The hills are alive

Cicero feels that he must take up a few words to respond to the comment last week from Anonymous.

Firstly you will surely agree that Cicero does not ‘ramble’ on the NHS or on any other topic. We like to think that Cicero with forensic precision picks apart the nonsenses of today’s world.

And secondly he does not understand why Anonymous thinks that Cicero will ‘stew and no doubt get quite argumentative’ over the revelation that one hospital Trust is to partner with John Lewis to deliver customer service training and marketing skills. Indeed Cicero applauds the realisation that the hospital requires customer service skills and that John Lewis, a fine brand, is to be the chosen partner.

Cicero does however question the waste of public funds on marketing skills. Given that the NHS is a bloated and inefficient monopoly, to whom does it feel it needs to market itself? If Cicero could make one suggestion-focus on investing in the quality of the product and that includes reducing waiting times, and you will not need a brochure or an ad to market yourself. No doubt you have a Marketing Director and all the cost that entails. Why?

Now Cicero is getting stewed up and argumentative. Time for a lie down and change of subject.

A few weeks back Cicero had the pleasure of walking up some of the finest hills in Wales for the weekend with some of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet. We added the last bit lest any of them might be joining us here for the week.

It was a miserable trek, even though the company was splendiferous. The weather was wet and windy and the hills steep. It was not long before Cicero’s merry band was damp and water logged but with great determination they resolved to get to the top. And they did. It was a triumph of mind over matter and of ignoring the discomfort, the dampness, the wind, the cold, the shortness of breath, the tightening of muscle, the straining of sinew...............

Now Cicero, as many of you will know, is not the fittest lion in the pack but what he lacks in fitness he more than makes up in intelligence and leadership. On this occasion he was surpassed and in the process he learnt a vital lesson in leadership which maximised the efficiency and effectiveness of the team and ensured that all hit the top of the mountain together.

Please don’t get the impression that Cicero was scaling Everest or K2 or even a mount of the calibre of a Ben Nevis but it was still a steep mound that had to be scaled.

And as we neared the summit with about 300 metres to go and with the wind resistance increasing as the gradient steepened, some of the party were beginning to find the going tough and breaths were getting shorter and shorter. This was the point leadership took over. And the solution was simple.

Without discussion, a meeting or a agreement, The Wee Man took over and organised the party telling them that he would go ahead for 50 metres and when he stopped the next man would follow up the hill and so on and so on until we had all got to the same point when the process would be repeated for the next 50 metres. In this way the team made progress and all got a suitable rest and recovery period to catch breaths. And so as a result of this inspired leadership, the team reached the top.

And this is this week’s learning.

If we all work as a team we can all complete the task in hand, even the weakest members of the team can play their part. It is not that you go at the pace of the slowest but you organise the resources around you in such a way that the weaker members of the team can play their part and make a contribution. All it requires is someone to step up to the plate, like The Wee Man, and to organise solutions that will get everyone there.

And when that happens, all in the team can get to enjoy the view.

Is it only me.....but what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Over the course of the past week we have had the unedifying spectacle of the Two Caesars trying to appease public sector workers before they went on strike. I am glad they failed to avert the walk outs.

And in passing I wish the media would stop characterising the dispute as between the government and the unions-it is between the taxpayer and the unions for in my book the government is merely the representative of the taxpayer in this instance.

And before I get deluged with whines from Apparatchiks pointing out that they too are taxpayers might they be reminded that they pay their taxes from taxes paid by the rest of the taxpaying community. All they are doing is re-cycling the cash.

Now as I understand it the reason the unions have decided to take on the taxpayers is because they resent having to pay more for their pensions, they do not want to work longer before they get their pension and for reasons that escape me they want us, the taxpayer, to continue to underwrite their pension liabilities so they can enjoy a comfortable retirement.

Really? It’s time for them all to wake up and smell the coffee.

No it might only be me but surely what is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander and it is time for the Apparatchiks and their union bosses to realise that those of us struggling every day to create value to generate taxes to fund their lifestyles, realised years ago that we would have to pay more for our pensions, work longer and retire with less. It’s to do with demographics, our longevity and falling stock market returns in a low interest rate environment as much as the need to save money.

Maybe an Apparatchik or two out there might like to explain why the rest of us should be paying for someone else to get a better standard of retirement living than we can get.

Let them strike, I say. There is no negotiation to be had with this taxpayer. It’s now time for the Apparatchiks and their union bosses to get real and to join the world the rest of us have been in for a while now.

Have a great week.

Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.

All the King's horses

Welcome back.

It seems a while since we were together but it is good to see you back here seeking enlightenment.

Hopefully you enjoyed the rest of the past few weeks and the Nuptials. For Cicero the abiding memory of the Nuptials was the horses. There were rather a lot of them.

And it occurred to Cicero that in our businesses we could learn a lot from the men and horses of the Household Cavalry. And if you give the Man a chance He will explain how so.

Cicero might not know much about horse riding but He does know, or at least He likes to think He knows, a wee bit about leadership in business. And maybe if we look closely at how to ride a horse properly we might become more effective leaders.

Take it from Cicero but riding a frighteningly big and powerful horse is not about saddles, bridles and tight jodhpurs. It is about engaging with the horse on an emotional and intellectual level.

Lesson number one-emotional awareness and confidence are critical. Your state of mind determines your horse's performance. If you're nervous getting on a horse, it will sense that. Horses and people are not that different; your internal sense of foreboding, optimism or confidence has an impact on the people around you whether you realize it or not. Being emotionally aware allows you to consciously choose how to respond in any given situation.

This means that your energy is contagious. Energy passes through you to your horse. To ride well and connect to your horse you need to learn how to use that energy. The same goes for leading an organization. Leaders don't control most of a business's projects and activities. As a leader, what you can control is the energy in a particular situation — be it a meeting, in your 1-1s and around the water cooler. All eyes are on you, and your team will sense if you are scared or uncertain or frustrated, and react accordingly. By harnessing and shifting your energy, you can use it as a resource to imbue the people around you with a sense of trust and calm and focus.

Secondly, be mindful of non-verbal cues. Your body is a crucial instrument for communicating with your horse; everything right down to your posture matters. The same holds true with people. Whether you acknowledge the people around you, how you sit in a chair, the way you hold yourself during a conversation — these mannerisms matter because they send a signal. People notice all kinds of unconscious cues. Be aware of how you conduct yourself. This is an important tool in your leadership toolbox and profoundly influences the message you're trying to get across.

Cicero’s third lesson from the Household Cavalry is that empathy is key to motivation. There are two ways to motivate a horse: carrots (positive reinforcement) or sticks (negative reinforcement). The most effective "carrot" a leader can use is empathy. When your horse spooks, the fastest way to get it to behave is to understand what is bothering it. Ask yourself, "what is going on here and why is it happening?" Take a step back and think about the possible factors influencing a situation before you react; it will prevent costly mistakes and help you keep your people motivated to succeed.

And finally, always remember that as with horses, satisfaction comes from the quality of the work, not from being well-liked. The surest way to lose a horse's respect is to spend your time worrying if it likes you rather than if it's doing a good job and comfortable in this enterprise. Horses, like people, feel a sense of worth and fulfillment simply knowing they are doing meaningful work. If employees, and horses, feel involved in what they are doing they will feel an abiding satisfaction as part of a functioning and productive team. Overcoming the need for people to like you will help you focus on being a more fair and effective leader.

So maybe the Nuptials were not such a waste of time and money after all.

Is it only me.........but it’s time we got back to work.

Now for the past 2 weeks due to all the holidays and the Windsor Nuptial Nonsense, I have not been writing my fine words of wit and wisdom as you will have noticed. If we assume that I will write about 50 pieces over the course of a year the last two weeks represents a 4% drop in my productivity or my GDP. And there you have it in a nutshell-the reason why we are broke.

Every day the news media assault our senses with the latest piece of economic misery-consumer confidence is the lowest it has been since the last time it was low; spending in the shops is down; inflation and unemployment are up; manufacturing output is down; and so on and so forth. In short, and to mis-quote Hobbes here, ‘life is (economically), poor, nasty, bruteish and short’.

And yet despite this out of the past 15 working days we have only worked 11 of them which means we have only been producing stuff and generating value for 11 of these days. And given the lack of chariots on the viae over this period it is apparent that many of you have decided to forsake the work place all together over this period reducing yet further our productive and wealth generating capacity.
Is it any wonder we have a recession?

Now I understand that we do have statutory Bank Holidays and part of problem this year was caused by Easter, a legitimate religious festival even in this polyglot country still, almost over lapping with a non traditional festival to celebrate the proletariat, of which we have few in this country. But did we need an extra day off just because a couple of nice young kids were getting married, something which happens every day of the week. And if one or two people did want to watch this on TV, is there anything wrong with getting married on a Saturday?

Now it might only be me but surely you can see that there is a causal link between our productive capacity being at rest and our economic progress or lack of. We can’t have our cake and eat in, not in these straitened times. If we are not at work making stuff or services to sell we cannot generate the wealth we need to create more jobs to improve our spending power and to keep the Apparatchiks in the style to which they have become accustomed. The circle cannot be squared.

So thank God we are now all back at work. It is the only way man knows to create the economic recovery we are looking for. We won’t get there by taking endless holidays or standing idly by watching two people, we don’t know and are very unlikely to meet or even get to know, getting married by someone in a fancy pointed hat.

Have a great week.

Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.