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1. Say ‘Thank You’ and Smile…

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When one of your team members offers you a suggestion that you have already thought about but discounted.

Instead of saying thank you and smiling, many managers will respond to this situation by giving way too much information. For example:

“Yes I had thought about that but decided with the current focus on xyz now would not be the time”.

From the managers perspective this is a rational, open and transparent response.

But what does it sound like from the team members perspective?

There is a good chance that they will interpret this statements to mean some or all of the following:

  1. I am way ahead of you because I had already thought of that.
  2. I am cleverer than you because I can see why the suggestion is not that good (had you really forgotten about the current focus on xyz?)
  3. You are wasting my time by dragging me back to things that I have already considered
  4. Please don’t waste my time unless you have MUCH better suggestions to bring to the table

So instead just greet the suggestion with a big smile and a genuine thank you.

You might say that you will certainly put their ideas ‘into the mix’.

You might ask them how the suggestion might be made to working in spite of the current focus on xyz.

You might choose to give them some affirming feedback to encourage further sugestions in the future.

But mainly you just smile and say thank you.

Developing the Best Leaders

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U.S.News & World Report and the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University just published their list of America’s Best Leaders.
The panelists rated nominees from to 1 to 5 based on how well they met the following criteria:

Sets Direction (25 percent):

  • by building a shared sense of purpose;
  • by setting out to make a positive social impact;
  • by implementing innovative strategies.

Achieves Results (50 percent):

  • of significant depth and breadth;
  • that have a positive social impact;
  • that are sustainable;
  • that exceed expectations.

Cultivates a Culture of Growth (25 percent):

  • by communicating and embodying positive core values;
  • by inspiring others to lead.

If your employees were given the chance to rate you against these same criteria then how do you think you would do?

  • What if you were rated by your boss?
  • Your peers?
  • Customers?
  • Investors?

For each of the three criteria what can you do in 2009 to so that you are able to rate yourself at least one mark higher than you do at the moment?

Full post – including the list of ‘America’s Best Leaders’ is here.

The E-Factor

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Had a great morning yesterday when I got to meet some of the team responsible for the development of the LEGI programme in North East Lincolnshire – and got to enjoy the splendour of Cleethorpes!

So what impressed me about the e-factor approach?

  • The enthusiasm and belief about what could be achieved in North East Lincolnshire
  • The commitment to real outreach work (facilitating an understanding of enterprise rather than trying to sell services and facilities)
  • A commitment to develop the demand for enterprise services before investing in too much infrastructure (an ambitious property development programme is underway – but only after the outreach and adviser teams have already got some hungry and ambitious clients)
  • The functional, astute and prosaic approach to developing property – this is about affordability, commerciality, sustainability and flexibility – not about signature buildings and grand statements
  • The close integration of all parts of the delivery team – most of the key staff work for a single social enterprise.  They share an office and have a close commitment to, and history with the communities they serve
  • There is a real sense of ‘shared destiny’ across the various strands of project development – a real recognition of how success in all aspects will be critical to the success of the project as a whole
  • Some really great case studies of significant progress already made to transform the lives of clients – these will provide a strong platform for developing an excellent reputation where it matters – in target communities.

Big thanks to Charlotte, Tony, Matt and Paul for spending  time with me. I am really interested to see how things develop in North East Lincolnshire.

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Marketing Enterprise December 5th – Follow Up

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Our Marketing Enterprise day on December 5th held at LearningTree International in Euston was very well received.

Feedback from participants suggested that the highlights were:

  • examples of good and bad (mainly bad!) enterprise marketing collateral
  • ideas on choosing and using ‘gatekeepers’ to get the message of enterprise into ‘hard to reach’ groups
  • Prochaska and DiClemente (leading one delegate to coin the phrase – ‘Prochaska – Yay!’)
  • market segmentation models were seen as very powerful
  • a reminder of the power and simplicity of youtube for getting over enterprise stories was very welcome (why do we still spend tens of thousands of pounds on getting professionally shot video?)
  • the situational enterprise model that helps us to think about both the psychological and the technical readiness of the would be entrepreneur was very popular as was the whole concept of social networking (thanks to Stuart Holmes for that insight)
  • the power of asking for introductions and training enterprise professionals to use them effectively
  • managing referrals professionally – not only to develop the clients potential but also to develop the quality of the suppliers

Delegates also suggested that improve the event we should:

  • get more marketing and PR people onto the event
  • provide more examples of good enterprise marketing collateral (if you have any please do pass it along)
  • develop it into a 2 day programme to allow ideas on pursuing additional funding sources and engagemene tof LSPs to be further explored.

We will be repeating the day in the New Year – with further development of some of the most powerful ideas – or you are welcome to drop me a line about bringing the workshop to your organisation.  Otherwise keep watching www.enterprisegrowth.co.uk for new dates.