Imagine this was true

After a visit to the Anthony Gormley statues on Crosby beach, I travelled over to Southport – mainly because I’d never been there before.  It’s a pretty town and apparently the Champs Ellise in Paris is modelled on Southport’s main shopping street.

Another claim to fame is Southport’s pier.  It’s the second longest in England, although that sounds like a runners up medal – close but no cigar.  At the end of the pier is an old fashioned penny arcade full of early 20^th century amusements from one armed bandits to the very scary laughing seaman (remember the film?).  And of course the fortune telling machines.

I tried out a few slot machines, penny rolls and finally had a go with a palm-reading machine.  After ‘scanning’ my hand with what felt like ball bearings, out popped a card with the analysis.  As I read the results, I was thinking “this sounds just like me, how could it be so accurate?”  Was this just a mechanical toy, or something more?

Of course it’s all very nice to be hear that you have such positive qualities, but we all know that it’s just a game, nothing more.

But wait.  Imagine for a moment that everything on that card was true.  All of those qualities were mine in abundance.  How would that change thing for me?  How would that impact on my confidence and performance?

So, here’s my gift to you.  I’m going to read your palm.  

Hold up your palm to the screen so I can see it.  No it doesn’t matter which one.  That’s right, perfect. Now hold it still ….  

Done!

Here’s what I see.

You hand denotes great ability for business details; hence you are bound to succeed in whatever you take in hand.  You are freehearted and know how to make and spend money.  You are slow to make friends, which is a very good quality.  You have great determination, which should stand you in good stead.  Life for you will not be a bed of roses, but you have courage to overcome obstacles as they arise.  You are logical and have splendid willpower, which is a great asset.  You are fond of the good things of life and like comforts to an advanced degree.

Imagine this is true.  Imagine you are courageous, determined and have great business acumen. What would change for you, what would you do new or differently? 

So what is stopping you?

Think carefully about your answer, it may be the start of making your dreams come true.

Performance Under pressure

Golfing's greatest competition has been taking place this year at Sandwich.  The Open Championship is one of the great tests in the sporting calendar.There will be some truly great performances and some surprisingly poor ones.  Already the 2 top ranked players in the world have been eliminated and a 20yr old amateur has held the lead.

So what makes a Claret Jug winning golfer?  Here are a couple of quotes from some famous golfing winners:

• Bobby Jones - Golf is a game that's played on a 5 inch course, the distance between your ears.
• Tom Watson - Talent doesn't make a winner.  Two of the worlds most successful golfer miss more fairways than anyone else.  What you need is tenacity and focus.
• Gary  Player - The harder I practice the luckier I get

Dr Bill Gerrard is a technical consultant for Saracens rugby club, who won the Aviva Premiership this year. Using his performance analysis methodology he looks at two keys aspects:

•  -the ability to make the right decision during a game play and
• - the level of execution of that decision.

The best athletes don't just execute well, they are able to think clearly under the intense pressure of a game and make the right decision at the right time.  I'm reminded of some advice from Master Yoda - Be mindful of the future, but not at the expense of the present.

PS. I wrote this before the final round, so well done and congrtulations Darren Clarke

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.