BRASH CONSULTING ENEWS - MAY 2010

Jessica sails into history and sells us an allegory!

What can you say about Jessica Watson that hasn’t already been said?

What she did was extraordinary (yes, that has been said) and it reinforces the truth of the power of a vision and how much more empowered we are when we see the vision so clearly. The pictures she had drawn as a little girl, pinned up on a wall clearly showing a little boat circumnavigating the world, fascinated me.

However she didn’t just wanna. She paid feverish attention to the how. So many change programs fail, not because they are ill-conceived but because their execution is not flawless.

One of her biggest challenges was to work on her parents and try to convince them that she should be allowed to do this. She then surrounded herself with likeminded people who were positive as well as knowledgeable, not only people who could empathise but people who could tangibly mentor. She identified those critical success factors that could have made or broken her success and addressed them and when she had her low moments she knew what she had to do to transcend them.

Like most of you, I celebrate her achievement. I am humbled by the reminder of what our youth can achieve when some are so quick to deride them. I hope those nautical snobs and naysayers will think before they put someone else down again because that person does not have their pedigree or has not spent decades serving their time 'in the trenches.' How often do we fall guilty to the myth that anyone likely to be successful at work has to have taken a 'strangely parallel path' to our own?

Of course if the whole thing had gone pear shaped (technical consulting term!) her parents would have been monstered by the media and the public. Our "reckless" was their "brave" and "purposeful." She and her parents were not blinded to the risks yet deemed them worth taking. Do we sometimes play it too safe? Out of fear?

The weather became her obsession. How many of us still feel obsessed with customer service, quality, inspiration, making a difference?

If I have any concern in Jessica's lesson for us all, it is that other young people in an era where some are desperate to grasp that 15 minutes of fame will become disheartened at their inability to have achieved so much at that tender age; thereby doubting themselves and their abilities even more by wondering how they can compete with a young woman of such lofty ambition and resilience. This is particularly pronounced when one observes the fanfare that heralded her arrival and her guaranteed life-long fame on the speaker’s circuit.

Instead of giving in to that confronting insecurity or the seduction of fame, I encourage all of us to choose to be inspired, to remind ourselves of what young people and let's be honest, young girls can achieve. It is the story of daring to dream but moving purposefully, not half-heartedly towards the attainment of our goals. Jessica’s triumph is an important lesson in tenacity as opposed to the 'bare minimum methodology' that we see all too often in those who decry their lack of achievement, play the victim, wondering why they are ever so unlucky/hard done by. It is the Napoleon Hill Amway convention illustration of the power of positive thinking and the potency of being surrounded by positive people whilst always remembering that far more important than them believing in us is us believing in ourselves.

The maestro of music with a message

Last month I went to the Gold Coast to recharge my batteries. The CopperTop battery came in the form of the National Speakers Association Annual Convention at which I got to hear some of the best speakers in the world.

One such man was the incredible Mike Rayburn from the U.S. He had always been funny and he had always played the guitar but it was when he combined the two, magic happened. But not before he grasped the difference between being good and being… a virtuoso.

Here is a man who has dedicated himself to his craft and what we get is an extraordinary experience in music genius, laughter and message. Please check him out by googling “YouTube +mikerayburn +trailer” for two minutes of magic and ask yourself, what would it take for you to become not good or great at what you do (and you might be there already) but a true virtuoso?

Anything familiar in this picture?

A few weeks ago I found myself in Sydney for work and took this photo of an indigenous busker (with his permission of course). How many of you saw the caption and thought I was talking about the Harbour Bridge, surely one of our iconically beautiful viewscapes?

But what about the degree of cultural diversity that exists in our organisations? Does everyone blend in because of their sameness? Have managers seriously cloned themselves in their choices of new staff members? Are there a distinct 'uniform' and set of social morés that typify our workplaces?

Or, are we enriched by the diversity of different cultural and professional backgrounds, religions and age groups that together are a more accurate reflection of the country in which we live? How might we leverage that diversity and create opportunities for people of minority group status? In my approach to the work I do in workplace justice I distinguish as do many working in this space between equity of access (giving everyone the opportunity to try out for the team) and equity of outcomes (actually achieving a fair go for all).

This week we celebrate the courage and boldness of youth In Jessica Watson’s story. Perhaps it is also worth remembering that Nelson Mandela assumed the Presidency of the Rainbow Nation at the age of 75 and nobody I know suggested he was all washed up!

Feedback at Work

Look out for the June edition of Cosmopolitan Magazine, hitting the stands on June 7. I was asked to contribute to an article exploring the do’s and don’ts of giving and receiving feedback at work.

It was my first time working with the international women's magazine and I will admit I did think about it given all the work I do in EEO and harassment but it unashamedly targets an adult market as opposed to some other magazines with a 'tween' or teenage demographic that, in my opinion, unashamedly sexualize children.

Plus the subject matter of the article is important. Our growth is stunted without feedback and self esteem can be crushed with poorly delivered or ill-intentioned feedback. In the article I distinguish between criticism and critiquing and feel the latter is a healthier mindset to adopt as it involves evaluating (i.e. engaging in critical thinking) and balancing the positives and negatives as opposed to criticism that may continuously focus on the hole and not the donut.

Anyway, enough for now. As always, tell me what you think of the article.

Don't forget to...

Check out my Etihad Stadium adventures (no I wasn’t playing that day!) and a big lesson in emotional intelligence on my latest blog post at...

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