Monday, July 27, 2009

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week


“It’s so obvious”

Posted: 26 Jul 2009 11:11 PM PDT

I gave a talk to a fashion industry audience recently. I was explaining my research and work around authentic business and why authentic business is simply a better way to do business.

One of the people in the audience came to me afterwards and said "it is so obvious, and yet so few businesses do it."

EXACTLY! and this is my mission.

Many of us have been so blinded by the pursuit of money as an end in itself that we forgot what we were doing it all for.

It is as if we got confused somewhere along the line, and believed for a time that business was somehow separate from being human.

Not only that, when we remember that business is also a human activity, the business is actually more successful, more profitable and more fulfilling.

Let me summarise quickly:

Authentic businesses generate profit through the pursuit of a profound and positive purpose. (unlike regular businesses which simply seek to redistribute wealth from the population and environment to a few senior executives and shareholders).

Because the purpose is something the people in the business believe in passionately they are more motivated, caring and committed to their work than people in regular businesses.

Because people in regular businesses are working exclusively to make someone else rich, it is much more difficult/expensive to motivate them.

Not only that but because there is a purpose beyond profit staff, customers and suppliers who feel aligned with the purpose can also align with the business and support it.

Whereas in regular businesses, the business is competing with everyone, including their own staff and customers, for profit.

It is really quite simple.

Virtually all people have, at their core, a positive sense of purpose. We all want to make the world a better place, to make our lives and those of others around us better. If we fail to do this, it is because we are confused and frightened, not because we are bad or uncaring (except for the few genuine psychopaths).

Most businesses are made up of people. Therefore - if we have the courage to uncover their personal purpose, most businesses can also be authentic.

My mission is for all businesses to be authentic. I believe it will make the world a better place. If you can work out that it is a better way to do business, a better way to live and better for the world - why wouldn't you? It's obvious.

If you need some further persuasion take a look at Ray Anderson speaking at TED this year. (Please bear in mind that sustainability happens to be the purpose at Interface Carpets - not every business purpose is even related to sustainability). Ray Anderson is the Founder and Chairman of Interface Carpets - the largest commercial carpet tile business in the world. The company is hugely successful, public quoted, has a petrochemical based product AND is authentic.

If they can do it, so can anyone.

Helping businesses find their authenticity and become authentic is what I do. If you would like to find out how give me a call.

Over the summer I am offering my usual "summer sale": Three for the price of two on coaching sessions held during July and August. If you would like to find out more about how my style of authentic coaching can benefit your leadership, work and your life give me a call.

With love

nx



Neil Crofts
Neil Crofts
authentic business

+44 (0)7775 658534
neil@neilcrofts.com
www.neilcrofts.com
Skype - neilcrofts

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week


10 Leadership lessons from the Tour

Posted: 20 Jul 2009 12:14 AM PDT

As many readers will know, I am passionate about cycling. I love the complex interplay of personal discipline with teamwork. I love the combination of brutal effort and chess like strategy. I love the epic scenery and the cool gadgets - I love it all.

This week the 2009 Tour de France enters it's final, decisive week. So in a blatant bid to get more people interested in cycling - here are my 10 leadership lessons from the Tour...

1- More collaboration equals more progress:

In cycling the more people you collaborate with the faster you go. The more people who share the work at the front, offering others their slipstream, the faster and further you will go.

It is common for a group of riders to get ahead at the beginning of a stage. If this group is big enough and gets far enough ahead they might be able to stay in front. But when the "peleton" (the main group of riders) gets organised they will probably go faster.

So avoid making enemies among your competition you never know when you may need them and learn how to motivate others to work with you.

2 - Sometimes leaders have to follow:

Cycling is both a team sport and an individual sport. Team members sacrifice their individual ambition for that of the team and the team leader. However, if the leader does not have the strength to win, or if they are so far ahead that they don't need to, they gain more credibility with their team mates for next time by helping one of them to win.

Whenever you are the leader - look for opportunities to share the glory and support your team mates in achieving it.

3 - Leadership is emergent:

Cycling is brutally meritocratic. The team may nominate a "leader" for the tour, but if that leader looses time on a team mate, leadership moves to where it is most relevant. For a leader to stay the leader they have to perform.

In hierarchies "leadership" is appointed, in teams it is emergent and dynamic. Every member is expected to take responsibility and contribute what they can - sometimes that means leading, sometimes that means following.

4 - Remember to look after yourself:

Riding a tour stage consumes about 4,000 to 6,000 calories. Riders need to be constantly eating and drinking to make sure they have enough fuel for when it matters. Running out of fuel means a slow and painful end to the stage. After the stage they need to take care to rest, make time for massage, eat the right food, hydrate, stretch and get a good nights sleep so that they can recover for the next day.

We all perform better when we are well fed and rested. If we want to lead we need to be in top condition as much of the time as possible. We need to look after our bodies and stay energised.

5 - Equipment matters - team matters more:

It is easy to get seduced into the kit and the gadgets. Carbon fibre bikes with light weight components and mini computers that can tell you every detail of your ride. But the kit will never differentiate your performance for long, the way a team works is far harder to copy and is what sets winners apart from runners up.

Getting the people issues right too often goes into the "too hard" box and gets ignored, while investment is poured into equipment or other easier to understand areas. If you want your team to flourish you will need to invest in it.

6 - Train, train, train:

A cyclist wanting to win the Tour de France will have started regular training and competition in their early teens. They will have built up their endurance base over 10 to 20 years (Tour winners in their early 20's are rare). They will have started their specific training the previous November and will have had a tailored programme over the the spring, riding thousands of kilometers before they even get to the start line.

Riders will work with coaches, strategists, psychologists, doctors, nutritionists, physiologists and masseurs to ensure that they are in peak mental and physical condition for the race.

If we want the best from ourselves and our team we need to take responsibility for our training. In today's world there is so much that a leader needs to know - not just about their specialist subject, but also about psychology, marketing, communication, technology, the market, finance, motivational speaking and more.

Cyclists say about recovery - when you don't have to stand, sit, when you don't have to sit, lie down.

Leaders might say - when you don't have to communicate, learn, when you don't have to learn, rest.

7 - Protect your star riders:

In cycling the star rider is usually a specialist who can climb or sprint better than the others. The team will ride to protect that rider and save their energy for the key moments of the race, when they can make the difference. The team will fetch them food and drink from the team car, pace them back to the front if they stop for a pee or a mechanical problem and spend hours riding in front of them to protect them from the wind.

Most organisational teams also have a star, the best designer, sales person, technologist or whatever. To make the most of that skill the rest of the team needs to rally around and ensure that the star player can focus time and energy on doing what they do better than the others. The team also needs to treat the stars carefully to avoid "divadom".

8 - Energy management is more important than time management:

In the race it is the relative time to other riders that matters - not the absolute time. The rider who wins over three weeks is the one who manages their energy best. They avoid wasting energy by riding in the wind or attacking when they don't have to.

Time pressure is often an illusion. We all know that when we are working on something we are passionate about time is rarely a problem - it is when we are working on things that bore us that we run out of time. The ideal team will have specialists who are passionate about all areas that need to be covered, so that everyone can stay as energised as possible.

9 - The last 1% makes all the difference:

In the Tour de France you might lead any of the competitions by a crushing margin right up to the last kilometer of the last stage. But it is worth nothing if you don't finish.

Whatever we do in life, persistence is often worth as much, if not more than brilliance. Whatever we do, it is worth very little if it is incomplete. No matter how brilliant the rest of it is.

10 - You have to love it:

To be a pro cyclist takes an incredible level of dedication and commitment. Even in their teens the aspiring cyclist lives monastically in pursuit of their passion. No rider can achieve greatness if their goal is financial reward or celebrity - they have to love it, they have to have a passion for what they are doing.

Everyone who aspires to success and fulfilment in life needs to find and focus on doing what they love. It is the only way.

If you want some help in making your team perform brilliantly give me a call.

Over the summer I am offering my usual "summer sale": Three for the price of two on coaching sessions held during July and August. If you would like to find out more about how my style of authentic coaching can benefit your leadership, work and your life give me a call.

With love

nx


Neil Crofts
Neil Crofts
authentic business

+44 (0)7775 658534
neil@neilcrofts.com
www.neilcrofts.com
Skype - neilcrofts

Monday, July 13, 2009

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week


Love, Leadership and business

Posted: 13 Jul 2009 10:00 AM PDT

Love is still a deeply unfashionable expression to use in business. But I believe that it is the only thing that really leads to sustained business success.

I have delivered the "love" message to quite a few business audiences so far and the response varies from disbelieving sniggers to relieved acceptance. You won't be surprised that sniggers still out number acceptance - at the moment.

First, lets be clear about what "love" is. We are talking about the love of an activity, a thing, a person or a place. We are not talking about romantic love, but the experience we all have when our feelings for something go far beyond the practical.

For example: there are all sorts of practical reasons why I like cycling - I like the fitness, the gadgets, the feeling of freedom and the countryside. But my feelings for cycling go way beyond these practical elements - this, the bit beyond the practical - is the "love" bit.

We also have to be careful to distinguish between this kind of love for something and addiction. To my mind the distinction is one of long term health. A loving relationship is always a healthy relationship. An addictive relationship is always unhealthy.

The jobs that will work for us are the jobs we love. The relationships with colleagues, clients and suppliers that work are the ones with love involved. The best kind of marketing is word of mouth and the products customers talk about most, and most positively, are the ones they love.

Perhaps part of the reason that so many people are afraid of love in business is that it is not something we decide on. It is not something we control. It is not predictable. Love pounces or slips in unannounced and then changes all our plans.

As Steve Jobs says: "The only way to do great work is to love what you do". What is the point of investing our time and energy in anything less?

Marketers know this, for years they have tried to synthesise "love" for products to get us to buy them. But of course, you cannot fake love for long.

So what makes a person or a business lovable?

In a word the answer is authenticity.

Unfortunately for marketers, authenticity does not make a product, a business or a person lovable to everyone - but it does make them lovable to enough people.

It is not easy to truly love anything we feel uncomfortable about or find hard to trust. It is not easy to love anything that is shifty, insincere or manipulative.

We respect those who are honest, transparent and open. But we might love those who also align with us passionately, in some way.

It is not predictable, or controllable, but if we work with passion and love ourselves, it is likely that our work will connect with others who feel the same way and some of them will love what we do.

When love enters the relationship, suddenly we are working on a whole new level. Suspicion and doubt are replaced by support and commitment. Searching and disappointment are replaced by loyalty and contribution.

However unfashionable it may be in business, love is the answer that we are all looking for. Look for the love in your work, your business, your colleagues, your products and services and you will also find success and fulfilment.

If you want some help finding the love in your work - give me a call.

Over the summer I am offering my usual "summer sale": Three for the price of two on coaching sessions held during July and August. If you would like to find out more about how my style of authentic coaching can benefit your leadership, work and your life give me a call.

With love

nx


Neil Crofts
Neil Crofts
authentic business

+44 (0)7775 658534
neil@neilcrofts.com
www.neilcrofts.com
Skype - neilcrofts

Monday, July 06, 2009

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week


Team work and leadership

Posted: 05 Jul 2009 10:46 AM PDT

Individually we can make a difference, together we can
change the world.

Sadly many of us find true collaboration and team work difficult. The need for personal recognition of 'our' idea or 'our' work gets in the way.

Our education was largely an individual pursuit, at school collaboration is known as cheating. Equally signs of leadership among the pupils are frowned upon (I was expelled from one school specifically for showing signs of leadership!).

Our culture promotes the ideas of fixed hierarchy and appointed leadership, another two things that limit the opportunities for team work. The effectiveness of hierarchical systems is limited because, by definition, they do not have the most appropriate leader most of the time.

When we truly work as a team we notice that leadership is not static, it is dynamic. Leadership flows around the team to where it is most relevant in the moment. It vests temporarily due to skills, knowledge, relationships or whatever is important in that moment. When that moment passes it moves on.

WL Gore the manufacturers of Gore Tex fabric, who perennially feature at the top of lists of most innovative companies and best places to work, have a rotating hierarchy. Managers have fixed term appointments and are voted for by their teams.

However team work is compatible with the more rigid hierarchies found in most organisations, it just requires the appointed leaders to have the self confidence to be part of the team. To recognise that the answers come from the team (not from them) and to be prepared to follow as well as lead. Their leadership space is specifically in taking responsibility for relations with the rest of the organisation, which is probably why they got the job.

In my own career I remember the shift from feeling the terrible responsibility of solving every problem, to the relief of realising that I didn't have to.

I have worked largely solo for the last 10 years, with occasional informal partners and teams. I have been looking, unsuccessfully, for long term partners - but perhaps I was not ready.

True teamwork and partnership requires a level of trust and love most usually found in a more romantic relationship. It requires us to transcend our fears and accept that our self interest is better served by collaboration than by individual effort and control.

Today, perhaps, I am ready. I am now working in three different partnerships on three different projects: A Mentor for every child, Authenticis 2.0 and Stratum Social Value Partnership. In all cases it is wonderful to share the thinking, the responsibility, the credit and the work.

All of these projects deliver on my life purpose, "to heal the world through authenticity", and on the life purpose of the other partners involved. We are all passionate about the success and effect of our projects.

Technology facilitates all of these partnerships brilliantly. All are based in more than one country and we use a mixture of instant messaging, Skype, e-mail, iwork.com, Ning and Powwownow to collaborate as effectively as if we were in the same office - it is remarkable.

Over the summer I am offering my usual "summer sale": Three for the price of two on coaching sessions held during July and August. If you would like to find out more about how my style of authentic coaching can benefit your leadership, work and your life give me a call.

With love

nx


Neil Crofts
Neil Crofts
authentic business

+44 (0)7775 658534
neil@neilcrofts.com
www.neilcrofts.com
Skype - neilcrofts