Update on New Year entry

If you read my New Year blog about planning your year ahead and chose to do nothing then fair enough. However there is an interesting verse in Amy Macdonald’s Mr Rock and Roll:

He says "I wish I knew you, I wish I met youWhen time was still on my side"

A different take on Carpe Diam!

Watch Amy here

Crises of Trust

There seems to be a crises of trust in Europe. Twice since Christmas I have been asked, whilst in supermarkets, to open my bag in case I had stolen a piece of Camembert or ssimilar. This would not have happen in times when you did not have to take your own bag with you – either that or carry twenty items of shopping home in your arms! In my 47 years I have never - repeat never - been asked this before but now twice in 6 months! The most that had happened to me was a refusal to sell me alcohol at the age of 15 by a shop on Morningside Road which was fair cop.

In one respect I am flattered at not looking too conservative but another part of me says ‘damned cheek’! It says there is an assumption of guilt when I enter the store and as such I think I will choose not to! Loyalty = zero! The French news say one of their better known stores are videoing staff as they work – not just me then! To me this is all part of an erosion of the contract that says ‘we will treat each other reasonably unless we have cause to do otherwise’. Without this the ‘good will’ vital to our interdependence will disappear.

This raises issues for how we treat each other generally - in work and society and the matter of loyalty. That is why we have understanding and building trust as a standard part of our leadership programmes. Click here.

My Favourite Things

I have a magazine folder at home simply called “Nice People” - it sits between 'Jeep' and 'Outdoor Clothing and Gear' on the bottom shelf of the bookcase! In that folder go bits of paper and feedback when folk have said something nice to me.

I keep them because when I get really fed up with human nature I remember the nice things people have bestowed – my favourite things - just like Julia Andrews. Then I feel better.

Coaching

Coaching is really a mainstream part of any organisations' or individuals' performance tool kit. It is now refined to quite specific approaches for expediency and effect.

However the role of coach is not new to any of us. My 'wee boy' had the services of a coach aged 4 when at age 2 he first stayed with his morning minder. Now age the age of 3 the role is passed to him with the arrival of a new baby to the minders care! Although not coaching as we think of it, he is there to question and help.

At home do we not find ourselves asking what and why on a regular basis? Questioning - coaching!

"If anyone wants a lift jump on"

44 - The Age of Self Impossed Discontent

Interesting the findings of a recent survey that the unhappiest time of a persons life is 44 when apparently:

“Most people start out thinking they can accomplish anything when they are young. As they grow older they begin encountering challenges, moving into different careers, life circumstances and dealing with problems they just can’t defeat. “

See this article click here

I was dumb struck recently when it was bought to my attention that someone found my personal vision demoralising – not because of its content but because it highlighted the lack of content of the commentators.

This to me answers much of the 44 pissed off issue. To me, and it is my perspective, people don’t hit a wall, they run out of vision. To make matters worse they ran out of vision the moment the stopped creating it at the age of 16.5. When they last considered ambition and before they started to get by!

Last year was my toughest yet - on a personal front - and in many ways, also one of my best. I am sure what gave me a purpose to navigate from the present in the togher times was a sense of future.

If you are not sure what next, then have a look at the first post of 2008 and see what you can caft as your vision.

Our New Teambuilding Challenge – The Forth Challenge

Shane Watson has written a tongue in cheek but very astutely article in the Sunday Times Style Magazine entitled ‘Let the Bad Times Roll’. In it she comments:

“A day lying around in your cashmere lounge suits, contemplating your gorgeous lives, is definitely less bonding than clearing up after burst pipes have destroyed a couple of years worth of homemaking”. Click here to read the whole article.

No doubt about it people rise to a challenge and done right it brings people together in a way that perfect conditions just don’t. We all like good times but they are good when juxtaposed to a challenge. However what would be the effect of putting the two together? Challenging Fun or course!

For challenge, fun and team development to all happen at the same time, relevance to the world in which we live is essential. That is exactly what we are doing in our latest team building event – The Forth Challenge. Click here for more.

The start of 2008 is an opportunity. Everyday is an opportunity but there is something about the start of a year that is different – fresh perhaps. Maybe that’s because at the end of the year we look back thus the start we look forward?

Going into the New Year I am focusing on 2 things:
What I what to do, achieve and become in 2008
What I want to leave behind in 2007

I am asking these questions of 4 key areas; myself, family, community and professional lives.

Then I am looking at growth. What will that mean in 2008? Growth needs space and challenge.

Space to think differently and time to do differently. Space comes about when you let go of what is currently occupying it. Leaving things behind or accommodating them in a different way will create space and time.

Challenge comes from doing new stuff outside your comfort zone. Challenge needs a vision, goals and projects. Without challenge we become comfortable and eventually dissatisfied and stagnant. It doesn’t feel like dissatisfaction because we met it originally as that old friend of the emotions comfort and didn’t notice it change.

Former Harvard professor Jeffrey Rayport said:
‘Don’t squander the chances to make a difference in the world because of the comfort of inaction… Listen to your passions…And then do something truly great.’

If you are keen to do, be and achieve different things, here’s some help.

Madonna and Jump – first line:
There's only so much you can learn in one place, the more that I wait, the more time that I waste!
Watch it here and think about it


The Case of the Bosai Manager
Amazon says: In this world, the inclusive, intuitive and humane style of management will work, not the top-down approach - and here is an author uniquely placed to tell us how.
I say this book, recommended to me by one of my Indian students, is written by an experienced senior manager who 'gets it'. The book really has you challenging yourself as well as being very accessible.
See it here

Life Coaching for Dummies
I hate the name of these series however the books are a good reference. This one by Jeni Mumford is just a great practical, easy to understand and non prescriptive mentor for developing your goals.
See it here

Lots of other great reads are on our resources page – click here

I hope your year ahead gives you everything you plan for,

Oliver (and Thomas)