I am a firm believer in the fact that people learn more from listening to others and observing and admiring behaviour before them, than from any classroom environment. I regularly ask the question of those I coach and mentor “who is your hero or to whom do you aspire?”. I never fail to learn something deep and meaningful about the person from every single reply I have ever received. I instantly get a feel for what sort of value base they have, what motivates them, what sort of reading they undertake, and even what they see in others that perhaps some others still, are blind to. So this week, I’m asking the question:
“What did you teach someone this week?”
I have had two significant episodes of this, this week alone. Both instances have been as a result of instant decision-making (not mine) and have come about through just gently reliving both scenarios with the decision taker of each and suggesting or probing for alternative “third ways”. Black and white thinkers are prone to hasty decision taking – they are blind to shades of grey, which I live my life managing (or so it seems). There’s a great analogy here with my other love, photography. Every year, I point out the many shades of green in every landscape I see and I can’t believe I’m the only person who can distinguish between the 100’s of greens on display, particularly at this time of the year! Equally, photography deals with the black/white dimension, which is why so many people take pictures of snow or bridal gowns which look grey! There is a reason for this happening and not to stray too much into my other blog (www.areskophotography.wordpress.com) its about managing white balance in the camera 🙂
So the managerial equivalent of “managing the white balance” is active and timely reflection. I constantly bang on about the value of reflection to those I coach, this will not be news to them, and this week, just 5 short minutes of instant reflection would have averted much managerial angst, not to mention wasted time and effort. So, I’m challenging you this week ….. tell me what you taught someone this week (and reflect upon just how good it made you feel!)
Improvement is everyone's concern: +44 1550 720902 will start that process today.
