I’ve been calling myself a sounding board for a while now but while the words are common, the service isn’t well understood.
Many others stick to a broad definition like an advisor, mentor or coach. There is a difference between these terms but it’s fairly subtle and does the average person seeking help truly understand the variation?
I love the term thought leader and people have described me this way but again, do potential clients understand what this could mean? To be honest, I also struggle to anoint myself with a title like this.
I don’t want to sell myself as someone with all of the answers. I don’t want to have three set models that solve every business challenge.
I want to talk through issues to see if I can spark a solution in someone else, help them test their thinking or to find some simplicity or connection in their complexity.
Maybe there isn’t an issue, maybe someone just needs to let their mind wander for a while. Technically speaking, solving the world over coffee.
How would you describe this?
Is a sounding board too wishy washy?
Is the term thought leader too pretentious for a simple bloke like me?
It’s easy to describe to someone your experience and to show what you’ve done across your career. This is also what we often look for in people we want to engage with – a coach, mentor, advisor or sounding board. It’s their experience that we see as valuable.
This is only part of the package though. What soft skills (EQ) do they bring?
This is so important when considering a sounding board. Their answers to your issues aren’t the superpower you should be looking for. A sounding board is there to support your thinking, not replace it.
If a person can’t listen, reflect and think, then they’re not the sounding board you should be looking for.
I’ve been thinking and talking a lot lately about the need for For Purpose organisations to collaborate to ensure their sustainability in the face of decreasing levels of funding. Duplication helps no one.
This is sound medium term thinking but it doesn’t overcome the fundamental issue. There are too many charities and they’re doing too much in our communities.
What? Really? WTF!
It’s time we started looking and planning for a future where we don’t depend on a charitable sector to save everyone and everything.
We know that we have the most charities per capita in the world. On the plus side, this shows we want to help our communities. On the negative side, we need to ask why do we need so much help?
Philanthropic funding is getting harder to obtain. The pie isn’t growing to match the increased demand. This means we’re asking our supporters to make some hard decisions. Child cancer vs fresh water vs books in homes. It isn’t easy, most funders would love to be able to fund all of the organisations requesting money but that isn’t the real world. So many great causes….
It’s easy for people to say that the Government should be giving more but again, that just means redistributing money. Except now, it would be child cancer vs fresh water, vs books in homes, vs Fire & Emergency vs hospitals…
We need a significant change in mindset – we need to make ourselves redundant.
When more people are falling off of the cliff, we need to stop asking for more ambulances.
If we broke down the type of For Purpose organisation, and where funding goes, we would find that we are very reactive.
Shifting the focus is not easy. How do we work more at prevention without collateral damage to those in need now?
It’s a task that will never be completed but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try. We can eat this elephant – one mouthful at a time, but only if we start. We need that first bite!
We often optimistically ask ourselves what we could accomplish if we had more money. We need to turn that around. What can we do now to ensure great outcomes if we know that our funding halves in 10 years and ceases in 20?
I’ll add some fuel to the fire. Part of the problem is that we unconsciously feed the dependency. There is a buzz from helping and wanting to be needed is human – but charity and helping others isn’t a tool to make ourselves feel needed. Having that honest look inside us is a vital part of the process.
What proactive measures can we take now to make ourselves redundant? Our descendants need a new world, free from dependency and charity.
Reading The Four Pillars of Governance Best Practice from the Institute of Directors, it was great to see a chapter devoted to ethics.
It is increasingly a major factor in the sustainability of any business and something that needs to be taken seriously. It doesn’t matter how big your organisation is, if it forgets its values and ethics, there will be negative consequences.
To quote The Four Pillars…
“Unethical behaviours ultimately damages the companies and their personnel. Lost customers, employees and sales, and the loss of a hard won reputation can take years to rebuild. Some companies never recover.
Conversely, running a company with consistent integrity and high ethical values is simply good business. Such companies attract the best people, the most sought after customer and supplier relationships and investment opportunities. Goodwill, consistent good reputation and attraction of potential staff are all outcomes of ethical behaviour. An ethical culture can also contribute to improving employee engagement and commitment.”
Ethical behaviour is everyone’s responsibility but it has to be led from the top. If directors, owners or CEO’s cut corners or drop their standards, then other staff will follow suit.
In the real world, it may not always be black and white. With some issues, ethics may appear to be subjective or it may not be obvious that a course of action could be seen as unethical. It’s easy to start with the question “what is the right thing to do?” but again it’s not always clear cut.
Big companies with professional boards will often have an ethics committee. A team of directors who set the criteria and standards for ethical behaviour in the company. This is not just a very grand approach, it does set the scene displaying that it’s an issue that is taken seriously and is being addressed at the highest level. Of course, even with such committees in place, actions speak louder than words.
But what of the SME?
Most businesses in New Zealand simply aren’t going to have an ethics committee at a governance level. Guidelines, policies, criteria etc are not going to be documented and there won’t be any sort of audit.
As always, it comes down to you – the busy business owner, CEO or GM. You have to model the behaviours and hold others to account. You are responsible for ensuring that your business is seen as ethical and values-led. Just another thing in your never completed job description.
In most situations, most people will automatically do the right thing. It won’t even be contestable.
Where you’re unsure, or it’s not obvious then the best option is to ask. Explicitly test your thinking on the ethical issue. Peers, staff and especially a trusted external advisor are all great for sense checking. Don’t shy away from these conversations because your reputation is too important to gamble with.
I’ve just secured a position working for Elections for a few days in October, plus of course the big day itself.
This might only be a very short term gig but I’m stoked for a couple of reasons:
I love a role with a purpose and I’m a huge supporter of democracy. We can all argue about the political side of things but the concept of by the people for the people is solid. Nothing is perfect but the right to vote for all is an important part of a vibrant community.
Despite the positive words we see online, receiving many rejections for roles is tough. Those of us looking for new challenges need some “pick me ups” and this has certainly brightened my day.
Another opportunity to learn some new stuff, meet new people and do something worthwhile….. Yes I’m a happy lad.
It’s refreshing to have more lateral thinking time.
Until I left, I didn’t fully realise the cost of three years in a role that was very inwards focussed. I knew I missed the strategy and external networking but I underestimated my need to ponder “random” ideas.
Clifton Strengthfinders identified that strategic, ideation and intellection are in my top five strengths, with the Tabletop Working Genius showing that invention and wonder are my ‘go to’ styles.
I enjoy greeting ideas and solutions. I thrive on connecting the dots – and if there aren’t dots, I’ll simply imagine them, Connections and ideas are everywhere
You often remind me of the Einstein quote “you can’t solve a problem with the thinking that created it”. This is sort of your vibe. You bust open the thinking that created it by clearly defining the (often hidden) root cause and innovative, do-able solution ideas.
So you’re thinking, what’s the big deal?
We talk about collaboration, relationships and partnerships. Mainly I hear this is in the for purpose sector but the reality is, this thinking can benefit every organisation, in every sector.
We talk and we wish, but we don’t seem to be very good at the doing.
Often people say that they’re keen and will jump in when the opportunity arrives. This is just an excuse – because the opportunities are there. In fact, there are many opportunities if only you looked.
Patch protection, a lack of resources or fear. These are the real reasons we don’t do anything. We need to have some honest conversations about these issues and find a way through. Because there is a way, there is always a way .….
When you’re looking for your next employment challenge, it can be very difficult – especially in the current climate.
When you’re head down striving for that success, it can be a matter of focusing on one issue after another.
Today I was reminded how positive it can be to look back and contemplate your successes or how far we have come.
I was having a wee clean up of old papers and found a 360 performance appraisal from the early 2000s when I was at MidCentral Health. Seeing the comments from the team, my peers and the manager made me stop and reflect a bit. Not only did I achieve the outcomes required in my role but I made a real difference to so many there. Being able to support others to develop and achieve is a real buzz. A lot of us aren’t good at reminding ourselves what we’ve done really well so reviewing things like this is a great source of positivity.
To continue this theme, I also reflected on the business awards work I did with CSC Buying Group. The year we won several awards was fantastic, a great reward for all of the mahi put in by a small team wanting to ‘make richer communities’. The year before when we first entered the Waipa Business Awards probably gave me at least as much satisfaction though. We didn’t win anything, and I had so much to learn about the awards environment. What was fantastic though was documenting how far we had come. A year of hard struggle had seen us not only turn things around, but also lay a platform that would support sustained growth and profitability for many years. The time spent writing about what we had done was so energizing. We didn’t get an award that year but that entry felt like huge win.
Never be scared to look back. History can fuel us for the road ahead.
the Minister of Finance the team gave me when I left MidCentral
Procurement isn’t normally the first thing that springs to mind when we talk about changing the world.
Maybe it should be.
Every time your organisation buys something, someone makes a choice about where that money goes.
Normally we think about price, quality, specifications, delivery and service.
Quite rightly too.
But why stop there?
Imagine a range of suppliers that can all do the job – with marginal difference in price, quality etc. One employs people from a specific community that you want to support. Another may actively support local organisations, a third perhaps has significantly better environmental practices while the last one is a web based service located in Europe.
Suddenly the purchasing decision becomes more interesting.
This is why I always recommend taking a strategic procurement approach rather than just making buying decisions.
The question becomes:
How can the money we already spend achieve more than one outcome?
You don’t necessarily need a bigger CSR budget. You don’t need another committee. You may not need to spend another dollar. You simply need to think differently about the dollars already leaving the organisation.
And there’s another benefit.
Think about the people in your organisation who make purchasing decisions every day.
Instead of simply “ordering stuff”, they suddenly have an opportunity to directly contribute to your organisation’s purpose and to help make a better community.
That turns procurement into something much more powerful.
Every organisation has a supply chain and this means that virtually every organisation already has a resource it can use to create positive change.
