To really understand another person’s point of view, you need to climb inside their skin and walk around for a bit.
The Truth Hurts Lies Compound The Pain
Missed deadlines, reworks and lost profit are the cost of not being transparent about what is happening in your business – the cost of settling for the beautiful lie. And these lies have a cost that we can measure in time, money and materials. Would you prefer to hear a beautiful lie or an ugly truth? Here, CEO and Founder of Integrity and Values, Jennifer Elliott, gives you her take on the importance of truthfulness in business and how it can improve your profitability and performance. Jennifer’s words resonate don’t they. We have all, at some time in our careers, sat in a meeting and accepted a lie because it was easier than facing the truth. Some of us do it frequently. Now we know the cost. Like to hear more? Book your place at our next Boardroom Breakfast.
Thinking slow and acting with purpose
When was the last time you made a really good decision in business and in life? Think about it. What was the decision? Where were you when you made that decision? And, what were you doing? Chances are, you made that decision at a time when you were not distracted and able to gather your thoughts uninterrupted by the hustle and bustle of a busy workplace. As CEOs and senior executives, we are all guilty of trying to pack as much as we can into each day. Thinking fast, acting quick, responding to a flood of emails and tending to numerous meetings throughout the day. We often think that the way to be productive is to simply just be busy – all of the time! Less really is more This culture of productivity that emerges from the demands of a busy world also impacts on all facets of our personal lives and it is not for the better. We have forgotten how to be still, reflect and take the time to make good decisions. Self-awareness, personal development and good decision making do not come from being ‘busy’ and (seemingly) ‘productive.’ They come from slow and deliberate reflective thought. According to […]
Get shit done: the secret story of “urgent”
Do you ever use the little “urgent” flag in your email? Do other people send you emails marked urgent? Do you go to urgent meetings? They’re a rude interruption, aren’t they. And when you read those emails and go to those meetings, are they actually urgent? Let me tell you a little secret. The word “urgent” really means, “I failed”. I’ll explain… Every action in business fits into one of four categories: [unordered_list animation=’no_animation’] [unordered_list_item style=’element_icon’ title=’Low importance, low urgency’ number=” number_color=” icon=’flame’ icon_color=’red’] Do them later [/unordered_list_item] [unordered_list_item style=’element_icon’ title=’Low importance, high urgency’ number=” number_color=” icon=’flame’ icon_color=’red’] Delegate them to be done now [/unordered_list_item] [unordered_list_item style=’element_icon’ title=’High importance, low urgency’ number=” number_color=” icon=’flame’ icon_color=’red’] Work on them now so they’re not urgent later [/unordered_list_item] [unordered_list_item style=’element_icon’ title=’High importance, high urgency’ number=” number_color=” icon=’flame’ icon_color=’red’] Stop everything, do them now [/unordered_list_item] [/unordered_list] Think about this while I discuss the value of things over time. Software engineers will tell you that changes made to new software at the end of the project cost six times as much as changes made in the planning stage. Your travel agent will tell you that flying now is more expensive than flying later – […]
Ask not of others – demanding of others what you demand of yourself
Responsibility comes from two words, ‘response’ and ‘ability’ and is, in a literal sense, your ability to respond. Think about what happens if you are unable to respond to a need – a need in yourself or a need in others. It makes you feel resentful, bitter, maybe spiteful and gives you a jaundiced view. That’s the feeling of powerlessness. So, not taking responsibility makes us feel powerless. Then, it must follow, that taking responsibility – creating ourselves in the context of responsibility – makes us feel powerful. It makes us able to see our part in the outcome of whatever we’re working towards. It makes us stronger. It also must follow that shirking responsibility – by finding blame, making excuses or being in denial – makes us weaker. And that takes us back to the resentfulness and bitterness of two paragraphs ago. [blockquote width=’100′] “But I can’t be responsible for all the things!” I hear you say. [/blockquote] Yes, you can. If you’ve read my post, Responsibility – putting the ‘I’ in accountability you’ll know that you can be responsible for something without being the person who performs the task that you’re responsible for. Once you free yourself from […]
In BED with accountability
In BED with accountability – how being above the line makes you happier and more effective I had to tell one of my colleagues to get out of BED the other day. When you finish reading you’ll probably realise that some of your people need to get out of bed too. ORA BED is a term we use in our business to remind people how to be assertive and take control of their destiny. You read it down the page, like this: Ownership Responsibility Accountability ——————————————————— Blame Excuses Denial If our behaviour is above the line we are being assertive, own our futures and probably feel free and have peace of mind. It also makes us fairly easy to work with, and people who get things done. If our behaviour is below the line, we are behaving like victims – the kind of person that things happen to. We become trapped by blame, denial and excuses, and give up control. And that’s when we feel powerless and become resentful or angry. It makes us aggressive, passive aggressive, or passive. Above all, it makes us miserable! Here’s how to spot the negative behaviours. [bullet_block style=”size-16″ small_icon=”20.png” width=”” alignment=”center”] […]
Design for success – structures for accountability
Do you ever feel like work is a battle of wills – with your will pitched against everyone else’s? Do you have to be constantly vigilant, just to maintain the same standards? Would you prefer to be putting that energy into improving standards, rather than just maintaining them? When businesses rely on the quality of their goods for their success – businesses like automobile manufacturers, medical manufacturers and aerospace – they use sophisticated quality systems to define the design and the manufacturing standards for their products. Then they design systems to consistently manufacture to those standards – validated processes that they know will work, time after time. It’s called Quality Assurance and it assures that the minimum level of quality is always met. It’s only in areas where systems can’t assure the quality of the output that these business resort to quality controls – where they check the outputs to make sure they are up to scratch. If you feel like work is a battle of wills, then you are probably doing too much quality control in your organisation and not enough quality assurance. George T Doran, writing in the 1980s, said your requests need to be SMART, like this: […]