Making 'People' Work for You and Your Business - Shine Consulting Blog

What do You Ache For..?

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:15:00 +0000

“It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive….

I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened to life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human…

I want to know if you can disappoint another to eb true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul….if you can be with failure, yours and mine….

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back…I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.”

Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Indian Elder

Stunning….

With thanks to Lisa Cherry for publishing this on her blog.

Being a Director: Stay out of the Detail!

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:55:00 +0000

It's your staff's job to worry about the detail of getting a job done, devise ways of monitoring day-to-day activities and deal with crises along the way. As director, you must be ‘big picture’, concerning yourself not so much with day-to-day operations, but with where the company is going and where the next big opportunities are coming from.

Ensure your people understand the big picture: they’'ll have the information they need to stay on track and you'’ll find it easier to direct their efforts without getting 'stuck in'!

Are You Doing, Managing or Directing?

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:36:00 +0000

Do you get confused over the distinction between ‘doing' the job, ‘managing', and ‘directing'? Here are some distinctions:

Doing: Carrying out a deed or action, especially when held responsible for it.

Managing: Getting people together to accomplish goals through interpersonal relations, information processing and decision making.

Directing: Setting direction, establishing policies, controlling resources and overseeing the activities of an organisation.

In a small business, you may sometimes have to carry out all three functions yourself!

Being a Spider!

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:35:00 +0000

What many managers miss when they take on leading is that a team of people takes on a life of its own, quite distinct from the one on one relationships that random groups of people have. And it's at this point that many managers suddenly feel as the spider must feel when too many flies land on the web at once!

And you've got your own job to do, too! Its almost as if the skills that have served you well in managing yourself and your work, and maybe in managing one or two other people, have suddenly deserted you. Don't worry, they haven't but what you have missed is that there's been a state change in your business.

When a team reaches a certain size it begins to have a dynamic of its own. You can no longer sit in the middle of the web and manage the individuals. If you try, it'll be a recipe for chaos and stress. You'll also permanently restrict the capacity of your business to grow, as you simply can't manage more than a certain number of people this way.

Some conversations are better held as a team. Questions like:

* What are the basic groundrules around here?
* How should we run our meetings?
* What are our values?
* What behaviour is and isn't acceptable between us?
* Who is accountable for what and to whom?
* What does it actually mean to be accountable anyway?

These are all conversations which you and the team should hold together. Negotiate the rules and thrash out solutions which work for everybody. That way everybody takes ownership of the groundrules and the behaviour, and you no longer need to pull the strings. Your role changes, freeing you up to do the things you know you need to do to grow your business.

Lead to suit others, not yourself!

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:30:00 +0000

What's your preferred style of leadership? I hope your answer would be something like, "In what circumstances?", or, "Who with?"

To put it bluntly, who cares what your preferred style is? It's the needs of the situation, or of the followers, that should dictate your choice of style.

People aren't machines and need different styles of leadership depending on the circumstances, their level of ability and their confidence and willingness to do the job. It’s self-indulgent to adopt a style of leadership that’s the same for everyone just because you like it and it suits your personality. Change your style of leadership to suit the individual you’re working with, and the circumstances prevailing at that precise moment.

So inspiring - and creative...

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:15:00 +0000

This is only a 1 minute 44 second long video, but it is brilliant. Make sure you read as well as listen...forward and backward.

This is a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20 year old. The contest was titled "u @ 50" by AARP. This video won second place. When they showed it, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant.

Please take a minute and watch it.

Click here...

Gaining people's respect

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:14:00 +0000

Your perceptions aren’t ‘the truth’ and neither are anyone else’s! Learn to listen and to resist the knee-jerk temptation to argue and say ‘yes, but’. You might find something out that changes everything you do for the better – and more than that, you’ll gain the respect of the people you work with.

Let's hear it for the written word!

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 08:34:00 +0000

Here's my 'take' on video communications, which everybody is getting so excited about and seems to believe are better in some way than the written word. Quite apart from the technical issues of different browsers, buffering times and internet speeds, which all drive me nuts when trying to view internet video clips, I actually prefer reading!

I hate being forced to take in a message at someone else's speed and often get impatient and simply give up - especially if the clip is just a 'talking head'. I read really fast and like to skim articles for items of interest. You can’t do this with a video clip. Maybe a genuinely creative video would help, so I could be intrigued by, and look forward to, creative special effects. But most 'talking newsletters' are just that - a talking head.

I realise some people may actively prefer video communications, but please, don't assume that goes for everybody - and don't stop sending the written ones!

What do you think? Let me know. Let's hear it for the written word!

Just watch this....

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 22:36:00 +0000

Here's something to shame, shock and inspire you.

I've got nothing to add. I couldn't say it better - and she's thirteen years old.

Pass it on.

Show them the path...

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:49:00 +0000

Your job as a leader is to rise above the day to day detail and impose structure on the chaos of ‘business as usual’. Form a clear picture of where your business is going and communicate it to your staff – not just once, or annually, but every single day! If they don’t know where you are going, they can’t stay with you on the journey. Show them the way, role model it, and keep reiterating it every time someone gets bogged down or stuck - and if you yourself lose the plot, get a coach! It's your job to stay focused and out of the detail.

Develop your business as a 'brand' to be proud of.

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:19:00 +0000

There’s much more to running an outstanding business than doing the ‘nuts and bolts-y’ stuff, like planning, scheduling, the finances, recruitment and so on. There’s also the crucial skill of developing a culture, a brand, a ‘way we do things round here’ that sets you apart from the competition and ultimately makes your organisation independent of you as its founder. There are any number of reasons why you might want to do this, from, at one end of the spectrum, simply creating an asset to sell one day, through the pleasure of empowering others and seeing them grow, to the pride and satisfaction of having created an entity with a life all its own at the other...

Being 'one big happy family' doesn't cut it!

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 08:09:00 +0000

Do you find yourself saying 'we're like family'? What's the problem with that? Well, being ‘one big happy family’ is not the way to run a business that is durable, that provides a satisfying environment for people to work in and that is financially stable and sound. Too many business owners recruit people on the basis that they like them, or even worse, that they are like them! A really great business, and a really great team, develop a life of their own, beyond your traits, skills and vision alone – and professional people develop and negotiate ways of working that go beyond ‘getting on well’ together (though that can be a bonus). Don’t have your attention on ‘will we get on well together’ but on ‘is this person and their skills right for my business’.

How to build a team you can count on...

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 22:32:00 +0000

As your business grows and changes, it can be hard to stay on top of everything and at the same time build a team you can really count on. Three areas to focus on to streamline your team and your business are:

Clarify people’s roles, so everybody knows what they are being paid to deliver.
Agree constructive ways of communicating with each other, so bad habits don't creep in.
Develop working practices that work for everybody, and for your growing business.

Just change half of it!

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Mon, 10 May 2010 08:58:00 +0000

Here's a thought, triggered by something I read this morning. How would it be if, instead of having to change the whole of what you do in order to be greener - which is daunting and expensive for many people - you just changed half?

Make half your baby's nappy changes disposables, for those times when you're out and about, and when it's easier and more convenient, use the greener 'eco-nappies'. If your family runs two cars, make just one of them a Smart car, electric car or hybrid. Travel overland for half your holidays, and save the flights for those really special occasions or places. Change half your light bulbs for eco-friendly ones.

Yes, I know it's not hard core, and there are people who will say it's not enough. But it's a great deal better than not doing anything - and I think a lot of people might do more, if they didn't feel that only 'all or nothing' is good enough.

How about it? Shall we start a trend?

Don't waste your life!

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:38:00 +0000

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." Steve Jobs, Founder, Apple.

What an inspiring thought. Are you 'living someone else's life'? Am I? Hmmm...

"You rock !" What a great notion...

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:38:00 +0000

Here's a fantastic notion from Seth Godin's blog - what an original thinker that guy is!

"This is deceptive.

You don't rock all the time. No one does. No one is a rock star, superstar, world-changing artist all the time. In fact, it's a self-defeating goal. You can't do it.

No, but you might rock five minutes a day.

Five minutes to write a blog post that changes everything, or five minutes to deliver an act of generosity that changes someone. Five minutes to invent a great new feature, or five minutes to teach a groundbreaking skill in a way that no one ever thought of before. Five minutes to tell the truth (or hear the truth).
Five minutes a day you might do exceptional work, remarkable work, work that matters. Five minutes a day you might defeat the lizard brain long enough to stand up and make a difference.

And five minutes of rocking would be enough, because it would be five minutes more than just about anyone else."

This post is for anyone who like me sometimes worries that their best efforts aren't good enough or consistent enough or just - enough! I found this thought very comforting and I hope you do too...

Some lines on 'truth'.

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:30:00 +0000

"All truth passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

~Arthur Schopenhauer

How authentic is your leadership?

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:57:00 +0000

To lead today you need complete personal integrity and confidence, based on deep self knowledge. You also need to be fully digitally literate and be powerfully positive based on strategic insight and an ability to offer people inspiration and intrinsic motivation. You need to be a great and empathetic communicator with steely determination, capable of both sticking to your agenda AND accommodating the needs of others. Above all you need to be authentic.

Try scoring yourself out of 10 on each statement in this self evaluation:

1 I know and live by my values.

2 Everything I do delivers on my purpose

3 I have a clear vision that I pursue

4 I know what I need to do to deliver on my vision and purpose

5 I always have a plan which I carry out

6 I review and adjust my plans and strategy regularly

7 I am fully digitally literate and confident in the relative merits of a variety of social media

8 People find me inspiring and want to support my strategies

9 I gain insight from listening to people, I care about their needs

10 Win, win, win opportunities are my minimum threshold

11 I love myself and the results of what I do.

Scoring:

0 - 50: With some focused personal development you could start thinking of yourself as a potential leader.
51 - 90: With some focused leadership development you could run for President/Prime Minister/World Leader.
91 - 110: Please run for President/Prime Minister/World Leader immediately!

Thanks for the above to Neil Crofts who writes on authenticity and authentic leadership and sends out an inspiring Monday morning blog, from which I extracted the quiz.

The 10 most common flaws of bad leaders

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:44:00 +0000

The most common flaws of bad leaders are exposed in an article by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman in the Harvard Business Review. They examined 360 degree feedback reports on over 11,000 leaders and analysed the reasons given for poor performance. These were their findings:

The worst leaders:

1. Lack energy and enthusiasm
2. Accept their own mediocre performance
3. Lack clear vision and direction
4. Have poor judgement
5. Don't collaborate
6. Don't follow the standards they set for others
7. Resist new ideas
8. Don't learn from mistakes
9. Lack interpersonal skills
10. Fail to develop others

As the authors conclude, these sound like obvious flaws that any leader would try to fix. But the ineffective leaders were often unaware that they exhibited these behaviours. In fact, those who were rated most negatively rated themselves substantially more positively! It looks like leaders need to take a very hard look at themselves and ask others for honest feedback on their performance in these specific areas.

How do you think you stack up? Let me know what you think.

Own your own business? What kind of work do you prioritise?

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:47:00 +0000

Do you get confused over the distinction between ‘doing' the job, ‘managing', and ‘directing'? Here are some distinctions:

Doing: Carrying out a deed or action, especially when held responsible for it.
Managing: Getting people together to accomplish goals through interpersonal relations, information processing and decision making.
Directing: Setting direction, establishing policies, controlling resources and overseeing the activities of an organisation.

In a small business, you may sometimes have to carry out all three functions yourself and it's often easier to stay with the 'nuts and bolts' of the business. This is sometimes because the detail is what you are good at, and so within your comfort zone. Sometimes it's because you can get a glow of satisfaction and a quick 'tick, done it' from doing a little task.

It's harder to learn the skills of managing or directing, and it takes longer to see results. But it is your job - you should be prioritising this bit, and delegating the 'task-y' stuff! That's how you bring on others, and that's how you build a team.

Who's running the show?

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 11:52:00 +0000

Thought-provoking idea from Seth Godin's blog - couldn't say it better myself! Thanks, Seth!

"Most people grow up with one and only one voice in our heads. It's the one that talks when we talk to ourselves. (If you have more than one voice, time to check in with a doctor). It's easy, then, to assume that this is the mind, that we have just one, one brain, one voice, one thing going on at a time.

We can demonstrate that this isn't actually true. There's the mind that gets nostalgic or excited at a photo or a smell or a sound. There's the mind that keeps us breathing. There's the mind that suddenly announces, "I'm hungry" after seeing a TV commercial. And most important to marketers and those that would change the status quo, there's the lizard brain, the mind that worries, particularly about survival, reproduction and rage.

When the plane lurches in turbulence, it's not your constantly running verbal mind that freaks out. It's the amygdala, the prehistoric brain stem (and the surrounding parts of the brain) that kick in. That kick leads the verbal mind to start a frightening monologue, but it was your brain stem that started it.

Marketing to just the rational mind makes no sense, because the rational mind almost never decides anything by itself. And managing your career or your day based on your irrational fears makes even less sense. Which part of your mind makes decisions about credit cards, personal security, relationships, job prospects and creativity?

As our jobs (and lives) get more cerebral and less physical, our misunderstandings about the mind (and the self-defeating miscalculations each of us make every day) become ever more important. Watch yourself for a day and start keeping store of 'who' is doing the talking and whether that part of the brain is working in your best interests or not."

Interesting, huh? Makes you wonder who is really running the show. After all this 'work I've done on myself', how much choice over my reactions do I really have? What do you think..?

Thought for a Happy New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:37:00 +0000

'Can we rely on it that a 'turning around' will be accomplished by enough people quickly enough to save the modern world? This question is often asked, but whatever answer is given to it will mislead. The answer "yes" would lead to complacency - the answer "no" to despair. It is desirable to leave these perplexities behind us and get down to work.' (E.F.Schumacher)

What a good incentive to 'get down to work'. Have a wonderful, contributive, productive and prosperous 2010!

Games to Play at Work - and at Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:23:00 +0000

Have you ever heard of the 'drama triangle'? It makes for more trouble between folk than anything else, and you'll see it played out all around you: at work, in the street, in soap operas, and especially when families get together at Christmas!

Here's how it works: someone casts themselves, or is cast, as the 'victim'. Victims say things like, "it's not fair...", "...you always...", "...'they' never..." - you know the sort of thing.

But you can only play the victim if there's a 'persecutor' - saying stuff like, "you must...", "do this, do that", "you should...".

And the third role in the 'triangle' is the 'rescuer' - quite a 'good' thing to be, you'd assume. But think about it: 'rescuers' keep victims as victims, by always bailing them out. They say stuff like, "you poor thing", "isn't it awful", "yes, he's a real meanie" - and help the victim justify their stance.

We all play this game - and usually move through the roles at different times. There's no way out of the triangle by just moving to another role.

So what's the answer? Break out! Refuse to play what is ultimately a childhood game. Relate to yourself and others as 'grown-ups' capable of managing and rescuing themselves, which quite honestly most people are. You'd be amazed at how grown up the 'victims' in life are capable of being when you no longer buy in to their story!

Try it at Christmas when you're round your family, and let me know what happens... Happy Christmas!

Developing Your Team - or Having a Pint?

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:10:00 +0000

What do you understand by 'team development'? Here are some of the answers I get when I'm talking to the business owner-managers who are my prospective clients. They say:"Oh we do a lot of team development. We go out for a big Christmas lunch every year. In fact we're going out for one next week."

Or they say, "We sort out all our issues over a pint on our Friday pub nights."

Or they say, "We never socialise as a team. We believe in keeping our personal and work life strictly separate."

Which is all missing the point really - you may or may not choose to socialise with your colleagues, but there's no substitute for creating a clearly defined set of rules and structures for communicating professionally at work.

I'd go so far as to say that people who don't have much of a personal relationship often have much better working relationships than friends who work together. Why? Because they have to work at creating and maintaining them!

To read some ideas and suggestions for how to build a successful working relationship, click this link.

Then, if you do decide to have some sociable Christmas fun - it can be just that! Happy Christmas to you...

How to Win an Argument!

noreply@blogger.com (Shine Consulting) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:43:00 +0000

From Seth Godin's blog - I loved this!

'Earn a reputation. Have a conversation. Ask questions. Describe possible outcomes of a point of view. Make connections. Give the other person the benefit of the doubt. Align objectives then describe a better outcome. Show up. Smile.'

To read how not to do it, click the link. Brilliant blog, by the way - I wish mine could be half as simple, clear and thought-provoking...