Whats the economic reality?

The UK's economy suffered a slight contraction of 0.5% in the last three months of 2010, figures have shown.

This was reported by the BBC Website as a “shock contraction” and the BBC's economics editor Stephanie Flanders said “people were right to worry about where the UK's growth would come from in 2011, especially as higher-than-expected inflation had dealt a further blow to household budgets.”


Is this true?

I coach and advise a diverse number of organisations and have found that generally confidence has been returning and most people in those organisations were feeling that 2011 would be a steady growth year. So maybe the contraction would be more of a mild surprise to these organisations.

Reality is created by perception as confidence leads to organisations spending on services and also projects to customers who also spend, leading to growth in confidence and GDP.

Figures such as today’s are likely to dent some people’s confidence and as such may in fact lead to a drop in confidence, this is largely dependent on how they are reported and focused on.

Whilst we are recovering economically it is important to remain optimistic and realistic. The recovery is likely to take a while and is unlikely to be a straight upwards but may have peaks and troughs. A balanced view doesn’t make headlines though and neither does good news so we are likely to register more of the bad news than the good. This is an important factor to bear in mind when assessing are we going to have a good year.

My advice is to keep a realistic eye on costs, work ‘smart’ as well as hard in order to spot opportunities for growth and invest in your people. If you do these things you are more likely to have a successful 2011, no matter what the headlines say.

Slow motion running and a fake tash.

So why was I doing slow motion running wearing a fake moustache at 9am on a Monday morning in #Brighton town centre?
One on the charities I coach had organised a flash mob to promote its fun run www.tashdash.com as part of Brighton's "manliest month ever" campaign.

I must admit I was a tad dubious about how effective this would be, and also it was out of my comfort zone to be making a fool of myself quite so early on in the week.

I was wrong though, at least on the effectiveness part. The event got coverage live on BBC Radio and featured on South East Today TV news.
There will also be an article in the local newspaper
All this for a handful of people giving up their time, and some stick on moustaches. Oh and creativity and experience in how to create a newsworthy story from organiser Glen Poole.

So what did I learn from this event?

That sometimes you have to be a bit brave and get yourself out there in order to get noticed and that if you have a good enough message people will be interested.

Organisations that have a good sense of what they want achieve and who are prepared to think outside the box to get people involved are going to be successful.

It also pays to be properly networked, i.e. into people who are aligned to what you do and those for who the relationship will have reciprocal benefits.

So, is your organisation just doing the usual things to get noticed, or is it being a bit brave, innovative and having some fun?

Walking a mile in someone else’s shoes.

I spent four days on my own over the previous weekend looking after my two girls Olivia age one and Georgia aged two. It really opened my eyes to what my partner has to do most days.

Although I do spend a lot of time helping with the kids I have never had to do so on my own for that long. I came away with a real appreciation of what looking after them entails, the good side and bad side and also came up with ideas on how to make it easier.

It got me thinking again about how useful getting a real experience of what others have to do is. In work there are very few examples of the management doing this.

Bigger companies such as Tesco actively encourage the senior managers to spend a few weeks a year in their stores doing all the different jobs, and there are TV programs such as Undercover Boss that follow the MDs of companies as they really do put themselves in their employees shoes.

These though tend to be exceptions to the rule, and in most businesses the managers are not given the time to step away from their own jobs to really get a sense of what the people working for them have to do, and indeed what the customers also experience. Even if you have risen through the ranks it is surprising how quickly you forget exactly what it is like to do a job.

It would make a huge difference to the ability of leaders to engage with employees if every leader committed to spending one week a year doing the various jobs in the company and really getting to know what issues the people on the front line are facing.

There is also a shortcut to getting a different perspective. It comes from NLP and is called the Perceptual Positions.
It is particularly useful to use when a situation is troubling us or we believe we have become static in our thinking. Being able to step out of how you perceive things and into someone else’s world is very powerful. Being able to combine this with having an impartial non emotional take on the situation can pay dividends.

Perceptual positions were developed by John Grinder and Judith DeLozia (1987) from earlier work looking at how therapists Virginia Satir and Fritz Perls used roles work to enable clients to have a better understanding of others.

The process involves using different spaces in the room or chairs to represent a) your own perspective B) the other persons perspective and c) an impartial point of view.

By moving through the different positions insights are gained. By regularly using the technique as a manager you can get more of a sense of what you need to do to be able to communicate, influence and understand those working for you.

If you can really try out others jobs for a few days a year do so. If not aim to really get a sense of where others are coming from and also what an impartial observer would think by using different perceptual positions. Oh and if you get the chance to look after kids for a few days, take it!

Washed Out Service

One of my main bug bears is poor customer service. It is absolutely vital to customer service right, particularly handling customer complaints.

If you don't handle complaints well then not only are you likely to lose the customer who is dissatisfied, but they are more likely to tell others about bad service than they are good service, so you stand to lose many more customers by getting it wrong.

I popped down to my local hand car wash in Hove recently and was unfortunate enough to experience the worst car wash I have ever had. The guys doing it barely passed the jet wash over my car, they refused to do the roof simply saying “we don’t do roofs” and they missed so many bits of dirt it seriously missed my expectation level of what a car wash should do.

It was embarrassing to have to point all the missed bits to the next guy on the production line who was to dry the van off. This guy had the opportunity to sort the situation out. He did do the bits I pointed out, having first tried to make out they were scratches, but made no effort to apologise for the poor service.

To top it all I was then charged me more than the advertised rate – the guys saying “it says prices from” and getting quite aggressive about it. It’s sad to see a complete lack of pride in the job and such poor customer service.

A manager really needed to take control upon hearing my complaint and deal with it with empathy. The next job would be train up staff to take a pride in both the work and how they deal with customers.

A good leader should always be asking, 1.how is the customer service? 2.Do staff know how to handle complaints? 3.Do they have pride in the product?

Clear The Static

I am a firm believer in the use of the urgent important grid by Stephen R.Covey, https://www.stephencovey.com/ It helps me to make sure I am prioritising my things to do.

Unfortunately there are things that never seem to get done. They are personal admin tasks and usually not urgent. When I’ve got my business head on they are like static distortion buzzing away in the back ground. Sometimes it is good to get rid of this static by setting aside some time to blitz this non urgent and personal stuff.

I took a couple of days out of running the business last week to do exactly this. I focused on stuff like getting my car a service, using my ISA allowance and fixing up odd jobs around the home as well as going to see the dentist and doctors for checkups. These were things I had been meaning to do for ages. I still did some urgent / important work tasks but mentally work was a secondary priority on those days.

It is important to do this every now and again as not only does it clear the static but allows you space to think about what you are doing and check you are in balance. Make sure you pay attention to health, home and relationships and if you feel they haven’t had attention recently blitz them. It doesn’t need to be whole days, just an hour or two could do it.

It is all too easy to be sucked into being busy all the time and forget about what else is really important.

Who is leading?

I went to a great seminar in Brighton last week. It was run by an associate of mine Glen Poole. Glen specialises in working on not‐for‐profit projects and campaigns that are designed to make a BIG difference by getting more people, to take more action, more often.

Glen got David Cameron to back the campaign to say NO to a third runway at Heathrow airport, developed the Bounce your Balls for cancer campaign and was behind the publicity for the Fathers 4 Justice campaign.
One of the most important things that Glens campaigns need is people who are prepared to take a lead and make things happen. These people are often not formally recognised as leaders but they are the ones who take it upon themselves to take the lead.

Without this campaigns to make a difference fail, as often there isn’t someone to take responsibility for an issue in government and councils or the other authorities that we tend to look to take a lead.
There is a need now for grass roots leaders both in business, and society.

Leading isn’t about having a title, it’s about making a difference. The next time you catch yourself thinking “someone should do something about that” just think, maybe that someone could be you?

Sometimes life throws you a few curve balls that knock your routine and plans completely out. Suddenly you find yourself running around like a headless chicken just to find out you are still behind.

Unfortunately my eldest daughter has been in and out of hospital with pneumonia since February. This has meant not only am I stressed, but also large chunks of my time are being spent in hospital or helping out in other ways.

Work has therefore often been on a back burner and the backlog of things to do just kept getting bigger. I missed my VAT return, haven’t been able to call some people and have struggled to arrange appointments as I don’t know my availability.

I’m sure I’m not alone in facing these challenges every now and again. We all have “stuff” which we have to deal with and also keep on top of everything.

Things are finally settling down a bit so I thought I’d share what I learnt last week.

1.Taking a step back.

Objectively putting all the things that need doing (work and otherwise) into an Urgent/Important grid and then actively prioritising really helps to

• Be realistic about what won’t get done, and make sure I spend my time on the important/urgent things.
• Plan for when I will be able to do the important/not urgent things.
• Gives the all important perspective on what really matters and accept the situation and that means I can be calm and feel in control and be of use.

2.Making time for exercise and eating regularly and healthily is important.

These are two of the things that I often find often go and I end up rushing around grabbing fast food and thinking I don’t have 20 minutes to spare. However they both help reduce stress, give energy and help to think clearly and therefore the return on time investment is great.

3.Let people know.

If people know the situation they can make allowances, help and also support. You don’t have to be a bleeding heart, but just a quick email to those you are putting back a bit, or a quick update where you are at when having a chat is better than pretending you are all on top of things when you are not.
I have found people relate to honesty and the human condition and it takes the pressure off.


When you find yourself overstretched give these three things a try.