Richard Maun

Category: Uncategorized

  • Find A Friend First

    This image is called '1,000 Friends'. Who is your next friend going to be?
    This image is called '1,000 Friends'. Who is your next friend going to be?

    Taking heed of my own advice from last week, to think about people, I invited a business contact out to lunch. Nothing unusual in that you may think, but this time I decided to have a ‘no agenda’ agenda, instead of going into it with a firm business related outcome in mind.

    It’s tempting to think of a business lunch as ‘productive time’ and therefore we need to have some structure to it perhaps, or something businessy to discuss, or have an issue we need to resolve. These are all well and good, but can ignore the fact that because people-buy-people there are times when we need to remove our commercial hat and just be ‘a people’.

    Heading into my lunch I decided that I would keep my notepad in my pocket, not have six questions that needed answering and instead just aim to make a friend.

    Making a friend first is a good way to do business. As we build a friendship our levels of trust increase and we tend to share more information. Which of course can lead us to reveal new options for working together.

    And given that business is based on trust, who would you rather do business with – a friend or a stranger?

    So, next time you go for a business meeting how about having a ‘no agenda’ agenda and trust the process of interaction to deliver something interesting?

    My lunch was great, I found a friend and it was useful to be reminded that we don’t need to force the pace all the time.

    Lunch anyone?

    …We can get a high-chair for Crow; he’s really quite well mannered in most restaurants.

  • Spring. Sprung.

    You know you want one..!!
    You know you want one..!!

    Take a look at the photo…it’s a Fiery Dragon S032 gyro stabilised helicopter. Stable and ‘easy’ to control you can fly it around your living room and land it on a book, with a bit of practice. Or you can take it outside and with no practice whatsoever attempt to land it on the roof, when you whack up the power too fast and forget there’s no ceiling in the garden. Oops. All great fun and not as expensive as you might think. Oh and you can clip a Lego man to the skids when you need to play mountain rescue, but that’s probably too much detail for now.

    I thought I would show it to you in case you needed a little nudge to go and get your reward after last week’s post. Of course you can choose your own reward for working hard; some people have already told me that they prefer new shoes, or a quiet latte, for example.

    Being outside earlier reminded me that the gently stretching days and warmer weather means that Spring has arrived, although I’m sure this really means that snow can only be a hop and a skip away. Spring is a great time to shrug off the dark winter blues and think about the year ahead, particularly as the financial year is ending and a new one is beginning.

    However, as we plan our next sales drive, or budget for some marketing work (or even an ILM Coaching programme from Primary People) spare a thought for the people who are important to us in our work, or indeed in our private lives.

    So… who is coming on the journey with us? Who do we need to invest time in?

    If we did ‘somethings’ last week, then perhaps now is the time to do ‘someones’.

    Think about who is going to be important to you this year, either in work or at play and say thank you for the good times ahead…rather than just saying thank you for times past.

    Send them a thoughtful email perhaps, or find a way to let them know they’re special to you, or that you appreciate their hard work.

    I think I may take Crow shoe shopping. He’s that kind of bird really and as he finds remote control units too fiddly for his beak and caffeine just sends him loopy, he’ll prefer that experience. I think he mentioned liking basketball boots. We will have to see.

    Well that’s my idea: What will you be doing and with whom?