I vividly remember the fear of going home one day when I was 15 with a school report card that was dominated by the same words from most teachers “Ian is a disruptive influence in class.”  My father, well known for doing good, exclaimed “I don’t know why you can’t be a disruptive influence for good!”  Seed planted.

It took awhile for the seed to grow and quite awhile longer for me to nurture it until it…

The proverbial phrase “He who hesitates is lost” is often taken to mean that when we know what we need to do to solve a problem, we should act immediately, or our window of opportunity is likely to pass. 

More than 50% of my work is helping people to do what you know you should.

Why do we hesitate to do what we know we should?…

Below are four typical definitions of employee engagement.

“The extent to which people enjoy and believe in what they do and feel valued for doing it.”

DDI

“The extent to which employees are emotionally and intellectually committed to the organisation as measured by three primary behaviours - Say, Stay and Strive.”

Hewitt

“The extent to which employees commit to something or someone in the organisation and how long they stay as a result to that…

Here is my most recent Changing What’s Normal Candid Conversation where I interviewed Gary Ryan from Organisations That Matter about candor and high performance.  Gary is an accredited mentor of my Enhancing Their Gifts System. 

Return on investment (ROI) is being is discussed in the executive suites of organisations more than ever before.  And a number of CEO’s of major companies have received their marching orders recently because ROI failed to meet expectations of the board and shareholders.



ROI, as in return on investment. is an outcome, an end.



Focusing on outcomes such as profit and return to shareholders is short term thinking mostly and usually leads to less than possible…

I was honoured recently to be interviewed by Blue Ocean Strategist Paul Lange about changing what’s normal and the Enhancing Their Gifts System of which Paul is an accredited mentor.

Please grab your favourite beverage before watching the 20 minute video here.

Be the difference you want to see in the world.
Ian

I participated in a great workshop recently conducted by One Planet Living and the Bio Regional organisations.

I love One Planet Living's 10 principles.

 …

Most people are pushing to grow their businesses.  Social media is a great example where it seems everyone and their dog is pushing for people to buy their products/services.



Pulling is simpler and more attractive.  And nothing pulls like purpose particularly if you are pulling in a clearly defined niche or niches.



A lot of people still think that profit is the reason for being in business.  In the 21st century having profit as the reason for the existence of your…

I am in no doubt that success in business has a lot to do with standing out from the crowd in our niche/s.  Niche/s are key.  As my friend and colleague Gihan Perera says Niche guys finish first!



Who are you serving?  Who is your tribe?  Who is your niche?



My niche is open-hearted and open-minded business owners and leaders who



*Truly believe that when you look after your people they will look…

A few years ago my wife and I completed the restoration of a 100 year old property that took us several years part time.  We cried as our friends and family shared the joy of the finished product.  It was amazing to see the old house with a fresh coat of paint they said. 



What was unmentioned was the untold hours of back breaking work and the preparation to get ready to put on the finishing touches of a coat of paint on that made our home look so grand.



All great work…

I see a lot of stuff on the web (particularly social media) about the new normal.  I even saw the phrase ‘The New Normal’ in my local newspaper yesterday in an article about interest rates! Not another buzz word I thought.



Most references to the new normal look to me usually! as the same old sh.. repackaged.



Changing what’s normal, particularly when normal (the status quo) no longer serves humanity, is another thing altogether.



The following line from Seth Godin…

I read a book a week in 2012. It's a habit I have now been following for over 30 years.  My love of books and writing is undiminished!



There were 9 standouts for me:



Abundance by Peter H. Diamandis, and Steven Kotler.



Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth by David C. Korten



Global Citizens by Mark Gerzon.



Intentionomics® the impact of your intentions on living a happy, flourishing and…

Below is my final sparkenation for 2012.



For your reflection all my weekly sparkenations for 2012 are here.



Politicians everywhere are demonstrating daily, sadly, that they can't be trusted.  The erosion of trust has us gridlocked everywhere.



As a business owner/leader what will you do about this? How many of your actions erode trust with your employees, your customers, all your…

Regardless of your beliefs about Christmas I think it is a great time of the year to think about two key aspects of performance leadership, namely celebration and charisma, and then take action.

In my Enhancing Their Gifts System celebrating is a key component.  People using the system celebrate every time they achieve a milestone or goal in their performance possibility plan and continually have appreciation…

I was delighted to contribute to an ebook produced by my friend and colleague Gihan Perera for the seventh year in a row.

Please download Expect More From 2013 with our compliments here.

Be the difference you want to see in the world.

Ian

I work with business owners/leaders of medium sized business and leaders of divisions in multi-national…

My mother-in-laws brother is in his late seventies.  He and is wife travel a lot in a modified utility that is their home away from home. The caravan part of the ute is made mostly of recycled stuff.  The vehicle runs on oil from fish and chips shops!

My “uncle” buys the oil from your local fish and chip shop owner whenever he needs to.  Mostly he gets it for free. He then cleans the oil and puts it in the ute.  These entrepreneurs! made a trip recently of several thousand…

This 2 minutes and 26 seconds video by Ian Moore from United Kingdom looks at (in a hopefully entertaining way) one of the biases we have in our thinking - and how we can do something to overcome this bias.









The The Spirit of Community is a fascinating website and their…

Be the difference you want to see in the world.
Ian

I work with business owners/leaders of medium sized business and leaders of divisions in multi-national companies to lift employee performance by enhancing their gifts.

Jane and John Doe are your typical employee.



 I began meeting John and Jane nearly 40 years ago when I first began my working life. In fact back then I was John Doe.



Since 1991 when I left the corporate world and began working with business owners/leaders of medium sized businesses and leaders in multinational organisations to help them improve performance, I have met 1000’s of Jane’s and John’s.

Regardless of industry, country, product or service Jane and John…

Over the last few weeks I have had to deal with the fall out from actions I thought would be simple, putting in a new phone line in my office, getting some frequent flyer points that went to the wrong account in the right account, and changing some facets of how my websites work.



In dealing with each of these I spent an incredible amount of time waiting on phone queues where over and over I encountered:



Your call is important to us ...

We are sorry for your…