Change Requires Change

Albert Einstein said that the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

He had, and still has, a very good point!

More and more I speak to people who aren't happy with where they are professionally, and occasionally personally. Few of us are lucky enough to live a utopian existence so this shouldn't come as a huge surprise. What has struck me though, and has been further reinforced in various conversations recently, is that even if the issues are realised and a better option is placed for the taking, people often ignore it.

Would many people rather perpetually moan rather than seek a better way? It would seem so.

Just yesterday I spoke with a good friend of mine whom we shall call 'Bob'. Bob is in an unenviable position professionally. He works for a US supplier of IT, although not a major player. And neither is it niche. Therein lies the rub. Without a niche claim and no tangible marketing to drive leads, Bob is reduced to cold calling to drive his leads. Subsequently he can't build a pipeline which means he can't close enough business to earn more than his base salary.

This situation is ongoing even though his boss, who runs Europe, Middle East and Africa for the company acknowledges the issues as a global concern for the organisation. From this we can deduce that Bob's situation isn't going to change any time soon.

Now it just so happens that I can utilise Bob's skills to our mutual benefit. I am a partner in a training company which is ramping up it's UK operations. Due to this increase in activity I am looking to take on sales people and freelance trainers.

Bob's selling skills are exactly what I need. And whilst I'm not in a position to throw huge sums of money at him, I can afford to be very generous in a profit-share. The best bit of all? Bob can work for me a few hours per week without impacting his existing job, thereby maintaining the security of a handsome base salary and corporate perks, whilst having the ability to earn a significant income from other sources.

Bob has seen the literature and collateral and read the case studies. He understands the differentiators and USP's in a crowded market. He sees the value. He knows that this would be a clear case of win/win.


And guess what?

Bob's given me a variety of reasons why he might not be able to do it, whilst continuing to whine about his current situation. This is just one in a long line of examples but the same thing comes up again and again.

If you are locked in a repeating cycle you must CHANGE SOMETHING to get a better outcome!

In Bob's case, the issue is now one of confidence, which is lacking having strived and failed to gain results over an extended period of time. I'm working with Bob to overcome this issue.

What's your reason? What's your excuse?

PS - I am not immune to these things. None of us are. But once we understand that something needs to change in order to improve a situation, we can analyse what needs to be done and plan accordingly. I'm not advocating knee-jerk responses as I'm not a fan of frying pan to fire experiences either :)

Not Life or Death. It's More Important than that....!

Whilst watching the BBC football pundits review a World Cup match last night I was struck by the intensity of the debate and it reminded me of the famous Bill Shankly quote:

"Football is not just a matter of life and death. It's much more important than that."

And there was me thinking it's only football....!

Fortunately, very few of us have lives depending on our daily business decisions but wouldn't it be great to be as passionate as the pundits? There's a school of thought that says that to be truly passionate about our business endeavours, our business goals must be in line with not only our personal aims and ambitions but also our core values.

Are we in a position to have a business life that maps on to our personal goals? And our values? Do we know what our goals and values are?

When these things are out of kilter it helps to explain some of the ups and downs and time spent in the doldrums which affect us so often. The bursts of unsustained enthusiasm, the easy distraction from our paths. All could be explained by the lack of cohesion between goals and values.

More than a little food for thought. I could go on about coaching stuff at this point, but I won't. I'm going to think on it a while. Why not do the same?

Things go wrong. It's how you react that counts....

For those of following the 2010 FIFA World Cup, you may be in the same position as me. Which is disappointed. After lots of build up the first match took place and it didn't turn out as expected. In my case it was England Vs USA, a game that England were expected to win. The final result was 1-1. There were two big cases of things going wrong in that game and reaction to them will be key.

The first point is the result itself. For England to progress to the knock-out stages it's likely that they now must achieve a victory in Friday's game Vs Algeria. With that requirement comes added pressure for all involved.

The second point is that the England goalkeeper, Rob Green, made a howler of a mistake that could haunt him forever if he allows it to. A mundane shot requiring the sort of save he would normally make with his eyes close ended up in the net after he failed to simply get his hands behind the ball. An error a schoolboy would be disapppointed with. To make matters worse, his error was watching by millions of people across the globe.

I hope that Rob Green gets the support of his team mates and family at this difficult time but the fact is, none of us can change what has gone before. We can learn from it, react to it, try to ensure that the negatives don't repeat and that the positives very much do.

What is done is done. We are where we are. How we choose to go forward is what counts.

Once again, it's how we execute which is so vitally important. Review yesterday, plan for tomorrow, make it happen today.

Here we go.....

So after a build up that seemed to go on forever, the 2010 football World Cup is now underway. South Africa got things underway amid much excitement and managed a draw against Mexico.

Tonight sees England Vs USA in Rustenburg. Four years of build up and expectation comes to a head now. The strategy and tactics are set. The squad is prepared and the fans are at fever pitch. As of tonight it's all about execution on the biggest stage for football and the highlight of many players' careers.

That's what it boils down to isn't it? The talking is done (unless you're a football pundit. I'm watching the match on ITV1 HD. Great picture and coverage). The training is over. The players have 90 minutes to make or break their World Cup campaign. Several sets of 90 minutes to win or go home in shame.

England expects.

We'll save the business chatter and analogies for another day.

For now, Come On England!

Plan B?

If like me you've watched the BP oil spill drama unfold recently, you may have been left wondering something? What on earth happened to Plan B? Who would have thought that despite the (now evident) risks of operations at an amazing depth of 5000ft, there didn't seem to be a plan for what happened when things went wrong?

For BP, this must be a worst case scenario. As I write, its share price continues to tumble and the company is being vilified across the globe. On the late news this evening, Barack Obama was calling for the head of the BP CEO Tony Hayward.

Worse, much worse, an unprecedented ecological disaster is developing that is wreaking havoc on the US coast. Natural habitats are being destroyed, as are the livelihoods of many thousands of people.

Back to BP for a moment, it's worth bearing in mind that this could be any oil company who has fallen victim to these events. Rented equipment and I'm not sure that BP was even operating the rig when things went wrong. There must be a number of CEO's giving quiet thanks that it's not them in the firing line.

I don't have the answer to these particular issues of course, but there's a lesson to be learned for all of us from this sorry mess. Have a Plan B. Contingency planning is something we all need to do. Things go wrong. Despite best laid plans events often take an unexpected turn for the worse.

Let's give some thought to what the risks are, how likely to happen and how serious the outcomes might be. And then plan accordingly should the events ever happen in full or in part. Something is better than nothing.

Feel free to get in touch to discuss.