Colin Gautrey

21 Ways to Become More Visible

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In Building Visibility and Promoting Your Reputation (Article 41) I was exhorting the need to do a little self-promotion of your reputation and brand to make sure that you gain the visibility you need to maximise your progress towards your goal. Hopefully, you’ve already been doing some thinking about the actions you can take while also adjusting your mind to the need to take these actions. Now you are under way with that, here are 21 more ideas for you to consider adding to your plans. All of them might work for you. Several of them I am sure will stretch your tolerance of what is acceptable to do. All of them need to be taken seriously and considered in your context. Whatever you do, do not dismiss any of them without at first finding out how each could work for you. Read More

Intractable Problems

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When facing an intractable high-consequence problem, your biggest enemy is yourself.

Human nature being what it is, most mere mortals worry their problems into a state that makes them even more difficult to resolve. 

Stress builds further and the mind wanders to all the bad things that could happen.

The inevitable delays add more weight to the problem, and more stress and health begins to suffer.

A perfect storm.

So, how do you break out of this vicious cycle?

We all have our own ways, what gets me moving more positively is three simple steps.

  1. Write it down. Lay the problem out as simply as possible and attempt to document your ideal outcome.
  2. Forget about it. Go for a walk, get out in nature, enjoy the company of others. Really good to distress and relax. Resets the mind to adopt a positive attitude and opens it up to fresh thinking.
  3. Return to the problem with a positive mindset, confident that you will find a way to achieve your ideal solution, and fast. 

Oh, and when you do return to the problem, keep your emotions out of it. 

Engage your head (with positive expectations) not your heart. Save the emotions for after you’ve decided what to do.

For me, this frees up my thinking and puts me in a far more resourceful state. 

Generally this allows me to find novel ideas and see different perspectives. And the solutions and decisions in hot pursuit!

 

Don’t suffer a complex problem, set yourself up for success instead.

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Seizing the Opportunity

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Five years ago I made a decision.

The years were rolling by and I had the growing feeling that I’d missed the boat. Successful yes, but nowhere near where I wanted to be, with what I had been striving for, and where I thought I would be. Like so many, I had not arrived.

Why, with all my knowledge was it not happening for me? Read More

Causing Offence and Being Offended

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People are so easily offended these days. It’s ridiculous.

And deeply damaging to the progress as an individual, of organisations, and humanity.

Worrying excessively about who you may offend is a wasteful drag on productivity. While appropriate to be somewhat mindful of unnecessary offence, “you cannot please all of the people all of the time.”

Rather like trying to be perfect. Waste of effort and energy. You just need to be exceptional in the critical areas based on your purpose, and avoid fatal imperfections.

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Seven Rules to Leverage Your MBA

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As the proud holder of an MBA, are you happy with the return you are making on it? You probably spent a huge amount of time and energy on your studies. Not to mention, blood, sweat and tears. If, like me, you also had a full-time job, and a family, you will have worked late into the night, and over the weekends, reading all those papers and completing the assignments. The early joy and pride of attaining the award soon fades and the reality begins to bite – was it worth it? Read More

Funambulism for Life

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Setting your vision for a new life or career is mission critical and often quite hard to do. Yet, even when the vision is clear, actually making substantial progress is somewhat tricky, often because people lack the skills of mental and emotional funambulism - or tightrope walking. I've found this in my own life and career. Get an exciting vision, get all revved up and taking action, yet somehow, the old life, the old way of being, keeps you anchored to yesterday. Read More

Standing Your Ground

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When you face into opposition, dissent or contrary opinions, what do you do? Do you stand your ground or cave in?

This makes a big difference to the results you get, and the respect you get. Yet it has to be done well to avoid significant short and long-term problems. Read More

Bullying: Prevention and Cure?

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Extract from the Positive Influence for Women research. According to recent research by the Workplace Bullying Institute, women are 50% more likely to be the victim of bullying at work than men. Despite the growing awareness of this problem, they estimate that around 5.76 million US women are, or have recently been, subjected to serious bullying at work. They have also found that 27% of people are or have experienced bullying in the past. Is this likely to be any different elsewhere in the world? I doubt it. Read More

The Profile of a Bully and a Victim

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In September's Gautrey Live session we discussed Hostile Stakeholders, and how to handle them. As part of my commitment to my clients, I take snippets of our discussions in case they are not able to attend the live session. During this session, we got onto the subject of the profile of a bully, and how a typical victim might score in their profile. The video below will be helpful to all who have to deal with a hostile stakeholder, bully or not, and also, talks to the dimensions of behaviour contained in the Influence Profile - a working knowledge of which is useful when reviewing this video. Read More

The Seven Deadly Sins of Executive Presence

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If you want to make a serious impact you have to have great presence and gravitas. Having written a great deal over the years on these topic, it occurred to me that I had never focused on the "what not to do." So, enjoy these seven deadly sins of executive presence. Wince if you like, but take serious note - failure to attend to these will render all other attempts to build your impact null and void. Read More

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