SAXTON | people | connecting and communicating

Have you ever heard someone annoyingly whistle a non-existent tune, or a known melody that they then deform until it makes you wish that you were deaf? This is the kind of awful experience that customers and prospects go through when they listen to sales people who have become the message that their companies deliver to market. It is very important then to get straight the critical difference between ‘the message’ and ‘the messenger’, and the importance of combining the two related factors to achieve one positive result. Here are the choices available to companies...

The case for window shopping

Mergers and acquisitions are exciting stuff. This is the sexy end of the growth equation. It’s all about structures and strategies, and trying to rearrange the mix so that one plus one equals three. If you like strategic board games, you’ll love this.

As adults, we've been on our chosen path for some time now and have met with inevitable obstacles along the way, which even a genius couldn't have foreseen when we were born.

Most of us weren't born geniuses but from childhood, were tested for our IQ. We may have been accepted into Mensa or disappointed at the results. Some may debate the socioeconomic validly of such tests and others point with glee to those so-called clever individuals who seem to have led tragic lives. Nevertheless, our Intelligence Quotient, better known simply as our IQ, became a recognised measure of brain-power but not necessarily of success.

Remember when your parents used to say: "Money doesn’t grow on trees"? We'd roll our eyes skyward but do you ever catch yourself saying the same to your children?

Our notions of cost and value change, as do our value systems. About 20 years ago I was a member of Rotary and met many delightful people through that association. One such gentleman was the then New Zealand Consul General.

He was dignified, urbane and successful - at the top of his profession; which is probably why over two decades later, I vividly recall a story that seemed somewhat out of character with his distinguished diplomatic posting. One day at lunch, he proudly proclaimed that he had never spent a cent on the purchase of paper clips.

So said Napoleon Bonaparte before his death in 1821. Nearly two centuries later, we need hope more than ever in our organisations and our personal lives.

Have you ever lost an important business deal or contract? Or, more importantly-lost a loved one or friend? Are you worried by lost health or wealth; loss of job or loss of perspective? Whether that loss is temporary or permanent, you need to dig deep for courage to get on with getting on-to find hope in seemingly hopeless situations.

When you’ve lost whatever is important in your life, it’s important to find hope and as a leader, to help others find hope within themselves.

It’s not just good for everyone else

Collaboration gets a lot of traction in management commentary. Wherever your look, we are encouraged to form alliances. Even Harvard Business Review recently devoted an entire issue to it. Everyone, it seems, wants to work together.

Teamwork, as collaboration was once known, has always been a key to success. What has shifted is the preparedness for greater collaboration across traditional boundaries.

With rapid change in today’s world, too many people look back on the ‘good old days’, recalling less complicated times. Reminiscing can certainly be pleasant, but it’s futile to long for a return to the past, rather than look to the future.

Even with turmoil in todays’ world, it’s worth remembering that we should enjoy the present because in a few years, these times will become our ‘good old days’.

Do you remember the last time you had a roll of film developed? The answer is probably going to be some years ago. Even the professional photographers I work with these days seem entirely reliant on digital technology. You can understand why - you can see the results of a digital photo instantly, and they are much easier (and faster) to send around than a traditional print.

What you may not have considered, when you took your first digital photograph, was that you were hammering a digital nail into the coffin of a once vibrant (albeit small) industry sector  - film processing and printing. At one time every shopping strip and mall had at least one of these small businesses. Now they are much harder to find.

Help people get on with it.

Here’s a quote from management professor, Henry Mintzberg: “The manager does not leave the telephone, the meeting, or the email to get back to work. These contacts are the work.”

Most managers will relate to that. On the one hand, the flow of interruptions, requests and enquiries is a source of constant frustration. On the other, constant communication is at the center of successfully running any team or any business.

What can you to help your customers in these uncertain economic times, even if it doesn’t result in immediate payback to you?

When we think of helping occupations, our minds traditionally turn to the caring professions of nursing, social work and emergency workers. But, every career has the capacity to care; to combine the head and the heart; to feel we make a difference to both our own pocket books and fill pockets of need in others, through random acts of kindness.