Others get out, when you put in...

I hope that my children (well two of them) forgive me for using this picture!

Recently family trip in Madrid, they had great fun on what can only be described as a futuristic see- saw.

While watching them have such fun, it struck me that neither of them was doing anything other than entertaining themselves, and deriving their own entertainment from the effort they were putting in. At the same time, on the other end of the bar, quite oblivious to these efforts, was their sibling, getting even more fun, from the efforts of the other.

It seems to me that this should be what good working relationships are about.  If we look after our own responsibilities, putting effort into making our own lives and careers successful, there will be a natural positive impact on others - and in most cases, they will not realise, they will just benefit from our actions, and be happier.

This cycle of giving benefit to others, simply from being happy and enjoying what we do, is surely the key to a successful working and home life.

Office Attire?

Office Attire?

In my role, I am lucky to meet so many people, from so many places.  During these meetings, I often consider the office environment people fit well within, and any peculiarities.

One of the regular observations for me, is the office attire.  For so long, a suit, shirt and tie for men was the option, leaving very little for any creativity.  

Now though, more and more variances creep in, and I have to say, I haven't been able to hit upon a rule of thumb.  It isn't the fact that it is such a grey area, but more how some people seem to have a flair for what looks appropriate and 'smart', and others struggle.

Even more difficult is the fact that an outfit on one individual can look snappy, fashionable and appropriate, yet the same outfit on someone else, can look so wrong.

I have often bought something on the basis of it looking great on a colleague, or someone you see on the street, only to put it on before going out to realise, I'm just not cut out for a particular look.

So what is the answer?  

I am not sure there is one, but my advice would be, go safely, go moderately, and go with something that you feel confident and comfortable in...and when in doubt, I'd rather be in a suit surrounded by jeans, than in jeans surrounded by suits!

New brand

I am using this blog to really let everyone know about the latest Nicholas Howard re-brand.  We have had the very talented guys at Design Villens give us the once over, and we are very pleased with what they have produced.  Tying that in with the guys at Ross Tech who have made it come alive via our website, we hope that it all comes together to really freshen things up.

What struck me though, was how little content I needed to change, we still do what we do, deep diving candidate markets, filling both the tough to fill, and more straight forward roles by really getting into the candidate market and returning the most accurate and relevant candidates available.

This has been working for 7 years now, and however much we may freshen up the look, we will always hold firm to our service level fundamentals, to ensure we remain a supplier of choice for our clients

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A time to recharge....

As the dust settles on the festive break, and the return to work is now fully engaged, I thought I'd reflect upon the days off, and how it had affected me.

I find myself telling people I meet for the first time since the New Year, that I had a really relaxing break, managed to spend time with the family and recharge the batteries.

How ironic...

In fact, the thing that caused the most stress in our household over the time off was exactly that...recharging.

We managed to take the family away for a few fabulous days in Copenhagen just after the New Year, and we had a wonderful time.

Sadly the peace was regularly threatened once we'd realised that although we had our entire cabin allowance worth of gizmos, gadgets and associated chargers, Daddy had only packed one European two pin plug adaptor - meltdown!

Between Kindles, iPads, iPods, and iPhones, we could be on 24 hour charge, but only one point to charge meant some serious prioritisation.

For me the answer was simple, turn the trusty Samsung Galaxy into Ultra Power saving mode, and watch smugly while various other members of the family went pale with panic at the prospect of not being able email/post or simply 'get entertained'.

It did make me wonder however, can the genie of electronic reliance ever be put back in the bottle? Will we really have to recharge every three hours, in order to actually 'recharge' at home?.

I hope not, I hope we can still sit back, switch off relax and enjoy a good book, just reach out for the eReader and bingo.................doh!

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.