andrewnicol.net

262 | 365 Super Coach

Last year I coached my daughter’s 8-a-side hockey team and I thought I did a half decent job given I had absolutely no knowledge of hockey prior to becoming coach.
 
This year her team has two very talented and very experienced coaches, Neil and John, who have played, coached and lead hockey for years.
 
Let me say, there is an extreme disparity between my coaching and theirs in developing the skills of the entire team. Oh, and they win more often than not.
 
It turns out that leadership skills and experience make a good coach. Not one but both. Yet often in business or other organisations we expect people to “coach” when they have little experience or leadership.
 
Little wonder the team members don’t develop.

210|365 Leaders are readers

All leaders are readers!

In some way shape or form they are. Even in this information age of podcasts and audiobooks and youtube, leaders are readers.

This is a shot of my work bookshelf. My books are available to borrow. Take them, learn from them, stretch your thinking.

Read.

206|365 Sports Star

A bunch of fans crowd behind the tent of the Castrol Edge race team. Amongst them, this fan, with a poster at the ready, eagerly awaits for the autograph of Greg Murphy, an iconic New Zealand sportsman.
 
Greg is a New Zealand V8 supercar sports star. He is a star because drives really fast cars. He is a star because he bets Australians. He is a star because handles the public and media really well. He is a star because he wins.
 
Gregs stardom came purely through hard work, focus, practice, lots of losses and a few wins (comparatively).
 
We can all be stars, maybe not iconic ones, but certainly in the life of people around us.
 
We also become stars through hard work, focus, practice, lots of losses and a few wins.

203|365 Intellectually Inquisitive

One of the problems with being intellectually inquisitive, is one can tend to over think or even over discuss things that have absolutely no impact on ones life.

Take as an example Countdown, the new brand for Woolworths, Foodtown, the old Countdown and Price Chooper. The first time I saw the new brand with the new logo was in Greenlane in Auckland, where the colours were green and orange. Next was Rototuna (pictured here), where the colours are black, white and green.
 
So I started trying to work out what they were doing with their brand. Getting rid of multiple brand names seemed to be a great idea, but to two different colour sets? Strange. I discussed it with a number of people and came up a whole myriad of explanations. We wondered if they were trying to make some stores appear more budget, and others more classy, while bringing value back to the core brand. We wondered if they would have different pricing points.
 
We over wondered and over talked given that it is not our brand (although it was mainly travel time).
 
A lot of thought about something that has no effect on me.
 
But then that is the point of inquisitive. By thinking and discussing and even waxing lyrical, one refines thinking for real life situations in the future.

[203 | 365 Took this photo while getting milk. Originally titled it 'Intellectual Curiosity' but then changed curiosity to 'inquisitive' because that is a family value and my girls occasionally read my blog.]

172 | 365 Hot Spots

Last year our business had a massive metaphorical blaze. The term fighting fires was a dramatic understatement as we fought to contain a major issue that caused people grief and cost a heap of money.
 
As I pondered this shot that I took of a big warehouse fire at Tristram Marine a couple of thoughts struck me.
 
Firstly firewalls. The fire in this building was contained to the point that they will be reopening the showroom at the other end of the building tomorrow.
 
My second observation is hot spots. Today, the same fire appliance that was in this shot was still at the fire to dampen down hotspots.
 
Last year we lacked firewalls. Processes and systems to contain issues as they arose, and stop them becoming a raging uncontrolled blaze. As a result we spent a lot of time dampening down hot spots.
 
I’m reminded that as leaders and managers we need build firewalls. Simple purposeful systems, that protect our organisations from large disruptive metaphorical fires.

162 | 365 Pondering

I love the view out of my office window. I enjoy gazing off into the distance towards Mount Pirongia, which is 27km away to the southwest of the city. I am captivated by the movement of cars and trains journeying to their destinations at the bottom of the road.
 
When I’m on my mobile, I often get out of my seat and watch the world go by my office. I’ve been known to get caught leaning on the window ledge, just pondering, considering, thinking. Across our driveway is a café. I’m sure that people must look up from time to time and wonder what the weird guy is doing just looking out the window. “Get a real job” they probably think.
 
Yet a huge chunk of my job is thinking. And thinking can be really really hard. But without thought we carry on through life without change.
 
Without change nothing improves.

I got reminded that I need to think more yesterday. To ponder more.

So today will be a day of ...

Dress Up

Remember as a kid if you wanted to be doctor, you simply dress up as doctor and you're good to go. That simple. In real life training to be a doctor is a lot more complicated.
 
As I flew to Christchurch this morning, the Head Steward on the Jetstar flight was in training. The trainer was providing practical insights, small tips, and cautions to the trainee throughout the flight. Apart from the announcement about Australian quarantine laws on a New Zealand domestic flight, it really was real-time experiential training.
 
In Christchurch I did some one-on-one training with one of my team. Not in real-time, but still practical, small tips and cautions to help him in his role.
 
Sometimes when we think of training, we behave like we are training doctors. But training should just be simple, experiential and primarily one-on-one.
 
 
154 | 365 – Dress Up – Jayden IS a doctor, checking up on Talia.

Finding my way around

When I flew into Melbourne this week I knew broadly my hotel was in the Southbank area, so caught a bus, then the train, then walked around looking for it. Most people, I would assume, would actually look it up on a map.

When I went to the conference yesterday, I knew it was at the Tennis grounds. Again forgot to look it up, so just followed my nose.

Last night tried to lead some friends to a great place to eat. Failed completely, and got sore legs walking around the city, then ended up back near were we started.

Then I realised, that maybe the way I lead is a bit like that. I know the kind of area I need to head towards, but never really map out the way. I almost head there by trial and error without all the details worked out.  Most times I succeed, sometimes I fail big-time.

Broadly knowing where I am going, but not really nailing down the best route.

Hmm

I'm not sure this is a great leadership trait.

21 years ago today my life changed

I remember it because it was the 8th of 8, 88.

Bob Addison and Dale Henderson took a punt and gave a young, uneducated, skinny bum the opportunity to work at Baycourt theatre.

I had been hanging around the theatre for about 5 years, and looking back I must have been one frustrating young guy. Full of potential but lacking discipline and a little bit strange to boot.

But I got opportunities to clean toilets, learn more about sound and lighting and play with pagemaker on computers (no mean feat in 88).

I learned about creativity, long hours, leadership, communicating with people older than me and doing crap jobs I didn’t enjoy.

I was 18, and I was privileged that Bob and Dale gave me a shot. After a while I moved on and learnt other things from other leaders. But they were some of the first people to see something in me, I didn’t see, even though they never got to see it delivered.

So anyway two key points I considered today.

1. 21 years later, I wonder which 18 year I should be giving a similar opportunity to?
2. Where did 21 years go?

Successful People

Saw an interview on 60 Minutes this week with Kiwi Kerry Spackman. Kerry is a Neuroscientist for sports stars like Lewis Hamilton.

He was asked what made them successful and gave these four qualities

1. They are phenomenally hard workers

2. Their attention to detail was second to none

3. They have an ability to get over disappointment

4. They have an unshakable belief in themselves

A timely reminder to me!

Born or made?

We share the conclusion with others that the right answer is between these two extremes ...

There is no question that some people come into the world endowed with self-confidence and a keen intellect. That is clearly an advantage. But of that group, only a small number move on to remarkable achievements as leaders. The difference appears to be hard work, thoughtful and tenacious effort, zeal for learning, and a willingness to extend beyond one's normal comfort zone.

The Extraordinary Leader pg 231

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.

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.

Taking Initiative

Initiative

You probably hear this word quite often in statements like “oh that person doesn’t show any initiative”. Often I find the term is used in relation to how a person thinks, but the word actually means to “initiate action”.

Dictionary.com describes it like this
–noun
1. an introductory act or step; leading action: to take the initiative in making friends.
2. readiness and ability in initiating action; enterprise: to lack initiative.
3. one's personal, responsible decision: to act on one's own initiative.

The more I think about it the more it makes sense. In most cases it is not that people do not know what to do, or what to try. They normally at least have an idea.

They just have no desire to take action. Or just do nothing.

They don't act!

So Take Action.

Today.

Show initiative.

Self Correction

"Aggravate that most useful human characteristic, the horror and neglect of the obvious.

You must bring him to the condition in which he can practice self-examination for an hour without discovering any of those facts about himself which are perfectly clear to anyone who has ever lived in the same house with him or worked in the same office."

- Screwtape Letters pg 11

Becoming an expert at what you do!

I read listen to this on a Brian Tracy CD yesterday about being productive.

We live in a knowledge based, information based society.

Successful people are simply those who know more than their competitors. One of your most important responsibilities is keeping up to date with your chosen field and staying ahead of the pack, by continually taking in more information.

The amount of knowledge in every field is at least doubling every 7 years. That means you must double your knowledge every 7 years just to stay ahead.

The basic rule is; to earn more you must learn more. Or to put it another way; you are earning all that you possibly can today with what you now know.

You need to become an information gathering person to achieve and maintain excellence. If you want to be the best you must pay the price in terms of reading, listening, learning and growing.

You have gone as far as you can with what you now know. If you want to go further than you are now, you can only do it by taking in and applying new information.

He goes on to say that everyone who wants to get ahead should read for at least an hour a day. If you do this he suggests you will be regarded as a national authority in your field within 5 years.

In terms of the quote above. I think that there is portability to every role. Imagine if you wanted to be a leading sales person, what would happen if you studied that field for an hour a day. Just by the mere fact you are learning new things and continually challenging yourself you must improve!

What if you want to be an awesome mum and studied that topic for an hour a day. What about a leader or a pastor or an accountant?

The hard part. Resolving to do it!

Casting Vision by writing an eBook

Albert Einstein once said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

His words echo part of the thoughts that have been going through my head over the last month. How do I lead agóge so that it can become a really ingenious company? How do I teach people to think more? To be more creative? And most importantly to take their ideas and make them happen!

At work we have an internal blog and I write a weekly review, that is never weekly, but that's an SOI thing. 

Anyhow, I sat down and started thinking about all of the stuff I had to get out of my head about being ingenious and creative and thinking and execution. As I mulled over the content I realised that it would never fit into a blog post and spreading the message over 5 or 6 weeks would dilute it significantly.

I then had an idea to write an eBook. A small, 6 pages, electronic book which is called "being INGENIOUS @ agóge". Cherie then gave me the idea to personlise it, which I did and then I actually printed it and sent it to everyone in  the company. I guess its no longer and eBook although is available on our internal blog.

It has been generally well received and I will probably write another one some time, but the aim of the eBook is to not just write stuff. It's aim is to reinforce our vision, and in this case just one small part of it. There is very little in the eBook that is new, it is just a different way of saying it.

When I wrote the eBook I was doing my job. Casting Vision and Leading my team. It is a different way of doing it but in my role 'my imagination is more important than my knowledge'.

I forget that often!

[PS I might post the eBook in the future, once our competitors are so far behind us in being ingenious, so as to give them a fighting chance! :-) ]

[PPS After I wrote the eBook Seth Godin posted a blog called "You should write an eBook". He wrote one that now easily sits on more than 2 million computers. I feel a small sense of satisfication for coming up with the idea on my own, then having it reinforced by him]

[PPPS You can read a small excerpt of the ebook at www.viewpoint.net.nz]

Is Your Job Just a Job?

"Your days can seem really long (and your life seem really short) if you're spending your entire career wasting time merely trying to earn some money.

Being engaged at work is seductive. It means that you're spending a big chunk of every day doing something you love, something that makes a difference. You get to motivate other people and create things that last. Unfortunately, this sort of opportunity is scarce and (apparently) getting more scarce. The gift I can give you is this: Since your boss hired you to make something happen, you now have permission to build something remarkable. You have the opportunity (on your boss's money) to build a project that will energize you and your co-workers.

You can do it.

The biggest insight about soft innovation is that anyone can do it. It's not based on your power in an organization, or your desire to become an entrepreneur or how creative you are. My goal is to sell you on your ability to champion an innovation in your organization. To find the Purple Cow and a team to build it. Then do it again and again."

This is a quote I enjoyed at 3am when I was trying to read myself back to sleep from Seth Godin's Book "Free Prize Inside"

Delegation meets the Monkey

The One Minute Manager meets the Monkey is, as the title suggests, another in the One Minute Manager series. Like the rest of the books, it is written in a narrative style with lessons along the way. This makes it easy to read but because the people are fictional you often wonder if a real person can implement everything taught the in book.

The storyline, for want of a better description, is about a manager who is over worked, doing long hours, stressed and as a result is a poor leader. He discovers that the reason for this is actually monkeys. Monkeys are tasks or problems that people below him should be handling and resolving, except he continues to say "I will sort that out for you".

The man in the story, learns to leave the problems and tasks on his people's back and helps them with direction. Effectively it is a story of delegation and coaching, so here are the 4 lessons of the monkey:

Rule 1: Describe the Monkey: the dialogue must not end until the appropriate "next moves" have been identifies and specified.

Rule 2: Assign the Monkey: All monkeys shall be owned and handled at the lowest organizational level consistent with their welfare.

Rule 3: Insure the Monkey: Every monkey leaving your presence on the back of one of your people must be covered by one of two insurance policies:

1. Recommend, the Act
2. Act, then Advise

Rule 4: Check on the Monkey: Proper follow-up means healthier monkeys. Every monkeys should have a checkup appointment.

In summary, it was an easy read with some timely reminders about getting your people to solve their own problems.

Book Summary

The One Minutes Manager meets the Monkey
Ken Blanchard

Genres          Management, Coaching, Delegation
Pages           130
Readability     2 (1 = Easy, 5 = Hard)
Enjoyment     4 (1 = Never Read, 5 = Remarkable)

74 of the toughest questions in business today

Jack Welch was chairman and CEO of the General Electric Company from 1981 to 2001.  He generally regarded as one of the top CEO's of his time and was recongised for his candid straight up view of doing business. This book follows on from his previous book "Winning" and answers just 74 of the questions that he has been asked as he has toured.

Many of the chapters serve as timely reminders, other chapters blew my mind with the scale of multinational business and a few chapters I just out right disagreed with.

Below is an excerpt taken from the last chapter:

Winning, actually, doesn't have anything to do with markets. Or we should say, it doesn't have to have anything to do with them. By our definition, winning is a personal journey. It's about you as an individual setting a goal and achieving it. That goal could be creating and supporting a happy, healthy family. It could be founding or funding a homeless shelter. It could be teaching children to read; it could be sailing around the world.

And then again, it could be building thriving company that succeeds in the global marketplace.

Winning is about reaching the destination you chose. It is not necessarily about profit, though it can be. But winning is, at its most fundamental, about making something of your life. It is about progress and meaning. It is about achievement.

If you enjoyed reading "Winning", then this book is a great follow on, and is worth reading.

Book Summary

Winning: The Answers: Confronting 74 of the Toughest Questions in Business Today
Jack and Suzy Welch

Genres         Business, Leadership, Winning
Pages           272
Readability   3 (1 = Easy, 5 = Hard)
Enjoyment    4 (1 = Never Read, 5 = Remarkable)

Winning - Leadership Development Booklet

Around 18 months ago I brought the majority of the staff in our company the book "Winning" by Jack Welch. The purpose for buying the book was to use it as a leadership development tool and to stretch their thinking, which in turn helps grow us as a business.

To assist in the learning I developed a booklet that people used to stay on track. People would read 2 -3 chapters a fortnight. We would then have a conference call with groups of 5 -7 people, discuss our obersations and learnings from the chapters.

Agoge is a small business with limited funds for training and leadership development and has staff based all over the country. I found that this process worked really well and we learned a lot as a business as a result. A key lesson for us was Candor, which has since become one of our values.

Below is a link to the PDF file. I hope you find it useful. If you would like a word copy please email Andrew Nicol (links in side bar)

Download winning_reading_plan.pdf

What makes me an entrepreneur?

I have almost finished "Winning: the Answers" by Jack & Suzy Welch.

In one of the questions Jack is asked "How do I know if I have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?" Jack answers by posing four great questions:

- Do you have a great new idea that makes your product or service compelling?
- Do you have the stamina to hear "no" over and over again and keep smiling?
- Do you hate uncertainty?
- Do you have the personality to attract bright people to chase your dream with you?

Interesting that all four of them really excite me. I mean really really excite me. Number 3 is my favourite. Here is the whole paragraph:

Do you hate uncertainty? If you do stop reading here. Entrepreneurs spend more time in blind alleys than stray cats, if not chasing dollars, chasing new technology or new service concepts, not to mention everything else they need to build a business. If not in blind alleys, they're aboard a leaky boat on choppy seas - or put it more plainly, they are often running out of money while betting on the unknown. If you're an entrepreneur, that actually sounds like, well, fun!

It is fun!

I suspect a few of my team will nod their heads and say yip thats Andrew. I can also understand why a lot of people would not like to answer to these 4 questions, but I'm glad I can and do!

A review of my blog

"In short I thought I would start shouting into the wind..."

And with those words my blog began. Like most things in my life my blog has proven to be random, distracted thoughts. It comes and goes depending on my mood and has had three major changes to its look and feel.

It will continue to change because I love change. It will continue to be random and change in writing style because I am always learning and experiencing different things.

Anyway here are a few of my favourate posts etc from each month since Aug last year.

Old Posts

Old & New  ... Lost after 3 years is the new car smell, it now has one of those car airfreshener smells . A smell that you know is hiding a potentially more potent odour, the way lighting a match in the toilet tries to hide a foul stench... read more [nb this is my most commented post a whole 3 comments]

Origin Pacific falls from the Never Never Land ... In my opinion Origin was doomed to failure before their first flight left the ground. They tried to behave and act like super powers, then align themselves with super powers like Qantas, rather than establishing profitable niche markets ... read more

Authentic Community ...I think this small business called agóge. This business with people from all over the world, with varying educations, from different religions and diverse upbringings is starting to become an authentic community ... read more

Woolgathering at 17,000 ft about the Marlborough Sounds ... I sit in the ATR, transfixed at the sight of the Marlborough Sounds out my window and grateful for the relief from a tiring day that woolgathering about the Sounds allows. ... read more

Flying an Alpha 160 ... "It is like climbing into a new car when you have been used to driving a car that is 25 years old." ... read more

Most enjoyable book

Blue like Jazz - Donald Miller.

Best quote

"I’ve always thought smack in the middle of a contradiction is a great place to be!"  Bono - U2

Really Factual Numbers

A post of mine at www.viewpoint.net.nz on the way people seem to need numbers to give something credibility.

Click here

Buying Time

I apply the brakes and decelerate for the booth ahead. An oldish graying lady slowly opens the booth window and greets me very pleasantly for 6am. Handing over a dollar coin is eventually followed by the barrier arm rising and my accelerating off down Route K towards Tauranga City. I am quite sure I it is the only toll road in the country, and probably one of the quietest roads as well. There are two many easy alternatives that only add a few km's and minutes to the trip to make it a success.

So why do I pay a dollar? Too save on fuel and time of course.

Later that day I was chatting to Greig about how stupid it is you can't get from 15th Ave back onto the toll road. It is stupid, for the record, because of lost revenue opportunities for them (there would be at least an extra car each day & I would get to save more time). Anyway I admitted to Greig that saving fuel can't be the real reason I take that road. I often drive around aimlessly in my car wasting more fuel than that. Furthermore saving time cant be the real reason because I would waste more time watching a couple of sets of TV ads than I would going the long way.

I was chatting to a friend the other day and she said that she doesn't read some stuff because she doesn't have time. I thought I can understand that. Later however, I thought it is not that we do or don't have the time, it is that we choose not to make the time.

• I choose to save a small amount of time and lose a dollar. Knowing well I will waste the same amount of time writing this blog.
• She chooses to spend the time on something else. Which is cool.
• I encourage my team to take Lead Time to think and plan and read. Most of them choose not to because they are too busy and have no time.

We all have the same amount of time in a day, it is actually that we all choose to use it differently. We can choose to use it on friends or family or love or work or hobbies or watching TV ads or taking toll roads or reading stuff or not.

The only problem is that you never, ever get to live that time again.

Ok, I admit it, I was wrong!

I have always understood that we are all made unique, entirely individual and wonderfully complex. But the implication of these thoughts often escapes me in action.

I think the problem is that I have never really, honestly believed that we are hard wired differently. A lot of the people that work for me that are smarter than me, had more significant and influential experiences than me, and have far more knowledge than me. Because they are genuinely more intellectual than I am, I struggle heaps when they don't see the big picture, or when they hear what I say and then do things completely differently.

I posted the other day about the styles of influence course I attended. As I have reflected on it, and spent time with the CBC guys and Vinney and Don, I have come to understand that I can be critical and biased when talking to people.

I think that we all have unspoken expectations of people, and then get frustrated when people fail to meet those expectations. We start thinking that they are intentionally doing this to bug us, and then our attitude towards them changes. When our attitude changes, our ability to influence the person positively dramatically reduces.

When all this happens who has the problem us, or the other person?

Me or you?

I have been humbled completely as I have considered some of these lessons.

Styles of Influence

It is incredible to consider that in the last 2 days I have learnt more about myself and how I interact with other people, than I have probably done in the last 2 -3 years. On Sunday evening I had Vinney from idynamx staying with us from the US. He is a very astute and intelligent guy and it was fascinating to talk with him about Style of Influence and the implications into our lives.

On Monday I attended a one day course run by idynamx where we compared our personal styles of influence with other people I work with outside of agóge. To say that I found the day just intelligently stimulating and personally challenging, would be to dramatically underestimate its impact on my think.

Below is a summary of my unique design. I am, according to the Styles Of Influence, test a Creative Designer.

Creative designers want to get a job done and get it done fast. They influence others in a positive way through this use of clear thinking and a strong personality. Creative designers can influence in a negative way through intimidation or forcefulness. Generally creative designers are individualists who enjoy a great deal of variety. These people enjoy thinking up new ideas and helping to get other people to implement them. At times, they can be hard to get along with and seem like a bully or overly dominant. When a task is in full swing, these people may want to "bolt" before the project has been completed. They work best in an environment that gives room to be creative and yet one that has a certain measure of accountability.

Fly by Wire

Boarding your plane and taking a seat next to an Air NZ pilot wouldn't excite most of you, but it was one of the most interesting flights I have taken. I sat next to Trevor an Airbus A320 captain and pilot trainer as he was being repositioned back to Auckland.

Trevor has been flying for 40 years and you can tell straight away he is an experienced and safe flyer. In his 40 years flying he has never had a major incident, never had an engine failure, nor forced landing. This is as much a testament to aircraft maintenance as it is to his attitude and skill.

Once we established that I was on my way to my PPL (so knew an incredible amount about flying), we talked Navaids, GPS, airports, handling of 737 vs A320, maintenance, CRM (Crew Resource Management), industry changes, ATPL training, the airworks accident last year, sims and pilot attitudes and leadership.

Interesting Facts

• Wellington Airport was not closed on Wednesday. Trevor landed his Airbus, it's just the ground crew couldn't work in the wind.
• Dunedin Airport is the hardest (=riskiest) airport in the country to land a jet in.
• Airbus A320's self trim (Makes them heaps easier to fly)
• At FL30 (30,000ft) and engine failure in a 737 required an immediate and positive from the pilot to stop it going over on it's back. An A320 will re trim, and put the plan into a descent.
• Wherever possible they take off with reduced thrust to save the engine life. In the A320 they take off with the cabin pressurization off, which again saves engine life.
• Great pilots come as a result of great attitudes.

Disjointed implications

• The media never give you the whole story.
• I'd rather fly in a A320 (or a next generation 737)
• If reduced thrust take-offs improve engine life, then to what other areas or things could this principal apply?
• Being great at anything, sport, flying, spirituality or leadership is all about ATTITUDE.

Trevor said he was going to email me a funny clip about CRM. If he does I will post it here.

Just put $10 gas in thanks...

Last week I filled my personal tanks a little and kind of like just putting $10 gas in your car you know it is not fill completely but it is enough to keep you on the road.

You see I spent the majority of my week on a 'focus week'. I used the time to think about strategy, read, go flying and clear (rearrange) my head. I finished the week with the Leadership Summit and now I feel like I need another week to process what I heard.

Patrick Lencioni - Silos, Politics and Turf Wars

Quote
We need to create Thematic Goals. Goals that are
  - Sinlge
  - Qualitative
  - Temporary
  - Shared across the organization

Lesson
A thematic goal is different to the long term vision. It is 3 to 12 months and covers the whole organization. The key question is "What is the most important thing for us to accomplish in the next ___ months?"

Wayne Cordeiro - Dead Leader Running

Quote
Know what fills and drains your tanks
The principal of fulcrum

Lesson
I need to be clear about what builds me up and what drains me. Often when life gets really busy, I am drained because I am not doing the things that fill me up.

I also loved the illustration of fulcrum. I am sure I will use this with my team at some point.

Bill Hybels - The power of clarity

Quote
If the trumpet doesn't sound a clear sound, who will get ready for battle?

A life spent in any endeavor other than a life spent on the transformation of humans hearts is not a life worth living.

Lesson
Keep the message clear. I am passionate about seeing changed lives and hearts. A timely reminder.

Yesterday I learnt how to cheat the church!

I'm serious. I went to the Global Leadership Summit and Andy Stanley said that he learnt to cheat the church and that we should learn to do the same. Anyway, as is the very nature of sort of day, we were subjected to a torrent of great leadership material. The challenge for me is now to incorporate my key lessons, into what I am being as a leader.

Bill Hybels - Life Cycle of a Leader

Quote
"4 Statement grid for key leaders. They must have
    - Intelligence
    - Be Energetic
    - Have Relational IQ
    - Have a win or die spirit"

"If we lead well, people live!"

Lesson
The life cycle of me as a leader (our influence) should go up and up to my dieing day.

Andy Stanley - Focused Leadership
What he meant by cheat the church was that we shouldn't cheat our family of our time, rather we should cheat the church of our time. It wasn't a money thing.

Quote
We spend more time in our organizations because we love progress and because we are afraid.  If I don't it wont ... is an example of being afraid.

Lesson
I need to play to my strengths and delegate my weakness, and the less I do the more I can accomplish.

Jim Collins - When business thinking fails the church

Quote
Building something great is not a function of your circumstance; it is a function of your choices and discipline.

Lesson
And this is reflective of my thinking this week, I need to ensure I continually develop to become a great leader and learn from other leaders.

Bono - An exclusive interview www.one.org

Quote
I have always thought smack in the middle of a contradiction is a great place to be.

Stop asking God to bless what you are doing. Find out what God is doing because it is already blessed.

Lesson
I am compelled to be generous with my resources. How can I lead others to do the same?

What is leadership?

• The manager administers; the leader innovates.
• The manager maintains; the leader develops.
• The manager accepts reality; the leader investigates it.
• The manager focuses on systems and structures; the leader focuses on people.
• The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.
• The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.
• The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
• The manager has his or her eye always on the bottom line; the leader has his or her eye on the horizon.
• The manager imitates; the leader originates.
• The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.
• The manager is the classic good soldier; the leader is his or her own person.

I believe every business needs great leaders and great managers! Trying to segregate the functions of a leader from that of a manager is very problematic. Most people can have some qualities of leadership in one area, but not in others. Does that make them a leader or not?

I guess the key question as always is; what am I doing to become a better leader?

Quote from Warren Bennis

Agree, disagree, have a question? - Post a comment now.

What do Vision and Mission really mean?

Vision, Mission, and Strategy. Typing these three terms independently in to google returns over 1.5 billion hits. Even as a group of words over 20 million hits are listed. Little surprise that the observations of what these words represent is as varied as opinions on life itself.

Most experts say you must have Vision and Mission statements. If your people don't know where they are heading they will get lost. It's difficult to disagree, unless you have read vision and mission statements for companies and then talked to the people on the ground to see what really happens.

So I thought, just to add to the confusion, I would give my inference on Vision and Mission, to which I am sure many people will disagree.

FIRSTLY - Whatever you do it must be relevant!

Vision - Is timeless, it is what you want to be, and what you are. For agóge it drives what we want to be in 10, 50, 100 years time. "We will live people matter..." is a philosophy rather than a goal.

Mission - Is timebound and specific. It is what you want to do and achieve now. Mission is a fighting term in my mind, this is where we are taking the battle. It is a broad goal that changes as the business grows and adapts.

Strategy - Is the translation of the Mission into specific actions and goals. It is the determining of what you will do when and how to fulfill your Mission and Vision.

So why do I put all this down in this post? Well because this week is a focus week for me, a week in which I base myself away from the office to read, think, reflect and review how things are going. Not just work, but people, and me. As I have engaged the brain this week, I am really happy with our Vision and Values, but I think our Mission and Strategy is very much lacking.

Is the agóge mission clear and the strategy compelling? I think not.

Leader vs Manager

• The manager administers; the leader innovates.
• The manager maintains; the leader develops.
• The manager accepts reality; the leader investigates it.
• The manager focuses on systems and structures; the leader focuses on people.
• The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.
• The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.
• The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
• The manager has his or her eye always on the bottom line; the leader has his or her eye on the horizon.
• The manager imitates; the leader originates.
• The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.
• The manager is the classic good soldier; the leader is his or her own person.

I believe every business needs great leaders and great managers! Trying to segregate the functions of a leader from that of a manager is very problematic. Most people can have some qualities of leadership in one area, but not in others. Does that make them a leader or not?

I guess the key question as always is; what am I doing to become a better leader?

Quote from Warren Bennis

Home Invasion

BOOM! The door flew open, they burst into the house and within seconds seemed to occupy every space. The noise told of chaos and energy blended into one. Immediately the tranquillity was replaced with a racket that would rival a sonic boom over Canterbury. Then I realised they were searching for me, I knew I didn't have long till they found me. After an extended period of silence I knew my time was up. My family just got home.

Was that 1 1/2 hours I ask myself? Where did that time go? I was planning to make it productive time, nailing a few things before my week began but instead I had surfed the net randomly and enjoyed for the most part, the silence. On this occasion my thoughts were not clearer as I lacked the disciplined thought that should accompany silence to make it productive. It was relaxing nonetheless.

I am reminded that I function better when I have times of silence and solitude. I seem to live with audio cluttering much of my life through radios, tv, mp3 and people. I love music and audio and conversation but there are times when I need to mute them and have space to focus my thoughts.

When I have times of quiet I usually manage to assimilate my small thoughts and ideas that I continually have and make them into a coherent and better thought-out plan. Without times of silence, solitude and disciplined thought, I don't see the big picture, the related priorities and I become driven by the small things. Yesterday during my time of silence I just relaxed. Today, as I head to Wellington, I will make some thinking time happen and see what happens...

The grand strategy

"It is the translation of the grand strategy down into what people do every day, and be caring about what they do that is the single biggest challenge that faces every company." And I suggest every leader. It is certainly one of the biggest challenges that I face on an ongoing basis. I find this quote from a CEO who took part in the Covey 4 Disciplines course stimulates me often to assess how I am going as a leader. Frequently accepted wisdom would say just set the big goal, go for it, let the people do the work. Often however this doesn't cut it.

Last week while discussing a project it became apparent that we had not yet thought through a key part of the new project. There was an inherent risk that we get to project completion and then find we had missed some key thinking for the process. It is not the first time, nor the first project that this has happened with. Being more than a little deflated that such a critical component had been looked over, I head into this week with a hankering to nail off my part in leading and delivering great projects, and this brings me back to the quote.

It has three parts, "grand strategy", you need to have one prior to doing anything else; "translation of the strategy into what people do each day", this is about breaking our goals down to a level that people understand exactly what to do; "caring about what they do", this means really caring and caring can only really be shown by spending time with them. Three parts, and as I critically review myself, I am doing decidedly averagely at all three! I have therefore planned a focus day to clear the head and determine again what is wildly important.

I am encouraged that 'translation' and 'caring' are the single biggest issue facing every company and leader. I am not the only person to struggle with this dimension of leadership. We have all worked for leaders, even stunning leaders that fail to continually set clear goals, help you break them down and care about how you are going as precisely as they should.

To conclude, a friend txt me a quote from Churchill in the weekend. "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm" - Hitting failure after failure enthusiastically - hmm.

I'm a little fire engine 'Flick' is my name...

Imagine being an Airport firefighter in Alaska, on Tuesday I meet a guy who had done that job. In fact imagine being an airport firefighter anywhere. Generally it would be monotonous existence, clean the fire truck, drive down the runway to get for foreign objects (these are not people who stowaway...), do the odd plane crash drill, but then generally you sit around waiting for a plane to crash, nice! The job almost contrasts that of a domestic firefighter who fights fires, attends motor vehicle crashes, cleans up floods and nails roofs down. In their spare time they educate kindergarten kids, check buildings and hydrants, and play table tennis.

For the record if I had to choose I would be an airport firefighter, after all I would get to see heaps of planes and that perk compensates significantly for the boredom. To be candid, I feel like a domestic firefighter at the moment, bouncing from one fire to another, attending to accidents, cleaning up issues and nailing things down. In my spare time I try to educate some people, work on the building and have some fun. I feel like I 'flick' from one thing to another.

My dilemma is this; it is not my agreed function to be a domestic firefighter and being one comes at the expense of strategy and leadership development. When I don't develop leaders and give strong leadership, my team are ill equipped to lead their teams, when this happens we all seem to get more involved in fighting fires.

Anyway back to another day at the fire station...

NEWSFLASH - Just heard that Noamz had her baby! How cool is that!

PS - If you want to check out the pre-launch developments for the logistics opinions page go to my.agoge.net\logistics

The week ahead?!

I wonder how people who just get through life plan? Do they plan to just get through another week or do they merely allow it to happen. I am sure that some people would argue that planning makes life boring and tiresome, zapping all the spontaneity and fun from things.

For me I have to plan to prevent a new found mental disorder, distraction. Maybe I have ADHD that would explain a few things (random, distracting). It's weird but the weeks that I don't plan are the weeks that I come away feeling like I just got through, rather than lived. Planning weekly helps me to refocus on what I really want to be and achieve, it helps me to focus on what is WILDLY important and to some how try and achieve balance in my life as if there is such a thing. To be honest I really don't like the word balance, I think of it as two kids on a seesaw suspended momentarily at a point of blissful equilibrium. Each one must stay completely still least, the change in weight sends one skyward and the other to the ground.

Trying to find balance often feels that way. Just when I think I am there some slight event happens and wobble becomes the order of the day. That's what happened today, I planned to do a few things and the only thing I ticked off was myself. That's not to say I didn't have a productive day, it was just productive in different ways.

I have heaps more to say on the subjects of wobble, balance and seasons. All stories for another day.

And the winner is ...

My excitement at the prospect of a day being drilled for information was at an all time high. I mean how could I not be excited, reviewing documents, reviewing the documents again, answering questions about the documents, and then putting spin, spin and more spin on things. Ooh, I couldn't wait! You have to admit you would be about as excited as a four year old off to the dentist.

So this morning before we went, I cut the numbers just a couple more ways just for the hang of it. You would think I'd learn, but well yeah you'll get used to me. Cherie arrived (5:30am), Rob left (had a 5am meeting with him) and we packed off for Auckland and our BIG audit for one of the accreditation processes of the week. Anyway the dentist wasn't at all that bad, and thanks to all the work Cherie has put in, we passed and passed stunningly well!

So anyway back to the big fight, in the red corner Andrew the Entrepreneur, and in the blue corner Andrew the Manager. Who will win? Will Mr Risk or Mr Conservative win? Yip once again it was Andrew the Entrepreneur. Couldn't help myself, I believe passionately in our mission, and what we stand for. I know my team are prepared to fight to win, and that the intelligence and leadership in our business will pull it off.

So the winner is neither Mr Entrepreneur or Mr Manager. The winner is team Agoge!

An Entrepreneur and Manager turn up for dinner at Nicolini's

Firstly I have to rant about going to Nicolini's on Cuba Street in Wellington last night. It had been a few years. The atmosphere was splendid, the Italian food was sensuous and complimented stunningly by the merlot. It was a great relaxing evening, shame that Alf & Jared had to put up with my company. A few rounds of pool afterwards, and I was completely transported back to my CP days when it was our Wellington dining location of choice.

I was thinking yesterday about the tension I have between my being an entrepreneur and a manager (just what my kids need a schizophrenic dad). The entrepreneur in me wants to take risks, head for the big dreams and win at all costs. On the other hand the manager in me wants to manage the risk well, ensure our long term future, even though it may be at the expense of rapid growth. The balance is actually incredibly hard to find, big dreams vs. stability.

Too make matters worst whenever I am faced with difficult decisions I become seriously analytical, and I mean analytical to the point that even the most boring numbers engrossed accountant would be impressed. At the end of it I have more information than I would ever need, and have it
cut 1500 ways. And it almost always tells me what I already knew.

I then come back to the key question, take the risk and fight or err to the conservative.

Leadership and Clouds

Ah, the dreaded flight from Hamilton to Christchurch. 1 hour 50 min in an ATR, go you good thing! I dread and love this flight for so many different reasons.

This morning we hit 21,000 ft with a head wind and all the eye could see was an endless, thick and undisclosing cloud. Hidden and missed below the cloud were the views of the Central Plateau and the Marlborough Sounds. Views that might have been breath taking on any other day, today are shrouded in secrecy.

Suddenly as we approached North Canterbury the cloud parts, dissipates and below the beautiful rolling hills and mountains appear. They are covered with a fresh blanket of overnight snow. It is early enough in the morning that the sun has yet to damage their beauty with the heat that will eventually return the countryside to a normal day. At last the flight is worth it. This is why I love flying. I love to see big beautiful pictures.

I thought a lot on the flight and the clouds remind me so much of what it is like to be in leadership. So often I look down and try to work out where we are, what is really going on. It is hard to have any clue until finally the clouds part and everything becomes clear. The clouds don't stop us heading for our destination, they merely make the view along the way unclear.

In terms of my day leading Agoge. The clouds have started to dissipate, and with 3 hours in planes today, I am a lot clearer on what I need to make an informed decision about our direction and people.

Stay the course, and wait for the clouds to clear...