Archive For: Leadership

It’s 2019 (Financially)

 

Yet again, time has ticked over and here in Australia it is now the start of the new 2019 financial year.

So where are you?

I have spoken to some of my friends on colleagues who talk about “getting ahead”, “putting some money away” or “trying to get some leverage”. A recent post on LinkedIn talked about property prices in Sydney 20 years ago and the majority of the commenters were along the lines of “If only I knew”, “I wish I had a time machine” or “I shouldn’t have sold when I moved”.

I love the Chinese saying, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is today.”

Whether that is an actual tree, a money tree or a family tree, the saying is true. The image above is where my gorgeous wife and I will be planting approximately 60 fruit trees. You can see the divots (and if you squint you may be able to see the pink X’s) where we are getting the local bloke with a digger to dig the holes for the trees.

We will be planting another 20 or so Golden Ash at another place on the farm and, all going to plan, next year we will be putting in quite a few slow growing trees like Oak and Maple as well as another 20 Claret Ash.

To be quite blunt, we will be dead before some of these trees reach their maturity and magnificence. The fruit trees alone will take five years to get to a stage they will bear fruit. I suspect some trees may die as we fine tune irrigation, try and keep the kangaroos and other animals at bay.

But the second best time to plant is today.

Will you be in the same financial position this time next financial year?
What will you do to “Plant your tree”?
What financial plans do you have to put in place?
Who do you need to speak to to get the facts and make it happen?

Let 2019 be the year that you trees and financial future flourish.

Let me know if I can help at all.

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You Are Leaving Signs

On the way to my personal trainer this morning (yes I have a personal trainer and he hurts me!) I saw this number plate on a courier truck.

Thaaaaat’s not a good sign.

I mean, would you hire a courier who hates their job? Can you imagine how they may throw delicate packages around? How much care do you think they would have with what they are doing?

I am most likely jumping to conclusions. Maybe they bought this number plate thinking it was a good joke. Maybe they don’t work and this is a truck they drive around in their retirement. Maybe they have a long term contract and don’t really care what the rest of the world thinks. There are any number of reasons to explain this number plate.

What is important is that they have left a sign. A sign that will influence how they are perceived.

You do the same thing every day. How you dress, how you interact with others, how you treat the barista at the coffee shop, comments you make to your friends on the phone that other people overhear, the jokes you tell and even how you treat animals.

You leave signs that people will use to assess whether they want to deal with you or not.

I am not saying that you have to be perfect, it is way too hard. But I am saying that it is worth considering what signs you are leaving and what signs you want to leave and adjusting your actions accordingly.

So Dear Reader, what signs are you leaving?

 

 

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The Power of “Yes and”

For over 10 years I have been studying, training and performing with Impro Melbourne. They are an amazingly talented bunch of people.

What they don’t know is that I have been using the principles of Impro with my coaching clients and in my consulting.

You see the underlying tenet of Impro is the concept of “Yes and”. What that means is that you treat the idea that your fellow performers have as the perfect idea for the moment – that is the Yes. Then you build on and add to that idea – which is of course, the And.

Even if your personally think the idea is rubbish, you hate it, oh my goodness why did they say/do that, you just go with it. You treat it like the perfect idea. Time and time again, what happens is that it evolves on the fly and becomes a fabulous scene.

As a manager, obviously sometimes your team are wrong. But when you point that out to them, you are shutting them down. Once they are shut down, they are less likely to make a suggestion or give a thought next time. Using “Yes, and” allows you to build on what they are saying and divert it away to are more valuable response AND they still feel like they contributed.

For example, if you are coming up with ideas on how to cut costs and one of your team says, “We could close the store earlier to save on staff costs.” Rather than saying, “No we can’t do that” you may respond, “I like what you are saying on saving staff costs. How about we focus on re-stocking during the early shift so we don’t need as many staff for the late shift?”

The person has given an idea, you have validated them and then tweaked it to come up with a workable possibility.

“Yes and” takes lots of practice to become a comfortable part of how you operate but the effort is so worth it.

Dear Reader, how will you use “Yes And” today?

 

PS Impro Melbourne have a great range of shows and training happening. Check them out here or check out your local Impro troop to fast track your “Yes And” skills.

 

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Who’s a Good Boy?

I spent a bit of time over Easter installing some new redgum sleepers and creating a new garden bed in the front garden. (The plan is for a rosemary hedge so we have a little more privacy AND tasty goodness for when we cook lamb.)

Can I tell you how much physical work was involved? Plus, those sleepers are 3 metres long and very heavy to throw around, level out, concrete in and all the other fun stuff!

Here are a few more pics.

You know what I like the most about this kind of project? It is having my gorgeous wife admire the work done and show her appreciation. Basically, I am a big fluffy puppy wanting her to tell me what a good boy I am and what a good job I have done!

It is funny how one of the key things in the work place that gives great joy and reward to a person is Acknowledgement and Words of Praise, yet they are both incredibly rare. I have heard managers say, “I don’t need to tell them they do a good job, they get paid. That is enough. It is my responsibility to tell them when they have done a bad job, that’s when I give them feedback.”

Culturally when we give some one a compliment, they struggle to accept it.

Responses like “Don’t mention it”, “No worries”, “it’s all good”, “This old thing”, “I bought it at the op shop”, “it was nothing” are part of our every day vernacular.

Can I ask you to mention it?

Can I ask you to pay attention and praise those around you for doing what they would do anyway?

Can I ask you to acknowledge the effort of others?

Most people have a hidden sign saying, “Have I done a good job?”

It costs nothing but a small amount of time to give a compliment and acknowledge others and the payback is massive. Your team will feel closer, feel prouder and pay more attention to team goals.

So dear reader, in your life, who’s been a good boy or a good girl?

 

 

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A Message to Cricket Australia

Image: Shutterstock.com

For those of you that know me, you will know that sport has no place in my life.

But even for someone who is not interested in sport, you cannot hide from that fact that Australia recently got caught cheating in a test cricket match. As someone who is not interested, informed or in the slightest way affected by this, I feel that it puts me in the ideal place to give a message to Cricket Australia.

Dear Cricket Australia, YOU IDIOTS!

While this is quite clearly the fault of the individual who cheated, the captain who let him and the coaches who allowed this to happen, it has to be asked, what kind of culture do you have that allows this idea to be entertained, let alone acted upon?

The sport itself is synonymous with fair and professional behaviour. If something is off kilter, it is commonly said, “Well that’s just not cricket.” We aren’t talking about underarm bowling or aiming the ball at the body of the player, we are talking about sanding the cricket ball down in front of at least 10 TV cameras. How stupid do you have to be to do this in front of that many cameras and use fluro yellow paper to do it?

Is the pressure to win that great? Is your need for money that huge? Are your ratings dropping that much?

How long do you think it will take to recover from this? Our New Zealand friends STILL talk about bowling underarm.

I suspect someone will end up as a scape goat, the media will over analyse what happened to them growing up, it will be declared a one off, aberrant occurrence and it will get swept under the carpet.

OK

But you have to ask yourself, as an organisation, what signals have we sent that would in any shape, manner or form indicate that this would be ok? What can Cricket Australia do to ensure this doesn’t happen again?

If I was a sponsor of Cricket Australia or any of the independent players, I would seriously be considering my investments at this time. (Can I humbly suggest you consider investing in the arts?)

And you, dear reader, what about how you and your business operate? What is your culture like? No-one is perfect but it is important to remember that we reap what we sow.

 

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100 Beatings

Could you handle 100 Beatings?

My personal trainer, who is also the Sensei and owner of Dynamic Martial Arts, decided he was up for a challenge, and it was for 100 Beatings.

Technically, this is the 100-Man Kumite and only 28 people in the world have ever done this. At a high level, this challenge is fighting 100 two minute fights with a 30 second break in between.

You can tell from the image that he is not really smiling, it is just a grimace of pain to hold himself up. Notice how his crisp white outfit is almost translucent from his sweat and filthy from being hit so much. Imagine what his body is like!

Throughout his long preparation, we have been talking about the kind of challenges he would be facing. He knew that the mental challenge would be harder than the physical (although he knew the it was going to hurt … a lot!)

Speaking with him today, two days after the fight, he said that he was expecting to have had enough at about round 50. To his surprise, that feeling of “I have had enough” came at about round 20.

He was hoping that some of his opponents may have given him a little pity at some stage but that never happened. He said that they came out fighting and they did not stop. In return, his opponents said that he gave as good as he got.

When his daughter jumped on his lap this morning, he screamed out in pain. He hobbles rather than walks and he knows it will be another day or so before he returns to some degree of “normal”.

But as many sports coaches have screamed over the years, the pain is momentary while the results last a life time.

Sometimes our challenges seem never ending.

We are tempted to give up and turn away.

The pain seems intense and never ending.

At every curve, someone seems to be taking another swipe at us.

So you have to ask yourself, how badly do you want it? The results you are after, how badly will you work for it? How much pain (both physical and emotional) will you simply just “take” as your strive for your goal?

While he is not yet ready to fully enjoy it, I have no doubt that for the rest of his life, Chris will have the great satisfaction that he faced 100 beatings and succeeded.

No one can ever take that from him.

What can no-one ever take from you?

 

PS To hear more about Chris and how he runs his business, have a listen to his episode on the Get More Success Show. Click here to listen. 

 

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Your Systems Suck

Image: Shutterstock

I love systems in business. I am a huge fan of Michael Gerber’s system implementation ideas that he proposed in his book, The E-Myth revisited. The short summary of which is, “Systems run the business and People run the systems.”

But your systems suck! They suck if they are focussed on the wrong thing.

Let me tell you about the new cafe in our area.

After spending a colossal amount of money on shopfitting, the cafe at the bottom of the shopping centre near me has finally opened for business. Always one to support a new local, my gorgeous wife and I went there for lunch.

A mature woman who looked like the owner seated us, was very friendly and put us in a booth near the back, overriding the reserved sign. We guessed she was the owner as she joked about how it wasn’t reserved if she was seating us there.

She took our drinks order and left us with the menu. All pretty good and what any typical customer would expect so far.

A different waiter came up after a few minutes and asked did we want to order drinks. We had ordered but he didn’t know that, and it is not unusual for this to happen. So far all good.

Then we asked to order our meals. His response was, “I can’t take your order. I will get someone to take your food order.”

OK – that was a little weird. Maybe he was new, didn’t know how to order food yet or something else. Certainly the food order person would be right over.

A couple of minutes later a waitress brought over our drinks. Yay! We had a little joke with her and then said, can we order some food. Guess what she said …. “I can’t take your order. I will get someone to take your food order.”

You have got to be kidding me! Ah well. Maybe she is new too. The cafe hasn’t been open long.

After a couple of minutes a third waitress (fourth if you count the boss who seated us) came over and asked, “are you ready to order?”

We ordered, ate, did the crossword and had an amazing conversation that you would surely be jealous of if you saw a picture of it on Facebook or Instagram!! (Ok, it was just your typical couple chat in a cafe)

As we left, the person who I paid, who looked like the other co-owner as he wasn’t wearing a uniform like the others and was a mature man, asked, “How was everything?”

I couldn’t let the opportunity pass. I told him it was a little weird that when we ordered, two staff members were unable to take our food order. Were they new or something?

Here is what he said, “No it’s not weird. Maybe they are new but we don’t want the kitchen to get slammed, specially when it gets busy. If it gets too busy wait staff can make mistakes so only two people on the floor can take food orders. It’s not weird.”

So their systems exist for them and not for their customers. The fact that their customer (me) is saying that it is weird because I didn’t know what is going on meant nothing. This is all about making their kitchen process smoother.

The fact that he didn’t really care what I thought or said was also a bit strange. If you don’t care then don’t ask.

Your systems suck. They are not about making the customer experience better they are about trying to control the flow in the kitchen at the expense of the customer experience.

If your kitchen is getting slammed then look at your ordering or kitchen process. Surely it can’t be that hard?

What it means for us is that we have lost all interest in returning to that cafe. We had noticed the private table out the back and I had made comments on how it may be good for a family function or for a small client get together.

Not now because their systems suck.

What about you? Have you designed processes to make your life better or easier at the expense of your customer?

Quite simply, do your systems suck?

 

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Do You Serve?

Image: ShutterStock

I was lucky enough to spend Sunday in beautiful Adelaide, one of Australia’s prettiest cities. The City of Churches as it’s known.

I must confess, it was a long day. Up at 5:30, off the airport, fly, get collected at the other end, drive to venue, setup the AV, run a five hour session, back to the airport, through security, straight to the plane, fly, airport, drive home, relaxing by 7:30pm. I did all this, gave away $500 worth of product, offered 15 hours of consulting/coaching services, and got paid $0, zero, zilch … nada.

Now I am not seeking praise or attention (ok… maybe a little attention) and I happily gave of myself and my products and services. This was done, not with the intent of commerce, but with the intent of service.

Currently I am the National President of Professional Speakers Australia. Over the years I have taken multiple roles within the organisation and will continue to do so into the future. The reason I serve is that it makes our association stronger, our industry more robust and it also creates great connections for me.

While I don’t approach a service position thinking “What can I get from this?” I have found that I will always get a return. For example, the workshop I ran on Sunday. Part of it was about creating a speaker “One Pager”. I had a vision for my one pager for some time but had procrastinated too much to actually do it. I couldn’t speak on the importance of having one with out actually having one, so running the workshop forced me to create my vision of a one pager, and I am very pleased with it.

Service pays in ways that you wouldn’t even dream of when you start to do it.

What about you?

In your industry, in your family, in your hobbies – do you serve?

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Australia Day

Image: ShutterStock

Australia Day is a challenging day for me.

Growing up, it was a huge day of celebration. My favourite aunt has a birthday on that day (Happy birthday Glenda!) and it was the celebration of the birth of our country.

As time went on and I learnt more about the world I live in. I discovered it was not the day our national was born. It turns out that the Australian Aborigine is one of the oldest peoples on the globe so our nation was born far earlier. In fact, Australia Day was not a term used officially until 1935. Over more recent years, it has also been referred to as Invasion Day as for many of our indigenous peoples, it represents the day they were invaded.

For me, I am proudly and happily an Australian. But I feel conflict that our celebration is done on a day that causes others great pain. I am also embarrassed about some Australian’s who minimise that pain, ignore it or even worse, invalidate it.

I have no solutions but I do have hope.

The conflict continues to get coverage in all forms of media. So what that brings is discussion, conversation, education, awareness – and these have to be good things. Yes there are extreme opinions on both sides, and typically there always are, but through the discussion comes increased understanding.

In the work that I do in events, this conversation also happens around the Welcome to Country or Acknowledgement of Country.

I didn’t truly understand what they were and was concerned it could political correctness gone too far. So I sought out an Aboriginal Elder and had a frank and open conversation with them. It was most enlightening. Now I am an advocate for the Welcome or Acknowledgement of Country to be in each program I host.

While it seems like a small thing, it continues the conversation and increases awareness. It usually takes less time than the announcement about mobile phones but deepens what it means to be an Australian. If you run events, I implore you to have a genuine Welcome to Country or Acknowledgement of Country in your program.

While the discussion about Australia Day and the best day to celebrate it continues, I will continue to be grateful each and every day that I was blessed to live in this country and make each day Australia Day.

Better have a Tim Tam to celebrate!

PS Here is a fun advert for lamb that gives a fairly good summary of the last 250 years or so

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Want a FlashPacker?

My gorgeous wife and I went away with friends to Broome over the New Year break. As you can see above, they have some amazing sunsets, friendly locals and wild and wooly cyclones (we were waylaid by a day as Tropical Cyclone Hilda had a quick visit).

As with all holidays, I love staying in really fabulous places but I hate paying through the nose for them. Fortunately, our travel buddies, Danielle and David, found a very cool unit on Air BnB that we booked for the week. (You can check it out here).

Little did we know that this was part of a FlashPackers.

Now I know what you are thinking, what on earth is a FlashPackers. Well, a FlashPackers is a BackPacker accomodation that is pretty flash! The building is super clean, they are a bit more expensive than your usual back packers, they have tighter rules than a back packers to deter unsavoury types and their services are better than usual.

What that meant for us was down stairs from us was a bar with cheap (but cold) beverages, some cheap and cheerful food, a pool (with Unice the Unicorn) and some super helpful staff. We had the privacy of our apartment but services of a greater accomodation right on Cable Beach all for 1/3 of the price of other resorts nearby.

So now I will continue to look for FlashPackers, or the equivalent in what ever area I need something.
You know what I mean, it does the basics really well, gives you a few bonus extras, makes you feel at home and super comfy without having to pay a premium price.

What about you? Would you consider a FlashPackers?

When it comes to events and MC/Hosting services, I could be the FlashPacker you are looking for so get in touch!

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Fabulous Festivus!

Image: ShutterStock

It’s almost the end of the year. How ever you celebrate it, from our family to yours, Merry Christmas, Happy Festivus, Jolly Hannuka, Fabulous Kwanzaa, Joyous Bohdi or at the very simplest, have a Cool Yule.

It’s funny that during this relaxing time of holidays, I have a lot to do. Website refresh, garden retaining wall to build (with corresponding dirt and mulch shovelling into the garden bed), shed walls to line and a host of other things. I am realistic enough to know that they won’t all get done by mid January.

One thing that I know will get done is the Annual Review that I do. This time of year is great to look back at what I learnt and achieved in the year gone and what plans I have for the year ahead. I have done it so frequently that I have created a two page template for it.

As my festive gift to you, I want you to have a copy as well. Feel free to share it with others who may find it useful. You can access it here.

It has been a weird year for me. The broken ankle in March really blew my plans out of the water and while I have pretty much recovered, it continues to have an impact and has helped me reassess a lot of what I am doing.

It has been a weird year for the world. While Brexit, Trump and North Korea continue to make head lines, fewer people live in extreme poverty, the number of people without access to electricity world wide fell to below 1.1 billion for the first time, measles has been eliminated in the UK, and many other fantastically positive things are happening (you just don’t hear about them much).

So here is to 2018. May it hold great joy, success and happiness for you and those you care about.

My focus for 2018 is to MC a lot more events, host different conversations and facilitate some great discussions. If you know of events, showcases or conversations that need a professionals touch, please let me know as I would be glad to assist.

What is your focus? What are you aiming for? How will you know that 2018 has been a success for you?

Until next year, enjoy the festivities!

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Banish the Beige

Image: Dulux.com.au

I am terrified of Beige. Not the colour, as the colour above is the colour of most of my internal walls at home. I fear the Beige Life.

Beige seems to be gaining a grip on us. Here are a few reasons why:

  • The increasing number of people who seem to get offended on behalf of others
  • Political correctness 
  • Politicians trying not to upset potential voters
  • People not willing to take responsibility
  • Lack of courage in being willing to express beliefs
  • The decrease in skill on how to debate an argument
  • People attacking people and not the subject of the discussion
  • Close minded people who can’t see that just because they don’t agree, it can still a valid view point
  • FOWOT (A term I learned recently from Amanda Gore – Fear Of What Others Think)
  • Living a life of what other people think rather than what you want

I was reminded this week of the value of a colourful life, of staying true to your beliefs and values, of being open to new and different ideas, to calling out bullshit when you see it.

How are you adding colour to your life? How are you Banishing the Beige?

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What Are You Creating?

I spent a couple of days at The Shed last week doing a few things.

It is a beautiful place that helps me reset my brain when I am feeling frustrated.

Let’s face it, there is a lot to be frustrated about.

Politics, sexism, war, treatment of indigenous peoples, treatment of refugees, people who don’t return phone calls, internet trolls, people who get offended by everything, people who never get offended, traffic, public transport, bad service, business deals that fall through, prospects who are incredibly rude … the list goes on.

Victor Frankl famously wrote in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, that there is a gap between stimulus and response.

So no matter what happens to you, you get to choose how you will respond to the stimulus rather than simply reacting to it.

What this means is rather than looking at how the world is and what we have to deal with to exist in it, we can ask, “What sort of world do we WANT to live in” and make choices to create that world.

Sometimes others may not support our choices but we have no control over that. All we can do is have control over our own decisions. To be frank, sometimes those choices are hard and the cost may be high, but they are almost always worth it.

The choices we make create our future. What kind of future do you want? What choices do you need to make to have that future come in to being? What can you start on today to make that happen?

In essence, what are you creating?

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The Other Side

I had the good fortune to hear Travis Bell, The Bucket List Guy recently.

He has some excellent processes and ideas on how to formalise creating and achieving bucket list items.

It is way more effective than that thought that “one day” you will achieve some dream.

The one key point of Trav’s that I really love is about the impact of achieving what is on your bucket list. Because it is not about the item. It is not about getting a photo of having achieved it. It is not about boosting your ego by achieving it. It is not even about bragging rights for having achieved it (let’s face it, most of our friends will say “that’s nice” and move the conversation on.)

What Trav says is that achieving your bucket list item is all about who you become on the other side of having achieved it.

Having proven to yourself that you CAN reach this goal, and having the inner satisfaction of knowing all the battles you have faced to get there. The internal reward of who you become on the other side of your achievement is what makes it all worth while.

So what do you need to put on your bucket list?

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The Art of Polite Debate

Image: ShutterStock

It’s official, we have lost the art of polite debate.

The evidence is littered across the pages of Facebook, scattered in the comments on YouTube videos and evident in any of our recent vision of political discussions.

There are two impediments to our ability to debate politely: 1) Our Target and 2) Our Beliefs.

Our Target

Our target has shifted. In the past it was simply the person with whom we were talking. Now it is anyone watching. So our arguments have to be inflated, exaggerated, entertaining, influencing and somewhat over the top. Not for the person we are debating but for anyone else who may be watching.

Our target has also moved from the subject matter to the individual. A healthy, logical argument would attack the subject and poke flaws at the process or logic that was used and during the discussion, offer an alternate, more robust and more logical method to come to a conclusion. Now it seems the first step (or if you are lucky, the second step) is to attack the individual.

When I say “attack” I really mean it. The abuse and vitriol that is used is astonishing and all it does is make the person being attacked more defensive and closed minded in their beliefs.

Our Beliefs

The Josh Wheedon film, Serenity, has a fantastic scene where the older cleric discusses how the government operative has a blinding belief that drives him and nothing can stop him because of the strength of his belief.

We see this every day.

Logic no longer has a place in many discussions, let alone debates. Some people’s beliefs are so strong that they can not even consider the undesirable impact of their beliefs. Their belief is so strong that they struggle to see why anyone could have a different perspective from theirs. Their belief is so strong that their mind is closed. Closed even to different approaches that may make their lives better.

So what can we do?

There are a couple of key elements to a healthy, polite and respectful debate:

  • Attack the subject and not the person – even if you think the other person is wrong, even if you don’t think they deserve it, treat them with courtesy.
  • Base your argument on proven facts – opinions are great but some are wildly inaccurate and damaging. Facts will always serve you well.
  • Be passionate about your position. Facts alone won’t do it but be careful not to be blinded by passion.
  • Be willing to be wrong. If you are not willing to even consider the opposing view point, how can you hope for your opposition to be open to your perspective.
  • Listen to what is being communicated. If you are unable to listen, your debates has just become a shouting match.
  • Don’t let your beliefs stop you from seeing the truth. The facts and truth have a power to them that beliefs never will. Sometimes you need to get out of your own road.
  • Let it go. Sometimes there are debates you will never be able to take part in (let alone win). These are the ones you have to walk away from. Adding fuel to the flame will only build a bigger fire and risk you getting burnt. Choose your debates wisely.

No matter what you debate, you can always do it politely and with respect while being passionate about your position.

So how will you practice the art of polite debate?

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