Comprehensive communication skills; capable of effective output at own direction or, working withing a group are a given; these business skills and behaviours are expected even a prerequisite of getting to meet face-to-face. Less common is the ability to demonstrate to the selection team how you have developed and deployed the skills. Describe what happened, how your/the groups actions affected the bottom line or changed the course of the project for the better.

And as always, brevity; be succinct. If they are interested, your audience with ask for more information. Less, truly is more. Good night!
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Returning after the winter break, the 2010 season begins on Sunday 14th March in Bahrain. Forward thinking cities/countries and politicians compete to secure the rights to host an event, one in a series of races which span the globe.

In business, we often focus on return on investment (R.O.I.) how else can we justify the expenditure of precious resources? Well, in the world of F1 just as in our lives, nothing is guaranteed. Investment is based on a hunch, a very well thought-out and planned hunch except the brains making the decisions are probably the best in their field.

Innovation created to serve Formula 1 often appears in commercial, military and technology environments some time later; carbon-fibre for strength and lightness is one example.

I’m reminded of a Chinese saving:
‘only a fool learns from their mistakes, a wise person learns from others.’

Well, this fool will be learning this coming Sunday, care to join me?
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2010 is the 82nd time the gold statues have been awarded so why then has it taken so long for a women to win?

Let’s hope the publicity associated with this important milestone inspires women everywhere; in business as in life itself, success often comes down to personal self-belief and confidence as anything else.
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The employer expects and the employee agrees to a specific set of responsibilities and the implied associated activity.

In return for the reward, the employee is expected to work for a ‘nominal’ number of hours. On occasion, it doesn’t matter how these hours are spent, so long as the employer ’sees’ the employee is ‘at-work,’ the assumption, is that ‘the employee is working.’ Often this course of behaviour results in the employee feeling they are paid to ‘attend-work.’

Implicit in many organisations is a feeling that the employee should be at work before their colleagues arrive and ought not to leave first; the car-park-game is born!

If an individual is paid by results, trust is both explicit and implicit for the relationship to prosper. Micro managing the key result areas (K.R.A.s) is ignored in exchange for an expectation of results.

Independent, freethinking individuals are set free by the payment by results model because it allows for creative endeavour. Worker bees on the other hand, loose all structure and meaning; terrified they colonise together, taking comfort from collective mass and soon revert to recreate the status quo environment they find safe.

Let’s be clear, we need both: free-thinking indviduals and worker-bees for our society to function, which type are you?
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Evaluating from your audience, customer or potential client perspective can be overlooked all too easily.

How to cope with rejection:
Find someone you can trust to be independent and ask them to evaluate your offering, discover where your holes are and address them. It’s all too easy to get caught up in the enthusiasm of ‘it’s-great-because…’

Certainly hold on to that feeling and do some bench testing before you ‘go-live’ with a real, potential customer. Better still ask someone you don’t really class as a supporter; the feedback may surprise you.

Practice makes perfect? maybe; more accurate to say, change becomes less scary the more you experience it, and by default, easier to deal with.

Homework: do one thing each day which scares you; let me know how you get on.

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Break the trust promise and it’s unlikely it can ever be restored.

The fast food restaurant where service is slow, the convenient on-line store which ships the incorrect product, then insists you pay for postage to rectify ‘their’ mistake.

When convenience is the unique selling point (U.S.P.) repairing the damage of broken trust will cost more than resourcing correctly in the first place. It’s not the problem itself that causes the pain, it’s the anger induced when the problem is poorly handled.
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Economically, politically and socially our lives are changing. Whatever the result of the general election in May 2010 it’s certain more change will follow; the need to balance the books will remain.

Budget cuts, less job security, more uncertainty; in essence tough-times ahead.

So how best to cope with the bumps in the road?

I’m reminded of the directing staff at basic training: ‘get fit, stay alert and remain flexible.’

Hoping change won’t happen or blaming others, are strategies others may choose; which is one is best? You decide.
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Training courses don’t work – save your budget and switch to something that does!

An unprecedented work schedule means we will not be in Cardiff on the 10th. Apologies to those who had already confirmed their attendance, thanks for your kind wishes and support.

We are working with the branch to reschedule the event for the Autumn. Stay tuned for more exciting updates.
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Not only does the initial brief inform your activity it also leads to accuracy of the fee quotation and so how profitable the endeavour becomes.

Working for no profit might satisfy the soul but not the mortgage lender.
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Later today, Apple holds a press conference in San Fransisco where, we are let to believe, they will announce the much anticipated ‘tablet’ device that will extend the user experience domination started by the iPhone.

If nothing else, Apple ought to be congratulated for keeping a lid on the specifics about this device. Corporate secrets are notoriously difficult to maintain because human beings are involved.

People like to talk and even better they like to tell others ‘juicy gossip.’ Doing so serves to elevate the secret teller to a position of power and implies inside knowledge. Paradoxically if discovered it may also lead to that persons corporate demise too.

Competitive advantage is increasingly difficult to achieve and even more difficult to maintain.

Cynics may say the hype is all part of Steve Job’s master PR campaign, either way we’ll find out later.

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