When you have that big important WHY, that thing that gives you the reason to wake up with enthusiasm. The reason why you want to succeed, why you want to win. The why that tells your subconscious mind the direction you should take if you want to evolve and grow. I have found out what my responsibility is in this world. It’s my responsibility to take what I’ve been given and turn it into something that is was not when it was originally handed to me.
This process is not hard if you are creative, innovative and persistent. In order to master something use these skills and the results will be miraculous. It requires an investment and commitment, especially nowadays when we are in the digital age where everything is controlled by a button. The best things in life requires process and if you run away from the process you will alienate the promise. What I mean is that in order to get to the promise, you have to go through the process. And in the process of going through all that the person who get the most is the person who has shaped the process.
The golden circle
My favourite phase of a consultancy project is the discovery phase, I love it as it's a privilege to really dig into how a company does what it does and how it makes decisions. Sometimes it feels daunting at the beginning with a lot of stuff coming at you but it’s always fascinating. People will always do what is in their own self interest first, and do you know why we can’t see it? It’s because we do it too.
Discovering that big important WHY. The “why” is that thing that gives you the reason to wake up every morning with enthusiasm. It’s the reason why you want to succeed and why you want to win. It’s the “why” that tells your subconscious mind which direction you should take when you want to evolve and grow.
Hiring the right people is probably the most important thing that you can do. Contact me via e-mail when you are ready to look into your golden circle.
Pattern recognition
I grew up in South London and in order to survive, I had to use mental shortcuts to solve problems, evaluate situations and quickly make judgments. The psychologist, B. F. Skinner said, “Man is the sum of his learned experiences.” What I did’t realise until later in life was I was using heuristics. Heuristics are rule-of-thumb strategies to shorten decision-making time and allow people to function without constantly stopping to think about their next course of action. When we use heuristics, we risk ignoring important information and overvaluing less relevant information. Are you aware about your decision-making process?
Anyone working in advertising, branding or marketing should have a working understanding of heuristics because consumers often rely on heuristics when making decisions about purchases. This requires more mental resources and usually leads to more rational choices. Both “limited quantity” and “limited time” advertisements influence consumers’ intentions to purchase, but “limited quantity” messages are more effective, for example, this explains why people get so excited over the “one-day-only” Black Friday sales. Stereotypes are an example of how heuristics can go wrong as these broad generalisations do not always apply, and their continued use can have serious consequences.
I have been victim of stereotyping, both personally and professionally. My positive life philosophy has given me confidence to accept, respect and appreciate the experiences that are unfolding in front of me. l tend to favour an inclusive workplace, usually by virtue of my age and temperament people have always found it comfortable confiding in me. This is because I am generous in my praise and measured in my criticism. Don’t be shy, contact me via e-mail for a calm appraisal and collective guidance.
Accelerating the process
This morning I read an article about unlocking human potential. This led me to think about how few organisations understand the value of installing a sense of meaning for their employees, leaders and customers. We all know that sales is the critical interface between supplier and customer, we also know that the role of the sales person is to gain trust and progress guide the customer towards your solution.
I think that if the senior management were to install a deep sense of meaning into the work that they are doing, then the organisation would be significantly more productive, effective and innovative, and more likely to win the customer’s mind. Both employees and leaders would feel a higher degree of engagement and life quality. Would you like to take your organisation to the next level of performance by increasing the sense of purpose and belonging? Contact me via e-mail for workshops, mentorship and coaching.
Without action your dreams will remain dreams
You may have heard the below quotation before, have you ever thought about what Thoreau was trying to tell us? I think that the modern implications of Thoreau's quote is rooted in the idea that individuals must listen to their own sense of voice.
““If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” - Henry David Thoreau ”
Thoreau is passionate about the idea that individuals break free from conformist notions of the good. I think that if you have evaluated your career choices from the perspective of “meaning” and have identified something worth pursuing, then evaluated the potential risk and reward which led you to seriously consider pursuing your dreams, and then developed sufficient belief in yourself to take serious action, then all that is left is for you to set goals for yourself and take consistent action toward achieving your dreams.
Illustration c/o iStock
If you are not happy with you current career situation send me an e-mail (confidentiality is assured).
Room for improvement
One of my good friends thinks that we become stressed when there is a gap between expectations and reality. I think that it’s very important to have a mentor to guide us on our journey. As a mentor, I can support you:
1. By clarifying the destination.
2. By sharing the best and most effective path for the journey.
3. By pointing out the obstacles that you may face on the journey.
4. By helping you overcome the doubts you may have about the journey.
5. By helping you overcome doubts you may have about yourself.
Contact me via e-mail if you are in having me as your mentor on your journey. Encouraging you with positive feedback, especially when you are overwhelmed by criticism or discouraged by pushback, I can guide you onto the “right” path by looking into the following:
a) Absorption
b) Beliefs
c) Cooperation
d) Determination
e) Enthusiasm
f) Flexibility
Love, empathy and kindness
Taking care of our mental health during a pandemic has not been easy. In times like these we deserve better for ourselves than fear, paranoia and conspiracy theories. Be grateful if this virus hasn't touched you, your family, friends or colleagues. Let's all simply make choices which accommodate the needs of society.
Professor Steven Reiss (psychologist) has found that 16 basic desires guide nearly all meaningful behaviour. These desires are what drive our everyday actions and make us who we are. Reiss said, "What makes individuals unique is the combination and ranking of these desires."
The 16 desires are:
- Power
- Independence
- Curiosity
- Acceptance
- Order
- Saving
- Honour
- Idealism
- Social contact
- Family
- Status
- Vengeance
- Romance
- Eating
- Physical exercise
- Tranquility
Many researchers who have tried to reduce all human behaviour to just one or two basic desires, for example, pleasure, pain or survival. I think people know that other people have different values and pursuits, but they cannot understand how this can be. Self righteous people waste an enormous amount of effort trying to change people who do not want to be changed. As I believe that every person has a unique desire profile, hopefully, this pandemic has taught us that we are all connected.
Playing safe can be dangerous
I think life is all about taking chances. You may be safer by not taking any risks, but playing it totally safe means you are only existing and not living. I want to live, what about you? Contact me via e-mail if you would like to take a deeper dive…
Repetition is the first rule of success
As children we are taught that practice makes perfect, but many of us have been practicing the wrong things for far too many years. Too many people are making excuses. Too many people are procrastinating, rationalising and justifying why they did or did not do something. Boring!
It does not matter who you are, what your background is or your level of education. It does not matter what religion you practice, who your parents are or where they came from - all of this is irrelevant. There is always an opportunity for you to do something different with your life, to change your paradigm and move into a different place.
WHAT IS THAT SOMETHING THAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO?
Let me know via e-mail.
Please note: All correspondence is handled with discretion and confidentiality.
Silos of activity
c/o Getty Images
The majority of you who are reading my blog on a regular basis know that I’m a big football (soccer) fan. There are many parallels between a football team and an organisation. A football team consists of a goalkeeper, defenders, midfielders and attackers. All of them are doing their jobs in different ways but at the end of the game, they all want the same outcome - to outscore their opponents and win the match. You can do things differently, you can have different skills but you are moving in the same direction and this is the way we should want to behave when we are part of a team.
Simon Sinek said, ”Leadership is irrespective of what level we are at.”
You don't have to be in a position of authority to be a good leader and we can show that through our communication. When you just share and tell people something, it's not really powerful. Leaders need to be spending time trying to understand where your people are coming from, what they need and not just feeding them information/data and telling them what to do, as people do not respond very well to that.
It takes strong mental strength for a leader to step back and say what is the best thing that I can do that is going to move the needle forward as a group and build trust. Throughout my career, I have seen many islands of activity! Playing the blame game and pointing the finger at who’s doing it wrong in sales, marketing, production, R&D, etc. What I want to do is enable people, and allow them to support, empathise and learn about each other. Would your organisation like to learn how to communicate as a team and not as individual silos? Contact me via e-mail for coaching, mentoring or workshops.
Guidance from a mentor
I have been an educated mentor since 2011 and unofficially, I have been guiding individuals to gain clarity in their message for the whole of my adult life. With the mission to identify how they can grow their influence with the right people and build trust in the workplace.
We all want a sense of purpose, a feeling of being connected to the mission for the company that we work for but what is more important is feeling a connection with our colleagues. Collaborating and supporting each other and when we speak up we are heard in a non judgemental way. Many people are lacking a connection to their purpose, they do not know how to create fulfilment in their lives. Many people are lacking internal clarity. Just imagine what it would be like to become better at public speaking, giving presentations or being a better communicator.
In order to help people to become better communicators in everyday life, here’s some example questions I ask mentees:
What do you expect to gain from our sessions?
Who are you as a person?
Where are you struggling?
What is your current mission?
How are you connecting with people in a way that influences and moves them?
Contact me via e-mail and let’s arrange a virtual meeting. I will be thinking about whether I can make a difference for this mentee and in which areas of their careers or business would I be most helpful?
Habits
Earlier this year I became a certified Power of Habits trainer as I believe the biggest influence in life is habit. I think the outcomes you seek are based on the habits you develop and maintain. Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement and a small habit, when repeated consistently, grows into something significant.
It’s almost that time of the year where everyone starts making New Year’s resolution. It’s almost that time of the year where everyone starts “dry January”. It’s almost that time of the year where everyone starts to think about the habits that they would like to change.
I am here to guide you and your organisation, send me an e-mail and let’s arrange a non-binary virtual meeting.
Success vs. Happiness
Image c/o Haiku Deck
I have always believed that success will not make you happy if you were not happy before becoming successful. I have never tied my self worth together with my accomplishments. There are many people who believe that happiness is over the next mountain and as long as they conquer that next thing or achieve that next milestone - then, that’s going to bring them happiness. In reality, if you are not happy before success, you will not be happy after achieving success.
I think happiness comes not from those big moments that you anticipate, but in the little joys of life, for example, the pleasure of walking in the park and observing the colours of the leaves; the joy of creating a morning smoothie, etc. Happiness comes from the the small moments, not from the big accomplishments, regardless of what it looks like from the outside.
In my opinion, happiness and success are two different things. Success is based on what I’ve achieved and happiness is based on what I feel about myself and about how I feel about what I am doing. Whenever I attempt to interconnect them, I remind myself that happiness and success give a separate sense of meaning and fulfilment.
Say Thank You!
The path to transformation is by embracing life everyday with openness. You can start on the path wherever you are, everyone is in the position to say that this situation is difficult but I am grateful for having a higher self that can find a solution. Acknowledging this path can transform any experience from darkness to light. It’s like having a torch in a dark forest where the only thing that matters is the next step that you see ahead of you.
How should you live life when you are on this path? It’s easy to feel grateful when life is going well, yet not everyday is like that! Most days are a mixture of negative and positive situations, emotions and feedback at home and work. I think that we only need two tools on the path: knowledge and experience. Knowledge gives you the vision of the bigger picture that you can trust, and experience validates that the experience is true. When we achieve even more knowledge and experience - complaints are transformed into light and wonder and gloom changes to joy. This acknowledgement that you are being guided by the light inside of you is the beginning of the journey.
Dark vs. light; good vs. bad; us vs. them, whoever them happens to be!
Getting beyond these opposites is important, not that you should give up and let the darkness creep in but so you stop being stuck in conflict. To be in the light, you must open yourself to it, which is different from constantly struggling against the darkness. Contact me via e-mail when you are ready to take a deeper dive into this arena.
The natural progression of a B2B sale
The last few years has seen me move from the front line to helping people out in advisory positions. It’s understanding what they are going through and walking them through the process of seeing the world through their customers eyes. This requires a little bit of art and a little bit of science, and there is no better way to learn this than from somebody who has done it before, someone who has been teaching these processes.
To get something done in an organisation is a bureaucracy and from my perspective sometimes this bureaucracy doesn’t make sense and is counter intuitive. And when you try to attach logic to it, you only get even more frustrated. You have to understand how each person on the value chain gets rewarded and what they need to see. You have to provide them with what they need even though in some cases it does not make any sense to us.
I think the process of teaching salespersons how companies buy is a necessity as what they initially need to show buyers is not a demonstration, presentation or proposal. It’s the understanding of what the buyer cares about, it’s about building “know, like and trust” relationships. Don’t waste your time with cold pitches! Learn how to make personalised, relevant pitches if you want to be a top salesperson. Learn how to warm-up the buyer to start a business conversation. Learn how to build this conversation into a meeting. Learn how speak to buyers about their needs and what they care about, the problems they face and how you can help them.
Usually these processes take a little bit of reprogramming! Learning not to speak about yourself or the features and functions of your products. For organisational guidance and personal mentoring, contact me via e-mail.
Success is made to be shared
Photo via Mads Nissen
For most of my life I have been fascinated by what triggers human beings to behave the way they do. Why is it that there are so many people in the world who live such joyous lives in spite of almost every adversity, while others who would seem to have it all, live their lives in anger, despair and depression?
We are not victims, we are creators and I care very much about helping people take responsibility for the change they seek to make. And if it makes you a living, then that’s fine, and if it doesn’t make you a living, then that’s a choice. But don’t do it because you are making a living, make a living because you are doing it.
I think that we should all learn how to learn as it’s the only skill that out-delivers and over performs. Remember, a good mentor will teach you how to think, not what to think.
Don't do it alone
Image via Shutterstock
It’s a good idea to have the map before you enter the woods! Don't try to become a coach, an online trainer or monetise content without a roadmap because you'll struggle needlessly, when there are proven strategies you could have implemented right away.
Don't try to build a huge fanbase and truly inspire millions of people without knowing what really works, what business models will sustain you, how to scale and serve well. In order to reach as many people as you deserve, it would be advisable to seek guidance from a marketing/branding expert.
Don't try to get brand deals or work with the big names until you know what the industry is like and how to truly make online marketing work for you 24/7. I think that it’s important for both your loved ones and yourself to get the training you need to win. You deserve it!
Food for thought
The concept of pretty has no meaning without the concept of ugly, smart means little without the idea of stupid. We come to understand who we are by understanding who we are not.
Everyone loves an underdog
Here’s what to do when the odds are stacked against you:
Be patient
Anticipate next steps
Stay focused
Be calm
Be optimistic
Study your surroundings
Believe in yourself
See the finish line
Be persistent
Work hard
Show grit
Learn to anticipate
Be present
Each one, teach one
"There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life - happiness, freedom and peace of mind - are always attained by giving them to someone else." - Peyton Conway March
The pandemic and the current economic downturn is causing mental health issues all around the world. We know that this has been an issue throughout the lockdown. I have heard from so many people who are feeling lonely, anxious and depressed with many of them stressed and having suicidal thoughts.
How is the pandemic hurting your physical and mental wellbeing?
I am a mentor and available to talk to you during these turbulent times.