Tell George Osborne what you think will work.

Chancellor wants ideas for the Budget

The Chancellor, George Osborne has flagged up a new online portal, designed to elicit ideas from the public and from businesses for the forthcoming Budget.

The portal allows anyone to send their ideas direct to the desks of the Treasury officials working on the Budget, which will be delivered on 23 March.

The Government said that the portal is another example of its commitment to policy transparency.

It follows on from the October 2010 Spending Review, when over 100,000 people submitted online suggestions as to how the Government could save money, including the idea of stopping the production of National Insurance cards.

Mr Osborne said: “I want to hear about your brightest and best ideas. Because next month’s Budget will be all about growth. In particular I want to know what businesses, large and small, want from me. So go online and tell me what you think.”

More information can be found at

www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget_representation.htm

Thanks to PG&T

I can’t promise that he’ll take any notice however.

The Monday Morning Quote

“All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.”

George Harrison

A very special birthday for a very special person.

The Weekend Read – The Lombardi Rules by Vince Lombardi

Barely 50 pages long, I’m suggesting this book on this weekend to tie in with Super Bowl XLV

Vince Lombardi (1913-1970) was an American football coach, in a professional coaching career that lasted 16 years from his start with the New York Giants as offensive co-ordinator 1n 1954 until his death from colon cancer in 1960. His victories are too numerous to mention but they read like the script from a movie, transforming the Green Bay Packers from their worst ever season in 1958 to a 7:5 record in his first year when he was voted coach of the year. The following year his team lost the NFL final but never lost another final under his control.

His team won the first two Super Bowls in 1967 & 1968 and the trophy that the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers will play for tonight in Dallas bears his name.

Not known for his weaknesses “The Lombardi Rules” is a must read for anyone who manages others or wants to make themselves the very best they can working within any organisation.

Divided into 26 short “lessons” it makes its points in easily digestible chunks, each piece ending with three highly relevant tips. From the start “Ask yourself tough questions” which lays down the importance of self-knowledge, through “Explain the whys” on effective teaching / coaching or whatever one wished to call the passing on of information to the final “Run to win” this book repays repeated reading.

Lombardi who had three constants in his life, sports, family and religion never lost his sense of right and wrong, he believed that you should only win by the rules and that anything else could lead to anarchy with everyone a loser.

You may support the Packers or the Steelers; like me you may be smarting today following Wales losing to England at rugby and England’s cricketers losing the plot following victory in the Ashes series. It’s quite possible you have no time for sports at all, that doesn’t matter this little book will help you to success.

Available from my Amazon book shop here.

Using Facebook? Of course you are – then enable this security measure

From the blog of  Sandra TechCoach DeFreitas

http://wpblogsites.com/social-media-2/enable-this-security-setting-on-facebook-now/

Enable This Security Setting on Facebook Now

Facebook is slowly making new security settings available to secure your data over unsecured internet connections, like when you are working from the cafe. This week they are rolling out a new setting that will secure the data in your profile and anything in your Facebook account while you are out using public wifi networks.

The new setting will enable “https” security. The “s” in “https” is for security, you may have noticed “https” in your web browser’s address bar when you log into your online banking, online email system or any other highly secure system. This is important because you don’t want anyone hacking into your account and grabbing personal information like your date of birth, your home telephone number and even  your credit card information.

Below are the step by step instructions you need to enable this setting (yes it won’t be enabled by default, you have to set this up yourself). If you follow the steps and you notice that you don’t have this option yet, try again every day until this setting is available to your account. Facebook is rolling out this option across all accounts and hopes to make it available by the end of the week.

1. Once logged into Facebook, click right on the top right corner then click “Account Settings”

2. You will end up on the “Settings” tab, which is exactly where you need to be .

3. Scroll down to “Account Security” and click “change”.

4.Enable the new “https” setting by checking the first box. If you’d like to be emailed when a new computer or mobile device logs into your account, check the second box. When you are emailed you can log in, go back to this section and click “end activity” to stop their access.

Now, even if you enable this setting today Facebook may not start securing accounts until next week, which makes me think that you should enable it as soon as possible and then put a note in your calendar to go back into your Facebook account and ensure it’s still set properly in your account next week.

Key Performance Indicators are NOT targets

A great midweek tip from my friend & fellow coach Brett Sadler, with the seeming obsession with KPIs in healthcare here’s a healthier point of view.

Nobody gets up in the morning thinking “I am so looking forward to work – I simply can’t wait to get stuck into improving those Key Performance Indicators.”
(Well nobody I’ve ever met, anyway!)

But, believe it or not…
…that’s exactly what so many leaders  in businessexpect their people to do!

Now, you and I know it doesn’t work, and yet we still fall so easily into that cosy little trap – with  its seductive warm arms invitingly wide open – of chasing what we can most easily measure.

I believe the current obsession with chasing KPI’s is causing businesses to drastically under-perform,costing them many, many thousands of pounds each and every day.

The secret is…
…in the name: they are only Key Performance Indicators. They merely indicate how well we are performing in the key areas we have chosen to make our priority.

The truth is, if we focus on improving our Performance, the indicators will automatically reflect our successes.

But if we chase the numbers, our people will cease to care and we’ll struggle vainly, valiantly, desperately, to get anywhere near the required level of performance.

ACTION POINT:

Your dream result…
…needs to be something that appeals to the heart, spirit and aspirations of your team, providing an invisible yet powerful motivating force to compel,  propel and excel your business forward.

Sell the dream, and build a culture around it: drop-dead gorgeous products, stop-you-in-your-tracks customer service, or sumptuous to-die-for quality.

Then watch with…
…quiet satisfied pride as your KPI’s rapidly improve,  reflecting how the unstoppable progress you are making on your journey is transforming the dream into an everyday reality for you and your team.

You can find out more about Brett here:

The Transformer Partnership Ltd
THE LEADERSHIP EXPERTS
Tel:  01373 452 661   Mob:  07834 608 878
www.transformer-partnership.com
“Building High Performance Organisations”

The Monday Morning Quote

“If the wind will not serve, take to the oars.”

Roman Proverb

The Weekend Read – Do More Great Work by Michael Bungay Stanier

Michael Bungay Stanier is a one off. A much travelled man he was born and raised  in Australia, became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and is now a resident of Toronto.

I love his sense of fun and innovation, he’s the founder and senior partner of Box of Crayons where he is dedicated to helping organizations and individuals make the leap from good work to Great Work. This book is the follow-up to the wonderful “Find Your Great Work” and features contributions from Seth Godin, Dave & Wendy Ulrich, Chris Guillebeau and Leo Babuta.

Michael was Canadian Coach of the year in 2006 and, in the great tradition of authentic coaches from Thomas Leonard onwards, The Box of Crayons website has a host of free stuff that will inform and entertain.

Do More Great Work, like  its predecessor and his first book “Get Unstuck & Get Going“, is easy to read, it’s full of ideas, exercises, quotes and inspiration. It carries on the work of Stephen Covey who wanted us to differentiate between the urgent and the important in that it urges you to move away from the “busywork” and start the work that matters. It’s practical, small enough to carry around, with chapters that are concise and stimulating. An essential read for those who are looking to move from good to great.

You can find it here.

In addition there is a series of podcasts where you can listen to the interviews that Michael did with a host of field leaders whilst he was researching and writing the book and which he has continued to the present time. Entitled More Great Work it’s available via the podcast links on iTunes.

The Monday Morning Quote

“A man is not great because he is different from other men but because he is like them; vulnerable to all of the same temptations, stupidities and vanities but able to find the strength to come through these humbled but still hopeful.”

Fergal Keane on Nelson Mandela

The Monday Morning Quote

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

Dr Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) , Strength to Love, 1963

The Weekend Read: Bounce by Matthew Syed

I am fascinated by success and failure in sport. I love the small things that make a huge difference, the teams that are odds on favourites but come unstuck, the ability of an individual to turn their fortunes around. I have often wondered what would have happened had Gareth Edwards followed his athletics rather than his rugby career and whether his contemporary JPR Williams, having won as a junior at Wimbledon, could have succeeded at the higher level. Would their “God given” talent have transferred?

What about the kid who could have been a great, say, lacrosse player but had no idea that the sport existed?Now that far fewer schools play cricket than in the past are there Bothams. Gowers and Boycotts who are having to make do with kicking a football and perhaps being OK club golfers?

Is there a point in a sportsman’s career where the coach catches their ability and manages to both enthuse them, get top level performances and leave them with a set of values and habits that will carry them to the peak of their career?

This book, subtitled How Champions are Made, by Matthew Syed goes a long way to exploring and explaining how success is attained and maintained. The surprise (or not) is that winners aren’t born, they are made; and the key to achieving greatness lies in hard work, and the right attitude and training.

The author is a three-time Commonwealth table-tennis champion and an award-winning sports journalist.

Through his own experience of being in the right place at the right time, he is able to give an autobiographical take on the subject.

  • His parents seemingly out of the blue bought a top of the range table-tennis table
  • He and his brother were able to play daily as they had a large garage.
  • His brother was as keen & talented as he was.
  • The local coach was the best in the UK.
  • The local club was the most successful in the UK.

As a professional writer he brings an analytical mind to the subject.

A thoroughly readable and fascinating book.

Available from Amazon here.