The Art of Looking Good by Paul Cook

L'arte di guardare bene.

During the cold war John Cleese  documented the daily lifestyle of some Eastern European peasant village folk as they happily went about their chores on a farm; after narrating their apparent simple routine he then delivered the line ‘who would have thought these seemingly happy people are so hell bent on destroying western civilisation’.   

Mrs Cook and I have recently returned from a fantastic ten day escape to the beautiful region of Tuscany; beautiful is obviously a perception as it is straddled precariously amongst that ancient metaphor which culminates with ‘in the eye of the beholder’.  So I beheld vast tracks of olive groves, moody mountain range skies and an infinity pool of famed vineyards.  The Italian folk in that region have kind of cracked it if you apply pureness to what makes one happy; type into your favoured search engine (my lawyers have advised me to write) ‘what makes people happy?’ and you will find an overabundance of research, quotes, academic psychological observations and nuance; you will be given the top 3 the top 5 the top 100 etc.  You will even be given advice bordering on instruction!  It, (the engine), is like an agony aunt responding to your every indulgence - ‘Dear Google (oops) how can I be happy?’ – ‘about 270,000,000 results (0.37 seconds)’ what!  And why time it?  So a medley of options include; get a friend, grow organic veg, donate to charity, eat ice cream regularly, learn to tap dance.  I don’t think these things should happen in one day, but I’m sure someone has tried.  The simple answer if you ask me is go to Tuscany.  The people are encircled with great wine, fabulous food, amazing climate and relaxed tempo.  They are helpful, courteous, gracious and charming, until you get into and drive a car!

 

Our Fiat Punto duly arrived with the friendly sales bod, all wavers signed and off we head into our happy tourist world just at the exact time to re-enact the script from that well known literary giant author Daniel Handler, Lemony Snickets A Series Of Unfortunate Events.  Now I don’t mind receiving feedback from other motorists if I make a slight mistake but saying you will kill my mother seems a little strong; overtaking on a blind uphill left to right bend is also ok provided you do not feel the urge to barge me into the ditch at the same time and please, whilst standing next to your articulated petrol tanker which is also parked at a gas station, make some attempt to get a few feet away as you smoke your Marlboro Light.  However my favourite experience of all is the Italian ability to, no matter where or at what speed, drive centimetres away from your rear bumper whilst emitting a continuous noise only a hand on a car horn can achieve.

Yes, the happy people can also be brash, flash and flamboyantly passionate; it just perhaps manifests in different ways; this is culture and the strange thing is the behaviour transfers.  I started to drive like them; if that’s what they want, that’s what they’ll get.  I can do the signs, the language, the aggression; is it what we do to keep up, to be part of the crowd, to be accepted, to go with it, join in?

So is your business culture where you want it to be?  If it is then sip the Chianti, if it isn’t, then who is driving?  To the world, are you looking good; an art the Italians pride themselves in?  L'arte di guardare bene.

Legal note- None of my Italian friend’s egos were harmed during the composition of this blog.

My first work assignment after returning home was to visit a company near Milton Keynes. The people there seem happy enough; they thought my driving a tad aggressive.

“You don't have to fear your own company being perceived as human.  You want it.  People don't trust companies; they trust people.”   Stan Slap

Coaching Tip

“Coaching highlights what people can readily achieve, given the right support.”

In a recent Sunday Times article, the latest Management Agenda survey from Roffey Park found that many organisations are focusing too much on leadership and forgetting about managing people more effectively now that the economy is beginning to get back on an even keel…

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/public/Appointments/article1206082.ece

Leadership is for Shrimps by Paul Cook

This week marked the start of the Chinese Lunar New Year 2013, the Year of the Snake.  One of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, the snake signifies cleverness and tenacity and is associated with the element of fire.  I strongly recommend that in these essential times for leaders it should have been the year of the Mantis shrimp.

I may have to explain further.

Biological reasons as follows.

Do you cut the grass or mow the lawn, eat scones or sconns, visit the cinema to watch a movie or go up the pictures to see a film?  There is of course the possibility that you do none of these things or the higher percentage bet is that you do and describe them differently.  The mathematical possibilities of differing descriptive behaviour are slightly more than the number of atoms in the known universe and that’s a lot because Brian Cox told me.  Through BBC’s edifying ‘Star Gazing’ and ‘The wonders of life’, Professor Brian Cox has recently transported the viewing public into an awareness and photographically dazzling aspect of, well, everything; from the smallest nucleus within an atom core to the furthest most planets in our vast galaxies.  In last week’s episode (Wonders of Life) Professor Cox described eyesight and the Mantis Shrimp.  Said crustacean is a remarkable creature in many ways, one of which is its eyesight; us Homo Sapiens have what is known as binocular vision which means two separate eyes with one view cross referenced to each other to give depth, colour, light, distance and height; all in all quite useful (particularly when mowing the lawn) .  The Mantis shrimp has trinocular vision in each eye which gives a hundredfold perception on our own.  It can see ahead of its competition, anticipate risk at lightning speed, comprehend muti dimensions and ultimately command its environment.  What must that creature really see of the world and how on earth did they find that out?

In business it is fortunate that we only have to build rapport with humans and not spiny, bottom feeding, dangerous predators… I think I may know what some of you may be thinking at this point.  So with our binocular perception of the world it is incredible that we all have completely diverse perceptions of our own universe; this then inevitably leads to unalike experiences, dissimilar ideas, values, beliefs and of course ways, of expressing it all.  How do we understand everyone all the time?

As a highly effective leader in business it is essential to understand as many variants as possible, to have situational perception, to connect, to build rapport, to communicate at all levels, to understand, to have our own trinocular vision.  It then also follows that your successful talented leaders need these skills.

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

I did notice that most of the thalassic creatures that came a little too close to the shrimp tended to get eaten by it.  So how would you build rapport with such a highly tuned organism?  Take it to the pictures of course.