Category Archives: What Really Matters

Passion and Success

 

Passion is the first principle that underpins the Yes For Success Platform. Several years ago Denis Smith held a high pressure sales job, was drinking too much and suffering from depression.

His life lacked passion despite all the trimmings of a successful sales career.

Published with permission

Fortunately he knew ‘something’ was missing from his life and he went on a search to discover his passion. He quickly found photography and realised that he was somewhat of a natural with the camera. Upon uploading his photos to sites he discovered that his ‘good’ photos were the same as everyone else’s. But he didn’t want to be the same as everyone else.

So his evolving passion took him on a journey of discovery where he came across the concept of ‘light drawings’ through photography. With passion comes innovation and he decided to ‘play’ with the concept, creating surreal ‘Ball of Light‘ images in his photographs.

Today Denis has turned his passion into a business. More importantly he is living a life full of positivity and energy. View this short video to learn more about Denis’ story.

Personally I feel energised when I hear about stories such as Denis’ and I thank my good friend Andrew Scott (an amateur photographer himself and a friend of Denis’) for sharing the story with me.

How present is passion in your life?

Learn about the Yes For Success Platform here.

Gary Ryan enables organisations, leaders and talented people to move Beyond Being Good.

Ebook for Senior and Developing Leaders Released

This complimentary ebook is for Senior & Developing Leaders who share our view that organisational success is created through enabling people to be the best they can be, was created from a selection of articles published on the OTM Academy from May 1st 2012 through to August 31st 2012.
The ebook includes articles to help you move from ‘good’ to ‘high’ performance.
Please feel free to join the OTM Academy – it’s free!

In the ebook you will discover:

* What ‘Truth to Power’ is and how it affects performance

* Why communicating via multiple channels matters

* How Virgin Australia handled a brand damaging event

* Why change management is an oxymoron

* How to use three steps to bring organisational values to life

* How to be free of problems within your business

* How to use five steps to connect strategy to action

*And much, much more!
Order this free ebook to download here.
Contributing authors include:

  • Gary Ryan
  • Ian Berry
Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com

Insights for Senior & Developing Leaders ebook released

What Really Matters! Volume 4, Number 1, 2012 complimentary edition released.

What Really Matters! Volume 4, Number 1, 2012

This complimentary ebook is for Senior & Developing Leaders who share our view that organisational success is created through enabling people to be the best they can be, was created from a selection of articles published on the OTM Academy from January 1st 2012 through to April 30th 2012.
Please feel free to join the OTM Academy – it’s free!

In the ebook you will discover:

* Why you should know what is on your corporate website

* How to conduct ‘Meetings That Matter’

* How clutter detracts from your service levels

* A great opportunity that results from Changing What’s Normal

* How to use illustrations to create Conversations That Matter®

*Why you should use the What Makes People Tick personality profile tool
* Why thinking like a chicken is not useful if you are an eagle
* How four extraordinary women have inspired many other people to contribute to a higher purpose

*And much, much more!
Order this free ebook to download here.
Contributing authors include:

  • Gary Ryan
  • Ian Berry

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com

    What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 3, 2011 ebook out now!

    This ebook is a compilation of key articles from the OTM Academy. The articles focus on developing senior and developing leaders who share our view that organisational success is created through enabling people to shine! Contributing authors include Gary Ryan, Ian Berry, Judith Haskins and Troy Simmonds. The ebook design was created by Janine Ripper. Please join the OTM Academy to access more resources.

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com

    What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 2, 2011 ebook released

    What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 2, 2011 is a collection of articles posted on the OTM Academy from April 1st to June 30th 2011.

    The articles are written for Senior and Developing Leaders who share our belief that organisational success is achieved through enabling people to achieve peak performance.

    Articles include:

    • I’m not normal and neither are you by Ian Berry
    • Rocket scientists beware – Good service is good business! by Gary Ryan
    • American Express discovered that their hiring processes matter – have you? by Gary Ryan
    • Self awareness and self reflection by Tanya Rutherford
    • Be a hero in your own home first by Ian Berry
    • New UK report highlights lack of employability by university graduates by Gary Ryan
    • Who is ‘The Customer’? By Gary Ryan
    • Thriving on the challenges of change by Ian Berry
    • Enabling environments – Taking ownership by Tanya Rutherford 
    • and many more


    You can download the ebook here.

    We advise that you view the ebook in ‘fullscreen’ mode. Press the escape key to return to this page.

    Please share your comments regarding the ebook below.

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com

    What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 1, 2011 ebook released

    Hi folks!

    Please access your free copy of the most recent addition to the What Really Matters! ebook series. Selected articles from January 1st 2011 through to March 31st 2011 have been included in this ebook.

    Please download your copy of What Really Matters! Volume 3, Number 1, 2011 here.

    Please send your feedback and suggestions for the next ebook in this series to feedback@orgsthatmatter.com .

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com

    What Really Matters! Volume 2, Number 4, 2010 ebook released

    What Really Matters! Volume 2, Number 4, 2010 is now released.

    This issue includes contributions from Tanya Rutherford and Alicia Curtis.

    The ebook is created from the top articles that have appeared on the OTM Academy during the period October 1st 2010 through to December 31st 2010.

    Topics include:

    • How to create the conditions for team members to maintain their motivation
    • The role of awareness in providing service excellence
    • Various ways to ensure a consistent and high level of service delivery
    • The link between listening and conversational skills
    • Identifying personal values
    • Workplace trust
    • Problem solving
    • Planning for 2011
    • and much, much more!

    As this is a free ebook you have permission to share it with others, providing you do not change or alter the ebook in any way.

    You can download the ebook here. 

    I encourage you to search the blog tags on this site for all the other free ebooks that are available for you.

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com

    Abbott Frenzy Misses The Point – Couple On The Run

    Today I refer you to one of my favourite blogs, Couple On The Run. Andrew’s article Abbott Frenzy Missess The Point focusses on the media and political peressure directed toward Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. Politically I am not a fan of Abbott, but he has every right to stand for what he believes, just as I do. He also has every right to exercise 10 hours per week and compete in and complete an Ironman Triathlon (3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and 42.2km run). The suggestion that he has not focussed on his job to be able to do this is absurd.

    Rather than continue I’d prefer to refer you to the Couple On The Run Blog where Andrew O’Brien has written and wonderful article that more than sums up my frustration and views on the topic.

    Once you have read the article please feel free to post a comment.

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com

    Is your organisation worthy of your commitment

    Is your organisation worthy of your commitment? If you are a leader within an organisation, what are you doing to create an organisation that is worthy of the commitment of the people who work there?

    I first heard these two questions in 2001. They were posed by a wonderful woman named Michelle Hunt, who has spent the better part of the last fifteen years helping organisations to answer these two questions.

    What organisations, from your experience, have been worthy of your commitment? This is a free chance for you to advertise and possibly attract talent to those organisations.

    From my perspective, creating an organisation that is worthy of the commitment of the people who work there is a strategic decision. Think about the advantages of having commited versus uncommited staff. It is hardly a contest, is it!

    It is also possible that you may have worked in a department of an organisation that had somehow managed to be worthy of your commitment, even though the rest of the organisation may have been toxic or at least not worthy of your commitment.

    Please note that these questions do not suggest that you shouldn’t be doing your best for your organisation, even if it is not worthy of your commitment. The questions are really about the deliberate and conscious culture that your organisation is trying to create that genuinely values the contributions of the people who work in the organisation. With regard to culture, all of us contribute to an organisation’s culture, at least to some degree. In that context, all of us are to a smaller or greater extent, contributors to the worthiness or otherwise of the organisations within which we work. For example, if unacceptable behaviour such as bullying is tolerated (which means it has become acceptable), but we have never done anything about it (I acknowledge how difficult taking action in such circumstances can be) then we have in fact contributed to the continuation of that culture.

    Please share your thoughts and experiences on this topic.

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com

    How a collaborative style and positional authority work hand in hand for effective leadership

    Below is a dialogue between two colleagues. One of them Paul, is upset with his manager because he believes that while she preaches ‘collaboration’, she is in fact (to him) a hypocrite. His colleague Aiden provides a different perspective and eventually enables Paul to see that maybe his manager isn’t the hypocrite he thinks she is.

    Paul: “Amanda is a hypocrite!”

    Aiden: “What do you mean?”

    Paul: “Well, she says that she wants us to collaborate, so I gave her my opinion about the Seymour incident and she’s pulled rank on me. I’ve been told that it’s her decision and that if I do what I said I was going
    to do, then I’ll be in trouble.”

    Aiden: “Hmmm. You’re saying that Amanda has asked you for your opinion, you’ve given it and she’s made a decision that is not what you want. Is that correct?”

    Paul: “Yes. That is exactly what has happened. She’s a hypocrite!”

    Aiden: “Paul, let’s slow down for a second. What behaviour does Amanda display when you believe that she has listened to you?”

    Paul: “Well, that’s easy. She does what I want. That proves that she has listened. After all, that’s what collaboration is, isn’t it?”

    Aiden: “Well, not exactly. If we slow down and listen to what you’re saying it sounds like Amanda has to do what you want otherwise she isn’t seen to be listening to you. Is that what you mean?”

    Paul: “No, not really. But she asked me to give my opinion and then she didn’t take it. What’s the point of asking me what I think?”

    Aiden: “The point is that Amanda is seeking more information by getting your opinion. Think back over the past few times that Amanda has asked your opinion, have there been any times when she has appeared to listen to you?”

    Paul: “Yes, a couple. There was the Monroe issue and the Pothole issue where Amanda’s final decision was very close to what I thought we should do.”

    Aiden: “So, from your perspective Amanda does listen sometimes?”

    Paul: “Yes, sometimes.”

    Aiden: “What’s your definition of when Amanda isn’t listening to you?

    Paul: “That’s obvious. When her decisions are different to what I want.”

    Aiden: “Paul, Can you hear what you are saying? It seems to me that you’re saying that unless Amanda’s decisions equal what you want, then she’s being a hypocrite because she hasn’t listened to you. Yet you agree that there have been times when her decisions have been very similar to what your input recommended.”

    Paul: “I’m listening” nodded Paul.

    Aiden: “Look at it this way. When you’ve been a boss in the past, don’t you expect your positional authority to count for something from time to time?”

    Paul: “Yes”

    Aiden: “In that case, isn’t it possible that Amanda really has listened? In taking your opinion on board she has decided to do something different. She has then used her positional authority, which she is entitled to use, to make the decision. What’s wrong with that?”

    Paul: “Okay. I suppose that you have a point. In fact she did say that she was using her positional authority to ‘make the call’. I took offence to that for some reason, but I’m not sure why”.

    Aiden: “Great. I’m glad you’ve been open to having this chat.”

    Paul; “Yeah, so I am I. I was going to go and do something that probably wouldn’t have been the right thing to do. In fact,, I probably would have undermined Amanda if I had continued with the action that I was planning to do. I suppose there are just times when I’m not going to fully understand Amanda’s decisions. I suppose I’ll just need to trust her and keep asking questions. That can’t hurt, can it?

    Aiden: “Of course not. And my experience with Amanda is that she does listen and does try to explain why her decisions are what they are. I think that sometimes we don’t listen to her because we’re so focussed on what we want. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt for us all to have a chat about these issues at our next meeting.

    Paul: “You really think that she’d be up for it?”

    Aiden: “Yeah, I do.”

    This dialogue highlights how powerful mental models (see How what you think affects what you see) can be and how they can influence what we see and don’t see. In this situation a manager who collaborates with her team is seen as being a hypocrite simply because she at times, makes decisions that aren’t exactly what her team members want her to do.

    Collaboration exists when people work as a team. Teamwork requires members to perform their role from both a technical role and team role (see What Makes People Tick Personality Profile & Job Fit Assessments) perspective. In this context it is fair and reasonable for a leader to exert their positional authority from time to time when making decisions. Providing the leader is constantly seeking and absorbing input from team members, there may be times when the leader has to make a decision and that decision may not be popular with the rest of the team. The nature of a leadership role means that leaders are exposed to information that other staff are not able to access. (at least not in the same timeframe). This means that sometimes leaders have access to information as an input to their decision-making that other team members may not yet know. This can create a paradox for the leader who wishes to be known for their collaborative style because there are times (such as employee disciplinary processes) when a leader is not able to share all the information with their team members.

    A way to manage this situation is for the leader to declare when they are expressing a view from the perspective of their formal position and authority, compared to when they are simply expressing a view. For such a system to work the leader will need to conduct a series of conversations with their team about how such a system should work. The intention of the system is to enable team members to be able to speak candidly with their ‘boss’ (see the video Transparency – How leaders create a culture of candor).

    If conversations such as the ones just described had been conducted throughout Paul and Aiden’s team’s history, it is unlikely that Paul would have been so convinced that his manager, Amanda, was a hypocrite.

    What have been your experiences with regard to the challenge of having a collaborative leadership style, with making decisions when required?

    Please feel free to ask questions and comment on this article.

    Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
    Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com