Carista

Minister without Portfolio?

I've often ended up in life 'minster without portfolio' - you know the guy that was on cabinet by didn't have anything 100% to do, but did special projects and created great stuff. You know he was needed, but...

For me it's happened to put me somewhere in the system, a system that I didn't fit into, and acknowledge I was there, and possibly useful. Its just 'we don't know what use to make of you'! 

I wonder if this is a good thing and to be enjoyed?

At school we had a cadet force. Lots of teenagers playing army, lots of marching, cleaning equipment and occasionally doing cool things like shooting targets and going to camps with 'Compo' rations. (Compo rations helpfully note on the outside of the case that there is enough lunch for '1 man for 7 days, or 7 men for 1 day' - got the picture!) Were did I end up? In the pioneer duty, along with other under-utilised and unstructured people who were very interesting but not useful, and we better put them away from the main guys as they don't really fit.

Going to church ended up somewhat the same. Being a leader there is only a couple of roles in a church. An elder or an administrator (cunningly called 'team or home group leaders'). I was neither, but passionately did my stuff and encouraged people, offering hope. Not being very mature I got upset that I couldn't just lead and on about the third time around found myself, finding myself (hallelujah).  Deciding that I could only be me, and if nothing else, I made up my own role - minster without portfolio. My pastor, being a wise man, allowed this room and I was allowed to play with all the sections and do my thing just reporting to him.

In business its been much the same! I am an entrepreneur. I make stuff happen, if I can't find things to happen I get upset.  I love to have a cause to tell you about, and you'll going to find value. I'm not very structured but I have learnt ways to structure my thoughts and I'm interesting and mostly useful!

Today I''m meeting people who are the same. They have competently got to the place they have by working hard and the only place left is 'the top job' - the CEO, the Pastor, the Head boy, the Commander. But they are not sure they want that, its too structured and its actually not that interesting! (to them and me anyway) My plea is don't try and become someone you are not. Excel in being you, and be happy. Tell you boss how excited you are about the business, show her that you can do new things, be relevant, create, and perhaps if you need it get some by in, some street cred, then ask to be a 'minister without portfolio' too.

Its the most difficult role to do as you have to be totally 'you' and totally 'present' to survive. And you don't have a choice because they need you, and you need to be 'it'.

My Top 10 Start Up Mistakes

 

Making mistakes is part of the DNA for an entrepreneur, they use them to learn and move forward. But the point is ‘learning’ isn’t it? We don’t need to make mistakes if we can gain from others. So here’s my list of ‘top 10 mistakes’ to avoid.

 

 

1. The Vision is unclear. You have an idea, it’s your idea, but you don’t live in isolation so this ‘idea’ is going to affect others, perhaps that ‘special other’. Have you talked it through, found out how this looks like to you both? What are the goals? Goals needs to be measurable, accurate (best with few words to describe them), be achievable but stretching and done in a time period. Very often this is not done and you find your partner was working in a different way to great cost.
2.  Your Ego!  Let’s be clear, you have got to own your vision and be its champion, no one else will. You’ll have to be persistent in your goals, and passionate, it is yours. But what personal reality check can you put in the system? The worst business ventures are started because of pride.
3. Lack of research.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing but it’s too late. There really is no excuse with the web. Find out about your product sector, competition, relevance, potential market size etc. Then add this information to make a business plan to give you a structure for the next period. This is done at the start, not when you have spent $1000’s and have the most wonderful ‘x’ – which of course you totally own – and find its not wanted. Sorry to sound trite but I could name several companies in NZ now who have something that will probably never reach the light of day because they didn’t find out if it was wanted.
4. You don’t stand out. Whatever you do you have to stand out for something. What solutions do you offer your clients? What makes you the person to call? Being clear on your values and purpose should show in your promotion and make you a ‘stand out’. People respond when they can trust you and see that you will work for their good. So personal referrals and positive networking are strong tools.
5. You don’t take (or can’t listen too) advice.  Stunningly I got this from two brilliant leaders of charitable business groups. The top defect of their people was ‘they don’t listen’ and ‘I’ve spent hours trying to show them, but they want to do it their way’. These were genuine promoters of the people in their group, who had plenty of credibility. Also in a recent roundtable meeting of young business people I heard two members leaving making this comment about a man who had monopolised the previous 40 minutes – ‘he just can’t listen can he, he really needs to get the right staff’. (Perhaps some of this is back to point 2?)
6. Greed, sorry, but it’s the right word!  When you own a vision and you’re passionate about it that’s great, but you’re unlikely to make it without others. Equity partners, investors and top staff around you need inclusion in the dream and the rewards. Again it’s so common for the owner to see it all as ‘his’ and offer minor shareholdings for large investments. If you can make an investment of ‘1’ become ‘4’ for 50% shareholdings are you not better off?
7. You don’t go with you gut! To start a business takes courage and often it’s a sense of what needs to be done, or what needs to be found, that drives the entrepreneur. That intuition cuts through complexity. Read Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Blink’ for a great insight into the commercial and social value of intuition.
8. You hire the wrong people. Probably my biggest mistake. They were friends or in my larger group. They got in without the full process, probably without my number two’s approval. They got hired without a clear idea of ‘what the company needs’ so we looked at a foreman when we just needed a loyal worker. A huge area well taught in Jim Collins’s book ‘Good to Great’. I’ll paraphrase his thoughts as getting the right people, in the right seats, on your bus.
9. You waste money on the peripherals. It’s easy at start up to want great logo’s, notepaper, and websites. My advice is to do it as cheaply as you can until you have profits. Companies are organic in any case and you’ll probably want it quite differently in 12 months. In this area I’d also consider a lot of advertising means. You have to be clear on what your customers need to see and how you get to them, many of the old means are dead.
10.  You stop selling. You’re always selling who you are and what you have got! But it’s easy to give up because of setbacks. Your strategic plan might need a review but you need to keep moving. In early stages of a company my accountant took me aside and told me we couldn’t continue to advertise, or do shows, or really have a salesman, and if we could stop using the phone that would be great!!!!! He needed to tell me to watch the money but he was completely wrong for our future.

 Bonus - 11. You spend too much time thinking!

Your full potential.

Our potential is realised by optimising our own uniqueness and individuality, never by moulding them to others opinions of what constitutes ‘the right way’. John Whitmore

To achieve your potential, to see the full expression of it, to get your personal best performance are the highest goals we can set ourselves.

It could be by winning in an athletic event or getting the new position. It could be finally writing your book, or making a living from your passion. It could be ‘being the No 1 Dad’ or as outwardly simple as ‘learning to smile again’.

Whatever the target, it’s yours, and will demand you total responsibility and ownership to achieve. If it didn’t demand this, it’s likely at least partly, to belong to someone else

Surprisingly, you don’t need more information to grow.

Odysseus left his son with

Mentor

to be educated while he went overseas. ‘Tell him all you know’ he said, and at that point defined the limits of possibility.

All our lives we have learnt to do things without knowing ‘how’ to do it!

We learnt to walk, ride and catch a ball without detailed instructions.

How did we learn to drive a car? Well some brave individual took us out, and yes, they did give us some basic advice so that we focused our attention on a sequence of actions.

We learnt that we didn’t have this skill a very important first step! Then we felt awkward and incompetent. After a few outings we found we could work the pedals, shift the gears and look forward at the same time, with only a few anxious moments. Later we were driving, essentially forgetting the sequence of actions and started thinking about whom we were going to see- possibly our new personal goal!

We have huge personal potential for growth. Ownership and focus bring results.

Many of us stay at ‘the great potential stage’ all our lives.

Like acorns never planted, or given the time to germinate we remain dormant to the higher longings of our soul. We achieve the needs of life: food, shelter, belonging and some prestige. But without taking the time on ourselves we fail to reach for the higher goals depicted in Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs - self esteem and self actualising – to find our meaning and purpose, an ongoing, challenging but satisfying, journey.

Like driving we need to focus, to become aware. Like top athletes going for their personal best this takes time and usually some help.

Coaching looks to your potential, working forward with your desire to change the structure, understanding that problems can only be resolved at a level below the one at which they show themselves.

The number one cause of stress in the workplace is sighted as ‘lack of personal control’. Stress occurs from long periods of suppression with loss of personal choice and thus self esteem. But we can take back personal responsibility for our choices, allowing ourselves ‘to be heard’. This involves actively working from the strong foundations of our values and individual purpose, working at the lower levels, and building a platform to retain our self esteem.

Personal responsibility demands that we make our own choices. It’s unlikely that the ‘carrot and stick’ approach will engage us in this process but working for our own personal best offers freedom for us, and our best value for our community.

Coaching, believes this foundation of awareness, with ‘forward energy’ owned by the client, creates rapid and lasting change. It’s not a new plan or a mystic series of steps led by a guru; rather it’s a planned approach to opening up the potential that exists in all of us and like learning to drive what required conscious attention soon becomes the new habits of life change.

Personal responsibility becomes our best survival tool in a constantly changing world.

Life Coaching is about self belief, motivation, choice and clarity of commitment. It builds awareness and responsibility for your personal best.

Unlike others styles of consulting, coaching works at the deeper levels of personal worth and determination to achieve self motivated people who are moving forward to find meaning and purpose in their lives. Their personal best!

    Simon O’Shaughnessy – Life Coach - Mob. +64 21 556 458

Notes on Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence –EI, some notes.

Emotional Intelligence is a ‘hot’ subject within Human Resources, and with pioneering books made popular by people like Daniel Goleman it’s a subject that has started to get into general dissuasions.

Why?  I believe there is a change in our world view.

• The world view on leadership is rapidly changing. We don’t believe that dictatorial leadership is acceptable and many will not respond to the ‘carrot’ of money or power as the main driver for their lives without question. Gordon Gecko is seen as humorous ‘history’.

• To be connected and understood is a high value. It’s often more important that money or status. So just to be ‘told’ and to exist under a ‘command and control’ type of environment is unattractive for many who are seeking a sense of meaning for their lives and are willing to be transparent in their search. (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs depicts this drive, in a society which has the privilege of choice, with a person moving naturally upwards to ‘self esteem’ and ‘self actualizing’ as the motivation for their lives. These values are seen as irrelevant, even selfish, in a driven and controlled environment)

• We believe that leadership should be clear and envision us, but it also is required to be authentic and in touch with us as people.

• We have come to see ‘choice’ as our right. This means we should be allowed to choose our responses, asking for more information, asking for reasoned explanations and seeing that there is consistency in our ‘human’ leadership. Even in wanting consistency we will cope with leaders being flawed as we accept that’s more genuine that those that portray total control and competence. (provided they are willing to own their flaws as well!)

This puts a high value on leadership that can connect with their own, and others lives. It’s a different leadership that will survive a series of changes as its values are stronger than a single cooperate, and inevitably, limited vision.

It also depicts an organisation that is vibrate with individuals who are self motivated and contributing to their society, creating value as they themselves have value.

For an organisation to survive in a changing and economically tougher world it’s a ‘must’ to be embraced into all levels of management, perhaps particularly those of the baby boomer generation.

Focus on EI has also lead to huge saving in companies as people are not just selected on IQ or technical competence but also on EI. Lower staff turnover and better and quicker management encouraging ‘thinking employees’ area result. It’s a powerful reason to make it a valued tool in financial planning.

Adele Lynn in 1990 set out the 5 areas of focus for those seeking Emotional Intelligence.

1. Self - Awareness and Self – Control: The ability to fully understand oneself and to use that information to manage emotions productively.

2. Empathy:  The ability to understand the perspective of others.

3. Social Expertness: The ability to build genuine relationships and bonds and to express caring, concern and conflict in healthy ways.

4. Personal influence: The ability to positively lead and inspire others as well as oneself.

5. Mastery of Purpose and Vision: The ability to bring authenticity to ones life by living a life based on deeply felt intentions and values.

As we look at this list we can all agree that we could be more competent in EI.- it’s a subjective thing, and we all want to be better as the results surpass most other learning and bring clarity and a deep satisfaction.