I am often asked by business people "why do you tweet, and blog – what business benefit does it deliver? Aren’t you putting yourself ‘out there’ a bit too much." There are many reason why I do what I do. I blog because I am in the fortunate position of learning, reading or experiencing something new almost every day. I collect information and I need to keep it somewhere. So I thought I may as well share what I…
Monthly Archives: August 2009
Disengaged employees have a voice…. use it wisely
What do you think of the clip attached which was cut from Facebook? I have blogged before (even yesterday) about how employees are the new customer… but sometimes no matter what your intentions are as a manager you will have an unhappy customer. (Wrong person, wrong role.) Personal blogging and social networking sites are an amazing tool. But are we educated enough or even ‘civilized’ enough to use them for good not for evil. Cyber bullying is rife. Organizations do…
Right People on the bus?
It doesn’t hurt to be reminded of Jim Collins thoughts on having the right people on the bus – it is who you get for the bus that will determine the success of the journey. As we recruit a whole bunch of people for a major RedBalloon initiative our Employee Experience team (HR professionals) is focusing on what is really important as part of the casting of our ‘Retail Superstars’. As Jim Collins says, the right people -…
Women’s Vital Statistics
I wrote a blog a few weeks ago about ‘why women are paid less’ – which has caused much discussion and debate. Of course a blog is personal opinion and designed to get people talking. The comments left on the post offer such a variety of opinions. A friend of mine sent me these statistics, which is the facts about the percentage of women in leadership roles in Australian Business. His email read: "Check out The Statistics… The Equal Opportunity…
When Scepticism becomes Cynicism.
I’m a very positive person, but sometimes I think that the positive outlook could be viewed as naive. I’d hate to think that I’m gullible. I was reading a column by Richard Glover in which he explores the idea that we have become a population of cynics. Have we really begun to see a conspiracy in everything? He writes ‘the moon landing was faked, the final of MasterChef was rigged, and the British backpacker missing in the Blue Mountains only…
Five steps to being positively positive.
I met up with a very dear friend of mine who has known me for more than 25 years. It was great to reminisce - and see where we are both up to now. Each of us reminded the other of some funny things we did years ago. The reality is though we remain the same, exuberant, optimistic and committed. My friend said “even in those early days of your career you would get a room of people ‘excited’ by…
Giving voice?.
I went to the launch of a new space last week. Lucy Cornell who has been a voice coach for many years has grown her business to create a space to develop great speakers. It has been fun to work with Lucy (as a participant of her program) but also to talk about her business. She has a clear vision of what she wants to do, and why. She outlined that if you ask a group of people to identify…
Imagine running a business based on fun - that's what I decided to try when I left a very serious corporate career in marketing to set up RedBalloon...
Urgent versus Important
Some days I just need to get things in perspective. Too much drama and chaos does not make for a productive day. I began my career in the most corporate of all, IBM in New York in the eighties. We dressed up in dark suits with white shirts and even the women wore bows around our collars for ties. We would dress up to play a role – it was like we left our personality at the door. It was…