Business Readiness - Visibility

We all wish to be seen and we wish to know that others have seen us. In this second blog on getting your business and team ready to return to work, here are a few thoughts on visibility and decision making.

Visibility with your team

Right now, your team want to SEE your leadership, so communicate with them as regularly as possible via face to face and as an everyday suggestion, don’t hide in emails. Your team don’t read them and the truth is we probably don’t either!

As you consider what to share with your team, this is Not a time for long term vision casting. Keep your soundbites to your team relatively brief and clear letting your team know they are well supported by you. Let them know you have a strategy and communicate as change comes. There is no need to predict everything right now as it is more important to read what state your team is in

Decisions

As you look ahead it is important to ask yourself if you are choosing a survival or THRIVE strategy to navigate forward? Your answer to this question will reflect in your demeanour and inner feelings. I encourage you to THRIVE!

If you find yourself having to make Staff decisions consider the whole team and process correctly before leaping into anything rash. Look at your options and alternatives. For example can you reduce wages/hours/annual leave before more taking more drastic measures?

Pre dialogue with your customers and colleagues

Checking in with your customers is so important at this time. I am encouraging everyone to make that telephone call. We all know that 20% of your customers will be giving you 80% of your business so why not give at least those customers a call? Frame it around them and not your business. A genuine interest in their humanity will endear you to them and will be the best source of FREE advertising you will have right now.  I already know of several colleagues who are doing this and hearing amazing stories and gaining great customer feedback from being kind.

And don’t forget to check in with your team in the same way. Right now a lot of each day is about the jokes, their welfare and offering the reassurance that you are all in this together!

Finally, it’s about Prioritising your mental health first! Your well-being is critical so take time for you as you consider your business readiness and your own personal readiness…

Cheers Andrew

Back to Work

What else is on?

At the end of the Truman Show we see Jim Carrey finally break free of the show and leave, and we see the audience rejoice and cheer him on. Then in the film's final moment, we cut back to two of the viewers who, after witnessing Truman's life-changing moment, immediately start looking for something else to watch. They ask What else is on?  It's a funny and spot-on commentary on life and how fickle we all are. In many ways your customers and mine are like that. They are looking to us to see what’s next….

The curtain is going up soon on the second half of the show. It feels like we are all backstage in the wings and the curtain is about to go up on Act 2. What will your show (business) look like? Are you cast ready? Have you worked out the plot yet? How will it play out?

It comes down to our state of readiness in ourselves and within our business and the curtain is about to rise…. 

This lockdown represents both greatest leadership challenge AND opportunity. Over the next couple of days, I will share some thoughts on getting your business ready to return to work.

 Today it’s about establishing priorities

What do you need to do? (have you thought through your priorities – are they written or in your mind? Key is to have them CLEAR). Its really important before we begin to cast our vision and thoughts to our team that YOU know very clearly what the short term ‘must dos’ are.

  This is your greatest leadership challenge AND opportunity so the question we can perhaps ask is Are we going to be RESPONSIVE or REACTIVE?

 When the curtain goes up what does the stage look like?  Are we beaten up or ready to put on the show of your life?

 Now is the time to be realistic with yourself and your team.  Don’t let the fear of ‘what if’ stand in the way – it’s important to ‘rip the plaster off’ and pragmatically face worst case scenario by digging into numbers. If you don’t know your numbers I would encourage you to get intimately involved with them. Review your cashflow contingencies, any loans, overheads. Take time to cost them NOW and not later. Go back to work  with a comprehensive awareness of your situation. Rip the band aid off now and expose the wound so it’s not a shock when you do get back to normalised trading

 Next blog I will share a few thoughts on your team

 Cheers Andrew

The Power of Personal Reflection

To illustrate this point a university professor stood in front of his students and asked a simple question, “How long have you lived?”

 One of the students responded, “Twenty-four years.” The professor then swiftly replied, “No, that is how long your heart has been pumping blood.” Using his life experience the professor then went on to suggest some of the moments when we are really alive. These were when we take hold of a moment in time and can recall it so vividly that the moment lives on in our hearts and minds long after living the actual moment has past.

 You may be thinking of one of those moments in your life right now. For me I have one that stays with me and is as alive today as it was more than thirty-one years ago. I was a youthful twenty-one-year-old with hair, (and plenty of it) wearing my bright green shorts, my red puma boots and my yellow singlet standing on top of the world’s tallest building at the time – the World Trade Centre. I have a photo and my blue ticket stub imprinted with the words, ‘World Trade Centre Observation Deck’. It was an incredible experience looking down at the traffic like ants hundreds of metres below, feeling the sway in the building and the gusts of wind blowing the tears in my eyes into my ears as I watched the whole of Manhattan beneath me going to work that day. I knew on that day I was fully alive.

 Asking the question to the class again the professor said, “How long have you lived?”

The student at the back of the class shrugged his shoulders and said, “When you put it that way… a minute, maybe two minutes.”

 The professor revealed that most of us spend our lives without living in those all-too-few moments of time when we are really alive and really reflecting. He went on to say the most meaningful times are created when we pause to reflect upon our lives. The lesson the professor literally conveyed to the students was that a failure to reflect on life means that we do not gather our experiences whether mundane or magnificent. Because of ‘just doing life’ we live a life of drudgery rather than daring, and we fail to consider anything of significance. 

 However, the professor would say it is in these supposedly idle moments that often our real inspiration is found. Reflecting is important, and it helps you to gather your thoughts, consider your journey, think about your highs and lows, and assemble the life experiences you have had so that you can contemplate your story and the path you are taking.

 You are important – and it’s important to take time out just for you. When your world is right, everything else is! – from Business by the Heart by Andrew Hoggard

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Facing a NEW New Zealand

Are you over it yet? I think I am….

I called my Mum on Day 4 of the ‘NEW NZ’ and she said she is already ‘over it’. I’m sure you might relate. After listening to Brene Brown’s recent podcast, here are my thoughts, capturing some of her thinking and my own….

There is a collective ‘hit of weary’ in our society, and it’s especially true for those on the front line, serving the New Zealand community. I am sure we’re all feeling tired both inside and out. It is also apparent for those of us who live with others, who aren’t used to being at home around each other as much as we are. The exposure to so much ‘up close and personal’, while being a gift, can also be wearying for those who simply aren’t used to it. 

At present we should try to ‘normalise’ as much as possible. If you feel and act as ‘normal’ as you possibly can, so will your friends, family and colleagues. The adrenalin surge of this crisis has propelled us through the first waves of Covid -19. The moment of crisis has brought New Zealanders together and I’ve been inspired by the amount of collective good will that is apparent in our neighbourhoods. Not only is there financial assistance available from government etc, but genuine kindness is happening in our neighbourhoods, flowing out to many in the most ‘normal’ ways. This is heart-warming.

I would encourage us to consider in our conversations the level of mess we are in, and the overwhelming seriousness of this situation. The ‘adrenalin surge’ part of this crisis will come to a conclusion, and many of us are realising that this is our new ‘normal’.  So what’s next? This crisis is not one which will follow the natural rhythm of things we have faced before. It is different to a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, and it doesn’t have an ebb and flow that is predictable. It is going to be a long-distance run for New Zealand, and this remote form of working and living may extend longer than we hope.  We are, however, fortunate to be in the hands of a leadership experienced with managing crises. They have a track record of navigating tough times, enabling most of us to have realistic confidence. Therefore, I’d encourage us to consider the ways we order our work and personal lives to ease our way through this ‘new constant’. 

Success will be found in your ability to really talk through with your friends and loved ones how you are honestly feeling about this ‘new normal’. Part of the success we’ll uncover moving forward is by shifting from a place of fear and anxiety to developing a clear path forward for our business and personal lives. If you consider a coin, we often think there are only two sides – heads and tails. Heads we win and tails we lose. However, there is a third side to every coin, which is its edge. The edge can represent our perspective and how we respond to situations - that changes everything. Going back to heads and tails, we know in our lives that there will be challenges and wins. There are times when we feel we are on top of everything, and other times when we feel everything is crashing down around us. The edge of the coin is the place which exists in between heads and tails. We can all live there. Living on the edge of the coin is the place of balance between the extremes of a situation - including this one we now face. The edge of the coin enables it to roll forward after it has been flipped. You might have felt like your life has been flipped recently, however I encourage you to find your ‘edge’ and allow yourself to move forward. The ‘move forward’ will be based on what you know and bring clarity with what you can reasonably form in your mind. So, here are some practical things you CAN do right now to make things better.

1 Limit your News Intake – As much as it’s great to be informed, we get to saturation point and we probably have the wisdom to know by now that all news is ‘extraordinary’ which often means bad.

2 Limit your Screen Time - Find one or two reliable sources that YOU trust, centred around science and epidemiology of Covid - 19. It’s important to sort out between those which spread calm and those which are obvious fear mongers.

The next part of ensuring you’re taking care of yourself is to be connected with a caring community. If you are in a relationship and living with someone then it’s likely you have a person you can confide in. However, if you are single you might like to consider a friend or colleague online or on the phone who you could consider being ‘real ‘with.

Check in with each other regularly – What happens when a group of friends or a partnership is not meeting one another in a mutual place? It’s highly likely at present that the people you live with or are friends with are not feeling in the same place of comfort as you might be. One vital question to consider as you meet is what do you feel you have to bring to those around you right now? It will be impossible for you to converse with friends or colleagues and expect that they can meet you in a 50/50 place of exchange. It will be most likely that your partner or friends will be feeling quite depleted right now. Therefore, one of the keys to getting through this will be acknowledging to each other how you are feeling.  For instance, it may be that you are only operating at 10% at present. Could it be possible that you might be able to ask someone else to bring their 40% to the table to help you at this time? 

It’s time for a higher degree of transparency in our relationships. In our relative levels of ‘tiredness’, I encourage you to develop a way of communicating with those that you love where you can ‘name’ where you are honestly operating at. If you’re able to identify where each other is at, the one who is feeling most depleted, or has the most to offer, can step in and help the other. It may be as simple as sharing what percentage you are operating at with the kids, with your relationship, and with your friends. Take a moment to ask those you care about where they are really at. Discover the gap between your depletion and their ability to resolve. It may make your check-ins and catch-ups much more favourable and you’ll be able to resolve some of the complexities you are facing.

 Then there is the practical stuff

 Get regular sleep! – Enjoy your sleep. This may be a perfect time to sleep in a bit more than usual. You probably have the luxury of time.

Device time - Don’t take your devices to bed with you or have them on the bedside table. If you don’t believe ask Simon Sinek for his advice on that!

Move your body – One of my grumpiest days of lockdown was when I realised that I hadn’t done any exercise and my wife virtually shoved me out the door for a late afternoon bike ride. She was right and I came back a better Andrew.

Eat well in this crisis – A crisis can lead to crazy habits (mine is potato chips), and we get addicted to sugar and so we rise and crash on insulin. Eat well and stay healthy.

No harsh words – Be kind to those around you. They are going through this with you and its new ground for them as well. No harsh words with nice faces and no nice faces with harsh words – speaking kindly to each other will definitely help us all get through this.

Accept apologies and give them – Acknowledge that you may have hurt someone you love due to anxiety. They will appreciate your apology.

Have fun – Have a joke night/play board games/select the movie you all want to watch/ cook together, and a million other things you can do TOGETHER. There are a billion suggestions and ideas online of things to do.

Don’t allow fear of not having enough be a motivator in your life. The supermarket lines and overdose of bad news can create a panic mentality within us. We can be drawn into a false belief that we won’t or don’t have enough and feel ‘compelled’ to do things rather than embracing the freedom to choose when it suits us. Don’t allow the circumstance to drive you down. You can take charge of your circumstances. There is enough for us all and we can share what we have.

And finally, our emotions do not go away. You might be in a good place or you may be in a terrible place right now. It’s important NOT to rate our fear or pain in light of how another person might be feeling. The negative emotions we feel will get stronger when we deny them. Our bodies and minds have a way of amplifying things we feel to an unrealistic level. I’m sure you’ve experienced this?  Therefore, it’s ok to acknowledge how you feel right now to yourself and to others. As I shared at the start, the collective weariness that everyone is feeling is a state that we shouldn’t ignore. It’s important NOT to ration our kindness, our generosity, our love and our positive thoughts. Give them freely to others and don’t forget to also allow yourself to feel those things every day.

I hope that some of these thoughts have provided fuel to encourage you, and the ability to find your ‘edge’ and allow yourself to move forward.

Cheers, Andrew

Here are some external references which might be useful for your well-being at this time.

Brene Brown Podcast Unlocking Us is her new series helping people cope with the changes we all face

The NZ Institute of well-being and Resilience https://nziwr.co.nz/resources-publications/

NZ Mental Health Foundation https://www.mentalhealth.org.nz/home/ways-to-wellbeing/

Parenting Place (for all things family) https://www.theparentingplace.com/articles/

Claire Turnbull https://www.claireturnbull.co.nz

Lifeline https://www.lifeline.org.nz/contact-us

The Flourishing Institute http://theflourishinginstitute.com/covid-19-4/

Hope is a Great Filter

What would happen if we chose to view each day with our greatest ability to hope? We have been given this time to appreciate this air, this blue sky and all that we have in our neighbourhoods.

What if our hope level over our marriage, our future, our kids, and our dating relationships was optimistically high? We would discover a family finding restoration around the evening table and our shared meals. We would find new ways to love and express ourselves in conversation and touch. 

How would each day look different? We slow down to appreciate what really matters learning to trust not in our money or our material resources. They fail us, if we haven’t learnt this already. 

How would your mood be? A hope filled perspective will change your life. 

When we embrace hope, we influence those around us and when we are hanging on to hope, we influence culture! 

This is OUR opportunity to RESET the values of our humanity.

Find YOUR Edge

Logic would say that when you are looking at a coin there are two sides. Heads and tails are the obvious sides of the coin that jump to our attention. Life is like that. We have a bit of a ‘heads and tails’ mentality to our thinking. Heads we win and tails we lose. If we do well it’s a heads up situation but if things don’t go so well it’s just tails and it can feel like life has bottomed out.

However, there is one other side to the coin which I hadn’t considered until recently.

The third and most unconsidered side to the coin is it’s edge. I realised the edge can represent our perspective and how we respond to every situation that changes everything. Going back to heads and tails, we know in our lives that there will be challenges and wins. There are times when we feel we are on top of everything and other times when we feel everything is crashing down around us.

The edge is the place where we can all live which exists in between heads and tails. Living in hope is the edge of the coin and the place between the extremes of every situation. Living on the edge of the coin is similar to a place that connects the extremes of life to a place of balance. After all it is the edge of the coin that enables it to roll forward after it has been flipped. You might have felt like your life has been flipped recently however I encourage you to find your ‘edge’ and allow yourself to move forward.

Wishing for you YOUR momentum to roll forward. Find your EDGE. 

Cheers Andrew

What if fear threw a party and no one showed up?

It’s a wonderful idea to decline an invitation to fear’s global party don’t you think? The choice to be fearful or hopeful is an ever-present invitation. I am sure we can all recall the inspirational words of Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption. “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies”.

When I have spoken on hope in sales, I have often said hope is not a strategy. I say to sales people that hoping things will get better and not doing anything about it won’t deliver any change in your business or personal life. Hope for many of us may be a vague concept or it can be like an anchor for your vessel in the storm. I have learnt a little about anchors and understand that in turbulent times at sea the anchor provides safety for the ship, pulling it in a direction to oppose the oncoming waves. Hope indeed is a strong anchor for us all. Hope can keep me from collapsing under those burdens of disappointment, frustration and delay. Hope became my friend when my wife Kyleigh experienced a bleed on her brain on our honeymoon. Hope came through for us both.

To activate hope in our lives, I believe there are three key elements, mixed with determination. It is important to believe that what you hope for will actually happen. It is then important to have the capacity to physically act upon what you believe will happen, and finally realise that we are in control of our hope. Therefore, at this time in history and indeed any other, we should desire to cultivate and maintain an atmosphere of hope in our lives. Living in an age that is dominated by digital devices that often experience technical problems, I’ve learnt the valuable option of pressing the reset buttons when things go pear shaped. In a similar way, we need to consider our hearts and lives like our devices. Often we may need to reset our inner thinking and feelings and turn them toward hope rather than finding ourselves in the gravitational pull of negative and destructive thinking.

It is my choice to live and stir up a life of hope within myself. Others can encourage me and hold me accountable, but it is ultimately my decision to live in hope. Our characters are honed by persevering through difficult times such as these. Those character traits that we develop through turbulence and adversity lead to hope. Don’t give up because you see others around you doing so. If you push through and keep going you will find wonderful qualities of character being developed in your life. Times like these will refine your character - formed and matured by hope. A strong hope is indicative of a strong character.

Its appropriate to finish where we started with more words on hope from the Shawshank Redemption. “I find I’m so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope”.

Live in Hope

Love and cheers Andrew

We undervalue the present

The psychologist Linda Henkel tested this and found we externalise things rather than internalise and think about them.  We allow the job of a device to remember something for us rather than breathe it in and allow it be part of our memory, our ‘good old’ days. The scary truth is that we remember less about something when we record it on our iPhones. 

Staying present in the moment is counterintuitive in the world we live in but it’s worth it

 We all hear the saying it wasn’t like this in the ‘good old’ days. “I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you have actually left them” – The fictional character Andy Bernard in the office said this but it is truly profound.

 Good old days are the times when we look back and we really liked ourselves. Time’s like school where they were an incubator for foolishness, curiousness, vulnerability and debates over a vast array of subjects. The foolish diversions are the real nectar of life and contribute to who we are. These are often the times when we are truly present away from our distractions, our devices where we can value relationships, scenery and the very core of our existence.

 Take time to make more good old days for yourself.

What are you thinking?

Research indicates that the average person speaks to themselves 50,000 times per day and 80% of that is self-talk and most of that is negative. How you treat YOU is important. You have more conversations with YOU than anyone else. What kind of conversation are you having with yourself? Do they feel powerless or powerful? I have come to realise that feeling good about me is also good for you! If I feel good about ME you are going to want to hang out with me.
 
The level of self-image we have is set by our own personal barometer. 
 
Do we have control of our thoughts in comparison to our thoughts controlling us?
 
I tell my mind what I will be thinking about not my mind telling me what I will be thinking about. As an example, the person walking two mastiffs literally gets dragged down the street. In this instance, the owner is not taking the dogs for a walk. The dogs are taking the owner for a walk. In many instances this is how we allow our minds to think. Life can feel like our minds are like those huge dogs that just take off and we spend most of our lives just trying to get them home without ruining someone else’s lawn. Our thinking can be like that. If you have never told your mind what to think, it will probably feel like a foreign concept to you. We often try to distract our mind with stuff that we can feed it with. It’s almost like wooing the dogs back home with treats. How do we lead a disciplined life with our thinking? 
 
If you want to know more, I discovered a few good ways to control my mind….

Let's have a conversation.

Go on the REAL adventure....

The Jungle Cruise opened at Disneyland Park on July 17, 1955. On this iconic Disney boat ride, you set sail on the dangerous and adventurous rivers of Asia, Africa and South America. Jungles are mysterious places, holding plenty of secrets to be discovered including alligators that snap, elephants that squirt their trunks at you and waterfalls that stop at just the right moment before you get soaked. This is all very exciting stuff except it’s only a ride with a formula for excitement.

I see Disney are releasing a film of this rides tour guide where all of the adventures he commentates on become real and he is thrust into the adventure of a lifetime! 

Life can go two ways. We can choose to ride the formulaic adventure ride where we can predict the twists and turns and formulate where we think it will end OR we can take the real Jungle Cruise and find ourselves in unknown waters.

Teddy Roosevelt summed up the value of risk and participation beautifully when he uttered these great words. "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt

I want to live a life on unchartered waters where the mysterious rivers of adventure await. That’s where the excitement is. That’s where the opportunity is. That’s where Teddy Roosevelt’s arena is. It’s easy to take the theme park ride and kick back, but I say let’s take the ride of a lifetime into the great unknown.

Our arena awaits….where we may know the triumph of high achievement.

(For my friend Fraser and me after a great chat today)

Kindness - Loaning Someone Else Your Strength

My son shared Tyler this story with me last night....

This guy commented on my Goofy tattoo when I got on the train yesterday. I'm not sure of his situation personally he but he proceeded to tell me he was homeless and had nowhere to sleep last night. He had a bottle of booze in a paper bag, however I felt like I should keep talking to him. I told him about 'lentil as anything' (a local Sydney restaurant) and how he can get a free meal there any time if he volunteers his time. He didn’t have a phone and asked if I had a pen. I didn’t have one on me, but someone behind us was kind enough to lend us a pen for him and I wrote down the address and details. A school kid was sitting opposite us and then gave the guy $5 change out of his wallet with no prompting. The guy got off the train and he shook my hand, the hand of the guy who lent us the pen and also the young kid as he got off. As we all left the train we exchanged nods and a smile. We didn't need words as everything had been said.

It felt real good to give.

Kindness is infectious and powerful.....

Hope Outside Your Circumstance

I experienced a great learning around facing difficult times…It is about ensuring that the things we wrestle with, cause us pain and even conflict are kept at a distance from the things we hold out hope for.

In short it looks like this….Keep your sense of hope outside the situation you are in. When we are able to place hope outside of our circumstances, it means we are able to distinguish our hope from the things that we could get lost in. The reality of course if we get lost in something and take our hope with us we can unfortunately lose our hope also.

Therefore, If you find yourself in a landslide this week, keep your sense of hope outside the situation you are in.

Cheers Andrew

Selling from the CUSTOMERS VIEWPOINT

I used to say to everyone I train in sales that a sale takes place when there is a transfer of enthusiasm. That is true, however I have now revised that to read a sale takes place when there is a transference of belief in YOUR product or service into the heart and mind of your customer. I have not met anyone who truly believes in their product or service to not experience success. People who exhibit belief can’t help but make sales. Of course, the opposite is also true. If we meet with a customer and they do nothing than we haven’t been able to successfully transfer that belief. The reality is thatIf you don’t believe in what you are selling you won’t find the success you seek. … you can try and build your belief but if you can’t do that then you should…do something else because the customer knows the believer!

Your sales and success don’t begin with being you being understood …it begins with you understanding the other person. Once you understand your customer and add your belief to the conversation and relationship, you can build intelligent persistence.

The secret to success is NOT persistence but it is INTELLIGENT persistence. 

Successful sales people don’t just keep on keeping on but building on past experiences. Thomas Edison – he never engaged in the same experiment twice. In each of his failures he found the seat of the equivalent benefit learned and it improved with each experience.

In short, enjoy believing in who you are, what you do and what you bring and learn from every mistake you make. Who knows, you may just create a ‘light bulb’ moment with your customers?

Purpose and Priority

“Would you please tell me which way I ought to go from here?”

“that depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” Said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where – “ said Alice

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go” said the Cat

This revealing conversation took place between the Cheshire Cat and Alice in Lewis Carrol’s enduring tale. To me this is a wonderful example of how purpose and priority intersect in life and both are tremendously important! We cannot do without each of them working in harmony!

Purpose will always provide you with the knowledge of where you want to go and why.

Priority will help you determine what you want to do when you get there.

 At the start of each day we have a choice to ask ourselves ‘what shall I do’ or ‘what should I do’? A life without direction and purpose will always get you somewhere however a life lived on purpose will always bring you something you ‘should do’ and a place that you ‘must go’ to. I know for me I want to live and travel in a life that knows what it should do and why….

 When your life is on purpose, living by priority takes precedence

Work.....so much time....so little fun

What do you do for fun at your work?

For me, I have dressed as Elvis, a chicken, walked into a restaurant in a giant baby costume, the Doc from Back to the future and so much more. Why did I do that I hear you say?

I remember saying to my financial officer....’I am here too long to not have fun’. However I think we all aware that business is tough and it demands a lot of you. It can distract you from yourself and draw you away from who you really are because of the serious demands it can place on your life.

I found the teams I work with loved to see my humanity, my frailties and my love for fun. It brought us closer together and the by product of unity is productivity. I encourage you to bring elements of yourself into your work.You don't have to dress as Elvis but its ok for you to enjoy what you do. It’s ok to let the guard down and share your heart and most importantly those 40 plus hours per work deserve some fun.

(Photo: The Staunch Elvis)

Listening to a man in a park

I was sitting in the park, quietly reading, when a man came and interrupted my quiet space. I wasn’t really in the mood to talk. However, he clearly was. He was an older man and began by sharing his business journey. He ran a jewellery business over many years and it was becoming increasingly less profitable because of the high price of gold. I listened intently as he delved deeper into his heart and shared with me a personal story about his wife. She held a high-pressured job and together they climbed the corporate ladder in the pursuit of success. Sadly, his wife fell ill and slipped into a coma. He nursed her for seventeen years before she passed away. His mother also helped him nurse his wife and then she tragically passed away herself only two years later. He was now alone apart from his son. He quietly shared that he wished his wife was still alive, so he could still be nursing her. 

On reflection, he concluded that the simple things in life would have been so much nicer and more rewarding to pursue than being in the corporate world. Matters of the heart became the most important things to him through his reflection. 

This man, a total stranger, shared in his reflection an intimate story of true love and what was truly important to him. There was a beautiful lesson in it for me, and maybe for you? 

- an excerpt from Andrew's book Business from the Heart

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CHEERS

I believe the timeless television sitcom, Cheers, is a great example of the type of business we want to go back to time and again. We all want to walk into a home or business and be acknowledged, recognised, and feel like we belong. A business that has a strong focus on people won’t lose sight of the human element and will make their customers feel like guests instead of ‘per capita units’. Think for a moment of that restaurant which greets you with a smile and by name, or the coffee shop barista who knows your order before you even walk in the door. Yes, you return because of the product, but more importantly, you walk back through the door because you are made to feel special. I call it a CHEERS experience 

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Reflection

You are important – and it’s important to take time out just for you. When your world is right, everything else is! When you board a plane, you are reminded that in an emergency you need to put on your own oxygen mask before you assist children or others in need. The simple message is to consider yourself (in an unselfish way), and in turn you can help others around you. It makes perfect sense to fill your lungs with oxygen and energy, so you can then move forward and help those around you. When you discover that living at your best gives you the greatest capacity to give to others, it allows you to make the greatest difference. This comes through times of pausing and reflecting on your highs and lows and your wins and your losses. 

Our lives are often busy with long working hours, family commitments and social time demands. Our attention is stretched thinly across the day and it often means there is nothing left for us at day’s end. 

We may need to take the time to stop and reflect on our lives, our hearts and the things that are most important to us, and ask, what is going on well in our hearts and businesses, what needs to change, what could we do better and what will we do next time? 

All the answers come through having times of reflection. 

- An excerpt from Business from the Heart

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Define Authenticity

Being content to be yourself, not be somebody else. There’s been nobody like you from the foundation of the world. Like you. Face it, you’re stuck with yourself…Now learn about yourself - Eugene Peterson

That's what authenticity is. We are at our best when we are able to learn about ourselves and have the freedom to encourage ourselves to be just ‘us’ with humility and unpretentiousness.

What we advertise

We are all expressing something outwardly to our community around us and the world we live in. This outward expression is like a form of advertising. The things we carry (both good and bad) are like a form of advertising of the human condition. Unfortunately, in many cases we are often advertising stress to others. It’s interesting that we are so attracted to stress when we also have the option of patience available to avoid our hearts being troubled. Personally, I find patience so much more compelling and appealing than to advertise a life of stress. However sometimes that easier to say than do…

 If we pause to think it is likely that everything that comes out of our mouths is advertising something, I wonder what I’m advertising at times….?

 What about patience?

 How many situations do you have around your life right now that are frustrating? I’m sure if you are like me, there could be many potential moments that could be frustrating. When we say ‘I’m so frustrated’, I have realised that I don’t understand that patience is way more powerful. I have realised that I don’t need patience when things are going well however when things are frustrating patience is available to me. 

 Isn’t that an interesting concept that patience is more powerful than frustration?

 It occurs to me that when I am expressing my frustration I am really saying I’m not clever enough right now to actually practice patience. I don’t realise that patience is the antidote to a situation with a person or situation. I may experience a great chance to practice patience and I blow it and I keep blowing it because I’m always frustrated. Therefore, when I hear somebody and they are always frustrated about something or they’re legitimising their stress, I realise I am listening to someone who just doesn’t get it. For instance, people who are always angry. What they are advertising is they don’t know how to be kind, gentle. 

 My learning from this is to recognise my frustrations and choose to practice patience instead of giving in to the unreasonable requests of frustration. When I can successfully do this, I will be living a life that inwardly and outwardly advertises patience.

 I realise we can say who we are by what we choose to advertise to everyone around us. Let’s advertise patience today…