Trust your instinct

Over the long weekend, I read a quote by Indian entrepreneur Naveen Jain, about instinct.  I have pasted it below -

"Trust your gut instinct over spreadsheets. There are too many variables in the real world that you simply can't put into a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets spit out results from your inexact assumptions and give you a false sense of security. In most cases, your heart and gut are still your best guide."

I read this quote with a wry smile.  In the last couple of weeks, I have allowed myself to be wrapped in the safety blanket of numbers, statistics and analysis.  I looked at some indicators, always knowing in the back of my mind, other factors were in play, but I chose to ignore these 'sixth senses' because I wanted to believe what the numbers were telling me - numbers don't lie.

They don't lie, but they can be used to trick ourselves!  I learnt a tough lesson, ignore your instincts at your peril.  Face up to them, if they are telling you that something intangible is going to affect your situation, listen, and taking some action, or at least prepare yourself for what you instinctively expect.

After all, if you trust your instincts and they are wrong, the numbers didn't lie.  If you ignore your instinct and it was right, you've wasted an incredible ability to predict an outcome.

Don't under estimate your instinct, it is essentially your subconscious bringing together every related past experience and using that data to project and predict a probable outcome. If your brain was a spreadsheet, we'd call that a forecast, and numbers don't lie!!!

Handling Talent

This week has been an interesting week, in the worlds of my two favourite sports, cricket and football.  The England Cricket Board have decided to part company with Kevin Pieterson, in the same week Swansea Football Club have sacked Michael Laudrup.

These two decisions have split opinion, but to me have highlighted the trickery in managing prodigious talent.  You have to give genius time to grow, but it often needs boundaries to focus the talent in the right direction.

Take KP, England's all time leading run scorer, without question a 'box office' player capable of magical things.  Just him batting could and should be inspiration enough for his teammates.   He has been given time to develop, given chances to make up for wrong doing, and on every occasion, when push came to shove, delivered for his team.   In  a world where success is judged by how many runs you put on the score board, he seems to have banked a few credits.  However, his failing seems to come when he is involved in non batting issues, when he steps out of his core skill, and uses this success to create an agenda that should be none of his concern.  Does he need sacking, or re-directing?  Is the pay off for having to bring him into line every now and then large enough to risk it happening over and over.   I hope that this latest end of the road has come after weeks or months of trying to channel and focus him in the direction in which he can have the largest pay off for his team.  If this has been tried and he has been unable to tow the line, then perhaps this was the best decision for everyone....but you must be sure when you are risking such a talent.

Michael Laudrup has brought more success to Swansea in the last 12 months than they surely could have wished for; he is recently going through a dip in form.  In my experience people with true talent use these times to become better and stronger.  Surely it is better to back a known quantity, someone you know can be successful for you, than to back a newcomer who may be great, but may be not so.  If you give some time and you are wrong, you have lost some time.  If you don't give them time, and you are wrong, you have lost all that talent.

I always read such stories and wonder how I would manage such situations; there is never a wrong or right answer.  I always hold on to the notion that good people don't become bad overnight, but bad people can become good overnight. If it's your job to influence behaviours to improve performance, take a long hard look at yourself before you spend too long investigating everything  and everyone else.

Give people time, space, direction and focus, and if they want and are able to win, they will and then - so do you!

Feeling Old!

I was moved to blog today having awoken to the news that Ant & Dec won a special lifetime achievement award at last night's Television Awards.

Don't get me wrong I thought, I love those cheeky chappies, but a lifetime achievement award?, c'mon.

Then I heard the presenter say they had been in the business for 25 years!

It was then I realised that we are all getting older every day, to think that 'PJ and Duncan' are now the leading lights of the British light entertainment industry and winning lifetime achievements awards, makes you realise how time flies.

We all need to make the most of every moment we have, we can't all live the lives of celebrity, many would choose not to, but we can all achieve.  If we work to influence our own worlds in as positive a way as we can, then we all have lifetime achievements.

So don't fret about getting old, fret about what value you are adding to your world.  Where you can, add as much value as you can.  Your name may not go up in lights, but your actions will light up someone, somewhere, and that is what counts.