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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

20/11/2015 By Isla Baliszewska

Presenting in the right way

Presenting in the right way

This might seem like a bit of a trumpet blower, however witnessing someone presenting with provocation and challenge while being professional, empathic and inclusive is a rare thing – not to mention captivating the audience, being truly interesting, giving new ways of doing and being.  The trumpeting bit is that one of SCT’s own, Halina Jaroszewska, is very good at this as demonstrated when I shadowed her at a recent Women in Property event hosted by Thrings in Bristol.

Steve Jobs is often touted as one of the best presenters, Forbes called him the Ultimate Communicator, not relying on wordy Powerpoints, always flowing and moving in a relaxed manner, knowing his stuff and knowing his audience and being thoroughly rehearsed.

Part of presenting well is being totally ‘on brand’ with yourself and your organisation.  Whether you are a small business, a multi-national, a leader or senior executive, when in front of others you need to punch that branding message.  Hence Halina’s compelling presentation skills, being a total brand in herself and fitting this with the brand of her audience.

Contact Halina if you want to find out how she does it.

Filed Under: Personal Development, Presenting and Presentations, Training Tagged With: training

05/06/2015 By Isla Baliszewska

Strawberries and cream

Strawberries and cream

Every picture tells a story and a picture is reputed to be worth a 1000 words.

How would you describe your perfect strawberry indulgence? Maybe strawberries are not on your yummy list. Maybe strawberries bring you out in a rash. If that is the case what would you substitute to use as a metaphor. Or maybe the imagery will work for you anyway. Suspend your disbelief and drop those strawberries in that bowl of cream….

Strawberries and cream; strawberries unwashed; strawberries washed; strawberries dipped in sugar; strawberries sprinkled with sugar, strawberries with black pepper, balsamic vinegar drizzled strawberries, strawberries sun kissed straight from the plant, strawberries dipped in dark chocolate, strawberry shortcake, strawberry jam dolloped on cream on scones, strawberry ice-cream, Eton Mess – what is your preference? Do you nibble at the strawberry or do you pull it from the stalk with your teeth or do you slice it?

What can the metaphor of strawberries, and / with, tell you? Traditional or experimenter; sweet or sharp; unvarnished or adorned – it’s all simply information.

Here’s a little exercise:

Pick one of the above list and if you were described as that, what might it tell you about your leadership, your approach to change, your image, your profile, how others see you, who you are and who you would love to be? What layers of understanding might the metaphor enable you to access? How could you stretch possibilities to access more of your potential? Then explore another one from the list, and another. Share with us  what you discover. What memories surface? What likes and dislikes?

A childhood memory of a large strawberry bed in the garden with straw cushioning the jewel like fruits each with their personal greenhouse in the shape of a jam jar so that always there was a profusion of deliciously sweet taste bombs each summer. Bliss!

For more ways to find out what your choices tell you about yourself, just contact Smart Coaching & Training and indulge in the discoveries.

Submitted by Halina Jaroszewska

Filed Under: Decisions, Mindset, Personal Development, Training Tagged With: Mindset, Personal Development, training

21/04/2015 By Isla Baliszewska

Change your words Change your world

Change your words Change your world

How our bodies are dictates what and how we think. What and how we think dictates what we say and how we say it. What we say and how we say it dictates the results we get. And reverberating around the world can be heard – But that’s not what I meant! [that is the title of a book by Deborah Tannen] You have misunderstood me! If only you listened! Why can’t you get on the same page!

As Barak Obama said in what is considered to be his best speech ‘Don’t tell me words don’t matter’ Watch this. Every word counts. Every word matters. That is so whether the words remain in your head or whether they are given form in the world either verbally or in print. Was it what Obama said or how he said it that really counted, really mattered? Listen and let us know what you think.

The question is …are words innocent or are they guilty? Can words ever be innocent? Is it the words that should be on trial or …… ? And the ‘or’ is this … is it the way we say the words that counts, that matters? Is it how we interpret the words we hear or read that is the deciding factor? Is it the picture, the image, the dream that the words create that influence us? Check out how changing the words written changed the outcome dramatically.  Notice how behaviour was when the words were changed. What did you see?

Taking a step back into our heads: Shad Helmstetter wrote a book called ‘What to say when you talk to yourself’. He asserted that where we need to start is with the continuous loop soundtrack that plays in our head. To check it out and discover exactly what we are telling ourselves all the time. To check out whether what we are telling ourselves is fact or fiction. To check out if indeed what we are telling ourselves is our stuff or what someone else has, sadly with our permission, planted in our consciousness. How often do we clutter clear our brains? We pay more attention to our laptops, PCs, mobile devices, making sure they are clean, safe from cyber-attacks, defended against Trojan horses, inoculated with something like Norton against viruses than we do to the magnificent organ that is our brain. We dutifully bring everything from the moment of our birth – even when we were in vitro – without checking whether it is relevant, fit for purpose, in service of our best selves or even necessary. Then we wonder why we have challenges with communicating clearly and effectively!

In 1971 Albert Mehrabian concluded from his research that face to face communication consists of
• Words (what is actually said, the literal meaning) account for 7% of the overall message
• Tone of voice (how we say the words) accounts for 38% of the overall message
• Body Language accounts for 55% of the overall message.

Read the full article here.

And when all are in alignment from the speaker communication is relatively easy with the interpretation of the hearer being the influencing factor. When any of the 3 aspects are out of alignment communication is a challenging process certainly. For example when the words are positive and the tone of voice anything but or the tone of voice is upbeat with body language anything but.

What we say is what we make happen. What we think is what we create.

Words make a Difference

As always it is our choice. Thinking, wishing, hoping that everyone out there will change to make it OK for us is a delicious dead end. Knowing and really understanding that, once we decide to change W H Murray asserts that ‘All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.’ Once we get that by changing our mind set, by definition everything out there has to change. Once we truly get that by taking responsibility for our thoughts, beliefs, patterns, habits, actions, words, behaviours, ditching permanently those that no longer serve us, we can change our world significantly.

Goethe wrote ‘Whatever you can do or dream you can, Begin it. Boldness has genius, magic and power in it Begin it now!

Halina Jaroszewska

Filed Under: Decisions, Enterprise & innovation, Mindset, Personal Development, Training Tagged With: training

16/03/2015 By Isla Baliszewska

Pascal’s Wager – A Good Bet?

Pascal’s Wager – A Good Bet?

Settle down and concentrate on this one…..Pascal’s Wager was about whether or not there is a God. If you wager against there being a God and there IS a God, that is bad news for you, so you should wager for there being a God.  Pascal believed that religious belief was not a rational, but rather an existential  choice, i.e. a choice you make in the face of uncertainty.  So how do we make the right choice if we aren’t basing it on a betting outcome?

We have talked about uncertainty before and one of the things that comes up a lot in building the ability to make choices in an uncertain world, is to think about two things;

  • Firstly, do you HAVE to make that decision at that particular time?  Sometimes we get hung up on making choices and decisions, when what we might need is a little time to step away from the decision making process, clear some mental space and let the ideas and emotions free reign, leading to those moments of enlightenment that help us make the right choices.
  • Secondly, it is okay to change what you are doing if things don’t feel right or go the way you intended.  Someone mentioned that one of the reasons Angela Merkel keeps being re-elected is that she is not rigid in her political life. She is very determined, but she also tries to see things from different perspectives (even her opponent’s standpoint) and be collaborative and she is not afraid to change the way she does things if it will help her achieve her objectives.

If you want a gently challenging hand in making your choices or checking the odds get in touch and we’ll help you lay your bets.

Posted by Isla Baliszewska 16 March 2015

 

Filed Under: Decisions Tagged With: Decisions, leadership, training, You and Your Career

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