Leadership | Warwick Merry CSP CVP

Archive For: Leadership

Who Do You Listen To?

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Small minds discuss other people, average minds discuss events and great minds discuss ideas.”
Dr Nido Qubein said, “Who you spend time with is who you become.”
Jim Rohn said, “You are the average of the five people around you.”

So who do you spend time with and what do you talk about? Personally, I spent last Friday hanging out with this bunch of legends.

We all attended the Platform Professionals day long session arranged by the Professional Speakers Association.

To attend you have to be a Certified Speaking Professional.

This is not an easy designation to achieve. You have to prove you have the Expertise, Eloquence, Enterprise and Ethics of a professional speaker.

Not everyone passes the test because we don’t just accept anyone.

The kind of people in the room have spoken all over the world, published many books and other products, spoken in front of audiences of 20,000 people as well as continued to make sure they spend time with their families and friends.

The ideas we spoke of have generated a significant to do list for my business but everyone learnt something different.

There is a power in mixing with amazing people – whether it be face to face, reading a book or listening to a podcast. Too often we settle for a smaller, lesser place in the world. Can I urge you to play it bigger?

Can I suggest that you track down some people who you admire, buy them lunch and discuss ideas with them. Maybe even ask to have a 20 minute phone conversation. Sure they could say no, but what if they say yes?

So who do you spend time with and what do you talk about?

PS It you want to spend time with some fabulous people and kick off your 2016, join us for the weekend retreat at the end of January. You can see the details here.

Can You Sleep at Night?

Ethics are so important in business, yet also so boring and dull. Most people can’t identify their ethics or what drives them so how can they make the right decisions?

A recent article regarding the Dick Smith company talked about how venture capitalists made huge amounts of money. But at what cost? They essentially stripped Dick Smith of all its assets and sold it off to an unsuspecting investors (typically Mum and Dads who know the brand). It is now in the control of administrators. While the vanture capitalists made a stack of money for the few, what damage to the many?

A recent Forbes article talks about how a recent Gallup poll rate corporate executives near the bottom when measured on ethics and honesty. It goes on to show how the ethical approach is the more successful long term. That business is seen to lack ethics and are not to be trusted is a poor indictment on businesses today.

I make my decisions based on my core values. Those are to Inspire, Energise, Influence and Have Fun. They guide to do what is right for me and to better serve others. Those who have registered for the 2016 Kick Start later this month will go through the Values exercise to determine what counts for them.

So what about you? What counts for you? How are your ethics? What do you do when no one is watching? What do you base your decision making process on?

Do people trust you, but more importantly, can you sleep at night?

Mindful, Confident and Successful

This afternoon, Zerafina Zara, Therese Sheedy and I had a Blab chat about our upcoming 2016 Kick Start.

We talked about colouring books, mindfulness, communication, listening, success, deep conversations and more.

The conversation goes for about 30 minutes and you can check out the replay here.

There is also a special offer that almost doubles your value – details at the end of the video (of course!)

Special Offer

After watching the recording you will see that if you book your spot on the 2016 Kick Off by midnight Melbourne time Monday 14th December, you will get the Get More Business Success 12 CD pack worth $597 for NO EXTRA CHARGE! That’s right, it is your bonus for being a take action kind of person. Simply visit the 2016 Kick Off page and book your spot and we will get the CD pack to you.

See you at the Kick Off!

How Strong is Your Spirit?

Here is a surprise. I went to the boxing on Friday night. I know, how weird of me!

Now in the words of the late, great Kevin Merry, I am a peace loving man. So it was a little in your face (even if you weren’t in the ring).

The victor above is my personal trainer Chris. He is also a martial arts trainer and as part of his preparation for 2nd Dan Black Belt certification he thought he would improve his fitness and foot skills by going in for the Fight Fit challenge and have a real boxing fight of three rounds. It was full on!

What I noticed about Chris was not only what he physically fit, his fighting spirit was strong as well. All the fighters I saw almost collapsed in between rounds as they sat on their chair. He stood the entire time in a power pose (think Superman with his hands on his hips). Maybe he was psyching out his opponent or maybe he was triggering his own psyche, whatever it was he was doing, it worked.

Now for you and me, it is not boxing that damages our psyche or spirit, it can be more mundane things. A complaint from a customer, feedback from a colleague or simply the seed of self doubt. So what can you do to keep your spirit strong?

There is a lot of evidence supporting a power pose to give you strength. The right music does great wonders. Meditation can do amazing things for you. Others use the power of interpretive dance (I have to say this doesn’t work for me as I am too self conscious!) The secret is to have a plan and then use it BEFORE you need it as well as when you do.

Have you got a plan and is your spirit strong?

PS Speaking of strong spirits, Jedi Charli cut her hair last week. You can see some photos here (just scroll down a bit) as well as see that she raised over $3,000 for the Cancer Council. A HUUUUUGE thanks to all of you that supported her. It was wonderful of you.

PPS I will never use the phrase “Hits like a girl” anymore either. Those ladies can really pack a punch. It was almost comical to hear the MC announce the next fighters, “In the blue corner, Marina a Marketing/PR representative and in the red corner Jane a naturopath.” These two fighting demons then descended on each other. All I know is that I wouldn’t want to be on the other side of them!

PPS If you want to see some of Chris’ fight, here is my recording of his first round.

Be a Jedi

Let me introduce you to my new Jedi buddy, Charli.

Now you may not understand what I am talking about so let me explain.

In his training of Luke, the Jedi master, Yoda stated, “Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to Anger, Anger leads to Hate, Hate leads to Suffering.”

With all of the fear, anger, hatred and suffering in the world right now, we need someone strong in the Force to keep us on the right path. So let me introduce Jedi Charli.

As you can see Charli has some amazing hair. Not bad for a six year old. Out of the blue last week, she said to her parents that she wanted shorter hair so what should she do with her long hair. After a big discussion, she decided to donate 30cm of her hair to kids with cancer. Charli thought that her hair could make some great wigs. She recently reconsidered and decided 45 cms would be better!

With the help of her dad, she also set up an Every Day Hero page to raise some money for the Cancer Council of Victoria. Charli came up with the target of $2,000. She is so close! At the time of writing she is sitting on about $1,700. Click here for the latest figures.

A quick reminder, Charli is SIX! Such fantastic, positive, loving Jedi thinking from one so young. We old people could learn a thing or two.

In a time of fear, anger and hatred I choose to focus on the positive and the good in the world and Charli represents this in spades!

So what can you do? Can I encourage you to blow Charli’s target out of the water by making a significant donation? Help show this young girl that she is doing an AWESOME thing and we can help her. Cast your mind back to when you were six and think how attached you were to YOUR hair!

The next thing you can do is be pleasant to people you meet and to open your arms and your hearts to others. Personally, I am skipping the news and not focussing on the drama of all the attacks. Maybe I am naive, but it helps me defeat the intent of these attacks. Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear, anger and hate can only lead to suffering.

So be a Jedi and focus on the good.
PS Don’t forget to click here to donate to Charli’s appeal, Thank you so much for your donation.

Priorities Count

My gorgeous wife and I have just returned from the delightful Dominican Republic.

Our flight home had a 24 hour stop over in Los Angeles so we chose to rent a hotel room and then hire a car for a day to do some roaming around and shopping at some outlet malls.

This is where it became a matter of priorities.

We could have spent a fortune on a hotel with all the modern conveniences, fluffy towels and 24 hour concierge. But that wasn’t our priority.

You may recall that my wife is a petrol head. So we went for the very simple, bed, bathroom and free wifi hotel for under $100. We spent twice as much on our car for the day and neither of us regret that decision at all! Here’s why.

That’s right, it was a muscle car – a Camaro SS just like Bumble Bee in Transformers.

After hitting the Walmart (you can see it in the background) we did a little more shopping and then headed back to the airport driving a couple of hours down the coast road. It was the quintessential Fast and the Furious kind of experience and it was impossible to get the smile of our faces (zoom in and check out my lovely wife’s).

Who remembers their hotel room? I can’t, I just slept through it!

So what are your priorities? What are you doing because you “should” not because you want to? What will bring you the most joy? What represents SUCCESS to you?

Choose wisely because priorities count!

Eyes of Wonder

Sydney is an amazing city. It has significant history, fantastic architecture and of course, a stunning harbour.

While hosting a conference this weekend, I was fortunate to participate in the social outing of a harbour cruise. Two hours motoring around the harbour with 200 of my newest friends!

I got talking to a Sydney-sider who told me how they forgot how beautiful Sydney was and that this twilight cruise really opened their eyes again.

We get so used to our own situation that sometimes the amazing things we have or have achieved become “normalised”. That is, they lose their wonder or more accurately, WE lose our “eyes of wonder”. Sydney’s harbour, Melbourne’s botanical garden, Brisbane’s river front, Adelaide’s churches, Perth’s beaches, Hobart’s Mount Wellington and Darwin’s night market can all become ordinary things.

What about you? What is amazing in your life? What do you no longer see?

How can you open your eyes of wonder?

It’s Finals Time

So how was your weekend? Were you one of the many that watched one of the football finals?
You had your pick of the bunch this weekend! Aussie Rules, Rugby League and there was even some other form of rugby happening in the UK. In Victoria, we even had a public holiday for the parade of the AFL Grand Final teams the day before the final (I am still not sure why).

No matter which game you may have watched, the look of jubilation and achievement on the victors faces, holding aloft their trophy was pretty cool. They had strived, trained and sacrificed to get to this spot and they deserved the win.

Here’s the thing. That team that came second place, they had also strived, trained and sacrificed. They probably deserved to win just as much.

When you think about it, even the third, fourth and fifth teams had strived, trained and sacrificed.

So while the striving, training and sacrificing are important, it is performing under pressure that counts. Being able to do what you said you would, regardless of your situation.

When is it Finals Time for you? When do you need to perform under pressure and how can you best prepare for it?

It’s Good for You

I have just spent the weekend with 20 of my closest friends in an eight bedroom house. They are the choir that I belong to, Mood Swing. It was our band camp where we did some drumming workshops, body movements and, of course, some singing.

It is amazing the bond we have created, the fabulous music we create and and the fun we have.

It’s …. GOOD. Good for the mind, the body and the spirit.

There is so much research on how singing together is good for you and your community. Even corporate choirs are becoming more popular and provided as part of “stress management” in the work place.

What about you? Would you Sing For Good?

As I have mentioned previously, I am honoured to be one of this years ambassadors for Sing For Good. I can highly recommend that you have a sing with some friends, video it and submit it to the site. There are some great prizes on offer and also money raised goes to support the great work that Creativity Australia does with their “With One Voice” program.

If you are not the kind of person to sing, no dramas. Head on over to the Sing For Good website and support your favourite entry with a donation. (I recommend you consider Mood Swing’s entry, but I am biased!)

Even if you don’t do that, at the very least when your favourite song comes on the radio, sing a long to it. It’s even better if you are with someone else and you both sing a long. It does great things for your health, physically and spiritually – basically, it’s GOOD!

It’s Good to be The King

Elvis

On Saturday night, I was The King. The picture above proves it.

The Australian Glass and Glaziers Association celebrated at their annual conference with a Gala Ball that was themed as “Viva Las Vegas”. The Platinum Sponsors Viridian and G James got in to the act and created a Little White Chapel as well as extra theming including our own Vegas sign with flashing lights. One of the delegates even dressed up as one of the guys out of The Hangover.

For me, not only was I dressed as Elvis but I played the role the entire night This included presenting the awards as him (extra cheeseburgers and all!) and singing a bit of one of his songs to close the night off. The reason this is important is that it was more than just dress ups. Looking the part only gets you so far. You really need to BE the real deal.

The same can be said for what you do. Dress up, turn up and BE the person your role needs. Whether it is a professional role, a role you play in the community or a role in your family, you can’t just LOOK the part you need to ACT and BE the part as well.

Don’t worry, it’s OK if you don’t do it well, make mistakes or don’t quite hit the goal you have as long as you give it all you got.

If you give it everything then you can’t help but succeed. Then you too will know why it’s good to be the King!

Soothe The Beast

Music soothes the savage beast.

You know it’s true. Think of the times you have been “beast like” (angry, grumpy, sad… you know the feeling) and then a fabulous song comes on and you get a better perspective on the world.

Not only does music soothe YOUR savage beast, it can also soothe the beast of others.

It can soothe the beast of unemployment, poor health, loneliness and a sense of “not belonging”.

“But How”, I hear you ask.

Well Sing for Good is the answer. Sing for Good is a project run by the charitable organisation Creativity Australia. Creativity Australis supports people in need via their With One Voice program. For the last couple of years they encourage people to grab a friend (or three or 20) and record a video of themselves singing. This then gets loaded to their website and the world votes.

It is a fantastic initiative and I am an Ambassador for this year’s event. (So all correspondence should be to Ambassador Warwick!)

As an Ambassador, I wanted to be sure that I entered as well. You can see my entry here.

Can I encourage you to visit their website and find out all about what they do?
Then keep revisiting as more and more acts add their videos.

Don’t forget, you too can grab a few friends, sing a song you love and enter yourself. It is so much fun.

Thanks for helping soothe the beast!

Wonderful Way With Words

I have just returned from a week in Washington DC where I spoke to a “standing room only” crowd who laughed at all my jokes and got a great deal out of my session. (This made me very happy!)

While I was there, I had a look around some of the monuments and galleries. The Hirshhorn Gallery of Modern Art had an installation from Barbara Kruger (the photo above.) It was fascinating and showed a wonderful way with words. She used some quotes of other people and some observations of her own to challenge you and your perspective. These quotes were printed on pieces of vinyl and pasted all over the room, escalator, floor and wherever there was a surface.

With todays “text speak” and web lingustic “shortcuts”, the power of language can be lost. When you don’t get the reaction you are after or need who’s responsible?

What are you doing to ensure you can truly tap into the power of words? Is it reading the classics? A word a day calendar? Maybe even just stopping someone when they use a word and you don’t know what it means to discover how you could use it.

Communication is so important and I wish for you to have a wonderful way with words.

How Embarrassing

I am ashamed and embarrassed. It’s not me, it’s him.

I am travelling to the USA next week and I have to own up to being an Australian. They will laugh at me. Well, not at me directly, but at me for having such an embarrassing and out of touch Prime Minister.

I recall teasing my American friends when they had George W. I never thought they would have the chance to return the favour.

Somewhere along the time he seems to have forgotten that the government is put in place BY the people and FOR the people. He and his government are our PUBLIC SERVANTS we are not theirs.

Simple logic dictates that coal is limited and solar and wind are unlimited, so why would you stop the latter in favour of the former.
We have not learnt the lessons of previous governments mistreatment of powerless innocents. Again WE treat them poorly and without respect in a way that will DEMAND an apology in the future.

Our government spends so much time fighting the opposition (regardless of which party is in power) that they don’t have time to govern or have the energy to create a magnificent future for us all.

It is time for a change.

A change in PM would be great but the change we need is in how our government operates. The government is NOT there for the minority with the money and the influence. The government is there for those with little or nothing. It is there to protect those that need it, provide for those who need it and support those that need it.

I want a leader who creates a long term vision for our country so great that subsequent leaders can’t help but follow it also. I want an government that supports the country regardless of whether the opposition agrees with them or not.

I want a leader with enough substance that they do what is MORALLY RIGHT regardless of what impact it had on their financial support.

I want PEOPLE to matter more to the government and I would love for our leaders to get in touch with how life really is for the population and not those living on allowances.

So what can I do?

I have signed petitions, I have clicked like and I have tried ignoring the politicians but still I am ashamed, embarrassed and angry.

The time is ripe for change. Bring it on.

Give ‘Til it Helps

Often people say, “Give ’til it Hurts”, but I am more of a fan of “Give ’til it Helps.” It doesn’t just have to help them, it can also help you!

Recently I saw on Facebook (so you know it’s true) that volunteerism had declined. So I thought I would check it the research.

The Volunteering Australia website informs me that while more people are volunteering, they are doing it for a smaller amount of time. Young adults in particular have reduced the amount of hours they spend volunteering.

The great thing the research said is how good it is. Not just for the recipient, but for yourself as the volunteer.

Volunteering gives a measurable increase in:

Happiness
State of well-being
Overall state of mental health
Level of sleep
Self-Worth

Unfortunately, the volunteer rates a far lower in the city when compared to rural volunteering (34% vs 41%). Volunteering has also decreased for community services and emergency management.

From personal experience, professional associations are also declining in numbers of members and numbers of people willing to do things or give their time.

What about you? Do you volunteer? While we seem to get busier and busier, the health benefits for volunteering are outstanding and the costs are minor – it’s cheaper than therapy and almost as good for you.

Why don’t you look at how you can volunteer? It could be as simple as helping paint a friend’s room or patting dogs at the local dog shelter. It is amazing the benefits you will get.

Quite simply, Give ‘Til It Helps!

Are You Leaving Signs?

There are certain signs everywhere. Some are easy to recognise and others take a little more effort.

The sign above was a little something I left for a friend. Let me explain.

We rented our friends weekender at the beach very last minute and we knew that they had other guests coming after us. I needed to let my friend know that we had cleaned her place so well that her next guests would be impressed.

What better way to show that than folding the toilet paper. She even had a laugh when I texted it to her.

What about your team mates, customers and family? What little signs are you leaving them?

These little signs can speak absolute volumes. So are you leaving signs?

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