There is an I in TEAM

Business have evolved, no longer driven by muscle today’s business are driven by the mind. Information and knowledge are what drive the world now. Leadership must also evolve if a company is to continue to thrive and prosper. Business no longer needs automatons, mindlessly following orders given by a select few. It needs collaborators working together.

Job minded people serve time where as career minded people live time. They come to work because they want to rather than have to. Career minded people are self motivated; they want to learn and excel. They understand that each and everything they do enhances them as a person. Each project is a learning opportunity which increases their talents, experience and knowledge bringing them one step closer to wherever they choose to go. One more step that broadens their horizons and expands possibilities. In the truest sense they are working for themselves; refining their product which is them.

The days of “There is no I in TEAM” are over. In today’s world employees must be able to work with the management not for management. The challenge is how to put the “I” in Team. This is a team in which each individual works in unison with others whilst utilising those talents and abilities that make them unique. Success in business is all about relationships. Management must not hoard information or wisdom but share it willingly and understand that what is good for one is good for all, that what benefits one benefits all. When one succeeds all succeed. Employees under this leadership style view problems as challenges, they persevere and are proactive. They are not afraid to speak up and share their ideas or to ask for information or help.

Owls and Larks

It seems to me that more CEOs are owls than larks. Over the years I've heard countless business leaders describe their horrendously long work weeks in “last car out of the car park” terms. It's an existence of flickering fluorescents; take-out dinners, and the clatter of cleaning staff emptying trash. As these leaders sit nodding over their stacks of reports, the day's stresses, frustrations, and failures hang in the air around them like stale smoke.

I prefer to burn my candle from the front end. That's because I love offices at dawn. I want to be there as pale light washes slowly over the utilitarian landscape of desks and computers. I enjoy the hush that plays prelude to the soundtrack of workaday activity.

I like to miss the traffic, make the first pot of tea, drink the first pot of tea; then pretend I didn't and start another. You don’t want to be doing that at the end of the day with the prospect of an hour in the car!

The very early morning is the best time to go desk-browsing. During the day no one spares more than a glance for their colleagues' workspaces. Yet many desks are made over into miniature museums of collectibles, galleries of beloved images, scrapbooks of rich family lives. Such exhibits powerfully evoke their curators. As you peruse the idiosyncratic display on a desk, you find yourself looking forward to its occupant walking through the door.

If you walk by an office where a colleague or employee labors after hours, it seems natural to poke in your head and commiserate. But often commiseration devolves into passing the time; and after hours another's time is not yours to pass. In the early morning, by contrast, no one is yet late for anything and so conversation is relaxed. During work hours I have argued and gossiped and traded stiff pleasantries with office mates. But my best true "chats" have been with fellow early risers.

When I gaze out the window at night I see my face floating in a dark pool. In the morning I see the world. And I am reminded that everything I do that day will contribute to it.

I'm sure that you know your company better than anyone, that you love it more. Still, try going in some day at dawn and wandering around in the silence. To watch the office wake up is to see it fresh.

Private, broad and serious

It should be nice to receive praise but I’m not comfortable with praise it makes me feel embarrassed. How should praise be used in the work environment? Some people are addicted to praise, if they don’t get it they go into a decline, if they do get it they hold it up to the light and asses its worth. They may then get a brief praise rush but quickly need more.

Praise is surprisingly difficult to get right. Even good praise looses its power if there is too much of it. It can be ruined in any number of ways. A surprised tone of voice wrecks it, whilst any hint of negativity wipes out all the positive impact. As with all addictive substances there is a level of safe use, after which it gets dangerous. Two units of alcohol a day are deemed safe, two units of praise is far too much. If one is praised every day you quickly stop experiencing any rush and any reduction leaves one feeling de-motivated.

In my view the correct praise “dosage” is gender dependent, as with alcohol. Men take praise on face value and so are sustained by less. Women reject half the praise as being insincere, misdirected or offensive so need more to get by on. I’m not sure where that puts me with my aversion to praise, a house cat maybe!

It is not only the quantity of the praise but the quality that is hard to get right. There are three pieces of advice often given to managers to make their praise more effective.

1. Praise must be public: this is down right irresponsible, whilst it is never certain that the praise will make the person feel any better. It is always certain that public praise will inflict heavy collateral damage on everyone else who hears it.


2. Praise must be specific: I thing that this is poor advice as the detail chosen by the manager may not be the thing that the recipient wants to be commended for. They might be praised for their eye for detail, when in fact they’d like to be praised for their creativity.


3. Smile when praising someone: this is also a bad idea. The point of good praise is that it should look deadly serious in order to seen as sincere. If it comes from some grinning fool one knows to disregard it all together!

In my opinion praise should be private, broad and serious.

A Trusted Advisor

“Nowadays we seem to put a price on everything and you think you only work or do something if you are getting paid for it and I do think that in recent times a lot of people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. I have always been passionate about community and people having a sense of place." Benjamin Zephaniah, Poet

I’m fortunate to have a rewarding career that has been centered around working with other people. Recently I’ve been looking for a way to use my business skills to support the community that I live and work in. I’m already working with the Small Charities Coalition and the Portsmouth Business Champions. This has led to an opportunity to act as a volunteer mentor with Mentor-Net.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about what a mentor is. My understanding is that, in an employment context, a mentor is a person with skills and experience who counsels an individual and helps guide their thought processes. I suppose that a mentor relationship is one where the outcome of the relationship is expected to benefit all parties in the relationship for personal growth, career development, lifestyle enhancement, spiritual fulfillment, goal achievement, and other areas mutually designated by the mentor and partner ( I’m not sure about the word “Mentee”). The dictionary definition is “A trusted advisor”.

A few times in my life, I’ve had someone see potential in me, and give me advice on a continual basis. I considered these people mentors, although at the time I would not have used this title. I believe a true mentor sees potential in someone by taking a personal interest. They will advise and motivate, celebrate and commiserate, but never control. I suppose they are your critical friend

So what are the characteristics of a mentor? I think of a mentor as a role model, a teacher and a companion. They support you by listening to your ideas and concerns. They will boost your self-esteem and encourage your efforts, whilst introducing you to new people, places, interests, ideas, or suggesting new sources of information or ways of doing things.

Perhaps I’m being too idealistic. Do you have a mentor? Could you see a mentor being beneficial to you? What do you think a real mentor provides?

I’m delighted to say that we had a great day, met some wonderful people with awesome stamina and generally enjoyed ourselves. Cycling along the Tennyson Trail took us up a couple of near vertical chalk hills. The view from Compton Down was breathtaking, or was that the lack of fitness! It was almost as breathtaking whizzing down the other side at 40 miles an hour! As we toiled up past an old barrow, a belted Galloway calf stood in amazement, as three red faced men puffed past. We managed to cycle 21 miles in the end with a few minor detours, we still didn’t find a pub. The canoe was hard work on the shoulders and although it only took us just over half an hour it seemed a lot longer. We did an impressive beach landing at the end, which was spoiled by my inability to stand up, as my back had locked (thanks John for helping the old man up). It was a lovely sunny day, which made for a sweltering run. My back problem kept me from completing the run, but John and Grant came back talking about narrow cliff paths and being hosed down by a couple. You will have to ask them for the details. The map turned in to papier-mâché in John’s running shorts. As far as I know it is still there! I can’t thank everyone enough who helped run, organise, support and sponsor the event and of course a special thanks to those who participated. I would urge you to get involved next year.
With the money raised from my justgiving this site we will be able to provide community support through our "Your Healthy Heart" scheme for 6 months. From the giftaid alone we can now supply leaflets for the Cardiac Rehabilitation Team to give to people who have suffered heart attacks, helping them understand what is going on. That is quite an achievement.

Volunteering in the new Millennium

I've been reading how volunteering is changing. The figures seem to say that the days when charities could pick out the jobs that needed to be done and hand them to unpaid but willing recruits are over. According to Cabinet Office national survey on volunteering and giving from 2007 volunteers do give less time than they used to, volunteers spent an average of 4.05 hours per week in their role in 1997, but only 2.75 hours a decade later.

It seems that in the past, people volunteered in fundraising because they were committed to a cause. Now they want to have an idea of what the money they raise is spent on. They're businesslike and they expect tangible outcomes. They want a bigger role. They're not content with being given tasks. They want to innovate and come up with ideas for new fundraising strategies.

The increase of employer-supported volunteering has also encouraged this trend. The survey found that only 16 per cent of respondents in 1997 said their employers ran volunteering schemes, but 36 per cent said this was the case in 2007. It found that employees have specific demands: 43 per cent want "personal achievement" and 41 per cent to enjoy volunteering.

It is intereting to look at why people dont volunteer;

• Not enough spare time- 42%.
• Put off by bureaucracy- 42%.
• Worried about risk and liability – 39%.
• Not got the right skills/ experiences- 35%.
• Would not be able to stop once I got involved- 31%.
• Worried about threat to safety- 31%.

A lot of charities have changed the way they work in response to these developments. In 1997, 71 per cent of volunteers said their work could be better organised, but only 31 per cent said the same in 2007.

I'm delighted to say that charities themselves are becoming increasingly professional in their work. All of this means the task of attracting volunteers has now become as much a marketing challenge as anything else.

Having reported on the figures I find that my charity, Wessex Heartbeat, seems to be bucking the trend. Our volunteers, although small in number at the moment, are willing to do what ever they can to help. It is true that they need to see how their work makes a difference and they need to be appreciated. However, this applies to us all, doesn't it?

Are you ready to support a charity?

If you are thinking of becoming a Knight in shinning armour and being a supporter of a charity please take the time to ask charities questions about their programs, mission, and goals before you decide to support them.



For those of you who don't have the time or resources for this here are six questions that you as a donor should expect to get clear answers for:

1. Can your charity clearly communicate who they are and what they do?

If a charity struggles in articulating its mission and its programs, it will probably struggle in delivering those programs. Organisations that can explain who they are and what they're trying to accomplish have a singularity of purpose and a commitment to focused institutional change. If a charity can't explain who it is and what it does, and why it is needed, find one that can.

2. Can your charity define their short-term and long-term goals?

Organisations without quantifiable goals have no way to measure success. If they have no way to know if they are successful, how can you be sure they are working toward something? Demand that your charity tell you what it is trying to do. Good organisations relish this opportunity. They know what they are working toward today and tomorrow.

3. Can your charity tell you the progress it has made (or is making) toward its goal?

Once again, it's not enough to merely be concerned with a problem. Good intentions are no longer sufficient to warrant your charitable support. The marketplace is too crowded with nearly 187,000 charities registered with the Charity Commission. Ask your charity what it has done to make the issue it confronts better. What are its results? You wouldn't buy a brand of toothpaste if the manufacturer couldn't prove to you that it fought cavities successfully. Why should you support an environmental clean-up charity if it can't show you that it is cleaning up the environment?

4. Do your charity's programs make sense to you?

If you support the mission of a charity, ask yourself if its’ programs also make sense. You believe in the cause, and you hope for the end result, but is the charity working toward that result in a way that seems rational and productive to you? If the charities goal is to promote kindness toward animals, does it pursue its goal in a way that makes sense to you, or does it merely inflame the issue? Do you want your research charity doing advocacy? Do you want your outreach charity making policy, or your policy charity doing outreach? Maybe you do, maybe you don't. This doesn't mean that every organisation should be singular in focus. It also doesn't mean, however, that you have to support every organisation that has the same belief system as you. Just because you support the ends, you may not support the means. If you know you want to support the outcome the charity aims to deliver, ask yourself if its method of arriving at that outcome makes sense to you.

5. Can you trust your charity?

There has been much research on public trust of charities. Generally it has shown that the overwhelming majority of charities are not only responsible and honest, but well-managed. So we give with confidence. You should feel the same way before you give. Don't support a charity until you feel comfortable with it. To gain this trust look at unbiased sources of information. The Charity Commission or Guidestar are good starting points. Call the CEO of the charity and ask the questions you need answered before you can be assured this is a good use of your money. Ask for an annual report. Do whatever it takes to put your mind at ease. Good charities will encourage this. A happy and trusting donor is a willing and supportive donor.

6. Are you willing to make a long-term commitment to your charity?

We like to think of giving to charity as a long-term commitment, more akin to marriage than dating. Intelligent giving is motivated by altruism, knowledge, and perspective, not a knee-jerk reaction to a television commercial. You are an adult. You have a budget. You have the means to help others. You want to help. Ask yourself if your charity is the type of organisation to which you're willing to make a long-term commitment. When you do this, you agree to support them through good times and bad, and provide the funding they need to weather economic downturns. In return, they promise to continue working toward addressing the issue you both think is so vital. Look hard and find a charity you can support for many years to come. When you find that charity, give it your financial commitment, tell it you'll be there through thick and thin, and then continue to support it. Only then will long-term sustainable change take place.