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08/08/2016 By Isla Baliszewska

Can you see the Glass Full of Opportunities?

Can you see the Glass Full of Opportunities?

Glass Half Full

The old question of whether the glass is half full or half empty is simple – the glass is always full.  Air exists, it is a combination of gases, so even with no water in the glass, it is always full.  The glass is full of opportunities.

How is your emotional perspective on news?  Do you tend to see things from a pessimistic or an optimistic viewpoint?  First off, there is no right way for everyone to emotionally experience the same things.  But some of us will tend towards seeing opportunities.

There are countless examples of businesses making huge gaffs or having serious setbacks that they then turn around to their advantage.  It took GoCompare ages to realise how much their moustachioed opera singer annoyed people, yet when they did they used it to up their PR by killing him off, blowing him up and generally doing away with him in spectacular fashion, thereby fitting with what their customers wanted.

Trunki had a business threatening situation when one of their manufacturers fitted dodgy locks that came off and were a potential hazard.  They turned the problem into an asset by using humour messaging to convince irate customers to fit the new catches themselves.

Brexit happened, Donald Trump may be the next President of the USA, Rio has managed to host the Olympics….but what happens next?  The UK could talk itself into a depression, Mr Trump might bring all kinds of unimagined and unpleasant surprises, and Brazil might abandon all of its pre-Olympic pledges.

InnovationBUT…difficult times always lead to something better, there is always an opportunity to make something positive out of a negative (well, in most cases); we just have to

  • have the right attitude
  • be curious and look at what opportunities might be waiting to be uncovered
  • think innovatively; take a different perspective and see what comes to light.

 

It is the unexpected that often happens. Adam Peaty just won a gold medal for swimming, but as a child he didn’t like water, however that didn’t stop him pursuing opportunities to win.

To enable you to be curious and innovative remember the following:

  • Look for perfection in the situation – what can you learn right now?
  • Take full responsibility for the situation that you are in – what are you missing or not seeing? What are the powerful questions to ask to increase / deepen / make sense of your understanding? How might you have contributed to what occurred?
  • Be clear about your desires / intentions and focus on them – go back to basics … check in with your values … how in alignment with them are you?
  • Look for signs of life / momentum and be grateful
  • Be loving, respectful and honouring of all others – colleagues, clients, customers, competitors especially when you both are at odds with your thinking and goals
  • Focus on your environment – how can you clean up your act in all senses?
  • Give yourself credit for amazing courage!

 

Isla Baliszewska and Halina Jaroszewska – 2016

 

Filed Under: Enterprise & innovation, Mindset, Motivation

01/02/2016 By Isla Baliszewska

ROLLS ROYCE OF NETWORKS

ROLLS ROYCE OF NETWORKS

The Rolls-Royce WomHJ at Rolls Royce Insights event with Anna Mealings HRD Defence, PPS and colleaguesen Network, which was re-launched September 2015, organise the Insight Hours.

 

The Insight Hours happen quarterly with the aim of providing employees with the opportunity to meet members of the leadership team. The objective of these sessions is to go beyond the general assumptions of senior management roles stepping into the personal and professional moments they bring.

 

“Instead of a monologue by the guest speaker, the small size of the group provides a space where ideas and experiences can be shared, providing a great opportunity to really get to know the person“, explained Patricia Patilla Sanchez, Services Solution Lead at Rolls Royce.

 

Patricia is instrumental in organising the Insight Hours and invited me to the first one following the network launch which took place on Wednesday 25th November 2015.

 

The HR Director – Defence, Anna Mealings was the key speaker and shared her story of how her career had unfolded,bringing her to Rolls-Royce. It was fascinating hearing how balancing career needs with family needs with career ambitions worked effectively.

 

Letting go of what seemed the job in fact created opportunities that hadn’t been considered. The insights we benefited from were many, stimulating much conversation and many questions. Staying true to who you are, being clear about boundaries and not colluding with bad behaviour all resonated with me. What a privilege it was to have been invited by Patricia to be part of this Insight Hour.

 

Planning of the programme in 2016 is underway with January’s speaker being the Global Head of Customer Business.

 

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Filed Under: coaching, Decisions, leadership, Mindset, Motivation, New year's resolutions, Training Tagged With: training

04/11/2015 By Isla Baliszewska

From Kenya – lessons in motivation

From Kenya – lessons in motivation

We are delighted to be able to share this article from David Brown of Peponi School in Kenya.

Tenzing“We make journeys in life for different reasons. Most are quite straightforward— we visit relatives, friends or simply go away on a relaxing break. We also learn that life is a journey. We will have ups and downs. We will understand ourselves better if we travel, the more experiences we have the wiser we will become. We will broaden our horizons, become more interesting people.

Then there are the epic journeys of the Ancient and Modern Heroic Ages: The Odyssey, The Lord of the Rings, The Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Travel to the Moon or even Mars.

Pupils at Peponi make journeys to Mount Kenya, Kilimanjaro or even the ultimate mountain Everest.

By the beginning of 2015 7,000 climbers have reached the summit of Everest. But they were inspired I would argue in particular by four men who were motivated to succeed at all costs. To climb Mount Everest was their particular journey in life. Their journeys was not to achieve financial reward. These men were adventurers. They risked their lives to achieve their personal goals. They were truly extra-ordinary.

In 1924 George Mallory and Andrew Irvine may well have been the first men to climb the World’s highest peak. These were two young, well educated men who shared a passion for Adventure.  Their motivation? When Mallory was asked by a journalist why he wanted to climb Everest? He answered laconically, ‘because it’s there!’ They were last sighted 250 metres from completing their ascent. Seventy- five years later Mallory’s body was discovered, very well preserved, face down in the snow at 27,000 feet; 2,000 feet below the summit. Mallory was descending the mountain.

Intriguingly, it had been reported that Mallory carried a photograph of his beloved wife Ruth with him which he planned to place on the summit in the event of success. It was not found among his remaining possessions. Irvine’s body has not been found. He had the camera! We will never know whether they achieved their ultimate goal. But their heroism is unquestionable.

Nearly 30 years later in 1953 a New Zealander, Edmund Hillary, and a Tibetan Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, became the first men to successfully climb Everest. They reached the Summit but there was a problem. They had a camera but Tenzing didn’t know how to use one! Hillary commented that, with both men utterly exhausted ‘it didn’t seem the appropriate time to teach Tenzing how to take photographs’. There is only the iconic photo of Tenzing at the summit of Everest. The Sherpa later wrote ‘I motioned to Hillary that I would now take his picture but for some reason he shook his head. He did not want it’.

Can you imagine being so unassuming as to turn down the opportunity of being photographed as the man who now stood literally at the top of the World?

As equally laconic as Mallory, on gathering a warming hot drink at Base Camp from his fellow mountaineer and friend George Lowe, Hillary remarked ‘well George, we knocked the B- off ’. Like Mallory and Irvine, Hillary and Tenzing were on personal journeys to fulfil personal ambitions. Not to benefit from celebrity status. They devoted the rest of their lives to charitable causes. Mallory, Irvine, Hillary and Tenzing are iconic figures and act as a laudable legacy of a modern heroic age, where personal journeys are not about wealth and celebrity, but about praiseworthy achievement through selfless determination.

The Kardashians, Bruce Jenner and other orange people on E-News will come and go but the history books will not forget the legacy of George Mallory, Andrew Irvine, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

Mr David Brown

dbrown@peponischool.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Motivation

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