Perception is everything?

I am not sure about that. When Thomas was born I was contacted
by the hospital at 07.00 Sunday morning and told to get myself there sharp.

I set off to Dundee Ninewells Hospital from Bridge of Earn and got as far as the dual carriaged on-ramp to the motorway. Half way up the ramp my tyre blew out. Panic.

As there was zero traffic and it was dual carriageway I gently reversed down the ramp to park and ‘phone a friend’.

Another driver entered the ramp and despite it being void of cars and 07.15 on a bright Sunday morning and two lanes wide, insisted on blasting his horn and gesticulating my insanity.

I have ponder what this pleasant fellow traveller would have done in my situation. Flat tyre, clear road and baby in delivery.

I am sure he is a far more measured person than I and would have forgone the delivery and rather stood politely with his warning triangle awaiting the AA.

I honestly don’t think perception is everything. To me the truth is what counts.

Today someone said to me 'perception is everything'. I take the point but we need to be sure our perceptions are valid!

Perception is important, no doubt about it. It is the communication of your good intentions. But integrity is those intentions and that is what lets you sleep at night.

Crossing the Rubicon

There is a point in our development that requires the transition from one plane of thinking to another – from practical to conceptual. Post Graduate students are selected for their ability to either make or have made this transition. It is more important than any previous exam marks they have.

This transition is the toughest point at which a trainer can meet a group. For some people it is an easy transition, for others a long and painful struggle.

Enthusiastic new team leaders grab onto the knowledge you pass as lifelines to the way forward. They operate in the easier of the worlds

More advanced leaders share concepts and enjoy the challenges of a more conceptual world as food for the mind.

However those crossing the Rubicon hang on to the present like reluctant teenagers being ask to consider a life outside the parental home. In need of a break for the benefit of all but not quite able to take that leap, they see any purveyor of a challenge – even those desperate to serve their interest – as a foe.

It is not their fault. It is like me asking my 3 year old son to be rational. They have no concept of what is meant by it.

This is a tough time for them and their helpers. Some will never cross the Rubicon and it is perhaps wrong that they be asked to.

Others will thank their battle weary parents later.

Still it doesn’t make it any easier for those trying to help to know this!

Greece is moving fast

Over the last 5 years working with Post Graduate students on my annual trip to Athens I have seen a massive change. Not just simple things like cultural changes in time keeping but in the overall optimism and a move away from a culture of dependency and resigning to the status quo toward and optimism and energy for the future. I am sure the Olympics helped but there is more too it than that. I hope we are keeping pace with this modern European mindset!

I am not sure why but I am certain I loved my son long before I met him. When he was born it was just a case of meeting that person. To me that was part of the unconditionality of it all – a new word I know.

I wonder about leaders. Love is not the word here but to care and be committed to those you lead prior to meeting is perhaps part of the recipe that differentiates great from merely good leaders.