Emma Lo Russo – Page 9 – Emma Lo Russo

February 5, 2010March 29, 2017

Preventing the corrective mindset

We are all under enormous time pressures. We juggle our competing interests, responsibilities and deadlines. We rely on others to help us get to the finish line. We want their input to equal a standard that allows us to juggle uninterrupted, taking pleasure from keeping everything successfully in the air. There is no room for errors. Just juggle, juggle, juggle.

Ooops! A ball is dropped and something is broken.

Invariably with all the things we need to focus upon, it is not unusual to find something will drop or break. As we juggle the remaining elements, we know we can only afford to make a quick stop to correct the fallen or broken element. And get back to juggling.

Following this path is only going to lead to more balls being dropped and more items to be juggled. Sometimes we drop things for the same reason. Deep down it doesn’t feel good knowing we or others are making the same mistake, but to stop and do anything differently, puts pressure on all the balls and the decision to stop and rethink the situation can feel bigger than it needs to.

To break this pattern we need to think about the corrective mindset vs. the preventive mindset. This is a well known concept in manufacturing and Quality Management Systems where the focus may be on continuous improvement and customer satisfaction. However the concepts can equally apply to our own professional and personal lives.

When operating in a corrective mindset, you will focus on fixing the immediate problem, and maybe even be able to stop the next occurrence. But it may not solve the bigger issue of being more effective, getting the best out of your time, based on focusing on the right priorities and the best strategies for achieving the outcomes you are looking for.

Another way to look at this is Past vs. Future. One is looking backwards to the past and trying to fix what didn’t work. But this often means we assume the way things are being done today is the right way, so we only fix what we have in place.

The other way is to look to the future to try to work out what is likely to happen and what are the likely influences and inputs that you will or can be working with. Time can be spent then determining what you are really looking to achieve, what is required to get there, the best way of getting there and what may be required to prevent any likely roadblocks or the undesirable from happening.

We know we can’t accurately predict the future so we need to build a flexible approach to deal with all the possibilities. Flexibility is far more important to develop as a mindset rather than as a well constructed disaster recovery plan covering every conceivable problem.

By taking time out to reflect and reconsider the corrective measure of past and the preventive measures you may choose to take in the future, you may find a much more powerful approach to the things you wish to achieve. Edward de Bono once said “It is well known that “problem avoidance” is an important part of problem solving. Instead of solving the problem you go upstream and alter the system so that the problem does not occur in the first place”.

By looking to the future you can ensure you are investing your time on what is most important to you and what is likely to bring the best and most preferred outcomes in the bigger scheme of life.

Whether as a boss or a parent, the best outcome may no longer involve you. A far more powerful approach may require you to stop and develop people (your team or children) or to devise a better system, one that no longer involves you or the thing you think you need to do because you have always done it that way.

One of the things that always stopped me in my tracks opening my mind to future possibilities was the challenge to ask myself “does this need to be done at all” and “what are the real consequence if this was no longer being done”.

By taking time out, deliberately stopping the juggling process and allowing time to move out of the corrective mindset, you now have the chance to strategize around your priorities and plan for the future resulting in greater creativity, enjoyment, satisfaction and rewards.

February 3, 2010March 29, 2017

Keynote Speaker at Sydney Professional Development Forum

Emma will be the keynote speaker at the Sydney Professional Development Forum on:

Wednesday 24 February 7pm

Telstra Building, 320 Pitt Street, Sydney

The Personal Development Forum (PDF) is for executives who are looking to grow and expand their knowledge, learning and networks in order to help them fast track their careers and professional success.

In addition to building a powerful and engaged network of like-minded executives, PDF provides access to well-known senior leaders across a wide range of industries who share their experience and journeys in order to open their member’s views to the different possibilities and considerations in achieving career success.

To find out more about Sydney Personal Development Forum visit About PDF.

January 13, 2010March 29, 2017

The Power of People Publishing

An interesting day for media with three stories that illustrate some of the big areas of change that are already underway.

First we have the sad and terrible news of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti.

Although media publishers were quick to pick it up, it was the virtual real-time publishing of images and details of the desolation and casualties that were published directly from the ground via Twitter (#Haiti, #Earthquake, #Help Haiti). This early reporting was quickly picked up on blogs and Facebook posts around the world, spreading the news to significant numbers of people which only latter made its way to official news services.

This is not the first time real-time reporting has come from and been shared by individual people who have already been “qualified” as being valued and newsworthy by their followers.

We also had the move today (Sydney time) by Google who threatened to quit China by announcing it will challenge the strict Chinese censorship rules that ban discussion or viewing images on topics deemed sensitive and “vulgar” by the government.

David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer of Google announced Google are “no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”

Although Google have announced they will work with the government to find a way to provide uncensored access to the web, it will be interesting to see whether a compromise can be found and who it will come from.

Google are responding to the identification of a sophisticated attack late last year on the email accounts of Chinese human rights activists using its gmail service and indicated a further 20 other global organizations were also targeted.

Although Google do not have dominant market share for online search in China, they do carry significant weight in the political and business leadership sphere and thus it will be interesting to see what impact and potential influence it will have on business should Google choose ultimately to withdraw.

Finally today we have the move by Murdoch to restructure The Australian by creating a separate corporate division for the national broadsheet which is its traditional method for distributing news. This move is positioned by News Limited Chairman and Chief Executive John Hartigan to help it pursue “the significant expansion of our ambitions”. This ambition is widely reported and on record by News Corporation Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch as desiring to charge for online news content this year.

It seems to me that the Haiti example proves yet again how powerful and how quickly news and images can be shared when people put their mind to it and when people feel passionate about something.

Improving technology will allow for increasingly faster spread of information and utilization via people, niche groups and SMEs. The historical one-size-fits-all approach by business and media will not exist in the future because it will be too easy for others to enter the market and who can provide at no or low cost, a more personalized, intelligent, relevant alternate option.

And no matter how powerful a government may be, if enough people move against their policies and restrictions, the walls will fall. Perhaps initially at great penalty and personal loss to individuals, but never enough to overcome the power of people’s collective free-will. And this is where new media will have its place in connecting groups of like-minded people who can easily organize their own dissemination of information, protests and actions.

Google today is at a cross-road. It will be interesting to see how they play their cards. Will they look only to the revenue that can be generated, irrespective to the cost of basic human rights and freedom (the answer today has been yes they will)? Or will they take a powerful leadership position that becomes the catalyst for wider change and pressures from international governments and organizations?

The power of people via social media played a significant role in communicating Iranian dissent and protest around the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a time where the Iranian government barred journalists from reporting on “unauthorized demonstrations”.

As TIME’s Lev Grossman reported at the time “Twitter didn’t start the protests in Iran, nor did it make them possible. But there’s no question that it has emboldened the protesters, reinforced their conviction that they are not alone and engaged populations outside Iran in an emotional, immediate way that was never possible before. President Ahmadinejad — who happened to visit Russia on Tuesday — now finds himself in a court of world opinion where even Khrushchev never had to stand trial.”

And so we come back to Murdoch and the move for “The Australian” to begin charging for its online news. For them to do so News Limited will need to overcome the same news which will be available online from competing news publishing mediums including the ABC News. Digital medium lends itself to quick, fast, easy-to-read communications so holding a position of people paying for “quality news reporting” will be difficult to defend.

They will also need to overcome the news that will be made available from the reporting and sharing from individuals and niche providers.

There is always an opportunity for businesses to charge for something that helps makes someone’s life easier, better and more wonderful than it was before and for as long as you are the only one able to provide it.

Since this is not a new concept, I am assuming News Limited will explore ways in which they can charge for news that meets that criteria.

However my bet, reinforced by today’s news and examples, is with people publishing.

The power of people publishing is the future of news.

December 29, 2009March 29, 2017

The 2010 rule

There are many reasons not to do something. Particularly something that may challenge ourselves or may challenge others.

With every opportunity and path to success comes some associated risk. And often the bigger the opportunity, the bigger the risk.

Even if you have a high appetite for risk, you can be sure the naysayers, doom and gloomers, or just the “safety committee” of those around you, will find the dangers lurking in you taking that next big step.

Although it is important to be aware of all possible dangers – either to prevent, circumnavigate, address or incorporate – it is far more important to keep your eye on the ultimate objective. That way you will balance any risk against the greater reward and avoid being paralyzed in a safe, no-change/no-gain territory.

As we head into the next decade and set goals for the New Year, it might be good to add a simple tool to your think-box.

I call it the 2010 rule.

For every reason you are given not to do something, find two for doing it.

If you find 10 cons against embarking on something new, set the task to find 20 reasons why you should pursue it.

By doubling the positives you will find the confidence to embark on your chosen path. By not ignoring the possible cons you can plan to overcome them.

Applying the 2010 rule requires a commitment to your new path or objective. It provides a process to move forward with your eyes wide open yet be powered by the motivation of keeping the much greater positive up-sides and potential rewards top-of-mind to keep you on track. It allows you to focus on achieving your goals and be driven by a greater objective.

As Henry Ford once said “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal”.

May 2010 see you overcome any fears, set off on your chosen path and achieve all that you desire.

December 7, 2009March 29, 2017

The extinction of the technoignoramus

“TITF” (pronounced tit-ef) my nearly 14-year old son said to me as I lectured him on his responsibilities.

“What?”

“TITF – you have Taken It Too Far” he said as he rolled his eyes and sighed again in frustration.

Well yes of course I have. I used words not acronyms for one thing.

Within days of this experience my friend told me about her 17 year old daughter who looked deadpan at her as she completed a joke and said without a hint of sarcasm “lol”. Clearly using the abbreviated form of “laugh out loud” was more efficient then actually breaking into laughter or even smiling.

Another friend told me of his son who had an intriguing t-shirt on – one with a picture of Chairman Mao on the front with a picture of Rolf Harris on the back and the word “ROFLMAO”. Obvious to his son and his friends (and probably anyone under the age of 21) was the clever use of these images with a well-known instant messaging short-hand statement. To the uninitiated, this stands for “Rolling On Floor Laughing My Arse Off”.

My six and ten year old daughter’s are learning mathematics through an online tool that not only provides relevant and prescribed homework activities, but allows them to “dual” with anyone at the same level who is online anywhere around the world. Assuming that they don’t want to just work to improve their personal best and total scores which allow them to move up levels and win prizes.

If they play with their Nintendo DS’s together or with friends – they can link up, see each other virtually and send visual or text messages to one another. They learn through interactive smart boards and are encouraged to remember their security log-in and to email their “safe” friends at school. Online G-rated games allow them to collect virtual points then shop for branded goods – often advertisements for the latest and greatest toy or gadget slyly marketed as movies.

Don’t worry about spelling – they happily use and rely on auto-correct and voice recognition tools saving their minds for more creative pursuits.

And these are just a few examples of how, where and when technology forms part of their lives already at such a young stage.

It thus makes for an interesting time for any business who wants to appeal to and attract a younger audience – whether this is as potential customers or as employees. Technology is deeply integrated in their lives and is considered as important to them as oxygen is to the rest of us. This is regularly reinforced to me as I use the threat of technology bans as my preferred tool to generate positive behavioural change in my children.

Technology is how they connect, communicate, conduct relationships, learn, evaluate, play, shop, design, share, promote, read, relax and even simply be a fan of their favourite band and brand. They are able to read moods, decipher genuine and honest representations, find and filter quickly to relevant information and multi-task across multiple platforms.

They connect and share information through SMS, Instant Message, FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, Linked in, Bebo, Orkut, QQ, or their personal blogs. They share information in groups and communities all of which take precedence over checking their 1 to 1 email (most applications are not smart enough for the way they wish to engage when you can reach 1 to many through other mediums).

They scan a web page, click and watch the first seconds of a video to see if they will give you the next 10 seconds of their attention. Communicating your message quickly and succinctly is no longer an art, it is a necessity to get cut-through and engage this generation.

In business, we increasingly rely on technology to manage most aspects of our customer and employee relationships and engagements. While there is much value in face to face daily transactions, I have seen first-hand the smartest and brightest employees sitting a metre apart instant messaging each other rather than engaging in verbal communication.

It is not that they can’t verbalize, it is just they find instant messaging a much more efficient form of communication. There is much to be said and done, and abbreviating it, using shortcuts or forums to share solutions easily changes the scale of reach from 1:1 to 1: infinite. And this is able to be done much more quickly and efficiently than ever before.

Sharing knowledge and thoughts instantly in forums and in collaborative enterprise wiki’s now forms the basis for other’s future education. It can act as a referencing and training tool for employees, partners and customers. It is easy to see how it has more potency and is far more powerful than communicating individually and sequentially. Collaborative documentation tools make easy task of finding, reviewing and tracking of content that can be accessed by many.

Many years ago when I joined a progressive technology company, I joked about how I was the “technoignoramus” of the company. I knew if I didn’t actively seek to understand, embrace and use the latest technologies I was going to become irrelevant, maybe even extinct.

Recognizing that there was a gap in my knowledge regarding emerging technologies, I made it my business (and eventually helped me lead the business) in determining how, when and what were the best ways to leverage these new technologies within our products and our enterprise solutions.

This resulted in a growing of the product development roadmap and changing from heavy self-developed software applications to those that were available and supported in the internet “cloud” – much more accessible and beneficial to our moving global workforce. We were able to reduce communication costs through the use of Skype and deliver extended customer training programs using video and having it supported through YouTube.

Today I still continue to seek knowledge and look to participate in using new and available technologies in order to better understand them. I will play with them, use them, observe others using them, read about them and link to them. This has formed an important element in the role I now play in assisting other businesses and individuals understand where technology fits into their overall business, marketing and customer engagement strategy and see how best they can be leveraged.

With all of this technology around us, it still surprises me how many baby boomers and generation X’s still resist embracing new technology and social networking platforms.

They cite discomfort about strangers knowing something about them or the arduous chore of sorting through meaningless messages to find those of interest or value.

The one I have seen many shudder at is the concept of “follower” on Twitter. Somehow this is equated as “stalker” to some. Certainly in business if you have a bunch of potential customers and partners interested enough to stalk you, this can only be a good thing, right? They actually tell you who they are, tell you they want to follow you so that they can hear what you have to say, and to whom and what you recommend. And you can choose what it is that you share with them.

At a personal level it is about understanding the different available platforms, the controls you have and the intent of the people you choose to “friend” or “follow” and who you allow to follow you. You need to be comfortable about what information you provide and finding your comfort levels about reading and seeing information about others. One of the rules I follow is one I was taught many years ago – don’t ever write anything you would not wish to show your grandmother or would not want published or have attributed to you on the front page of the national papers.

Advantages of using technology are many – especially in being able to stay abreast of your own personal data and of others that you are interested in, their life successes, major events and challenges. I recently easily organized and could keep track of both a common interest group and a family event using Facebook.

I am able to take my office everywhere with me on my iphone which can double as my entertainment tool allowing me to watch the latest TED video or listen to my favourite songs. I can publish my own blog through WordPress (which has surprised and thrilled me at the size of my readership). I am able to easily keep in close contact with global friends and colleagues. I have been able to meet people and new businesses and have opened up many new relationships or rekindled older relationships that previously were either dead or dormant through using a combination of online networking and communication tools.

There certainly can be no safety in the expression “technology is not for me” or “technology is too scary” or “I delegate technology to others”. I fear for those who take confidence in standing behind the good old days with statements like “I believe in personal, intimate face to face interaction and in protecting my privacy and those of others”. In the past fortnight I have personally heard each of these statements. And unfortunately, none of them for the first time.

I know I don’t know everything. In fact I am far behind many leading technology pioneers. But I make it my business to become an early adopter and stay abreast of technology trends and changes. This helps me understand how they are utilized, where they work and fit in to the bigger personal, social, product roadmaps and commercial pictures. I see this as part of a strategy to help me stay relevant now and into the future and I urge you to do the same.

To be able to engage and be relevant to the broader population, especially the generations that follow us, both you and I can not afford to be a technoignoramus.

If you choose to stay closed to embracing and using new technologies, your days of being relevant or being heard or understood by others may in fact be numbered.

November 19, 2009March 29, 2017

Committing to your commitments

We have all made them. We have all accepted them. We have good intent when it comes to making or accepting commitments.

However we also know the feeling of disappointment when someone does not deliver something that they have committed to. Sometimes delivered late or not as expected, sometimes with an excuse (including those quite plausible), sometimes without an excuse. Just an expectation you would know that the best was done on the day.

Years back when the first Quality Assurance certifications were being sought and I had to lead a business through the process of earning certification, the pursuit of quality was less about everything being the highest quality it could be. It was more about setting a standard of quality and then always delivering to it. Consistently, confidently and reliably.

From a branding perspective, it was proven to be much better to choose a standard that could always be delivered, than to pursue the greatest and then only sometimes reach that. Any form of inconsistency in the delivery of quality (goods or services) would plant a seed of doubt into the recipient. No longer could they rely or have confidence in the standard you would deliver. If there was doubt in the recipient, then your brand would immediately be impacted by feelings of distrust and uncertainty.

Lately I have been working with some executives on personal branding. Thinking about what they aspire to represent and then considering how well they deliver it. Identifying the behavioural gaps between what we hope to project, to what we are projecting. Identifying the gaps between what we say we are and will do and what we really are and what we really deliver.

While the subject of personal branding is much broader than any one aspect, it is interesting to observe how often people fail to see the connection between the meeting or failure to meet a commitment they have made on their personal brand. Many will make promises, or agree to deadlines, then fail to deliver or even worse, fail to reset expectations. Not every time, not even often, just sometimes. You only need to not deliver or not reset expectations once and an element of doubt automatically creeps in to the minds of those you are working or interacting with.

The good news is, this is an easy personal quality to manage once you first value your word and your commitments.

Be clear about what it is that you will deliver, when you will deliver it, identify what risks may be associated with delivering it and mentally map how and what is required to deliver to your commitment.

If anything changes in your ability to deliver what has been promised, then make sure you reset expectations. Whilst it is always safer to underpromise and overdeliver, it is much better to be honest about what is the most likely scenario and then make sure that is what you deliver. Associate reliable with trust and confidence.

If you want to be someone people trust, someone people rely upon, someone that people value and have confidence in , then really value and commit to the commitments you make.

November 6, 2009March 29, 2017

More for Less for More

Earlier this year I was at a conference and was lucky enough to hear Dr. R.A. Mashelkar present an inspiring address on Gandhian Engineering. A concept that incorporates the principles of doing more (providing more features, more services, more value) for less cost to make it more accessible and available to much larger numbers of people. Hence the phrase “More for Less for More”.

An example of this was the launch earlier this year of Tata’s radically innovative car, the Nano.

Speaking at the unveiling ceremony at the 9th Auto Expo in New Delhi, Mr. Ratan N. Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group and Tata Motors said, “I observed families riding on two-wheelers – the father driving the scooter, his young kid standing in front of him, his wife seated behind him holding a little baby. It led me to wonder whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family”. He challenged his organization to think differently about the problem and they did. Only a few years later they delivered the Tata Nano, a “comfortable, safe, all-weather car, high on fuel efficiency & low on emissions” for approx US$2000.

Tata received more than 200,000 orders in the 3 week period following its launch in March. Today they can produce approx 3,000 cars per month. A small number considering the demand .

However with increased production capacity being addressed, we will see over time improvements in quality and consistency, and the addition of features likely to be provided at an even lower price. And of course the competition will follow benefiting greater numbers of people.

Already there are announcements by a number of car manufacturers that they too will be entering this low end/low emission category including the bigger, more well-known names. The Japanese car industry turned the car industry on its head once before. They lead with price and followed with quality. The same is happening with Korean cars now and we will soon see the same with Chinese and Indian automobile brands to follow. Large-scale change can and will occur and accessible and affordable cars will be available to those who require a safe form of transportation, and who were previously locked out, in the near future.

The challenge is certainly there for businesses to think about how best to serve and care for the 6.8 billion people we have on this earth. There are two aspects which drives the need for businesses to broaden their current thinking:

The ubiquitous nature of the internet & wireless technologies – the increasing speed of technology for increasingly commoditized (and thus reduced) pricing is making it easy for people all around the world, including within developing nations, to connect and transact with anyone, anywhere, anytime. The flattening of the world opens up additional markets – more product choices for people, more potential customers for business. The greater the global demand, the more solutions will exist in logistically moving or upgrading goods and services around the world.
The expanding social and environmental conscience – the ever-increasing pressure to evaluate our footprint on the world and the increasing gap awareness in wealth between nations. This will continue to grow as the consequences of our current policies and actions continue to become better understood, and the forums for voting with your feet become more common.

With increased competition as the world continues to flatten, businesses will require greater creativity and innovation from their people. Without a model for constant and differentiated innovation, businesses will suffer and ultimately become irrelevant. Increased competition from the developing nations will continue to place pressure on value for money.

And as price drops due to competitive and consumer pressures, so will margins. Thus there will be a requirement (not just an opportunity) to sell to more people together with an increased requirement to build meaningful, personal relationships with customers. This will drive the way organizations will think about their product or service offerings in the future.

A decision will need to be made by businesses.

Do they cater for a few customers and charge a premium or do they rethink their business model and approach with the objective to do “more for less for more”? Both models will require continuous innovation and competition will require them to define how they are going to keep doing it better than anyone else.

I applaud the technology, medical, science and engineering organizations who are already thinking this way. Interestingly this approach increases profits for most of those organizations. But real revolution starts with awareness by a bunch of like-minded people that things need to change for the better. Revolutionaries’ prophesize through education, communication and real example, encouraging more and more of the general population to follow and take action.

It poses an interesting question to every one of us: What responsibility can we take in our every day decisions to stamp out oppression, poverty, hunger, poor health, and environmental damage?

In every decision we make – either business or personal – how can we make an impact on providing equal opportunities for people to thrive no matter where they are located? Can we offer more for less for more people?

The questions may seem big, the actions we make may seem little, but every one of them will make a positive difference.

October 23, 2009March 29, 2017

Visible Vision

After just returning from a great adventure holiday throughout North and Western Australia which included 31 locations (and lots of driving in between), it struck me just how visible a vision could be.

From the first instance of driving into a town you could see whether the town shared a great vision – from the way it branded and projected itself, to deeper issues of what was keeping the town viable and commercial. You could palpably see and feel the vision in distinct features like the architecture, engineering, environmental planning and the overall coherency of an area.

It could also be tangibly felt through a town’s people who would proudly communicate what their town was about – its history, its future and what made it in their eyes “world’s best”.

One of the best examples of this was Kununurra, a town near the border of Western Australia and Northern Territory. Its leaders oversaw the engineering of one of Australia’s largest man-made lakes to take advantage of the huge rainfalls of the wet season. They created Lake Argyle by tapping the Ord River, resulting in the deliberate flooding out of some of the homesteads and properties of the area, and is now so huge that it’s classified as an inland sea.

Lake Argyle normally has a surface area of about 1,000 square kilometres and its capacity exceeds 18 times the volume of water of Sydney Harbour (a vision in itself), feeding some 150 square kilometres of farmland which provides the majority of fruit and vegetables to West Australia, supports cattle farming and a number of timber forests which provide good export earnings. The local economy is also helped by customs ordering you to dump all fruit, vegetables and honey at the border requiring you to re-stock with local produce as soon as you arrive in town.

For those who have been out in this country you will understand the great vastness and harshness of the area and why I marvel at the vision of the local people, including those farmers, who gave up their land to ensure long term economic viability of the town for its inhabitants and future generations.

On the flipside there were plenty of towns we visited that were devoid of vision. The lack of vision ultimately tied to the lack of commercial viability of the town and an empty and unproductive feeling and sense of hopelessness one took away of its people.

Seeing these differences along the way certainly reinforced the importance of having a strong vision. This is as important to the long-term economic viability of a business as it is to the long-term economic viability of a town.

Having a strong vision that everyone is working towards, planning to ensure long term viability and relevance, ensuring today’s activities are in harmony with the long-term view, engaging people to own the vision with everyone creatively fulfilling it in their daily business and decisions, can only propel an organization forward.

There is some danger in today’s environment that by operating or continuously sending signals you are in a survival mode, that the future of your business can be put at risk. Particularly in cases where your employees may have lost sight of the vision and can not articulate or see where the business is heading beyond a “make the buck today” mindset which can lead to lots of compromise.

It may well be timely to step back and really check what your business is projecting externally.

From the first instance someone is in contact with your business, do they receive a strong sense of your vision – from the way you are branded to the way your business projects itself in all touch points, communications and interactions?

Do people understand what is keeping your business viable and commercial and what it is that you offer them?

Do your people communicate what you stand for, what they are representing, and how they can help the customer, the business and themselves be successful?

By ensuring your business vision is tangible and visible, it can turn it from being something you desire to something that you realize.

September 28, 2009March 29, 2017

TiECON Australia – 2009 Annual Conference

TiE Annual Conference on Innovation & Entrepreneurship Friday 27th November 2009 at Swissotel, Sydney

Theme: “Innovation & Funding for Success in 2010 & Beyond
When: Friday, November 27th 2009 between 12 Noon and 8 PM
Where: Swissotel, Market St, Sydney

Be inspired and hear from a range of innovative and entrepreunerial business leaders including Tracey Fellows, Managing Director of Microsoft ANZ.

Emma joins the workshop panel that discusses “What makes the Magic of Innovation tick?”

Find out more at TIE http://sydney.tie.org/TGS/EM/viewevent/viewEventPT?id_event=3641&from_where=chapter_homepage

August 24, 2009March 29, 2017

Returning that special gift you have been given…

As we progress through our careers we gain the benefit of experience.

The situations we find ourselves in become more and more familiar. We meet the same type of personality profiles, we see the hidden opportunities in adversity, and the kind of traps or dangers in the decisions we need to make or in situations that we can create or avoid.

We also benefit from having a much stronger understanding of our own powers and limitations, having already navigated what it takes to progress, communicate, motivate or manage others. Mostly we have the benefit of having a number of wins and failures on the board and knowing why and what results in success, and why and what lead us to experience failure.

This experience and knowledge is a gift. Something we should cherish and relish. It is also something we should share.

As the saying goes, it is much better to give than to receive. And although it is not kosher to return the gift you have been given, there is something wonderful about returning the sentiment. Adding your stamp of personalization, consideration, love and attention can create a lasting impression.

The positive impact and empowerment you can generate by giving someone the time to help them with their particular concerns, queries or quest for knowledge, through sharing your experience can not be underestimated.

Looking back I can name a number of great people who “gifted” me their experience or who helped guide me along my way. Some of my greatest mentors and guides were my managers, but more often than not the greatest counsel and sage advice I received (and continue to benefit from), was from wise and experienced colleagues, associates, contemporaries and friends.

It was from them that I learned how to navigate tricky waters, what to look for and what to avoid. That mistakes and failures are to be considered great learning experiences, challenges to be explored and gained from.
Some of the best lessons I learned early on was that mistakes don’t need to be fatal. That you’ll never know how far you can go and how much you can achieve if you don’t push yourself to the very edge. That the biggest opportunities also come with the biggest risks and a fear of failure is really being cognizant of that fact. That it is silly to try to avoid mistakes which may result in having a risk profile so low that we don’t really move forward leaving the brave decisions to be made by others.

You also gain strength from others encouragement. When may already know what the right thing to do is, but to have it reinforced and supported by an appropriate anecdote or example from someone else’s experience provides the much needed impetus to move forward. It can help to have your strengths and talents reinforced to be applied in new situations.

As our experience grows, so we should “gift” this to others.

There are many opportunities to positively impact. To help those who are starting out, still green, still learning, who would benefit from a great dose of your encouragement and knowledge.

With each promotion or progression in our careers, can we dedicate time to give back and grow others? To make time to mentor someone (or a greater number of people) that we identify as talented?

To stop and help them find the answers they are seeking and to help them develop and perform to their potential.
From my experience, gifting others time and experience bring numerous benefits. And not just the feel-good emotion it will surely generate.

It provides an enforced discipline for us to synthesize our experience into insightful clarity. Moments to mine the wealth by revisiting our working lives and review what really worked for us and why. To turn the many grains of experience into valuable pearls of wisdom.

It also helps us to reflect and recognize where we still have room to learn or develop.

So I ask this question, how can you share more of your experience with others? If you are already doing this consciously or unconsciously, can you do more of it?

Whether you offer this through formal mentoring or coaching or through informal mentoring and genuine sharing, listening, advising others, there is nothing more rewarding than giving to others and to see them grow greater from the collective experiences.

Not only can you help someone progress you may find in turn, you have gifted yourself another valuable experience.