Here Comes the Fall (Autumn)

I think every business person comes to a stage when they must decide whether their business needs to be a lifestyle or a growth model.  Maybe I've reached that stage in life when I've realised that 'growth' is the only option really - building something that is greater than the sum of your own parts is the real business challenge.

So, I've come back from my hols with the quickening beat of Autumn (Fall) in the air with a new plan for the coming years....build something. It is with that in mind that I have re-addressed the thorny question of my digital footprint and what I want it to do for me. Good people have told me that the content I provide is of value - but how to take it to the greater world?

My business site, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook - they are all there but I'm concerned that they all hang very loosely from each other and exist in independent worlds.

The challenge now is to grow an information marketing business - one that can be sustained beyond my little self - to create a website that captures names and builds list, markets quality information, products and services to a highly defined group of quality clients.

As for me I have to recognise that I am not enough on my own and now to seek quality people to join the team and live the dream. To grow requires a recognition of one's overriding critical value to the business and that other skills - even if you have them in spades yourself - must be recruited and hired. That is the next step.

..and so it begins. What will you build this year that is greater than the sum of your parts? Raise the bar of your passion.

Ninja Business

For many years I have studied martial arts. The art I have studied is not a sport but one which focuses on real life fighting skills or CQBS (close quarter battle skills) as it is sometimes called. Like many martial arts its heritage resides in Japan and my chosen 'warrior way'  is known as the Bujinkan or 9 Warrior Schools.

One of those schools is Ninjutsu and the tradition emanates from the Ninja tribes in Koga and Iga provinces in Japan. The school or tradition today is known as the Tokukure 'Ryu' (or school) and dates its lineage back 1000 years through 34 grandmasters or 'Soke', as they are known.

The ninja have become figures of fun and fantasy over the recent years but their skils were very real and extraordinary. They could blend both psychology, physiology and the secrets of timing, distance and balance to overcome all obstacles - or perish in the attempt - such was their commitment.

As sales and business people we could learn much from their tradition. An absolute unswerving comittment to our mission, the ability to thrive, adapt, innovate and use all the tools, environments and networks at our disposal to emerge victorious from battle.

But mostly we can learn from what the word 'Ninjutsu' means. 'Jutsu' means an art form - living , evolving, growing, developing, constantly changing, never the same. Unlike the word 'do' which means a fixed path or 'way' (e.g. Judo)  jutsu is inherently present, dealing with the 'now' and constantly flowing and adapting to change and circumstance.

'Nin' means a number of things from survival, to the ability to endure and to overcome.

The art of survival, endurance and the ability to overcome the challenges that face us in the current environment is as relevant to the modern 'ninjas' who operate in today's business world as ever it was for those past warriors who fought to protect their family, their people, their temples and their homes.

After all, do we not share a common purpose? To serve those who matter the most to us.

Rebels or Troublemakers?

People often fear rebels and r'evolutionaries. They fear change and rebels are agents of change. However its important to differentiate between a rebel and a trouble maker.

Trouble makers are people who have their own agenda and impose that agenda onto others regardless of other peoples needs and wants. They are essentially selfish.

Rebels have agendas too but they are based on the need for change to improve a situation that we find ourselves in, to move things on and to continue the evolutionary process of perfecting.

Free Wireless 2

Then there are times when you have to stay in hotels with pay-for-access wireless - and it doesn't work or you can't send emails or .....!

Come th day and come the hour when the mobile phone will finally have morphed into it's true vocation and when faced with further frustration on a given day I can turly say 'Beam me up Scotty!!'

Free Wireless!!

God I HATE hotels that charge for wireless access to the Internet? What century do these guys come from. Nothing is going to spoil my experience of a good hotel than having to pay for wireless internet access - on top of your hotel rates!

I actually now ask when I'm booking a hotel if they have free wireless access - and then decide whether I stay there or not. There are at least 3 hotel chains I refuse to stay at now for this simple fact. The funny thing is that one of them used to provide it for free - and then some idiot clearly suggested that they make patrons pay for it. Really - what does it cost them to provide oxygen to power the information world we live in? I know what it costs them in terms of my custom. Anybody else boycotting hotels because they don't provide free access to the Net - or is it just me?

I wanted to be an American...

I watched Obama make his speech in a well-known hostelry in Dublin city yesterday with Scottish rebel Allan Mackintosh. The silence while he spoke was palpable. They hung on his every motivating word. A voice of hope (we hope).

Just for a while I wanted to be an American- to share at their level the hope and excitement being stimulated by this man. I wanted to be a part of the future that they will have now - with all their resources, their re-building of friends and alliances around the world again, the emergence from a time of fear and ignorance, the reclaiming of what America once stood for - E pluribus Unum - From the Many, One. It's like a bright sun ray on a dark day that catches you in the eye.

Obama uses the language of a r'evolutionary. Inclusive, engaging, connecting and pluralist. Let us hope that he will be radical enough and charismatic enough to carry us on his shoulders into a better world for us all. Let us hope that the enemies of personal freedom do not take it all away.

Hope

Today Obama gets sworn in. In a sea of gloom this is one bright hope (however forcefully marketed). Hope is a powerful thing. It raises the vision one has of the road ahead. It lifts our spirits for those extra steps along the road. It fires the belly with determination to see the race through.

Hope is required in this revolutionary time. In a time when we may feel that the world is out of control, spiraling down and lost then hope gives us the chance to look upwards at what can be, what we can create if we just lift our sights. Hope is always about better futures. It sustains us in the darkest of hours. All is lost when hope is lost.

So today let the light of hope shine. Let this one world event prove to us that in the midst of it all, things can and do change. It requires patience and above all persistence. Never stop moving forward and let hope lead your way.

Seasons Greetings

So, the season is upon us again. The time of good will and giving with the promise (and the fears ) of a New Year around the corner.

May I wish you all a pleasant time with family and friends and remember that it is the journey that counts and those that you share it with along the way. Children grow too quickly and their innocence and childhood is snatched away too quickly from them - so cherish what weeks, months and years might be left of that childhood with them. Loved ones, family (even estranged) and friends all share a unique bond with us in this life that we lead. They are here for a purpose- to help us experience the joy and the pain of what it means to be truly human. Therefore live life to the full and fear nothing.

As for the New Year - ask yourself a question 'What one thing could I do, such that if I were to do it I would live my life on a level I've never reached before - on a r'evolutionary level? What would it take to live my dreams?'. The world around us and everything in it is created on the foundation of dreams of other people. Time to add ours to the mix.

Merry Christmas and a R'evolutionary New Year to you all.

Rebel Women 1

I am due to address a group of 120 female executives from the Dell Corporation shortly on the subject of networking. Actually, it's 60 executives from Dell who then bring in 60 more of their female colleagues in other businesses. An excellent idea and a reinforcement of the fact that women have an innate sense of the power and value of connection.

I truly believe that a shift is happening in business and that we are moving rapidly towards a more feminine energy model of doing business. The turmoil that we have faced in recent months and years has been due largely to an over-emphasis on masculine energy values such as profit at all cost. Such values are leading to the destruction of society and the global environment. An acceptance of a more feminine energy model which would emphasise nurture, community, co-operation, communication and connection is needed and is emerging.

However that does not mean that women have a natural edge in this new world. As long as women attempt to play the business game by adopting masculine values and pretending to be males they will not evolve past the 'glass ceiling'. By learning to embrace their natural powers and values while learning the skills sets of connecting, engaging, persuading however the 'ceiling' disappears as they create a new dynamic in business. They also have to become much more supportive of each other in the world of business.

For men, there is equally a need to recognise and embrace the feminine energy within themselves. The ability to listen instead of dictate, to collaborate and create something greater than compete over something smaller, to understand the power of leverage through networking.

It is truly a time of transformation and I look forward to opportunity of working with more women executives and entrepreneurs as the New Year dawns and helping to awaken their r'evolutionary selves to create a bright new future.

Learning is not an option

I've just come back and catching up on my work since being at the Professional Speakers Association conference in the UK recently where I presented my keynote 'Rebel in a Business Suit - Secrets of the R'evolutionaries'.

I totally recommend that, even in these more challenging times, one commits oneself to continuing the journey of continual professional development. For any professional to stop learning simply because things are getting a little tougher in the market place is tantamount to professional and competitive suicide. Learning is not an option it is a requirement.

Preparing yourself, readying your competitive edge and going out into the economic battlefield requires education, knowledge and not a little wisdom. Such things come from a committment to on-going learning and conferences or seminars are ideal locations for this. Connecting with colleagues and competitors, feeling the pulse of the market, being in a place that educates or inspires reflective and creative thought - it can be amazing what can come from this.

For me one piece of insight which occurred on my way home was remarkable. People often ask me to sum up the idea of being a 'Rebel in a Business Suit'.

For me, it's about transformation through balance.

The Rebel in the Suit is the Yin in the Yang, the Light in the Dark, the Active in the Reflective - for me the insight that came was that being a 'Rebel in a Business Suit' is all about is that being the 'rebel' is about having the courage to decide to take r'evolutionary or transformational actions and ideas and what being the 'suit' is about is being able to create or find the system, the process or the method that provides the means for making those actions work. Spirit into Matter - Dreams into Reality

Transformation is about balance - the rebel that decides and the suit that provides.

Thank God for Recession!

I just rang my local cinema to book tickets for a show - their automatic answering service referred me to another automated answering service that informed me that it would cost 15 cent a minute for the privilege of spending my money with them. I hung up.

It's like booking airline tickets - its a great opportunity for airlines to 'do' you for a per ticket (not per booking) Visa charge of Euro6 everytime. So 4 people to fly - that's a Euro24 charge. Is somebody not getting the message here?

In straightened times when people will watch the pennies the businesses that provide you with a real person to talk to and don't use the opportunity to extort you will win the business. Time to get with the r'evolution.

The 'Co' Factor

I was coaching a client on the values and benefits of 'soft power' as opposed to his more traditional 'hard power' directive approach. The client has made huge (and measured) changes in his leadership style - so much so that he is getting positive recognition and re-inforcement of his change from his own immediate boss and is able to influence and persuade his team to move to even higher levels of performance.

However in explaining what 'soft power' means, I was struck by the number of 'co's' that appear in its values.  Co-Leadership, Co-Operation, Co-mmuncations, Co-Creation and so forth. It seems that 'synergistic leadership' is a factor of 'Co'.

What is meant by 'Co' - simple - parity of esteem - shared understanding, ownership and commitment (another 'co'!).

Stop Imagining!

Most of my work as a coach involves helping clients change limiting perceptions and raise their expectations. It is true that expectations drive behaviour and then performance - I have seen it too many times over the last 11 years in this field not to believe it so. But what it is that drives our expectations?

My youngest son (he's only 6..) told me a joke today. He said: 'Imagine you were stuck in a box with chains on it and then they dumped the box in the water - how would you escape Dad' When I scratched my head and told him I didn't know he said: 'STOP IMAGINING!!' and fell over with laughter at how stupid a dad can be...

Stop Imagining....what are the problems we are creating for ourselves through overactive and undisciplined or externally manipulated imaginings. How long will the 'tough times' last in business or will wars continue or all the inadequacies of the world remain - as long as we imagine them or when we can start to imagine (and then act to create) a new and different future.

It was once said that 'whatever the mind can imagine, mankind can create'.  We have demonstrated this simple yet profound fact many times through history. Perhaps it's time to start imagining and now creating a r'evolutionary personal, business and societal future.

Service with a Smile

I've returned from a recent family holiday to Malaysia and Borneo - part of taking time to educate my young kids to the wider world. The one thing that struck me the most on my return to Europe was the contrast between how people whose work it is to help and serve you - in no matter what capacity - and how they smiled.

Smiling conveys the greatest of human needs - acceptance. It has become a rare commodity in the West. One which I now remark upon when I get one from an airport attendant, a bar person, a hotel person, a coach driver - anyone who works in the 'service industry'.

Whether its just a better quality of training or simply a matter of culture, a smile is ever on the lips of nearly all of those who serve in the East. From room cleaners who meet you in the hallway and bid you 'good day' with a genuine smile, or lift attendants, pool attendants, waiters or restauranteurs who at least appear genuinely happy to get your business.

Maybe it is a cultural thing. Perhaps we in the West see 'service' as demeaning and 'below us' in some way while those in the East do it because they take pride in whatever work it is that they have and do in the service of others. Maybe in the West we have a greater sense of personal entitlement and they don't.

Whatever the reason, when it comes to my choice of rewarding a person's service to me as a customer, I know which kind of person I'm happy to leave the bigger tips with.

R&R

Rest and recreation and yes, I am re-visiting the topic.  Maybe it's because I'm heading out next week for two weeks in Malaysia and Borneo - with the family in tow and mightily looking forward to the opportunity to take time out and take stock of things. Expensive - yeah, there's always a little financial pain but I learned the importance of not putting money before memories some years ago.

Money can always be earned and renewed but the time in one's life in which it can be used to make memories that sustain you, your loved one and especially your children - to awaken young minds that experience a world that is global and diverse - is finite.

I spent four different coaching sessions with senior executives last week and the theme was exactly the same. Take time out - get away from the job. Give yourself some space - and for good business reasons too.

Most of our creative insights, our new ideas, our renewed motivation comes when we are not working. Typically they come when we take time to go on holiday - or usually when we are asleep and kept awake until the idea forms itself and thus we often lose good quality sleep.

By keeping ourselves at the coal face we fail to see the ideas and the insights that can help us transcend the challenges that we might be facing in the role. Our unconscious minds need time to integrate and synthesise,  to reflect and resolve,  to connect the pieces - it is from this that the insights which drive  our success and creativity come from.

Taking time out regularly is a critical business decision - it boosts our brain power, connects with the universe and shows us the way.

Authenticity

I've just uploaded another video introducing a fellow r'evolutionary Lesley Everett on Rebel Island TV on the www.rebelisland.net website . Lesley speaks about discovering and promoting your authentic brand and by doing so raising your game and that of your business.

Authenticity is a very hard thing to manufacture - it has to be mined.

One has to look deep within oneself to find one's inner compass and then learn to trust it. I'm a great advocate of the Insights Discovery psychometric tool which allows one to discover one's preferred communication and personality style in a non-judgemental way. I use it for coaching and for team communications and find it both great fun for participants and a great way to establish an intuitive language for communication.

The report often presents us with two aspects of ourselves - our 'unconscious self' which is who we truly are and our 'conscious or adaptive self' - the person or the mask that we manufacture to operate in business.

How different would things be - and how much more powerful would we be in our communications and our relationships - if we truly had the courage to discover and live our natural selves. If we could be fearless and free - if we could release the rebel from the business suit.

Time Out

Just had the most amazing weather this bank holiday weekend here in Dublin and lots of time for family. Interesting how the sun has such an effect on our natures. The sunlight releases more seratonin for the brain and raises awareness levels - that's why it's such an important resource when conducting training sessions - the more sunlight the better. Seems my teachers had it right when they brought us out onto the football pitches to do lessons on good days.

Time for family - to catch up, to laugh, to heal. Sunlight for the soul.

It's no surprise then that people who take regular breaks are the most successful in business. They give their minds space and time to reflect and create, their bodies time to repair and their souls the chance to integrate.

Ready for the coming week!

Rebel in a Business Suit

I spoke in Scotland recently at a conference entitled The Re-Birth of Leadership which examined some of the changes required of today's leaders to engage more effectively with the new world of work.

One of the great advantages of such conferences is the chance to engage with one's own peers in the speaking field and get some insights into other professionals' views of your message. Some of those insights have caused me to look yet again at the unfolding message in the ideas of Rebel in a Business Suit and R'evolution.

I guess the idea of the r'evolution that I'm talking about is the capacity to come to understand oneself - both the light and the dark side of oneself. To learn to be courageous in discovering who we truly are so that in doing so we bring a very authentic self into the new world of work - and when one is authentic one is powerful. When this happens the Rebel in the Business Suit becomes an idea of self-integration - the passion being the rebel and the purpose being the suit.

You might say it becomes the idea of the entrpreneur in the heart of the accountant or the artist at the heart of the engineer - the Ying and the Yang and the Heart and Head. An integration of opposites that creates a powerful being. Imagine that unique person as an asset as a leader or rainmaker.

R'evolution

Evolution is always with us.

I've finally put the finishing touches to the edits for the R'evolutionary Selling audio sales series and currently working with a designer to develop a new brand look for the whole idea.

The designer came up with a nice simple idea to spell r'evolutionary in this way as opposed to the r-evolutionary manner I was using before. Simple but I think very effective and much more elegant. I'm hoping to tie-down a logo for this in the coming days working on the idea of evolution 'to the power of r'.

I'm also negotiating the re-design of the current website to include an e-commerce facility and integrate a lot of what I've learned in the past year about the digital environment from Declan Elliott of Mobilavenue - a web guru if ever there was one.

But isn't the price of web design outlandish? Especially when you know there is a host of third-party software already on the Net that just needs to be bolted onto a framework. If anybody can recommend a good impoverished student with a flare for the Web - let me know!

Tehran Day 3

Driving in Tehran is scary....but I realised why today. France had a significant interest in Iran at a point in its history and clearly they all learned to drive from Parisians.

I'm blinded from flash bulbs and my mouth is sore from smiling - everyone wants your photograph here after you speak - now I know what its like to have the paparazzi following you but the Iranians are infinitely more polite about it.

I did three seminars today and I must admit at this point I am exhausted. Some work scheduled for Saturday has been deferred so I get the day off for some sight seeing and carpet buying.

Tomorrow, I get stuck into the final edits for the new R-Evolutionary Selling CD programme coming out at the end of March or Mid-April. Giving the video that has been shot this week here I'll also be able to include DVD footage of certain exercises.

It's fun being here and we are being well looked after. I just miss access to nice glass of good wine and some bubble-gum TV - this is the place to be if you are a news junkie - that's all you can get in English here.