Most mornings I turn on the TV and have breakfast TV on in the background while I get ready or check and send emails.  This morning on Sunrise I saw a segment that really grabbed my interest. 

I am sure by now most of you have heard of Powderfinger’s farewell Sunsets Tour.  A couple of the band were on this morning talking about their association with Jetstar and the tour and then it started to get interesting.  The members of the band started talking about how they were supporting a charity and introduced a gentleman by the name of Waverley Stanley who was standing alongside them.  Now the name meant something to me and caught my attention straight away.  A few years ago (maybe more than a few, I am trying to be kind to us all here), my family was quite involved in Rugby League in Redcliffe and Waverley played footy for the mighty ‘Fins. 

Waverley now heads up an amazing organistion – Yalari.  They can tell you better than I can what they are about (from their website …)

Yalari provides and supports Indigenous children from regional, rural and remote communities and towns throughout Australia to gain access to a first-class secondary education through scholarships to attend some of Australia’s leading boarding schools.

Established in 2005, Yalari now supports 180 children around Australia enrolled at schools in 34 partnership schools in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory. Yalari was founded by Indigenous educator Waverley Stanley and his wife Llew Mullins.

Waverley’s own experience of attending boarding school at Toowoomba Grammar School over 20 years ago started him on the Yalari journey. Yalari draws its’ support from individuals, companies, philanthropic foundations and Government Departments. 

Please take the time to check out their website and see if you can find anyway you might be able to help them out.  I am sure they would appreciate it …. http://www.yalari.org/

“I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.”  

Maya Angelou

 

I have been delivering a heap of Customer Service training for clients recently.  In these sessions I have led discussions about those annoying Customer Services “mistakes” we all see regularly.  What annoys you as a Customer? 

Would love to hear your thoughts (and help out with my research). 

Here are some of mine …

• Staff finishing their private conversations while I wait
• Not being acknowledged by Staff when waiting
• Chatting on the phone instead of serving
• Getting the “I don’t know” reply, or even worse being told the wrong information
• Not being farewelled by anyone

Over to you, let’s keep the list going.

“If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.”  Ray Kroc�

Do you have rules you live by? Rules for living?  Would love to hear them …..  Here are some of mine. 

1. Good manners never cost anyone anything
2. Be kind to people
3. Remember those that were kind to you
4. All children deserve to be loved
5. You only get one family – look after them
6. Don’t be too busy setting goals you don’t actually achieve anything
7. Remember there are some things in life you can’t change – and that includes other people’s behaviour
8. Find something to laugh about every day
9. Don’t take life (or yourself) too seriously
10. Be kind to yourself

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”   Albert Einstein

“The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows“.   Buddha

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yetHqWODp0

I first came across India Arie years ago when she was interviewed on Oprah.  Her message has stayed with me and I have this song on my iPod.  It is the song I listen to in those moments of self doubt we all have …. Hope you enjoy!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq86e4Fhja0

Just for a bit of fun, take this quick personality test. 

Grab a piece of paper and draw a pig.  Go on, don’t read on until you have your pig done to your satisfaction. 

Now, here is what that pig says about you:

If the pig is drawn:

Toward the top of the paper, you are positive and optimistic.
Toward the middle, you are a realist.
Toward the bottom, you are pessimistic, and have a tendency to behave negatively.

Facing left, you believe in tradition, are friendly, and remember dates (birthdays, etc.)
Facing right, you are innovative and active, but don’t have a strong sense of family, nor do you remember dates.
Facing front (looking at you), you are direct, enjoy playing devil’s advocate and neither fear nor avoid discussions.

With many details, you are analytical, cautious, and distrustful.
With few details, you are emotional and naive, you care little for details and are a risk-taker.

With less than 4 legs showing, you are insecure or are living through a period of major change.
With 4 legs showing, you are secure, stubborn, and stick to your ideals.

The size of the ears indicates how good a listener you are.
The bigger the better.

The length of the tail indicates the quality of your sex life.
And again more is better!

Did you draw a tail?   No, you can’t add one on now!

Having a preference for Introversion I often find it hard to share personal information about myself here for the whole world to read (if only the whole world were reading!).  That being said, I do want to share that recently I have started seeing “someone special”.  We have known each other for a while and are spending a lot of time together.  We have had some interesting discussions about MBTI and exploring and enjoying our differences. 

We both share a preference for Introversion, and that’s where it ends! 

He has a preference for Intuition, I for Sensing

He has a preference for Thinking, my preference is for Feeling.

He has a Judging preference, I have a Perceiving preference. 

We have had some difficulties communicating at times.  I have learnt to let him go when he changes topic mid sentence and he lets me go when I start boring him to death with details. 

We did though have an interesting discussion recently that I wanted to share.  He seems to find my very relaxed, unstructured lifestyle a little frustrating at times, while I struggle with his need to have every aspect of every day planned to the minute detail. 

I made a comment recently that I like my house and it’s “ordered chaos”.  His reply?  “It doesn’t feel like that to me, it is more like chaotic order.” 

Thought it was an interesting perspective that I wanted to share.

I just love this story.  I shared it recently with a client who was struggling with Staff stuck in the “but that’s how we’ve always done it here” mentality. 

Start with a cage containing five apes.  In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put stairs under it.

Before long, an ape will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana.  As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the apes with cold water.  After a while, another ape makes an attempt with the same result – all the apes are sprayed with cold water.

Turn off the cold water.  If, later, another ape tries to climb the stairs, the other apes will try and prevent it even though no water sprays them.

Now, remove one ape from the cage and replace it with a new one.  The new ape sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs.  To his horror, all of the other apes attack him.  After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.  Next, remove another of the original five apes and replace it with a new one.  The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked.  The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.  Again, replace a third original ape with a new one.  The new one makes it to the stairs and is attacked as well.  Two of the four apes that beat him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are participating in the beating of the newest ape. 

After replacing the fourth and fifth original apes, all the apes which have been sprayed with cold water have been replaced.  Nevertheless, no ape ever again approaches the stairs.

Why not?  “Because that’s the way it’s always been around here.”

And that’s how company policy begins.

Need some inspiration to achieve the extraordinary?  Check this out ….

www.youtube.com/watch?v=58hFHK0AWHM

“A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results.”   Wade Boggs  

One of the challenges I face with participants in Myers-Briggs Workshops is around gender bias.  This is particularly evident when we discuss Thinking and Feeling preferences. 

It becomes clear quite quickly that there are some women that feel they “should” have a Feeling preference and many men that feel they “should” have a Thinking preference. 

It often leads me to question why this is the case.  Why do men feel there is something wrong with identifying as a Feeling preference?  I think some of it has to do with the perception of what that actually means.  Feeling = Emotional = Female for most people.  As we have discussed before though, these words have a different meaning when using them in a psychological context. 

The reaction to females with a Thinking preference is also interesting.  They are often identified as “cold hearted bitches” but men with  the same preference are often incredibly successful in business.  That is an age old discussion that I don’t have any answers for here though!