The November 2004 Log

The November 2004 Log

Archive

This is The November 2004 Log. It is a regular musing on everything I observe that impacts on the Eight Key Steps. Some meanderings; some evidence and the occasional link to a piece out of a relevant magazine. And then some teasing questions for you to think about too!

November 30th, 2004

I've been writing a chapter for a book today and I've been reminded about a client I have. She came to me at the very start of my coaching career and had a vision for her life. It was clear that she was on a mission to make her mark.

Let's call her Jen, to make it easier, though her name is changed for confidentiality reasons and she is aware of this being placed on here.

Jen wanted to go places, but had some clearing out to do first of all. She had domestic issues that, one day, she resolved and moved on from. She took on extended roles at her work and then, when redundancy was offered, she grasped it with open arms and banked most of it. Then she took on a little consultancy and training work and they loved her, but she needed security for a few years (she has a young son).

Jen then landed a great job and a significant professional qualification - more pay, far better prospects and the job of her dreams. Jen aspired to be Melanie Griffiths in "Working Girl" and she is living her dream.

If you resonate with this, I have one question,

"What's stopping you?"

Jen got past that question, for a much brighter future.

Jen, I salute you, you've been far braver than me. You have the future ahead of you right now that you deserve. Well done!

November 29th, 2004

Little things make the difference, not the big things.

So, I'm in Sainsbury's yesterday afternoon, quite late on, for petrol. Half the pumps are closed. Trouble is that some were closed for one reason (no diesel), and some for another (no unleaded), so it's pandemonium as people fill up for their commute on Monday.

After I finish, I'm into the little kiosky thing to pay. There are three staff there and a queue at two. I go to the third. For a moment I worry that she's bust doing something non-serving, but no, she's reading one of the Sunday supplements. So I get served OK. At the end, and she hasn't spoken to me at all, she hands me the cards back, says nothing and starts talking to the girl who's next to her. I say 'Thank-you' rather loudly and leave

Hey, it's convenient there - that's why I go.

Why was her behaviour so un-customer focused?
What is the reason behind the lack of Motivation?

Intriguing to speculate. But I'm not going to be a bit of an old fart here. It's much to easy to blame her. There is reason for poor customer service, way beyond the individual. If she were motivated by her job, she'd have been delighted to serve me - gushing probably.

So what needs to happen for everyone to be very motivated in their jobs? I think the answer sits on one or more of these website pages...

November 28th, 2004

Sometimes it's good not to know. In Will Self's piece (i before e except after c has always been the Achilles heel that my immaculate spelling has suffered from - I'll look it up afterwards and keep the flow going) in this week's Saturday Independent magazine, he talks about how he recently found out that the mythical island of Sodor, as described by the Reverend W V Awdry in the Thomas the Tank Engine stories apparently had form. In fact Awdry had described it with a map etc. in the later Thomas the Tank Engine - The Complete Collection (looks very good value!). Self was a bit disappointed with this - it kinda stamped on his lifetime's worth of imagination and gave it form (albeit that it was imaginary - it wasn't Self's)

It's tough though - we feel we need to know, yet letting go of that, in our lives, in our business etc. is much better. They call it living in the moment. It's more like not living in the future, in the all knowing. After yesterday's revelation on confidence, it's been a challenging and shifting weekend really.

November 27th, 2004

Bit of a busy weekend with my 21-year old daughter having three friends to stay - yea, that's right me and five girls (I include my wife as one of the girls too, of course). Will probably need to keep close to my computer and the football this weekend!

I just wanted to share a comment I read recently in a book called 'True Success' by Tom Morris.

"All of us face challenges where we have to stretch beyond what we've ever done before if we're going to make the most of the opportunity we have. We need confidence. And we can't wait on the evidence. We can't always wait for the people around us to give us that confidence either. We need to take matters into our own hands. We need confidence, up front and we need to do whatever it takes to give ourselves that confidence. And especially when we face something we've never quite faced before, we need to create within ourselves a strong initial confidence, a precursive faith in our abilities and in our prospects."

So it's saying, I guess, 'You lack confidence - get over it, make your own, then it will come.' How fascinating and refreshing - it certainly gave me a big shift. Time to get on with it. And, you know, it feels rather freeing too! This is now stuck on my monitor - to remind me. It's all there - go do it!

To check Tom's book out at Amazon.co.uk, click here

For a better review, checkout Amazon.com at here

November 26th, 2004

I've been thinking about 'Motivation' this week a lot. In managing our businesses, we wring our hands a lot about how to 'Motivate' our staff. We look at parties, days out 'teambuilding' - spending money to force motivation on our people.

In many ways it's easier than that - and at the same time, it's a lot harder.

A friend of mine has recently been promoted to one of the top businesses in a big retail organisation in the UK. He is brilliant at his job. He has a buzz about it. When I asked him about the challenge and his new team of people, he said it was 'OK'. He said some of his new team were 'OK', some weren't. It would take him till next Christmas to get it 'just right'. Clear top-line focus on what needed to be done.

The unsaid was how well he will treat all of his people in whatever needs to be done. Firm but fair; honest and trustworthy; staying or leaving; being promoted or stepping down - every member of his team will love him. I know it - he knows it. It's a way of being. He would never dream of taking his people building rafts - yet. There is work to do first in building relationships first. He knows that you can't miss that step.

How is your relationship with your people?

Rate it out of 10. Now ask them what would they score it - get them to be really, really honest (by the way - if you have a poor relationship with your people, it's often hard to get them to be honest with you). Ask them what you need to do to make it better - to make it 10/10. You may be surprised.

November 25th, 2004

Just a quick note about some interesting customer service I was at the end of today. I wanted to purchase an item from a store. The one I went to didn't have it in stock, so they chased around to find one that did as the manufacturers were out of stock themselves. 'My' store found one and was told it would take 3 - 4 weeks to get it (only 40 miles away) 'because it was Christmas'. Then they decided that they wouldn't send it, because they only had two and they would lose a sale!

I felt quite sorry for the store I was at, as they were exasperated too. But we became partners and we dug in! I made a call to the head office for an intervention! Miracle - the store desperately hanging on found they would be able to release it after all my printer will arrive in a 'few days'. What a result - just!

If you are in any sort of retail business (and this was a name you would all know), could this happen with your people?

It would be laughable if it weren't so serious. Let's put a competition ahead of a customer eh?

November 24th, 2004

Yesterday, I had feedback from my Intercept questionnaire, from my colleague Judith Underhill at Your Business Matters. This proving to be a fascinating insight into those Success Qualities you need to have in place to be successful in your career. As always, there were chunks that I'd want to dispute :-)! But very quickly, I was very impressed by the way the programme works to help you make choices. To work with your coach to make those significant shifts.

This is going to be a cracking tool for my clients in the New Year. I'll tell you much more about it shortly and show you to a dedicated website link from here.

Entries may be missing for couple of days as I have quite a chunk of work on at the moment. I am down to less than 10 pages to do now on Phase 1 of this new website although there are a few reviews and minor edits over the next few weeks!

November 23rd, 2004

Today I share with you the outcome of an article in this month's 'People Management'.

This shows the value of a coaching culture in real '� note' terms.

Over the last 18 months, a 'manager as coach' programme, delivered by Worth Consulting, at COSi's plant in Maesteg has contributed to bring down absenteeism from 5.3% to 3.0%

Using trios of participants, learning together with the OSCAR model, they were able to make the learning fun and effective, as well as generating thinking around an issue, as distinct from reacting with a knee-jerk solution.

The value to the organisation was almost �100,000! in reducing absenteeism alone. If anyone needed proof of the real value of a coaching culture in the workforce, then this, surely, is it.

For those of you used to the GROW model, this will look familiar, but, I think, a little different, and thus maybe, more useful in the context it was used.

The Oscar Model

Outcome
What would you like to achieve in the long term?
Situation
What is the current state of affairs � what�s actually happening?
Choices
What options do you have? What are the consequences of each choice?
Actions
What will you do next? How will you do it? When will you do it?
Review
What steps will you take to review your progress? When are we going to get together to review your progress?

November 22nd, 2004

Do people ever do things that you can't understand - normal things, like throw litter; let their dogs foul pavements; or my current favourite, as a postman, throw your rubber bands on the ground?

Why is that?

It is really, really easy to let it irritate, as if it was a conscious act - but, here's a secret - it usually isn't!

People are as they are and have the same way of setting their standards and behaviours as we do - the enlightened ones :-) - and they comprehend no different way of being than they are.

Why is this important on this web-site? I'll tell you. The people in your business who just seem to be way off where you want them to be are there, as they are and it's perfectly their right to be there as they are. If it doesn't fit what you want, then you have two options.

Make very clear what your expectations are in words of one syllable and write them down. Manage it closely and be prepared for 2.
Work out a way to take them from your business (remember - you are doing them a favour, because if they are in an organisation which is way different than they are, they will be very unhappy underneath).
There's a 3. Recruit a lot more carefully in future.

What do you observe in your team today? Who are the 'keepers', who are the 'losers' (the ones who suck you dry of energy) and who are the 'Oooops, I should never have taken them on in the first place'. Good learning.

November 21st, 2004

So, we're back! Ready and refreshed to go - even got four more pages of this site completed whilst I was away - well, I love doing it!

We spent time at Center Parcs and it was just great to get back to nature, a bit of exercise and easy days. Played a bit of badminton, racquetball and table tennis and walked and cycled a lot! Great fun.

Next up is the biggie of the web-site, Developing Each Other - there's no link in here, because there's nothing much there yet. But this week is the challenge.

Little things...the lovely service I got from the Medical Centre at Center Parcs when I broke the arm off my glasses and the fab team at Brian Vousden Opticians. And a really good bit of service from Avon Bradley in the Cafe in Jolly's - both in Bath.

Nothing management or business or leadership there

...or so I thought...

...but then I considered. What kind of management in those two businesses prompted them; gave them permission, to be as they are - despite the poor service we get in a lot of places - I bet they were Empowerment. Which will be an additional module which will be included later on in Phase One!

I'm also getting my feedback for my Intercept questionnaire this week from my friend Judith Underhill at Your Business Matters. Click through to see more about this fascinating process which will become one of the great tools we work with from January.

November 13th, 2004

Well, I'm getting into holiday mode, though have a few things left to do before a week away recovering. A last minute proposal, one more page of the website, three copies of the Newsletter for the next three Sundays and a couple of other bits and then I'm away!

I was reading a great piece by Will Self in the Independent magazine today about Graham Greene. Do you know that he hardly went further than Sussex in his life? All those books like The Honorary Consul, Stamboul Train, Our Man in Havana and The Quiet American he never left the home counties! Even Brighton Rock was written in Bexhill-on-Sea and he never went to Brighton.

It just goes to show the power of the imagination and with the internet, one wonders whether it is necessary to leave your study!

Have success yourselves and - I'll be back in a week!

November 12th, 2004

There was a great article recently, in the Gallup Management Journal, about where coaching goes wrong in the workplace. It described managers who think they are coaches, using some of the tools provided by 'coaching' programmes. These managers managed by making people whose skills were lacking, focus on those areas of their work! They never had a chance...

Coaching is all about drawing skills and potential out - not making people feel inadequate. If you're wondering why you aren't getting the best out of your people, or they just don't seem to like you - it's maybe because you complain about them all the time!

Ever been in the position where your boss said to you 'Would you like some feedback?' (if no, then we do have a way to go!) and your thought was, 'here we go' - and that sinking feeling hit you in the gut? That's because when we get feedback most times, it's because someone finds fault in us. And not the good. Great coaching builds on successes of people and not by beating them to get better at skills they struggle with.

November 11th, 2004

I worked with a manager today who was having the worst audit of systems in his store. His words were - 'I've had a proper and prolonged arse kicking today'...and then spent the rest of the time bemoaning that he had been let down by his people - now what do you think the first challenge was for me with him - you got it - to make sure he realised what 'accountable' meant. the manager is the one where the buck stops. Will he get that ever - probably not. Oh yes, and I had to spend a little time telling one of his Supervisors that she was really very good at what she did - and not the failure that he kept telling her she is.

What might the long-term effects on her be?

November 10th, 2004

So there I am writing the Delighting Customers page for the website and I get a call from an old colleague (again!). A few weeks ago, he mentioned that he wanted to ramp up the sales in his business by getting everyone to sell 5 more things every day.

I said I'd have difficulty encouraging people to do that - so I threw out a few suggestions. These were about raising awareness of opportunities (and more) and I e-mailed it back to him.

He shared with me today an option that he has been working on in which sales staff use the phrase 'Did you know...'. This builds the relationship from one where staff are doing the 'selling' to one where they are 'helping' - and very successful it has been too.

November 9th, 2004

Had lunch today with a couple of old friends from my corporate past - we set the old place to rights and agreed it was going to the dogs.

We met for lunch in a fabulous old pub. The landlord was just great - he welcomed us like we were regulars and set up a tab for the drinks and the food - 'Nah, I don't need your card, you look trustworthy'. How valued did that make me feel? And what an inspired effort by him! A lesson in customer management if ever I saw one. Maybe he's a natural!

Will I go there again? What do you think!

But what made the difference?

Back to Top - The November 2004 Log

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