andrewnicol.net

Without you...

Without each individual drop of water there would be no puddles, no streams, no rivers, no ocean, no life.

You may feel as significant as a drop in the ocean, but without you we are nothing.

The year ahead...

I think there is little doubt that the economy is slowing.  Christmas spending, and therefore transport volumes, where very late. Figures just out from show that Retail EFTPOS transactions are down in January.

Add to that an election year and high fuel and interest rates and it can only but slow down.

This is further reinforced by a quote I read in the Herald about Freightways result.

"In the current operating environment of low organic volume growth and rising costs, Freightways has been careful to continue to make decisions for the long term good of the business," the company said.

"As such, our investment in facilities, technology, customer service initiatives and most importantly in the training and development of our people has continued."

I agree with Freightways. Training, Development [and retention] are critical tis year.

Follow the leader

It is interesting as I look back over my life how many leaders I learnt from:

• From Glyn I learnt a habit of purposefully saying Good Morning.
• From Dave I learnt the importance of structured sales calls.
• From Jeff I learnt heaps about strategic thought.
• From Bruce I learnt about the importance of process and detail.
• From Jim I learnt to think outside of the things I already know.

There are also a number of leaders who inflated into their roles, whose ego was more important than the people they lead. From them I learnt what not to be.

I would often have disagreements with my bosses. But if they made a decision I would generally do my level best to support them and own the decision like it was my own. I can think of a couple of examples where I didn’t and I learnt less and annoyed the crap out of my boss along the way.

I would not be the person I am today if it were not for these men and many many others inside and outside of the business world.

It stands to reason then, that to become a leader you must first become a follower.

A great follower.

A point understood by those who grow, a point lost on those who inflate.

Flight Sim comedy

This is classic. Have a watch.

Something profound that someone just said to me...

Its amazing how things are waiting for you to make the right step and then the other things will just fall into place.

Family Flying

Took the whole family flying for the first time Saturday. We flew from Hamilton to Tauranga, took Mun and Dad for a fly, then flew back.

My Son is under 4 so sat with a lap belt on his mums knee. This meant we had 5 people on board (POB) in a four 4 seater plane. Air Traffic Control in both Hamilton & Tauranga both doubled checked when I told them 5.

As always with flying and me at the moment. I learn heaps from each flight and this was no exception.

A great day though!!

The simplest form of Leadership

I wonder sometimes if I don’t over complicate leadership.

Maybe the most important, most necessary, most essential attributes of a leader could be summed up in these two ideas;

Communicating Stunningly

to

Implement the Future.

Maybe these two ideas are all that leadership is!

The problems arise when you try to explain what these ideas really mean. At this point you need a whole set of attributes for each of these ideas and lose the overarching ideas themselves.

Kids

A hundred years from now it will not matter
What your bank account was,
The sort of house you I lived in
Or the kind of car you drove
But the world may be different
Because you were important in the life of a child'

- Anon

US marines debrief questions

- What was our intent?
- What actually happened?
- Why did that happen?
- What can we learn from those events?
- What actions should we take now in prepartion for the future, similar events?

Extraordinary leader pg 218

Attack that author and you attack me!

I’m reading a book at the moment by an Author that I respect and who’s books I have enjoyed a lot in the past.

In this current book he takes about one paragraph to have a go at authors (generally) who promote routine feeding of babies and wraps it some psycho stuff about a baby needing love not enforced routine.

I immediately start to write off the author. I start to think, “what would he know”, “psychological rubbish”. I stop reading.

Stop hearing his message.

I don’t take it in.

All because of one paragraph in a book of 300 pages.

As I considered this tonight on slow drive home from Auckland Airport I realised this: I am writing him off because by attacking these authors, he is actually attacking me.

I stop listening because he has said something is wrong with something I have done.

Something that has worked for me.

Something I believe in.

Just 1 paragraph which is not the theme of the book, just his option, and he is written off (well almost).

Interestingly, I am sure I do this to people all the time in conversation. Have a dig at a world view that a someone they respect has communicated and by attacking the world view, I attack the person I am talking to.

I attack their belief.

They stop listening.

…

I am not sure I can stop having an opinion but it is worth thinking about.

Change to Strange - Daniel Cable

I listened to, then brought this book late last year. The basic aspect of the book is this: An organisation will not be great (as opposed to good or average) unless there is something different about it. Something out of the ordinary. It follows then that organisations are not going to be out of the ordinary, or extraordinary, or great, if its workforce is essentially the same as its competitors.

It talks a lot about creating Workforce Deliverables and Metrics. Some questions it poses to help with this are:

To make performance drivers move, how must our workforce be distinct from our competitors?

What characteristics describe our ideal workforce that our competitors would not or could not use to describe their workforce?

Where are the gears currently slipping?

What characteristics of our existing workforce must change in order for us to execute our strategy?

How can we measure key workforce deliverables rather than just talking about time?

How do we go from strange workforce concepts to strange workforce metrics?

A final quote to conclude.

Make it a practice to actually imagine your competition stealing your customers and bleeding your business dry until you are force to stop operating.

ISBN 978-0-13-157222-5 : Hardback : 174 pgs

The most trusted of 2007...

There I was waiting. Killing time, hanging around for my appointed time at the doctors. Having parked myself on a padded bench seat not much more comfortable than an old church pew I search for something to read.

I flick through a readers Digest (June 2007) and discover an article about the most trust New Zealanders and Brands.

Top Brand is Cadbury, which is interesting because unlike Whitakers they don’t make “good honest chocolate”. In the bottom slot at number 25 was Palmolive. A couple brands of interest to me are New Zealand Post at #14 (a number I am sure they would like to improve), and Farmers at #24 (which actually really surprises me given their history).

Anyway the #1 most trusted person in NZ in June 2007 was …#1 Sir Ed (No surprise). He rates above Sir Peter Snell (#4), Queen Elizabeth (#19), Sam Morgan (#30), Helen Clarke (#58 ironically the most trust politician), Matthew Ridge (#71).

Now of the 75 people who were on the list, who do you think is at number #75? None other than Bishop Brian Tamaki.

Yip.

Want to say more but wont.

Makes you think a little about what it is that make people trust you or your brand.

I think words like consistent, authentic, connected, reliable and considerate would come to most people’s minds.

These are words that normal kiwi’s don’t associate with politicians or Palmolive or Brian Tamaki.

I am sure they all think they are trustworthy its just people don’t believe them.

If people don't believe your message. They dont trust you.