Happy New Year!

Here are some questions that I found for reflecting on your year:

1. What did I learn? (Skills, knowledge, awareness', etc.)

2. What did I accomplish? (List of my wins and achievements.)

3. What would I have done differently? Why?

4. What did I complete or release? What still feels incomplete to me?

5. What were the most significant events of the year past? List the top three.

6. What did I do right? What do I feel especially good about? What was my greatest contribution?

7. What were the fun things I did? What were the things that were not fun?

8. What were my biggest challenges, roadblocks or difficulties?

9. How am I different this year than last?

10. For what am I particularly grateful?

Source

Happy Holidays!

This year has been a tough one.  From the highs of finishing my MBA and moving to a new country to the reality of living in the Middle East and dealing with my job.  I have to say that I have learned a lot about myself and I believe that this is a test in resilience and with the help of a few friends - will get through it with style!   And when in doubt - throw in 'Christmas Vacation' to remind oneself of home!

Wishing Everyone a Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Leaders vs. Builders

A new paradigm of thinking for the next decade?  or crazy blog ramblings?  you decide.

• The boss drives group members; the leader coaches them. The Builder learns from them.

• The boss depends upon authority; the leader on good will. The Builder depends on good.

• The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The Builder is inspired — by changing the world.

• The boss says "I"; the leader says "we". The Builder says "all" — people, communities, and society.

• The boss assigns the task, the leader sets the pace. The Builder sees the outcome.

• The boss says, "Get there on time;" the leader gets there ahead of time. The Builder makes sure "getting there" matters.

• The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown. The Builder prevents the breakdown.

• The boss knows how; the leader shows how. The Builder shows why.

• The boss makes work a drudgery; the leader makes work a game. The Builder organizes love, not work.

• The boss says, "Go;" the leader says, "Let's go." The Builder says: "come."

Source

Building Relationships

Living and working in the Middle East has definitly highlighted many nuances of business - the most important is the ability to network and create relationships.

This was highlighted to me the other day when there was an issue between 2 departments (let's call them John and Peter).  John was from the technical department who ordered a piece of equipment that was necessary.  Peter worked in purchasing and was the one who moved the order through the system.  The issue where they were at a stand-still on is that Peter had followed policy and re-sent the order back to John with questions.  John was being stubborn and insisting that Peter was holding the process up! 

The first point of note in this conversation is that neither had met face to face.  They both were insisting the other was holding up the process.  However, when I talked to Peter in purchasing he defended his position by mentioning that he was just following process.  When I questioned him further he said something that rang a bell - he said that if it was an issue of patient safety, he would bend the policy to ensure that the requirements were met.  But since John had not come to him in person he was unwilling to move mountains. 

The interesting thing is that this story is actually one between 2 arabic speaking individuals but this could just as easily happen in any office/institution in a Western Country.  The bottom line is simple, we need to communicate better.  In order to do this we need to get out of our cubicals / offices and go see people.  We need to interact with them and engage them in conversation. 

Something to Think about in 2010

As the year draws to a close here are a few words to think about and reflect on for the coming year:

What Matters Now

Since the Golf Open.....

Sorry I haven't written in a while - things have been getting interesting.  During early November I met a group of women who play Gaelic Football.  After a couple of days of training - I was off to Abu Dhabi for a tournament.  The game is very fast with self passing and running - didn't make any sense until I actually played it that weekend.  Two weeks later we headed to Bahrain for another tournament.  The difference in this one is that we won!   The team was playing in the women's B pool and the rest of the team has only been together for a little under 2 months.  It was awesome!

Other than that - I spent my birthday in London with friends - Kat & Pete.  Explored the city, met some new friends and generally got back to normal!  Now, I am back to work, a little over 2 weeks until Christmas and I will be staying here.  Warm Holiday Season for me. 

All for now!  Enjoy the holidays.