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.

Connections

Its been a week of connections and connecting.

Firstly presenting key points on the skills and strategies of professional networking in the current market place at the Ulster Reform Club in Belfast, for a group of directors and business owners from the Institute of Directors.

Secondly, connecting with my old friend and NSA buddy Terry Brock in a new Skype project to capture some of the stuff we both do and putting it on the Net for people. Terry is a technology reporter, commentator and speaker and has a great coaching programme on business relationships. Given the synergies between some of what we do, we decided to Skype a call and record the event. Needs work - especially on the camera quality and broadband speed (bit like a dubbed Chinese martial arts movie!) but its a start!

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.