Your gut and your heart are connected to your brain via the vagus nervous system and 95% of serotonin is produced in the gut. Serotonin is the hormone that gives instructions to the body, for example, when to be happy, positive and in a good mood. The gut-brain axis (GBA) consists of bidirectional communication between the central and the enteric nervous system, linking emotional and cognitive centers of the brain with peripheral intestinal functions. There are both good and bad bacteria in the gut because the gut is connected to the brain and 95% of the instructions for movement is produced inside the gut.
When it comes to decision-making, knowledge is power. How do you feel about knowledge that comes from an unconventional source? Gut reactions can convey valuable information about potential choices and in a fraction of the time it takes to consciously analyse your options. I think it’s best to combine feelings with facts. Professor Julian Birkinshaw (London Business School) agrees that successful organisations must be equally comfortable applying gut instinct with careful research. The brain and gut may make an odd couple, contact me via e-mail to arrange a meeting about how to maximise your strengths and shore up your weaknesses.
Lock arms with the right people
© McGill Media
After watching the football yesterday evening, I had a long discussion with my friends, Sophia and Oscar about the masculine and feminine roles in society. We concluded that biologically women are nurturers and men are providers, like it or not this is programmed within our DNA. Traditionally, women were seen to be soft and men were perceived to be hard, tough individuals. The big question is why is society communicating to men that they should be more feminine, and at the same time telling women to be more masculine?
Throughout my career I have worked with inter personal communication, whether it be sales, marketing or branding. I love the concept of writing to the voice in your audiences head. Broadly speaking, I learned that relieving pain is what we want and maximising pleasure is what we crave. It’s all material and it makes sense to turn over the worst moments in our lives into great lessons, not only for ourselves, but also for the people we seek to guide along their journey.
The second habit Stephen Covey covers in his wonderful book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is “Begin With the End in Mind.” According to Covey, before you can live a good, meaningful life, you have to know what that looks like. When you know how you want people to talk about us at the end of our life, you can start taking action now to make that scenario a reality later. As I do not chase people anymore, I have learned that I am here and I am happy, and I am not going to run after people to prove that I matter. So, what do I want you to do after reading this, what is my call to action? I think the the end product isn’t as important as the process, contact me in confidentiality via e-mail to arrange a meeting about your processes.
Bad news doesn't get better with age
Whenever any comes to me with a problem I always have an answer for them, I always look for solutions and if I don’t have them personally, then I will leverage my network. Personal ownership is part of my leadership style as I think that it’s all about the team. Nowadays, I have to constantly remind people that you cannot get all the answers from YouTube.
The subjective side is where you involve individual motivation and culture is just as important as having great systems. You can have the greatest systems in the world but if your culture stinks then you won’t have alignment within your organisation. If the culture of helping and supporting each other is not present within your organisation, then there will not be a level of teamwork required to take on the external challenges. Some level of teamwork and personal responsibility is always required when setting the direction of where of you want your organisations to head. Contact me via e-mail for a meeting to discuss an introspection into your “true worth” principles.
Don't believe everything you read
““That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies;
That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright;
But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.” - Lord Tennyson”
Problem solvers
If what makes you unique and stand out from the competition is who you are, then the big question is who are you? Another question would be based around your belief system, how do you do what you do? Over the 12 months, I have time to think about not only myself but also how organisations will operate post Covid.
There are more questions than answers, I think that all progressive organisations will have to take a deeper dive into understanding their competition and where they position themselves in the market place. Are interested in laying the foundations for creating a culture where everyone in your organisation works towards the success of everybody? Contact me via e-mail for a meeting.
Pleasure & Pain
The two P’s of motivation are pleasure and pain. I think that people buy products or services for one or two reasons and there are hundreds of books out there around the psychology of selling. In my experience, people buy products or services either to move closer to pleasure or to move further away from pain.
Nowadays it appears that marketers focus all their attention on marketing towards the pleasure, it may also be extremely effective for marketers to target solutions which moves the consumer further away from pain. It’s unrealistic to think that we are going to live our lives in a solely pleasurable way, so brands need also to look at their consumers pain points. Contact me via e-mail for an introspection into your buying process.
It’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it
It doesn’t matter what you do in this modern world, you have to know how to use words. If you want to inspire your employees, negotiations, interviews or even inviting your friends for dinner, words are the key. Nowadays, face-to-face meetings are no longer normal, therefore, relationship building happens remotely, and this makes our style of speaking is even more important. Especially when selling over the phone, as you don’t have the benefit of body language to help you construct a convincing sales pitch. In reality, when speaking over the phone almost your entire message is communicated via your tone and inflection.
The classic and still widely-accepted rule about effective communication was developed by Professor Albert Mehrabian. He found the percentages relating to relative impact of words, tone of voice, and body language when speaking. Just 7% of meaning is gained from the actual words that are spoken. 38% of meaning is derived from the way the words are spoken and 55% of meaning comes from facial expression. And Robert Alberti , an expert in assertiveness and with over 40 years experience of teaching, consulting, writing about, and researching healthy elements of assertive expression, said ”I’ve learned that it’s really not so much what you say as how you say it.”
I think that if I tell you that “you really look great today,” and say it while making eye contact and smiling and speaking in a friendly tone, you’ll likely take it as a compliment. If I say the same words while rolling my eyes, shaking my head, scowling, and speaking with derisive inflections, you’ll know I’m being sarcastic and critical. Contact me via e-mail for workshops and communication guidance.
The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller
““The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.” - Steve Jobs”
Wear the change you want to see
“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.
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The big picture
I won the dream and aspiration lottery a long time ago. Would you like to be someone who is lucky enough to do almost everything you want to do? I think if I was in that position this is what I want to do:
- I want to be a teacher
- I want to be of service
- I want to be a person that “turns on the lights” and helps people - not everybody - see things
I really want to live in this positive cycle as I think this is what makes culture matter.
Have a super Easter Sunday and use this opportunity to really think about the kind of life you want to lead and the impact you want to make in this world.
Looking back to the past
The late, great Steve Jobs said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
I think in the future when we look back at our careers the leaders that we remember will be the ones who:
1. Provided us a safe space to grow
2. Opened career doors
3. Defended us when we needed it
4. Recognised and rewarded us
5. Developed us as leaders
6. Inspired us to stretch higher
7. Led by example
8. Told us our work mattered
9. Forgave us when we made mistakes
10. Contact me via e-mail to arrange a meeting.
Walk and talk
Our “Amarminoen” tour began at 10.10am this morning outside DR Byen metro station on a 24 km hiking trail through beautiful forests, marshlands, beaches. We had sunshine and wind, it’s an amazing adventure ending with beers in Dragør (a picturesque seaside town). I’m so grateful to the Flanuer guys for welcoming me into their group and that I live in Copenhagen.
Above and beyond
It’s important to look at the system, as too often people who would like to make change forget to look at the system. I have been observing systems throughout my life without realising what I have been seeing. How are we going to create a new system that is going to put the right energy into education so over time we will have more people looking like me in the system?
If you are frustrated at how your marketing is currently working, it’s probably because you are using the wrong system. It’s really hard to change the system by just changing the elements within it. I think it’s far more powerful to change your purpose.
Patterns of behaviour
Over the past 20 years or so, the thinking within our culture is that the richer you are, the smarter you are. Therefore, when you want to make a comfortable living, you think that I you need to make more and more money. Let’s change the system, lets try to change the reason why people think this way - educate people, train them to understand that finance is just one parameter of happiness.
Systems thinking is a holistic approach to analysis that focuses on the way that a system's constituent parts interrelate and how systems work over time and within the context of larger systems. It’s important to remember that the term “systems thinking” can mean different things to different people. The discipline of systems thinking is more than just a collection of tools and methods – it’s also an underlying philosophy. Contact me via e-mail as I would really like to look at your:
a) PURPOSE - Why do these systems exist?
b) ELEMENTS - the interconnection between the different elements, and
c) FLOW - how things going out of your system.
Gone are the days of one size fits all
I think that all the stories we tell ourselves about others are only partially true. What do you think? We use negative stories about others to justify self-serving behaviours and people judge you by the stories they tell themselves about your motives and actions. Remember, people may hate you for being different and not living by society's standards, but deep down, they wish they had the courage to do the same.
Generosity is scarce and generosity scales! Generous does not mean that you gave it away for free, it means that you showed up with emotional labour to make things better. Everyone wants is to feel seen, they want products and brands to serve their needs, and they choose brands and products with transparency. The purpose of marketing is to serve people and help them solve their problems. Contact me via e-mail for a deeper dive.
Walk a mile in my shoes
““We are very good lawyers for our own mistakes, and very good judges for the mistakes of others.” - Paulo Coelho”
The golden circle
My favourite phase of a consultancy project is the discovery phase, I love it as it's a privilege to really dig into how a company does what it does and how it makes decisions. Sometimes it feels daunting at the beginning with a lot of stuff coming at you but it’s always fascinating. People will always do what is in their own self interest first, and do you know why we can’t see it? It’s because we do it too.
Discovering that big important WHY. The “why” is that thing that gives you the reason to wake up every morning with enthusiasm. It’s the reason why you want to succeed and why you want to win. It’s the “why” that tells your subconscious mind which direction you should take when you want to evolve and grow.
Hiring the right people is probably the most important thing that you can do. Contact me via e-mail when you are ready to look into your golden circle.
Turns on the lights
Consumer behaviour considers the many reasons why people shop for products those reasons could be personal, psychological, situational or even social. Knowing and understanding customer needs is at the centre of every successful business, whether it sells B2C or B2B. You can't persuade anyone that they want or need to buy what you are offering unless you clearly understand what it is your customers really want. As marketers we need to know what makes our consumers take action and why they buy.
I don’t think that your consumers buy from you because they care about you, they buy from you because they care about themselves. Ask yourself if you would drink that brand of coffee if George Clooney wasn’t endorsing it or if you would take that advice if it wasn’t coming from Oprah. It’s for you that you are doing it, and yes it has something to do with the celebrity, but it’s not because of the celebrity. It’s because of your own narrative - how it makes you feel in the eyes of your friends, family and colleagues.
Authentic leaders don’t see helping people as a pain, they see it as their purpose. Don’t be shy, contact me via e-mail.
Sense of personal growth
The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of purpose - “the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists”. When we speak about the sense of purpose in work environments, I usually think from a leadership perspective. Therefore, I think our sole purpose as leaders is to bring a fundamental change to how human potential is led and realised. And if we are to truly realise more of the human potential amongst our colleagues and employees, we need to understand the most important thing is to install a great sense of meaning to the work that they are doing for our organisation. I think that this is because a person who has a deep sense of meaning in their work are significantly more productive, effective and innovative. Also, in my experience the person will feel a much higher degree of life quality.
In other words, if you are truly interested in taking your organisation to the next level of performance, you will need to ensure that you have a high degree of meaning in your organisation. Contact me via e-mail for guidance, mentorship or coaching.
Throwback Thursday
Today, everyone knows that plant based fibres have a much smaller ecological footprint than cotton. The Swiss brand, FREITAG made a sustainable, functional clothing range from a durable fabric mix of flax, hemp and modal. The raw materials were sourced in France, the fabric was weaved in Italy and the garments were manufacturing in Poland. “Made in Europe” and completely biodegradable, what’s not to like? This short video from 2014 can be seen here and I think FREITAG’s storytelling is amazing.