I have trawled through online articles featuring best employers and companies with high engagement scores (I’m curious as to what others do of course) and I can’t help but notice the negative comments some attract along the lines of “it’s easy for you” from people all over the world. The truth is any organisation no matter the number of people or the size of the budget can be a great place to work if they accept that what they need…
Monthly Archives: June 2010
Thoughts from a RedBalloon veteran
On Friday it was time to farewell an original RedBallooner – Sarah was with us in the very early days – and has seen the business grow from 9 people to its present 50. She has caught the entrepreneurial bug and started her own show a named ‘Lady Bug’ as a fully fledged interior designer. As I listened to Sarah’s farewell words, I felt so very very fortunate, knowing that every person at RedBalloon is what makes our culture. We…
A new listening post
I’m sure it is not just my imagination – but I seem to have LinkedIn messages coming to me daily. I joined years ago and sort of let it sit there. Now I find that I am catching up with colleagues from a very distant past – and joining interesting discussion on topics such as employer branding to corporate gifting. I have connected my twitter account and this blog so that it automatically feeds what I’m talking about into LinkedIn…
A crystal ball would be helpful
Hindsight versus foresight: When people ask me ‘have I got any regrets’, or ‘what would you do differently?’ I answer philosophically – we made a few mistakes – some very expensive ones, but we still had to try them – they were all part of the learning to discover what next. Without failures, of course we would not know success either. There is one thing that I wish I’d got right. I wish I’d backed myself more… or just had…
“Naomi vs Elle” say the RedBallooners
I have to admit this made me laugh. I was recently nominated for the Instyle Women of Style Awards, up against Elle MacPherson and Kristina Karlsson from kikki.K in the Business Category. I attended the awards night and was both surprised and delighted to be named as the winner of the Business category. Little did I know that there has since been a joke lingering in the RedBalloon office about this, and when i returned to RedBalloon HQ this week…
Balancing Balance..
Nigel Marsh has a simple story to tell – which vividly illustrates – “if it’s meant to be it’s up to me”. We are the architects of our own future – responsible for our own happiness. One question that keeps bothering me during these discussions about paid parental leave… is this the right question we should be asking as a community. Raising children is not an 18 week journey – it is 18 years (my mother would say that it…
Curious about Strengths
Some years ago I had my Gallup Strengths done (see previous post) since then everyone who joins RedBalloon has also completed the review… it is fun and insightful and really helps us as a leadership team to understand how to best get our people in ‘flow’. It is not a recruitment tool.. because no strength is better than another – it just gives us an added way to support our people in their development. This is not the only strengths…
A big end of financial year blunder
Many businesses are busily planning for the new financial year. We are no different. We have our heads down, reviewing our performance, gathering data and imagining what next year will be like. And the team of course is who we are counting on to deliver the plan. (Business is a people sport after all.) As an employer of choice our people plan is a critical part to the success of RedBalloon. I urge business leaders to make sure that they…
Icing on mud pie 2
I cannot stand waste. And this week the debate about how the government is spending $38million on selling (advertising) a tax package has really made me mad! What a waste! (Not for the agency, or media who are the recipient of the funds) But as a marketer I know you cannot spend yourself into having a great brand image. Building a brand takes so much more than advertising. No amount of icing can hide the mud in mud pie. I…
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...
Bad Apple
In the last few posts I have been talking about what it takes to be a Great Place to Work. It’s all about trust and purpose. One of the questions I had recently at a speaking engagement is very relevant ‘What if you have a rotten apple inside your organization– someone who is not just disengaged but subversive….’ We are pretty close to our people at RedBalloon – as a leadership team we are all committed to the team and…