Captain’s Blog – Stardate 210309

This week’s leadership focus is all about colour – because right now bringing colour into our lives is a great way to re-energise the way we think and feel. 

I collected my new spectacles today and this is not something I feel great about.  I need glasses but buying them doesn’t bring me joy.  What did lighten my day was the staff rummaging around to find me a colourful case to store them in – and ending up with a bright scarlet spectacles case.  Fantastic!  I’ll not lose these in a hurry.  Thank you to the team in Boots Opticians in Rugby. 

Last weekend I had my haircut and there’s another leader in colour: Gemma Hensman – a talented young Director working hard to build her family business.  Gemma thinks constantly about the customer experience, the quality of the service her team offer – and the development of the team.  Gemma celebrates the awards her team achieves on their website (www.hensmans.com) and works hard to make sure they keep on achieving.  Like many salons, there’s a lot of black around – but Gemma wears fantastic contrast colours which challenge convention. 

My challenge to anyone reading this blog is to both seek out those colour leaders – they’ll be around us on the tube, walking down the street and jostling in the commuter traffic – and be a colour leader yourself. This isn’t about gender – whether you’re male or female, find out which colours really work with your skin tones and your hair and start really enjoying colour in what you wear. 

This might sound like the kind of fashion and costume design blog that my daughter might write (www.faithbarber.com) but it’s more a call to arms for a more colourful world where leaders are proud of their intelligence and the brilliance they bring to the world. 

Faith’s site has a strong purple theme

  Faith’s site has a strong purple theme which brings me round to the fragment of poetry which started me thinking about this week’s ‘Captain’s Blog’: the wonderful Warning by Jenny Joseph (apparently Britain’s favourite post-war poem), the opening lines of which go like this: 

“When I am an old woman I shall wear purple,

With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.”

Old or young, your credit-crunched, recession ridden country needs you to come out of your closet with colour and brighten up our homes, streets and workplaces.

Captain’s Log Stardate 110309

Roller-coasters: some people love them; others loathe them.  What I’m noticing is that, whichever camp we sit in, we can’t seem to avoid the roller-coaster ride at the moment.  There’s a saying going around that we all know at least one person who’s been made redundant as a result of the current financial situation; this seems to be true – at least in my world. 

So, what do I know about roller-coasters?  Not a lot if I’m honest.  I’ve tried to avoid them for the last 35 years of my life – it’s something to do with the feeling in the pit of my stomach.  I do know that some people absolutely love that thrill – my husband for one.  It’s the physiology that interests me – it’s the same adrenaline that gives Bob the ‘go-for-it’ feeling and me the ‘get-me-out-of-here’ feeling.  I’m told that if you scream as you go down it opens up and relaxes the chest and makes the experience (even) more enjoyable.

Last week I made a conscious decision to enjoy the ride – running a growing business is always an interesting challenge – and right now it’s particularly important to be flexible and go with the flow.  I don’t want to tempt fate, but at the moment our business challenges are more about managing growth than worrying about business coming in through the door.  I know there are a number of businesses positively thriving at the moment: people are turning to take-away pizza instead of eating at restaurants, trading down to cheaper brands instead of paying premium prices at the supermarket.  Something similar is happening in the coaching and leadership world – individuals and organisations see our services as adding value and bringing real business benefits at this time of profound change.

So what’s this to do with leadership?  I’ve made a personal commitment that, as a leader, I will be relentless in the area of good financial management; ruthless with my time and strongly supportive of individuals, especially people with leadership potential.  Things brings me on to my ‘leader of the week’: a young lady who’s been a student on our Foundation and Developing Courses in Leadership Coaching – Jo Sandhu, she’s second on the right in this picture.  

The first Forton Foundation Course in Leadership Development group

  Just google CandoSandhu.com  and you’ll see what I mean.  Jo and her husband are travelling the world shortly, stopping off in India to teach English in a Punjabi village, before trekking in the Himalayas.  It’s not just the ‘can do’ attitude they have – which is hugely relevant in a topsy-turvy world; it’s the commitment to giving to others.  Another course participant described it as “not giving back, but ‘giving forward’ – to future generations”.  This is what great leaders do – they are personally successful and create a world in which others can achieve success.  Good luck Jo and Sat, wherever you go.