Hope
One or two of the people I have worked with these last six months have come within the tiniest whisker of throwing their businesses in. Premises, stock, staff, the lot. They had got to the point where it all seemed meaningless, extremely painful and that, as one said, “anything would be better than this reality.”
Sometime in June my middle daughter Jenny gave me a book called Mans Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.
In the text he says that “To live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.” And in this extraordinary account of his four debilitating years in Auschwitz, Frankl certainly had to make some sense of it all because, as he says, for those prisoners that could make no sense, for those that lost any reason to live, they were very soon, in a matter of days, one way or another, dead.
Frankl went on to quote Nietzsche, the German philosopher who said that “He that has a ‘why’ to live, can bear almost any ‘how’."
So for some of the business people working with what feels like unbearable pressure, day in day out, week in week out, it may well be worth standing back and taking a long hard look at the big picture. Maybe do this exercise with a trusted outsider.
But if you can dig deep enough and really find out why you are doing it, why you will carry on doing it, then it is said, as providence kicks in, that hope springs eternal.Labels: Inspiration from Viktor Frankl
Lost for words
Part of the success of leaders in the business of business is the ability to react effectively to the situation and to the people issues in real time, as they actually happen.
We are fortunate to live close the beautiful river Wye as it sweeps down from the Black Mountains of Wales. On an informal basis I look after the Bartonsham Meadows stretch, which means that I occasionally collect rubbish from the banks that people leave or which is washed down river in the floods.
I have one sack for paper and another for metal and plastic. One sunny day in August I walked past the farm where I could see a man drinking from a can. As I approached he could see what I was doing as I made my way along the bank towards him. As I got nearer I saw maybe four or five empties in the grass where he stood.
What I couldn’t see was his partner, and presumably, their toddler in a scruffy pushchair by the water’s edge. The child was restless and what remained of a chocolate ice cream was smeared over its face and clothes.
I smiled at the family, commented on the weather and asked if he could please take his tins home with him.
He looked at me quizzically. “I work on the garbage for the Council,” he said. “We get paid for what we collect,” he said tossing another can onto the ground. “I lose my job,” he went on, “and who’s gonna feed the babby?” He stared at me.
I had no reply.
Labels: Effective reaction to situations and events in real time
Marketing for suckers
Each and every business today needs to use effective, and that means modern, marketing techniques to differentiate itself from the competition.
We recently needed a break. We are old enough and ugly enough to know that however much you enjoy your work, you need to occasionally stop and ‘sharpen the saw’.
One Tuesday in August we went online to find something for the Friday. Almost immediately we spotted Warner’s three day weekends, but you had to be over twenty one. “Brilliant marketing” I exclaimed. “Over twenty one? No kids! No teenagers! Oh, bring it on.”
So Friday morning we threw some luggage into the car, gave the children their written instructions: no booze, no smoking, no more than two friends round, no sex, no sleepovers but please feed the fish. We waved them a cheery goodbye and off we galloped to Bodelwyddan Castle, North Wales.
Checking in before me was an old chap supported by a Zimmer frame and I was patient and courteous for the necessary twenty minutes or so. Towards the completion of his registration I was aware of a light tugging at my elbow. The gentleman behind wanted to share with me the fact that he would be 90 years old in October. I felt the need for a drink even though it was still quite early in the day. But everywhere I turned, looking for the bar, were these antiseptic gels mounted on stands with big red lettering warnings. At dinner we were advised that you keep the table, and your new neighbours for the duration of the stay. Halfway through the starter I was aware that an elderly lady on my left was looking at me. I smiled and looked away but not before I noticed that she was dribbling her soup down her front.
I leaned forward to Sharon and whispered I’ve got to get out. I want to go back to Hereford. “Impossible,” she said, “we’ve already paid. It did say ‘no kids’.”
Back home three days later and it was the children’s turn to give us a cheery wave together with a polite enquiry about our weekend. My answer was brief and to the point. Alistair, our seventeen year old could not disguise a smirk as he hissed “Suckers.”Labels: marketing messages can be misinterpreted
Pot Noodle
This networking online and offline is forcing us all to make and break relationships faster than ever before. It’s a whole new focus for many of us but the more we know about what makes us special, the easier it is to find out what makes other people special.
So you open the pot and pour on hot water and stir. In a matter of seconds you have an instant meal. And it’s very good for all that – it’s tasty – it hits the spot – you would not turn your nose up if you hadn’t eaten for a week. So how does this work in relationships?
Well you find out what your special talent is, the thing that you can do better than anyone else in the world. And then you take it to market. It doesn’t matter how you take it to market. You may be a speaker, you may be a trainer, you may be a writer or even a coach or you may be all those things. Very many people are but they don’t realise they are.
And then one day you are busy doing your stuff and somebody walks up to you and says “Wow, I just love what you are doing. Come and do some of that in my world.”
And initially you are stunned. What about the ‘rule of seven’ where you have to ‘touch’ people seven times before a productive relationship can start? Well you can forget about all that once you have found out what makes you special.
Then things simply happen faster.Labels: find out what makes you special then things simply happen faster
Free Range Chicken
There are a lot of people setting up their own business for the very first time, often in the service sector. After spending 20 or 30 years as a Battery Hen, it can suddenly seem daunting in the extreme to be a Free Range Chicken.
One of the standard pieces of advice I offer to these people is to look very carefully at exactly how they take their expertise to market.
I recently met the CEO of an Acute Hospital Trust over dinner. He told me that he had heard great things about my leadership work. He wanted me to meet his HR director. The appointment was made but after ten minutes with the HR director, he asked me why I was there.
In the last few months I had diarised appointments with the CEO’s of three Chambers of Commerce to discuss a project that would benefit them hugely. Each appointment was cancelled at short notice with the promise of a rearrangement. I have heard nothing since.
We were tendering for some leadership work with a local Council. We spent two days on the proposal with a valued associate. We were told two months later that they had eight applicants and they took the lowest bid.
Another public sector body in Birmingham asked for a detailed tender document of thirty pages. Two weeks later they sent another form asking us to evaluate the quality of the original tender document.
I celebrate 25 years as a Free Range Chicken soon, but for all these ‘start up’ people I meet there is one piece of advice. Watch out for idiots, watch out for people that have absolutely no idea about the value of time, especially your time.Labels: putting a high value on your time and not letting other people steal it
