Thinking Ahead Journal 20th September 2010

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Ideas and Insights from the eGurus Community www.eGurus.info 20th September 2010

Thinking Ahead is a collection of blog posts from members of the eGurus Community. Each contributing author retains their copyright for their individual content. The material contained in this publication is general and is not intended as advice on any particular matter. The authors expressly disclaim all and any liability to any persons whatsoever in respect of anything done by any such person in reliance, whether in whole or in part, on this publication.

20 September 2010

Thinking Ahead www.eGurus.info

MATT CHURCH

9. Lose some people along the way

Are your people commercially smart?

10.Make it about projects over strategy Leading in the 21st century is a lot looser and is about managing with confidence and clarity when the prevailing conversations are fear and uncertainty. It comes down (I think) to:

SEP 21, 2010 12:00P.M. I have been thinking a lot lately about how you need to lead clever people to be commercially successful nowadays.

1. Increasing Personal Leadership at all levels.

No longer is it about manpower, it’s now all about talent leverage.

2. Enterprising your existing Thought Leadership.

Your competitive advantage in the modern world is the quality of your people. It’s definitely about their ability to innovate, the quality of their intellectual property, their engagement levels and skills, and their ability to get increasingly more done with diminishing physical resources.

3. Skilling your people in and creating opportunities for Speakership.

Lead your thinkers...

Several years ago I founded Thought Leaders as a commercial co-operative that serves some of the smartest people on the planet. To date we are well established in Australia and New Zealand and are expanding in 2011 into three other key global markets. The Thought Leaders Movement is a fabulous testing ground for 21stcentury leadership.

M@ Matt Church

Some things I feel you need to do to lead clever people:

DIFFERENCEMAKERS COMMUNITY BLOG

Decision Making and the brain

1. Create an organisation that operates more like a circle and less like a triangle.

SEP 21, 2010 05:19A.M.

2. Make sure you as the leader inspire and engage

I will start by stating the obvious, we make decisions with our brains. But let us consider what our brains are for. They have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to help us survive and to that end they are highly effective decision making instruments. However in modern day situations, and especially in business, these mechanisms for decision making may not be the best. So rather than spending time on developing sophisticated decision making strategies it is bound to be useful to understand some of the mechanisms that our brains have developed to make decisions. By understanding these mechanisms we can become sensitised to their shortcomings and so develop approaches to counteract these shortcomings and thus make better decisions.

3. Create a clear intent that people can buy into or sell out of 4. Create a sense of higher purpose (that you will personally stay committed to) 5. Make sure that success of the whole is contingent on the success of the individuals 6. Find ways to stay in touch and communicate your key messages 7. Don’t be afraid to change your mind

Let us just think for a moment about bad decisions and how much they cost. Think for a moment about how many people in your organisation

8. Fail fast

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make bad decisions. How much money is your organisation losing each day because of bad decisions? If you had a small improvement in decision making, say 10%, how much would that save: on a daily basis; over a year. This is perhaps difficult to quantify but if even just one major bad decision could be turned into a good decision then the benefits could be immense.

So let’s try it out. I’d like to ask you to fold your hands. If you look at your hands you will notice that one index finger is above the other one. When we are young we have to learn to fold our hands like this. Each way is equally likely at this point. However a habit quickly forms and one way becomes dominant. When we are older we will usually only fold our hands in one way. So for most of our lives we have been folding our hands in only one way. You would think that a habit as well established as that would be hard to break. But let’ try this. Try folding you hands so that the other index finger is on top. What does it feel like? Most people find this quite uncomfortable but bear with me for a moment. Let’s try slowly folding our hands back to the original position and slowly back again to the second position.

We can make better decisions. The good news is that we have a brain! In our brain we have over ten thousand million neurons and the number of possible interconnections between these neurons is 10 followed by 100 zeros. We have an immensely complex piece of machinery in our brains.

However, is the brain fixed in the way it processes information?

In order to drive a traditional black cab in London a taxi driver has to pass ‘the knowledge’. This is a test about the streets of London and the best way to navigate around them. It has been known for some time that the hippocampus, an area of the brain, is responsible for processing geographical information. In the year 2000 a team from University College London scanned the brains of some taxi drivers and found that their hippocampuses were bigger than those of normal people. This is a really significant finding! It shows that exercise and practice can physically develop areas of the brain and increase the connectivity of the neurons.

And then back again, and back again, and back again, and back again, and back again, and finally back again.

Now just shake your hands.

The bad news is that the brain has a very specialist design. It has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years for survival purposes and not necessarily for making the best business decisions. Part of the specialist design is our memory systems. When brain scans are done on chess players some interesting results are found. Masters and Grand Masters seem to have activity towards the rear of the brain which is normally associated with our memory systems. Less competent chess players tend to have most activity towards the front of the brain, in the pre-frontal cortex, which is normally associated with decision making. When we make decisions are we using our memory of past situations or analysing each situation anew?

So let’s try it again. I’d like to ask you to fold your hands again. Can you remember if this is the way you did it originally?

What’s interesting about this is that most people, after only five repetitions, feel much less awkward. Some people cannot even tell the difference any more. This is a very simple example of how a life long habit can be overturned (or at least lessened) by only five practices at doing it a different way.

Large areas of our brains have developed for pattern recognition. This is obviously useful for recognising objects and faces. Unfortunately we also tend to see patterns when there are actually none there.

We have seen that our brains have some limitations when it comes to decision making.

The good news is that if we understand what these limitations are we can reprogramme even long established habits. We can also grow parts of our brain.

Our brains are also very good at establishing habits. These are very useful ‘short cuts’ to our decision making processes. We don’t need to think about everything that we come across on a daily basis. Let’s have a look at one habit we have developed – how we fold our hands.

So if we can understand how our decision making works, we can spot the deficiencies in our decision making. Knowing what these deficiencies

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are we can take countermeasures to improve them.

dog tags out... I sit with them in my hand and say to myself, ‘I made a good one then, what’s the right one now?’”

ROSS CLENNETT

What helps you to make a good decision? Feel free to write your thoughts below.

How to keep your top billers engaged and motivated

Thanks for taking the Time & Space to read this.

SEP 21, 2010 02:03A.M.

Bill Jennings http:www.time-space.com.au

Every few months or so I will receive a call from a CEO, owner or manger who will ask my advice about keeping their top biller motivated. The particular dilemma is that the top biller concerned has stated little or no desire to become a manager of people within the business. The CEO, owner or manager is, understandably concerned that without fresh

DR JENNY BROCKIS

Long term memories and associations.

challenges, their star may be tempted with an

SEP 20, 2010 08:51P.M. BILL JENNINGS FROM TIME & SPACE

Making Good Decisions SEP 20, 2010 11:02P.M. Murray described what was in his hand as something that, at first viewing, is a fairly unremarkable collection of metal. At a Time & Space expedition, we bring along, and share treasures around the campfire.

People bring a tangible item that they value and share the stories that are attached to that object. It doesn’t have to be something of significant monetary value - just something that is valuable to the story teller.

In one of the sessions leading up to the camp, each participant shares their own story. Who have been the influences for good or bad in your life? What are the big events and experiences that have shaped who you are? Murray looked back on a life that had had a lot of twists and turns along the journey. I’ve been privileged to have heard many people in this mode (telling their story to a small group) over the years. It is a privilege because everyone has a unique story, everyone is different and it is precious to hear because people are giving themselves the time and space to take stock of their life to that point. Quite often, the person is telling their story in this way, for the first time. This was the case with Murray and he was a having a real crack, digging down to the things, the people, the events that had shaped him. A lot of stuff had happened in Murray’s life and a lot had happened recently. That’s all I can say... we respect the confidentiality of the small group.

Think back to the year 1969.

Can you remember a specific event that happened in that year?

Yes? Or maybe no?

What if I then said, think of “Stardust”?

Murray was happy for the story of the handful of metal to be told. Pretty simple connection he made but simplicity can be poignant and it was, in this instance. Murray was holding in his hand, his dog tags. He had experienced active service as a peace keeper in the Australian Army.

Or Jimi Hendrix?

Now what does that bring to mind?

As Murray held the dog tags he said, “these represent a time when I made a good decision. I could have gone off the rails as a young bloke and joining the army gave me stability.” Then the wisdom emerged...

Murray shared that, “whenever I have to make a big decision I get my

1969 was the year of the Woodstock festival when 500,000 fans descended on a field in New York State to listen to three days of music.

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It was also the year Richard Nixon was sworn into office and the year that Neil Armstrong took “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”

Our brain cells are in constant competition and it will always be the strongest circuit that wins.

Rehearsal and repetition is the key to introducing new ideas for longterm memory. This is vital for us for example when learning how to use new technology or learning facts needed to pass an exam or test.

Sleep is also needed to help embed new learning. Studies have shown that after being given new information, ideally we need around 8 hours sleep to really consolidate the new ideas and process it to make it available for long-term recall.

Memories are like layered dressing. When recalling a memory from a while back we look for the associations of where we were, what we may have been doing, who we were with. For me I have visual images of Hippies wearing headbands and large peace symbol necklaces, the Vietnam War, the smell of marijuana and incense.

Last Saturday I went to a commemorative concert that featured some of the music from the Woodstock concert. As soon as the music started, song after song was so familiar, I found myself tapping my feet and singing along to all of the words, which miraculously were still there as well.

I was reliving memories of songs and names of bands I hadn’t thought about for nearly four decades.

Meanwhile I am still happily enjoying the recent rewind in my mind of those classics from Canned Heat, the Band and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Yeah baby, let’s dig it.

Related Posts

Our long-term memory has the remarkable capacity to help us recall these events and when primed, all the associations come tumbling in.

• Keeping mentally active preserves memory, but is there a later cost?

How does our remarkable brain keep this seemingly forgotten information ready at our fingertips?

• Sugar, sugar, too much is bad for your brain and memory.

Our memory is not static. In fact our memories of events that we replay are embellished and altered over the years. It is thought that a memory does not become more stable until it is at least 10 years old. Plus each time we recall these older memories back into our conscious thinking they become unstable again. With each recall that memory is also more at risk of interference from other memories and events, which can get intertwined with the original story.

• Don’t blow a gasket. Keep your blood pressure down to save your brain.

Maybe that’s why the story of “the fish that got away” gets bigger and bigger with each telling. It’s our memory changing the story. We really do believe those changes though.

Maybe that’s why also when my husband is telling the story of an adventure we both experienced on a particular holiday, his recall can be so different from my recollection of those particular events.

• Doodling Helps Memory Recall

• Why eating eggs for breakfast and skipping the cough medicine is better for your memory.

• Studying tips to help us learn better

• Having trouble with your memory? Just breathe.

• Why listening to music doesn’t help you with your homework.

• What A Laugh. Why A Dose Of Laughter Is Still The Best Medicine.

Far from being stored in one particular place like a filing cabinet, the different components of our memories are shared around the cortex or surface of our brain. Memories that are associated with emotion tend to be the strongest, which is why certain events such as our personal triumphs or tragedies remain most vivid.

• Sorry, what did you say your name was? How to remember people’s names more easily.

So what happens to those memories that don’t serve us anymore? If they are never recalled, then the brain’s clever synaptic pruning takes place.

Dendrites disappear and those inter-neural or brain cell connections are lost. The beauty of this is that this then frees up space for new connections and new memories to form. A form of sustainable memory farming perhaps?

Trying to lose a strongly emotionally charged memory whether it is positive or negative, is hard work, as our brain has to rewire itself to produce a new robust circuit stronger than the pre-existing one.

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GIHAN PERERA

relevant information you are going to receive more emails than you might otherwise get as people ask for clarification etc.

Organise all your stuff with Springpad

T Is the email TARGETED to the right people? Is the email you are about to send necessary in order for the recipient(s) to do his or her job?

If it’s not, don’t send it.

SEP 20, 2010 06:00P.M. Springpad is a tool for collecting your “stuff”:

If we all took a bit more time to A-C-T before sending we would all receive less email.

And that has to be a good thing.

NOTES FROM THE WORKPLACE GARDEN

Future trends SEP 20, 2010 09:22A.M. Did you know that Singapore will host the inaugural International Skyrise Greenery Conference in November. To quote from their website (www.skyrisegreeneryconference.com) it will be about: Springpad is a no-cost Web service - and also available as an iPhone or Android app - that helps you organise the “stuff” in your life.

“ the latest technological developments and new areas of application in the field of rooftop greenery and vertical greenery.

There’s an excellent review of it on the Lifehacker site, so rather than repeat that, I’ll refer you to it for details.

Held at the National Library, Singapore, it will serve as a platform where international urban greenery experts from various disciplines will come together with the academia, architects, landscape architects, landscape contractors, policy-makers and stakeholders to discuss the present and future trends of this growing sector.

This is one of the on-line services featured in my Gold Star Services mailing list. If you would like to learn of more services like this to help you be more productive, sign up to the mailing list here.

Topics will include various essential aspects of skyrise greenery such as specifications and installation of rooftop greenery and vertical greenery systems, technical studies of the benefits of skyrise greenery (eg. thermal and energy conservation, air quality improvement, noise mitigation, etc), integration of skyrise greenery with sustainable eco-processes and biodiversity enhancement, incentives and guidelines.”

JANI MURPHY - MAKING TIME COUNT

Email Smart Tip #48: Too many emails?

SEP 20, 2010 10:33A.M.

This is certainly a new trend in the area of building and one that is certain to blossom in the coming years (excuse the pun). Who would have thought even 5 years ago that something like this would emerge as a new science.

There is a really simple answer to problem of too many emails – if you want to getless email then send less email. It’s not rocket science – use other communication tools. Mix it up a little.

Well, what is the equivalent in terms of leadership? We’ve had the servant leader concept (or what I call the “what can I do for you?” style of leadership) crop up in recent years and lately I’ve been hearing a lot about R.O.W.E. or Results Only Work Environments where people are paid for output rather than the number of hours worked (something that’s actually been the norm in a number of industries for decades but appears to be rocket science to others). With the elevation of more Gen Ys into the leadership ranks we are also starting to see a new, as yet undefined, style of leadership.

To help you look a little more closely at the problem, I have a simple tool you can use – The A-C-T Email Volume Tool.

It works like this – before you click on Send, ask 3 questions: A – Is email the APPROPRIATE tool for the job? Yes it might seem like an easy way to get the job done but it’s not always appropriate to use email; and in some cases it can be extremely inappropriate. (see the Phone vs Email Tips 31 and 32)

In my monthly newsletter “Growing engaging leaders” for September I introduced a new feature called “Monthly awards: the good and bad of

C Is the email COMPLETE? If the email doesn’t contain ALL the

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workplace engagement” where I am highlighting real world examples of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to engaging employees.

Some of the ideas I have collected for this demonstrate what the future of leadership could be all about. You will have to sign up to find out what they are!

career.

Our boss didn’t know us To put it bluntly, he was shy and uncomfortable talking to people who weren’t his buddies. And it showed. His staff meetings and presentations made us all see and feel his discomfort. He shared plenty of facts and figures, strategy, plans for the future and intelligence about what the competition was up to.

So, are you willing to embrace new ways, to be on the cutting edge of the future trends or are you simply going to be a follower, a late adopter who gets on board with new initiatives only when you have no other choice? It may well be in the future that governments will require all new buildings to meet a “green code” that includes the provision of roof top gardens as they realize the environmental benefits of these measures. What a shame we can’t easily introduce similar policies for the way we lead in organizations . . .

But he never engaged us on a personal level. We didn’t know anything about Simon. And we certainly didn’t believe he knew anything about us.

THE ALMOND EFFECT

As a result, people switched off, felt uninspired and did not feel they could raise questions that were on their minds. Simon lacked personal credibility as a leader even though he was a smart and likeable man and a great engineer. Inevitably the good people took their ambitions, ideas

Sit still for a minute!

and innovative ‘what if’s’ elsewhere and the organization lost serious intellectual capital.

SEP 20, 2010 03:49A.M. If only Simon had taken the time to get to know people personally, share stories, paid attention to their individual needs, goals and aspirations, helped them overcome their concerns and encouraged and rewarded their enthusiasm. And as a leader, that was his job.

My life as a comma I find it hard to sit still. My mind is always buzzing. The moment I sit down I usually jump up again because I think of things I’ve forgotten to do, can’t forget to do or have to do at that moment. When I do sit down, my husband says it’s just a comma in my life!

Guilt in the home I also thought about two women I am close to – a friend and a family member. One works extraordinarily long hours (over 13 hours a day) in a very senior role, then spends almost all of her non-working time looking after her young daughter. Yet she feels guilty if she reads a magazine for 5 minutes or takes time to exercise.

In fact, unless I am on holiday I feel really uncomfortable, even guilty, just sitting down to read a magazine or novel. And watch a movie or TV during the day? It would be simpler, emotionally, to fly to the moon.

Can you relate to that? What is it that drives this behaviour? And what implications does it have, not only for rest and recharging but also for creative thinking time.

The other woman has just had an operation to remove a cancerous growth. 48 hours after the operation, she is feeling guilty because her pain and exhaustion mean she has to sit still.

And how does this spill over into our lives at work? How can we be energized and efficient, reflective and strategic if we don’t sit still long enough to let thoughts percolate? How can we build trusting relationships with the team around us if we don’t stay still long enough to be emotionally engaged in the relationship?

Too much activity can sabotage us As a leader and change catalyst, engendering trust, building relationships, listening to others and garnering emotional commitment are mission critical skills. How else can we get our people on board with cost cutting, streamlining processes, with changing or eliminating practices and behaviours they know and are comfortable with? How else can we excite their curiosity and passion about a new version of the future and what it might mean for them?

The boss who never stops I thought about Peter. He was a man I worked with many years ago.

Peter arrived in the office at 7.30am and was usually the last to leave. He was always on the go – visible, active, always busy but he didn’t get the results that we anticipated. And his relations with his team were poor.

Three fundamental of successful change

That made me think about a CEO I worked with for a number of years.

Let’s call him Simon. Simon was another of those people always on the move. Yet i spent most of that time trying to get him to stay out of the operational areas and focus on being ‘emotionally’ available to his executive team. The challenge was that his comfort zone was in the operational area where he had excelled and charted his very successful

ChangeTrack Research (CT0508] has identified three fundamentals of successful change: * Change must make a positive difference to the bottom line * Trust in leaders. If it evaporates, change falls over * There is no such thing as ‘one size fits all’

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So I have just been still for the last couple of hours writing this CLUES. Admittedly I am on a plane so that may have an influence! But I am practicing what I preach and am re-training myself to be still both in my mind and body, in the office and at home.

So while Simon and Peter were setting out to achieve the first, their inability or unwillingness to be ‘still’, to be in relationship with their people long enough to work on the other two fundamentals, meant that neither they, nor the companies, achieved their full potential.

Practicing Mindfulness is one part of that strategy and we will come back to Mindfulness, its role in focusing attention and controlling stress and anxiety (The Almond Effect®) in another CLUES. In the meantime the goal I’m aiming for? That my husband tells me I’ve progressed from a

What drives this behaviour?

Perhaps it’s a gene and generational thing. I recall my mother, who never sat still herself, made sure that we were always doing something. Sitting and reading was only permissible if it was homework and all the housework was done (almost an impossibility). That’s my recollection yet it’s probably faulty because we now know that each time we recall a memory, we refashion it into the new context. That’s both the ‘beauty and the beast’ of neuro-plasticity.

comma to a semi-colon and ultimately to a page break!

DIFFERENCEMAKERS COMMUNITY BLOG

Start with Why by Simon Sinek

But unless and until we examine our behaviour drivers, we simply keep

SEP 19, 2010 08:13P.M.

doing them and they become ingrained, habitual and hard to change.

Even though I know that the implications I draw from my memory may not be accurate, the ‘guilt’ attached to sitting still feels real.

This TEDx talk by Simon Sinek Start with Why is a classic.

Applying Simon’s lessons will take your personal and business life to a whole new level. It has mine!

Visibility at work And at work, what do we value? What have we habitually valued over the years? Even though organisations now talk about focus on outcomes and results, how many managers do you know, still feel uncomfortable if someone is not in the workplace, is working from home, seems to be spending a lot of time talking to others or conversely doesn’t seem to be doing very much at all? Why aren’t they DOING something!

Be the difference you want to see in the world Ian Founder Differencemakers Community Catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit

The Almond Effect® Sign-up here for a least one free resource per month and to get your complimentary copy of my ebook Differencemakers - how doing good is great for business.

Of course I suspect our Amygdala is also involved in this. So I ask what are we anxious (fearful) about that conjures this need to be constantly on the move and suspect others who aren’t.

As we have discussed many times, The Almond Effect® is when our amygdala triggers reactions to perceived threats that are simply psychological not physical. It doesn’t make it any less real of course.

MICHAEL NEAYLON

Have A Little Faith

And thoughts are just that. They are simply constructs in our brains. We can change those thoughts and the feelings and behaviours that go with them. We can apply STAR to these behaviours:

SEP 19, 2010 05:54P.M.

* Stop and catch yourself moving, moving, moving whether it be in your mind or your body * Think about what’s driving your behaviour and what would be the consequences if you were ‘still’ and reflective for a period * Act differently – set goals for how long you will be ‘still’ and ‘present’ for others * Rewire – ask yourself if anything disastrous happened when you did reach your goal and stayed ‘still’ whether in mind or body. When you realize it didn’t, rewire that insight and reflection into your memory.

They’re not massive, earth shattering, yell it from the mountain top examples of faith, but they add up.

My goal

And I’m beginning to learn that just like commitment, it’s a daily act.

Not something that happens to you.

Would you like some snippets of faith?

1. Clients I thought had gone away came back.

2. A 15 year old with Aspergers showed faith in my guidance, and ulitmately, faith in his ability to think for himself.

3. A promise I presumed would be broken was infact kept.

I don’t have a religion. But I’m beginning to have faith.

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No. Faith is there for you to exercise.

Believe in.

Perhaps the answer is that it depends on the entrepreneur.

Belief is an act.

GIHAN PERERA

Anh Do doing his stuff (masterfully) at the Thought Leaders Showcase

And if you don’t believe in yourself, no one will.

Have a little faith. Back it with belief. Tell me what happens.

To Your Success Michael Neaylon

SEP 17, 2010 06:00P.M.

Author of the forthcoming book, ‘Marketing Makeovers: How To Bring In Big Dollars For Your Small Business.’ michael@mcme.com.au GIHAN PERERA

Entrepreneurs: born or bred?

Australia and the Internet: Election 2010 Aftermath

SEP 19, 2010 02:26P.M.

SEP 16, 2010 08:23P.M.

What makes someone successful in business? Were they born to it or did they learn it?

For some entrepreneurs, such as Aimee Marks, the path to success has been through a university course. Despite getting the idea for her biodegradable tampon company, T.O.M Organic, at school, Marks decided a university course would develop her product and company in a more thorough manner with a secure network of mentors to support her.

“The course taught me the fundamentals of launching and growing a business, and helped me avoid mistakes,” she says. “But ultimately entrepreneurship is about passion. If you are not really driven by an idea, no course will turn you into an entrepreneur.”

And many would agree, there are countless stories of successful entrepreneurs who have turned a unique idea into a thriving business through personal dedication, without the benefit of a university course.

This is the second of our two-part podcast on the 2010 Australian General Election. In our previous podcast, prior to polling day, we spoke about the underwhelming campaigns waged by the main political contenders, focusing on their use of the Internet and social media. In this podcast we’re going to discuss the result of the election and focus on Internet policies, in particular the National Broadband Network (NBN).

One such team are nephew and uncle, Sean Condon and Tom O’Dowd, who are cashing in on the current Power Band craze. Thought to improve balance, strength and stability, the band has no medical foundation but many are convinced of its bohemian effects providing an annual turnover of more than a million dollars.

Listen to the episode here, or download the MP3 file:

MP3 File

Condon basically fell across the band during a paddleboard lesson in Bali, the instructor telling him of its benefits. Recognising potential he convinced his uncle to join him in buying the Australasian importing rights.

Subscribe to our podcast here.

Additional Resources

As with many entrepreneurs, Condon and O’Dowd treat their business as a job and work hard to promote the band. A carpenter by trade, O’Dowd does not profess to understand the reasons behind the power of the band but saw the potential and ran with it.

• NBN laid bare • One economic disaster remains (Crikey.com.au)

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• Coalition’s “NBN” in a nutshell

ANN ROLFE’S MENTORING WORKS BLOG

• Some telcos have proposed an alternative

Who Mentors the Mentors?

SEP 16, 2010 07:05P.M.

• Conroy keeps Internet censorship alive It’s a question often asked during a launch, workshop, mid-point review or final event of a mentoring program and it’s a valid point: who mentors the mentor?

• Chief executives demand change from Conroy

We expect mentors to facilitate conversations, manage the relationship and solve any problems that arise. It’s pretty ironic that we don’t give them mentoring for their role, don’t you think?

GARY RYAN

Secrets of Young Achievers Exposed - Two Free Chapters from Best Selling Author Dale Beaumont

Without ongoing support, there’s always the risk that: • People get busy and mentoring slips as a priority; • As the fanfare of the initial training fades, enthusiasm wanes and relationships fizzle out;

SEP 16, 2010 07:57P.M. • The strategic value and personal benefits of mentoring may be forgotten; • They don’t realise the value they themselves get from being a mentor; • They wonder if they are doing a good job and their confidence is undermined; • Some that think they’re doing OK but they don’t know how to mentor for better outcomes; • Others continue unchecked, unproductive styles of mentoring that destroy relationships; • They feel isolated when they have problems and it becomes easier to let mentoring slide; Secrets of Young Achievers Exposed is a book featuring 12 of Australia’s brightest young talent. This free ebook includes two chapters of the book and features Amy Wilkins creator of Active Kidz and Hugh Evans, founder of the Oaktree Foundation.

• Without feedback and support, they don’t have a way of improving their skills; • Mentors feel undervalued and even resent their service to others because no one mentors them.

Learn about the success secrets of these two inspiring young Australians.

With more and more organizations expecting mentoring to achieve strategic outcomes, it’s never been more important to make sure you get it right. If you train mentors and those they mentor, you are off to a good start. If you give mentors the opportunity to network with each other, keep learning and be mentored you are ahead of the game.

Download your free copy of this ebook here.

Dale Beaumont, one of Australia’s most successful author’s is one of my mentors (even though I’m ten years older than him!). Dale provided direction and guidance in helping me to publish my first book What Really Matters For Young Professionals!

What can you do?

Please enjoy this free gift that Dale has allowed me to pass on to you.

Provide a forum for mentors to ask questions, interact with their peers and get feedback; Continue their education and development as mentors by giving them

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tips, tools and techniques; and Ensure that mentors experience expert mentoring for themselves.

For me, this reinforces the message that e-mail should still be in important part of your marketing efforts. Some people think an e-mail newsletter is “so twentieth-century”, but it’s still the easiest way to reach your network with solid material that positions you as an expert.

Without ongoing support there is a real risk that a mentoring program will fail to produce. Mentor your mentors, develop their capabilities, keep them engaged and your program will thrive because that’s how mentoring works.

Thought Leadership (72%) The Shattuck research includes both on-line and off-line marketing in this category - including things like white papers and special reports, writing articles and publishing books. In the on-line world, you can add things like blogging, podcasting and educational videos.

GIHAN PERERA

The Top Five Ways to Get HighQuality Incoming Leads

You can choose the medium that’s right for you - for example, I love writing and audio, but find video time-consuming. But make sure you are getting your thought leadership out there.

SEP 16, 2010 05:29P.M. Earlier this year, the marketing company The Shattuck Group, which works with professional service firms and experts, conducted some research to find the most effective marketing tools for these businesses.

Seth Godin is the poster child for this - using his books and his blogs to create worldwide name recognition in his field (marketing). In fact, Google Trends shows there are more people searching for him by name than searching for the term “marketing consultant”!

Specifically, they were asking this question: “How do you build a simple and effective lead generation plan that just works – a plan that impacts revenue and profits while still being manageable and affordable?”

Good question, huh?

After surveying more than 350 business leaders, they got these top five responses:

Public Speaking (66%) The Shattuck research is talking about doing no-fee presentations for positioning yourself as an expert.

This is a tricky one for some infopreneurs and thought leaders, because “public speaking” is what we do for money. So you might have an allergic reaction to giving away your expertise for nothing.

This is extremely valuable research for us as infopreneurs and thought leaders, because it tells you what’s working in practice, not just in theory.

So let’s look at them in a bit more detail - and I’ll give you my take on each.

But there’s a right and a wrong way to do this, and you have to use your judgement. Not every presentation you give has to be for the fee alone. If you get the right positioning opportunity, you might be happy to waive your fee.

E-Mail Marketing (78%) At the very least, if you’re not willing to give away face-to-face presentations, you can appear as a guest webinar presenter, or be interviewed on a podcast.

The Shattuck research includes all forms of e-mail marketing in this, including your own e-mail newsletter, buying advertising in other e-mail newsletters, and so on.

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20 September 2010

Search Engine Marketing (66%)

(It’s the same with on-line video, by the way. When did you last see a really popular YouTube video from a professional speaker?)

So what will YOU do?

The Shattuck research white paper concludes with this summary: “We believe it is wise to put the majority of your lead generation resources into tactics with a demonstrated history of success. It’s fine to experiment with other tactics too. But don’t bet your growth on these. Focus on what works.”

I couldn’t agree more! All of the five things above are solid, wellestablished marketing tools (even though webinars are new-ish), and not trendy BSOs (Bright Shiny Objects - things that distract you from your main goal) like Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare.

According to the Shattuck research, this includes all forms of search engine marketing, not just search engine optimisation (SEO). This is an important point, because many business owners want to focus on SEO alone, and ignore other things like Google AdWords, pay-for-placement, sponsorship, and so on.

So get going with your e-mail newsletter, blog and webinars!

I won’t go into more detail here about this. If you’re interested, and you’re an eGurus member, check out the excellent webinar Ed KeaySmith did in June, “Search Engine Marketing Secrets”, available in the eGurus Vault.

Complimentary Webinar 22nd September

Webinars (58%)

I’m running a complimentary webinar next Wednesday (22nd September) to follow up on the article above and expand on these ideas.

The Shattuck research was based on surveying experts who generally don’t create great content as a matter of course. So it’s harder for them to put the ideas above into practice.

It’s different for us, because we’re already creating great content - in keynote speeches, training workshops, coaching sessions, books and audio programs, and elsewhere. Some of it might already be on your Web site. But is it getting out there elsewhere on the Internet for people to find?

There’s no doubt webinars are becoming more popular as a way of marketing your expertise (that’s why I wrote the book Webinar Smarts), and the Shattuck research confirms this.

WARNING: I see many speakers neglecting webinars, and they shouldn’t! They get caught up in how to charge money for them, how to be “perfect” when delivering them, whether they will cannibalise their existing business, and all sorts of other excuses. Ironically, it’s mainly the non-speakers, who don’t have any of this baggage, who are taking advantage of webinar technology to accelerate their business growth.

Register for the webinar here - there’s no cost.

And please feel free to share this link with your network as well.

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20 September 2010

DIFFERENCEMAKERS COMMUNITY BLOG

ANN ROLFE’S MENTORING WORKS BLOG

Books, E-Books and the EPublishing Revolution

The Pareto Principle

SEP 15, 2010 08:00P.M.

What can an 18th century economist teach us about mentoring? Just this: one simple principle that may be the single most important factor in a successful mentoring relationship!

SEP 15, 2010 07:31P.M.

Vilfredo Pareto (1848 -1923) described a phenomenon now known as the 80:20 rule. Pareto’s principle generalises to a surprising number of areas. 80% of revenue comes from 20% of customers, 80% of problems come from 20% causes, 80% of results come from 20% of activities. In mentoring the 80:20 rule can be applied in at least two ways:

E-books have finally come of age, thanks to new devices that make them easy, convenient and practical. In this issue of the Focal Point podcast, Chris Pudney and Gihan Perera discuss what’s available for you as a consumer, author or publisher.

1. Listening

Listen to the episode here, or download the MP3 file:

Good mentors spend 80% of their time listening and only 20% speaking.

What this also means is that mentorees must be speaking 80% of the time! Sharing their goals, interests and concerns.

MP3 File Subscribe to our podcast here.

2. Content and Process Additional resources: • Content is what is spoken about. The subject, topic, goals discussed.

• Readable app • Amazon’s eBook sales top hardback sales

• Process means how a topic is discussed. The tools, techniques, models applied to address an issue.

• Famous authors bypassing publishers to go “e” • Jacob Nielsen’s usability study This is an extract from Mentoring Tips 1 # 13. If you would like the full text (one-page) email info@mentoring-works.com with “Send Tip 13” in the subject line.

• iPad snob appeal • PowerPoint vs books

Consider supporting your mentoring program with regular Mentoring Tips from the international mentoring specialist. Receiving Mentoring Tips on a regular basis: • Provides mentors with ongoing information, tools and motivation; • Keeps participants engaged in the process; and • Informs managers mentoring techniques and benefits

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One-page informative and easy-to-read tips cover a range of topics to help your mentors be the best they can be. Volumes 1 and 2 of Mentoring Tips 1-12 are available now. For more information visit www.mentoring-

I encourage you to ask your friends the same question and please answer it for me by sending me an email or getting in touch.

works.com.

Be the difference you want to see in the world Ian Founder Differencemakers Community Catalyst for changing what’s normal for the good of people, our planet, and for profit

DIFFERENCEMAKERS COMMUNITY BLOG

Sequence and frequency - keys to building business relationships that matter

Sign-up here for a least one free resource per month and to get your complimentary copy of my ebook Differencemakers - how doing good is great for business.

SEP 15, 2010 04:43A.M.

MATT CHURCH

I recently re-read (for the fourth time!) Seth Godin’s book Permission

Conference Presenter Basics

Marketing - turning strangers into friends and friends into customers.

SEP 14, 2010 09:22P.M.

What jumped out at me this read was Frequency is the holy grail of marketing.

Are you planning to speak at a conference anytime soon? If so, here are a few basic things to remember...

I asked myself and I ask you, How frequently do you stay in touch with your customers/clients? My answer was not frequently enough and I resolved to do better, mindful of Dunbar’s law that 150 meaningful relationships is about all we can handle at any one time.

Before you begin speaking...

• SEND your information. Your photo, presentation title and blurb, AV Requirements etc. DON’T wait for them to chase you! Be pro-active and make it easy for the organiser.

I made a list of my 150 best business relationships and I am going to stay in touch more frequently. I am also going to be more mindful of sequence.

• Write an introduction. Email it to the organiser and also print it out and take it with you. Make it fun and focussed more on your message than on you.

Aside from referrals I have 5 entry points to begin business relationships: my monthly ezine, my monthly gift list, my elearning trial, my possibility pulse check, and when people join differencemakers community.

• Take your presentation slides. Take it on a USB, and name it with YOUR name. Not just the conference name. Make sure it is the ONLY file on the USB to avoid confusion.

When people sign-up for any of these they have become followers. My quest then is to turn a percentage of followers into friends and some of them into fans. I know from 20 years experience that when I am in regular contact with my 150 friends I have more than enough business.

• ARRIVE in the conference room early.

• FIND OUT what has happened before your presentation and what will be happening afterwards.

What are your entry points?

Things to remember when on the stage...

As I reviewed my processes this week I decided that I am good at welcoming people when they become followers however my sequence of staying in touch from there needs improvement.

• Don’t say, I’ll get to that in a few minutes, or I’ll speak about that later in my talk.

• Don’t read your slides.

What is your sequence of staying in touch? Are you random like me, or do you just contact people when you have something to offer them?

• Don’t use someone else’s material without attribution.

• Do make the organiser look good. If authentic, praise them from the stage.

I have resolved to ensure that my sequence of contact with my friends is really valuable to them and I have begun by asking my friends what would be really valuable for you to receive from me?

• Do acknowledge the time remaining signs held up at the back of the room (or elsewhere). A nod will do.

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And finally, Make sure you know the actual finish time and length of talk, so you finish then, no matter what!

Going Backward is Going Forward

M@

SEP 14, 2010 04:47P.M.

Matt Church

Technology in business is all very well, but chucking it at everything that moves is a bad idea. Possibly the worst case of this is something all of us have been frustrated by at some point in time: machines answering the telephone.

ROSS CLENNETT Funnily enough, if I go to the effort of calling a company on the telephone, that will always mean I want to speak to a human being who has the capacity to think independently in order to resolve my query or problem. The only possible instance of my being happy to hear an automated voice on the other end would be if I called the speaking clock.

How hiring mistakes are made SEP 14, 2010 06:31P.M. For those of us who follow the AFL version of football in this country, you couldn’t help but know that last week, perennial bad boy Brendan Fevola was in trouble, yet again. Fevola is alleged to have exposed himself to a Brisbane mother at a Club Family Day. Fevola’s club, the Brisbane Lions, responding by indefinitely suspending its star forward

At all other times, I want to speak to a member of my own species.

Some, admittedly, aren’t that bright, but even they can at least understand the need to pass my call to someone of higher intelligence.

and asking the police to investigate

GIHAN PERERA

Machines that answer phones when a perfectly good human being is sitting sipping coffee alongside it are pointless. Plain old voice mail/answer phones usually mean you have to call back because your call will be ignored and faulty technology blamed.

Don’t make it all about you!

And “Press 1 for this, and 2 for that” systems simply need blowing up.

SEP 14, 2010 06:31P.M. Here’s how that baby goes: You pass through a couple of minutes of such nonsense (often up to five or six options) so that your call can supposedly be directed to the most appropriate person/department to deal with it.

As soon as that person answers, you launch into a five minute frenzied rant to express your problem before the person who has been listening or more probably doing a crossword tells you that you’ve arrived at the wrong department, at which point you’re forced to listen to five minutes of elevator music before (hopefully but not always) the right person does answer.

A consulting client asked me to review a 26-page proposal he had received from a supplier. I was astonished to find the first 10 pages were all about the supplier! They had nothing at all to do with the client, their requirements or what the supplier would do for them.

Sure, it’s necessary to establish your credentials when making a pitch, but using the first 40% of your time to do that is way over the top! It shows an unhealthy obsession about you at your client’s expense, and a lack of respect for your client.

So it is with great joy that I see Zurich Insurance has recently announced a wondrous blast back to the past: real-life human beings answering telephones in their claims department.

Moreover, humans who are happy to give you their full name and not quote some silly data protection rule that doesn’t exist so that they can remain anonymous and avoid anything they say wrong coming back to haunt them.

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NOTES FROM THE WORKPLACE GARDEN

The signs of spring SEP 14, 2010 11:29A.M.

Just looked out my window and saw the first signs of spring in my own garden . . . my ornamental ginger has flowers and aren’t they beautiful!

Last week I was travelling around Northern Tasmania and saw more signs that spring is on its way even in that part of the world. Some of the cherry blossom was already out in bloom and the first spring lambs were frolicking in the paddocks on the roadside. It was still very cold by Queensland standards but you could see that nature was ready for a fresh start to the growth cycle.

Spring is the season of rebirth in nature and it can also be the season of renewed energy in the workplace as we come out of the depths of winter, both physically and metaphorically. For many employees, dragging yourself to work when it is dark and realising that unless you get that hoped for lunch break outside that you will also go home in the dark must be a sure recipe for disengagement. In fact some Northern hemisphere countries have staff who suffer from a recognized condition called S.A.D. or seasonal affective disorder. It would be hard to claim that anywhere in Australia is quite as sun deprived in winter as Scandinavia but we still feel the effects.

Right now we are also coming out of another dark period . . . the election uncertainly. In just the last few days I have seen a resurgence in business enquiries simply because we now have a (somewhat) stable government.

It is amazing how many factors affect our work performance. Personally I am even feeling lighter and more positive about the coming months.

So what are the signs that there is renewal in your organisation or team?

Are you starting to see the signs that things are on the up? What are the give aways . . a employee who sings in the lunchroom, someone randomly baking muffins and sharing them around or a senior manager turning up to have a casual chat with the team? If you aren’t seeing any of these signs then I suggest you be the one to make the first move. Just as we can “force” plants to bloom by creating the artificial light or heat they need, we can also create an environment where people can snap out of the “winter blues” at work.

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