We have spent hours on end in the studio recording our message to you to wish you a very relaxed and joyous festive season and a wonderful 2012. All remaining budget has been donated to Centre Point to take a teenager off the street for a week.

We hope you enjoy it.

Happy Holidays

Steve and Elaine

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We are forever being told how we should be learning or the best way to learn or how our brain learns best and loads of stuff that we inherently already know. Of course we should experiment with new ways to learn to see if they suit us and help us, however, we know how we learn best – don’t we? We know whether we learn best by watching and copying or by studying and testing or by doing and coaching or by whatever way we learn best – don’t we?

I’ve put a poll on the right hand column ———> to try to find out how we prefer to learn. I’ll then use the information to feed back to you and to make sure I am providing services that you actually want.

The poll takes 15 seconds and will be a big help to me – thanks for helping.

Steve

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I may have not quite remembered Christina Gabrielle Rossetti’s wonderful poem correctly but it conjures up a lot of how I feel about children dying before parents. About it not being the natural order of things and about how war does not decide who wins – just who’s left! I have written Christina’s hauntingly beautiful poem below as best I can recall and then added my tribute to our fallen by changing the final two lines just for today…

Remember me when I am gone away
Gone far away to the silent land
Where you can no more hold me by the hand
Nor I half turn to go, yet, turning stay
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned
Remember me. You understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray
But if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

Christina Gabrielle Rossetti

Apologies to one of the world’s greatest poets but just for today I would rewrite the last lines…

Better by far you should remember them and smile
Than that you should forget them and be sad…

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This post is an extract from a superb article in the New Yorker by Atul Gawande. Atul is a surgeon at the top of his profession. He is an accomplished physician and also an excellent writer. His recent article “Personal Best” discussed the need for everyone at every stage of their lives to consider the significant benefits coaching can provide and the importance of it being the right type of coaching and the right coach.

The whole article is a great 15 minute read and a passage that summed a lot up for me is below. You can read Atul’s full article in the New Yorker here.

Atul describes the process of undergoing being observed by his coach (Osteen) and the realisations he gained from it…

“Osteen watched, silent and blank-faced the entire time, taking notes. My cheeks burned; I was mortified. I wished I’d never asked him along. I tried to be rational about the situation—the patient did fine. But I had let Osteen see my judgment fail; I’d let him see that I may not be who I want to be.

This is why it will never be easy to submit to coaching, especially for those who are well along in their career. I’m ostensibly an expert. I’d finished long ago with the days of being tested and observed. I am supposed to be past needing such things. Why should I expose myself to scrutiny and fault-finding?

I have spoken to other surgeons about the idea. “Oh, I can think of a few people who could use some coaching” has been a common reaction. Not many say, “Man, could I use a coach!” Once, I wouldn’t have, either.

Osteen and I sat together after the operation and broke the case down, weighing the decisions I’d made at various points. He focussed on what I thought went well and what I thought didn’t. He wasn’t sure what I ought to have done differently, he said. But he asked me to think harder about the anatomy of the attachments holding the tumor in……

…..“Most surgery is done in your head,” Osteen likes to say. Your performance is not determined by where you stand or where your elbow goes. It’s determined by where you decide to stand, where you decide to put your elbow. I knew that he could drive me to make smarter decisions, but that afternoon I recognized the price: exposure.

For society, too, there are uncomfortable difficulties: we may not be ready to accept—or pay for—a cadre of people who identify the flaws in the professionals upon whom we rely, and yet hold in confidence what they see. Coaching done well may be the most effective intervention designed for human performance. Yet the allegiance of coaches is to the people they work with; their success depends on it. And the existence of a coach requires an acknowledgment that even expert practitioners have significant room for improvement. Are we ready to confront this fact when we’re in their care?”

Read more in the New Yorker here.

A good coach realises that it is a true partnership and that the coach’s job is to provide a holistic framework for performance improvement. This requires a broad skill set that includes, leadership, team work, empathy, experience and courage. It is important to take your time to find the coach that is right for you.

Comments and discussions as always are welcomed.

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From Vision to Exit – the Entrepreneur’s guide to building and selling a business is the first book written by Guy Rigby. I hope it’s not the last!

Guy has been around the block and either been involved with or witnessed first hand many successes and failures in the exciting world of Entrepreneurial enterprise. He is more than well qualified in this field and we are lucky that he has shared his experience and expertise with us.

This book is published at a really critical time for our economy. We need Entrepreneurs but, more over, we need people to help Entrepreneurs succeed. This book fills the huge gap between the Entrepreneurs’ personal attributes and their implementation skills. It covers everything it says on the cover. From Vision to Exit and it does it extremely well.

My advice to Entrepreneurs is to have the book close by. Firstly read it quickly without trying to remember any of it. Just let the general tenor or the book help you understand where to look for help and when to look for help. Then use it as a support and guide as you grow your business.

As it it close to my heart I really enjoyed the chapter ‘From Entrepreneur to Leader’. My thoughts on the difficulty in achieving this are well known.

You can get Guy’s book on Amazon here.

Guy leads the Entrepreneurial team at Smith & Williamson and you can contact him here.

Enjoy. And as always please comment if you have anything to discuss.

Steve

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I’ve cut and pasted this blog from Vistage’s Executive Street daily blog. I could have just added a link but I wanted this in my blog for 2 reasons 1) it will mean it gets more UK reads and 2) hopefully it will raise more UK debate directly through my blog.

This was written by Leo J. Bottary. Leo is Vice President, Public Affairs for Vistage International and an adjunct professor for Seton Hall University’s Master of Arts in Strategic Communication and Leadership program. I’ll hand over to Leo and see you at the bottom…

In my last post, 5 Reasons Peer Advisory Groups Work, I talked about the amazing benefits shared by organizations and employees when peers work together. The thing is, peer groups aren’t just for employees, they work really well for CEOs also. Imagine for a moment being the CEO. It’s your responsibility to make good decisions that are best for the company as a whole. While you may have a terrific senior management team and a highly engaged board of directors, the people giving you advice also have a personal stake in the outcome. As a CEO, I’m not suggesting you don’t listen to your senior people or your board, who are in most cases (hopefully) sincerely offering their best input and counsel, but it begs this question: Would a CEO also benefit from being asked tough questions and receiving counsel from fellow CEOs, who have no personal vested interest in the outcome? As you may have guessed, Vistage member CEOs have been answering yes to this question since 1957. Here are five benefits (among others of course), a CEO will realize by regularly engaging with a group of his/her peers:

1) Empathy – If you’ve never been a CEO, it’s nearly impossible to put yourself in a CEO’s shoes. It’s difficult for most of us, regardless of how much we care or how objective we believe we are in offering counsel to our CEOs, to imagine what that’s really like. Fellow CEOs aren’t looking through the lens of marketing, finance, or HR, they’re looking at the whole picture because it’s what they do every day. The empathy that one CEO shares with another is a priceless benefit of the CEO peer advisory experience. Its impact is not only felt professionally, but personally as well.

2) Objectivity – An employee or board member, regardless of their espoused objectivity and true sincerity, has a personal stake in the outcome. Fellow CEOs from non-competing businesses are not burdened with that extra layer of consideration. They can ask the hard questions without regard for sacred cows, personal relationships or other organizational/industry blinders. It’s an eye opening experience for many CEOs when peers looks at a specific challenge through a completely impartial lens.

3) Shared Challenges – While the CEOs in the peer group may serve entirely different types of customers in widely varying industries, they share common challenges regarding employees, growth, profitability, executive development, technology, and uncertainty, just to name a few. The more they talk, the more they realize how much they have in common and how much they can learn from on another.

4) Learning – While they have shared challenges, the myriad industries they represent set the table for rich conversations about common practices in one sector that are often quite different from practices in another sector. Sharing ideas across industries help CEOs learn from one another. What’s more, these CEOs will also share their personal triumphs and failures. This display of trust creates an environment where the CEO can be truly vulnerable to learn and grow. And unlike one-to-one executive coaching, which can be a rich complement to the peer advisory experience, there’s nothing quite like the power of the group dynamic.

5) Accountability – As CEOs share their challenges and aspirations with their peers, being CEOs as they are, they tend to be serious about holding their peers accountable to make the tough choices and to deliver on their stated courses of action. As I’ve heard from so many Vistage Chairs and members, this atmosphere of shared accountability may be the most powerful dynamic of all when it comes to the peer advisory experience.

My personal disclaimer is that I’m not promoting Vistage per se, but more broadly, the peer advisory model. I’ve personally experienced the benefits both as an owner of a small firm and as a university adjunct professor. When it comes to simultaneously working on your business and working on yourself, the peer advisory model has no peer. I also don’t mind saying that I don’t believe Vistage is the best at this because I work here, I work here because I believe Vistage is the best at this – offering an unparalleled professionally facilitated peer advisory experience to all levels of business leaders in every size company. Sit down and talk with any of our Chairs who lead these groups, most of whom are former CEOs, and you’ll discover what I’m talking about. That said, I wholeheartedly encourage anyone to take a closer look at how peer advisory groups could work for your organization, regardless of whom you choose to assist you!

Thanks Leo – that’s a great blog.

I joined Vistage as a Chair because I also believe Vistage is the best at doing this. I spent a long time looking for an outlet for my CEO coaching in a one-to-many environment because I firmly believe the Japanese proverb “not one of us is as clever as all of us”. Vistage provides this and especially so as all our Chairs are selected and have not “bought’ their franchise. I believe this strengthens the Vistage offering and with many of our chairs also serving on boards it results in a real synergy.

I’d be really interested in any comments or observations you have on Leo’s blog.

You can see the original here at Executive Street

Catch up again soon.

Steve

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I recently produced some guidance alongside Neil Gandhi of Quickstart Global for Vistage International (the leading CEO peer advisory group). The short video is here. I’d welcome your comments and/or questions.

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Merukilipepper is the name of my new stand-alone blog site for our climb of Mounts Meru and Kilimanjaro that starts next Monday 29th August 2011.

You can read/follow it at www.merukilipepper.wordpress.com

It’s in aid of www.pepper.org.uk

If you can donate your next coffee please do so here www.justgiving.com/stephen-mcnulty

Thanks

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Place your ashes in a biodegradable urn with tree seeds and bury it and hey presto…soon you’ll be a big and strong tree. What an awesome idea. http://ow.ly/4QFJV

Anyone got other excellent or off-the-wall ideas of how they are going to dispose of themselves?

Steve 

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My fellow CEOs are a pretty switched on bunch of people and keep themselves up to date with most things. For a lot of them however the social media space has escaped them. The short video below is my 3 minute view on the ‘why’ and how to get started. Happy to talk to anyone who wants to learn more. Call me on 07545 855324. As always I encourage comments and positive discussion.

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