2011 in Review.

The year that was.

Well, 2011 was one hell of a year. Relocating family and business down to the Gold Coast, running a marathon, getting a publishing deal and generally just ripping in to a new space. Its been a blast and we have loved sharing it with you.

As we head off for a well-earned break, we thought we might leave you with a list of our favourite books that made us think differently in 2011.

In no particular order or ranking (but all highly recommended) they are:

The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion

John Hagell III, John Seely Brown & Lang Davidson

Explores the shifting landscape of a content rich world. Documents a number of shifts within business, and shows how the game must change if you want to map a certain future in an uncertain time.

The Thank You Economy

Gary Vaynerchuk

A customer service bible for the new world. Vaynerchuk’s take on the use of social media is enlightening, down-to-earth and contemporary. He walks his talk too. If you are a business of any size and use social media, you MUST read this book.

Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Wellbeing

Martin Seligman

What is interesting to note about this is Seligman’s humility to take a baseball bat to some previous findings and theories. Even more interesting is his boldness to declare strongly that this stuff works. Has some cool online tests within the book.

Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard

Chip Heath & Dan Heath

A pretty cool follow up from their phenomenal first offering, ‘Made to Stick’. They use a nice overarching metaphor of the elephant and rider which works well, and have some relevant contemporary examples of change done well.

Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way

Dan Buettner

Buettner travels to four different continents to explore what makes the happiest people in the world happy. His findings are intriguing because what he discovers is not what we would initially think contribute to happiness. Buettner goes through keys that can unlock the door to contentment in our lives. We've tried to embody a few of these principles throughout our year. 

The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are 

Brene Brown

If you are looking for a liberating and refreshingly honest book this summer then this is one well worth picking up. It explores the reality that each of our imperfections come with tremendous gifts if we are prepared to embrace them. Brene’s approach to life is contagious, you’ll want in!

Looking ahead to 2012, there is really only one book you need to read.... :)

Dealing with the Tough Stuff: How to Achieve Results From Crucial Conversations

Darren Hill, Alison Hill & Dr Sean Richardson.

Wishing you, your team and your families a safe and very Merry Christmas season. 

Look forward to catching up again in the New Year. 

Darren and Alison 

P.S We’d love to hear which books rocked your world in 2011! 

THE GIFT:

This weeks gift is the first chapter of Gary Vaynerchuk's book, The Thank You Economy.  We're certain it'll leave you asking Santa for the book for Christmas!

Dealing with the Chuff Stuff.

It’s easy to focus only on the tough stuff when managing people at work because this is what weighs heavily on us. But sometimes we forget to deal with the ‘chuff stuff’ too! The problem in only giving attention to the negative behaviours, means you risk creating a moderated, average work team. 

To have someone achieve excellence they need to hear feedback about what they are doing well, they need to be reinforced. Here’s the coolest thing; when you reward someone by expressing gratitude, you effectively reward yourself in the process.

If you do find your ratio of tough stuff : chuff stuff conversations is heavily skewed in favour of the tough stuff, then set yourself the task to find a reward or reinforcer for a staff member every day for a week, or twice a week for a month. Remember to vary the timing and size of the reinforcers for best effect (don’t let them become predictable), and in turn see the change in peoples productivity as a result.

One of the key messages that we talk about in our work and programs we deliver is to focus on the goodness of people; that all people are awesome. We have an array of tools to equip people to deal with the tough situations at work, but don’t ever lose sight of the fact that people are wonderful beings, each and everyone of us. 

We love this time of year because the festive season celebrations reconnect us with the people who are important in our lives. During this time make sure you focus on the chuff stuff with your colleagues at work too. 

Happy Christmas season! 

Darren and Alison 

THE GIFT:

We wanted to share a recent post from a favourite project of ours, 365 grateful...click here for a TED video on Gratitude and a blog by Amy Gill on being thankful.  Enjoy!

The one thing that makes all the difference

How often do you spend time trying to improve your weaknesses?

Okay, next question (and a more important one).

How often do you spend time developing your strengths?

Neurological studies indicate that we are hardwired to excel when we are focusing on our areas of strength. Despite this, we often spend most of our time and energy on trying to get from bad to merely mediocre in our areas of weakness. 

Our greatest growth actually rests in our strengths rather than our weaknesses. From our earliest cognitive development, we grow bundles of neurons in our brains in some specific areas. For some people, perhaps it is that they are better with numbers than the general population. For others it might be their innate ability to make other people feel at ease. We often term these skills as our natural skills, or sometimes even call them aptitudes. 

Because of the way our brain 'farms' its neurons, it is actually easier to branch new neurons off existing ones than create new neurons. This means, if we have a strength area (lots of neurons) we have the greatest ability to grow new neurons in that area. More neurons means more 'smarts' in that area.

So whilst it is common to want to develop our weaknesses so that we are a more 'rounded' person, biologically it makes sense to focus on our strengths. When you stop and think about it, it actually makes sense. If you are working on something that you are interested in and really enjoy, you are more likely to spend more time on it, research it, and want to excel at it.

Adam Gilchrist had a natural talent for cricket, and this was obviously a strength of his. If he never trained, practised in the nets or went to the gym, he would probably still play cricket far better than most people. But it was through his concentration on building his strengths that led him to be undoubtedly the best wicketkeeper-batsman the world has ever seen. If Gilchrist had spent most of his time concentrating on his weaknesses rather than his strengths we would never have seen him dominate the bowling attacks from around the world. 

But think beyond sporting parlance. Think of the leaders of any field and you will see people who have discovered, and then embraced, their strengths; for this was always the area they had the most potential to prosper.

Find those activities you get totally lost in and try and find ways to do more of these activities, focus on building and developing your strengths. 

It is the one thing that makes all the difference!

Warm wishes, 

Darren & Alison 

3 Powerful Questions (Part 2)

Last week we wrote about the problem with the good advice that you receive from others. But what do you do if you are the one giving the advice? 

How do you make sure that when you are helping someone else make a decision that it is relevant to them? 

The reality is that this skill is the essence of influence. Having the ability to assist and support someone else to make an important decision is the key to leadership.  

In order to get others to ‘buy’ your idea or your policy or your new practice, you need to let go of your own ego. Too often we step into our ‘expertise’ and start telling others what they should do without having a really good understanding of their context. You need to understand what is going on for them.

Once you understand their context you can tailor your message to their needs. And here’s the real kicker; if you step into their context your power to influence will exponentially grow, because your advice will be considered and relevant to them.

The following are 3 powerful questions that will help you to better understand the context of someone else: 

• What is your biggest headache at the moment?
• How much of a pressing need is this for you?
• What is most important for you right now in moving forward?

Ask these three powerful questions and this will turn your ‘expert’ advice into expertly relevant advice. 

Ultimately this makes all the difference!

Darren and Alison