thoughts, ideas, projects and musings
Archive for January, 2008
January 21, 2008 at 12:35 pm · Filed under life, news
A good while ago on a leadership course paid for by work, a question was posed: “What is leadership?”. (Rather an important question given the course’s subject matter.
The flippant anwer given by a Vice-President was that a leader was one who led. His view was that we should look around and see if there were people following. In a way, that’s right, but it’s vacuous and doesn’t define how one might become a better leader – how do you get more followers?
In an interview with The Times today, Indra Nooji, Chief Executive of Pepsi, describes leadership as the “5 C’s”:
- Competence (damn good at getting results)
- Confidence to have the courage to make the tough calls;
- Communications skills, to convey your vision and direction
- Compass pointed north to your true values
- Compassion – empathy, not sympathy.
A very fair summary I thought.
January 20, 2008 at 6:12 pm · Filed under life
Seriously, customer service is going to absolute pot in this country. I despair sometimes at the highs and lows experienced, often in the same visit.
The high point: We received a text message from IKEA Bristol saying that a cot we’ve been after for months had finally arrived in stock. That is fantastic service and is to be applauded.
The low point: We then made a special journey to IKEA on the back of the text message only to find that whilst it was technically in stock, it was certainly not available, sitting as it was high up on a shelf, far too high for a customer to shop it.
The high point: I complained. Strongly. Stated that it was ‘crazy’, ‘foolish’, ‘ridiculous’, ‘unfair’ that we had made a special journey on the back of a text message only to find that we couldn’t get the cot we needed. The staff looked sheepish and started ringing people. Eventually, after explaining to the store manager that there was an ‘incident’ (nice! I’d caused an incident!), the staff were given permission to get a ladder and get it down.
Shopping really shouldn’t be this hard. Customer service really shouldn’t be this contrary.
January 20, 2008 at 5:51 pm · Filed under news
Hazel and I, camera in hand, took a circuitous route home from lunch with my parents in law, taking in the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Nearly everyone there was armed with a camera, so it’s hard to take the photo that no-one else is taking.
The size of the bolts on the bridge hint at the engineering quality. Wonderful stuff.
Other than that, it’s been a lazy Sunday, quite the best type.
January 19, 2008 at 8:28 pm · Filed under news
A few weeks back, the story of Al Bangura hit the headlines. Born in Sierra Leone, he came to the UK to escape the civil war that had claimed his father’s life. He came to the UK, become a professional footballer for Watford and then was hit with the news that he was to be deported.
His story seemed unfair and so I wrote to my MP to see if she could intervene and today, she finally responded.
Her response is neither here nor there in truth, but I’m delighted that she did respond with a hand signed letter. Restores a tiny bit of faith in the democratic system in a way.
January 18, 2008 at 8:25 pm · Filed under news
Today’s picture is of a good friend’s cat looking at my facebook profile. I know, what chance!
Let me put young Stig’s mind to rest. The reason I was ‘bloomin annoyed’ today is because of an agency that we’re using for work. It’s worth saying from the off that they are good, actually, they are brilliant, but they are just not getting to grips with the brief. Their bill is daft!
As a result, they’re looking to charge me a shade over a million dollars for some IA and content strategy work – for around 50 pages of content. I think that’s $20k a page. The message ends with ‘off’. You can choose the first word.
So that was my day, highs and lows. Good news, bad news. I can’t wait until I have a full day of good news… but I think that’s coming.
January 17, 2008 at 9:18 pm · Filed under digital life, life
Oh it’s probably wrong to be vanity posting in this way! There are now 20 people in the photo a day (ish) (PADI) project, approximately 20 new photos a day and yet I’ve chosen one of my own to share!
This is no classic, but it’s a nice little look into domestic life. It’s just a fridge, but it’s also a fun playzone, a noticeboard, a shopping list holder!
I was working at home today so no time to get out with my camera and take photos. If you work from home, home is all you see. The fridge is my friend: it stores the milk for my tea.
January 15, 2008 at 9:14 pm · Filed under digital life, news
At the start of the year, I started a small photo a day project group on Flickr. It’s a simple concept: get your camera out, snap away, be ruthless with your editing and post the remaining, single photo to the group.
This photo, taken when I had to travel to Hammersmith (London), was taken as an afterthought when I realised I didn’t have a photo prepared. I set the timer, span the camera on its strap and allowed it to snap.
I’m told this photo is the very epitome of drunkenness. Hard to argue.
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