30 Minutes Worth of TED Talks

June 10, 20131 Comment

What’s The Purpose of Climbing The Ladder? (c) R Dennison June 2013

I haven’t looked at the Youtube TED site for a good long while. I have missed out on some good content as a result. If you have 30 minutes to spare here are some recommendations.

Having mentioned Leadership recently I was spurred on to see what talks might help when thinking about pursuing leadership opportunities, while climbing the career ladder. Funnily enough, the first talk I came across questioned the wisdom of making the climb an actual goal.

Adam Leipzig’s talk centres on the notion of finding fulfilment in pursuing one’s life purpose. One’s purpose might not involve rising rung by rung. He presents the process of identifying purpose as a five step exercise. It takes about five minutes to complete the exercise from start to finish. Here’s the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVsXO9brK7M

While you are TED focused you might also want to invest around 25 minutes in viewing Patti Dobrowolski’s talk on Drawing Your Future, and Ryerson University’s Dr Ivan Joseph’s Self Confidence presentation.

Good luck.

Follow The Leader?

June 10, 2013Leave a comment

Leadership Display (c) R Dennison June 2013

Let’s assume you have an organised approach to planning your life and you are pretty content with things at the moment. You have a happy home life. You are good at your job. Family and friends sustain you. What could be the only cloud on your horizon during the working week? How about the attitude your boss displays towards you?

The Work section of the Guardian newspaper regularly features descriptions of bosses who aren’t effective leaders. They aren’t helping to solve problems, since they are busy creating them. Here’s an example.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/work-blog/2013/jun/07/how-delegate-responsibility-remain-successful

Others are reported to be less than effective as they are: leaving new recruits to fend for themselves; stringing staff along in periods of restructuring; and in one recent example, oversharing details of an individual’s personal life after being asked not to

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/work-blog/2013/may/31/how-stop-boss-mentioning-sexuality#start-of-comments

It seems that there is a real gap into which development opportunities could fit. Those opportunities would help people-managers become more competent leaders and more confident in delivering better results through people.

His or her goal could be as simple as, ‘Listening carefully to what colleagues want and, where possible, helping them achieve good results afterwards’.

Perhaps a degree of empathy would also help. If the boss was to ask herself, ‘what does my leadership style feel like to my staff?’ they might be able to fine tune it to better effect. Here’s an interesting reflection on the role of empathy in the workplace from the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20257373

The relationship a leader has with colleagues isn’t like the one with family, or friends. However fine tuning the relationship by: listening carefully; supporting consistently; and being more self-aware, it can still be a respectful and productive one.

Chairing Discussions Is Easy, Right?

June 9, 2013June 9, 2013Leave a comment

Is Chairing Easy? (c) R Dennison June 2013

Although I don’t always get it right, I have learned a lot about chairing discussions and meetings over time. My main learning, through bitter experience, is that people will sometimes want to focus on their pet themes, whatever the stated agenda.

Things have usually gone well, as long as I have made clear at the outset that the conversation is going to:

– create space for attendees to raise their views

– involve attendees listening respectfully to other views

– achieve an outcome in which some constructive conclusions emerge

As I say I have learned how (mostly) to get positive results in meetings by trial and error. It is a revelation that even veteran moderators like Andrew Neil can have a hard time of it.

Mr Neil led a discussion this morning – within the BBC programme, The Sunday Politics – about the Bilderberg Group meeting in London. His guests were US commentator Alex Jones and British journalist David Aaronovitch. See what you think about the effectiveness of the communication about the topic, after watching this segment

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22832994

However did they get Mr Jones to leave the studio I wonder?

Spuds you like?

June 2, 2013Leave a comment

Spuds you like? (c) R Dennison June 2013

Fate is cruel. Potatoes are vegetables, however chips do not count as one of the recommended daily allowance of five portions of fruit, or veg, we are meant to consume.

Salford council has taken a step toward mandating healthy eating for their residents by outlawing the sale of chips, from new outlets, before 5pm. They are consulting on whether those items should only be available within 400 metres of a school after that watershed. I suspect there is a tension between healthy eating policy aims and hungry youth. Fast food retailers must be holding their breath too.

There may be trouble ahead.

Sale of takeaway foods for children before 5pm could be banned under new proposals (itv.com)

Thin Blue Line

June 2, 2013Leave a comment

Police Line (c) R Dennison June 2013

Job satisfaction is important for most people, whether that is happiness for 40 hours a week, or during their shifts spread over a nine day fortnight. If one’s goal is job satisfaction and that goal has been attained the world is a sunnier place. Perhaps one might even say customers are satisfied interacting with happy workers, who in turn are able to enjoy life outside work.

Many people are not that lucky in their work. According to its website there will be more than 31,000 officers and recruits in the Metropolitan Police Service in 2013/14. From the customers’ perspective their mission to deliver Total Policing surely depends, in part, on job satisfaction and on all of the staff respecting the public and each other.

An easy milestone to reach would be ensuring the organisational culture support a goal in which ‘colleagues respect one another’. Kevin Maxwell’s situation suggests there is still some distance to go before that milestone is reached.

The former detective has been successful in pursuing Employment Tribunal cases against the Met, after raising concerns having experienced some colleagues’ racist and homophobic behaviour.

I guess large institutions contain diverse views and there are management challenges involved in establishing a basic set of acceptable language standards.

It may seem a small detail, given the hugely challenging operational agenda the Met delivers. Yet getting the details right may make organisational cohesion and corporate delivery a little easier in the long run.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/may/17/kevin-maxwell-gay-black-police-officer-hounded-out

Scotland Yard Found Guilty of Discriminating Against Kevin Maxwell, a Gay, Black Officer (goodblacknews.org)

Jobs for the Boys

May 18, 2013Leave a comment

Gettting An Interview (c) R Dennison 2013

Last month I wrote about Ben Drew’s Each One Teach One initiative. This is a charitable trust which intends to Fund inspiring projects to help young people to build their skills and in turn improve their lives and link up youth provision, so their journey makes more sense.

It seems to me these organisational goals make a lot of sense, for young people on the starting blocks and ready to compete.

As the BBC’s Panorama programme ‘Jobs for the Boys’ showed recently there are some young people for whom the challenge is getting to the start line in the first place.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t14n

The programme, which was presented by ex-Arsenal footballer Sol Campbell, looked at the disproportionately high impact of unemployment on young black men. Apparently the rate of unemployment for young black men is roughly twice that of their white counterparts.

This sounds like there is an extra bit of thinking involved in asking young black men the three classic goal-related questions:

– What do you want to achieve?

– When do you want to achieve it?

– What is the first step in that direction?

The extra question, to explore in some depth, could be: What challenges could you face in reaching your goal?

Those challenges could be internal (self -esteem related) or external (trying to succeed in a harsh employment climate). Either way, if the goal is ‘to be successful at a job interview’ then there may be challenges ahead.

One key ingredient could be culturally informed action and support, to foster the sense of self-esteem of young black men, where that is the principle barrier to success.

Certainly the Department for Work and Pensions and their partners working directly with unemployed people have their work cut out addressing this issue.

Good luck as well to organisations like the Black Training and Enterprise Group (www.bteg.co.uk ). This non-profit, led by Jeremy Crook, is active in addressing the backdrop, against which disadvantage arises.

Fingers crossed that in a decade young black men will be much less likely to be unemployed. With the successful intervention of positively motivated groups and individuals they may just be achieving their goals more easily.

Another Thought About Bullying

May 11, 2013Leave a comment

A Glass Broken (c) R Dennison 2013

I posted on the subject of bullying recently and co-incidentally the Guardian has just featured the topic too. Their timely illustration (of the impact of workplace bullying) appears in the work advice section. A reader’s letter recounts the difficulties linked to working with someone whose behaviour sometimes involves bullying.

Most people would recognise that typically the atmosphere in the workplace can combine both positives (interesting tasks) and negatives (challenging people). Most people accept that sometimes their job can seem like the proverbial half-empty glass.

The Guardian’s advice-seeker has spent time trying to talk to a supervisor who can tackle the bullying issue. The supervisor hasn’t grasped the situation successfully. For the correspondent their glass is not half empty. It is actually broken.

Reading between the lines the correspondent seems to have a narrow set of options. Option one, they put up with the situation (more unhappiness for them and for the bully). Option two, they start looking actively for other jobs they could be doing.

There is a crying need, I think, for coaching support to be made available to managers on this topic. Bullying makes workplaces unproductive, creates stress and wastes time. Managerial support would equip supervisors with the empathy, people skills and confidence to sense bullying is occurring, intervene firmly to end it and leave a climate of zero-tolerance afterward. Hopefully this kind of learning is going to become commonplace in future and bully-friendly environments a thing of the past.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/work-blog/2013/may/10/how-deal-with-nightmarish-colleague

Two Wheels Good – Four Wheels Better

May 10, 2013Leave a comment

Inspiration (c) R Dennison 2013

Having noted that Sir Alex has now announced his retirement from Manchester United, I should point Sir Chris Hoy beat him to the retirement arena by a few days. However Sir Chris, at 37 years of age, is actually changing gears in career terms.

As the Daily Telegraph coverage confirms Sir Chris is leaving the world of cycling to pursue a goal in the world of motor sport, courtesy of the SR1 circuit for novice drivers. Speaking about the inspiration to pursue this new challenge, he has said:

“I love cars, I love racing bikes, I’ve still got that competitive instinct even though I’ve retired from racing bikes, and I’ve driven on circuits for a number of years now, just on track days, so to combine the two and to have a little bit of fun… it’s just a great chance for me,”

It is great too that he has identified what is important – competition plus fun – and transferred the same confidence he brought to the velodrome to the racing circuit. That calculation suggests that his goal is clear, and the steps he will be taking to move toward what he wants are equally certain. I would put money on him being successful in his new field too, given time.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/motoringvideo/10034436/Sir-Chris-Hoys-debut-season-in-motorsport.html

Sir Alex Knows What He Wants

May 10, 2013Leave a comment

Alex Ferguson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sir Alex Ferguson is clear about what he wants in his retirement. He sounds like a man who understands what is really important about taking this decision at this time. He sounds at peace with his life as a result. In his statement he says:

“The decision to retire is one that I have thought a great deal about and one that I have not taken lightly. It is the right time. It was important to me to leave an organisation in the strongest possible shape and I believe I have done so…I am delighted to take on the roles of both director and ambassador for the club. With these activities, along with my many other interests, I am looking forward to the future”.

I like that he is looking forward to the next chapter of his life. Good luck to him.

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Category: Uncategorized

30 Minutes Worth of TED Talks

Follow The Leader?

Chairing Discussions Is Easy, Right?

Spuds you like?

Thin Blue Line

Jobs for the Boys

Another Thought About Bullying

Two Wheels Good – Four Wheels Better

Sir Alex Knows What He Wants

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