People Matter ∴ Do Good

Lead a vivid life that does good

Page 6 of 43

Getting past the first time

14 May 2016 /

No one ever gets better at something they never tried!The first time you …

… ride a bike,

… parallel park,

… write a blog,

… own a project,

… shape clay,

… read a non-fiction book,

… run 2km,

Is almost always the hardest.

That’s because learning to become a better version of you is risky and takes courage. You might fail.

Not a single person in the world, got better at something they never tried!

∴

Is there something you have always wanted to try? More importantly is there something you know you need to try?

Don’t let a moment of fear stop you, from embarking on a journey that could change your life.

 

Why memories exist in the now.

10 May 2016 /
Memories are only made in the now

Photo of actual sunset from the bridge.

And so it came to be that I was standing with my daughter on the walk bridge, in the now, watching as the sun slowly inched below the horizon. As twilight took hold a memory was locked away. A memory of being present, being here, being in the now.

And I could have missed it.

A few minutes earlier I had been driving home, noticing the sun as New Zealand rotated away from its radiant light. I decided to call my daughter and told her to meet me outside in a few minutes, and just minutes after that we watch the sun set for another day.

It was exciting.

Beautiful.

Memorable. (Memories are only made in the now!)

Fun.

And all it took was a simple choice, to disconnect and enjoy the moment. To be in the now.

∴

My mind is always active. It’s so active that often I miss what is happening around me.

I miss the smell of flowers as I enter the room.

I miss the popping sounds as I walk along an estuary.

I miss the opportunity to engage with the person in front of me because I’m thinking of what’s coming up.

I miss the now.

Do you?

One word that defines extraordinary leaders

1 May 2016 /

One word that defines extraordinary leadersSome people are easy to follow. There is something about them that gives us belief in ourselves and a desire to follow them and make great things happen. Other people are harder to follow. Being around them, following them, can be draining and demoralising.

A few years ago I developed an acronym for what makes a successful and high performing leader. The second word into the acronym is one that sets apart extraordinary leaders from the rest. Its…

LEADERS are Energisers.

Meaning extraordinary leaders impart energy and vitality and spirit to the people they lead.

It’s not that they are the bubbliest person in the room, rather they bring and give energy to others. And being an energetic leaders seems to be powered by a bunch of other E words.

Leaders equip.

Encourage.

Engage.

Empower.

Empathise.

Enthuse.

Sometimes exhort.

And often entertain.

STOP – SLOWLY read the list again.

Does the list describe your leadership?

Whether its large groups or individual meetings. People want to follow a leader who gives them the energy to move forward.

∴

If you’re struggling with the way you lead at the moment, its maybe because your team aren’t energised by you. You aren’t giving them the energy and empowerment and engagement they need to move forward. To succeed.

And the hardest part of being an energiser … is trying to give energy when you don’t have any yourself.

Trust me I know.

I’ve been reminded this week personally of the importance of making sure my energy levels are high, so that I can lead my team well.

LEADERS are energisers.

Go, bring energy!

Bad systems, lead to bad customer experiences!

30 April 2016 /

"The ordinary wait for energy to do the work. The extraordinary do the work to get the energy."I got grumpy with a Customer Service guy on the phone at Trustpower yesterday. I wanted someone to take ownership and they wouldn’t so I got annoyed at him. I wasn’t abusive, just frustrated and CEO type direct.

It got me precisely nowhere!

A few months back, I decided to move our home phone and broadband to Trustpower, to hook into the special deal they were promoting. All was going well until the day that Fibre was to be blown from the cabinet (a distribution box about 1km away) to our house. There was a break in the line and it couldn’t be completed. I was ok with that after chatting to the installer, as someone will sort it asap.

That was a month ago.

And each time I ring Trustpower, I’m told if it’s not fixed I need to ring them back.

So yesterday I asked the young guy if they could ring me back. I’m sick of following it up. I wanted someone there to take ownership. Trustpower keeps saying the problem is with the Fibre installer (who I can’t ring). I told him yesterday that I’m Trustpower’s customer and I want someone at their end to follow it up and ring me back. I said I wouldn’t have a business if I treated customers that way. He blamed their supplier.

The rant got me nowhere, other than making the guy think I was a dork.

The problem of course is not the guy on the phone.

The problem is Trustpower has no system. No way of following up to keep their customers informed if Fibre installs go badly.

Bad systems, lead to bad customer experiences.

∴

On reflection, what learning do I take out of my rant…

Firstly, I got grumpy, and it wasn’t worth it, and it wasn’t his fault. One of my missions in life as I grow older is to NOT become a grumpy old man. I loathe men who have forgotten what it is like to be young and make mistakes and push the extremes. I hate it when I forget that a person is an individual, caught behind a bad process.

If you’re the guy at Trustpower I spoke to, ‘I’m sorry’.

If you’re from Trustpower please, help fix the problem. “The ordinary wait for energy to do the work. The extraordinary do the work to get the energy.” Blatant quote from Trustpower.

Secondly, I was frustrated because I know that from time to time our customers will encounter similar frustrations, and I wouldn’t even know. There is indeed a massive difference between ‘ordinary’ and ‘extra-ordinary’, and I’m not sure we are working fast enough to put somethings right.

Learning to read changed my life.

28 April 2016 /

learning to readWith the exception of primary school, the first book I ever read cover to cover was when I was 27 years old. It was a Tom Clancy novel. The first business book I ever read was in my early 30’s, ‘The One Minute Manager’.

My journey with reading really took off as the founder of Agoge. I realised that no one else was easily going to teach me, push my thinking, or challenge the status-quo. So I decided I learn to read, so that I could learn to learn.

Nowadays, words and me still don’t get on very well. I’m terrible at spelling and I’ve learnt more about phonic spelling from my kids, than I ever did at school. But I’m learning.

I read, 30+ books a year.

I write blogs, ever thankful for spell checker.

I talk, using big words, that sometimes even mean what I intended.

I lead, I learn, I grow, I educate, I grow wiser, and even love people more, all because of books.

 

Reading has changed my life.

∴

A book is a bargain. An absolute bargain.

Where else to you get to access knowledge and ideas from experts in-depth, and get to learn from them for just a few dollars?

Where else do you get ideas that can truly shape your life?

For those who struggle to read, it’s worth the struggle. (Message me if you’d like some tips)

For everyone else, I can honestly say, by not reading you are missing out on the opportunity to learn, and experience, and develop, in ways you never dreamed of.

You are missing out on learning to be a better you.

The worlds most powerful question

19 April 2016 /

If you're saying yes to this, what are you saying no to?As arrogant as it sounds, if you ask me for help, I’ll most likely say No. I often don’t even give a reason it’s just, No.

But it’s a great cause… No.

You’re the only one who can help… (the only one, really?) … No.

Last time you helped … I did.  Sorry, No.

Over the years here is a question I constantly forget to ask, which is possibly the world’s most powerful personal, professional and strategic question.

If I say Yes to this, what am I saying no to?

From strategy and goals at one extreme, to temptation and love at the other, it’s a question that helps you pause and consider the consequence of a Yes or No.

No to this … so I can stay true to what’s important.

Yes to this … knowing full well I won’t have time for that other thing.

∴

I love action. I love being involved. I love personal growth. I love leading. I love the organisations we’re building. I love the people I work with. I love my family.

I need to say ‘Yes’ to these things, which means ‘No’ to a lot of cool and exciting things that stop me being the leader I’m created to be.

So my question for you is …

If you’re saying yes to this, what are you saying no to?

 

[Footnote] In case this post stops you asking me. I also say ‘Yes’ often.

How do you give warnings?

13 April 2016 /

TukTuk Siem ReapOne of the first things you notice when you take a Tuk Tuk ride in Cambodia is the way they use their horns.

They beep as a warning.

Not out of frustration or anger, rather to let the scooter in front know they are there. To avoid a collision. To keep them both safe. They use the horn the way it was originally intended to be used. And it works really well.

In the west, we often sound our horn after the fact. In frustration and in anger. To show people how annoyed we are.

Same sounding horns.

Same form of communication.

But a radically different feeling.

∴

I find it interesting that in our personal interactions we have a couple of choices in how we communicate warnings to people.

We can either provide gentle warnings, prompts, small beeps, to guide our teams and make sure we don’t collide. Or we can wait until everything comes crashing together and react after the fact, in frustration and anger.

Whether driving or communicating, loud bolshie statements really only give you the opportunity to vent.

They do little to guide or encourage the other person.

And therefore are ineffective.

Shame and failure

29 March 2016 /

Seth Godin Failure“Failure’s not fun. But failure is required. Failure in the service of learning, of experimenting, of making things – this is essential.

When you’re learning to walk, no one criticizes you when you fall down. Parents understand that you do it wrong and then you do it right.

But that’s about the last time you get that benefit. After that, we shame you when you fail.

We shame you as a way of gaining compliance and obedience. We shame you for your D-, we shame you for the missed shot on goal, we shame you for what you wore to the dance.

Is it any wonder we associate failure with shame?”

∴

Finally finished Seth Godin’s book “What to do when its your turn” over the break. The above is a shameless excerpt from it.

How often do we not try, because if we fail, we will feel ashamed?

How often do we make people feel ashamed, for trying and failing?

Why cutting corners matters!

21 March 2016 /

When you cut corners often enough, people will follow your example.The road ahead of us bends to the left and intersects with our small cul-de-sac which climbs off to the right. With our ‘L‘ plates front and back, and me in the passenger seat, I clearly instruct the first time driver “don’t cut the corner”. It is after all a perfect corner for cutting. My words echo around the car as she whips right, cuts the corner and heads towards home.

“What part of ‘don’t cut the corner’ did you not understand?” I banter.

“You do it all the time” my daughter factually quips.

Instantly I realised that’s what I do. I cut that corner. Almost every time.

 

A few years ago a friend of ours was in a recovery programme. As a part of the programme they would often go for long walks around urban streets. As you know, footpaths generally curve around the intersection and then cross a few metres into the next street, so that its safer.

They had to ALWAYS cross where the footpath crosses the road.

They weren’t allowed to cut corners.

Ever.

Even if the roads were empty they still go the long way, because they wanted to reinforce that there was no cutting corners when it came to their recovery.

I cut those corners too.

Often.

Without even thinking about it.

 

We cut corners in life repeatedly. Usually because its quicker or easier or the least expensive way. What we often don’t see when we cut corners, is the message that sends to those around us. To our children, students, work-mates or even people we lead.

When you cut corners often enough, people will follow your example.

∴

Realising that I cut corners more often than I thought, has made me resolve some areas I never want to cut corners.

Honesty.

Safety.

Finances.

Caring for people.

Relationships.

Because cutting those corners will leave me a lesser person.

Don’t let big numbers stop you making a difference.

14 March 2016 /

663 million people with no clean water.As this post goes live, my friend at work has her 1 billionth second on this planet. HAPPY 1,000,000,000 seconds.

As humans were generally not that good at understanding numbers. A Million or a Billion, not that much different right? Well…

  • A thousand seconds, is 16 minutes away. Make sense, feels about right.
  • A million seconds, which is 1000 x 1000, is 11.5 days away. Less than a fortnight.
  • A billion seconds, which is 1000 x 1000 x 1000, is just on 32 years away. I think I just gave away my friends age.

There is a massive difference between 1 million and a billion.

Count the population of NZ at 1 per second … 52 days. Count the population of the world at 1 per second … 228 years!

I love the way that counting seconds gives us a better perspective on large numbers.

Numbers like…

  • Only about half the world’s population have water on tap, which means at their compound. That means 3.7 BILLION people don’t. Imagine counting that high (114 years.)
  • Worse yet, 663 million people have no access, zero, to clean water.
  • And as for sanitation. 2.4 Billion people have no access to toilets.

It’s big numbers like these, that drove Jim & I to set up the Good Trust. Not because we alone can get water to 663,000,000 people, but because we know we can make a difference to a few.

It turns out its easier than you’d expect, for you, 1 person, to make a difference for many many people.

The key.

Don’t let the big numbers scare you.

∴

Over the last few years Good Trust has provided clean water to over 6,000 people, and we are super excited to be visiting some of our projects in Cambodia in April. Thanks to our supporters! We have the ideas, you’ve made things happen. We look forward to sharing stories.

If you would like to support the Good Trust, we’d love it if you made a donation. It would be a great use of a few seconds.

Finally, back to my friend, who is now many seconds past 1,000,000,000. Congratulations! I know that your next Billion seconds will be your best yet!

« Older posts Newer posts »

Recent Posts

Follow

I'd love to hear from you.

Connect at one of the following:

Subscribe

* indicates required

Intuit Mailchimp

© 2026 People Matter ∴ Do Good

Theme by Anders Norén — Up ↑