Being “OPEN”

What does this mean…..for you?
I posed the question as I did on purpose in order to demonstrate the point that for all of us, we have a unique perspective that may be similar or indeed very different from the next person’s view. For me, this means allowing myself to be influenced by others as frequently as possible- not to be confused with brain washing or lacking personal thinking. By doing so, I can allow myself a shift in view that can often be hugely enlightening and useful. For instance, imagine a situation where you are in the thick of battle (work place) and a potential supplier is asking for a meeting… You rebuff the approach because you are just too busy. The sales guy takes his proposition elsewhere and your problems remain… What if you had been more open? You may have discovered that the potential supplier had just what you needed!
I guess in the final analysis, it is a personal choice to be closed or open. What will you choose?

Will you reach your full potential?

I was showering this morning and began thinking about the year just gone and the coming year ahead. I was thinking about all the well wishes I was receiving and sending and I started to think about some of the language we use and ended up thinking about reaching our full potential. Further thought on this had me delving deeper and asking myself some questions which I would like to pose to you here now- Firstly what exactly is your full potential? How do you measure it and where is the ‘limit’?
I’m still pondering on that one and hope to hear some alternative perspectives and thoughts.
I hope you reach yours and achieve fulfilment

Happy New Year

Wishing everyone around our tiny planet a truly wonderful evening of celebration and a healthy, happy and successful 2010 wherever you are.

What did you learn in 2009?

I guess we’ve all felt the recession in some form and have felt some pain or seen some benefit, depending upon the business we are in, or the state of our personal finances. Whatever our position, we have seen impact. Often we have no ability to influence what happens to us, but we can absolutely choose how we respond to what happens to us. So I decided to share an abridged version of my 2009.
I left long term employment in October 2008 as a result of taking a redundancy package, and immediately began a consulting assignment. At the start of 2009 I decided to press on and see what business I could become involved in and although not consciously, something far from what I had been doing (it was only later that this realisation came to me).
I became involved in publishing and assessing sales people’s capabilities and fit for specific roles and spread myself so thinly that I found it difficult to explain when asked, what business I was in. During this time I also began to network extensively and learnt much about social media and social networking. I read significantly too and took the opportunity to invest in personal development- training with Delta TCC and completing three INLPTA diplomas: Leadership, Coaching and Sales all were delivered using NLP techniques which provide a platform for enhanced communication with people.

After the summer I came to a realisation that I had much invested in my experiences to date and expertise gained from more than 20 years in the Telecom market place and so I made a decision to return and subsequently found my self a great role to immerse myself in, and am delighted to be doing so.

So what have I learnt? I learnt a huge amount about myself, a lot about people generally, and about human nature, as well as behaviour. I learnt much more about business generally too – certainly more than I would ever have expected to. Overall an invaluable life lesson and absolutely unmissable. I am most definitely a better person, and more heavily armed to take on business than I could ever have hoped to be – PRICELESS

Out of the mouths of babes

I meant to post this a couple of weeks ago (Sun 6th Dec) when my wife and I took our two girls (4 years 357 days old and 3 and a half) ice-skating. I am a complete amateur, and hold onto whatever I can in order to stay vertical, whilst my wife whizzes around generally having a ball. This year we hired a “penguin” which children can hang onto as they get familiar with the whole slippery floor experience, and for fun my wife whizzed them around with it one at a time whilst I edged cautiously around the perimeter wall.

At one time, I was holding my eldest daughter’s hand as we crept gingerly around and I said to her that “daddy was useless at this skating lark”, her reply almost floored me there and then “imagine that you were good at it daddy” she said – how good was that? At least I didn’t fall over (SWMBO did though).

No children or adults were hurt during the telling of this short story.

My twitter rules of engagement

Before reading this, please be aware that I possess a sharp sense of fun and am learning as I blunder through life

I got some good advice today after seeking out an expert in this field as a result of encountering a situation which I was puzzled by. So here I am setting out for peeps how I engage and whom I choose to follow and why. Also some of the things you can expect from me and those you probably shouldn’t expect.

Clear? Good

So why am I using twitter? I am embracing the social media/social networking wave and use many different platforms to connect with new people as well as develop existing friendships and relationships. I actually have no particular END GAME just to connect, share, learn and be part of what the internet has enabled. Through embracing the connectedness that social networking has enabled, I have made new friendships, business contacts and learnt many new things. In fact my INLPTA diplomas in sales, coaching and leadership were all as a direct result of using social networking.

So, to my rules of engagement: (in no particular order)

>I am here to share, learn, meet new people, converse, help people, collaborate, and have some fun.

>I follow people based upon what I read, how I see people operating, what their stated aims might be, how aligned or different I see us- and many other random factors.

>I do NOT follow people because you ask me too? I am however always delighted to listen to recommendations with a reason, but do not practice I follow you because you follow me. I may well follow you, but it’s not a “given”.

>I also do not expect you to follow me back just because I have chosen to follow you- I am an adult able to make my own independant decisions and choices for which I hold only myself accountable

>I do reply and engage with people, if I’m on-line, in real-time, otherwise when I can.

>I will retweet interesting items, important information, and notices. Happy to RT if asked and providing it isn’t offensive and isn’t at odds with my values or beliefs.

>I will ONLY recommend you if I have a personal reason to do so, and not because you have asked me to, or because you have recommended me. Why? how can I possibly be expected to recommend you unless I really believe you have something of interest to people… I do not recommend anyone unless I have good reason to – a personal positive experience for example. I expect the same treatment in return and will not ask for a recommendation, but am always grateful for them if deserved.

I do hope this is read by you with the good spirit I have written it with, to provide clarity and assurance of my intent. Also to serve in setting expectations. And feedback of course welcome.

Vitamins for the Mind : Jim Rohn International

Vitamins for the Mind – Jim Rohn an INSPIRATION

via Vitamins for the Mind : Jim Rohn International.

Whom do you admire? Who is your hero?

This is a question that I have heard asked on many occasions in interviews for jobs, or of celebrities in TV interviews and many times I have listened to the answers without much reflection. There are always the perhaps more predictable responses – famous historic figures and others in the public eye, but the ones that carry most weight for me are the ones where people quote “real” people that they know – especially family members. Having said this, I rarely think much about this. Until now that is – I was just relaxing in my bath and my thoughts turned to recent conversations and the person in mind I started to remember interviewing him for a position in the company I worked for perhaps 10 years ago. I started to recall that I asked him this very question and his response needed no thought – it was his father who turned out to be a man of the church. So why am I blogging about this? The simple answer is that I have often reflected on people I admire and (sadly) for the first time I thought about my parents in this light….and I thought and thought, and you know what I AM absolutely proud and full of admiration for my parents. They brought my brother and I up incredibly successfully – we always had the essentials and were always loved and cared for. Both of my parents had to work to “make ends meet” and there were occasions when things were difficult, but they made sacrifices and made sure my brother and I always had what was needed. They are definitely my heroes, and you can be sure that I will tell them to their faces when I next see them

Is your web traffic secure at a hotspot? Don’t know – BBC watchdog does!

It’s not so easy to sit comfortably over a coffee while reading emails or browsing websites in places like Starbucks since Watchdog pointed out how easy it is for fraudsters to hack into your laptop. The convenience of these wifi hotspots has become such a normal part of our everyday lives that it’s hard to give up, so it’s tempting to trust the computer firewall and lapse into a false sense of security again. Read more at BBC web site and http://www.geid.co.uk

When is the right time to invest in training?

The Telecom industry is under-invested in training as a whole. This was the general feedback and view of many attendees of the recent Convergence Summit held at Sandown Park during a panel debate session. So why is this so? Do people generally feel that there is no need to invest in training because they already have all the skills they need to have? I’m sure that most of us need training and do generally welcome it, so why is this the case? Perhaps it’s as simple as not having sufficient training available to them… I’d be interested to know what holds us back in this area, because I know from first hand experience how valuable training is.