The following was written recently by David McNally CPAE, a speaking colleague and a builder of our new world:

“I took up the challenge of discovering what it means to be a ‘thriver.’ Here are the results of a survey sent to over six hundred organizations asking them to identify the thrivers in their midst and to describe those people in terms of attitudes and behaviors. Here are the key themes that define how ‘thrivers’ think and act:

Survivors Focus On The Future As Uncertain

Thrivers Focus On The Future As Unlimited

1. Thrivers have a global perspective – The competition created by a global economy has become so rigorous that we are participating in what might be described as an Olympics of Business. Thrivers meet these demands by doing whatever it takes to be ready mentally, physically, and emotionally to compete at the highest level.

2. Thrivers take personal responsibility for their own careers and happiness – George Washington’s comment, “If the citizens of the United States should not be free and happy, the fault will be entirely their own,” summarizes the thriver’s philosophy of life. Rather than make excuses, thrivers make commitments.

3. Thrivers seek to maximize their contribution –Thrivers have a strong need to contribute, to feel that their work is important. Professionally, they are continually creating opportunities to add value, whilst simultaneously ensuring their work is rewarding and fulfilling.

4. Thrivers appreciate their uniqueness - Thrivers understand that while there is always someone who can do something better than they can, there is always something they can do better than anyone else. Rather than being satisfied just to meet standards, thrivers leverage their gifts, talents, skills and abilities to set the standards.

5. Thrivers work in harmony with others – A powerful lesson of the global economy is this: whereas technology is an incredible tool, people are still the artisans. Thrivers understand that to succeed in multi-cultural environments requires the ability to collaborate with a complex mixture of people whose differences deserve to be honored. Rather than wish for conformity, thrivers value diversity.

6. Thrivers know what matters - Thriving is not an appearance but an experience. With all of its absurdities and challenges thrivers have learned that life is the only game in town and they are determined to wholeheartedly participate. Thrivers flourish because they are continually learning, contributing, laughing and loving. Whilst the future may be uncertain, thrivers see the future as unlimited.”

There is no doubt in my mind that ‘thrivers’ are new world builders.

Find out more about David McNally here

Be remarkable
Ian
strategic advisor to difference makers

Labels: Ian, leadership, self-leadership

Lindsay Adams and myself have bought and given away a lot of copies of the book ‘The Go-Giver’ by Bob Burg and John David Mann and published by Penguin 2007. The key lessons of the book

"The law of value: your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.
The law of compensation: your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.
The law of influence: your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people's interest first.
The law of authenticity: the most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.
The law of receptivity: the key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving."

These are all key laws that underpin the building of our new world.

Be remarkable.
Ian
strategic advisor to difference makers

Labels: Ian, leadership, role model, self-leadership

Recently I was privileged to be a keynote speaker at a conference in Singapore organised by Singapore Human Resources Institute. I spoke about ‘Tomorrow Today a future for business - authentic corporate social responsibility’, which of late has been one of my most requested talks. To those in the audience interested in further reading I provided an ebook I have written on the subject that traces defining moments of the past 25 years and the five shifts we are making to build our new world:

a move from competition to collaboration

a move from self-interest to shared interest

a move from dominance to diligence

a move from greed to greater good

a move from reaction to responsibility

You can download the ebook here

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Ian
strategic advisor to difference makers

Labels: CSR, Ian, leadership

My reading in the past week or so has been Thomas Friedman’s latest book ‘Hot, Flat, and Crowded’. It is exciting to see a writer of Friedman’s class join the Green Revolution. I also re-read his excellent book ‘The Lexus and The Olive Tree’, which is about globalization and how to make it work for the good of all. A lot of lessons here for the troubled folk on Wall Street.

Friedman is a builder of our new world. I highly recommend him to you. Visit his website here for more information.


Be remarkable
Ian
strategic advisor to difference makers

Labels: Ian, leadership, learning

In an article for Harvard Business Review ‘Strategy as Revolution’ Volume 74, Issue 4, July-August 1996, page 69, Gary Hamel says each industry consists of three kinds of people; “Rule Makers (Industry leaders), Rule Takers (peasants who only keep what the Lord does not want), and Rule Breakers (revolutionaries who overturn the ‘curse of incrementalism’, rewrite industry rules, and overthrow industry boundaries).

Rule Breakers are the builders of our new world. Are you one of them?

Be remarkable
Ian
strategic advisor to difference makers

Labels: Ian, role model

In one of the great books written about the successful present and future of business in my view, ‘Firms of Endearment’, authors Raj Sisodia, David B Wolfe, and Jag Sheth, put forward 7 characteristics that differeniate the best companies from the rest as follows:

“freely challenge industry dogma
create value by aligning stakeholder interests
are willing to break traditional tradeoffs
operate with a long-term perspective
favor organic growth to growing by mergers and acquistions
blend work with play
reject traditional marketing models”

How would you rate your organisation against these?

I highly recommend this book. In my view it surpasses the work by Jim Collins in his best selling book ‘Good to Great’

Be remarkable
Ian
strategic advisor to difference makers

Labels: Ian, leadership, role model

My wife and I recently had dinner at a Richtree Market Restaurant in Toronto, Canada. If you are ever in Canada make a visit here a priority.

This is a truly remarkable place, a fresh food market and several restaurants all in the one place. You choose your food, have it cooked and enjoy your meal in very pleasant surroundings. Plus the service is exceptional.

What are you doing to truly differenitate your business from everyone else?

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Ian
strategic advisor to difference makers

Labels: Customer Service, Ian

We bought a new kettle the other day. This story on the side of the box it came in intrigued me. “Kambrook was founded in 1972 by Frank Bannigan, an Australian inventor with an obsession for electrical appliances and a mission to bring the price of quality products within everyone’s reach. Frank converted his home garage into a workshop and named the company after the street he lived in.

Kambrook set out to provide customers with practical products that would enhance every day life. This philosophy quickly led to the invention of Kambrook’s first major product - the 4 way power board, which Frank developed out of pure frustration - he did not have enough power points to test his products.”

The 4 way power board is no longer remarkable. All sorts of versions exist with many having more than 4 points! Many of our ideas don’t see the light of day because we don’t see them as being remarkable, rather a means to an end. Don’t waste any of your ideas. At least test them out. You never know which ideas will turn out to be of high value to others and therefore provide a reward for their inventor.

Be remarkable
Ian
strategic advisor to difference makers

Labels: Ian, Innovation

I take my hat off to Belinda a barista at Gloria Jeans Coffee Shop in Border's Bookshop Brisbane. Belinda stunned me recently by saying to me "Good morning Ian would you like your usual."

Labels: Ian, leadership, role model

Recently Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hosted an ideas summit where a 1000 or so people gathered to share ideas and to present recommendations for what Australia must do by 2020.

Like most of these kind of events there was something old, something borrowed and very little new. What could be new is that the ideas become reality. Creating a vision is noble, however turning the vision into reality is what is heroic.  The more leaders talk and fail to act, the more skeptical and cynical followers become.

This Prime Minister is doing a lot of talking. He is also taking some action. He seems to be acutely aware that innovation of the scale we need in the new world we are building requires levels of cooperation and collaboration never before seen in history.  I am hopeful that Mr Rudd, who has a lot of knockers because of his rhetoric, can do what most leaders don't, that is, match the talk with the walk.

Be remarkable

Ian

Strategic advisor to difference makers
Insightpreneur™ - expert on the journey from information-insight-inspiration-ideas-innovation

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Insightpreneur™ - expert on the journey from information-insight-inspiration-ideas-innovation

Labels: Ian, leadership, storytelling

Around 15 years ago I made a comment to an audience that happy staff equals happy customers. Many people laughed. Today the happiness factor is no longer considered a joke, rather a legitimate component of a success strategy. Larry Page, one of the founders of Google, recently named by Fortune magazine as the best place to work in the US, is on record as saying that a central part of the company’s strategy is to ensure that its employees are happy.

There is even a new form of psychology called 'positive psychology'. The most famous exponent as far as I know is Dr Martin Seligman. There are a number of great questionnaires on his website to measure your happiness. I highly recommend them.

Even more I highly recommend that you make employee happiness a key component of your strategy. Who knows maybe one day your company will be rated as the best place to work!

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I have been in the United Kingdom for the past two weeks and have been surprised at the amount of media concerning performance appraisals. The latest was in yesterdays Sunday Times with the sub headline reading “Managers need to be trained better in carrying out annual staff performance reviews …” The article went on to quote a recent survey by Investors in People which found that a third of employees think appraisals are a waste of time.

To leave a performance review for a year in the modern world is poor practice. Every 90 days is the norm for remarkable organisations where the key is the informal feedback exchange that occurs daily, meaning the formal review is about celebrating performance and agreeing on the performance plan for the next 90 days.

Human beings do not want to be appraised; they want to be appreciated. People also want to be held to account when performance is less than planned. To leave appreciation or being held to account for a year is an insult to humanity. It is not training that is required for managers in how to complete annual reviews that is needed rather a complete relearning about the essentials of effective leadership and management.

Find out more about best practice by downloading a free special report on people engagement here

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Ian
Insightpreneur™ - insight-inspiration-ideas-innovation

Labels: Ian, leadership

I spent much of the last part of January resting and playing and reminded myself that I do my best work when I rest properly before work and play after work. I also reminded myself that too much work does indeed make us all dull.

How would you rate your ability and willingness to maintain harmony between rest, work, and play? We need to get this right for us if we are to be remarkable and therefore able to play our part in building our new world.

Be remarkable
Ian
Insightpreneur™ - insight-inspiration-ideas-innovation

Labels: Ian, self-leadership

Leading business thinker and writer Gary Hamel says “What ultimately constrains the performance of your organisation is not its business model, nor its operational model, but its management model.”

I couldn’t agree more. Such a model in my view has everything to do with how well we engage our employees, the primary deliverers of value to our other stakeholders.

Creating such models has been my main area of expertise for the past 20 years. Recently I wrote a special report on the subject with Remacue Chairman Lindsay Adams. You can download the free report here.

I encourage you to study the report and complete the performance pulse check at the end and fax to me should you wish to find out more about how myself and my colleagues can work with you to create a system just for you.

Be remarkable
Ian
Insightpreneur™ - insight-inspiration-ideas-innovation

Labels: Ian, Performance

My wife and I went shopping several times in the past week as you do this time of year. Sadly none of people in the stores we bought goods from provided us with a remarkable service experience. Many stores missed out on our custom because they failed to provide us with any service at all! And so because we have vast choice we simply went somewhere else.

Yesterday we spent several hours in one large DIY store. We wanted particular products only this store could provide, hence the time we spent. We were told by one so called sales assistant, whom we had to plead with to give us any kind of real assistance, that we could list all our purchases on the computer prepare a quotation and simply take that to the checkout where others would pick our order and deliver it to our home. All for a fee of course which I have no issue paying. After some persuasion from me the assistant completed our order and printed the form.

When we arrived at the checkout we were told we would have to go back as the quotation form we had was on the wrong form. I protested saying that if this problem couldn’t be fixed on the spot our order of several hundred dollars wouldn’t be proceeding. Only then did we get the kind of service we demand, desire, and feel we deserve.

How remarkable is the service experience your people are providing your customers? How many people prepared to buy your product go somewhere else because your people don’t really get it?

Start 2008 off on the proactive foot by finding out what your customers demand, desire, and feel they deserve and then employ and teach people how to deliver such value in memorable ways. Doing so will mean more customers buying more from you and probably the best year you ever had.

Be remarkable
Ian
Insightpreneur™ - insight-inspiration-ideas-innovation

Labels: Ian, service

I have great pleasure in offering you a free gift in the form of an e-book by 53 experts, Expect More from 2008. It includes contributions from Remacue Community Members Gihan Perera, Anne Riches, Steve Wells, Terry Power, Candy Tymson, Keith Abraham, Glenn Capelli, Robyn Henderson, David Price, and Catherine Palin-Brinkworth.

My contribution is on page 13.

My best to you and yours. I trust 2008 will be your best year yet.

Be remarkable
Ian
Insightpreneur™ - insight-inspiration-ideas-innovation

Labels: Ian, self-leadership

The following is the executive summary of a special report I wrote recently about strategy

1) Know who all your stakeholders are and the value they demand, desire, and feel they deserve from you

2) Know how fully engaged all your stakeholders are with you

3) Get crystal clear on where you are going, why you’re going there, and what you stand for and be authentic

4) Don’t hire or keep employed anyone who is not congruent and aligned with where you are going, why you are going there, and what you stand for

5) Spend time in person with all your stakeholders on a regular basis

6) Turn strategic intuition and thinking into strategic insight

Only now can we really decide on strategy

7) Strategy can be articulated on one or two sheets of A4 paper

8) Individual performance possibility plans are critical to strategy getting
executed

9) Individual plans without a follow through systems is like gambling, you might win big, you most likely won’t

10) Putting people first is your best strategy for being remarkable in business

11) Have a process for making decisions and solving problems and be
transparent about their use

You can download the special report here

Be remarkable
Ian
Insightpreneur™ - insight-inspiration-ideas-innovation

Labels: Ian, leadership

One of the most interesting and engaging people I have had the privilege to meet is Jonathan Austin founder of Best Companies and an expert in workplace engagement. Here are the eight key factors Best Companies research shows matter in becoming an employer of choice

“Leadership
How employees feel about the head of the organisation, senior managers, and the company’s values and principles

My Manager
How employees feel about and communicate with their direct manager

Personal Growth
What employees feel about training and their future prospects

Wellbeing
How employees feel about stress, pressure at work, and work life balance

My Team
Employees feelings towards their immediate colleagues and how well they work together

Giving Something Back
The extent to which employees feel their organisation has a positive impact on society

My Company
The level of engagement employees have for their job and organisation

Fair Deal
How happy employees are with their pay and benefits”

Would you rate your organisation as remarkable in each of these areas?

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Ian

Labels: Ian, leadership, role model

One of the most savvy and inspiring business leaders of our time is Sir Richard Branson. Watch a great interview with him here. (type Richard Branson in the search box) After you enjoy Richard, check out some of the other ‘ted talks’ that may catch your eye. This website features many of the world's best, sharing brilliant ideas into how to be remarkable.

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Ian

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The business news that dominated United Kingdom media in the three weeks I was there recently was the run on Northern Rock, Britain’s fifth largest mortgage lender. The crisis for Northern Rock began with their exposure to the US mortgage market. Their customers at one stage looked like withdrawing £12 billion or half the banks deposits. I do not know the full story behind all the drama but I do smell the stench of greed.

The leaders of remarkable businesses understand the fact that economic profit is not a reason for being in business rather a result of being good at business. To be remarkably successful in modern business therefore we must know our purpose beyond profit. My purpose is to inspire business leaders to achieve a five-fold bottom line so that the world is a better place. I get paid and make profits only if my mentoring, speaking, consulting, and writing, delivers the value my clients demand, desire, and feel they deserve.

What is the higher purpose of your business?

Be remarkable
Ian
Insightpreneur™ - discovering and presenting insight people and planet profit from

Labels: Ian, leadership

I have been working in the United Kingdom for the past two weeks. While here one of my hero's Anita Roddick passed away. In honour of Anita's huge and positive impact on better business practice I went and drank a fair trade coffee at another iconic business Marks and Spencer. I reflected on the great strides business has made to be fairer and my own priviledge this year to work with another seller of fair trade coffee, the fine folk of Oxfam Trading in Australia. Community trade is one way of eliminating poverty. What is your business doing to be socially responsible?

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Ian

Labels: Ian, leadership, role model

My wife and I went out with friends last night to one of our favourite restaurants or at least it used to be one of our favourites! There is a new chef and based on last night we won't be going back. We were embarrassed as well because we had raved about this place to our friends. Consistency is a key to remarkability. Do you have systems in place that ensure consistency of what you offer and serve? If you don't I suggest you begin to develop and implement such systems straight away and therefore avoid losing customers who previously were your fans.

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Ian

Labels: Ian, leadership, service

When I work in Melbourne I stay at the Alto Hotel. It is designated as a four star however I give them a seven star rating because Ricardo and his team provide an experience beyond service. My wife and I first stayed at this hotel by chance and we were both pleasantly surprised by the little things that Lauren, one of the receptionists, did that made a big difference. Then due to circumstance we decided to eat in the restaurant where we were entertained by Francis Scanlon, waiter extraordinaire. Francis came to Australia from India three years ago and working at the Alto is one of three jobs he does to fulfill his dream of bringing his fiancée to Australia to live. Francis is a remarkable 26 year old. He makes dining out a memorable experience. I have no doubt that one day soon he will bring the love of his life to Australia and that he will fulfill his big dream of becoming a pilot.

Everyone time I go back to the Alto Hotel everyone who works there goes beyond serving me, rather they provide an experience that means I go back.

Are you providing an experience beyond service at your place? Doing so is a sign of remarkability.

Be remarkable
Ian

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The Macquarie dictionary defines remarkable as "conspiciously extraordinary". Everyone of us is already remarkable because we are all a one-of-a-kind. Be yourself. Rejoice in the fact that only you can be you. Live each day bringing everything remarkable that you are to everything you do.

Be remarkable
Ian

Labels: Ian, leadership