founder of naked leader
A Naked Week – 3
Naked Week – 3 (5 – 11 May, 2003)
A Naked Week – 3 (5 – 11 May, 2003)
The weekly update from David Taylor, author of “The Naked Leader”
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With love and warmth
David
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10 Coming next week…Woking FC The Script! Thank you to everyone who has written to me about that last day of the season at Woking. Many of you have asked what I said to the team in the dressing room before the match, next week I will share with you the complete speech – word for word, with reactions!
09 A question that floored me… From an internal company conference last week…
“David, if success is mine to choose, and no-one else’s, and I choose to be miserable, will that make me happy?”
I suggested he and I have a chat after the event…
08 Advance extract from Book 2 – (How to make a good first impression with a boss that you rarely meet…in 60 seconds or less, e.g. in the lift
Your Aim: To give am immediate great impression
The Usual Pitfall: Most people panic in short time periods, say far too much and regret it afterwards
How To Achieve Your Aim: Look at him/her straight in the eyes, smile warmly (and genuinely), hold out your hand to shake theirs and say “hi, my name is xxxx, I work in your team helping customers to xxxx”
- Of all the options you have in such a short space of time, customers are the ace-card – you cannot go wrong mentioning them
- Add a specific that you do – a real example – of how you help customers
- Eye contact is critical
- The phrase “your team” lets the person know you work for them, without creeping to them – and it lets them know they are the boss (playing to their ego)
- When you have said your piece be quiet – they will fill the gap – the 60 seconds will then come to an end – smile a warm goodbye (only shake their hand again if they offer it)
You will be remembered for all the right reasons
07 My favourite piece from book one – People ask me often, here it is…
How would our colleagues react if they had been on board the Titanic?
Our Chief Executive would not really have noticed, until his Personal Assistant points out that there is more ice in his whisky than usual. Just before the ship sinks, he receives his large “golden goodbye” bonus…
Our Finance Director would make some urgent calls to the City to test investor interest, in an attempt to at the very least liquidate the company, and at most float it…
The HR Director would run around the ship shouting that people were the most important thing on board, and now was the perfect time to put all of that empowerment training into good practice. Those courses that tell us we are empowered to do exactly what we are told to do…
The Internal Auditor would monitor closely what we are all doing wrong in trying to survive. They would not comment or intervene, safe in the knowledge that we will receive a 200 page report entitled “could do better” in a month’s time…
Our Marketing Director would spend the time making amendments to the brochure (memo to ad agency, please remove the “un” from “unsinkable). As the ship was sinking, staff would be ordered to segment the deckchairs by colour…
Our Management Consultant would quickly submit an invoice, pointing out the key resources we are missing (another ship, not enough lifeboats etc.), and organise a Titanic Process re-engineering session in which we all try to cover up the holes in the ship with post-it notes…
The Sales Director would immediately start to promote diving holidays, not to mention cutting an excellent deal on available lifeboats…
And inside IT…
Our IT project Manager would quickly consult Prince2 and discovered that the iceberg does not show up at all, and therefore must logically not be there at all…
Our infrastructure support team would rush around the ship shouting random times by which the ship would be “fixed”…
Our Help Desk would still be disputing whether the SOS really was a priority one call…
Our Telecoms expert would find the last lifeboat available, and then announce it will take a month to launch it because of its advanced technology…
And finally, our wonderful IT Director. Well, if he or she had been at the helm of Titanic, the ship would have missed the iceberg…by 2 years
This whole piece was written after Chris Yapp shared the final two line joke, which still gets a good laugh at conferences. If anyone has any amusing situations I can put each department in for book 2 I would love to hear them, you will receive full credit…
06 So What? – Last Tuesday I facilitated a one day “How to Sell” conference. Never done one before and the strongest discussion was how we can make our products / services / offering sexy.
The strongest way to do this is many years old, and so powerful. Ask yourself “so what?” after each and every thought about what you offer to people…
e.g. (A real example – a shortened version of how Harley Davidson changed their marketing, to focus on the experience and not the bike…)
“We make motorbikes”
SO WHAT?
“They will last for many years, never let you down and they look great”
“SO WHAT?”
“They look great, you look great”
“SO WHAT?”
“Well, you can escape your boring job, dress in black leather, and have everyone look at you as you drive past, especially the opposite sex”
“SOLD!”
05 Top Three Inspirational / Leadership Films… Wow, thank you for all of your voting, at the moment the leading contenders are…The Lion King, Gladiator, Good Will Hunting, Dead Poet’s Society, The Green Mile and Lord of The Rings 0- The Fellowship of The Ring…
We have had over 350 votes, please get yours in before the end of May
04 Did you see Gerry Robinson on BBC 2’s “I’ll Show Them Who’s Boss?!” – Check it out, Wednesday evenings, Gerry has a reputation for going into organisations and sacking the senior management team, and in the first programme last week he went into a company and…you’ve guessed it. However it had some brilliant thinking on leadership. It has had a negative impact on…
03 Working Wonders…Which has totally dominated my week – this is the Carlton TV series that goes into companies and offers help in solving their biggest challenges. Carlton were inundated with possible companies to film, but we have just lost two thanks to Gerry’s programme (no sour grapes here then!)…however we have completed two companies so far and it has been the most amazing, and tiring experience of my life.
Goes out Thursday 19th June, 7.30pm ITV, I will check which regions…
02 The opening quote from book 2 –
“It is not our abilities that show who we truly are, it is our choices”
Professor Dumbledore ((Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets – Film)
01 Recording our achievements as well as our plans…A young HR leader wrote to me last week to share his thoughts. His biggest worry is how focused we all are on the future, what happens next, what we will do tomorrow etc. and so a year ago he and his family started a “happy book.” At the end of each day, or at the weekend if they haven’t had time during the week, everyone who wants to, can write as much or as little about what has made them happy during that week…some days may be blank, others very full. Keep this going and in a very short time he and his family will have memories to treasure forever, as well as ensuring it is not just our plans we think about, but what we have achieved in our lives. I love this idea…