Nicholas Bate

Rowan Manahan

has absolutely loads of good job-hunting advice on his blog.

Sabrina Dent

on what she's learnt while working freelance.

How To Be Brilliant, 1-50: 4

Look after yourself. To be the best version of you, to be brilliant, it's (literally) vital. Do less and achieve more. Take quality breaks. Take a retreat. Spend time re-charging. Get enough sleep. Read for inspiration. Spend more time with those who encourage and support and less time with those who are negative and criticise. Allow yourself to get it wrong. Look after yourself.

The 7Ps of Absolute Success Mind-Map

A big thanks to Matthew Lang for firstly a great site and secondly for mind-mapping my recent 7Ps Of Absolute Success post. Here's the mind-map. Fantastic! Thank you, Matthew. He's promised to mind-map some future posts....

Get Out Of The Bubble

One of the challenges for those who are ‘successful’ in business is not-as they get promoted- to become too remote from the 'sharp-end' of the business: the sales manger who no longer visits customers, the customer services director who refuses to talk to hostile customers. The 'bubble' can be rapidly formed: a combination of effective protective layers, a mountain of ‘admin’ to deal with and often a fear of being ‘shown up’ as juniors look on.  What’s to be done? Once you get that promotion, decide to ensure around 5% of your job is regularly experiencing exactly (not what the report or manual says) what those who work for you experience. Time wasted? No way: the regular learning and re-education will be priceless. Not to mention the extra respect and authority you will gain.

How To Be Brilliant 1-50: 1

Decide. Decide to be so. To be kick-ass, stadium-rocking good at what you do. Be it fishing, presenting, parenting or fixing cars. Decide. You'll never look back.

What To Do If (You Think) Your Boss Is An Idiot 7

Step 1: Are you absolutely sure? Or are you really saying that you don’t like the fact that s/he remarks on your consistent lateness and is unhappy with the quality of your sales forecast? Be grateful that s/he still has some of the discipline of a real leader.

Step 2: Have you cut them a bit of slack? Because their boss is putting them under enormous pressure  because of the poor sales figures? Might be worth doing and appreciating that they are protecting you from a lot of the stress.

Step 3: So you are certain they are performing badly. What about a simple process conversation i.e. a heart-to-heart about what's not working. Choose your time and place. Stay calm, focus on the changes you want...

Step 4: So that hasn’t worked? And it's not just you who is having problems? So what do you want to achieve? Do you want them out of that role? Out of the company? Worth thinking through...

Step 5: You need evidence of the problem. What exactly is the problem? Facts, not just gossip.

Step 6: You need to escalate the situation given that your own conversations haven't worked to date.

Step 7: And if you can do that diplomatically, discretely and with integrity on all sides.... well you are clearly the person for the job.

Why Become Excellent (at what you do) ? 7

1. It's so much fun to be really, really good at what you do.
2. You will get well paid for it.
3. You will never be out of work.
4. If you can't become excellent either because of lack of skill or will or both, that may well be telling you that you are not yet in your true career.
5. It really puts past cynics in their place. 
6. Surprisingly-but only discovered once you are there-it's actually easier to be excellent than just 'OK' as the former requires letting go. The latter? Holding back.
7. Why would you do it any other way? 

How To Become Excellent (at what you do) 7

1. Get a clear definition of what excellent would mean for you as a book-keeper/sales assistant/knee surgeon.
2. Copy what the best in your chosen field do.
3. Read the literature on and by the best in your chosen field.
4. Practise your skill. 
5. Gather and act upon feed-back from clients and peers.
6. Innovate to create your own uniqueness.
7. Pull ahead though smart working and constant innovation to build an unbridgeable gap between you and any competition.

A Mini-Retirement?

Top thinker Michael Wade who has a wonderful blog reminds me of the super-cool designer Stefan Stagmeister. I will leave Daniel Pink and Michael to tell their own tale in the link. Mine is that upon coming across Stefan's work and reading one or two of his inspiring books, I wrote to Stefan to complement him on his concepts and had a very thoughtful personal note in reply. More recently I wrote to Stefan again, this time to send him one or two things in which I thought he would be interested. Again I got a very personal note but this time from one of his team saying that Stefan couldn't reply in person as he was having a 'client-free year'. I love it.