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!