tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56268297729187843342023-11-16T11:12:50.864+00:00mentoring Mullarkeyseriously good ideas in professional development on a not so serious blogmullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-15719037634739969422011-08-01T12:50:00.003+01:002011-08-01T12:50:17.712+01:00Farewell and Welcome!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">We have moved!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">If you are looking for the latest update from my blog I have
migrated over to Wordpress for the foreseeable future – nothing personal
against Blogger, just wanted to see how the other half live for a while.</span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So come check out our new home with the same same funny and
relevant information for HR and L&D practitioners alike:</span></div>
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</span><br />
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<a href="http://mentoringmullarkey.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">http://mentoringmullarkey.com</span></a></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So it is farewell to Blogger but welcome to Wordpress. See you there soon!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Patrick</span></div>
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mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-33004152994555477522011-07-06T12:46:00.001+01:002011-07-06T21:28:59.372+01:00What Steve Martin could teach us all about presenting training<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Steve_Martin_2.jpg" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Facing large </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audience" title="Audience"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><span style="color: blue;">audiences</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> on your own, with no place to hide... trying to get their attention when they were wishing they were somewhere else... wondering if there is an agent in the audience who might be able to get you booked on to the </span><a href="http://www.myspace.com/everything/the-graham-norton-show" title="The Graham Norton Show"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><span style="color: blue;">Graham Norton show</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> as the C-list act next to </span><a href="http://www.myspace.com/tomjones" title="Tom Jones (singer)"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><span style="color: blue;">Tom Jones</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> and that guy from </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_%28TV_series%29" title="Sherlock (TV series)"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><span style="color: blue;">Sherlock</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span><br />
<a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Steve_Martin_2.jpg" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Steve_Martin_2.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><div style="text-align: right;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Steve_Martin_2.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Steve Martin" height="464" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/Steve_Martin_2.jpg/300px-Steve_Martin_2.jpg" style="border: currentColor; font-size: 0.8em;" width="300" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Steve_Martin_2.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Steve stretching his act</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Ok, so </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand-up_comedy" title="Stand-up comedy"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><span style="color: blue;">stand up comedy</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> and presenting on training courses do not necessarily share all of the same traits and pitfalls – and, despite your best efforts, it is unlikely you will end up on prime time Friday TV for your groundbreaking application of Kolb’s Learning Theory you did in a seminar last week (though I would love to see you prove me wrong!).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">But I was struck when reading </span><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/steve_martin" title="Steve Martin"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><span style="color: blue;">Steve Martin</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">’s </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Born-Standing-Up-Comics-Life/dp/1416553649%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzemanta-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D1416553649" title="Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><span style="color: blue;">Born Standing Up</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> about some of the similarities between the two fields, as well as some of the things that we could apply when presenting in front of audiences. So with this in mind here are three quotes from the book that I think are food for thought for any other L and D professionals (I use the term </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> “professional” loosely in my case):<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<u><em><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">"Despite a lack of natural ability, I did have the one element necessary to all early creativity: </span></em><em><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">naivete...</span></em><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> that fabulous quality that keeps you from knowing just how unsuited you are for what you are about to do".</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> </span></u><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">I think if we all knew how poorly we were to perform the first time we presented in a new setting, covered a brand new topic or subject we might become paralysed with fear. Rather than let that over take you just accept it as part of the process - you have to start somewhere so why not right here, right now? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">If you are going to take on a new skill or approach you will be racked with doubts – ‘Does this make sense? Am I making progress? Will anyone actually care about the end result?’ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Embrace the uncertainty as part of the learning process – after taking part in it you will be better informed about what works and what needs tinkering in future instances.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">They say the best place to get run over is in the middle of the road, so don't be afraid to get out there to places where your experience makes you naive and make you have to apply what you have been learning. A litmus test of your experiences is no bad thing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also bear in mind that if it is the first time no one will have seen it before to draw a comparison and what are the changes of someone going on the same course twice that you will lead on? Even if they do you will be better prepared for when it occurs, so look forward to that returning client not as a critic to fear but a partner in your development process.</span><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><u>"(I) never let them know I was bombing... make the audience believe that I thought I was fantastic, that my confidence could not be shattered"</u></span></em><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">This, if mishandled, could come off as being really insincere if you go over the top. However, people need to buy in to you and that you are confident in what you are presenting. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">At the same time this can reinforce your own confidence – as Prop Joe said in the Wire when asked why he was wearing a suit when coaching the East side during the West-East Basketball game, his reply was “Look the part, be the part” (with a couple expletives thrown in to boot).</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">In terms of leading courses and presenting in general remember: no one has seen the rehearsal, no one knows about the great one liner you forgot to include - so no need to draw any attention to it.</span><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><u>"In psychoanalysis, you try to retain a discovery; in art, once the thing is made you let it go."</u></span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">This is not one of Martin’s quotes but came from a conversation in the book with, as you might have already guessed, a pschoanalysist. </span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">I have included it here as I think it is important to remember at some point you need to let yourself go with the flow of critiques and criticism that might come your way. Keep in mind anything that does is a review about one point in time of your skills - it is not a permanent condition, use it as a means to move forward.</span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">It worked for Steve!<o:p></o:p></span></em></div><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=be2984ea-d30f-45cd-b8b6-5b14be9fd69e" style="border: currentColor; float: right;" /></a></div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-88831097876652976382011-06-27T13:01:00.000+01:002011-06-27T13:01:05.602+01:00CIPD Centre's Conference 2011: Keele's Most Thought Provoking Quotes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I came back from <a class="zem_slink" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=53.0044,-2.2871&spn=0.1,0.1&q=53.0044,-2.2871 (Keele)&t=h" rel="geolocation" title="Keele">Keele</a> and the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.cipd.co.uk/" rel="homepage" title="Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development">CIPD</a>'s 2011 <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_league_positions" rel="wikipedia" title="Rugby league positions">Centre</a>'s Conference at the end of last week. I had never been to a CIPD conference, or Keele for that matter, so it was something new in terms of travel and professional experiences from the off.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EnglandStaffordshire.svg" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Staffordshire Moorlands (UK Parliament constit..." height="247" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/EnglandStaffordshire.svg/200px-EnglandStaffordshire.svg.png" style="border: currentColor; font-size: 0.8em;" width="200" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EnglandStaffordshire.svg">Wikipedia</a></span></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Keele - a recent CIPD hotspot. Literally!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Georgia;">It also have some really interesting seminars and lectures for everyone present, a lot of it having to do with application of CIPD assessments for students and <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecturer" rel="wikipedia" title="Lecturer">lecturers</a> alike, with my interest being on the intermediate level information.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">There was also a lot of talk about the HR Professional Map from the CIPD. And when I mean a lot of talk I mean a tsunami of feedback on it - not all positive but at least the CIPD were willing to consult and take it on board, no? (cue furrowed brows and shakes of the head from my audience)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Anyway, overall I enjoyed the sessions at the conference and there were some speakers who really got me going to scribble down what they were saying at different points. So here are my most thought provoking quotes from the sessions I attended - apologies in advance to the speakers if it is not verbatim, my mind and writing was playing catch up with all the good stuff you were saying :) :</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">"Getting learners to act as creators and co-creators of new sources of information is proving key... it generates artefacts which benefit their own learning, as well as being of use to their peers who follow in footsteps"</span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Dr Keith Smyth, Edinburgh Napier University</span></em><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">"How you leverage entrepreneurship in your staff and organisation and engage with it is key in the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_economy" rel="wikipedia" title="Knowledge economy">knowledge economy</a> we live in... this spirit is a move away from the 'policy hugging' that can be seen in HR, but sometimes you need to step up, make a judgement call on an idea and see where it takes you"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em>Perry Timms, </em><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Lottery_Fund" rel="wikipedia" title="Big Lottery Fund"><em>Big Lottery Fund</em></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">"Previously you would provide students with the information, set out the format, ask them to go away and learn it. Now we can see them coming forward much more as co-creators, having a hand in driving the process - what does this mean as our role as educators?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em>Julia Fotheringham, Edinburgh Napier University</em></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">"Patrick! What are you doing here?!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em>My former (and slightly surprised) CIPD lecturer from </em><a class="zem_slink" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.3735,-0.095&spn=0.01,0.01&q=51.3735,-0.095 (Croydon%20College)&t=h" rel="geolocation" title="Croydon College"><em>Croydon College</em></a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">My lecturer's quote aside, the others came from seminars that had a social media spin to a lot of their content. I am not sure what that might say about either the conference content or my mindset in terms of what I found interesting but maybe a sign of some of the L and D avenues that are growth areas, or a flash in the pan? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Either way hope they were as thought provoking as I suggested!</span><br />
<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=444b4555-5c60-4e4a-94ad-d2ced82cdfbc" style="border: currentColor; float: right;" /></a></div></div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-11248477361744425502011-05-16T12:33:00.003+01:002011-05-16T18:58:46.908+01:00How to make sure starting a new role is a success<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong><em>How to ensure you exit an organisation well? Work hard, tie up your loose ends and, most importantly, make sure of a soft landing wherever it is you are going next</em></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So you have worked hard in a role and exhausted the development opportunities it has provided. You have now found that next step up in what is a crazy recruitment market and are looking ahead to that next position whilst looking to clear out your in tray. Is it time to put you feet up and relax as your last day in your current role approaches, planning your leaving party in between? Not quite.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Being someone who is about to move roles, I understand the wish to take it easy after having jumping through the hoops of a recruitment process – it is a ‘buyers’ market out there, so you are certainly due credit. However, the truth is that this was most probably the easy bit and the part that needs some real graft is how you make a success of your initial introduction in to a new role.</span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">With this in mind I have been taking advice from colleagues and peers about how to plan a start in my new role and the famed 100 day plan that people talk about so often (the mega mind theory and all that does come in handy for instances like this). Here are 3 common suggestions that came up from more than once:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong><u><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span>Culture – process or person driven?</u></strong></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Ah culture. Not always concrete and not necessarily having a uniform set of criteria that you can transfer from one place to the next (‘They have a vending machine here I see – but what conclusions can I draw from the fact they have Twix but no mars bars? Let me just get my employer culture scorebook out for a moment…’) but you know it exists. And you need to get a sense of what it is about, and fast, to get going when you arrive in post. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Do people get things done by following the correct process or is it about knowing who can move that task that is stuck in the mire by a couple of quick conversations with key individuals? Or maybe people look for means to get more from processes and procedures over an entrepreneurial spirit? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This is not to say that one approach is better than the over but you need to be aware of which is in place where you are going otherwise you might be swimming against the (cultural) tide.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong><u><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span>Even Superheroes have double identities</u></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Batman does crazy stuff in his evenings but during his 9-5 Bruce Wayne was going by the title of millionaire rather than superhero. He can fill both roles but you might not realise it on first sight. Tying in with the cultural aspect above, if it is the case that you can get things done by speaking to the right person at the right time; you need to find out who is Batman on the quiet. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Ditch any pre-conceptions about hierarchy or job titles. Sure the Director might have the authority to sign off on what you need cleared but you might be way down on their list of priorities. However that Office Manager who has worked at the company for 25 years might know of a little known alternative route to get the job done.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So you have found a solution to the immediate problem as well as building bridges with a key contact. To top if off you have not had to bother the Director in the first instance – so they can get on with out having you pester them with something that can be delegated. I bet Batman wishes people did this more often, he could probably give Alfred the weekend off if it were the case.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><u><strong>3. 3 is the magic number</strong></u></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">You are going to meet a bunch of people in those first couple of weeks </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">and, aside from learning what they are about in keeping with the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">above, you want them to get a sense of what you are about as well.</span><br />
<u><br />
</u><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">If there were 3 things that you wanted them to know about you or your career to date? It might start to prompt some personal ice breakers with your new colleagues ('You were a stunt double for Ralph Machio in the Karate Kid? Me too!') as well as give them a sense of what your strengths are from your professional experience to date.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It also might make it easier to ask for help (which you will need in those first few weeks) if people know you are new to an aspect of your role/ the industry the employer is based in/organisational culture etc. So remember it is good to talk - not too much mind, you dont want to be labelled a chatterbox!</span><br />
<u><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Not exhaustive but hopefully some useful ideas to get you going - think I have missed something glaring out? Get involved via the comments below!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">p.s. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">And always, always, always remember...</span></strong><br />
<u><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Because if - despite everyone's best efforts - the above tips do not work and things go very Apocalypse Now down the river, you might have to get in touch with them again. Fingers crossed you do not have to but it is nice to be nice - so be grateful because that is being nice!</span><br />
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<u><br />
</u></div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-50591091348609451122011-05-11T16:57:00.013+01:002011-05-14T11:26:45.275+01:00If HR did dance movements…<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Yes it is the carnival time once again, arribaaaa!!!!!!!!! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Excuse me but this is a carnival of HR if you don’t mind, so please calm down before we proceed. For this months theme we have been asked to think about how organisations or people are represented or influenced by different styles of dance.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">('Carnival of what?!' I hear you cry - Carnival of HR. For more details <a href="http://carnivalofhr.com/">check this out</a>)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It made me think of how most dances are pretty structured in that there might be certain moves that you need</span> <span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">to include, which seems to be especially the case in ballroom dancing (I never thought I would say it but thank you to Strictly Come Dancing for providing an education in this regard). On the other hand you have the likes of break dancing which are very abstract and much more off the cuff.</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">However, racking my brain for what to come up with for the carnival I felt that in the cases of the examples above they were either to restrictive or too abstract to be representative of the work HR professionals have to undertake. For example, one would not expect a dancer to win plaudits in a ballroom competition from ceasing a fox trot to start spinning on their head as it would not match up - though I am sure we would all love to see what Craig and Len made of that (US readers this is another Strictly reference - last one I promise).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Yet in HR you are expected to take on roles which create amusing contradictions and often put us in these difficult situations. We are the people employees turn to when they have a problem whilst at the same time acting as a wing of management and progressing the interests of the organisation. It is expected that we take on both a strategic and operational function.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">We coach and help staff look for means of improvement and development opportunities, yet also get involved with representing/acting as an authority or adjudicator when people have not met the standards expected of them - such as instances of disciplinary and grievance, performance management cases and so on.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">You might be reading this and thinking ‘What is he talking about? That is not my reality of HR!’ and you would be correct – I have no idea what your experience in the field is and how that contrasts with mine, either as a custome of HR or participant in the industry. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This, in some ways, proves my point – HR is, to go back to our carnival premise, a circus with a very big tent and one in which we all bring our own definitions and expectations of what the function should do and how its place in the organisation.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A combination of the abstract and the logical; a function that is able to provide an approachable and human element to what it does, whilst being a source of legislative, procedural and strategic information on which an organisation can depend. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">How best to represent this in a dance? I think this guys version of the robot does it the most justice </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><div style="border: currentColor;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Disagree that this is representative of HR? I would love to hear your thoughts – in the interim I hope you enjoy the video!</span></span></div></div></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">(NB – forget the two guys dancing at the beginning – it is when the orange jumper starts moving that the real fun starts)</span><br />
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</div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-90130595224566362552011-05-04T21:00:00.000+01:002011-05-04T21:00:14.902+01:00How to use social media more effectively in 10 minutes, one month, or a lifetime<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Does social media sometimes make as much sense to your work life as this pavement did to me when I walked by it -</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> it looks all very exciting but you don’t have an idea about to apply/use the information at your disposal?</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgER-Rg7aVIkLMa1_MTmZwiEIbaSSwohI5g8gQafqkwx1pC5WCWQqRKMYDEdueBkW5RJ7h7pOp2C_vNVM88kaadi5qpYo2cGoudRYhxVdV4RDYHm-TK431ifa1LthgrWTSBNtOyXeasBSo/s1600/Image0248.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgER-Rg7aVIkLMa1_MTmZwiEIbaSSwohI5g8gQafqkwx1pC5WCWQqRKMYDEdueBkW5RJ7h7pOp2C_vNVM88kaadi5qpYo2cGoudRYhxVdV4RDYHm-TK431ifa1LthgrWTSBNtOyXeasBSo/s320/Image0248.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even Einstein would need help in this game of hop skotch</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Well here are three suggestions to make you a better informed HR/L and D professional when it comes to using social media that take either ten minutes, a month or a life time. Happy learning and remember - like the booklet below says, just because it is social does not have to make it casual.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">(NB Got better suggestions? I would love to hear from you so we can spread the wealth! Please feel free to email/comment at the bottom of this post)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><strong><u>In 10 minutes</u></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Order and then read <a href="http://www.reedlearning.co.uk/page/the-little-book-of-the-future-jh">‘The Little Book of The Future – A Guide to Collaborative Learning’</a> from Reed. It is very small and really should take no longer than 15 minutes to read if you get distracted – though with this little book of tips and suggestions I cannot imagine that hap- oh check out that pretty butterfly…</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Anyways, where was I? It is a little booklet of tips and suggestions of using different elements of social media, from using Twitter to the top 10 online learning tools. I should mention that some people who provide suggestions are pushing their own agenda (did not want you to get a shock when you realised the column on the benefits of Linkedin was written by their PR Manager) but I don’t let this put you off – it’s a great freebie that is small enough to be digestible without being lightweight.</span><br />
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</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><strong><u>In one month</u></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I have banged on about this book in a variety of different contexts on posts on here but when ever I feel flush out of ideas for this site or feel I am losing interest in the possibilities of social media I reach for Gary Veynerchuk’s ‘Crush It’.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I won’t bore you with a potted history of Gary V, Winelibrary and his other ventures, you can find him everywhere online. Needless to say he is not in the field of L and D or HR but I think you can take inspiration from his ideas and apply them to most areas of your work to come up with new approaches and solutions. He can be a little rough around the edges for some (i.e. he swears now and again) but I find his authenticity and honesty appealing (i.e. I have been known to swear now and again) and his enthusiasm is very contagious. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">In short, a fun read that can help give you some new ideas and it is pretty short at 142 pages, so a month might even be stretching it – Go on, I can feel your curiosity getting the better of you already! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">(Looking for something with less of a social media focus? Perhaps Seth Godin’s ‘Lychpin’ or ‘Rework’ by Jason Fried and David Hansson – more about, you guessed it, how you work and what you do. Some social media stuff but that’s not their focus necessarily)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><strong><u>In a lifetime</u></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Learning never stops and social media can be a great platform to make sure this is the case. So here are some suggestions for great sites that I use in my spare time for either professional or personal development:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">- TED </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">‘Ideas Worth Spreading’.With a tag line like that does it even need any further introduction?! Listen/watch podcasts = you feeling smarter and better informed: <a href="http://www.ted.com/">http://www.ted.com/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
- </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Open Culture </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Just discovered this recently, seems to have crazy potential as a personal learning tool given the quality of some of the lectures and resources they have on here in the form of podcasts, ebooks, free courses etc. Have a look and see what catches your eye: <a href="http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses">http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
- </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Stumbleupon</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I found this a few weeks ago and tweeted that it was ‘the social media equivalent of cave man discovering fire’. This requires some input on your part so it has an idea of what is to your taste but once it does it provides a world of sites, blogs, videos, podcasts on whatever you are interested in. I view it as my psychic Google – it finds stuff relevant to what I do before I realise it mighty be of interest.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Overblown? Maybe – check it out for yourself to decide: </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/">http://www.stumbleupon.com/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">(Don’t fancy this? There are other similar sites - try <a href="http://alltop.com/">alltop.com</a> for a start)</span><br />
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</div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-3518176198899874432011-04-27T12:31:00.000+01:002011-04-27T12:31:30.591+01:00Be funny about HR/L&D = you winning cake. That simple.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN2TU1eWGsyKG33Z0R_J8mAbgFoJkn32L3khI_SJ8gNFyM3Q_6qSjpDPJAvezi_b2tyGoKRrSwaIMQT-FTKnSlLX8yPJL7XRJzIl_aJXq2LuZqrelfzpc0LX4fYy49ooyG5cDYku-2oLM/s1600/Cake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240px" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN2TU1eWGsyKG33Z0R_J8mAbgFoJkn32L3khI_SJ8gNFyM3Q_6qSjpDPJAvezi_b2tyGoKRrSwaIMQT-FTKnSlLX8yPJL7XRJzIl_aJXq2LuZqrelfzpc0LX4fYy49ooyG5cDYku-2oLM/s320/Cake.jpg" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I tried convincing myself there is one of my five a day in here. It worked.</td></tr>
</tbody></table> <br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I over indulged at the weekend – I hammered through everything in the photo above (with a little help but not as much I would have liked!) and needless to say felt all the worse afterwards.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">To try and avoid the temptation of such gluttony again I am going to use this image as motivation but need a suitable phrase/set of words to make it memorable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">If anyone can come up with a caption related to HR, Learning and Development, mentoring or personal development that is witty and relevant to this photo please post a comment or email with your suggestion. Best entry wins – yep, you guessed it – the cake/savoury snack of your choice from the photo delivered to your place of work.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">(NB To avoid people meeting the same fate as myself the winning entry will only be allowed one of the three on display – trust me you will not feel better afterwards if you eat anything more than that)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Closing date for entries is 16.00 (GMT) on Wednesday 4th May. Look forward to some sweet entries!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A pun too far? Now that’s blogging gluttony in action for you</span><br />
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</span></div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-16736174375979755142011-04-15T12:53:00.000+01:002011-04-15T12:53:39.249+01:00Safe at Home - Part 2!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I talked on my last post (check out <a href="http://mentoringmullarkey.blogspot.com/">'Safe at Home'</a>) about the value of making an effort to communicate more readily with the customers/client groups you are meant to be serving and thought this was a great example I saw at Canada Water recently.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkt3ZFXZlmabbPBIjDgXncN_jU6A-yA6WUhyphenhyphencxAl7HKy9s3FPVuU_-1Blwzj8Lk1fHtv47EBGWxhSGRPyHQ-Pj17tCFv01HLVjld3kSlTkwlzL5VWkS6_k65SGes-Sf5slJZzQ-EY2rPM/s1600/TFL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkt3ZFXZlmabbPBIjDgXncN_jU6A-yA6WUhyphenhyphencxAl7HKy9s3FPVuU_-1Blwzj8Lk1fHtv47EBGWxhSGRPyHQ-Pj17tCFv01HLVjld3kSlTkwlzL5VWkS6_k65SGes-Sf5slJZzQ-EY2rPM/s320/TFL.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add caption</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This was a ‘Meet the Manager’ day on the platform, with the station manager promoting the extensions that are due to take place in the London Overground when it moves to its full ‘orbital’ capacity. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Being on the platform rather than by the barriers where people are coming and going helped I think encourage people to take time to fire a question at the manager – if you have nothing better to do than read the Evening Standard why not? (or alternatively like me you could take photos of people. This is not some voyeuristic notion I make a habit of I should add!)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Some might also argue it is the only place to grab the staff to ask them questions about service, good or otherwise – no snow to report in the area this day, so the queries were not too pressing I think.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">In saying this the lady in the photo was being run through how the new extension of the London Overground will work to take in the ‘Orbital’ format which will then take on areas such as Clapham Junction to the same lines as Honor Oak Park, Highbury and Islington, Whitechapel and beyond.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">In the conversation I overheard (in a non-voyeuristic sort of way of course!) the manager ran her through the time lines for the extension, how the route works, possible journey times etc. A lot of is was broached with a lot of language such as ‘expected’ and ‘approximately’ (especially with the train times) but it was all pretty informative stuff for the passenger, who was able to get a vision of what their route would look like in the future.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It showed a willingness to engage, communicate and reassure the customer about the changes that are afoot. It also showed that this manager was taking a bit of pride in the info they were giving - though they might have been asked to do it, they were not giving a performance which made it seem forced.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The point is that it shows a little bit of pride in promoting the message and preparing people for changes ahead – sound familiar to anyone HR/L and D professionals out there?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">‘That’s great – but it was only one person’ I hear the cynics at the back cry. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">True - but it does show a mindset that is a bit more on the front foot in terms of promoting their message, not just to the passenger concerned in this instance but also to the others on the platform. You never know – one of those passengers might be motivated to write a blog post about it. Suddenly you find a third party is promoting the merits of the scheme for you.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">As if that would happen – wait hang on…</span><br />
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</div></div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-17689051097705875562011-03-28T13:07:00.000+01:002011-03-28T13:07:59.094+01:00Safe at Home<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><em><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> My latest post is a little different this week in that the subject matter has been inspired by the Carnival of HR that some of you might be aware of by the sterling work that Evil HR Lady and her HR Minion do on behalf of it.</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></em><br />
<em><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></em><br />
<em sizcache="7079" sizset="0"><span sizcache="7079" sizset="0" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For the current carnival HR bloggers were given a suggested post title and were then asked to come up with something, the title this time being ‘Safe at Home’. Below is what came to mind for me – hope you enjoy! </span></em><br />
<em><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></em><br />
<em><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(NB Want to find more details out about the Carnival of HR, Evil HR Lady and HR Minion? Find them on Twitter for more useful HR debate, insight and just all round good stuff: @HR_Minion @realevilhrlady)</span></strong></em><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The post title immediately made me think of a Question of Sport. For those not in the UK it is a long running quiz show with the following format: two teams of sports (retired, current or otherwise) personalities (“personalities”) compete answering a variety of questions , guessing who the mystery star is in one round, working out anagrams of other athletes names, and so on. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">One segment of the show allows for the contestants to answer questions that are dubbed either ‘Home’ or ‘Away’ – Home being the sport that they compete in, Away of one which they did not with their being double points on offer for those who answered the later correctly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I think there is sometimes a danger as HR professionals that we play it ‘Safe at Home’ in a variety of ways. One in particular (which I have been guilty of) is when we might not be on site with our client groups/departments, so just fall back on emails rather than a phone call or visiting – the irony being although it allows for quick communication it can arguably be misinterpreted more easily by the person receiving it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is staying at home, playing it safe. Ever wonder if you are doing enough playing away and doubling up on your points with your contacts from a professional relationship prospective? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">How about trying this next time you know you might have to deal with an awkward customer or client – rather than emailing, phone to say ‘Hey I thought about emailing but thought it might be great to catch up – whats going on with you guys? Is there a time you would be free to meet?’</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Some might get edgy at first – if there was no reason to meet, the first question might be what have I done for you to want to meet? This might lead to a legion of unprompted confessions such as ‘is it related to the stapler and post its I took home last Tuesday? You gotta believe me when I say that was an accident and I will return it damn it!”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ok, maybe not that but you will probably be asked why. Explain you want to build bridges and get to know their needs better – you never know, you might pre-empt some sort of problem they had been storing up but could not think of the correct opportunity to approach you with it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Alternatively nothing of interest might come up - but what you have you got to lose from making the first move and building up a connection</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So next time you are about to send out an email, stop and think could I call or arrange to meet this person - you might find you double up on points for playing away and not sticking to the safe bet at home.</span><br />
<br />
<div></div><div class="zemanta-related"><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em; margin: 1em 0px 0px;">Related articles</h6><ul class="zemanta-article-ul"><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://choosework.typepad.com/choose_work_blog/2011/03/what-hr-people-wont-tell-you-about-the-job-interview.html">What HR People Won't Tell You About the Job Interview</a> (choosework.typepad.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://50000orbust.com/2011/03/23/22-hr-secrets-amended/">22 HR Secrets amended.</a> (50000orbust.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://hrincommon.com/2011/02/10/are-you-pushing-your-employees-too-much/">Are You Pushing Your Employees Too Much?</a> (hrincommon.com)</li>
</ul></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div> <br />
<br />
<div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=90c472ad-7834-40ff-8829-de7be45e6fef" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; float: right;" /></a></div></div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-47262525605987313352011-03-24T08:11:00.000+00:002011-03-24T08:11:51.005+00:00PANIC!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I love this sub heading.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM7n3q99J7FcBmcNTYWuCHvG8c_VKB2y7Dk71KsMfIZZBLJBflCVqCa8Cve-ROmOtouLH_kVObf902szXjNscWKJmKCe3ypfW3BpNmilqJ8f_6_8pcj8Sn02lakQIlfZ7LfkB6-00-rX0/s1600/Image0193.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM7n3q99J7FcBmcNTYWuCHvG8c_VKB2y7Dk71KsMfIZZBLJBflCVqCa8Cve-ROmOtouLH_kVObf902szXjNscWKJmKCe3ypfW3BpNmilqJ8f_6_8pcj8Sn02lakQIlfZ7LfkB6-00-rX0/s320/Image0193.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I dunno - is it?</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I was reading this in the Sunday Times Presentations Skills book recently and it just sprang out at me as something we all wish we could say to someone we are arguing with at least once a day - is this really necessary? Is all this aggravation really going to improve any thing?</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The booklet comes up with a nice little abbreviation to remember when preparing your presentations but perhaps it might be of use to you over the course of the coming weeks who is (depressingly) convinced of the benefit of their action and cannot understand your intervention. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">When in circumstances like this, I suggest your PANIC:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">P - Purpose. What brought all parties to this situation in the first place? More to the point, what do you need to do and by when to move on from the stalemate you are currently in?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">A - Audience. Well they are right in front of you, not listening, sounding off at what they see as tiresome HR with all their rules - I know what jokers us HR lot are. In instances like this perhaps bear in mind the opportunity you might have to build a relationship with a tricky customer and how beneficial it could be moving forward. Hard at the moment but if you are able to illuminate the purpose driving your conversation with them this might give you move legitimacy in their eyes and suddenly it is less of an uphill battle.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">N - Need. When does this need to be resolved by? Who needs to approve it? If you are not discussing it with the person who can then why not? Otherwise you are wasting energy talking to some sort of gate keeper who evidently does not see the value in what you are trying to achieve.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I - Information. If you can sense a battle coming make sure you have your information ready and at hand to justify what you want to say. No would listen to the answers Les Dennis gave on Family Fortunes if he was not able to justify them by saying 'our survey says'. Be thorough in your preparation when you can to negate this problem.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">C - Collate. Pull it together - you have motivation, a sense of purpose and the relevant third party information to back it up. Bring it together so you know what you need to present when you make your case.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">So next time you have an awkward conversation just go ahead and PANIC - I am sure you will feel a lot better when you do and those you are working with will respect you more for it. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Well perhaps not always the second part but we can but dream.</span> </div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-51543188268093993072011-03-20T10:14:00.000+00:002011-03-20T10:14:25.100+00:00As self promotion/explanation goes, you will go a long way to beat this from the British Library...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSOGvoKZThXydh6Po1k9jXI4pEQfExtEsTbw96ohFhgNf5PCvmMXjKko9vGLwk6e5-7ZgdHnQUIZbMbaOanv3KKzhFRgPy2_jx5PA1WrrWkXc8EzKsoRLUNjwyEqVu53Rt7EsjuldQFQ4/s1600/Image0192.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSOGvoKZThXydh6Po1k9jXI4pEQfExtEsTbw96ohFhgNf5PCvmMXjKko9vGLwk6e5-7ZgdHnQUIZbMbaOanv3KKzhFRgPy2_jx5PA1WrrWkXc8EzKsoRLUNjwyEqVu53Rt7EsjuldQFQ4/s320/Image0192.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-62979468598052597442011-03-16T12:53:00.003+00:002011-03-16T12:57:15.057+00:00Going Underground<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Learnt a great lesson in the value of how to ask a question this weekend.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Going to the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.bl.uk/" rel="homepage" title="British Library">British Library</a> I asked an attendant at Kings Cross station whether he knew how to get there – he responded “Yes… but more to the point do you need me to tell you?”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It could have been very patronising thing to say if he had not followed it up quickly with “Because if you do I would be glad to help” and a booming belly laugh. We are talking BIG, a la Brian Blessed laughing in Flash Gordon big, with a broad smile. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was a lesson in (elementary!) directive questioning and a reminder to both parties of the value of knowing what information needs to obtained. The irony was I was just recently commenting on a Linkedin forum about the best coaching/mentoring questions with my own suggestion – have a look here if you fancy taking part. Needless to say this attendant was a gentle reminder that we are all, myself included, a work in progress when it comes to such areas.</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So what are some of the ways to approach such conversations so you avoid similar awkward laughter at yourself with members of the public? Here are some tips:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1. Ask a question if you want to know, not to massage your ego</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Use questions as an opportunity to clarify, dig deeper, encourage your inquisitive nature – don’t use it as an means to reaffirm that you know your stuff. Put your esteem to one side, embrace the vulnerability of the unknown and get excited that you are about to pick up something new. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2. Never compromise yourself by not asking a question</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I see this all the time at events where you have people judging others on the quality of questions being asked – do not allow this to affect you, more than likely there are 5 other people in the room who want to know. Sure the presenter will also appreciate your interest in what they are saying to boot!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Added to this I think coaches or mentors can shy away from asking a question for fear of offending the client or being misunderstood. Remember – when you are talking you learn nothing new about the situation or that of the client’s you are dealing with. View it as an opportunity to get nearer to the result you both want. If noting else the person concerned should want this above all else and if they know you are sincere in what you are asking will be receptive.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3. “No matter where you are in life, there is always more journey ahead of you”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Thank you to Nelson Mandela for the above, which neatly articulates the folly of giving in to fears and not asking questions as we go through life, let alone when chances for learning and development present themselves. In accepting the above statement I find I have more freedom and believe in the value of my questions, knowing that however much the answers to my questions move me further along there is still (depending on life expectancy of course!) more of the same ahead of me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So welcome the uncertainty, enjoy searching for the knowledge. And if lost at Kings Cross you know which one of the London Underground attendants will direct you to the right place.</span><br />
<br />
<div></div><div></div><div class="zemanta-related"><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em; margin: 1em 0px 0px;">Related articles</h6><ul class="zemanta-article-ul"><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.jmorganmarketing.com/the-most-important-question-to-ask-executives-on-social-media-investment/">The Most Important Question to Ask Executives on Social Media Investment</a> (jmorganmarketing.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.bl.uk/learning/cresearch/skills/creative.html">BK Learning Research Skills</a> (bl.uk)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://blogs.vinuthomas.com/2011/03/16/is-quora-the-answer-to-all-questions/">Is Quora, 'The Answer' to all Questions ?</a> (blogs.vinuthomas.com)</li>
</ul></div><div></div><div></div><br />
<br />
<div></div><br />
<div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=4f6b04e6-713c-45be-8a7f-5d12c3999992" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; float: right;" /></a></div></div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-53597176868203912522011-03-09T13:21:00.000+00:002011-03-09T13:21:37.197+00:00Hanging Tough<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I am reading Jason Selk's '10 Minute Toughness' at the moment and really enjoying it, being a sucker for any self improvement texts, especially if they are able to throw in some sports references along the way. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(I now know what people from the States are referring to when they mention 'bottom of the 9th' - previously I wondered what the big draw was to the 9th as everyone seemed to end up there at some point)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Anyways the general theme of the book was doing all you can to be at ease prior to competition or an event - with sports people this makes perfect sense in the context of practice sessions or routines you need to create on the day of competition, a good universal example (he said after bracketing Baseball as a US sport though it is big in Japan) being the different events you gymnasts have e.g the horse, the vault... the rope thingy with the hoops.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" sizcache="13943" sizset="0" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.daylife.com/image/0d0t31i56bfOi?utm_source=zemanta&utm_medium=p&utm_content=0d0t31i56bfOi&utm_campaign=z1" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 22: A fan of Japan wea..." height="150" src="http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0d0t31i56bfOi/111x150.jpg" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="111" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" sizcache="13943" sizset="1" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">Image by <a href="http://www.daylife.com/source/Getty_Images">Getty Images</a> via <a href="http://www.daylife.com/">@daylife</a></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br />
<br />
It is all good stuff which can be applied to professional lives also but I wondered if there were two areas that could be used in the context of the corporate world. Thinking about it I have been inspired by Selk to come up with this - T and T: </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Technique and Temperament</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Technique - so this is all about the skills you have at your disposal to do the job. In doubt about your technique? Then like Selk says you need to get practiced and versed in your discipline so competition comes easy as the practice has been where you have grafted and tested yourself.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But how do you get 'match-fit' (so to speak) from a career perspective? You need to get involved at work and outside of it with events and opportunities to get exposure to areas that are alien to you but you will need to progress and move forward. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Selk also talks about having public announcements of the changes you wish to make so others hold you to account - idea being you might be happy to let yourself down but you nearest and dearest will pull you up for progress updates etc. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Perhaps not best to let clients know they are an experiment in your <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_development" rel="wikipedia" title="Professional development">professional development</a> but might be an idea to let friends know of your big ideas - they are more likely to have supportive suggestions and pull you up when you are not being honest ("Patrick stop making excuses - that red wine stain did not end up on the carpet by itself"). Also when people realise you are looking to <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_chess" rel="wikipedia" title="Glossary of chess">develop</a> skills in a certain area they might know of someone in their network who might be able to assist/advice.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Temperament - I think this is the tougher of the two to maintain and, in some ways, the more fragile as it can be a little bit more subject to the actions of others. For example, you can develop a wealth of knowledge on how to coach and mentor but there is no guaranteeing the type of questions that will be thrown at you during a session.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">In some ways this is when technique comes in to its own - at least you can relax knowing you have practised your skills, it is just a case of using your judgement as to how to apply them and when. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Discretion and judgement is arguably something that can only be obtained through experience - which can be quite exciting in some ways, as at least with every step you have the opportunity to develop your <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skill" rel="wikipedia" title="Skill">skill</a> set.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Check out Selk for more positive suggestions of ways forward. In the meantime I hope you find my T and T a dynamite piece of advice!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Resisting the temptation to add 'boom boom' for that pun... probably best to draw it to a close here for the moment.</span><br />
<div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em; margin: 1em 0px 0px;">Related articles</h6><div class="zemanta-related"><ul class="zemanta-article-ul"><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/handling-tough-conversations-in-3-simple-steps-2011-2">How To Handle Tough Conversations In Three Simple Steps</a> (businessinsider.com)</li>
</ul></div><div class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><br />
</div><ul class="zemanta-article-ul"><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://sm4lee.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/my-quirk/">My quirk</a> (sm4lee.wordpress.com)</li>
</ul><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=e03a9bb9-ecca-49ef-bc1f-09347e2aa718" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; float: right;" /></a></div></div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-86479526779612100042011-03-07T13:38:00.000+00:002011-03-07T13:38:50.387+00:00Action Replay<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Flying back from Thailand recently the movie True Grit was played twice on the plane (I say I flew back recently but that makes it sound like I travel back from there all the time – how else to put it? Flying back the other day?!). Good as the movie was, back to back servings of the same stuff rarely work well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">About ten minutes in the film was stopped and a guide about things to do in Bangkok was then put up – though the flight was going back to London, it was more enjoyable to see something new. This made me think about if you have a new project or idea, there can be some benefits to having a new face or means of promoting it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I think there were two positives which came to mind. Firstly you might find with a new speaker you are able to drawer on new contacts/affirmations from the audience you are communicating with that you could not previously draw upon. Secondly you have a peer who has more confidence in your faith in them, as well as their ability to present.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Double whammy – the message has an opportunity to move further and you have empowered an employee to trust their skills and abilities to present and communicate in future instances.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Overly postive and naive about how it could work? Maybe. Though surely worthy of experimenting with, espcially in these lean times when we are all taking on more and having to show a 'true grit' attitude to all of our respective professions.</span><br />
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</div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-32667725687633335882011-02-11T13:44:00.000+00:002011-02-11T13:44:54.821+00:00Don't kettlebell your career<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Swing….exhale….swing…avoid sever injury…swing...exhale… remember to inhale....swing...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Such have been my mornings this past week, swinging a kettle bell to try and supplement my post-January health kick. <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/" rel="homepage" title="Timothy Ferriss">Tim Ferriss</a> and the Four Hour Body are the inspiration for the choice of <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_exercise" rel="wikipedia" title="Physical exercise">exercise</a>, though I am not sure whether it is the wanting to have an efficient exercise or the fear of having some delicate parts of my anatomy crushed which mean that I am keeping a close eye on my form. Either way take care with your exercise, it can hurt otherwise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">With the 'bell moving in the air it can be a real delicate balance of getting the right action so you do get the benefit of it, whilst at the same time not losing control of circumstances. In some ways it is a near metaphor for a lot of us who are wondering about how best we can refocus our efforts on our career whilst at the same time not losing track of friends, family, sanity, etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Worried about not having the right balance with your own professional/personal kettle bell? Here are some ideas to get your grip in gear:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>1. <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhavacakra" rel="wikipedia" title="Bhavacakra">Wheel of Life</a></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Ok it is in every book going and most of you will have heard of it before but I always think it is worthy of mention. I remember the first time a mentor presented it to me it blew my mind - not only about the possibilities that lay ahead for development in a variety of areas but also realising that I did not have to get everything right at once but that I was succeeding in other areas. I like this <a href="http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_93.htm">Mind Tools</a> version which has a guide and one you can complete online.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong><u>2. Call on council</u></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Napoleon Hill talked about creating his ‘Master Mind’ group or council, an imaginary group of real life luminaries in different fields who he would draw upon to get ideas when he was in a quandary. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Have a blast at imagining your own (it can be quite fun) but feel fortunate that we live in an age where it is easier than it has ever been to try and create your own council to draw from. Use your own networks to get second opinions and strategies of how to cope better. No one in your immediate or peers networks able to advice about the path you want to walk? Then fall at the altar of <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.wikinvest.com/concept/Social_media" rel="wikinvest" title="Social media">social media</a> and scream hallelujah! With sites like <a class="zem_slink" href="http://twitter.com/" rel="homepage" title="Twitter">Twitter</a> and <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.linkedin.com/" rel="homepage" title="LinkedIn">LinkedIn</a> it is now easier than ever to find peoples contact information and find out how they got in to the position where they are today.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Furthermore it gives you a chance to add a personal touch when you first get in contact (“I notice from your information that prior to school teaching you were once a member of Bros – I loved you guys!”).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong><u>3. Purpose, </u><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-learning" rel="wikipedia" title="E-learning">Learning</a><u>, Enjoyment</u></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Still a little lost? Get back to basics. I often find if you are able to get two out of the three above correct then the third has a habit of presenting itself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Enjoyment –</em> examine what it is you are doing day to day. On first sight it might not be clear but upon further examination you might find there is a lot of what you do that you enjoy. Now you just need to see how it is that you can maximise this in your time and what you do. You owe it to yourself to try and do right by you, no?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Learning –</em> if you feel you are on a path of development this will help a great deal with any feelings of anxiety about progression, as well as that guilt we all get sometimes when we look at peers and think “why am I not where they are at?” Furthermore, when you enter in to a programme of training/education you often find that…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Purpose -</em> …. reveals itself, as you have been shown a means of progression, perhaps not in the field you first thought but a path that is worthy of further exploration nevertheless.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The alternative? Well perhaps you just drift and then one day realise that you have self sabotaged yourself. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ3eDKr0xPg">And then I imagine you would feel like this.</a> </span><br />
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<div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=e05cc2f8-064c-433f-af0c-774da0f4f335" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; float: right;" /></a></div></div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-8888693802458754612011-02-04T13:24:00.000+00:002011-02-04T13:24:30.706+00:00Throwing Copper<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" sizcache="15048" sizset="0" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Every so often we get a reminder of how the things we take for granted have a habit of biting us in the posterior when we least expect it. For example, take the case of the railway copper theft in East London this past week.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That’s right – forget your gold or platinum, copper is the precious (?!) metal on the move with it being worth in the region of £6,000 per ton. </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(I say that like I am aware that this is a massive hike from previous amounts but I really have no clue – where does aluminium fit in to this? I could be a Diet Coke can millionaire)</span></div><div sizcache="15048" sizset="0" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
<div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" sizcache="15048" sizset="0" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/37354253@N00/379053753" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Diet Coke" height="180" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/174/379053753_bed072d134_m.jpg" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="240" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" sizcache="15048" sizset="1" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">"Ahhh my retirement fund - I have been expecting you!" Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/37354253@N00/379053753">cackhanded</a> via Flickr</span></div></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Due to the rise in value some thieves removed the copper lines that are required for trains to run on the Central Line in the East London area of the Underground, meaning that things came grinding to a halt earlier this week. Transport for London even went on to say that after terrorism, the removal of such materials/equipment from their lines was the biggest threat to the Underground service. No mention of where signal problems on the Bank branch of the Northern Line causing delays ranked but I am sure this was up there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nevertheless it is an example of how an everyday, taken for granted resource can bring a vital service to a halt with immediate effect. It got me thinking about it in the context of mentoring or coaching for all us HR professionals to bear in mind - what is the asset that we need to make sure is, ahem, copper bottomed to ensure success in these areas?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Well mentoring is often aimed at being learner lead and reading Julie Starr’s excellent ‘Coaching Manual’, I was struck by how non-directive conversations can be used to empower people. This was a reminder of what many coaches state – you are aiming to equip the person or organisation with the skills and wherewithal to move resolve their issue and have strategies they can apply when moving forward, not as a repeat crux for the problems they are having.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Viewing it in this context, I wonder if a coach or mentor’s version of copper rails is not losing sight of the fact they should letting people to their own devices at the end of the assignment/project? Or maybe you might think that being able to resist the temptation to jump in and be really direct and supervise a peer on the way forward, rather than letting the solutions be a joint venture?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perhaps you think it is none of the above – if so, what would you consider to be the equivalent of copper? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You might take it for granted but will know its value when it delays your journey – whether it be professional or geographical.</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">p.s. prize for anyone who can spot the mid-90s musical reference in this post</span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This past week the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.premierleague.com/" rel="homepage" title="Premier League">Premier League</a> in England had its <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfer_window" rel="wikipedia" title="Transfer window">January transfer window</a> come to a close,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In amongst all this were two transfers that caught the attention for their combined value being in the region of £85 million. There was the £50M sale of <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.fernando9torres.com/index.php?lang=uk" rel="homepage" title="Fernando Torres">Fernando ‘El Nino’ Torres</a> to <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_F.C." rel="wikipedia" title="Chelsea F.C.">Chelsea</a> and Liverpool replacing him with Andy ‘El Geordie Ponytail’ Carroll at a cool £35 million. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Putting aside the Carroll transfer for one moment, I was fascinated about what sort of insight the Torres deal gave to the ethos of Chelsea and how these seemed to run counter to their previous communications that they wanted to invest in youth development.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What I imagine the initial aim was to produce individuals of the calibre of <a class="zem_slink" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=41.3830555556,2.12305555556&spn=0.01,0.01&q=41.3830555556,2.12305555556 (La%20Masia)&t=h" rel="geolocation" title="La Masia">La Masia</a> (<a href="http://mentoringmullarkey.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-talent-should-be-managed.html">as described in previous posts on this blog)</a> but it does not seem to have been the case.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Approaching the matter from a HR Talent Management perspective, what can we learn from what occurred?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u>1. Have a clear assessment of potential star performers and how they met your requirements</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you are going to implement a talent management process, you need to have a clear idea of the competencies required moving forward and any skills gap you can envisage. In some ways sports organisations are very sensitive to rapid change in this regard – <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.jonahlomu.com/" rel="homepage" title="Jonah Lomu">Jonah Lomu</a>’s career in Rugby Union is testament to how fragile some careers can be. </span><br />
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<div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" sizcache="235" sizset="0" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/68777870@N00/145493279" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Jonah Lomu chair" height="180" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/45/145493279_fca3fd7531_m.jpg" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="240" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" sizcache="235" sizset="1" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">The sad fate that awaits all former Rugby players - they are magiced in to chairs when they hang up their boots! Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/68777870@N00/145493279">Velvet Android</a> via Flickr</span></div><span sizcache="2887" sizset="0" style="font-family: Georgia;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">However there is some room for manoeuvre. Outflows from the organisation can be identified . Using retirees as an example, we all have prospective ones on our books that are only more likely to be allowed more time in roles given the trend current legislation (and the longer we are all living) but that is not to say you cannot prepare for them leaving. Likewise, footballers do well to last beyond their late thirties, meaning you can identify those areas that might prove problematic and when they might start being an issue. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Didier Drogba at 28 is not an issue – Drogba four or five years older? Might be time to start to start drafting a succession plan, no? Examine the skills and experience that this individual brought to a role and then see how your culture can foster the development of this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u>2 . Accept when priorities compromise your values - but admit it</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What is interesting is Chelsea made a point of letting a collection of experienced employees with a record of previous seasons of success (Ballack, Carvalho, Shevchenko – ok I am pushing it with that last example!) stating they were going to rely on their youth set up to provide squad support over the coming season; with </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Daniel Sturridge, Gael Kakuta and Josh McEachran were held up as being standard bearers for this policy moving forward. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Following the latest transfer window the first two have been loaned out to other clubs to gain experience, with McEachran looking as though he might be given a chance in coming months. The last instance aside, what does it say about the value the club place on these employees ability that they are not willing to let them fill positions that are vacant? And, more pointedly, does it suggest that they need to have a rethink of their talent pipelines?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If the problem is identifying the talent at source (i.e. at academies etc) then examine this and how this can be addressed. Would most organisations accept under performing staff coming through their graduate recruitment programme? Unlikely – they would address the sources or nature of the programme to see why they were not being equipped with the necessary competencies and how this could be rectified. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If the issue is that you do not think the policy will generate a return soon enough (i.e. youth team players of enough ability for sustained success) then react, as Chelsea did, by making changes – but don’t suggest that there are not issues that need to be addressed in how you manage your recruitment and selection. It sends confusing messages to those staff you attracted under the previous policy - ask Sturridge whether he knows where he stands and how it has affected his motivation</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">It is not something unique to football clubs, or sports for that matter. <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/">Shawn Murphy talks on the matter quite eloquently in this blog post</a> - imbedding culture and accepted practices (expecations, performance management etc) starts from your induction and on boarding. Hell some might even say it starts when you advertise to prospective recruits!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Finding it all a bit dispiriting? Don’t worry, I am sure the individuals concerned in this post received in one weeks worth of salary more than most of us might see in a life time, so no danger of being below the poverty line yet. Not sure about what sort of state it has left</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> their long term career goals and development mind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Still down? Well, there is always the 6 Nations…</span><br />
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<div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div>n<br />
<div></div><div></div><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=200b87b4-ebea-4eb0-aa0b-d83f4aed5969" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; float: right;" /></a></div></div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-4884437952393075612011-01-25T12:51:00.000+00:002011-01-25T12:51:23.354+00:00With dead man's shoes one size fits all<div dir=ltr style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" trbidi="on" sizset="0" sizcache="135"><div dir=ltr style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" trbidi="on" sizset="0" sizcache="135"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif">I met with a colleague recently who was having some thoughts about their career and used the phrase 'dead man's shoes' to describe their promotion prospects - no place to go in the organisation they are in, hoping for the person above to move on/get promoted/pass away. </SPAN><br />
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<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif">Well you would like to think they would be hoping for two out of those three, but you catch my drift.</SPAN><br />
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<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia">So what can you do in the meantime? Move with a purpose - make sure that you are working on the assumption that the next promotion is going to become available, either inside or outside your organisation, and think of what skills and experience you might need. The results could be two fold.</SPAN><br />
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<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia">Firstly were you to apply for role elsewhere you are showing, at a minimum, a commitment to continuing your professional development -it shows this is not just a job for you, it really is your chosen career. A mindset like this and the good habits it creates will look after you acting as a psychic defence if you will.</SPAN><br />
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<div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" style="CLEAR: both; TEXT-ALIGN: center" sizset="0" sizcache="135"><a style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 1em; MARGIN-RIGHT: 1em" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/42536354@N00/2414830087"><img style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; FONT-SIZE: 0.8em; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none" height=240 alt="The psychic should know..." src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2058/2414830087_33c62108cf_m.jpg" width=160></A><span class=zemanta-img-attribution style="CLEAR: both; MARGIN-LEFT: 1em; MARGIN-RIGHT: 1em" sizset="1" sizcache="8492"></SPAN></DIV><div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><br />
Ring once for job security, promotion opportunities and a sense of well being in the context of self actualisation. Ring twice for Steve (found via Flickr)</DIV></DIV><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia">Secondly you never know when that opportunity might occur where you are currently based- life has a funny way of throwing up instances where people are called up to take on more responsibility at the least notice. Would you not be kicking yourself if you were to miss out on something that would have been a shoe-in for you had you kept up the good habits mentioned above?</SPAN><br />
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<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia">Seem an impossible prospect? Well check out the video below. Don't know about you but I really miss Behind the Music, and really enjoyed their profile of Metallica - though at points it is a bit Spinal Tap.</SPAN><br />
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<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif">Fast forward to about 7 minutes in and then tell me that the roadie who stepped up for lead singer James Hetfield was not living the definition of dead man's shoes. Despite that, when the time came, he was ready to help make sure the tour did not go off the rails - I bet you when it came to end of year bonuses he cleaned up!</SPAN><br />
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<div class=separator style="CLEAR: both; TEXT-ALIGN: center"><object class=BLOGGER-youtube-video codeBase=http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0 height=266 width=320 classid=clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000 data-thumbnail-src="http://0.gvt0.com/vi/I5ZjEe4imhA/0.jpg"><param NAME="_cx" VALUE="5080"><param NAME="_cy" VALUE="5080"><param NAME="FlashVars" VALUE=""><param NAME="Movie" VALUE="http://www.youtube.com/v/I5ZjEe4imhA&fs=1&source=uds"><param NAME="Src" VALUE="http://www.youtube.com/v/I5ZjEe4imhA&fs=1&source=uds"><param NAME="WMode" VALUE="Window"><param NAME="Play" VALUE="0"><param NAME="Loop" VALUE="-1"><param NAME="Quality" VALUE="High"><param NAME="SAlign" VALUE="LT"><param NAME="Menu" VALUE="-1"><param NAME="Base" VALUE=""><param NAME="AllowScriptAccess" VALUE=""><param NAME="Scale" VALUE="NoScale"><param NAME="DeviceFont" VALUE="0"><param NAME="EmbedMovie" VALUE="0"><param NAME="BGColor" VALUE="FFFFFF"><param 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type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></embed></OBJECT></DIV></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV>io<br 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<div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV><div></DIV>a<br />
<div></DIV><div></DIV></DIV><div class=zemanta-pixie style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px; HEIGHT: 15px"><a class=zemanta-pixie-a title="Enhanced by Zemanta" href="http://www.zemanta.com/"><img class=zemanta-pixie-img style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; FLOAT: right; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none" alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=b1253df4-8b07-4f2b-88f3-2c399b1a3b84"></A></DIV>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-83916454811558694512011-01-19T12:45:00.000+00:002011-01-19T12:45:34.279+00:00Shine a lightI was struck by the following quote from Nietszhe, and felt it had some relevance in the context of coaching, <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentorship" rel="wikipedia" title="Mentorship">mentoring</a> , performance management… hell just most aspects of management in general I reckon! (shout out to Robbie Steinhouse from previous posts whose book I found it in):<br />
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“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how”<br />
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It really made me stop and think about how if we have a purpose to what we do we can always find a means to reach our goals – where there is a will and all that. Maybe it is a little too high brow for your liking? I know, for all that I got from that quote, if you asked me who this guy was I would most probably struggle to give you anything beyond a garbled recount of information from <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/" rel="homepage" title="Wikipedia">Wikipedia</a>. <br />
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So how about a metaphor I can help explain a little more to keep in mind when dealing with issues of development or performance? And that you might not be questioned about so deeply if you bump in to some <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.myspace.com/everything/stephen-fry" rel="myspaceeverything" title="Stephen Fry">Stephen Fry</a> types when you want to throw the example in to conversation? I think you could do a lot worse than consider the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Lantern" rel="wikipedia" title="Green Lantern">Green Lantern</a>.<br />
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‘Green who?’ I hear you say - shame on you! <br />
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<div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" sizcache="4946" sizset="0" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Green_Lantern_Rebirth_6.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Green Lantern" height="450" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/80/Green_Lantern_Rebirth_6.jpg" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="300" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" sizcache="4946" sizset="1" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">Hands up who wants pizza? (Image via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Green_Lantern_Rebirth_6.jpg">Wikipedia</a>)</span></div><br />
I’ll avoid going in to a detailed account of the character, I will leave that up to you to investigate though I encourage you to do so. (I am a bias comic nut but I think aside from the sheer escapism there can be real benefits to engrossing yourself in this field of fiction – if anything else you don’t want to be lost when this summer’s latest cinematic blockbuster arrives) <br />
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The character traits that set it from alien predecessors or other multi-coloured Lanterns (no really – get in to this and there is a strict colour code) are twofold: will and humanity. <br />
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Before I am corrected on the details of the former, this is just a brief synopsis is for the benefit of those new to the character. By default a Green Lantern must have the ‘power’ of will – the idea being that they are the person who is able to step up in the face of challenges and adversity to make the hard choice or face the insurmountable foe, etc.<br />
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But what set <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Jordan" rel="wikipedia" title="Hal Jordan">Hal Jordan</a> and those that followed him apart was their humanity. Will being applied without humanity loses some of its power, as it lacks sincerity and becomes more about coercion for those parties affected. View it in the context of <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_management" rel="wikipedia" title="Performance management">performance management</a> – one of the first things you ask of someone when trying to establish the reasons for a faltering performance is ‘are there issues outside of work we can help you with?’ We show concern for the individuals well being. Or perhaps look at it in the arena of mentoring or coaching. <br />
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With a mentoring example, one might ask “How will you feel when you achieve this? What difference will it make to your life, both professional and personal?” You look to try to play to peoples values, their sense of worth and so on. <br />
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So next time you have a project or a tough client to deal with, where you need to rely on others or want to bring them on board, keep in mind two points – what is creating the why/ the cause of what is being discussed, along with to what degree this is <br />
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Failing that ask yourself – what would the Green Lantern do? Beyond save the planet, of course…<br />
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<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=6f06fec9-7ddf-443b-a97e-716d00b37141" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; float: right;" /></a></div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-13275904042649864152011-01-13T20:18:00.000+00:002011-01-13T20:18:42.992+00:00Enjoy the Silence<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It happens to all of us. Fuelled by on our own self worth and esteem we crash in to handing out opinions and advice to people left, right and centre.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reading <a href="http://myhellisotherpeople.com/">My Hell is other People</a> recently it seems this guy has had too much of it – and had responded in a passionate and fair way I would say. Yet, in some ways, I was grateful someone had provided an opinion or advice to prompt such a response – no matter how irritating it clearly was to the writer!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It made me think about all of the opportunities that social media offers to not just HR but professionals across industries to share and impart knowledge, are we sometimes swamped by the social media sin of blah blab blah?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When being advised on the delivery of my first training sessions, it was suggested to not always feel uncomfortable with (nor underestimate the value of) silence. Sometimes information needs to settle, in order to allow for a period of reflection and analysis; the idea being to then feedback, maybe look at things with a fresh perspective and see how things could be moved forward (either in the context of the schedule for the session or the discussion being had).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How might the opposite be illustrated in everyday social media life? Well a good example is the recent figures that came to light about the total tribunal costs for the BBC in 2010. This story was re-circulated on Twitter lots – I had it in most of the status updates on my timeline on the day it came to light; all just re-circulating the same information, a link to the story.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" sizcache="3472" sizset="0" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But what did it tell me about that person who was trying to share the information? It acted as evidence that they read People Management; or maybe they have a colleague who tweeted it and they re-tweeted, hence we both follow their details and it ended up in my timeline. So perhaps in a (tenuously) Kevin Bacon style five steps of separation we are of a similar mindset in terms of information resources ... but beyond this?</span><br />
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<div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" sizcache="3472" sizset="0" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KevinBaconApr10.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kevin Bacon addresses audience members after b..." height="444" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/KevinBaconApr10.jpg/300px-KevinBaconApr10.jpg" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="300" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" sizcache="3472" sizset="1" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><em>Do you know this man? In fairness, who does not feel like they did not after seeing Tremors? Image via </em><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KevinBaconApr10.jpg"><em>Wikipedia</em></a></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are all guilty of it (anyone else guilty of resending the top 10 most used profile words on Linkedin? Why did we do that?!) and no issue with people trying to spread the good news but perhaps we all need to check what the purpose of sharing the information is. If it is relevant it will have no problem reaching the top of the information tree on its own – <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/business/media/16dominos.html">just ask the guys at Domino's when this story broke.</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">But maybe try thinking of doing this - for every one professional tweet or status update when you wish to resend information of a story someone else is sending round in the echo chamber, why not try and put your own spin on it? Maybe not just share the information but show how you would have approached the situation differently or why this solution occurred in this field but might not be applicable in others - some insight if you will. Suddenly you have moved from being a data manager to a bit of a problem solver.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Then just sit back, relax, and watch as it goes round the world - who knows? You might even find it more rewarding/productive than forwarding on the same information as everyone else.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"></div><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=943d0f08-9b46-45cc-b808-13f253fb99e9" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; float: right;" /></a></div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-74656277453037514372011-01-10T20:35:00.000+00:002011-01-10T20:35:14.533+00:00How to be a courageous professional? Be vulnerable!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It seemed a good idea at the time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">New Year and I was looking to get things back on track with mind and body this weekend. Covering the later I attempted running home from my office in <a class="zem_slink" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.4912,-0.1769&spn=0.1,0.1&q=51.4912,-0.1769 (South%20Kensington)&t=h" rel="geolocation" title="South Kensington">South Kensington</a> to Embankment underground- for none UK/London based readers its a long enough run for the month of January, if you follow my drift! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">(Top tip - if you ever do it is to always be on the opposite side of the road to <a class="zem_slink" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.4997222222,-0.163611111111&spn=0.01,0.01&q=51.4997222222,-0.163611111111 (Harrods)&t=h" rel="geolocation" title="Harrods">Harrods</a> in Knightsbridge. I have collapsing on tourists in a wheezing, exhausted heap is not what they expected from their trip to London and not what you want from a pleasant Friday night jog)</span><br />
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<div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" sizcache="1442" sizset="0" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Harrods_Department_Store.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Harrods, Knightsbridge, London" height="214" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/Harrods_Department_Store.jpg/300px-Harrods_Department_Store.jpg" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="300" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" sizcache="1442" sizset="1" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><em>You do not want to be on this side of the street. Unless you have a small fortune to spend - and do not fear knackered runners (Image via </em><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Harrods_Department_Store.jpg"><em>Wikipedia</em></a><em>)</em></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">As for my mind I am attending The Coaching Academy's free introductory course this weekend. If any one is interested how I get on with it give me a shout next week but I am hopeful to get something from it from the anecdotal reports I have had. The three areas they seem to offer being life, executive and NLP coaching, the last which seems to keep cropping up in texts and books I have been reading up on recently.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The most recent of these, Robbie Steinhouse's 'How to Coach with NLP', is proving to be an interesting read for this relative new comer to the field. I love his summing up at the end of the section on Mapping the Client's Inner World - essentially it is saying don't expect to have all of the skills and techniques nailed when you first step up to coach clients. Everything requires practice and development but you need to get amongst it, get involved so to speak. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">It made me think about the value there is some times to being vulnerable or, at least, being able to admit when you are coming up short in terms of skills or experience. Sure.you need skills to get hired to help any client/department/organisation move forward, but don't be afraid to put your hand up to admit when you are going out on a limb and perhaps need to draw on the resources of others.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Don't want to take my word for it? No worries - perhaps its a reflection of my vulnerability to writing unconvincing blog posts! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">But before you do dismiss it, check out this <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_pasricha_the_3_a_s_of_awesome.html">TED talk from Neil Pasricha in September 2010</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I was staggered at his honesty when talking about his personal life near the beginning of the presentation and felt it immediately drew you in to listen to him talk further about his 1,000 Awesome Things blog/book etc. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Why? I think because he revealed elements of his life which would have been difficult for any one to deal with, let alone speak about on such a stage and it gave an authenticity to what he had to say.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">One could argue that in showing a certain vulnerability he showed real courage - who would not want to be a little bit more like that in their approach to either their professional or personal life? </span><br />
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<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=108d2f80-54b6-4d18-82f8-243e28bec5b1" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; float: right;" /></a></div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-41008297575795377092010-12-10T11:42:00.002+00:002010-12-10T13:26:35.442+00:00Compromising situations<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I write to you laid up with a virus which is going round my office and a lot of the UK at the moment, and from a country still feeling 'we wuz robbed'! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A week has passed since the World Cup bidding process drew to a close and it would seem there is still in a palpable feeling of anger and frustration after England's fall at the first round of voting in the World Cup bid, losing out to Russia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For those not aware (not aware? This is the greatest scandal since... insert scandal as appropriate) England’s bid for the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_and_2022_FIFA_World_Cup_bids" rel="wikipedia" title="2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bids">2018 World Cup</a> fell rather embarrassingly by the wayside during the first round of votes in Fifa Headquarters in Zurich. This is the equivalent of turning up at your high school dance finding that your date for the evening has not only chosen a different dance partner but you have also been asked to leave the premises before it has started. You most probably spiked the punch trying to get everyone to part hardy – how crude.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On top of that the 2022 tournament went to Qatar, an outsider seemingly seriously impaired with logistical issues such as searing June/July temperatures and too small a land area to deal with the logistics of a World Cup and all of the demands it entails.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Putting aside who won and lost and the merits of decisions reached, is there something to be that organisations could learn from the bidding process? I think so.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Know the rules of the game and what success looks like</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As part of their justification for the tournaments going to Russia and Qatar, <a class="zem_slink" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=47.3813888889,8.57444444444&spn=1.0,1.0&q=47.3813888889,8.57444444444 (FIFA)&t=h" rel="geolocation" title="FIFA">FIFA</a> has made play of the fact the tournaments will be staged in these regions for the first time, pushing an agenda of legacy for the two countries.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part of the anger for the English bid team was that they felt that they had met the criteria set out by FIFA in terms of the technical, financial and infrastructure of their bid - but why was this element or criteria not considered prior to the process kicking off? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One can argue about the legitimacy of legacy but we will not know how effective the tournaments will have been in achieving this until after they take place. Yet were the clues not there from the previous example of South Africa which had been ear marked as the preferred candidate for the 2006 tournament hence was shoe-in for 2010? It was not the ideal choice on the criteria the England bid were arguing over but one could not argue that, in comparison, by hosting it in the African continent there is more potential for legacy than in the UK.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before you launch in to any project - short-listing candidates for a position, promoting a new policy, evaluating skills gaps/competencies within your team, Department, business - you need to realise what the criteria for success will be. Starting off with the end goal itself is not enough.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">In some ways how you get there is just as important, which leads me in to...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>How much do you value your values?</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Much has been made of the process lacking transparency and delegates (allegedly) switching votes promised to the English bid team over the course of the final bid process.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, if the bid is about more than just the content and places value on clandestine meetings when promises are made, traded and bartered over, can one have any complaints if it you lose out in such a process? Should the question not be why you are even there taking part in the first instance?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This comes down to values and what you stand for - your complaints about a process lacking credibility s undermined if you were willing to buy in to it when you thought you might have something to gain out of it. You cannot engage in a process wholeheartedly and then complain about how it is managed afterwards if it does not give you the result you want.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">If the process is going to cause you too many misgivings about compromising the values which you apply to your business then re-evaluate whether this is the right path and what alternatives there might be. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The most common phrase you will hear businesses roll out is 'people are our greatest asset'. But how do you attract people outside simple financial reward systems and the like? Part of what attracts people to organisations with this mindset is a mutual understanding that the employee can trust the organisation and buy in to its ethos, mission etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Trust is a very fluid concept but <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Trout" rel="wikipedia" title="Jack Trout">Jack Trout</a> came up with a great description for it in the context of a conversation about leadership (search Stephen MR Covey's 'The Speed of Trust' on <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.apple.com/itunes/" rel="homepage" title="ITunes">I-Tunes</a> for more info). Trust comes down to two points - competence and character. You need the skills and experience to undertake a task which make you competent. However, without people having trust in your character, that your word can be depended, that you are dependable you are sunk before you start.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">If the England team entered in to it not knowing the criteria then at best they were naive in not drilling down on what would be required to win the bid. However, seeing as they asked the nation's future king, current Prime Minister and most famous sports star to work the room they still felt they had a chance and were willing to go along with whatever FIFA needed from their bidders - which suggests a little naivety on their part.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Not sure which is the more worrying -either way both (sadly) make the criticism of the process slightly redundant.</span><br />
<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=8b7cf4a0-c445-4070-a7be-b93e13423ee4" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; float: right;" /></a></div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-41042850536510152892010-12-01T15:40:00.000+00:002010-12-01T15:40:13.536+00:00A thousand benefits summarised in one sentence<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was thinking about how best to follow on from my last post about mentoring, how the term has been slightly high jacked by third parties and possible suggestions to encourage would be participants in schemes to take part. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was really struggling to put together something simple and catchy, when I stumbled across the following sentence from Seth Godin’s book ‘Linchpin’:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>“Mentoring is rarely about the facts of the deal (the facts of the deal can be easily found), but instead is a transfer of emotion and confidence” </em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wowzer. I think that pretty much hits the nail on the head.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The context for the above sentence was Godin inviting Lester Wunderman to serve on the board of one of his internet companies, expecting him to give him the low down on direct marketing. Although they did learn it was about different areas such as decision making and strategy. The point is finding facts and information is the easy bit, anyone with a work ethic can do this on their own. </span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" sizcache="2282" sizset="0" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody sizcache="2282" sizset="0">
<tr sizcache="2282" sizset="0"><td sizcache="2282" sizset="0" style="text-align: center;"><div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" sizcache="2282" sizset="0" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lester_wunderman.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Lester Wunderman, 2008" height="341" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/33/Lester_wunderman.jpg/300px-Lester_wunderman.jpg" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="300" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" sizcache="2282" sizset="1" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">Image via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lester_wunderman.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>Who could not learn something from a man with jumpers like this? He had to sit down when the photo was taken otherwise any movement would mean he would be strobbing in shot</em></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The sentence and the example in general help illustrate two things. Firstly, the quote helps illustrate that information is important but not knowing or not having the will/confidence to apply it makes its value redundant. Secondly the beauty of mentoring is the realisation on the part of the mentee of their ability to grab the tools at their own disposal, realising their skills and knowledge and then acting on it accordingly. This is coupled with (and this is the real kicker) that in doing so they might find the question or goal they had set out to do had completely changed as a result of being mentored – as shown in the example given with Wunderman.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The possibilities for change are endless, as finding a new answer can lead you down another, new exciting path.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Looking at it this way, who would not want to do it? </span><br />
<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=6de52e80-f416-4663-bda7-b5927996eef6" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; float: right;" /></a></div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-82546769140682421852010-11-23T19:10:00.000+00:002010-11-23T19:10:05.366+00:00"You know Kevin, its not always easy being a hero"<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ahhhhh the knowledge of Mr Arnold in the </span><a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094582/" rel="imdb" title="The Wonder Years"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wonder Years</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - he really did have it all locked down in terms of advice and suggestions to Kevin, didn't he? Though it is not always easy being a hero, we all need them.</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<tr sizcache="2896" sizset="0"><td sizcache="2896" sizset="0" style="text-align: center;"><div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" sizcache="2896" sizset="0" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WonderYears.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="(from left to right) Paul, Kevin and Winnie" height="234" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d3/WonderYears.jpg/300px-WonderYears.jpg" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="300" /></span></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" sizcache="2896" sizset="1" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Image via </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WonderYears.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wikipedia</span></a></span></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Winnie would never get another dude as righteous and cool as Kevin. The actor who played Paul (left) went on to give it up a career on stage and went on to become lead singer of Marilyn Manson</span></em></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I was having a conversation recently about </span><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentorship" rel="wikipedia" title="Mentorship"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">mentoring</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and it reminded me of the scene from this episode. The other person was fearful about taking up some mentoring responsibilities, despite my best efforts to convince them otherwise - just to mention this was not within a work context but via the CIPD scheme (for more details check out my previous posts).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Their fears were about somehow being discovered as some sort of fraud, that being the </span><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentor" rel="wikipedia" title="Mentor"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">mentor</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> you were expected to have all the answers, knowledge and direction in the relationship; very much the vision of the HR Obi-Wan Kenobi so to speak.</span><br />
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<tr sizcache="2897" sizset="0"><td sizcache="2897" sizset="0" style="text-align: center;"><div class="zemanta-img separator zemanta-action-dragged" sizcache="2897" sizset="0" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ben_Kenobi.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Obi-Wan Kenobi" height="300" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0b/Ben_Kenobi.jpg" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="204" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" sizcache="2897" sizset="1" style="clear: both; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">Image via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ben_Kenobi.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>"Do you have my wallet? This has no pockets and I keep losing it"</em></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I do wonder if the perception of mentoring has been rather distorted by high profile "examples" of its practice such as the </span><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Factor_%28comics%29" rel="wikipedia" title="X-Factor (comics)"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">X-Factor</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. The mentor's opinion dominates as they provide advice/guidance to candidates for the position of recording artist; week after week they are expected to follow it remorselessly; in instances where the performance does not work the mentor is criticised for the choices they have made on behalf of the mentee and, more often then not as there is only one winner on the show, those who are not thought up to scratch get dumped on the scrap heap.</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whats left? Feelings of despair. Loss. Anger. All things which should not come out of a mentoring relationship.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This all loses sight of the fact that mentoring is a personal development process in which the mentee takes ownership of the direction it takes. The mentor role is to help shine a light on the mentees' thinking, so to speak, probing and asking questions - not decide what the successful outcomes should be or how the mentee should be able to recognise them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will have a couple more practical suggestions over the next week about what this might look like so watch this space. In the meantime be a hero. Mentor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And if in doubt, just think "what would Mr Arnold do?"</span><br />
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<div class="zemanta-related"><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em; margin: 1em 0px 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Related articles</span></h6><ul class="zemanta-article-ul"><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.disambiguity.com/mentoring/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some thoughts on mentoring</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (disambiguity.com)</span></li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20100504005123/en"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Inaugural Mentoring Program Provides Arizona Technology Council Members with Education and Business Support</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (eon.businesswire.com)</span></li>
</ul></div><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=55ecaa6e-14d2-4bdc-a9d6-be0d54daacb9" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; float: right;" /></span></a></div>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5626829772918784334.post-89044089585271930372010-11-14T14:51:00.002+00:002010-11-18T12:35:08.925+00:00Card Games and Coaching<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Welcome back to mentoring Mullarkey! Apologies if you have been desperately waiting for your fix of me talking all things HR - I have been in Mexico for my brother's wedding for the past couple of weeks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">For those who have not been I can strongly recommend it - people awesome, food great, tequila... mixed when drunk to excess. Whilst there I spent a large amount of my time in the evenings working on my negotiation, tactical and analytical skills with the following exercise...</span><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><img height="72" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYO0I2FzQ2DkOqQlAjkDJayCS8e9aMQpTOmAavAST4AiZE30esDx1n1cuzyK0ifCDE7aVUYTcAsC8cBrSR9tqacerERQKQ5c02wkIGQRyr1K_Ka5lQ5PPu5EQH0_SDHhNbdtdqZoYeCQ4/s320/Rummy.jpg" style="filter: alpha(opacity=30); left: 429px; mozopacity: 0.3; opacity: 0.3; position: absolute; top: 270px; visibility: hidden;" width="96" /> </div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYO0I2FzQ2DkOqQlAjkDJayCS8e9aMQpTOmAavAST4AiZE30esDx1n1cuzyK0ifCDE7aVUYTcAsC8cBrSR9tqacerERQKQ5c02wkIGQRyr1K_Ka5lQ5PPu5EQH0_SDHhNbdtdqZoYeCQ4/s1600/Rummy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYO0I2FzQ2DkOqQlAjkDJayCS8e9aMQpTOmAavAST4AiZE30esDx1n1cuzyK0ifCDE7aVUYTcAsC8cBrSR9tqacerERQKQ5c02wkIGQRyr1K_Ka5lQ5PPu5EQH0_SDHhNbdtdqZoYeCQ4/s320/Rummy.jpg" style="cursor: move;" unselectable="on" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>Rummy - beer optional</em><br />
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</tbody></table><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=bc851236-d38f-4610-beea-a8237a1378d0" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; float: right;" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">... yep you guessed it - Rummy! Above is my first ever winning hand - I know, a pair of 3s, who would have thunk'ed it?</span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also got up to some reading whilst I was away reading</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Mick Cope's 'The Secrets of Success in Coaching' and Joseph O'Connor and Andrea Lages' 'How Coaching Works' - there is a theme in the subject areas somwhere here...)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would recommend both, with perhaps Cope for a short whistle-stop guide to the area. However for the benefit of this post am talking about some useful resources that came out of the O'Connor book.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The book gives a great overview on the history of coaching, how it has developed and its relevance in the modern workplace. It also deals with many different strands and theories in the subject area (NLP, Coactive Coaching, Ontological Coaching etc), so I felt covered a level both applicable to experienced practitioners or those looking to get an overview of the subject area.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the section of Positive Psychology - hold it! Don't minimise this post! Appreciate in some circles this has some negative connotations (don't player hate on Tony Robbins and Dr Phil - well if you must but keep it brief) but the way I look at things is that if you believe something will or will not work for you then you are correct. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">(let that last comment marinate in your brain a little while if you did not immediately catch my drift)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">In the section they mention the Via questionnaire, developed by Chris Patterson and Martin Seligman, which examines your character strengths and how these derive from your core values, where your interest lie etc. Its free and can be taken via the <a href="http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/questionnaires.aspx">University of Pennsylvania's website</a> (just to mention you will have to register but that is quick to do). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I wondered in light of the current economic climate whether this might be of interest to anyone considering a 360 in terms of their careers, to have an examination of what some of your strengths are? Have a look at and see what you think - its free and surely any thought provoking exercises are all good, no? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Just like any good game of Rummy.</span>mullarkeypjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17525751223678887500noreply@blogger.com0