Tuesday, 24 May 2016

What makes a great team?

The best bit about being in business is that sometimes you get to be part of a outstanding, stable and perfectly-balanced team. If you’re really lucky, you get to help make the team even better!

Team is everything and team always comes before client. It’s not that we don’t value our clients immensely - of course we do - but without a great team in place to make clients feel good and deliver great results, there is no business.

That’s something that features strongly in a brilliant book I’ve just read by Danny Meyer called ‘Setting the Table’.

As Danny points out, the starting point of a great team is a group of people who choose to work for a business because of what it stands for as much as, or even more than what salary and benefits it offers. The thing to do, he says, is view all employees as volunteers and recognise that anyone who is qualified for a job in our company is also qualified for similar roles in other agencies. It’s up to us to provide solid reasons for our employees to want to work for us over and above their pay.

It’s normal human behaviour for people to take precisely as much interest in you as they believe you’re taking in them. There is no stronger way of building relationships than by taking a genuine interest in other human beings and allowing them to share their stories and feelings.

When the team is having fun, when it’s focused, feeling engaged and valued, the chances are the team will win, provided of course that we’re all very clear about what we’re selling and to whom. The key here is to be the best that you can be within a reasonably tight product focus.

Danny Meyer is spot on when he asserts that the only way a company can grow, stay true to its soul and remain consistently successful is if it can attract, hire and keep great people. It’s that simple, and that difficult.

We all need people with an innate emotional skill – people who can’t help themselves wanting to make people to feel good and who radiate warmth, kindness and positivity. Only then do you start looking for the potential for creativity, technical excellence etc. How they relate to other is as important as how they perform technically.

There is no thing as the perfect candidate profile but in my view Danny’s take on this comes close:
1.     genuine kindness, thoughtfulness and an innate optimism.
2.     curiosity, a desire to ask questions and the passion to learn for its own sake.
3.      work ethic and the desire to do something as well as it could possible be done.
4.     Empathy. a connection to how others feel and an understanding of how their actions can affect how others feel, plus an inability to stop wanting to make other happy.
5.     Self-awareness and integrity – a natural inclination to be accountable, together with great judgment.

That’s all the stuff you just can’t teach.

There are plenty of other things I look for at interview: I want people who are driven by the personal pursuit of being the best they can be in their chosen field. people who have the capacity to be one of our top three performers in their function and people who have the ability to drive enjoyment from the pursuit of excellence.

I want to be part of a business in which respect and trust are mutual between management and the team, where people can enjoy working alongside each other, where they can learn from excellent colleagues and where they know that their contribution will make every day matter.

I agree with Danny’s view of the three hallmarks of effective leadership: providing a clear vision for your business so that your employees know where you’re taking them; holding people accountable for consistent standards of excellence. and communicating a well-defined set of cultural priorities and non-negotiable values.

It’s for us to demonstrate on a consistent basis was excellence looks like to us and to hold ourselves accountable for conducting business in the same way as we've asked our teams to perform.

As employers we should acknowledge that our employees can all be doing what they do anywhere they choose but they chose to be with us and we owe them more than a salary in return.

We owe them respect, training, empowerment, clarity, coaching, correction with dignity and the emotional and practical encouragement to be the best that they can be.

We also need to ensure that we communicate effectively. Communication is at the root of all business strengths and weaknesses. Every team thirsts for someone with authority to tell them consistently where they’re going and how they’re going to get there, as well as how they're doing and how they could do even better. How many of us can claim to do that effectively?

People who are not alerted in advance about a decision that affects them may become angry and hurt. Change can only work when people believe it's happening for them, not to them. It’s always more important for people to feel listened to and heard than to be agreed with.

Managers have a vital role. The day-to-day performance of a business is no more than a reflection of how motivated or unmotivated managers make their people feel - they need developing, coaching and educating. It’s a fact that the biggest reason from people leaving agencies is their unhappiness with their line manager. How many good people have we all lost needlessly?

The next time you’re hiring a manager, ask yourself: does this person have the type of attitude and values that I want to spread around the team? Ask them:  Why us, why here and why now?


Lots to think about in Setting the Table. A team and customer service classic, in my view.

Friday, 18 December 2015

Making the most of your CV - what first-time job hunters need to understand

Nine seconds. That’s the average time an employer spends looking at a prospective employee’s CV.

You can spend hours carefully compiling your CV but what it comes down to is that first impression you make with the first few lines of your opening statement. It’s that first impression that will often decide whether you get through the door for an interview.

At the end of the day, that’s what you want your CV to do for you – get you in front of a prospective employer. At that point, it’s up to you.

Now I know that different employers will give differing advice as to what they want to see in a candidate’s CV but let me share my own views based on 26 years of being at the receiving end of literally hundreds of CVs, many of them speculative and others in response to a recruitment drive. The same rules apply.

Over the years, I’ve felt that many schools and universities have done their students an injustice in the way they guide and prepare them for the practical aspects of securing that all-important first job.  Pro forma templates don’t do it for me or any other business owner I know. Preparing a CV is not an academic undertaking, it’s an exercise in communication, and opportunity to stand out, impress and get noticed.

The people I invite for interview are those who make me feel something in those first few seconds. People forget what you say to them and what you do for them but they never forget how you make them feel. I want to see individuality, passion, curiosity and genuine enthusiasm rather than stock phrases.  Don’t tell me what you think I want to hear. Be yourself, be authentic, be honest.

Don’t use language that you wouldn't use in the pub when you’re out with your mates. No jargon; no big words.  It's all about effective communication.

I want to see some understanding of my company, my sector and my challenges, and particularly what you think you can contribute and how you can make a difference.

Bring yourself to life for me. Make it real. Tell me why it should be you that gets offered that precious interview slot.

Don't forget to personalise. It takes only a moment to look at a company’s website and find the name of the MD. You’d be amazed at how many CVs are addressed to ‘Dear Sir or Madam’, or ‘To whom it may concern’. I won’t read any more of them because these are from candidates without imagination.

All too often I interview people who told me in their CV that they admire what we do and then we subsequently discover they haven’t actually bothered to visit our website. It really does happen.

There’s no question that presentation is important – I don’t want to see a wall of text. Make it easy to look at and read. Choose a good typeface, plenty of line space, adequate margins on both sides. Bring the thing to life with good headings: just because it’s a ‘formal’ CV doesn’t mean you can’t bring your own individuality to it.

Spelling and grammar are vital in my business as they should be in any business. Get the apostrophes correct! However good the CV, if it’s full of errors of whatever kind, it stops there. To me it means that there hasn’t been enough effort to check your work.

I’m less interested in academic qualifications but I am particularly keen to see someone who done something for themselves, who can show evidence of proactivity, travel, working in a team, people who have actively sought work experience or engaged in making a difference in their community.

All these things tell me that I’m dealing with someone who is prepared to strive for something, someone who understands something of what it takes to work in a team and how important it is to make a difference. These are qualities I value hugely in my team. Don’t bury this information at the bottom of the CV.  This is the information I want to see prominently displayed, not necessarily your hard-earned qualifications.

Use your imagination and try to put yourself in the shoes of the person at the receiving end of the CV and remember that yours could be the 20th CV in the pile.

Think about what are the things I really want to read about, as well as those things I might not be so interested in. For example, don’t waste words and my time in the opening paragraphs telling me how hard working, honest and reliable you are. I’m going to take all that for granted. Any lack of these qualities will ensure you don’t get far.

All it takes is a bit of thought and awareness.  Good luck.




Are we sitting too comfortably?

Our biggest opportunities exist outside our own comfort zone.  It’s up to us to find the courage and self-belief to break out, grab them and grow.

As owners and managers of agencies we have a responsibility to enable our employees to do the same.

We need to make sure they feel supported, engaged and inspired enough to want to break out of their own comfort bubbles, reach out and grab those opportunities and in so doing, grow as people and professionals, and through that growth add value to the business.

The same of course, applies to us! We can only be better leaders and managers if we too are prepared to embrace change.

Easier said than done?

Engagement within the context of stakeholder alignment is clearly one of the biggest challenges facing agency owners. We all recognise that fully engaged staff who feel valued, empowered and supported are key to creating and maintaining an authentically sustainable business.

It’s not as simple as looking for the ‘right’ people with the ‘right’ skills. The right skillset is clearly essential but the real challenge is to bring together and unify that blend of passions, values and personalities that, with the right support, can enable individuals to be outstanding in everything they do.

Research shows that money is further down the list of criteria than we might think in people’s career aspirations. Important, yes but what ranks higher is feeling engaged and valued, and having the opportunity to make a difference, alongside enjoyment, challenge and social interaction.

At a recent Dale Carnegie event, it was revealed that a surprisingly low one in three of employed people in the UK today feel they are actively engaged in the workplace. The remaining two thirds feel either passively engaged, or not engaged at all. That’s quite a statistic.

It’s a fact too that 69% of workers interviewed would be prepared to move jobs for a pay rise of just 5%. If people are prepared to move for so little, relatively speaking, then clearly a lot of employers have a problem, one that goes well beyond the challenges of staff retention and continuity.

There are still too many agency employers paying lip service to engagement, as they do to values.

As agency managers and employers we need to make genuine, sustainable efforts to make our teams feel valued. The start of that process has to involve empathy and an in-depth appreciation of what our employees want and need, and what they have a right to expect from us. And it has to be genuine.

Rewards, training, clarity, empowerment and knowledge are all part of the rainbow of engagement but it starts with us, the owners and managers. Our teams have to believe in us as leaders. They have to see that we have passion, a sense of direction, ability and values. They also need to view us as effective role models and recognise our behaviours as reflecting genuine organisational integrity.

And that doesn’t just matter at director and owner level. The relationship employees have with their immediate line manager is even more critical. It’s not just what we do that’s important to the team, it's how we do it and the authenticity we exhibit.

The theory is sound and fairly simple. Making it happen and keeping it happening are anything but. We’ll have phases of everything aligning and working well and then, often imperceptibly we lose it. It happens.

The important thing is to know and believe that it’s the right way of doing business, to keep the aspiration alive prioritise and invest in communication with our employees. Let’s keep working at making it happen.













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Sunday, 16 August 2015

Assisted dying – a different perspective

Assisted dying/euthanasia, call it what you will, is yet again under the news spotlight. At least it keeps the subject in our collective consciousness, and that has to be a good thing.

Euthanasia appears to be a word that makes many of us feel particularly uncomfortable which is probably why the softer, lead threatening concept of ‘assisted dying’ has become the preferred language.

So is a society that embraces the ‘E’ word an enlightened, caring and compassionate society or one that is cruel and dehumanised?

It’s an immensely difficult debate and we naturally come at it informed by our religious and moral upbringing, as well as by our life experiences, particularly when we’ve been part of the suffering of friends and loved ones who may not have had a ‘good’ death.

Few of us would argue against the concept of the sanctity of life. Life is sacred, every moment of it. But does that mean life should be preserved at all costs, in all situations regardless of the circumstances? I sometimes wonder whether some of the clergy who cling to their religious doctrines do so without the experience of seeing someone close to them suffer in the way that some of us have done at the end of life. Would that experience not cause those of the strongest faith to reconsider?

assisted dying word cloud

Two of my uncles were actively helped out their terminal suffering as long as forty years ago by doctors empowered to ease their pain. My uncles, several years apart, asked for help when the pain was too much and the situation was agreed to be medically hopeless. 

Their decision was discussed at length with their wives and their doctors while they themselves were in full control of their senses and faculties. Following a period of reflection they died as the intended result of medical intervention, with their loved ones around them. Let’s not beat about the bush here: they were put out of their misery. Is that really so bad?

How did this situation arise? We were in Holland where euthanasia has been tacitly tolerated for many years and more recently formally accepted.

It’s one of those issues you’ll have a view on whether or not you’ve ever been affected. When you are involved, directly or indirectly, you tend to rethink your viewpoint. 

I’ve long since accepted the notion, providing the safeguards are firmly in place. I know it’s never as simple as that but my own upbringing, established belief system and experiences tell me that the notion of euthanasia – alright then, assisted dying if you must – is one that our society should at least tolerate and accept, if not embrace and encourage.

Would I take the option if I found myself in such an unimaginably black and hopeless place? That’s not once I can answer right now. I feel I might be too much of a coward in those circumstances but that thought stems from a 62-year-old who is in pretty good health and intellectually incapable of conjouring up such a scenario.

The issue came to affect me more personally in the last couple of years. My aunt had been unwell and had been diagnosed in her mid eighties with cancer, having already been affected by other ailments that left her disabled and in constant pain. She was the last of the father’s seven sibblings and we were quite close, as I was with her son, my cousin.

It became all too personal rather suddenly with a call from my cousin in Rotterdam one Monday evening. “Mum will be dying this Wednesday,” he told me with quiet emotion. “She would like you to come to the funeral on the following Saturday and wants an opportunity to say goodbye. Could you call her and have chat?”

It was a shock. It’s not a situation I’ve ever been faced with and it was, I’ll be honest, shocking and uncomfortable even though I’ve lost parents, been with a number of people at their last moments and seen plenty of death at close quarters in my time as a newspaper reporter.

It was agreed that my cousin would call me on the morning of my aunt’s last day of life in two days’ time so that I could ‘say goodbye’. I couldn’t sleep at all that night: what a surreal situation. What do you say to someone under those circumstances? I’ll admit to feeling very uncomfortable about what was to come.

The call came. My cousin handed the phone to my aunt. She led the conversation. I wasn’t to be upset, she said. She had had the most wonderful life, was tired of taking without, as she saw it, being able to give any more, and was fully content with the decision and what was about to happen within the next couple of hours.

I explained that I really didn’t know what to say to her. With calmness and even serenity, she just invited me to wish her a good journey. 

It was at that point that I had a real epiphany. One of those moments that really does change your life for good, and for the better. I suddenly realised the only thing left to say to anyone in those circumstances, and the only thing that really matters and means anything at all, is that you love them.

That’s what I told her. I thanked her for the love she’d shown me and my children over the years, and that I would never forget her. Two hours later, after a cup of coffee in the comfort of her own bed in her own flat and with her son by her side, two doctors arrived and within half an hour she was dead: on her terms, in her time.

A police surgeon arrived soon after to ensure that all the necessary ‘rules’ had been fully complied with.

Let’s be clear about this. She didn’t fall asleep or pass away. She died. It’s better to be up front and honest with our language in these and all other circumstances, in my view. She died and I have no doubt from what I felt during the conversation and at the subsequent funeral that she died easily, accepting and fulfilled. It was right for her and I accept that.

A few years later, my father - my hero - became very ill and suffered what I still consider to be an obscene death in the Intensive Care Unit of a local hospital, kept alive in his late eighties through medical intervention, completely unnecessarily and inappropriately in my opinion, although by the most caring and committed group of people I’ve ever met.

I counted no less than 13 tubes going into him with most of his functions maintained on his behalf and he having been sedated to a state of deep unconsciousness. He wouldn’t have wanted that. His family didn’t want that and it was clear that the staff felt he should have been allowed to go - no, to die - at a much earlier stage. As it was, and because of the circumstances that had been allowed to arise, it was left to my sister and I to take the decision to cease intervention. That wasn’t a difficult decision at all.

I have no doubt knowing my father as I did that he would have much preferred to have been spared that ordeal in favour of a more controlled death with choice and dignity. There was certainly no dignity in that hospital bed, though plenty of love and care.

By all means let’s debate, argue and disagree but let the debate be led by compassion and humanity rather than dogma and discrimination.

Thursday, 23 July 2015

Serving more than time at The Clink

I just love those days when you’re presented with something completely unexpected and you find yourself surprised, delighted and inspired.

It wasn’t a lottery win but still pretty special!

It was a bit of a coincidence that on the morning I set myself the task of blogging about a great experience, I found myself listening to Justice Minister Michael Gove announcing that as a society we had collectively failed to attend adequately to the redemption and rehabilitation of large sections of our prison population.

So what’s the connection between my experience and the justice system?

Arranging a trip last week to Cardiff to witness my daughter’s graduation, we asked her to book somewhere for a celebratory lunch. She announced that it would be The Clink. That’s all we knew.

We arrived to find the restaurant located just yards outside the walls of HMP Cardiff. Interesting. I just assumed it was the location that had inspired the owners to come up with that name. Wrong.

Welcome to dinner with a difference at The Clink!

It looked at felt like a normal though top end restaurant with a great feel and design, and an open kitchen. We got a great welcome.

It wasn’t until I started reading the introduction in the menu that we realised what was different.

The kitchen and serving team, and the cleaning staff are all serving prisoners. Those with less than 18 months left of their sentence can apply to train for a City & Guilds NVQ in Hospitality & Catering and Customer Service, including food preparation, front-of-house service and industrial cleaning.  

They work a 40-hour week, under supervision, and train for between six to 18 months.

The first Clink Restaurant opened at HMP High Down in Surrey after Alberto Crisci MBE, then catering manager, identified the need for formal training, qualifications and support for prisoners in finding a job after release.

Since then Clink, now operating as a charity, opened in Brixton, Cardiff and this year in Styal, Cheshire. The restaurants at HMP Brixton and HMP High Down are actually located within the prison walls.

Mentors help graduates find employment and mentor them weekly for six to twelve months to support their reintegration. On average, 50 prisoners a year from each restaurant are released into employment.

It’s not just the food that’s provided by the prisoners. The tables, chairs and artwork in each of the four restaurants currently operating have been produced in various prisons across the UK.

Much of the food has been grown in prison gardens. The prisoners’ poems etched into glass panels in doors and around the restaurant are particularly poignant and really quite moving. They come from the Prisoners’ Poetry Book and A Collection of Art and Poetry, both filled with work by prisoners at HMP High Down.

So how was dinner?

Stunning and memorable for all the right reasons. The service was exemplary, the menu choice, although perhaps a little limited, was innovative with high quality dishes beautifully presented. The fresh ingredients were cooked to perfection. A fine lunch by any standards and highly recommended as a great dining experience.

What was noticeable was the kitchen team’s intense but in no way intrusive interest in our reactions to the food they’d cooked for us. It was obvious that it really mattered to them. During a brief conversation with one of our waiters, he confided that he had been working at the restaurant for only five weeks and was striving for an NVQ. It was said with real enthusiasm and pride. This was a clearly a place that makes a difference.

The initiative has been an enormous success. Within the first year of release, 46.9% of all adult offenders reoffend. For those serving sentences of less than 12 months this increases to 57.5%. Within five years, 75% will reoffend. Those who have been part of the charity’s programme have shown a reoffending rate of just 12.5%.

That’s got to be good news for all of us given that the cost to the taxpayer of keeping just one prisoner incarcerated for twelve months is £44,000. And that’s quite aside from the social, emotional and financial impact of the crimes that are committed through reoffending. It makes you wonder just how effective imprisonment is as a long-term solution to reducing crime, let alone rehabilitation.

There may never be a good excuse for crime. You might have views about giving prisoners a second chance. Clearly not for all offenders and I recognise that there’s no such thing as a victimless crime but I can't help feeling that for a certain category of offender who has it in them to recognise their wrongdoing and who wants to change, the opportunity should be available.

I have a real passion for trying to make a difference and for searching out opportunities to touch people’s lives for the better. That’s precisely what’s happening at The Clink and at other projects where the prison service is working with industry to create other opportunities for offenders to engage, learn and rehabilitate.

The charity aims to open ten units by the end of 2017. Currently, up to 155 prisoners are training at any one time.