesting calculation :- how do you balance great customer service with profitability?
A bit obvious for you? Well, I'm puzzled about what may just be negative publicity, but I work on the principle that there must at least be a little in it.
Ryanair, and their seemingly grumpy CEO, Michael O'Leary, are rarely out of the news. It could be the long-term dispute about the cost of wheelchairs to the gate, or the strange practice of delivering passengers to not quite their destinations, sometimes dropping them in a completely different country and bussing them the rest of the way.
I have only flown with Ryanair once and it was OK. Nowadays, I prefer to try to find an airline who I can get airmiles on and who I can go both long and short haul with.
So what price belligerance and an arrogant attitude? Would I fly with Ryanair again? Well, I might, but I certainly would have a moment where I thought twice. In 'value' there are other things except price. Personally, I draw some lines about the cheapness of a product and what it stands for. This is where Ryanair bugs me a bit. I feel somewhat 'anti' someone who commented recently to one interviewer (purportedly), "I don't give a shite if nobody likes me". No distinction between the business world or customers there then.
However, the model seems to be successful, with profits ahead over 30% in the last quarter reported and an expectation to fly more passengers in this financial year than Britich Airways.
So, who am I to question his business skills? Indeed who am I to consider his aggressiveness against say the dirty tricks BA got up to in trying to kill off Virgin in the nineties.
Yet, there is just a little something that bothers me about flying with a company with someone at the helm who is just such a smarty-pants that he seems not to care much about his customers. Is he ripe for a fall?
Just as long as I'm not on board at the time.
October 24, 2005 22:33 - Snippet of the Day - Listen Well
Remember, the best Communication is as much, or even more about listening, as it is about what you say. It's the 'two ears/one mouth' thing - keep how you use them in proportion.
People love it when you listen to them and you will learn much more about them and their situation.
And this is vital for relationship building and getting to really know your people.
More? Click here for detailed stuff about Communication.
October 25, 2005 20:06 - Henri and Pires - the French Farce
It has been all over the newspapers this weekend - the amazing penalty kick that never was.
Where Robert Pires and Thierry Henri contrived to cause such a mix up in an (almost) unique penalty kick, that Arsenal could esily have lost their game.
I haven't seen it - I must admit to you, but I was fascinated by the interview on the BBC's website with Arsene Wenger (how did Arsenal manage to appoint a manager with such similarity between his first name and that of the team he was joining?).
Seemingly ambivalent about what happened, there is more than a suspicion that if the match had been drawn, Wenger wouldn't have been quite so 'falling off his chair with laughter', as perhaps he was making out.
Yet he was OK about it. His boys had learnt a lesson and that won't happen again.
Very generous - yet was it?
When we work with people, they frequently do what might be described as pretty stupid things (a la Pires and Henri!), yet bawling them out and making them feel stupid rarely does any good.
Wenger didn't need to as them questions like, "What would you do differently if you were doing it again", or "What did you learn from that experience" - those two guys already knew the answers (kinda coaching themselves then!).
Yet as managers, showing exasperation or disapproval is such an easy mistake to make - yet so destructive. Not just of the individual's confidence, but also the enhanced realationship with that person that might just come in handy in the future.
Take time to let mistakes and failings get absorbed.
It will be an investment of 'biting your own tongue before you speak harshly' that will serve you well.
As for that penalty - well, as one wag told it, "For our £25+ a ticket, we come to be entertained, and that surely was entertainment".
October 26, 2005 22:24 - We All Have Choices
I've written a lot about 'choice' in the past. It's an option we all have every minute, of every day in our lives.
From when we are very small, when are choices are driven automatically, to meet the needs of our bodies, we escalate our consciousness around our choices until much of our behaviour as adults is part of decisions we make, for good or for bad.
Stephen Covey describes choice as, 'picking up one end of a stick...as well as the other'. Meaning that when we decide something, we have to accept the consequences.
In 1955, Rosa Parks decided that she would not give up her seat on an Alabama bus for a white passenger. Although she did not start the American civil rights movement, she was the precipitant of a big step.
She did not flinch from the consequences that would impact on her life. Maybe in that moment, she didn't recognise what would happen to her. She just dug her heels in and sat still.
Her personal consequences were harrowing, but the consequences for black people in America were astonishing, culminating just 9 years later in the Civil Rights bill, which changed racism for ever, though it did not eradicate it.
Rosa Parks died this week, aged 92. The bravery she showed in that moment on that bus, and subsequently, marked a revolution.
The choice she made, selfless as it was, had consequences far beyond what she could have dreamed.
Each one of us, as we go about our day, can make decisions which change more than maybe it seems one the face of it - they are a responsibility and an opportunity which we may not always value perhaps as much as we might.
There are people in the world who have little choice and those of us who do so, can heed the fortune we have, in the life we have.
October 27, 2005 23:04 - Snippet of the Day - Be Accountable
Through making the best decision at the time, great decision makers know they, and they alone are accountable.
That is the role they have chosen and the burden they carry - no one else gets the blame.
Yet they are magnanimous and 'team' enough to share the credit.
For more ideas on Decision Making, checkout this page.
October 28, 2005 22:15 - David O'Leary, Aston Villa & Being Sworn At
When you are in the public eye, you have to uphold certain standards.
Acouple of weeks ago, David O'Leary, the Aston Villa manager, was chastised because, after a successful victory against arch-rivals Birmingham, he ran across the pitch, towards a bank of Birmingham supporters and showed his thrill at the win.
He maintained he was waving at his directors who were in a box there, which is inaccessible from the changing area.
Foolish? Possibly.
Inflammatory?
Maybe.
But what also emerged in the post-match debate, was how he had been verbally abused, in the most torrid way, all through the match, by opposition supporters.
Now, perhaps, with the amount he is paid, and the circumstances by which he earns a living, he should be able to shoulder the vitriol.
Though it might also be quite hard, in a civilised world to justify even that excuse. But maybe.
However, take a lowly sales assistant in a store, or a call centre employee. Fodder for abuse, I would say. I have even been rude myself in some circumstances, I am ashamed to say.
In their situation, especially, I might add, especially when they are women, bullies take it upon themselves to abuse, embarrass and demean such individuals, often in frustration.
Sharp end service deliverers are very vulnerable at both ends. Often they have less self-esteem than they might have and end up customer facing - this is a fact. Frequently, their abuse is as the receving end of organisational decisions they are paid to implement, crazy though they might be. Frequently, those at the sharp end are placed in impossible situations by poor management, unable to organise their areas of accountability properly.
This all leads to a very unsavoury experience, day-in, day-out for these workers.
Why do they stay? You might ask.
They stay because they often have nowehere else to go.
October 30, 2005 18:25 - Snippet of the Day - Set Criteria
Delegation is an artfrom. You can reduce the drain on yourself by letting others take some of the strain.
There are some things you have to do which are shown on the link page below - one of them is being very, very clear with what you expect when you delegate a task. Set your people up with every chance to succeed and they will come back for more.
Make the criteria for success really clear and help them build confidence.
The webpage here has much more!
October 31, 2005 22:04 - Listening - the Powerhouse Management Tool
Listening to your people. As in life, many things that work best in business are the simplest things.In this easy to use toolkit, the benefits of listening and the key tips of how to do it best will help you manage to success...
Every day we communicate... (Read Article)
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