Let's Be Successful Again!

Saving the world

I've just discovered Justin Rowlatt, the BBC's Ethical Man. He and his family spent a year trying to cut their carbon emissions. Now he's travelling across America to save the world. These are his words - he is going to save the world!

I love his language. He is an optimist and his journey isn't smulzy (as they say in the USA). I watched his film about the Amish with joy. He seems able to connect with people in a gentle and respectful manner - pretty unusual in today's journalists. 

It occurs to me that despite everything that's going on at the moment, we are developing an appetite for a positive outlook. Maybe it really is the spirit of the war bringing out the best in us.  We seem to care more about each other and the planet when we are feeling the pressure.

Where there used to be no "good news stories" we now find a peppering of features about people who have succeeded, people who are doing important work, people who entertain us. We want to make a contribution by buying fair trade products or by recycling our cardboard or by giving to charity.

Watching the lives of the Amish in Justin Rowlatt's little film made me realise how much excess there still is in our lives though. We may feel pride at buying our rice from the cut-price shelf (there was a little tear in the bag meaning it was down to 50p) or at growing a few spuds in the garden. And it is certainly better to do something than nothing at all. But there are people who live on far less and certainly seem to have some quality of life we are missing. Yes, many people are leaving the Amish way of life and who can blame them - long hours, few comforts, a small insular community. But there is also something very appealing about a simple, uncluttered life.

And if this recent "good cheer" I have been noticing isn't a figment of my imagination and is the result of a realisation that we enjoy a challenge, maybe we would be even more cheerful if we had a little less.

 

Gerry's Big Tips

The new series, Gerry's Big Decision, does have something of The Troubleshooter about it, doesn't it? Family businesses in trouble, larger than life character tells it to them straight, will they or won't they listen to the honest truth...?

However, with my hero John Harvey-Jones sadly departed, it is good to see that Gerry Robinson has taken on the job.

In a recent Radio Times article he outlined the 5 biggest mistakes he sees in family businesses, although these could largely apply in any business.

Point 4 struck me as particularly interesting - Problem: A Fatal Sense of False Optimism.

Many people believe my "Let's Be Successful Again" campaign demonstrates false optimism and point to how many businesses are failing, how many people are suffering from high food prices and wage freezes and how many shop fronts are displaying "To Let" signs rather than displaying their wares.

But my approach is never to shrug and say "It will be fine, don't worry". It is to focus on what we can do to influence our situation. Whilst a great deal may be outside our power to change, a great deal is within our power to change. But doing this successfully requires a mindset which is open to the possibilities. Just as it is dangerous to have a fatal sense of false optimism, it is dangerous to have a fatal sense of false pessimism.

As Gerry Robinson says in his article "People are brilliant at talking themselves up...I appoint people on the basis of what they've done - never on the basis of what they've said about themselves".

This is wise, of course. Equally important is not talking yourself, or your business, down. Towards the end of last year I found myself constantly thinking, and saying, that I might go out of business. This was the wrong frame of mind to make sales, to consider new business opportunities and to take the daily actions necessary to create a successful business. 

But thanks to some support from other people and a sudden realisation that only I could turn the situation around, I find myself now having the second most successful year of my business. This could not have happened if I had maintained a fatal sense of false pessimism any more than it would have happened with a fatal sense of false optimism. 

Staring reality in the eye and addressing the problems in any way you can is the only answer.   

Sainsbury's experiment

I have been watching the Sainsbury's series (I'm Running Sainsbury's) on my Sky Plus (hence this might seem rather out of date) and just had to remark on the insights it gave in to how big business treats ideas.

The concept of going back to the shop floor for ideas that could transform the business seemed a good one to me. It is something we at Blaire Palmer encourage and arrange for our clients. Often the people who work at the coal face have a much greater appreciation of what customers want and how to delight them than those stuck in head office. 

However, it was disappointing to see how little support was given to the people with the ideas to help implement them successfully. The first mistake was to assume that the person who had the idea was also the right person to implement the idea. In fact, people who are good at originating ideas are rarely good at the implementation. Two completely different mindsets are required. A creative person tends to have a preference for the big picture rather than the detail. But successful implementation relies on getting the details right. 

Some of these ideas might have been more successful had the originator of the idea buddied up with someone who was great at the practical, implementation side. 

Also, these new ideas were given little time to prove themselves. They had to get results within a week. In one instance a staff member wanted to capture and deal with customer complaints. He was inundated. So much time was spent collecting the complaints that there was little time to deal with them. By the end of the week about 50% had been resolved (he actually exceeded the target he was set). Clearly some issues take much longer to fix and cannot be done there and then on the shop floor. 

Rather than being shocked by the dissatisfaction of customers and throwing more resource at the issues presented, Sainsbury's decided the idea would work on occasion e.g. when a new store manager was taken on or where a store had been through a refit. One was left wondering why the company was so afraid of hearing complaints. 

None of this should have been a surprise of course. Such attitudes are pretty typical (not amongst my clients, who tend to be those who really want to make significant changes in their business and are willing to go through the discomfort this entails) and explain why so many businesses are struggling right now. What is needed at the moment is a culture which responds quickly to customers and to the marketplace in general, which faces up to its problems and addresses them, which is brave and forward thinking.

The problem also creates a dilemma for the consumer (in other words, for me). I have gone off Tesco since seeing how they treat their chickens. Now I am disappointed by Sainsbury's because of their attitude to new ideas. Where shall I shop instead? Aldi?.     

Can we trust The Apprentice?

In my new book, The Recipe for Success, (out tomorrow, available from Amazon and good high street booksellers!) I explore trust. In fact it is one of my 10 ingredients for success.

In dysfunctional environments, trust is much lower than in healthy environments. This means that people need much more evidence in order to trust. There can be fewer environments more dysfunctional than The Apprentice where every competitor is out to destroy every other. There is no incentive to help someone who is struggling or give someone the benefit of the doubt - both behavoiurs which have long term benefits rather than the short term "Wham, Bam, Thank You I Am The Apprentice" motivations.

What is most striking to me is the talk without the walk. That is, people who say all the right stuff but cannot back it up with action. The perfect examples were last week's hopefuls (hopeless?) Noorul and Ben.

Noorul describes himself - "I have always been ambitious and driven and I've got the capabilities to deliver. I am not all talk... I can manage a team of people, total strangers even, because I am feisty and have attitude." 

As we watch him in stunned silence (we are in stunned silence as we watch him in stunned silence) it almost seems as though he cut and pasted a description of someone else on to his CV and hoped no one would notice.

And Ben, who famously did not go to Sandhurst, continues to believe that being offered a place is the same thing as going to war. And if one more person says "I've got a lot more to offer" I will call the BBC and complain!

This sort of behaviour may actually work in more healthy environments (at least for a while) where people are more likely to trust. But in a dysfunctional one like this (and like many workplaces today) it is actions that speak loudest.

It's not me....

Something I am hearing a lot of these days (even more than normal due to the recession) is It's-Not-My-Fault syndrome,

Here are some examples -

"It's not my fault"

"I didn't ask for this"

"Someone needs to do something about this"

"What are you going to do about this?"

I was struck by this yesterday when I heard Gordon Brown on Jeremy Vine's lunchtime phone-in on Radio 2. An angry caller was complaining to Gordon because his mortgage interest rate was 6% and he was tied in to a fixed rate deal and other people were paying less and he wanted Gordon to do something about it. This wasn't a man whose situation had recently worsened. He still had the same job as he had before, he hadn't been directly effected by the recession as far as I could see. If anything his fuel and food prices had gone down recently.

But the recession has provided a perfect excuse for people to blame others for decisions they made of their own free will. Times have changed that is for sure and some people have been directly affected. They are certainly struggling right now and, where possible, they should be eligible for help while they work their way out of their situation.

But most people are unaffected in any negative way. They just want to shrug off responsibility at a time when it is socially acceptable to complain about how hard done by you are.

People who achieve success don't do this. They always look to themselves for the answer to their problems.  They believe they create their own results, even if they can't control everything in their lives. They know that the choices they make every day impact the results they get and they take ownership of those, even when they make mistakes.

It is easy to be influenced by all this doom and gloom and sit around bemoaning your lot. Much harder, but much more effective, is spending your time focusing on what you can influence yourself and doing as much as you can to change that.

A moan occasionally to get things off your chest is one thing, but when we constantly blame others for choices we have made, we are actually setting ourselves up to fail.

What's wrong with the apprentices?

I have a confession to make. I am a fan of almost any reality TV show. Strictly Come Dancing, Big Brother and even America's Got Talent. I put this down to my fascination with human behaviour (although that might just be an excuse for what is basically a shameful indulgence!)

So I make it my business to watch The Apprentice as a kind of test of my commercial mindedness and my people observation skills.

Watching last night I realised one way that the apprentice hopefuls go wrong EVERY SINGLE TIME.

They start with questions like "What is easy?", "What is cheap?", "How can we make the most money?"

In business we generally start with questions like "What is already out there and where is there a gap in the market?", "What do people really want, that they are willing to pay for?" and "What can we excel at?" Profit margins matter of course, but you only make money by meeting a need.

Apprentice contestants start with the premise that the public (or their clients) are idiots who won't notice when they are fobbed off with low quality and poor service at a high price. They talk the talk in public but behind the scenes (where it actually matters) we see their true values. 

Of course, this is partly because of the way the exercises are set up. There is no need for customer loyalty, a long term strategy or team building skills. Team work isn't rewarded - it is everyone for themselves in the end. 

But as a lesson in what not to do it teaches us a lot!

I would love to know what you've noticed - positives and negatives - as the series progresses. 

Mass Media Massacre

People often ask my advice about marketing themselves in the media as I was a journalist for many years and now regularly write for magazines and newspapers and appear on radio.

It can be a great way to raise your profile. But it may not be an easy ride. Most journalists won't promote you to help you grow your business - they are looking for a story. So you need to have one. Being known as an expert in a particular field will help - they will call you to comment on stories rather than being the subject matter of the story itself.

Here are some other tips -

Three is the magic number -

Most interviews with journalists, particularly on TV or radio, are short. And even though a newspaper journalist may talk to you for half an hour, they are likely to choose only two or three direct quotes from you to use in their feature. When preparing for an interview, think ahead about what your 3 key points are. If you have too much to say, your message will be lost. When answering questions ensure that your three key messages are coming across clearly through your answers. This does not mean you ignore the question and repeat, ad nausium, your three prepared statements. This is very frustrating for listeners, viewers and readers and makes you sound as though you are avoiding questions. However, it is easy to get distracted by the interviewers questions and find you have not said any of the things you wanted to say.

Of course, this can be applied to any situation where you are expected to present ideas or answer questions e.g. a meeting, presentation or job interview. In preparation, think about the three key messages (no more) that you want to communicate and ensure that these are made clearly where possible.

Only say what you can justify -

Difficult one this! We've all heard politicians trying to justify a policy or a decision which, clearly, does not sit well with them. Privately they may not feel it is justifiable, but they are holding the party line and have to say they support the decision.

There may be instances where you have to back a plan which you privately do not think is justifiable in the media. My tip is to find the part of the decision which you do genuinely support and focus on that in your interviews. The decision itself may not sit well with you but the need to pull together and present a united front may be very important to you. You may not agree with the decision but you may agree with the way the decision was made or may respect the person who made it.

A good journalist will be able to see through you if you pretend to defend the indefensible. So defend the defensible instead.
This applies outside of media interactions too. "Being fake" is a dangerous path and leads to distrust. But there may be times where it important to stand together with colleagues. Apply the same approach here as you would if you were talking about it on the radio.

Tone of voice -

The tone you adopt is important. Even the most exciting development can be an audience turn-off if you sound bored. This doesn't only apply when doing radio or TV interviews. A print journalist will also be influenced by your tone of voice.

Try this: tape your voice reading something from a newspaper and listen back. How much intonation is there? Could you understand the meaning of what you were reading or was it just words stuck together? If you heard someone speak like that, would you think what they had to say was interesting?

Now try again, this time really "selling" the story. Chances are, even if you feel you were going over the top it won't sound like that when you listen back to it.

Whether you are being interviewed by a journalist or giving a talk, speaking up in a meeting or trying to get a promotion, remember your tone of voice. The words you say matter. But equally important is HOW you say it.

If you've been featured in the media and have tips to share (or horror stories) let us know! Do you think that the media is a good way to get exposure for your business or is it a dangerous game to play?

Flushed with failure!

As I flick through the front pages of the newspapers today I am not surprised to find the following headlines – “Half of middle class home owners fear their properties could be repossessed next year”, “Pound plummets to weakest level yet against the Euro”, “Recession tightens grip on High Street”, “We now worry for 2 hours a day (and it’s all because of the credit crunch)”…I could go on.

Although the UK is not officially in recession yet (this is expected to happen in January) it is impossible to get away from the fact that the world economy is a mess and will continue to be so for at least another year. Whilst most recessions last, on average, 11 months, this doesn't include the period of getting in to recession and the period of crawling back out, so it certainly feels like the problem will be around for a while yet.

Not very uplifting so far Blaire!

Well, I am not in denial about what is happening. Job losses are real (about 150,000 already and 600,000 predicted in 2009), people's investment values are falling which affects pensions and our ability to use our savings to get out of financial messes (so even those of us who were quite sensible and saved money for a rainy day now find it isn't worth as much as we put in) and it is harder for a company like mine (providing coaching and leadership development) to win business because everyone is worried about spending money.

So, what is the point of this blog? The title is "Let's be Successful Again" and yet, so far, I have done nothing but list all the reasons for feeling gloomy. How is it possible, against such a backdrop, to find anything positive and encouraging to say?

1. The vast majority of people will not be affected in any life-changing way by the recession. They will not lose their jobs, their homes will not be repossessed, they may even find the cost of living goes down as VAT is cut and companies compete for their custom.

2. For those who are directly affected by the recession (and I include myself as a business owner) the only way to survive this in any fit state is to look for opportunities, think about what is possible, look at ways to make this as good a year as it can be and focus on success, not failure. 

Successful olympians standing at the starting block don't look to their left and to their right and think "I'm never going to win against this kind of competition". They focus on doing what they have trained to do and they focus on winning.

Successful business people don't spend every moment worrying about going out of business and moving back in with their mum. They focus on making the most of every situation, using it to their advantage.

The threats they face daily are very real and they aren't ignorant of those threats. But they know that focusing on them exclusively is likely to bring about the exact series of events that they fear most. If you focus on failure that's what you get.  

This is not easy. We are bombarded by frightening stories in the news and it is almost impossible to avoid these without keeping the radio and television off at all times and refusing to ask friends how they are feeling. However, many of these news stories are opinion based rather than fact based. Looking again at the headlines which begun this blog, the first and the last are about people's fears. The headline doesn't say half of middle class families are losing their homes. It simply says they are afraid they will. Most, of course, will not. 

The problem is that, whilst there are real financial problems in the system, we have made it (and will continue to make it) worse by our reaction to the situation, by changing our spending habits, but battening down the hatches and by allowing fear to affect our effectiveness. 

In this blog I will provide the very real reasons to focus on success rather than failure, backed up with interviews by some of our most successful business people, sportspeople and leaders. The idea is to provide some balance to the stream of negative headlines and worrying statistics which hit us all every day and to give each of us the ability to focus on how to make our own situation better during this difficult year. 

I believe that changing our attitude is the only way to bring about a swift end to this recession and we can only do that one person at a time. And as you being to change your attitude you will affect the attitudes of the people around you. And that is how we bring about a major change.