Celebrations, Winners & the Closing Ceremony

This blog post is not about the Olympics - sorry if you thought it was! However it is about recognising & appreciating positive practices to help you change… then doing something about it.

Celebrations & Winners

Prompted by a talk given by Sukh Pabial on Positive Psychology, I’ve been running a series of guest blogs on “Positive Practices in Coaching & Mentoring”.

It’s been an amazing series from quite different individuals all giving their distinct views on their positive practices. That the series has generated over 1250 blog views in just 5 weeks I think shows that many of you have enjoyed it just as much as I have!

So I’d like to thank & celebrate those guest bloggers for sharing so willingly their views on positive practices in coaching & mentoring... Thank you all!

Clare Manning, Ian Pettigrew, Julie Drybrough, Kev Wyke,

Perry Timms, Meg Peppin, Jon Bartlett & Phil Willcox

I had mentioned there was a prize so you might expect as it's the Olympics that there could be Gold, Silver  & Bronze awards... nope.  Each blog & blogger is a winner in my eyes - they stepped up to share their own practices with all of us and that I think is a hugely positive thing to do.

So to gauge the two most inspiring blog posts, I approached someone with many years senior management experience who was not a coach or mentor and had not already read any of this series of blogs...

There were two posts which they felt particularly inspired by and in their own words "talked to the power of coaching". These were Meg & Phil's blog posts and both of you now have a ticket for Sukh's "Positive Psychology in Application" event on August 17th in London!

Closing Ceremony

It's the closing ceremony of the Olympics today and a celebration of this series of blog posts seems like a good place to end this Blogger blog...

Blogging has grown thing from something I was a bit scared of pushing out there to something I've incorporated into my whole life.  I'm still learning but I couldn't have done this without the support of friends, colleagues, other bloggers and above all readers of the blog. Thank you! Also, I love the fact that my young kids now use "blogging" as part of their diction - brilliant!

Yet, it's time for me to create some change... 

...there are things I'd like to focus more on and I need the impetus to make this happen. Stopping this Blogger blog is one way of creating this.

...I've learnt a lot and my blogging has matured. I now need to take this to another level with greater focus and challenge.

...I'm here to stay as a blogger but need a better platform.  Sorry Blogger but I've outgrown what you provide and I need to move on.

So above all, thank you for all the support here over the last 18 months.  You've given me the support & confidence to learn, change and progress. I'm ready to end this Blogger blog...

However, you can continue to read more blogging on all aspects of People Performance & Potential from myself and special guests at :

www.peopleperformancepotential.com

I think recognising when you've outgrown what you have and being willing to take on a new challenge is a positive practice. I hope you agree!

Something Special

If you look to the right of your screen you'll see what you've done for the past 500 or so days... found it?

That's it... you've read this blog over 10,000 times! You probably didn't realise but in doing so you've done something quite special for me. This 80th blog post explains... 

Your reading

I write my blogs "in the moment". Sure there's sometimes a bit of rework and sometimes I delete a draft. However, I write when I feel the energy for a subject. There's not a stack of drafts cooking slowly in the background or a schedule of pre-written blogs. What you read is me, now, right or wrong.

So when you read my post you are listening to me right here right now. I really appreciate you taking that time to listen to my thoughts, ramblings & opinions. It's something special to me. Thank you.

Your Comments

I write my blogs to stimulate discussion and debate around the subjects posted. What we do thereafter is up to us. So when you share your perspectives and comment, you make the blog successful. Particularly so when we have the good debate!

What I didn't expect a year or so ago is that our dialogue on these posts would move away from the "comments box" and onto Twitter and the real world. I think it's wonderful and something special! Thank you.

Your Feedback

I still feel I have a lot to learn about blogging. I don't mean about how to manage a blog although I think that's constantly evolving. I feel I have a lot to still learn about myself blogging - in particular my writing, my thinking, my areas of interest, even my motivation. I believe blogging is supposed to be that way. There's meant to be a slight and constant tension.

Publicly and behind the scenes, lots of you have shared with me your feedback on how I blog. The support it provides is amazing. That feedback is such a gift. It's something special to me. Thank you.

Your Contributions

Many of my blogs have started from a conversation elsewhere. Whether you know it or not, you have quite probably contributed in some way to a blog post here!

However, the blog was always meant to be a vehicle for others to contribute so I'm delighted when someone posts a guest blog here. It provides such different perspectives and even better writing!

I've had some very special contributions from Guest Bloggers so here's your own very special Blog Roll. Thank you!

"Working With People" by an anonymous HR professional

"Ironic or is it?" by Jon Bartlett (@Projectlibero)

"The Coaching Journey" by Karen Locking (@karenlocking)

"How Coaching Has Helped Me: A Coach’s Perspective" by Vera Woodhead (@verawoodhead)

"Mapping the Mind" by Bev Holden (@stickythinker)

The Future

The blog and it's readership has grown & developed beautifully. So to a large extent I'd be very happy if the future brought more of the same. However, there are a few areas of development that you can expect...

Personally, I think my earlier posts didn't hold enough challenge. So over time I've been more deliberate about creating greater tension & challenge - expect more of this! A big thanks goes to Natasha Stallard (@StirTheSource) for helping me express this (#mindtheedge).

I've not been particularly deliberate about blog subjects, always writing where I found the energy. So the tags to the right of your screen quite pleasingly reflect much of what I do and want to write about. Ironically, the most frequent topics include Coaching, Leadership, Learning and even Social Media but not Change... We all have blind spots sometimes but expect a few more blogs on Change in the future!

The Guest Blogs have been rewarding in different ways but always bring in perspective or experiences that I don't have. I love it and want to encourage more people to guest blog here - regardless of experience. If this interests you, no matter how unsure you are, then just reach out to me publicly or privately.

Thanks for reading & helping make this blog successful.  I hope you continue to enjoy it!

The Pseudo-Intellectual Blog-Bomb of Ignorance

Do you know what really bugs me?  Bloggers who don't participate in the debate or discussion they started. 

It's like they've lobbed a pseudo-intellectual blog-bomb into the ether then scurry away to hide in their blog-bunker.  Jumping onto the zeitgeist bandwagon the sycophantic plebeians of social media swarm around their blog like it was the greatest thing since god knows what.  Unwittingly feeding the behaviour and encouraging more blog-bombing.  WTF?

Perhaps it's ignorance... Perhaps if we don't tell them engagement is an interesting dance between people they won't ever know?  That their beautifully crafted bouquet of a blog is in fact a Pseudo-Intellectual Blog-Bomb of Ignorance.

Perhaps standing up and defending what you have to say is hard work...  Perhaps being brave enough to listen and change your views doesn't come easy...

Guess what?  IT'S NOT MEANT TO BE EASY.  It's called authenticity.  It's called integrity.  It's where you'll find respect.

Perhaps the audience get something from this reverse monologue...  I don't.  Would you write a message or talk to a book?  No!  Then why would you engage in a monologue with a blog post?  I'd much rather have a meaningful conversation or debate with people who can do more than just vomit into a blog and suck up the adoration of the star-struck.

It's my personal opinion of course but I'm happy to look at it through your eyes and learn something new.

Oh and if you're reading this thinking it's just David having a bit of a rant, I'm not.  I'm initiating a dialogue with you and I'd love to hear what you have to say.  You know where to find me!

Friday Wondering - Our Social Contract

Each Friday I'm posting a "Friday Wondering". These posts are meant to explore & discuss observations or issues which I think would benefit from discussion. Participation is open to absolutely anyone regardless of their expertise or knowledge. Just bring your curiosity!

If you'd like to discuss on Twitter rather than here then why not. It would help though if you could use the #FridayWondering hashtag. Thanks!

Our Social Contract

At work we normally have a legal &/or psychological contract with those around us.  This may be imperfect or unbalanced but it's there in some form or another.

Outside of work, we have what might be called an emotional contract with our personal relationships such as family, partners, children, friends.

So on Social Media, where we've not established the above relationships, what exactly is the contract with those we engage with?

Warnocking & Leadership

Even if you don’t work in the HR space, you know that feedback is important. It’s how we learn & develop. If it’s well delivered, feedback is engaging. It’s a gift.

Warnock’s Dilemma 

Those of you who blog may be familiar with the phenomenon that is called Warnock’s Dilemma. If you are not then there is a good description on Wikipedia here and even a dedicated website here. 

The problem it describes comes from a lack of response to a posting. Any blogger will be familiar with posts that don’t attract comments – sometimes it can be quite discomforting. Warnock’s Dilemma explains this lack of feedback as being for 1 of 5 different reasons: 

1. The post is correct, well-written information that needs no follow-up commentary. There's nothing more to say except "Yeah, what he said." 
2. The post is complete and utter nonsense, and no one wants to waste the energy or bandwidth to even point this out. 
3. No one read the post, for whatever reason. 
4. No one understood the post, but won't ask for clarification, for whatever reason. 
5. No one cares about the post, for whatever reason. 

Whether you blog or not, it all makes perfect sense doesn’t it… so what? 

Well, have a think about the 5 different reasons and replace the word “post” with “Executive Communication”. It’s a slightly different perspective isn’t it... More than that, I think it perhaps illuminates some broader issues. 

Leaders hide their discomfort 

We know that dealing with ambiguity is part of the leadership role, along with the need for strong communication skills. 

Often this means we develop leaders who are able to function without much feedback and are able to communicate strongly, sometimes perhaps in a way that even stifles feedback. I suspect that the combination conspires against leaders receiving the feedback they need, as humans. 

To not get the feedback you need as a human. That would feel discomforting wouldn’t it? Shouldn’t it? More than that, doesn’t that lack of feedback limit learning and development? 

Organisations that recognise this develop leaders to have strong reciprocal communications skills and can both give & elicit feedback effectively.

Take a look around your organisation. I’d guess there may be leaders you can see who don’t function at this level.  Are they learning & developing as they need to? Are they hiding their discomfort? 

Warnock’s Dilemma is incomplete 

Warnock’s Dilemma is great but it’s important to recognise its origins are in the online world of forum posting 10 years ago. I believe there are 4 other reasons people don’t contribute to postings & blogs which we already understand from the corporate world. 

• The post is good/bad but the writer is weak at eliciting feedback. 
• The post is good/bad but the readers’ feedback skills are weak. 
• The post is good/bad but the reader has no time to comment. 
• The post is good/bad but the reader does not care enough about you to “gift” you their feedback. 

I think these are accurate additions but test them. Replace the word “post” with “Executive Communication” or something else that you find relevant. 

What do you think? What else would you add to Warnock’s Dilemma? 

Self-Leadership Postcript 

If we are interested in feedback and dialogue on ourselves then I believe it helps to be aware of the various reasons why others may not comment. The issue could be us; it could be others; it could just be circumstantial.  If we feel discomfort or are not getting the feedback we need then the only positive remedy is to solicit feedback from people whose opinion we care about. 

If we read the work of others who actively or passively seek feedback & comments, what stops us from doing so? Feedback is a gift. If you are time poor then why not find quick ways to share your sentiments? If you disagree why not tell the author?   If you don’t care then why are you reading their work – really think about why.

As leaders or advocates of feedback we know the value of walking the talk.  How much walking the talk do you need to demonstrate in the world of social media?

It’s a personal decision but perhaps this really is the dilemma that comes from Warnock....

Just One

Today is this blog's 1 year anniversary - you can see the first post here.

I like to think I've improved and I certainly feel happier and more confident about writing a blog than I did 12 months ago.  Who would have imagined me sharing poetry here!

Along the way I've found huge support, kind words, intelligent comments and challenging thinking.  A lot of this has come from the ConnectingHR & EMCC communities on Twitter.  Thank you so much!

To anyone contemplating taking that step into blogging, I have to say to you make the time and just start.  Do it for yourself & learn from the experience - it's a great source of reflection.  Find your way - it's hard at first but you will get great support.

Perhaps most importantly, just remember this little quote from @Projectlibero....

"You get a wonderful view from the point of no return"

Giving Back

On this anniversary, the blog has just hit 4,000 views!  So to celebrate this landmark & as a thank you to the community I want to give something back.

I have "just one" free ticket to give away for the first of the new EMCC UK Symposiums on "Mapping the Mind".  The lucky winner can chose whether to attend in London on 6th March or Manchester on 15th March.  All I ask in return is that the winner writes a guest blog post here about their experience.

Here's what you need to do

Please nominate someone who isn't already going but you think is both deserving of the ticket and would value the symposium.  Please ensure that they are able to go and willing to provide a guest blog.  Then just email me with a brief explanation of why you've nominated them to david@changecontinuum.com

My choice of the lucky winner will take place on Friday 27th January.

UPDATE - 27/3/2012
With a very heartfelt nomination from Ian Pettigrew (@KingfisherCoach) the lucky winner is Bev Holden (@stickythinker) who will be going to the Manchester Symposium on the 15th March.  Watch out for her guest blog post on the experience!

Bloganalysis

This blog has been going for nearly a year now. What started as a tentative dip of the toe has now become part of what I do and integral to my business. 

Ultimately though, if I want my blog to achieve something for my business then I need to be able to measure its impact. The question is what to measure? 

The numbers game 

Blogging tools are great at cranking out basic statistics but a lot of what I see is based solely on number of visits or views. The implied ambition seems to be having an increasingly large number of readers… 

For this blog, December was an amazing month reaching an all time high of 1245 views :-

But what was being read? Was December a better or worse month than say September when I had 485 views? Or August when I only blogged once? How do I compare month on month? How do I gauge engagement? 

On their own, absolute views are in my opinion limiting and tend to lead us to view quantity as the objective rather than quality. So what else should we measure? 

Some Alternative Blog Measures 

I’m at an early stage with this but I‘ve been using a set of monthly measures to keep an eye on what seems to be most important. Here are some alternative blog measures & personal observations that I hope you  find interesting.

New Blog Reading vs. Exploration

What I’ve found is that increasingly my blogs readers are taking time to read posts from previous months. This is wonderful and I want to take account of this in my blog stats.

Looking at December, it’s important that I had 1245 views but perhaps more interesting is that nearly half were views of older blogs :-

For me, this starts to indicate something interesting and different is happening with my blog readers.  I would have missed this if I'd not taken time to track these statistics!

Average Views per Post

The number of views an individual post receives is relevant, but we all know that some posts are more of a hit than others. 

Measuring the average views per post each month helps take in an overall picture and smooth out the impact of for instance when you blog more or less often than usual :-

My blog is still developing but it’s great to see a steady and continuous trend upwards. It also helps combat those fears and insecurities of a single post that didn’t attract the usual interest! 

Comments per 100 views

I write my blog both for reflection and for engagement. So to receive feedback in either the form of a twitter reaction or a comment is wonderful. Sometimes, a blog post sparks a fire and the comments rush in. Sometimes there’s a deathly silence or silent appreciation – you choose!

I now measure the number of comments and the number of reactions per 100 views each month. This helps give me a sense of proportion and gives me a different benchmark for engagement other than blog views :-

There's something here about the expected response rate for blogs which I'm still pondering...

Other Perspectives

Analysis of the blog statistics is useful but it is just a monthly gauge I use to check in on progress.  Perhaps more fundamental are the other perspectives I'm becoming aware of.

On a qualitative level, I’m noticing that the posts that generate the most interest are typically edgy/challenging or community focussed. They also generate more thought and dialogue. Expect more of this from me! 

In terms of audience, perhaps unsurprisingly 2/3rds of readers are in the UK and Ireland and seem to be the most actively engaged (i.e. ready to comment or react).  Unexpectedly, a quarter of readers are US based and there is a growing following across Europe, Russia & Asia.  This is making think about how UK centric my writing focus is and whether it needs to change.

I’ve also realised that there is an unnecessary separation between this blog and my company website.  This is manifest in the web statistics. I’m still exploring options but I might end up embedding the blog in the website.  There's something to be said for having everything in one place!

Perhaps I’m learning the hard way but thought I share these experiences with you.  I hope you've found these interesting or even useful.  Would love to hear your thoughts!

What are you planning for your blog in 2012? 

What measures are you using to gauge impact & engagement?

A Calendar of Blogs

Who’s on your blog radar?

There are lots of good blogs out there aren’t there.  At various times of the year various listings or rankings of top bloggers hits the timeline providing great endorsement and signposting to some wonderful reading and discussion.

But what about all the other bloggers?  You know, the ones who blog religiously but perhaps don’t get the notoriety that others do.  The ones who don’t blog each week or even those who have taken a blogging break.  They maybe haven’t hit people’s blog radars yet…

A Calendar of Blogs

Well let’s change that a little bit.  I’d like to share with you some of the fantastic people I’ve come across this year who may not be on your blog radar.  Some of them I’ve known a while; others I only connected with a few weeks ago.  However, I appreciate what they have to say and if you don’t know them already, I think you might too.

I’ve selected one for each month of the year because each is different and bloggers are not just for Christmas!  There are others but hopefully you might add them here yourself…

Who would you like to recognise that might not be on most people’s blog radars?

Please feel free to create your own list in the comments below.  The only criteria is your appreciation and the fact that they may not be on peoples radars!

My Calendar of Blogs

Thanks for such great dialogue, sharing, engagement and writing.  I hope you have a wonderful 2012!

Emily Stone (@Em_Stone) http://wellconnect.co.uk/blog/

Emma (@Onatrainagain) http://www.myblogmyrules.co.uk/

Huw Sayer (@huwsayer) http://huwsayer.wordpress.com/

Ian Perry (@Ianperryemerge) http://emergecoaching.typepad.com

Ian Pettigrew (@KingfisherCoach) http://www.kingfishercoaching.com/
Jan Bowen-Nielsen (@janbowennielsen) http://www.quivermanagement.com/blog/

Jon Bartlett (@Projectlibero) http://projectlibero.wordpress.com/

Martin Couzins (@martincouzins) http://itsdevelopmental.com/

Natasha Stallard (@StirTheSource) http://stirringthesource.com/

Sam Lizars (@SamLizars) http://www-theinsider.blogspot.com/

Vera Woodhead (@verawoodhead) http://verawoodhead.wordpress.com/

Zoe Mounsey (@zoemounsey) http://ideasandscribbles.wordpress.com/

Unpublished

I wrote a blog that I’m particularly proud of.  It was from the heart.  It was in response to prejudice & ignorance.  I had hoped it might educate.

I think the people who know me professionally would have appreciated it.  Those who know me personally would have seen me & my life in all of the words.

It will never be published.  The reason is that someone who matters to me asked me not to.

I had discussed it with them first and I’m ever so glad that they appreciated what I had written.  In asking for their opinion, I had implicitly agreed to respect their wishes if they didn't want it published.  It was an unspoken commitment for me to keep.

So what?

I have plenty of blog drafts (don’t we all?) but this one was different...

The process of writing that unpublished blog was cathartic.  My frustration with the ignorant will dissipate.  Sometimes we need to find therapeutic ways of dealing with such things.

That blog had an audience of 1 and the best feedback I will ever have.  The joy of blogging for me is in the sharing of yourself and the conversation it creates not the number of people who read it.

When we ask for opinion or feedback we create spoken & unspoken commitments.  We ignore these at our peril and detriment.  Respecting and keeping to those commitments build stronger relationships.

Would love to hear your stories of the unpublished, the therapeutic and the  unspoken commitments we create with our blogs.

A Thorny Issue

 

I’ve become a big fan of blogs.  Anyone who visits here will know how often I blog, how I do it and what I talk about.  I also enjoy reading other peoples blogs and when possible I like share my comments on what the author has made me think about.

Yet I’m struck by how I find blogging simultaneously therapeutic & frustrating as well as rewarding & disappointing.  There.  I’ve fessed up!  Let me explain the background a little...

Summer was quiet on the blogging front.  It felt that plenty of others were similarly distracted with other things or just waiting until everyone was back at work.  Yet I found myself often thinking about what was happening around me and could I blog about it.  What would I say?  How would I frame it? The unanswered questions I was struggling with.  The things I didn’t fully understand yet.

What I kept coming back to was my attraction to and support of blogging versus the emotional rollercoaster it was subjecting me to.  What was going on?  Did I have the wrong attitude?  Was the issue mine alone?  It’s a thorny issue but one that I want to explore here.

Why Blog?

I’ve deliberately not trawled the web looking for research or opinion on why people blog.  It’s not that I’m not interested - it's just not a question that I want answered by supposed "gurus".  The question behind the question is actually why do I blog?  What are my expectations?  What am I hoping to achieve?

So far, I think there are only 3 reasons to go to the effort of blogging :

Commercial

You want to market yourself or your thought leadership and support your business efforts or standing as an expert.  You may be a consultant or a charity.  The end result you want to achieve is a mixture between engagement and promotion.

Altruistic

You have a lot to say and a lot to give.  Your thinking and writing is useful to others, valued even.  The end result is the giving of knowledge or opinion, not what you get back from it in terms of business or maybe even response.

Exploration

You want to share what you are thinking & experiencing with a view to learning more.  The process of writing the blog itself might be the exploration & the learning.  Sometimes the learning might come from the feedback you receive.  You might be an employee in an organisation, unemployed or even running a business – it doesn’t matter.

I’ve come to the view that people never blog just because they like writing.  If it was the joy of writing alone they would do it in a manner that was less conspicuous...  wouldn’t they?

I also think that if your blog is for Commercial or Altruistic reasons then there is certainly a degree of ego at play (when is this not the case!).  You want to know that what you are writing about is valued.  Whereas if your blog is for Exploration then perhaps ego is less relevant.

Why do I Blog?

Where I’m coming to with this is an uneasy sense that perhaps my blog is unwittingly a mixture of all three and that this is the cause of the emotional rollercoaster.  I’m still not sure.

What I do know is that I need to resolve or possibly come to terms with the fact that I find blogging simultaneously therapeutic & frustrating as well as rewarding & disappointing.

What are your thoughts?  Is there a better way of looking at this?  How does blogging make you feel?  Why do you blog?  What are your expectations?  What are you hoping to achieve?

About the Photo

The tree seems to be a Kapok Tree.  The photo was taken from a hammock on holiday as I was pondering this subject.  It seemed curious that the thorns were clearly to keep away those who would do harm but allow access to those who wouldn’t cause damage.  Humans had already chipped away the defences lower down leaving the tree scarred but supposedly more approachable.  I think there's a parallel here with blogging.  Personally, I’d rather be an ant working in a system climbing to the top than be seen as a threat to be repelled or causing irreparable damage.