Four interesting men with a golden thread of complementary ideas running through what they say and how to exist in our troubled world.
The courageous Archbishop Desmond Tutu. His ability to challenge and at the same time have a great sense of mischief.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama in a recent conversation about facing challenges with compassion and wisdom with Professor Dheeraj Sharma, Director of the Indian Institute of Management said “We must also ensure that the younger generation appreciate that, since we are all human beings, we need to respond to one another with warm-heartedness”.
We now have two words – challenge and warm-heartedness. So where next?
Looking at the world of business there are two entrepreneurs that I have always admired. The first James Timpson who in his last article for the Sunday Times wrote about new year’s resolutions, apparently the concept started 4,000 years ago!! Thoughts of a dry January rumble about in my brain and then thankfully depart just as rapidly. He then moved to planning for the business and keeping it simple – a man after my own heart there! Another point well made is that he said he had never met an entrepreneur whose glass wasn’t half full! Timpson found that by talking to other entrepreneurs they “concentrated on the values that they use to run their businesses and how to make better decisions by learning from previous mistakes.” How true this is!
It is great to see that Julian Richer is taking over from James Timpson. His first article was published yesterday.
A great read where he states that everything is now “absolutely focused on two groups of people – our customers and our employees (whom we now call colleagues)”.
He is so right! How can you deliver genuine excellent service if your people are not happy and well cared for? Julian gives out his eMail address to find out if they have got something wrong. Again, learning from mistakes. He also believes that his people need to have fun, be recognised and rewarded. Reward can be complex but it does not need to be, a surprise thank you, praise given for all to hear, good communication and most of all that sense of mischief and fun.
The first words challenge and warm-heartedness fit in so well with learning from mistakes, recognition and fun. My five words for 2022 will I hope keep us all smiling – my resolution is to continue:
- To challenge
- Learn from mistakes
- Be warm-hearted
- Recognise and value the strengths of my people
- To have fun!!
Do share yours with me, too – confidential@cullenscholefield.com
Maureen Scholefield