Transforming organisations

Transactional or what?

Business relationships are polarising. There are times when we just want the outcome, but we don’t want the engagement. There are other times when in order to get the outcome, we have to do the engagement.

I went into a Lush outlet in Newcastle the other day for the first time. The immediate thing I noticed was an almost overwhelming perfume or scent, but it was not and could not be distinctive, because of the range of products displayed. Secondly, the vast array of colour everywhere made an immediate positive impact on my senses. I like colours.

Thirdly was the extraordinary attentiveness of the staff. They were extremely keen on asking all sorts of ‘open’ questions that did indeed elicit information from me. But as I left the shop empty handed, I did not feel comfortable that these three strangers, in the space of ten minutes, knew how many daughters I had, the name of my wife and the colour of her hair, where I was from and whether I use after shave or not.

In a world where what we do with people can be seen simplistically as transactional or transformational, I think that when buying soap I would prefer the former, rather than the latter.

We need to know, in our relationships, where this is all going. As far as using our time and our energy, it is vital to get the difference.

Labels: know how you intend to handle different relationships

posted by Tim @ 9:59 AM 0 Comments

Happiness

The happiest people I know are the ones that have a Bull’s Eye for their business life that is in alignment with the Bull’s Eye for their personal life.

I was speaking to a business audience in Warwick recently when one delegate asked how I go about finding that happiness.
Well at work, what makes people happy is being able to deploy the synergy that exists between their professional expertise and their human traits. It doesn’t matter whether you are a great accountant, a wizard at IT, a marketing maverick or an engineer ‘exceptionelle’.

Whatever you are, there is your personality, the way you deploy your four types of energy, your preference for being reactive or proactive with the 168 hours per week at your disposal. There is your behaviour, your intelligence, the way you think, your experience and knowing the difference between complexity and simplicity.
It is this combination that makes the unique and special contribution that you bring to your work. It’s a feeling that you are being the best you can be, almost that you have found what you are meant to be doing on this planet.
If this can be aligned with whatever is going on at home, then many people would say that this is their version of ‘living the dream’.

And why not indeed?

Labels: happiness starts by aligning work and personal life

posted by Tim @ 7:08 AM 0 Comments