Featured Content Cover Story: From Crew to Captain Interview with David Mellor
Features Leadership: From Crew to Captain - Interview with David Mellor. The business mentor shares the importance of mentorship and his insights for making your business thrive. Purposeful Teams: If you want to go far, go together The Coxless Crew team rowed 8,446 miles across the Pacific Ocean. Members talk about the challenges and importance of team work and building exceptional teams. Strategy: Stakeholder management – What are family businesses doing well? Valentina Lorenzon on how family businesses create a collaborative environment and strong relationships.
Recommended Reads: Superhero Entrepreneurs Daring Greatly by Brene Brown A book that encourages readers to live courageously; Dr Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj’s recommendation.
Articles Impact and Influence: The Science of Strengths An overview of the research which suggests that using our strengths makes us both happier and more productive. Purposeful People: 7 Questions of an Impactful Leader A review of Michael Bungay Stanier’s newest work, The Coaching Habit an interactive book on building and changing habits, by Agi Galgoczi.
Career: Portfolio Career Options: How to Work for Passion, Pleasure and Profit! Steve Preston on how it is possible to incorporate all your professional interests 5 of the Best… Learning Tools This issue focuses on personal development and growth. Never stop studying is the key to success. Here is a list of our 5 favourite learning tools that could help you achieve success. Words to Lead By: Jon Gordon Best-selling author and keynote speaker, Jon Gordon shares the best piece of advice he has ever received. Your feedback would make us happy. Tweet us your opinion at @People_Purpose If you’re interested in contributing don’t hesitate to contact us: support@peopleandpurposejournal.com
Editor’s Note Welcome back, for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, we hope you had a great summer and are now rested and raring to take on the rest of the year. Whether or not you are studying or have children, early autumn has that back-to-school air about it. We often return from vacation having taken a step back and reconnected with our priorities. This is a time to take stock of our work, our impact, our careers and our development. Our thoughts naturally turn to embarking on formal study, training or taking steps to grow our skillset and shape our careers. As many of you will know, I facilitate leadership training and Chartered Management Institute qualifications programmes. Being able to see that growth, watching people develop their knowledge, understanding and crucially their confidence in their own leadership abilities is one of the great joys of this work.
In that vein, this edition of People & Purpose concentrates on opportunities for development and growth. This month’s feature interview is with David Mellor, mentor to entrepreneurs and the consultants’ consultant. He shares the importance of mentorship and his insights for making your business thrive. What if your work could incorporate all your professional interests? Our career columnist Steve Preston talks about portfolio careers that allow you to do just that. In this issue you can learn more about building an exceptional team from the Pacific Ocean rowers of the Coxless Crew and about stakeholder management. What are you looking to learn? Do you have development plans for this autumn? Is there a way that we can support you? Get in touch with any questions or suggestions at support@peopleandpurposejournal.com. Eszter Molnar Mills, Editor-in-Chief
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Leadership From Crew to Captain Interview with David Mellor
David Mellor is a business mentor, honorary senior visiting fellow at Cass Business School and author of a number of books on the theme of moving from being an employee to being a business owner. As part of his career in commercial and investment banking, David became one of five partners in an in-house strategic investment fund, where he joined the boards of three US companies. Here he specialised in relationship management and developing commercial acumen in early stage technology businesses, so they could more effectively pitch for funding. He now helps MBA students make money from their intellectual capital, to become consultants, trainers, coaches; which is not an easy transition. Here a key challenge is moving from being a subject matter expert to a business person without any organisational infrastructure. There's a whole range of things they may have never done before, such as preparing a business plan, a cash forecast, or indeed selling.
A first step is understanding the skills inventory they're going to need in order to actually be successful in this new role. They then work together to establish which activities they can do, which areas they could be trained in, and which to outsource. “It's helpful to do some self-awareness work or emotional intelligence. Because the better they know themselves, the better they can start reading signals in other people. They can then start thinking about adapting their behaviour to better match the way the other party wants to be communicated with, which increases the chances that you can build an initial rapport, which leads to a relationship, which leads to a sale.” – David highlights. He recommends Prism as a tool for developing adaptive behaviour, to build a better rapport, whether for leadership, building high performance teams, stakeholder management, sales or winning hearts and minds in change management. “50 percent of new businesses don't last the year, and 80 percent are gone in five years. Part of my job is to help people beat those odds.” David highlights three key issues that business struggle with: • • •
Understanding the level of risk they are taking and how to reduce it Cash flow and underestimating the difficulties in getting paid Choosing the wrong partners
“50% of new businesses don't last the year, and 80% are gone in five years. Part of my job is to help people beat those odds.”
Much of David’s experience and advice is included in the Crew to Captain trilogy, based on his successful workshops. The three books cover setting up a business, establishing a consultancy and growing and scaling businesses. He suggests the following three important actions: Develop your leadership brand: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos defines this as “what people say about you when you're not in the room." How do you build a leadership brand which you would like to be your legacy, what you would like to be remembered for? David’s annual appraisal at Deutsche Bank said “gets results because of his people rather than at the expense of.” He reflects: “It’s very simple, easy to remember, and that is actually what my reputation in the banking world was based on. Either turning around underperforming teams or building high performing teams from scratch.”
"Communication has to be 90% about the client, and 10% about you. You have to enter the client's world, don't expect them to come into yours.” Understand about dealing with people: Learn how to lead, to get your staff engaged, so that they want to be part of an operation that is scalable for sustainable, profitable growth. When networking, simplify your message, so you make it easier for the other party to get it. If you don't make it simple, their level of recall or whether they remember you at all is going to be very low. "Communication has to be 90 percent about the client, and 10 percent about you. You have to enter the client's world, don't expect them to come into yours.” David warns subjects matter experts in particular. He suggests building rapport, playing back the picture of the client’s world and where the pain is, and then reassuring them that you can help to make that pain go away. This mirrors his works with his own mentoring clients:
“Starting up and running your own business is a desperately lonely place to be. Having somebody that you can use as a sounding board, where there's a mutual trust and respect, is a huge benefit.” As for the person who would most benefit from mentoring, David describes somebody who has the self-awareness to realise that they don't know everything, can't do it all on their own and they view it as an investment in their success. David is also the co-author of Inspirational Game Changers, a previous W.H. Smith's Business Book of the Month. It includes interviews with thirty-one entrepreneurial leaders from the private, public and voluntary sectors; those who had done something different and impactful, or ‘changed the game’. Some of those featured are names you would know, others are up-and-coming people. Each short chapter charts the journey the interviewee has taken, their biggest challenges, key decisions, where they got lucky, and the lessons they would like to leave with the reader. At the end of the book, shared insights and lessons are included making it an inspirational read. David Mellor has developed a portfolio of activities which derive principally from 25 years’ experience in commercial and investment banking with HSBC and Deutsche Bank. His consultancy activities embrace strategic planning and implementation, and mentoring existing and aspiring entrepreneurs. He published From Crew to Captain in 2010, written for people making the transition from working for big institutions to working for themselves. He has followed that up by launching From Crew to Captain: A Privateer’s Tale in 2014, which is written for people establishing consultancy practices. The third book in the trilogy –From Crew to Captain: Commander of the Fleet is available here.
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Purposeful Teams If you want to go far, go together The Coxless Crew is a team of women who have set records by rowing 8,446 miles across from the South Pacific Ocean from America to Australia. The purpose of the endeavour was to support and raise awareness of women who face extreme adversity and to raise funds to support their journey towards long-term health and wellbeing. To achieve their goal, they had to work together as a team. Having been a part of the Coxless Crew for 3 years now, Emma Mitchell doesn’t agree with Al Humphreys’ advice: if you want more of a challenge you should take on a solo adventure whereas to make it easier you should go as a part of a team. Mitchell believes that their biggest challenges whilst rowing the Pacific were not the challenges which the ocean could throw at them, but how they pulled together to deal with them. It was not the isolation from the outside world which was such a challenge as living in such close proximity with each other. Fortunately, they hadn’t underestimated these challenges and with the help of Keith Goddard, sport psychologist, they formed a strong team who could work together drawing on each person’s strengths and getting the best out of each other. Emma believes that one of the greatest successes of the row is that they have stepped off the boat as friends, having achieved what they set out to do. So as the African proverb goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Teamwork overcomes greater challenges. It’s safe to say that (amongst other things) the success of the row was largely due to incredible perseverance and team work, with a network of people working hard behind the scenes to help them reach their goal.
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The row was by far the strongest team that I’ve ever had the privilege to be part of – says Lizanne Van Vuuren. It changed her view on ‘Teamwork’ knowing that they could achieve so much more by working together. Since being back from the row she has looked around her to find that all their relationships are little networks of teams. Their families, friendships, relationships and their working environments. It’s a gift to be able to surround yourself with people who join forces for the greater good. Even though the six of them set out to conquer new grounds, it would not have been possible without the help of so many people including Ella Hewton (who posted their blogs while they were at sea, as well as lead their social media), Kirsten Samuel (who monitored their emails), Keith Goddard (the sport psychologist of the team), Tony Humphreys (their onshore support) and of course the friends, families and amazing supporters.
Due to the stressful environments they faced on the boat they all had their own tasks to fulfil, and they helped each other through difficulties. They divided and conquered; even if their task was to simply make lunch for their rowing buddy during that shift.
Lizanne Van Vuuren would encourage everyone to look at his or her relationships and realize that if you work together as a team you should be able to encourage each other to bring out the best in your abilities. The original posts were written by Emma Mitchell and Lizanne Van Vuuren; available here and here. Content is reproduced with permission. Also see our interview with team leader Laura Penhaul.
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Strategy Stakeholder management What are family businesses doing well? Regardless of its size and nature, the growth and success of an organisation ultimately depends on the engagement and contribution of the people who, in whatever capacity, play a role in its development. In particular, it relies on the collaboration and successful interactions of the different networks of stakeholders who have an influence on its strategic decisions and their implementation. When it comes to family businesses, it is even more evident how communication and solid relationships can make or break a company. Like other organisations, they need to identify the most suitable management strategy to engage with internal and external stakeholders. However, choosing the most efficient approach becomes even more complex within a family-owned business. This is due to the fact that, in addition to traditional stakeholders, these organisations are characterised by the coexistence of two unique sets of them: family members either directly or indirectly involved in the business - often from different generations and representing the current and perspective management - as well as nonfamily members. As much as an effective collaboration between family and non-family stakeholders can be the key element for sustainable growth and business success, it might also because its main weakness. First of all, the professional relationship between family members can be heavily affected by pre-existing personal dynamics that are often transferred to the organisational environment.
As a result, it is essential to have a solid governance that defines roles and responsibilities clearly – the involvement of spouses and children, for example, is often a bone of contention if not managed properly. Nepotism and favouritism – or the mere suspicion of it - are two of the most common criticisms made against family businesses.
In order to avoid the negative influence of potential family feuds and disharmony, successful family businesses find it essential to acquire the knowledge and expertise of non-family members (employees, consultants and advisors). They not only have specific skills that can benefit the business at every seniority level, but they can also guarantee the objectivity required to make key strategic decisions and improve performance levels. So, what do family businesses do particularly well to create a collaborative environment and strong relationships among the different stakeholder groups? When it comes to internal stakeholders, successful family businesses are characterised by: Effective recruitment processes. Because of the widely recognised importance of creating positive relationships between family and nonfamily individuals within the business, these organisations use the recruitment process not only to assess technical skills but also to look for individuals who share their values and respect the ownership’s approach. Looking for a combination of skills, personality and shared work ethics goes a long way to help select the right people compared to recruitment processes that are merely based on specific qualifications and achievements. Communication and ‘direct’ interaction with management/ ownership. Frequent and honest communication is key to build trust and promote transparency across all levels of the organisation. The advantage that family businesses have compared to bigger organisations is that, in most cases, employees have a direct interaction with the owners. This helps humanise the values and beliefs of the organisation, so that employees can relate and identify more with the strategies and policies and, as a result develop a sense of belonging.
Higher levels of (actual) employee engagement. Even though family businesses might not have a structured HR strategy in place, they seem to achieve high levels of employees’ loyalty and retention. Because of their nature and, often, smaller size, these organisations naturally promote a more organic process of employee development. In order to maintain high levels of flexibility, family businesses support the continuous development of employees through specific training, diverse experiences across the organisation and the understanding of different roles. Also, as a consequence of the direct relationship with the company’s ownership/management, employees feel more involved in the decision making process because they are given the opportunity to be heard and for their ideas to be considered and potentially taken on board. This creates a sense of equality and fairness as well as a collaborative culture where team efforts are key to an improved performance.
Communication and solid relationships can make or break a company. Similarly, family businesses can leverage their identity and nature to create and improve their interactions with external stakeholders, including clients, suppliers, external collaborators, other organisations operating within their industry and the wider community. Best practises include: Increased customer loyalty and retention. Compared to their non-family owned counterparts, family businesses create relationships that are based on higher levels of emotional engagement with their current and potential customers. This is because customer can relate more to their authentic history and clear identity as opposed to more ‘artificial’ story telling. Even though this might be purely a matter of perceptions, it helps customer identify with the brand, its owners - as actual individuals - and its values, and make the decision to purchase into a
specific lifestyle. This represents a very powerful way to create longerterm loyalty and support to an organisation and what it stands for. Reliability and trustworthiness. In many cases, the involvement of family members is key when it comes to negotiations and relationships building with suppliers and other external collaborators. The fact that the organisation’s and the family’s reputation are perceived as one can work as a guarantee of the reliability and trustworthiness of the company.
Clusters creation and knowledge sharing. Due to their size and nature, family businesses often promote collaborative relationships within their industry. This does not mean that the competition is less fierce within this sector than in others, it only translates in the recognition of the importance of promoting shared infrastructures (distribution channels, economies of scale, etc.), shared networks (specialist suppliers, complementary products or services, etc.) and shared practices (knowledge spill over, specialist expertise, etc.). Strong and ‘genuine’ brand identity. It goes without saying that family businesses have a clear advantage when it comes to communicating a message of authenticity, tradition and continuity as well as of social responsibility. The direct involvement of family members across different generations is a powerful tool to prove commitment in front of all stakeholders and the wider community. As an independent project manager and consultant, Valentina Lorenzon helps companies implement change and advises clients on strategic decisions like, for example, the development of new products, markets and propositions. Valentina is experienced working with companies of all sizes across different sectors and, has specialist expertise in supporting SMEs and family businesses. Get in touch here.
Recommended Reads Superhero Entrepreneurs Daring Greatly by Brene Brown The book, which had a significant impact on Dr Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj, encourages readers to embrace vulnerability and imperfection, to live wholeheartedly and courageously. Dr Brene Brown’s book is based on her research into the notion that vulnerability is not a weakness, but an essential aspect of authentic living. The book guides the reader through using vulnerability to create trust and to find the courage to do what may be challenging for us, to embrace risk and uncertainty and ultimately to dare greatly. This is an approach close to the Boardwalk Leadership co-founder’s heart. Shaheena, who we interviewed for our Summer issue describes working with different organisations, being drawn to entrepreneurial leaders and sense of superheroes being created: “When they present their stories, they become mythical creatures and almost invincible in the way they present themselves. It's inspiring, but it's also inaccessible. Vulnerability isn’t a female trait or about putting yourself out there and being emotional. It's about humanity and compassion and recognising that you don't need to have all the answers. If people are confident in what they do and they know their strengths, there aren’t any problems with asking people for help.” When teaching entrepreneurship, Shaheena would talk about the myth of superhero entrepreneurs and ask the students to consider how they present themselves and how they open up: “Asking team members for their help and suggestions is the most powerful tool; it lifts the team.” Daring Greatly by Brene Brown was recommended by Dr Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj. The book is available at amazon.co.uk and amazon.com.
Impact and Influence The Science of Strengths In my work with managers on developing their capacity and confidence to lead, the theme of strengths has come to the forefront over the past 5 years, to the extent that we now define our business as strength-based. There is something profoundly attractive about the idea of delivering excellence with ease, building on your own authentic talents and showcasing your best self while being more fulfilled. While the notion of authentic leadership has been gaining ground, implementing it was always a challenging idea. How do you develop yourself, learn from role models, mitigate your weaknesses while remaining authentic? The answer lies in identifying and harnessing your strengths. Character strengths are defined by the VIA Institute as “the positive parts of your personality that impact how you think, feel and behave and are the keys to you being your best self�. Applying your strengths will come easily to you and is energising though may need practice or development. The newly established disciplines of positive psychology and positive organisational scholarship have focused on creating an evidence-based and scientific understanding of what it takes for people, teams and organisations to flourish. Although some of it may seem self-explanatory, it is important to note that this ever-growing body of peer-reviewed academic studies demonstrates that strengths are not part of the latest self-help fad. Rather, the positive impact of strengths is underpinned by scientific research.
Using Strengths is good for your wellbeing, happiness and stress levels Where you are able to use your strengths as part of your work, this has a beneficial effect. Those of us who use our strengths more, experience less stress and feel more positive and contented, with some people also reporting more energy . Other researchers found that using your strengths in a new and unique way could be linked to increased subjective wellbeing - what we commonly think of as happiness - for up to 6 months.
As an example, if you already apply your strength of curiosity when following world affairs or watching documentaries, you could benefit from approaching reactions to a proposed change at work from a perspective of curiosity: setting out to really understand the position and concerns of each stakeholder, whether colleague or customer. It is argued that this strong connection between well-being and the use of strengths exists because strengths help us make progress on our goals and meet our needs for feeling independent and capable. Using strengths is good for your performance As mentioned above, the increase in happiness is in part generated by the positive impact on work performance generated by a strengths-based approach. Researchers have found that using our strengths is linked greater work satisfaction, subjective wellbeing and a sense of meaning. These soft outcomes have a real business benefits:
“Applying strengths daily leads to 44% higher probability of success on measures of customer loyalty and employee retention and 36% on productivity.� (Harter, Schmidt and Hayes, 2002) Using strengths gives greater personal growth With the limited time and resources available for learning and development, it is worth considering that for comparable effort, people can achieve greater growth in an area of their strength than of weakness or deficit.
Using strengths as a manager improves your team performance Perhaps unsurprisingly, on the basis of the research that using strengths makes teams happier and more productive, it was found that the probability of success was 86% greater for managers who took a strength-based approach. As well as the increased productivity and wellbeing, use of strengths leads to a more stable team - awareness of strengths correlates with engagement and decreased staff turnover. How you can harness strengths Having been persuaded by the research, you may be wondering how you can harness your strengths and those of your team. Firstly, you can identify your strengths – less than a third of respondents in one study were aware of their strengths. You can use methods such as reflection, 360-degree feedback, but for the most reliable results, use a psychometric tool. We recommend the VIA Survey of Character Strengths and Realise2 from Capp & Co. Next, set out to identify a strength in yourself and also in a colleague over the coming week. Then consider the benefits that harnessing these strengths could bring to your team or the organisation. Eszter Molnar Mills is a strength-based leadership & organisation development specialist and the founder of Formium Development. An accomplished facilitator and qualified executive and team coach, Eszter helps leaders and organisations reach enhanced performance by reflecting on what works, and developing skills and strategies for improvement. If you would like to know more about how she helps managers identify and utilise strengths, including delivering team analysis and debriefing of VIA or Realise2 surveys for you or your team, please get in touch at info@formium.co.uk.
Purposeful People 7 Questions of an Impactful Leader The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier Your team sometimes just needs a bit of support to shine, and you can provide this support by a simple management tool; coaching. Helping to find solutions is more impactful than giving rules and directions. You can coach anytime, anywhere, and with the 7 simple questions that Michael Bungay Stanier suggests for supporting your team, your session will be more easy and effective. The Coaching Habit is a lean, easy to interpret, interactive and practical book. In the first few chapters you can learn about coaching, and building and changing a habit; this is the mechanism and process of coaching that underpin the 7 questions. We were honoured to interview Michael on the coaching habit where he talks about the habit changing process and how to do more great work.
The following chapters are about each of the seven essential questions you should ask to help your colleague identify and solve their difficulties. Bungay Stanier also added exercises and activities between the questions to master how to ask them effectively. Michael Bungay Stanier’s book is practical, easy to read and understand and packed with useful resources and exercises; it should be a must read on any leader’s shelf. The Coaching Habit is available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com.
Ági Galgóczi is a journalist, the Managing Editor of People & Purpose - the Positive Leadership Journal. You can follow her on Twitter @galgiagi
From Crew to Captain – Unsplash via Pixabay, Pressmaster via Shutterstock If you want to go far, go together - Natalia Cohen Stakeholder management: What are family businesses doing well? – Unsplash via Pixabay The Science of Strengths – PublicDomainPictures via Pixabay, Unsplash via Pixabay 7 questions of an Impactful Leader – Agi Galgoczi Portfolio Career Options: How to Work for Passion, Pleasure and Profit! – jackhenderson via Pixabay Words to Lead By – BreakinTheWalls via Pixabay
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Career Portfolio Career Options: How to Work for Passion, Pleasure and Profit! What is a Portfolio Career? A portfolio career is about deriving income from a number of different sources. You can earn from using any combination of activities, interests, skills, talents and passions to create the working lifestyle you want. This is what I call ‘working for Passion, Pleasure and Profit’ or the 3 P’s. Your portfolio could be made up in different ways e.g.:
A part-time employed job and your own business A part-time job or your own business and voluntary work Regular interim or freelance projects alongside other occasional work Being your own boss but having different strands to your business or even having different businesses A full-time employed job and developing your business alongside this
For many people developing a Portfolio Career is also a key lifestyle choice. It is about reshaping your career and redesigning your life. Charles Handy originally coined the term “Portfolio Life” in his book ‘The Age of Unreason’ in 1989. He describes a portfolio life as “a portfolio of activities – some we do for money, some for interest, some for pleasure, some for a cause...the different bits fit together to form a balanced whole...greater than the parts”. How will you define your working lifestyle into the future? What if you were to say, “I choose to build a working lifestyle based on what I love to do and what I am good at”. You give yourself an opportunity to start a new career path for yourself, one that is built on passion, pleasure & profit.
The concept of the 3 P’s clearly resonates with many people. Why? Because, by reframing your career in this way, you give yourself an opportunity to step away from the uncertainty of needing to have a ‘traditional job’. Instead, reframe the job concept so that it’s not about a job or a career necessarily anymore, it’s about purpose, creating a working lifestyle and generating income in a way that meets all your lifestyle objectives. Here is a simple but poignant example of how you might develop a portfolio career based on those important 3 P’s: Passion: Focusing on what attracts, interests and inspires you. These are the magnets in your life e.g. where you have a compelling enthusiasm or desire for activities and work. This could be combining heart, mind and soul. Pleasure: The personal reward from doing fulfilling work you love! Profit: The financial reward from the different strands of your portfolio. This will vary, depending on the nature of the work you do. However, for many people, each strand is likely to attract a different level of fee paying work. Your ultimate aim is earning enough to provide the working lifestyle you want. In my case, my portfolio ranges from high fee earning work from coaching executives, to the other end of the spectrum a few pounds or dollars in royalties from my book sales.
I also give my time for free to speak at Business Libraries, Professional Associations and Job Clubs, which is a way for me to make a contribution and give back into the community. Again, at the other end of the spectrum, I am also well paid as a keynote motivational speaker at corporate conferences and major career events. Most importantly, it is my choice, as to how I earn a living from my portfolio career, as you can too.
This is a very different concept to focusing on Profit, first and foremost, as many people do. Why? Because if you focus on Profit first, it is unlikely you will be working for your real Passion and extremely unlikely that you will achieve real Pleasure from your job or career. By developing a portfolio career, you have a golden opportunity to attempt to ‘future proof’ what you do. You have the power to reshape your career and create a more robust framework to allow you to redesign your career and life in the way you want, doing a range of work you love. Therefore, for many people the Portfolio Career is an amazing and life changing concept!
“If you focus on Profit first, it is unlikely you will be working for your real Passion and extremely unlikely that you will achieve real Pleasure from your job or career.”
Recognised as 'The Career Catalyst'®, Steve Preston, author of ‘Winning through redundancy - Six steps to navigate your way to a brighter future’ has transformed the lives of thousands of executives and professionals. A top career coach, Steve thrives on inspiring people to unlock their potential and fulfil their talent. His Career Catalyst website features breakthrough coaching and inspirational Career Development products. His company SMP Solutions, provides a range of Career and People Development services.
5 of the Best…
Learning Tools Autumn; the back-to-school time of the year. The shiny, new stationery on the shop shelves encourages people to educate themselves and develop their skills. Never stop studying is the key to success; study to maintain your position and to advance. Thanks to technology you have limitless options to educate yourself. Here is a list of our 5 favourite learning tools: iLEAD – Winner of the Management and Leadership Textbook category; Management Book of The Year 2016. A very interactive work, a great collection of exercises and tasks, based on academic research; a selfassessment resource for aspiring leaders. Skillshare – You can find courses from story-telling, through graphic design to e-mail marketing on this online educational platform. Courses are taught by industry experts; you can even learn from Simon Sinek or Seth Godin. The primary goal of the course is learning by completing a project. Everyone can be a student or even a teacher in the community of Skillshare.
How to Understand Your Stakeholders – Our 4-step template helps you to plan engagement for your change project and gain clarity about your stakeholders. After downloading you also get access to a 3-week mini e-mail series on change management. Gordon Tredgold’s YouTube channel – The ‘leaders’ leader’ shares short but interesting and engaging videos on topics such as empowerment, success and leadership to help his audience develop their leadership and performance skills. Duolingo – As the old saying goes “A man who knows four languages is worth four men.” Duolingo is a great way to learn languages. It works like a game as you earn points for the correct answers and it’s ideal for your commute. The app is available free on iTunes, Google Play and Windows Store. +1: The Coaching Habit – Michael Bungay Stanier’s book will teach you how to provide more effective support to your staff and be a more impactful leader. Read our review of the book in this issue, and Michael talks about his 3-step process for changing habits in 60 seconds or less in our interview.
Have you used any of these tools? Tweet us your experiences @People_Purpose.
Words to Lead By Best-selling author and keynote speaker, Jon Gordon shares his favourite piece of advice.
These meaningful words are from Dr. James Gills, the only person on the planet to complete 6 Double Iron Man Triathlons within the 36-hour maximum time frame, and completed 5 Hawaii Ironman Triathlon World Championships. “When he was asked how he did it, he said, ‘I've learned to talk to myself instead of listening to myself.’ He said – ‘If I listen to myself, I hear all the negative, all the fear. When I talk to myself, I can feed myself with the words and the encouragement that I need to keep on moving forward.’”
“We should be talking to ourselves instead of listening to ourselves.”
People & Purpose is published by Formium Development, a strengthbased leadership and organisational development consultancy in London, UK. The Journal’s Editor in Chief is Eszter Molnar Mills and its Managing Editor is Agi Galgoczi. We are privileged to have a great range of contributors – all leaders in their respective fields.
As a development consultancy Formium Development focuses on creating effective solutions, which allow clients to identify and build on their strengths and do more of their best work. Training and executive coaching is available for managers throughout their career path, including well respected internationally recognised qualifications in management and leadership from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). Formium Development's aim is to help individuals and teams improve their performance and become more engaged and fulfilled within their work. Contact us: Website: www.formium.co.uk; www.peopleandpurposejournal.com E-mail: info@formium.co.uk; support@peopleandpurposejournal.com Telephone: 020 7416 6648 (International: +44 20 7416 6648)