A quick update on life

I have just finished a busy couple of weeks working in a number of diverse areas.  My trip to Dubai was enjoyable not only for the lovely weather but also because I am beginning to fully understand my role in Britam Defence limited.  What has fallen out from the visit is some clear KPI’s to attain in the next few months and then re-evaluate my role and responsibilities.  I have also been looking at a number of projects (anti-piracy, leadership, Ops room development) that I would like to introduce to the company and diversify our offering to the market place, all very exciting.

I arrived back in the UK and then immediately had a meeting with a group of CEO’s to discuss leadership and team building.  I arrived early so that I could listen to the group discuss key issues that were of concern to different members of the group.  The CEO’s act as mentors for one another and provide support and challenge to a one another’s ideas or problems.  Because they are from different markets/areas there is a freedom to their conversations, which is refreshing.  They are able to discuss things openly and get to the hub of the problem quickly.  We had an energizing afternoon that was full of challenge.  The key take away was to provide the same kind of forum and support within their own companies to develop better working practices and trust.

I have recently been working with a very talented footballer who has been performing outstandingly well of late. The reason for this is down to his desire to learn and put new learnings into practice. He is dedicated, driven and never loses sight of the need to pay a price to be at the top of his profession. He has enhanced his visualisation technique, he is leaning not to think too much and over complicated his decisions and most of all enjoy his profession.

I have also been doing a little work with a football academy and some of the coaches. It is so nice to work with people that are prepared to learn new things and analyse their own performance.  It has also been fun listening to the football stories. Thank you Keith and Clem.  Just found out that the team won 5-0 and that the player I was working with was made captain.

I have also begun to research the basic things that people need to be successful in their different fields. I have often said that to be outstanding in life you only need to do the basics well and that advanced training is the basics done exceptionally well.  I now intend to test this theory and identify those key aspects that people need to be successful by asking the most professional people in the World what are the basic things that made them elite performers. What are the basic things that you need in life to be at the top of your profession? Do you actually know?

I have been working in the business world for the last three years and also teaching leadership to numerous fields within business. It is still interesting to see how different companies view their values structure in adversity and still fail to see the correlation between optimum performance and empowering their workforce.  As soon as companies decide that the bottom line takes precedence and financial bodies become the powerhouse in organizations and only look at numbers we fall straight into a system of constraint and lack of flexibility.  This is when the values a company claims it has falls by the wayside.

Tonight I am speaking at a school in Shrewsbury about pushing the boundaries of one’s performance. Love talking to young people full of potential. Really looking forward to it.  The discussion in Shrewsbury was wonderful with some very bright children who asked very pertinent questions. I often talk about the need to have a vision that you can see on the horizon and stay focused on no matter what the adversity.  One of the questions was “what if you do have a clear vision?”  My answer was “to ensure that what ever you are doing now you do it well and ensure you push the boundaries of you potential, the vision will come”.

I then had another CEO meeting to go to with a different type of audience but still challenging.  I did a little work with a golfer and then prepared for my week with the England Under 19 team.  Alongside this I was looking to withdraw people from Libya as the troubles grew.  It was almost like being back in my old job.  It will be interesting what type of governments emerge in the Middle East.  The  belief that it will be a democracy is  interesting.

The week ahead is busy and I will update every two days for a change of blog writing.  I have also decided to have one more fight in May, training started today.  Have a wonderful week ahead.