Bob Bannister, Author at iManage Performance

Becoming an Intrepreneur

by Bob Bannister on 18 September 2020

Many organisations are exploring what it might be to have staff that behave like entrepreneurs. Some are calling this Intrepreneurship. It is a topic that feels more at home in corporates, now so many of us are remote working, literally from home! This may be due to the ‘lone worker’ stereotype of the entrepreneur setting out on their own.

With people working more alone, could they be more exciting in the way they bring their skills and expertise to bare?

We have been exploring this topic and building some insight into what it would take to behave more like an entrepreneur in a corporate organisation. During this research, one model that stands out is Professor Hindles ‘Model of Entrepreneur Process’. We think this is really rather good! Look it up, you can find reference to it very easily on the web.

I love the way it gives order to the entrepreneur behaviour set. Stating the obvious, it starts with the identification of an opportunity. This is such a helpful observation. If you want to behave like an entrepreneur yourself, then look for opportunity. This doesn’t have to be ground breakingly new, it just needs to be an organisational opportunity to make something better than it is today. You can do this whatever job you are in. Seek out opportunities that make a difference and explore their viability with key stakeholder s and others around you.

The second thing that strikes me about the model is that, ‘personal commitment’ comes way later than you might have thought.

Many of us would assume entrepreneurs personally commit to an idea very early on. Well, that’s not the case. Not for successful entrepreneurs! What they do is understand the business case and then commit. This makes so much sense to me. Failure is a real possibility for the person who personally commits ahead of understanding the whether the numbers work out OK. You will have a far greater chance of success if that order is switched. Yes, we still need to commit, but not until we have as much certainty as possible that the business case is sound.

The entrepreneur is a person who organises, operates and assumes the risk of a business venture.

Understand what that venture is (opportunity), and commit only once the risks are fully weighed in the balance (Business Case).

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain

How Working from home can give you 20 days of personal investment!

by Bob Bannister on 29 July 2020

This week we are exhibiting at the first ever ‘Working From Home Show’ all without a single minute of commute time.

Every week now we are receiving calls from companies that are talking to us about changing the status quo and adapting to more home working following the global experiment of the past 5 months.

The upshot of all this, is that you and I and most people around the globe are looking for an opportunity to do less commuting, spend less time travelling, improve our general quality of life and increase our wellbeing too. Property guru’s tell us city house prices are set to decline as people move to the suburbs to capitalise on a better lifestyle, all facilitated via the increase in home working.

This change is huge, it’s truly life changing, at least it can be if you switch on and realise the potential. Here’s how to do it…

The current average commute time in the UK is a very accurate 84 minutes! That equates to 14 full 24 hour days a year. If you nudge that up to say 2 hours commute per day, you are spending 20 days of your life moving backwards and forwards to work. So here’s what the smart home workers are doing. They are investing that time.

It would be very easy to lose it, or in other words not take advantage of it. Just to let it morph into the new way of life. The alternative is to make some choices with that time and make those choices count. Here are three things (and there could be hundreds of other suggestions) you could do to make those additional days count.

Replace the commute with something of value

Firstly – Improve your wellbeing

Probably the first consideration should be how to improve your personal wellbeing. Our health is finite, sooner than you imagine the years will catch up with you and it will (I promise you) become a greater priority. You can take the topic of wellbeing in a thousand different directions, but work out what you need and substitute your commute time for it.

Secondly – Work at your relationships

Unattended, strained or broken relationships create heartache sorrow and long lasting pain. We are humans, we thrive on love care and attention. Our relationships are utterly precious and they can give and give again if tended, cared for and nurtured. Don’t make the mistake that you need to receive before you give. It’s the opposite, give generously to others, expect nothing in return, and the benefits will be invaluable. Choose your people carefully, an ancient proverbs suggests ‘One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.’ Invest your time in those you are closest too.

Thirdly – Enrich your own capability.

Investing in your own knowledge, skills and capabilities will never be a waste. Identify an area that you would like to develop and get down to it. Enrol on a course, join a programme, read, explore, be inquisitive. Enrich your ability by learning, developing, so that you are better than before. Effective people spend quality time on things that matter. Your own growth and improvement should matter so work out what you need and use the time effectively.

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain

The Innovation Factor

by Bob Bannister on 21 July 2020

Innovation is the action or process of imagining a new method, idea, product, etc. It is not invention, which is the act of taking that imagined idea and progressing it into reality. Both are super valuable in todays organisations, but without the former, the later won’t exist.

Many companies are crying out for innovators right now, to help them pivot and reinvent themselves in this fast changing world. Having the innovation factor is a great attribute to stay relevant and ultimately employed when others are struggling.

Yet there is something very significant about innovation, it is seldom if ever the imagining of something utterly, totally, uniquely brand new. Innovation is evolutionary. Ideas emerge through the feed of insights that any day and age offers. Let me give you a clear example. The fitness equipment company Peleton Interactive provide spin cycles alongside an interactive live spin class environment via a big interactive screen on the front of the cycle. None of these elements are in and of themselves new. The innovation has come from bringing them together. The spin exercise bike, the touch screen, subscription based streaming, live spin classes etc. All these things come together to bring their highly successful invention into peoples homes. At the time of writing their share price has tripled since it’s March (covid induced) low. It’s a major success story, yet none of the ingredients were new, it’s the innovative combination that delivered value.

So to be innovative, to have the innovation factor, we do not need to be massively creative (the act of creation, something entirely new). Instead we need to be good observers of the world around his, and have these three attributes:

An attitude that says innovation is critical.

Innovation becomes second nature when there is no choice other than innovating! Imagine a situation where you have no choice but to do something different, you will likely do something different. Uber Technologies are an example of this. They have suffered massively through the lockdown months, as people stopped moving around the planet using their innovative taxi service. With a slow recovery of their original business likely, they have had to pivot and innovate further. So they’ve turned to home delivery; take aways, shopping, you name it, Uber can now pick it up and deliver it for you. Why, because it is critical that they do so.

The more we perceive we have no choice but to pivot, the more innovative we will always be.

A preparedness to invest.

Innovation takes investment. Investment is never without some element of risk. To be innovative, we have to add time, money, effort into the equation. We cannot expect to innovate unless we value it enough to spend; mentally, emotionally and sometimes financially. Innovators cut out time and expend effort in its pursuit. If we want to innovate, we have to do the same.

A willingness to do something different.

If we do the same thing, we will get the same thing. A starting point for innovation is to do something different. If I start to change things, alter them up, mix them up, then I open the door to innovative thinking. I generate the space for the ‘what if’ question. Remember innovation is seldom ground breaking but nearly always incremental. That makes innovating much easier for us to replicate, experiment with and suggest within our organisations.

I often think that many business do everything they can to stop innovation. They like the stable stuff, the routine, the regular. It’s safe after all! But is it really? When the world changes all around us, then we need to innovate, failure to do this could even result in disaster or decay. Take the classic examples of Kodak, turning away from the digital camera, or Blockbusters failing to embrace streaming.

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain

How to influence when working remotely

by Bob Bannister on 14 July 2020

We have a number of clients who are asking how influencing skills change when working remotely. Often times it’s been connected to customer relationship management, or procurement, buyer / seller negotiations. The topic however is useful for us all to consider in this new post covid world.

To be clear here, I am not referring to online influencing of consumer behaviour as they visit your website. In this blog I want to address the simple idea that I (as a person) want to influence you (as the other person) although we are working remotely in some way.

First off, don’t drop everything you’ve learnt about influencing in the real world. Those skills and insights still apply, you just have to be more focused when working remotely at influence. Here are two questions that can help you make things happen remotely.

What is it you want to achieve?

Be crystal clear about your desired outcome. It is pointless trying to influence an outcome when you don’t know the intended destination. It is even more pointless when remote working. It will help to define your intent in emotional terms as well as in rational logic. The numbers only tell a part of the story in influencing; you can present as strong a logical case as possible, but recipients will still need you to fill in the emotional story. Work out what the emotional journey needs to be in the mind of the other person and craft a story line that gets you there. For example, you are trying to influence the section of potential supplier B over A. Then express why supplier B is the better option, not only in the numbers, but in their values, aligned culture, style, ways of working etc.

How do I look on webcam?

This may seem a shallow question, but it is far from it. We communicate and influence massively through visual cues, this includes: what my environment looks like; what I am wearing; my posture; my animation; my expression; my gesture; my micro movements (e.g. a raised eyebrow).

Think about it, these are all areas you have total control of when connecting with another person remotely. If that’s the case, why leave any of it to chance? Think about it, analysis how you look and work at fine tuning it. One of the things I really encourage influencers to do is to spend a small amount on a good quality external cam. You can totally change the perspective if you have the cam 1 to 2 metres in front of you rather than the typical ‘up your nose’ lap top perspective! Anyone doing a lot of remote working needs to do this.

We all influence all the time, it’s whether we are influencing for good or bad that matters. If you charge in and don’t consider the impact of these two simple areas, you will still influence, but influence others not to come with you. Remember most influencing (with the exception of coercive power) is incremental. It seldom occurs in a single movement, instead it’s in the many little nudges that bring change and buy into to a view or position. Plan those nudges carefully and you will start to reap the dividends of being increasingly influential.

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain

Give me what I want!

by Bob Bannister on 9 July 2020

Here’s a very quick blog that has massive potential. I want to suggest that there are three things that every person wants from others. If we know what they are, then we can become super expert at winning over others and building strong lasting powerful relationships.

These are not difficult things to fake, but who would want to do that anyway! No, we need to genuinely own these three, demonstrate them, and from that starting point develop the connection. Here they are:

Attention

Everyone you interface with desires your attention. Not half hearted attention, but full on attention! They want you to connect with them, and almost just them. They don’t want you to be connected to your phone, or looking out of the window, or watching others out of the corner of your eye. They just want you to engage one on one and connect with them.

Interest

The second thing they are crying out for is your genuine interest. They want to feel you are engaged with them. Not asking meaningless questions, but in a dialogue that is generative. A conversation that is buoyant, alive and discovering things.

Care

The third requirement is simply to be shown care. They want to interface with people who will be caring, empathising, connecting with genuine concern. Not treating them flippantly or just as one of the crowd, but expressing true concern for their wellbeing.

You should give these three a try, work at them, you will quickly find reciprocal behaviour and growth in relationship that has loads of potential.

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain

What makes a great learner?

by Bob Bannister on 30 June 2020

Having operated in this learning and development space for the past two decades, I’ve amassed a significant tally of trainees, that have as it were learnt under my wing. A very rough estimate puts it at around 7000 people. In that time I’ve probably seen everything a trainer might expect to come across in a life time! Truly the good the bad and the metaphorical ugly! As a learner it might be very easy to blame the teacher for a poor learning experience, perhaps justifiably in some cases, but without doubt the mindset of the learner will make an enormous impact on the value of the intervention.

I see this weekly, often daily. I also see the contrast between groups of people that are truly ‘working’ the learning experience, and those that have to be pulled, nudged and cajoled into a learning zone. It’s only happened once, but I remember one particular delegate many years ago sitting in their seat arms crossed, announcing to the group “I’m not doing this exercise, it’s not my learning style!” For a short moment, I was speechless!

In my experience, great learners do seem to have some similar characteristics. Here’s what I’ve found they have in common.

They are inquisitive

Great learners are like little kids in the rock pool, inquisitively lifting rocks to find out what’s underneath. They are like explorers, open to whatever they encounter on their expedition. This openness to all possibilities is so helpful in learning. Rather than casting off an idea, they engage with it and explore its credibility, questioning, exploring, developing their understanding.

They value their time

Great learners value their time so much that they totally commit to the learning experience, protecting that time jealously. In contrast others consider learning time something that can be played with; phone calls made; emails completed all in the pursuit of perceived effectiveness. The reality is they murder the opportunity to develop and at best leave with a few incremental improvements. The learners that commit time, leave with rich insights and matured thinking. They are very present, especially when attending remote workshops online, cameras on, committed to the experience.

They go deeper

Great learners demonstrate the humility that recognises they can still learn, and they penetrate the depths of a topic. Poor learners skid along the surface, seeing ideas as very simple in concept. Putting learning preferences aside, great learners are willing to give a concept time and thought in order to extract its richness. They will take the time to milk every last drop of insight before leaving the topic. It’s like learning to play a page of music. The player may grasp the basics of the piece, and manage to perform it. But the great learners will work it, again and again, to nuance, to refine, to take every little part, explore timing, dynamics, expression, phrasing, rhythm, musicianship, technique, variation, interaction with others etc. The deep dive brings deep learning and ultimately excellence in performance.

Listen to Squeeze episode 35 for more on this topic.

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain

Now might be a good time to break out of your rut and realise your potential!

by Bob Bannister on 22 June 2020

I wonder how many of us feel that we haven’t yet reached our full potential. I have no real idea if everyone thinks this or whether it’s just me? I guess some people don’t care, others may feel that they’ve not reached their peak yet live happily with that thought. If you are like me, it’s been a constant driver over many years. Of course the potential of reward is motivating, but for me it’s something deeper, I love the challenge of doing better, achieving more, attaining, maximising my potential.

I’m like it in business, but in other walks of life too. I love the challenge of motorsport sprinting. Sprinting is you a car and the track, and you are trying to find the perfect lap (a bit like qualifying). I study the previous attempt, I try and work out where there’s more speed to be extracted and I strive to reach my true potential. In business, I’m always tinkering away, at ways to improve the offering, bring innovative solutions, push ahead and achieve.

Yet even with this inbuilt drive, I have a real tendency to plateau! I’ve frequently found myself getting onto a rut and finding periods where I do not seem to progress. Sometimes hose periods have been prolonged. I remember a period when our business hit a turnover ceiling which lasted several years. I was working hard, still wanting to grow the business, but for some reason we could not push past a certain threshold.

It’s that brick wall thing I’ve recently been trying to break though again, and I think I have some insight! It’s not ground breaking insight, it’s not even something that I’ve not been aware of in the past! It’s that I’ve come to realise that in the past I have often failed to walk the talk! And the talk is this…

If you do the same thing, you get the same thing!

So if you want something different, you have to do something different!

This is much easier said than done. I find that there can be many barriers in the way of doing something different. Sometimes those barriers come in the form of other people, who are comfeartable! That’s too comfortable to bother, too fearful to try.

With all that said, maybe now is a really good time to break out and do something different. I have certainly found the current remote working climate useful in making a move on my next achievement frontier. So much has changed around about us; some things may never be the same again, but that’s OK, because it forces us to do something different. If we do something different, it stands to reason we will get a different result. The post covid world may create a momentum that forces people out of being so comfeartable.

What change could you force right now that might lead to a greater realisation of your potential? Get action orientated, work out what you need to try, and push through the barriers to open up an exciting new opportunity.

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain.

How to approach interviewing people remotely.

by Bob Bannister on 16 June 2020

The interviewers guide.

Doing a good job of interviewing is harder than we might first imagine. There are loads of things that we can get wrong, so getting some good training on this topic is a must for any recruiter. For this blog, I’m going to assume you know what you are doing normally, and just focus on the key things that are different when holding that interview remotely.

If you are interested, we have another blog which is the ‘interviewees guide’ – it’s definitely worth reading this if you are the interviewer!

Here are some simple but important things:

Top Tip 1 – Ensure everyone uses their cam.

The visual connection is so helpful for everyone involved, so make sure your team all have their cameras on. This should not be optional! Some may make excuses for not using their cams, but remember you are also selling the organisation to the candidate; if they can’t see, you are limiting their understanding and ultimately their interest in you.

Explain to interviewees that this will also be required of them. It would be very easy to bias your decision making if some candidates used cams and others didn’t.

Providing the visual improves communication, you and the candidate will better understand each other if you have the opportunity to read the expression, body language, posture, gesture etc.

By the way, the audio feed is often improved if everyone uses earbuds or headphones. So consider making this a requirement too.

Top Tip 2 – Think about your background!

Even if you are interviewing from your own home, give some thought to the company image that you are projecting. Some things are not variable, but as far as possible, make sure that your background is conducive for giving a helpful impression. Check the detail, what’s in shot, move things around, tidy up etc to create as professional perspective as possible.

Top Tip 3 – Bank your questions by interviewer.

In face to face interviews it can be relatively easy for different interviewers to ask questions in a relaxed interchangeable way. This is harder with remote interviewing. Best practice is to be more rigorous about who’s asking the questions at any given point. Group the agreed questions by interviewer and have them ask them all, before moving to the next interviewer.

Top Tip 4 – Have an independent note taker.

Make sure that you assign note taking to someone who is not actively involved in the interview process. You already have to manage the platform, coordinate the interviewers and probably ask your own questions. That’s enough for any brain to cope with!

In addition, it’s likely that you will be using the microphone within your laptop. If you are typing on it at the same time, there is an added audio challenge (of the sound of your typing) making harder for everyone.

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain.

How do I come across well in a remote interview?

by Bob Bannister on 9 June 2020

The interviewees guide.

It’s already a part of work life; holding and or attending interviews remotely happens regularly. In this first of two parts on the subject we are going to take a look at the question from the interviewees perspective. Next time we can deal with the interviewers viewpoint.

For a start lets state the obvious, an online interview needs to do all the good things that you would expect in a traditional interview. So here I want to deal with some ideas that might be specifically useful for a remote interview scenario.

Top Tip 1 – What’s the place like?

You get a significant amount of helpful information when you turn up physically for an interview. I’m thinking about cultural indicators and clues. Simple things like; What’s the building like? How are people generally dressed? Whats the mood? Is it a vibrant noisy place, or quieter and more formal.

These cues are very helpful in gauging how to pitch yourself in the interview. They are small but significant indicators that you lose in remote interviews.

To counter for this you need to do a bit more research than normal. Specifically look for ways to get a feel for the organisation over and above the technical aspects. What can you learn about the organisation from the google street view, the style of the twitter feed, imagery on the website etc.

Build up a picture that profiles the organisation and people to help you fine tune your approach.

Top tip 2 – Know what platform you will be using.

There’s nothing worse than coming across poorly because you are struggling with the technology. If at all possible find out what platform they will use to host the interview. Often it will be a public system, which means you can gain access and familiarise yourself with the facilities and options beforehand. Maybe you will need to make a presentation during the interview; find out how to do this in good time. Work out what’s needed to share your screen, and by the way, make sure you have set your computer background to something neutral and suitable!

Top tip 3 – Consider your opening sequence.

First impressions are still important when attending an online interview, so make sure you give good consideration to your opening sequence. Ensure you arrive punctually, this is not an option! Show positivity and enthusiasm in a natural way. Be clear and comfortably concise, answer questions once and stop talking, avoid any waffling. This is a real danger when you can’t see the interviewers on the other end of the conference.

We’ve all seen those adverts when the interviewee has dressed smartly on top, but is in shorts and flip flops from the waist down. It’s comical, but honestly, it’s not going to help you put yourself across. Dress right down to the shoes you would have worn in the old interview world, and give yourself that extra edge of professionalism in your whole positioning.

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain.

Two new things we have learnt about remote working

by Bob Bannister on 2 June 2020

We’ve been digital nomads for decades, but the past couple of months has escalated our combined experience exponentially. It would be great to hear from you about what you’ve learnt, but here are two things that we’ve discovered working with a range of our clients.

People may be spending too much time on online conferencing!

There seems to be a new overload for many people. It’s always been too much email, but now people are talking about too much conferencing. It’s eating into peoples work time and adding to the probability of stretching the working day at either or both ends. Sensible teams are agreeing limits for themselves, but others are drowning in them.

Digging a little deeper, it seems that poor conferencing behaviour is slowing things down. Like allowing a few to dominate, limiting the collaboration rather than helping it. We are recommending that online conferencing needs ‘super good’ facilitation skills, they also seem to benefit significantly from an independent chairperson.

It’s too easy for a chair who has a stake in the outcome, to bias the conference rather than focusing on inclusion and collaboration. We are hearing a lot of people airing this type of frustration. Quieter people are metaphorically being pushed to the back of the room.

A single place of work is helping people cope with the division of life.

On a more positive note, some best practice is emerging in regard to remote worker wellbeing. Many of us are used to and comfortable with the division of work and home, that of course has been utterly destroyed in recent weeks! Normally we might expect to have the commute as a cool down period, our unwind that helps us transverse these two worlds that we inhabit. Now, we might be working one minute and then find ourselves dealing with a domestic crisis the next! This is stressful and most of the time pretty uncomfortable. It can easily lead to a range of frustrations, disappointments, embarrassments and more.

So what can we do about it? Well, one emerging practice that can help is the creation of a single place of work in the home. Now don’t get this out of proportion, this doesn’t need a £15k cabin in the garden. It can in fact be the corner of the kitchen table, but the point is, it’s always that corner. We create a place that is work and treat it as if it’s only work. When you sit there you are in work mode, therefore to deal with anything other than work you step away from that place.

It seems that adopters of this practice are finding it easier to segregate work and home. It’s no less dynamic; you might be working away one minute and then need to deal with a domestic crisis the next, but the point is, you literally get up and step away from the corner of the kitchen table to deal with the domestic. You and others in the property increasingly understand the division, and it helps the mind to cope with the interchange between these two worlds.

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain

Author: Bob Bannister

Becoming an Intrepreneur

How Working from home can give you 20 days of personal investment!