Friday 28 September 2012

The lesson from losing my blog

Two weeks ago I changed servers for my personal website as a part of a major upgrade of my web presence in readiness for the official launch of my Enhancing Their Gifts System™ on October 1st.

One result was that the many links to this blog no longer worked due to a problem with domain mapping by Google and Blogger.  I also lost all of my emails that were tied to my previous server.

I was one of thousands affected by the domain mapping problem.  Many people vented their anger online. It never ceases to amaze me what some people say online that I am certain they would never say in person! 

I was frustrated too initially, particularly the time it took for Blogger to fix the problem.  This is a common issue.  When everything technological works it is great.  When something goes wrong it seems to take forever to fix and the basics of customer service don't seem to be understood by the giant companies.

An old lesson emerged anew for me through this experience - there are things that we can control and there are things we can't.

For a few days I let myself be controlled by things totally out of my control.  As a result I lost focus and put myself behind my schedule.  Then I came to my senses and just got on with what I could do and stopped worrying about things outside of my control.

You and I are responsible for our intentions, feelings, thoughts and actions.  We are not responsible for other people's intentions, feelings, thoughts and actions.

I hope Blogger has learned from this experience.  I thought about moving platforms yet on balance decided to stay here.  It's good to be back!

Control what you can and let go of what you can't.

Be the difference you want to see in the world.
Ian
I work with business owners/leaders of medium sized business and leaders of divisions in multi-national companies to lift employee performance by enhancing their gifts.




Monday 17 September 2012

"Failure is feedback"

This weeks sparkenation.

I can’t go past a comment by Ross Lyon the coach of the Fremantle Dockers in the Australian Football League again this week. Following his teams loss to Adelaide he said "Failure is feedback."

How do you see failure?

I know myself that I have learned far more from failing than I ever have from succeeding.

More sparkenations here.

Be the difference you want to see in the world.
Ian
I work with business owners/leaders of medium sized business and leaders of divisions in multi-national companies to lift employee performance by enhancing their gifts.





Wednesday 12 September 2012

Are you seeing through their eyes?

I helped a team of people through a conflict yesterday.

The trouble was everyone was seeing the issues through their eyes.

I asked people to look at the challenges through the eyes of the various stakeholders explaining that one of the skills of real leadership is being able to hold several views in your mind at once, even if you disagree with this or that viewpoint.

It was an enlightening conversation.

We then explored shared-view and how sometimes we need to let go what is precious to us in order to find a way forward that leads to what is best for all stakeholders.

See my blog about shared view here.

What emerged was a co-promise and a commitment to a win/win/win way forward that most participants thought was going to be impossible at the beginning of our conversation.

Marcel Proust had it right many years ago when he observed "The magic of discovery lies not in new landscapes but in having new eyes."

Be the difference you want to see in the world
Ian

I work with business owners/leaders of medium sized business and leaders of divisions in multi-national companies to lift employee performance by enhancing their gifts.





Monday 10 September 2012

What do you do when you come up short?

This weeks sparkenation.

I was fascinated by a pre game comment by Ross Lyon the coach of the Fremantle Dockers in the Australian Football League.  He said "If we come up short we'll take a look at where we failed to execute."

What do you do when you come up short?

The Dockers won the game beating the reigning Premiers and pre game favourite Geelong.  In many post match interviews players clearly knew their individual piece of the execution map.  Such role clarity is critical in achieving optimum performance on a consistent basis by any team, anywhere, and integral to my Enhancing Their Gifts System.

More sparkenations here.

Be the difference you want to see in the world.
Ian
I work with business owners/leaders of medium sized business and leaders of divisions in multi-national companies to lift employee performance by enhancing their gifts.





Wednesday 5 September 2012

Enhancing their gifts - the ultimate responsibility of real leaders

I am in the final stages of development of my Enhancing Their Gifts System™ - a simple, painless, sustainable, time, energy and money saving track to lift employee performance, driven by them. It is the culmination of my life's work to make it simple for business owners and leaders to ensure that the majority of your people are performing at their best on a consistent basis.

My system is godsend for business owners and leaders.

At the moment the only way you can get the Enhancing Their Gifts System™ is when I personally come to your workplace, teach it to you, and help you implement it.

Obviously I can only do this with a small number of people every year. I have been doing so now for two decades.

This is all about to change.

From 3rd October 2012 any business owner/leader anywhere will be able to implement the Enhancing Their Gifts System™ without me in person.

This is the most exciting thing I have ever done in business.

20+ years of real world application. Authentic employee engagement, optimum performance by the majority of your people everyday, and the guaranteed execution of your strategy are the key results.

And you will be free to focus on lifting your own performance and have the time and energy to work on your business more than in it.

Three options to see if the Enhancing Their Gifts System™ is for you.

Option 1) Take the talent maximisation pulse check here.

Taking the pulse check will help you to see where you’re at in your number 1 role as a business owner/leader, maximising and deploying your people’s talents/gifts.

As a thank you for completing the pulse check, as soon as you press send you will be able to download my appendix ebook to the leaders guide in my Enhancing Their Gifts System™ - 45 really useful tools, tips and techniques for recruiting, engaging and retaining great people, a resource 100's of people worldwide have already used to help them maximise the gifts/talents of their people.

In a great book The Talent Masters - why smart leaders put people before numbers, authors Bill Conaty and Ram Charan state:
“Talent will be the big differentiator between companies that succeed and those that don’t.”

I couldn’t agree more.

They also state:
“Talent masters understand the subtleties that differentiate people.”

Talent is another word for gift. My life’s work is to help business owners and leaders lift employee performance by identifying and enhancing their gifts.

Bill Conaty and Ram Charan also state:
“The enlightened CEO recognizes that his top priority for the future is building and deploying the talent that will get it there.”

I help people to be such enlightened leaders.

Option 2) Subscribe to my complimentary 9 lessons online Enhancing Their Gifts course here.

Option 3) Register for the first demonstration clinic on October 2nd. Details are here.

Be the difference you want to see in the world.
Ian
I work with business owners/leaders of medium sized business and leaders of divisions in multi-national companies to lift employee performance by enhancing their gifts.

PS If you already have a talent leadership and management system in place please read below.

The Enhancing Their Gifts System™ works regardless of what you have or don’t have. It has been deliberately designed to work with any system. The 1 piece of paper that is essential for the Enhancing Their Gifts System™ to work will not conflict in any way with paperwork or electronic forms you may already have.

The key question for you is; Do your employees love what you currently have?
If your answer is no, implementing and embedding the Enhancing Their Gifts System™ will be a godsend.



Monday 3 September 2012

Catching People Doing Things Right!

 I am very excited that my friend and founder of The Wow Awards Derek Williams is coming to Australia. I am honoured that Derek and myself finally get the opportunity to work together on September 13th in Melbourne to share some breakthrough insights into what constitutes providing remarkable customer service.

As customers, all of us know that way too many organisations make claims about their 'commitment to service' while failing to deliver on their promises.

We've discovered that there are a number of reasons why this happens, which has enabled us to uncover what organisations can do to stand-out based on a reputation for delivering great customer experiences.

We're delighted to share these insights in this afternoon seminar on September 13th.

Derek will be sharing his experiences and thinking after 15 years of running The Wow Awards, with organisations as diverse as Jones Lang LaSalle, British Gas, Edinburgh City Council, Cadbury and many other blue chip companies.

And I will be sharing insights into your number one role as a business owner/leader, enhancing and deploying your people’s talents/gifts.

All the details for our Melbourne event on September 13th are here.

Derek is also presenting his insights along with those of a great mutual friend Steve Simpson in Brisbane on 11th September 2102, and in Sydney on 17th September 2102.

If you can’t make it to any of these events I highly recommend that you get in touch with Derek and discuss bringing The Wow Awards to your place and start to benefit from Catching People Doing Things Right.


Be the difference you want to see in the world.
Ian
I work with business owners/leaders and leaders of business units in multi-national companies to lift employee performance by enhancing their gifts.