Priorities and Finite Time

Over the last few weeks the subject of priorities and finite time has arisen for me.  This has sadly been brought on by a number of unexpected deaths within my sphere, albeit not too closely.  Yes, I know, but this isn’t going to be one of those morbid rants about how we should embrace life and live for the day!

My reaction to these sudden demises was tempered with a week long holiday to Cornwall where I was able to get perspective from disbelief, grief and generally trying to work out what my reaction should be having not experienced a funeral since 1997.  It started me thinking about my emotional intelligence report from 3 years ago which indicates that I have emotional self awareness and good empathy, but that my reality testing is potentially wanting, as is my impulse control.  In this way, I have been a shoulder to cry on, but then made a complete faux pas stating “How beautiful the lilies look on the dresser.”  Believe me, this is improvement!

I think if I were to carry out another EQ-i today, there would be differences and hopefully a more balanced result as I have been worked within Zest Business Coaching for many years now and had

coaching and mentoring from the best of the best.  For me it’s been learning to listen more, to measure my reaction to a situation, to not feel that I have to fix everything and be able to see other viewpoints without being overcome with the frustration that nobody can see mine.  It is still work in progress of course.

What these losses have given me is a little more perspective, a little more appreciation and a little more gratitude.  Combined with my holiday recharge I have come back to life and work with a slightly different and more positive outlook.  The EI distinction between work and life is a little blurry and the question of EI a big one for me.  Zest have carried out many EQ-i on a variety of staff at differing levels of seniority.  It has been interesting for me as I process these reports and almost never get to meet the subject of the report.  There is a long standing question of how important Emotional Intelligence is in the workplace, but maybe this recent article will give you a glimpse as it makes the point, “We would argue that success in business is a function of four things: Your IQ (how smart you are), your prior experience (including your education, work experience and training), the level of effort you put forth and your emotional intelligence.” http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248329

The bottom line is that it is important and one takes the emotional intelligence of our being into the workplace 5 days a week (give or take), to work as a team, to manage, to communicate, to succeed, to nurture, to perform and to grow a business.  DO NOT underestimate its significance.  Build your team strategically taking the best of an individual’s EI and put it to use purposefully to bring out the best in them.  A person with low self-actualisation and independence is unlikely to succeed if “left to it”.   Supported by a team with people who are high on the interpersonal scale, they will shine and their potential can be realised.  An EI profile enables you to identify the characteristics and leaning that an individual may not even acknowledge themselves and perhaps as their manager, you may not be aware, but by being informed you have the ability to nurture.  Well worth the investment at £75!

So in conclusion, I am going to learn from my recent experience of demises, take stock emotionally and let it enhance my EI.  Time is finite and there will always be priorities, but for me, the trick is to be emotionally grounded and aware of emotional shortcoming in order to be the best one can be.

Change Management Is Like The A4 London Road (Slough) by Paul Cook

If only the Britons had radar a few months before the Romans invaded.  Actually I’m not sure if radar works on wood, maybe a new app is needed?

http://www.zestbusinesscoaching.co.uk/change_management.php

As you exit the M4 junction 5 near Slough, Berkshire, you then enter a winding slip approach road which extends onto the A4 towards London.  This dual carriageway runs parallel to one of the biggest trading estates in Europe.  The slip is a few miles long and controlled by no fewer than 14 separate sets of traffic lights set at approximately 300 metre intervals.  Planning and speed are vital because it is a strange anomaly that if you meet the first of these light sets as they turn to red, you will then encounter every single one thereafter just as it turns to red; no amount of acceleration, revving, anger, handbrake turns or sat nav adjustment can alter it.  Conversely if you arrive at set one on green, then you sail majestically through to your business destination at a steady and comfortable passage casually observing the easy change of each.  It’s all about timing speed planning and patience.

Indulge me in suggesting that you cast your minds back to my previous blogs which reference emotional intelligence, emotional quotient and its link to self-management.  In her seminal book Emotionally Intelligent Living, Geetu Bharwaney explains, ‘The signal received by the brain from the heart is the most powerful signal in the body.  The electro-magnetic field produced by the heart is five thousand times greater in strength than the field generated by the brain’.  I recently experienced this surge in my own national grid whilst (under time constraints) attempting to operate my smart phone, pad, sky drive and search engine in unison, thereby conducting a speedy efficient completion of several business proposals:  It was at this point my information technology apps took on their own characters.  MS documents became known as ‘not responding’, Nokia 620 ‘signal unavailable’, cloud ‘not recognised at this time’ and google chrome advised me in a Dickensian accent (in my own mind) ‘Did you mean to spell it…?’  My verbalised descriptors of inanimate objects surprised even me as my frontal lobe was hijacked by the surge of heart sent electricity designed adjectives.

So there shouldn’t be any surprises really because after my dip in emotional control I quickly regained reality remembering that not so long ago these apps would have been regaled as nothing short of technological (or other) miracles; things change and so with that change aligns our human ability to rely on them and demand the best.  And if your competitors have something better then you must find a leveller.

It is acknowledged that the only constant is change, if you stand still you will stay there, a year from now you will wish you had started change today, failing to plan is…etc.

We just operate in a business world that is, and has access to, a lot of stuff that must be fast, efficient, reliable.  It would be an erroneous supposition on my part, if I suggested that any of you now should commence a business protocol linked to change, and I recognise that we are in a fast moving world beyond that of which our parents, grandparents and ancestors before them would find unimaginable.  If you explain to a teenager about written records, collecting pictures from the chemist, filing information in a wooden box and telephones that were used to make phone calls!, said young adult would display features of surprise and horror only matched equally if you then invited them to climb a tree for fun; actually this latter arboreal challenge was (over the years) completed regularly and successfully by my offspring particularly when I didn’t expect or want them to do it.

So recognising speed of market and technological change, transformation, drivers, benefits, urgency, vision strategy, communication, empowerment, leadership; this is change and it is constant.

The last traffic signal at Slough is adjacently positioned to the regally designed 19^th century town hall and as you sit waiting at the last of your many red lights you have plenty of time to glance across and read the proudly displayed council logo ‘Mondays are rubbish days’          

“What if I told you that 10 years from now, your life would be exactly the same?  I doubt you would be happy.  So, why are you so afraid of change?” – Karen Salmansohn

Christmas is not just for Christmas

Who is your favourite member of the Royal family?  Well I can tell you who mine isn’t; Prince Albert of Sax-Coburg (Queen Victoria's husband).  History attributes him for the introduction of the Christmas tree to the UK.  This Pagan tradition was already known to the Royals in Germany and Victoria was already aware of this before she met Albert so she has some part in the blame!  The, sorry, my, Christmas tree is unlike many other modern ‘bolt ons’ to the original Christian celebrations;  a red robed red faced Santa introduced as a marketing campaign by Coca Cola in the 1930’s, stuffing socks full of gifts replicated from a Dutch philanthropist in 1200, Christmas cards first seen in 1843 after Sir Henry Cole created the idea to help young boys practice their writing skills.  Even the ancient Celts believed mistletoe to have magical healing powers and it is said that among Romans, enemies who met under mistletoe would lay down their weapons and embrace.  None of these symbols of our year end marker of personal meaning have the destructive influence of the tree!

Every year I engage my dexterity, influence, assertiveness, patience and emotional intelligence in a ritualistic contest against an artificial Christmas tree.  The tournament usually commences in mid-December with an eye to berry across the loft encounter followed by a flurry of activity down the step ladder chased by cardboard boxes, stems, branches, colour coded inserts, plastic decorations and exploding dust bombs of synthetic snow; this does not of course include the wondrous fairy lights which baffle the art of electric circuitry.  Hours later I emerge triumphant, tree intact, house empty; note from family explaining they will be back when I’m in a better mood.

This is however a pattern.  By the sheer consistency of my toil every year( for the past eight years), I have the forecast; let’s face facts, I can be be assured when Christmas is coming.  I know the data set, I know the logistics, I know the challenges, I can predict the problems and I can identify the root cause (no pun).  And if I am perfectly mapped and planned, in January I could adjust my projections and problem solve it.

We all run patterns in our lives, some helpful some not so; equally your business will run patterns with the same equality of balance and yes of course there are some chaotic theories and capricious intervals, but these will be matched by equivalent predictable events.  Ask yourself, what you know about your business in twelve months’ time that you already know now?  When is your busiest period? When is the lowest resource time?  When is the quietest?  Where are your critical calendar times?  Throw yourself twelve months into the future and tackle it from there.  Future solutions focused business coaching is here and available.

http://www.zestbusinesscoaching.co.uk/team_business_coaching.php

What is your business Christmas tree?

I mentioned earlier the test of my emotional intelligence.  Here at Zest we are deeply involved with many organisations in Emotional Quotient profiling for senior leaders and therefore increasing performance capability.

http://www.zestbusinesscoaching.co.uk/emotional_intelligence_profiling.php

The profiling asks you a series of questions based on your emotional reaction against certain circumstances.  Having completed one such EQi 2 profile myself, I am very proud to say that I have a higher than the norm score.  The reason for this, I now suspect, is that the new process has omitted a key question-  ‘How do you feel after construction of an artificial Christmas Tree?’

Tune in next year for ‘How to put a tree back in a box’.