There’s No Such Thing as a Dumb Question!
When I present at conferences or in-house professional development events, I regularly get a sheepish hand raised and the phrase “this is probably a dumb question…” spoken as the precursor to a question. When I hear this, two things immediately come to mind. The first is recognition of the huge leap of courage the individual has taken to ask the question, and the second is, the trust they feel in the moment that I may be able to answer it. When I respond, I always reassure the person that it is not a dumb question, and that it is likely …
Never underestimate the importance of planning
On a recent trip to the US, I visited the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock Arkansas. Spread out over three floors, the library houses all manner of information related to the Clinton Presidential era including a reproduction of President Clinton’s oval office – with replica furniture and artifacts. Of the many items on display that chronicled the Clinton era was a glass case that housed two pages of one of President Clinton’s State of the Union addresses. The State of the Union Address is delivered by the President of the United States to Congress at the beginning of each …
The Art of Conversation
When was the last time you had a real, totally focussed conversation with colleagues or clients? After a conference in the Dallas, my husband Paul and I drove down to eclectic Austin, Texas. During a Segway tour of the city, the guide mentioned a secret bar. After the tour, I found it online and made a booking to visit that night. At our designated reservation time, we turned up to the address provided. It was a run down building with a rickety fly screen door with tears in the wire. We pressed the relevant button to gain entry. A slot …
It breaks my heart….
I am often called in to work one on one with executives in organisations on Excel spreadsheets. In most, cases the executives are experts in their industry (hospitality, medical, finance, motor vehicles) but their Excel skills aren’t where they need to be to effectively fulfil their management role. Some may have had executive support in a past role that handled anything with Excel, but many have simply gotten by with the limited knowledge they have but often at the cost of eating into their down time. It breaks my heart when executives don’t get the support they need to have …
It’s time to do something different
Don’t waste time and money sending your staff to training offsite! No one liked going to school, so why do organisations send their teams to generic training programs?? Because it’s easy! Much like sending emails, we send people off on programs and when they come back to the office and aren’t “experts” in something, then it’s not your fault, it’s their fault right?? As an educator who delivered generic one day training programs, I was saddened by the number of people who questioned their intelligence when they struggled to understand the applicability of topics we covered in a one day …