The Power of Words

A friend recently sent me a link to a YouTube video.  It was a moving film, but the ending credits revealed the source as a viral ad from a marketing company.  Comments from other viewers pointed out that the film was actually closely based on the 2008 Cannes Short Film Award winner Historia de un Letrero (The Story of a Sign) by Alonso Alvarez Barreda.  I tracked down the original and linked to this rather than the viral ad.


For me, the film a powerful reminder of the power of words and how reframing a context can change peoples' thinking and actions. Reframing is an important part of a coaches toolkit and elegantly used, can be a game changer.  I'll leave you to watch the film for yourself, and while you watch think about what you can do to reframe a current situation for yourself or someone you know, where it would make a positive difference.

Bad News - It Works Perfectly

I’ve just had to change my mobile.  I have been using an iPhone 3g, which I loved, until the software updates eventually made it unusable.  Fortunately my contract was up, so I took the plunge and got an Android phone.  I was happy.  Very happy.  I could make calls, and although finding my way round the phone was a bit of a challenge it was fun.

Sadly it wouldn’t sync with all my other Apple tech and a little reluctantly I went back to the iPhone, but this time the latest version.  Now everything works perfectly.  It’s faster, slicker and everything I wanted from a phone, but I wasn’t excited about it.  Everything worked, no hassle, no tweaking settings, but it’s now just a phone.  What happened?

I was thinking about that today and a career management tool I use popped into my head.  Career Orientations helps people understand what motivates them in a career.  It’s really useful both for the individual and their organisation to help increase individual contribution and engagement.  It’s based on research by Brooklyn Derr who identified 5 distinct orientations:

Advancement. This upwardly mobile career orientation is usually associated with advancing up a hierarchy of positions or status system. More influence,

Security. Some people are driven by loyalty, organisational identity and the desire for a sense of order. In return for dedicated, hard-working service, they seek long-term employment, benefits, recognition and appreciation from the employer.

Freedom. Instead of moving upward in career direction, the careerist following this strategy seeks to move out toward the margin. The emphasis is on gaining personal autonomy, “space”, loose supervision and responsibility for outcomes rather than being bound by another’s process, norms and rules.

Challenge. Some careerists are driven by the need for excitement, risk and the engaging process of work. In such a career, one seeks to move – often laterally – to the centres of action, adventure and creativity.

Balance. Some people seek to balance their work, relationship and self- development lives. For these individuals, work is just one important dimension of a total lifestyle orientation, even though such careerists may emphasise different dimensions at different seasons and given different pressures.

I’m a Challenge and Freedom person.  I like autonomy and I particularly like challenging and exciting relatively short term projects.  My experience with my iPhone brings this home to me.  The Android phone was new exciting and posed a challenge to get it to work with my existing technology.  The iPhone put simply, just works.  Where’s the fun in that?

Translate that into a work based scenario.  It’s really important if you want to engage, motivate and develop someone that you not only find the right projects and assignments for their capabilities, but also that you position the assignment with their career orientation.

The Oxygen of Management Life

For almost 2 years Google have been working on Project Oxygen - their research into what makes a good manager. The New York Times recently published an article about what they have discovered - Google’s Quest to build a Better Boss

What they found – and it isn’t surprising – is that building a strong relationship between managers and their team, gets better results. Soft skills can get mixed up with being a soft touch and this isn’t the case. It’s simply that being Technically brilliant isn’t the pre-requisite for being a good manager or Leader.

Here are google’s 8 rules.

1. Be a good coach 
2. Empower your team and don't micromanage
3. Express interest in team members' success and personal well-being 
4. Don't be a sissy: Be productive and results-oriented 
5. Be a good communicator and listen to your team
6. Help your employees with career development 
7. Have a clear vision and strategy for the team 
8. Have key technical skills so you can help advise the team.

They also highlight 3 pitfalls that managers can easily be trapped by:

1. Have trouble making the transition from individual contributor to manager
2. Are inconsistent in managing team member performance and career development
3. Spend too little time managing and communicating

Another organisation that recognises the importance of relationship management is professional services firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. The CEO Giam Swiegers is very clear “We focus on people who are good with people when we recruit and promote.” You can read more about Deloitte in the Management Today Article, The Cultured Organisation http://bit.ly/erzaK5




Both Deloitte and Google backs up the work I have done with the four stages of contribution model. The four stages model defines the behaviours associated with high performance for individual contributors and managers; and provides a framework to help manage and promote the transitions across career stages to overcome the barriers Google have identified.

Novations four Stages of Contribution model

Google could have simply used exising research to come to the same conclusion, but it’s good that they had the resources and energy to fins out for themselves what makes a good Google manager. It’s good for everyone else too, to know that when it comes to careers and what’s important we’re all on the same page.

Leading From the Inside Out

You may already be a TED regular, but if not, make some time to visit the site and watch or listen to some great speakers.  One that  recently got me thinking is Simon Sinek’s presentation on How Great Leaders Inspire Action.

The message I took from it was the importance of communicating meaning to gain commitment and loyalty from customers and employees alike. His Golden Circle encapsulates simply and elegantly why some leaders and organisations are more successful than others.

Everyone knows what they do. Some know how they do it, their USP or differentiators, but very few know why they do it i.e their purpose, what business are they in?

Most orgs communicate from outside in.  Inspired orgs think from outside in.  Simon uses Apple Inc to explain his model.  Apple don’t do this:

• We make great computers (what)
• They’re beautifully designed simple to use (how)
• Do you want to buy one? (Why)

They do this:

• In everything we do we believe in challenging the status quo, thinking differently. (Why)
• The way we challenge the status quo is make our products that are beautifully designed and are simple to use. (how)
• We happen to make  great computers (what)
• Want to buy one?

How and Why statements tap into our emotional brain and that drives behaviour.  It also generates feelings such as loyalty and commitment that are a key motivator in increasing discretionary effort and contribution.  Leaders have to be able to communicate meaning, be clear about why they do what they do, and why they believe in what they believe.  Without this, their leadership is diminished.

So, If you don’t know why you do what you do, how can you foster loyalty?  What would you rather have, people who do their job just to get paid, or people who do  the job because they believe in it and are passionate about it?

The Golden Circle reminds me of Novations TOP model, which is a great tool for explaining the importance of Passions and Talents in achieving Organisational (or personal) goals.  People are only fully engaged at work when they are being stretched with projects and assignments they can really buy into.  


It part of a leader’s role to understand what an individuals talents and passions are and it’s equally important for leders to understand their own natural abilities and motives.


By aligning Talents Passions and Organisational needs, you get the best out of someone and they feel rewarded, valued and engaged too.  It's a tripple win and that's what makes the real difference in organisations.


The saying goes, before you can lead others know thyself.  If you haven’t already, begin your journey to inspire others, from the inside – out.

Has Coaching Gone For a Burton?

Photo by Julie Elliott-Abshire

Finally the FA in England has given the go-ahead for their Academy at Burton.  But what will they be doing there?  I have read that the purpose of the Academy is to train and develop coaching capability, particularly at grass roots level.  This will in turn give youngsters the technical skills the England team is currently so desperately short of.  Many commentators have said that these skills need developing at an early age and by the age of 21 it’s already too late.

So how good is the coaching right now?  Not good enough and certainly not in sufficient depth to develop the undoubted talent that exists right across the country.

And what happens to those young talented footballers?  How do they learn, if not from good coaching.  The few English players that make it to the biggest stage do so in clubs where they have the opportunity to learn from the best players in the world.  However only a small percentage get the chance as instant results are needed and too often the result is a player fails to reach their full potential because they do not get the opportunity to test themselves at the highest level.

So what’s happening in your own business?  How do you use coaching?  Maybe you don’t use coaching at all or perhaps only as a  performance management tool – a way of getting people back on track.  If you don’t use coaching or only in limited cases then you are missing out on a massive opportunity to increase bottom line results.

If you see coaching as a cost effective development strategy to improve performance and build a committed, highly engaged and productive workforce, where people have the opportunity to build a career; then how good is your coaching capability? 

If there are insufficient coaching skills amongst your managers, or your managers do not provide a challenging yet supportive environment, your own staff will not fulfil their potential.  That is a cost to the business on so many levels, including productivity, retention and recruitment.

I’ve just developed a coaching development programme accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Development.  I believe that when coaching is done well it is one of he best and most cost effective ways of improve performance and results.  Drop me a line if you’d like to know more.

Measuring and Valuing Talent

Photo by Jonathan Ruchti www.sxc.hu

Dr Bill Gerrard is an international authority on sports finance. He has developed player transfer and wage valuation systems for use in the football industry including squad valuations for various football clubs. He has written widely published academic papers on a number of topics - interestingly on player transfer market, measuring player quality and coaching efficiency. 

What struck me more than anything were the comparisons with the way player talent is measured and valued in sport and what happens in business with talent acquisition, development and management.

Dr Gerrard highlights the difference between sports such as cricket and the various codes of football (soccer, rugby).  Cricket, Dr Gerrard contends, is more easily measured due to the clearly differentiated specialisms, e.g. batting and bowling where performance is easily measured.  What is more difficult, is measuring individual performance in invasion sports such as football where the goal (J) is to move an object from one end of a playing field to the other.  Individual contributions in this arena are far more difficult to value; and Dr Gerrard has spent several years developing a system that can measure and value player contribution.

Dr Gerrard has worked with top football and rugby clubs in England, Scotland and overseas, using his system to measure contribution and identify improvements.  Part of the philosophy is to focus on the positive and he has found that teams that focus on the positives perform significantly higher than those who focus on failure.  These high performing teams use failure as an opportunity, learning far more quickly and effectively.  Their cost ratios are also far better.  For example, one team consistently had top 5 finishes, but the costs of achieving the result were more than 50% lower than the teams above.  As professional sport is also a commercial business Returns on investment are a key consideration.

In the same way, we also use a system developed over many years to measure and value individual performance in organisations.  Our model is called the Four stages of Contribution and was developed at Harvard University.  It is now used by successful organisations worldwide to develop and retain high performing talent at every level.  The four Stages model has a lot in common with Dr Gerrard’s approach to developing sporting talent – great minds clearly think alike!  If you would like to know more about how you can measure and develop talent and improve performance in your organisation, I’d be pleased to explain the concepts and approach to you.  Droop me a line and I’ll send you some information.

Work More Effectively - Think Like a Nomad

Thousands of years ago mankind lived as nomads.  Then came civilisation, agriculture, settlements and life changed forever.  The same thing is happening to the Bushmen of the Kalahari as they give up their nomadic lifestyle for one of permanent settlements.  Life has changed radically for them too; and not necessarily for the best.

For nomads, the emphasis is on social groups and relationships, sharing knowledge, moving with the seasons in search of food and shared with everyone.  In settled communities, social groups become leadership structures, knowledge and wealth are acquired and accumulated individually, food is stored for personal rather than for group use. I won’t go into sanitation, but have you see the size of our sewers? Spencer Wells, a geneticist and anthropologist documented all of this in his book Pandora’s Seed: The Unforeseen Consequences of Civilisation.

So what has that go to do with organisational life?  Well, networking is a highly valued activity – look at the rise of Facebook and LinkedIn as business tools. 

The most effective people in organisations are those that develop and work through others – they coach and mentor as a way of getting things done.  They share their thoughts, ideas, knowledge and expertise.  Their networks extend far beyond the walls of their organisation and its clients. 

So, get out of your office, department, division, business.  Meet new colleagues and old customers.  Share your experience, your ideas and search out new pastures, there are plenty to be found even with people and places you thought you knew.

Let your thoughts wander beyond the self-imposed restriction of civilisation.  Think like a nomad!