A superpower in business, doing the work and practice - Cultivated Management Newsletter

Hi,   Hope you are having a good week.  

Knowledge Repeater or Truth Seeker

Over the years I've seen managers become aware of a strategy that works for someone else and then put it in to practice themselves to see what happens. And then learn from what they uncover.

I've also seen managers become aware of a strategy that works for someone else, and then tell everyone else how to do this strategy, yet never discover whether this idea or strategy even works. It's someone else's strategy. But they sound clever.

My advice is to be the manager who puts a strategy in to practice and sees if it works. This is the manager I've tried to be. The ideas and strategies you'll become aware of might work in your environment, or they may not. They may achieve the same results as others may claim, or they may not. Different people, different challenges, different constraints, different contexts. But don't let that stop you from trying.

Try something, see if it works, take what is useful, mash it with other strategies and ideas, move on.

This approach has worked well for me. Everything I write about has been put in to practice. Everything. But it might not all work for you.

The problem with being the manager who repeats other people's strategies and ideas without seeing if they work, is this:

• You'll get basic questions you cannot answer. This reduces the trust in you. Personal Brand is important.

• You'll encounter basic problems you should have avoided. This reduces the trust in you. Personal Brand is important.

• You'll eventually run out of strategies to fall back on.

• You will likely force others to fit a narrow strategy (the few you really know), rather than applying the right strategy to the context you're in.

A manager with many strategies grounded in experience, is a manager who can capitalise on business value as its discovered and remain on the business' purpose.

A manager with few strategies and little real-world challenging of those strategies is likely to be inflexible and not take advantage of value as it emerges in our complex business world.

Develop your superpower in the world of business

I'm pleased to announce that I am helping business professionals to develop a superpower in the world of business in January, in person.

I'm running my Communication Skills for Professionals workshop in Winchester, Hampshire, UK on Saturday 28th January 2017.

It's strictly limited to 30 people.

If you want to develop the superpower of communication and you can make it then I would be delighted to meet you.

Tickets are on sale now and can be bought here.
Details of the workshop can be found here.
 

I'm finalising the details of the venue but it will be in Winchester city centre. An awesome city, very historic, lots of good travel and transport and a fabulous spot for a wintery communications workshop.

After years of running this award winning workshop at conferences and companies I'm running my very own. Exciting times :)

Note : No superhero powers like invisibility, ability to fly or telepathy will be developed but I will arm you with an awesome ability to communicate, and this alone will set you apart from the masses and make you stand out - for all of the right reasons.

Book of the week : Do The Work

Steven Pressfields two books on resistance and creativity are essential reading for anyone trying to create something. Whether you are creating art or a management strategy - the books are super helpful.

Creating new work is hard. And it's not always the act of creating that is tough - it's usually the resistance. 

In his books Steven Pressfield explores this resistance and exposes it for what it is - a killer of dreams. The War Of Art and Do The Work are both exceptional reads. I read both every year. There's so much to gain. 

"Fear of success is the essence of Resistance" - Do The Work

This week's writing

  Remove the nonsense - a manager's job is to remove the rubbish so that talented people can get on.

The Path Of Least Resistance - a story of a manager who followed the path of least resistance with bad consequences   Until next week Rob..