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entrepreneurs’ tales, tools & tips
experience growth | AUTUMN 2014 | Issue 5
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FREE quarterly
the leadership issue
The Steve Jobs way 7 leadership lessons for entrepreneurs
The Art of Awesome Leadership Discover how telling great stories embeds powerful lessons
Plugging into Purpose, Passion & Priorities What do you do when you’re running on empty?
Communicate with passion & authenticity
leading
Discover how to touch both the head and the heart.
Social Media Masterclass
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Find out how to engage your audience
GROWhow stuff. Personal Wellbeing. Social Causes. Business. Money. Training. Technology. GROWzone.
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The mind of a leader? | Our top 10 leadership books | 7 top tips to boost your energy
Publisher’s page
Colin Tomlin, Publisher, author & speaker
eg
Welcome to
S
ince we launched eg magazine over a year ago now, we have had amazing feedback on the quality, portability and user friendliness of the magazine. In total, we have had over 300,000 views which equates to an average issue exposure of 75,000 views and a readership of close to 7,000. For an online magazine, with the next thing just a click away, these are really encouraging numbers. We are encouraged because we are committed to providing you with entrepreneurs’ tales, tools and tips which will help you, your teams and entire
organizations to be awash with entrepreneurial thinking. But why is this important?, you may well ask... Because, entrepreneurial thinking will help you to , challenge, clarify and conquer the issues we face in life, be it personal or corporate. You see, entrepreneurial thinking is all about finding solutions. And that is exactly why we have adopted a theme of leadership for this issue.
individuals on the planet. We explore his phenomenal life & how he delivers his unique brand of leadership. In addition, to our cover story we introduce a number of new contributors with a wealth of experience and expertise. We are excited about this issue and we hope you will be too. Enjoy!
Colin
Our cover story is Bono, who is arguably one of the most passionately influential
In case you missed it
Browse the previous issue FREE now
Regular Contributors Matt Bird, Relationologist (www.relationology.co.uk)
Matt helps leaders and organisations build the relationships they need to achieve greater success. He is the creator of Relationology about the art and science of relationships and how they drive business success. You can receive his daily thoughts @Relationology and weekly articles from www.relationology.co.uk In this issue Matt writes ‘6 more Secrets to Grow Your Business.’
Lilach Bullock, Social Media Expert (www.socialable.co.uk)
Lilach is a business owner, social media consultant, internet mentor and founder of Socialable.co.uk. Listed in Forbes as one of the top 20 women social media power influencers she is one of the most dynamic personalities in the social media market. She is consulted by journalists and regularly quoted in newspapers on social media related matters. A keynote speaker at business and marketing seminars, Lilach teaches about online marketing. Her books have achieved No 1 on Amazon for Sales & Marketing and Small Business & Entrepreneurship, which helps to generate over 500K online page views per month. When Lilach isn’t working she enjoys spending time with her family and is an avid fan of Zumba. In this issue Lilach writes ‘5 Tips to create Facebook content that gets likes.’
Judy Tomlin, Behavioural Specialist & Social Entrepreneur (www.betsycatherinecreative.co.uk)
Judy is behavioural specialist and social entrepreneur with over 17 years experience in schools across the country. A Psychology graduate, she specializes in behaviour management and currently is the lead teacher at a specialist resource base in East Norfolk, UK. Passionate about the convergence of education and enterprise, Judy has set up a social enterprise that uses business as a tool to engage young people to learn life and entrepreneurial skills by running their own chocolate distribution ‘franchise’. She is married to Colin and they have 2 children and almost own a cat and a dog. In this issue Judy writes ‘The Mind of a Leader’
Nisha Zala, The Creative Lifestyle Consultant (www.facebook.com/nishazalalive)
Nisha is the 2014 Newcomer Coach of the Year from the Association Professional Coaches, Trainers and Consultants and has produced events for world influenced speakers including; Tony Robbins, Donald Trump, Sir Richard Brandson, Sir Alan Sugar, T-Harv Eker, Big Al and many more. She steps on stage delivering as a key inspirational speaker and dedicated to making a difference in society. Her coaching and therapy style is described to be the best in the industry and known as a Life Enhancement Consultant and Spiritual Awakener. She is the founder of “Freedom for Change” and is writing her first book within the area of her expertise in spiritual growth and personal development. She has been frequently featured in the Basildon and Southend Echo and has her own monthly radio show on Gateway Basildon 97.8.com. In this issue Nisha writes ‘Stepping into the shoes of an Authentic Leader.’
Guest Contributors Yemi Akinsiwaju, Leadership Consultant (www.dayspringconsult.com)
Yemi is a dynamic leadership expert and author of the highly acclaimed book, Scorecard: Achieving Success and Balance in a Turbulent World. He has helped a wide range of organisations ranging from small business enterprises to multimillion pound institutions in the public sector and the charitable sector to rapidly improve their results and accelerate their success. Yemi’s passion is to be a potent catalyst for the release of the leadership greatness that resides in everyone he meets. In this issue Yemi writes on ‘Values Driven Leadership’
Lee Ashford, Personal Fitness Trainer (www.leeashford.co.uk)
Lee is a “Premier” qualified personal trainer, nutrition advisor, Advanced Boxercise Instructor and freelance fitness writer. In addition to this, Lee provides Nutrition reports, fitness programmes and fitness testing are all part of the service and at no extra cost. You can exercise with confidence as he is CRB checked, REPS registered and fully insured trainer. Lee believes that each session should be fun, varied and tailor made to suit your requirements. Lee is based in Norfolk but travels the UK to operate Bootcamps. In this issue Lee writes on how to ‘7 Tips to Boost your Energy’
Sunil Bali, Executive Coach, Speaker, Writer (www.sunilbali.com)
Sunil has been responsible for hiring over 50,000 people and has worked with some great entrepreneurs, professionals and leaders, as a former Head of Talent for two of Europe’s largest companies, Vodafone Group and Santander, and having run a £50m business himself. He is on a mission to help create authentic, sustainable and rewarding business relationships. To this end, he help entrepreneurs and professionals to generate stronger relationships, results and revenues by showing them how to increase the level of trust that people have in them and their business. In this issue Sunil writes on ‘The art of Awesome Leadership’
Clare Elevique, Digital Content Strategist (www.linkedin.com/in/clareelevique)
Clare is an experienced strategist and team leader, a professional and proactive out-thinker. Since 2009, she has focused on B2B & B2C Digital Marketing & Communications, online brand reputation and content strategy management. With 20+ years experience in Digital Design and Web Project Management, proficient in a wide range of software platforms, and technology. Clare loves to see opportunities others ignore. In this issue Clare writes on ‘Content that Converts; 5 Effective Ways to Convert with Content’
Colin McLean, Presentation & Communication Specialist (www.presw.com)
Having left university (a modern linguist) and fallen into publishing for a short spell Colin was ensnared by the City (reinsurance) for 18 years before he was able to extract himself. Several years followed, as a director of new media businesses, riding the shallower end of the dot com wave, before he located himself in Cambridgeshire and set up Presentation Works in 2002. One way or another his business and social lives have put him up in front of audiences, both large and small, for well over 40 years. In this issue Colin writes on ‘How to Communicate with Passion & Authenticity’
Publishing & Editorial Director Colin Tomlin colin@egmagazineuk.com
Coaching & Education Director Judy Lynch-Tomlin judy@egmagazineuk.com
Design Creative Wells Design design@egmagazineuk.com
Advertising advertising@egmagazineuk.com 0785 34 33 700
Partnership Development partnerships@egmagazineuk.com 0785 34 33 700
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Sometimes making a difference is not as hard as we think. Find out how you can make CSR easy by doing these 3 practical things.
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Leading like Bono
7 top tips to Boost your Energy
The Steve Jobs Way
Get them and be more productive.
How do you ensure that each day you have all the energy necessary to be productive.
Find out how the front man of the world’s most famous band leverages his influence for global good. 7 powerful leadership lessons from the late, great iconic Apple leader, in his own words.
The Mind of a Leader
The Art of Awesome Leadership
Plugging into Purpose, Passion & Priorities
6 more Secrets to Grow your Business through the Power of Relationships
Do you have the mindset of an entrepreneurial leader? We explore a few thoughts on what it means so you can work out if you have what it takes.
What do you do when you’re running on empty? Maybe it’s time to plug back in.
eg Cover Story Leading like Bono
Discover how telling great stories embeds powerful lessons.
Extracts from Matt Bird’s brilliant new book about the power of relationships.
The Mind of a Leader Do you have it or not?
entrepreneurs’ tales, tools & tips
Stepping into the shoes of an Authentic Leader What does it take to be an authentic leader? Here are 5 things that an authentic leader does.
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Training How to communicate with passion and authenticity The art of Awesome Crowdfunding Leadership Whatinto are theshoes pros of & Stepping the Business Feature Telling great stories an authentic Leader cons Entrepreneur? of this approach? True
Discover how to touch both the head and the heart.
The importance of Values Driven Leadership
Learn how to establish values driven leadership in your life and organizations.
Technology Social Media Masterclass
Our Social Media Expert provides you with 5 tools to deliver Facebook content that gets likes and engagement.
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Issue 5. Autumn 2014
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#1 John
Maxwell
John C Maxwell is undoubtedly one of the top leadership gurus in the world with more than 40 years of leadership experience. In ‘21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership’ he distils everything he’s learnt about leadership into a handful of life-changing principles. The result is a revealing study of leadership delivered as only John Maxwell can. As a consummate story teller he shares principles are easily understood and applied.
#2 John
Maxwell
“
In ‘Developing the Leader within You’, John shares 10 principles of leadership and team building. His key message is that leaders are not born but develop the skill of leadership through years of practice. This book is appropriate for anyone at any stage of leadership from the newly appointed team leader to the more experienced leaders of leaders and organizations.
You can't move people to action unless you first move them with emotion.... The heart comes before the head.
“ Stephen Covey
Stephen R. Covey is a true leadership authority and organizational consultant who’s life’s work has focused on Principle-Centred Living. His most popular book is undoubtedly ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ where he defines ‘habits’ as ‘the intersection of knowledge, skill and desire’. This book is a must read for anyone who craves powerful lessons in personal change.
#3
5
our top Productivity apps #1
Note it! Take notes. On anything. Evernote is your online digital notebook. It lets you create text, photo and audio notes, clip web pages including text, links, and images. The best bit? You can synchronize and access your notes across your devices.
#2
Access it! Access your files. Anywhere. Dropbox is your online storage. It lets access all of your files on any device. The best bit? If you have your Dropbox account linked to your phone, your pictures are automatically uploaded and available on all your devices. experience growth magazine.
Issue 5. Autumn 2014
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#3
Browse it! Collate. Anything. You want. Flipboard is your personal magazine. It allows you to discover, view, collate and share web content you like. The best bit? By combining the beauty and ease of print with the power of social media, it is so simple to use.
#4
Read it! Buy and read. Everywhere. Kindle is now the de factor digital reader from Amazon. You can buy a book and read it to your phone, tablet, laptop or desktop. The best bit? If you are not ready to buy a book you can download a sample (10% of book) and check it out.
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Find it! Arrive on time. Anywhere Google Maps turns your phone and tablet into a map and a satellite navigation system simultaneously. Just put in the post code and you are ready to roll. The best bit? You will never be lost again. Hopefully.
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Issue 5. Autumn 2014
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the
Mind
of an [entrepreneurial]
leader
by Judy Tomlin Behavioural Specialist & Social Entrepreneur
W
hen you read the title of this article, you would be forgiven for wanting to ask a few questions. Is there a difference between a leader and an entrepreneur? Are we saying that not all leaders are entrepreneurs, and not all entrepreneurs are leaders? Is there a mind-set particular to entrepreneurial leadership or are we created equal? If we look at a leader we are expecting to see a person or organisation that is out in front with the responsibility or position of directing others.
we are expecting to see a person or organisation that is out in front with the responsibility or position of directing others.
experience growth magazine.
Issue 5. Autumn 2014
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We want demonstrable ability, talent and skill and we would argue that ‘better’ leaders possess character and winning personality in addition. So no pressure then! We would then go on to attach desirable traits to the person spec…
· · · ·
Integrity Commitment Vision Communication.
It’s sometimes easier to check our definition and expectations when a person or company in a leading role falls short of what we believed about them. It’s even easier to be condemnatory and unforgiving of mistakes at a certain level. If we then think about people we see as entrepreneurs there are additional and particular expectations. Some people would say entrepreneur is synonymous with ‘business person’. A key ability of an entrepreneur is to take ideas and turn them into successful businesses. This definition answers the question that not all leaders are entrepreneurs. It is easier for an entrepreneur to have and develop leadership qualities in addition to problem solving business acumen, than for leaders in a variety of fields to turn their hand to enterprise, or indeed have the need to. So, what kind of thinking is
Issue 5. Autumn 2014
desirable for an entrepreneur?
Creative Thinking
Entrepreneurship is all about problem solving; new ideas and/ or new approaches. Resulting new products or processes are often what give a business a competitive advantage. Creative thinking activities are key to generating fresh ideas and overall entrepreneurship.
Intuition & initiative
Being aware and sensitive to needs, gaps and opportunities, as well as then being creative and able to take the lead on spotted potential is another highly desirable entrepreneurial trait. It goes hand in hand with the next thought.
Risk taking tenacity
It takes guts to lead on a new idea, particularly in todays’ climate of caution and austerity. It takes drive and determination to continually overcome obstacles that will undoubtedly present themselves. It takes a whole bucketful of resolve to correct mistakes, pick yourself up and move on from failures and keep pressing forward. Funnily enough, along with all the other qualities, skills and mind set expectations, entrepreneurs seem to benefit from the creative ‘maverick’ label, which seems to be more forgiving to mistakes and allowing of reshapes/restarts. So what have you got to lose? I agree with the thinking that would argue that the best ability for entrepreneurs to possess is stickabilty!
experience growth magazine.
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Plugging into
Purpose
Passion &
Priorities
by
Colin Tomlin
Publisher, Author, Speaker
I
t’s happened to you hasn’t it?
You’re in the middle of that really important call or even worse you are about to break your own high score on Candy Crush and you hear that familiar tinny sound which causes you to look at the top left hand corner of the screen, where your eyes are drawn to the familiar red flashing icon at the top right corner of the screen.
‘I am sure I can finish before the battery dies’, you say to yourself. As you try to focus, the sound and the flashing gets more frequent. It’s almost mocking you! After, carefully considering whether you should stop or take heed of the warning, you decide to keep going and you dismiss the sounds and the flashing.
experience growth magazine.
After a little while, the sound and the flashing stops being so intimidating. You’ve gotten used to it. However, right on the cusp of your crowning moment on Candy Crush or the most important part of that phone call, your phone dies. Arggggghhhhhh!!!! It’s really annoying when
Issue 5. Autumn 2014
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it happens to your phone but it is even worse when it happens in your life! You know the warning signs. The jumble of thoughts at the back of your mind. That unsettling deep inside your spirit. You know you are running close to empty but you just keep going. Then, one day, you hit the wall! Well, I was there quite recently! As I approached the summer, after going on for far too long close to empty, my battery died! As I took some time over the summer to go away with the family I realized I could no longer delay recharging my internal batteries. I needed to get some spiritual juice back into my life. I needed to AMP up my life! So, here’s what I did, my 3 ways that I AMPed up my life.
1
I Acknowledge My Purpose.
I took some time out to be alone and plug into what I believed my life is about. I reminded myself of what I believed I was placed here on earth to do. I connected to my Creator by praying, meditating and reading scripture. I spent copious amounts of time with Judy and others who I knew had my best interests at heart and who would tell me the truth and not massage my ego. At the end of that process I came
away with a renewed focus and a decision to frequently ‘turn off’ and recharge my batteries.
2
I Acted on My Passions.
I realized that one of the things that I wasn’t doing was acting on my passions. I was allowing myself to be distracted by some things that frankly weren’t important. ‘What am I really passionate about?’ ‘What is it that makes me tick?’ I asked myself. I realized that as positive an emotion as passion is, which fuels you and drives you forward, there were equally strong negative emotions which didn’t contribute to achieving my goals or didn’t make the best use of my talents, abilities, giftings and skills. I made a commitment to fuel myself with strong positive emotions.
3
I Axed Misplaced Priorities.
The last thing I decided to do was to let a sense of purpose and passion shape my priorities. Because of running on empty, I had allowed some good things to get in the way of great things. I had
spent too much time pursuing misplaced priorities. I decided to make sure that Judy and the kids were my number 1 priority. I decided to make sure that I spent time being and keeping spiritually and emotionally healthy. One of the first casualties was social media. In fact, I have taken a break from it during August & September. We decided as as a family to not allow the world which resides behind that little screen to take away from our real world. The one where we have real conversations and impact lives. As a result, I feel stronger and more connected to my purpose, passion and priorities than I have been in a long time! What about you? Do you think maybe it’s a good time to follow this process? To take some time to recharge, to remind yourself of what your life is about? To articulate to yourself and your nearest and dearest what your life is about? I guarantee you, it will be, quite possibly, the best thing you have done in a while. Go on. I dare you to turn off and plug in to purpose, passion and priorities.
I connected to my Creator by praying, meditating and reading scripture.
Issue 5. Autumn 2014
experience growth magazine
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Business
story cover
the Leadership
special
most influential Probably the
social justice
campaigner
alive!
the art of
Awesome
Leadership T
he one thing that great leaders have in common is that people talk about them behind their back – in glowing terms. They have a magnetic quality which attracts and softens the most hardened and cynical of souls. In my experience, great leaders make a mark because: ·
· ·
·
They are remarkable, definitely worthy of making a remark about. They don’t add to the noise, they are the signal. They’re not “chewing gum leaders” – their impact doesn’t disappear after a few minutes. They leave people better than when they found them.
Great leaders leave emotional fingerprints on people, which inspire them to deliver more than has been asked of them. Great leaders give rise to and tell great stories because as Cognitive Scientist Roger Schank says, “Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.” I don’t know anyone who has ever leapt out of bed in order to meet some distant mission statement or corporate objective, do you? There is the famous story of two people unable to reach a resolution on a project, coming to Percy Barnevik the former CEO and Chairman of the engineering giant ABB. Barnevik said that he was happy to help, but only
experience growth magazine.
once. The next time they bought him problems he would fire them. The message was unequivocal: take responsibility and deliver solutions not problems. The story spread quickly around the company and became part of ABB folklore. When I was Head of Talent for Cable & Wireless Europe, my CEO was Dick Brown, who would later go on to become CEO of multibillion dollar services giant Electronic Data Systems (EDS). When Dick was appointed CEO one of his primary goals was to increase accountability and performance. He felt that the company had a soft underbelly with too much buck passing. After one of the senior directors had been
Issue 5. Autumn 2014
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“Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.” by
Sunil Bali
Executive Coach, Speaker & Writer
sent packing after the first minute of a meeting with Dick, word quickly spread. The reason the Director had been shown the door so quickly was that that Dick will only read one sheet of A4 paper prior to any meetings and that should include a series of performance indicators. Dick’s argument was that if you needed more than one sheet of paper to explain the performance of your business unit, then you didn’t know your business well enough and he would get someone else to run it. Just like the ABB story, word spread like wildfire and focus on performance increased exponentially. Then there’s the story of Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, travelling by public
transport to and from airports in order to save money. This very simple story embodies the values of IKEA. Here is a very rich man who has his feet on the ground and cares about value for money just like his customers. Since the days of the caveman we humans have told stories to communicate with each other. Just because we’re now wearing suits and holding briefcases, it doesn’t mean that anything has changed. There have been great societies that haven’t used the wheel, but there have been no great societies that didn’t tell stories. As Alan Kay, former Hewlett Packard executive and co-founder of Xerox PARC, explains, “Scratch the surface in a
Issue 5. Autumn 2014
typical boardroom and we’re all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories.” At the end of the day, whatever story you tell, it’s whoever tells the best story that will win.
Sunil Bali is the ex Head of Talent for Vodafone Group and Santander, and writes a weekly blog with over 40,000 subscribers. www.sunilbali.com
experience growth magazine
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How to communicate
with
passion & authenticity
Training
by
Colin McLean Presentation & Communication Specialist
M
ost of us recognize that addressing an audience, of whatever size and on whatever occasion, is something of a challenge. Almost immediately the gauntlet has been thrown down we start assembling ‘content’, if only in our heads. We naturally focus on what we have to say on the given subject and, if discipline isn’t applied early, we quickly indulge in a ‘brain dump’ of the kind that reflects everything we feel
we know that might be relevant to the core topic. How many presentations have we all sat through that demonstrated the sort-itout-for-yourselves approach? Mark Twain pointed at a nugget here when he apologized for giving a lengthy speech on the grounds that he had not had time to prepare a shorter one. Once we have our material assembled our thoughts turn to making it appealing. We’ve learned that this
experience growth magazine.
involves speaking with passion, but what does that mean? Not every topic lends itself to an impassioned delivery.
What’s your passion? Speaking with passion involves us first in identifying our own underlying emotion. Why does ‘The Topic’ matter to me? If I can communicate that emotion, let it inform both my words and my delivery, I stand a good chance of making my audience care about it as well. So runs the thinking.
Issue 5. Autumn 2014
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Adopting what I refer to as the 180° principle, we should always place ourselves in the audience and ask, as deeply as is
required, what would I want to hear from me today? What call to action would move me to not just comprehend but to adopt my viewpoint?
Really prepare for and then listen to your audience. Audiences instinctively know when this sort of preparation has been undertaken and they find it both flattering and engaging. The speaker really has prepared the talk just for them, it’s clear.
Keys to Authenticity The key to authenticity lies in an area so often neglected during the preparation stage, namely that of nonverbal communication. We focus so much on the words we forget almost entirely about how we are going to deliver them. The reason this area is so essential is twofold.
Almost anything you know about your audience will help here. What dare you assume about their prior knowledge and how much context do you need to set for them?
Firstly any mismatch between what we say and how we appear to be saying it will result in the audience believing the non-verbal over the verbal every time. We’re hard wired; body language is impossible to ignore. Secondly, body language does not need to be rehearsed, indeed should not be. What needs refining is our intent as speakers. If we adopt the attitude and
We focus so much on the words we forget almost entirely about how we are going to deliver them.
Issue 5. Autumn 2014
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