From the desk of Caspar:
Who’s asking to join your team?
It's hard not to notice that thriving teams have a buzz around them.
The buzz of moving forward, of making meaningful progress towards goals that matter whilst having fun.
The infectious energy that gets created from a team in flow.
One of the signs I notice is that people gravitate towards those teams.
Who doesn't want to be on a team that is both having fun and doing meaningful work.
Who's knocking on the door and asking to be on your team because you're making waves?
Thoughts inspired by three bears who appeared overnight having decided to take up residence under my desk. Together with the 8 year old.
Tip: Get your team buzzing so that top talent (bears included) are lining up to be on your team.
Is your team ready?
Here are some snippets from conversations I’ve been having recently.
“We have undergone a lot of change at work recently and the team are tired. Even though we are smashing our KPIs and business is booming people are frustrated and getting burned out”
“It is a challenging time with our market being disrupted and our teams are struggling to keep up”
“Team work has become even more challenging after 8 months of WFH and we realize that a lot of paradigms need to change”
Are you having this type of conversation in your team?
If so, please do get in touch.
The Big Bold Goals team are working with a number of clients to help address challenges exactly like this. We’re addressing these challenges through a combination of highly interactive inspirational talks, virtual teamwork sessions run by our world class facilitators and and our VILT Programme (Virtual Instructor Led Training).
The outcomes we’re delivering for our clients are re-energised and focused teams, rebuilding trust and engagement, lowering stress levels, improved relationships, more confidence amongst the leader and team members and getting the teams prepared to tackle their Big Bold Goals in 2021.
Details of our programmes are right here: www.BigBoldGoals.com
Tip: Big Bold Goals don’t happen by accident. Our team would love to help you achieve yours
Sir Edmund Hillary’s Icepick
Christmas is round the corner (yes yes I know its still November but bear with me)….it’s a bit trickier than usual to get down the shops and we’ve all got someone in our world who’s a bit tricky to get the right gift for right?
I’ve got you covered. Well the British Exploring Society do. Our online auction has just gone live and all the proceeds go to helping young people who lets face it are facing a tough time staring at a disrupted working world.
You’ve find all manner of rare curios here (note the adventure and exploration theme). Like the Sir Edmund Hillary signed icepick. And Shackleton stuff. And much more.
https://www.jumblebee.co.uk/britishexploringsocietyonlineauction
Don’t take yourself too seriously
I’ve noticed that the only time I ever run into trouble in my life is when I’ve taken myself too seriously. It’s walking that balance between ego and humility. I thoroughly enjoyed sharing plenty of my mistakes with Simon in this interview right here…
Christmas Shopping
Given the time of year I’d be remiss not to mention the idea of getting a book for friends and loved ones for Christmas!
It’s way too obvious to mention my books -Be More Human and Where the Magic Happens which are clearly perfect gifts for people who work in teams and want to squeeze more out of life!
Three of my top pick of books for the year would also have to include:
Who Not How by Dan Sullivan
A cracking read (listen) on the way to grow a venture by focusing on who you need on the team and letting them focus on what you need to do.
Bolder by Carl Honore
Carls brilliant follow on to In Praise of Slow which rethinks how we think about age. Insightful and inspiring.
Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson.
A marathon listen at 17 hours but hugely insightful into the skills development that sits behind what we think of as genius.
Big Bold Bites
How can you write a story of the future that is better than the one of today? It's all packed into 182 seconds right here....
PS If you like this, you can subscribe to my YouTube Channel to get these tips every week rather than just every fortnight.
Thought for the day
Before you can do anything big and bold together as a team, you must build trust. Sometimes we do it without realising, just by being human and by caring. And sometimes we don’t realise that what we are doing is utterly toxic and is undermining trust.
What are the signs that trust is eroding? Sometimes it shows up as a blame culture. A culture where no one feels safe to hold their hand up and own their own mistakes. The finger of blame is pointed toward someone else or some circumstance beyond their control.
It can show up as people not sharing what they are doing or their ideas with others for fear of being criticised, of being found out, of being proven to be wrong or even of having their ideas stolen.
Building trust is an act of self leadership. Take the time and create the space where you have no distractions. Connect with each of your core team and ask them what’s going on for them.
Will they tell you the truth first time around? Possibly not. But, whatever they say, demonstrate you're listening. Write it down and play it back to them. To be more human, begin that process of really listening and finding ways to help them to achieve their goals and what’s important to them. The more that you do this, the more likely it is that others will emulate what you are doing.
This is the second of the 20 principles for #bigboldgoals shared in #bemorehuman
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Caspar attended our virtual annual conference last week and gave a fantastic presentation - Be More Human - Rethinking the Rules of High-Performance Teamwork. It has been a difficult year for us all and when we made the decision to go virtual we really didn’t know what to expect. From the moment I first spoke to Caspar, earlier this year I knew he was perfect for our flagship event, I explained the theme of our conference and the brief and I knew he got it straight away. Caspar really engaged with our audience and provided an interactive session that provided so many takeaways for members to implement into their own organisations. It was a pleasure to have you as part of our event and we look forward to working with you again in the future.”