The Lucky Country (WT580)

The Lucky Country (WT580)

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by Shirley Dalton | 6 Aug, 2021 | Blog, Mindset

WT 580 The Lucky Country

When I was starting to go out on my own with girlfriends we went to a pub in Newcastle called The Lucky Country. At the time I didn’t think anything of it. It was just a name.

That’s all changed now, especially with Covid19.

As we’ve travelled around Australia for the past two and a half years we’ve experienced many places; some hot and humid, some freezing cold, wet and windy, others dry and desolate. Some places were tiny, like where we are tonight at Venus Bay in the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia; full time population about 30.

Other places have been bustling with lots to do and millions of people like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

What’s my point?

As we’ve travelled, I’ve really come to appreciate Australia and Australians and I  understand that we really are very very fortunate to be living in The Lucky Country.

Over the past 6 or 7 weeks we’ve driven over 5,000 kilometres from Darwin down through the centre, out to Uluru, stopped off at Coober Pedy and Woomera to Venus Bay.

We’ve been lucky to have water and electricity. We have gas for the stove. We have diesel for the motorhome. We have food. We have clothes and we have a heater if we get cold.

We have also mostly been free to travel around.

Other people in other countries are not so fortunate.

I just want to take a moment tonight to express my gratitude.

To appreciate how fortunate I am to have been born in this country and to live my life feeling both safe and free.

What do you think?

Is Australia really The Lucky Country?

Regards Shirley

P.S. Our signature Leading Yourself and Leading Others Experience is now open for registrations and we only have one spot left. The experience runs over 4 Thursdays in September. If this is of interest to you, let’s chat. For more information Click Here.

P.P.S. Save the date for Friday 20th August for our next free online training. We’ll be doing a LIVE re-run of How Your Personality Affects How Well You Lead. Mark your calendar now for 11:00am Sydney time. There’s always something more you can learn.

P.P.P.S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.                   

Careful What You Focus On (WT579)

Careful What You Focus On (WT579)

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by Shirley Dalton | 30 Jul, 2021 | Blog, Mindset

WT 579 Careful what you focus on

I was chatting with our neighbours in the caravan park at Yulara, Northern Territory (near Uluru), when a lady came up and told us that she had been robbed the night before.

Thieves had stolen her husband’s beer from their $2,000 fridge plus a 6 pack that had been left outside. The thieves left the fridge.

When I shared this story with Ross, he said he had heard that same lady asking some other neighbours about security the day before.

Be careful what you focus on because you get whatever it is you focus on, especially what you fear.

Fear is such a powerful vibration and our vibrations attract things into our lives.

Years ago I used to be frightened of a particular event happening and I would say to Ross that it was my biggest nightmare.

Of course, my biggest nightmare manifested.

Because it involves other people, I won’t share the details, however it was a powerful example to me of changing what I focus on.

Simply put, you get what you expect, so expect the best.

In the lady’s example she was focussed on and fearful of being robbed and that’s exactly what happened.

Wouldn’t you rather invest your time and energy and vibration focussing and manifesting what you want.

Careful what you focus on.

Regards Shirley

P.S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.

Recruit for the Role (WT578)

Recruit for the Role (WT578)

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by Shirley Dalton | 23 Jul, 2021 | Blog, Business

WT 578 Recruit for the Role

Last week in our online training I provided a formula for finding, hiring and keeping the right people.

What I’ve found as I’ve worked with hundreds, if not thousands of companies over the years is that many are still making the mistake of hiring the person instead of hiring for the role.

What do I mean by this?

Many are still hiring people that they know and then do their best to create a role to suit the person.

I have to be clear about this.

This is the wrong way to hire.

The first thing you want to do is to map your processes to work out the tasks and standards that are required of the role.

Once you’ve done that you can give the role a title and start to look at what we call “KESAQ” – the knowledge, experience, skills, attitude and qualifications that the ROLE needs.

Being clear about the KESAQ for the role helps you to create a compelling advertisement to attract the right people.

It also makes it easy for you to determine whether applicants match the KESAQ for the role.

If they do, you can add them to your shortlist.

We know interview is the least reliable form of recruitment because it’s often the person who has the best interview skills that gets the job and not necessarily the best person for the job.

You can minimise your risk here by giving them some practical tests such as a typing test or a case study.

You can also include profiling to get a better idea of who the person is and what their personality and values are.

Too often I see the wrong people hired because the recruitment process isn’t rigorous.

How about your organisation? Is your recruitment process defined and followed or is it adhoc and dependent on who gets recommended?

P.S. Our signature Leading Yourself and Leading Others Experience is now open for registrations and we only have a couple of places left, plus the Early Bird Discount ends at the end of this month. For more information Click Here.

P.P.S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.

Are You Open to Receiving? (WT577)

Are You Open to Receiving? (WT577)

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by Shirley Dalton | 16 Jul, 2021 | Blog, Mindset

WT 577 Are you open to receiving?

Wow! What a couple of weeks we’ve had.

We’d been at the van park in Darwin for a few days when we found out at midday on a Sunday that we were going into lockdown at 1pm that day. That was an hour later.

Ross and I were in a panic.

We’d also been told that the supermarkets were going to close and we had little fresh food in the motorhome.

As we were frantically packing up the motorhome to drive to the shops one of the neighbours came over and offered for us to go with them.

“Yes please!” we smiled.

We were so grateful.

When we got to the shops there was a line up to get into Woolworths grocery store. We waited in the sun for what seemed like an eternity.

As we neared the entrance to the store, an employee offered us masks.

“Thank you!”, again grateful for the gesture.

Over the next few weeks we were invited to join our neighbours and their group to watch the State of Origin football matches and join in with Happy Hour of an afternoon.

On a number of occasions, different members of the group offered for us to go with them to the shops.

This was an amazing offer for us because our only other means of transport was riding our electric pushbikes and we were 5km from the nearest shops. In the Darwin heat of 32 degrees Celsius and 90% humidity, we said “Yes Please and Thank You” to every opportunity we got.

Now, why am I telling you this?

It’s because we haven’t always been that way. In the past we were fiercely independent and proud – too proud to accept help.

Not these days. If someone offers to help me, I’m a grateful recipient.

Likewise we also expressed our thanks and gratitude by reciprocating with a carton of beer (which I managed to carry on the back of my pushbike – but that’s another story).

Being open to receiving can be a challenge for some of us, so your challenge this week is to say “Yes, thank you”, when someone offers to help you in any way OR you can also choose to ask for help if you need it.

People are not judging you harshly for asking for or accepting help.

Most of us want to help. It’s how we feel good about ourselves.

So if you must, look at it this way, by accepting the help, you are actually helping someone else feel good about helping.

Are you open to receiving?

P.S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.

Everything is Draft – Until it is Final (WT576)

Everything is Draft – Until it is Final (WT576)

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by Shirley Dalton | 9 Jul, 2021 | Blog, Systems and Processes

WT 576 Everything is Draft Until it is Final

You know that I do a lot of systems and procedures work for clients.

One of my mantras is “Everything is draft – until it’s Final”.

I often say this to my clients because they can be reluctant to provide feedback if we haven’t quite gotten the procedure down pat.

I don’t take offence.

I prefer to get the procedures correct rather than having unhappy clients because they don’t speak up.

What I’ve found is that often we need to encourage people to speak up. Many won’t speak up because they are afraid of hurting our feelings.

Once I give people permission and even encouragement to speak up, I can see them visibly relax before they share the changes.

We can’t fix what we don’t know about.

What would you rather? Would you rather someone be polite to you and not tell you or would you rather them share what’s going on for them so you have a chance to resolve any issues?

This seems like such a minor concept; getting people to correct some procedures, however it leads to a much more critical and major concept and that is a concept known as “Group Think”.

MindTools.com describes Group Think as “a phenomenon that occurs when the desire for group consensus overrides people’s common sense desire to present alternatives, critique a position, or express an unpopular opinion. Here, the desire for group cohesion effectively drives out good decision-making and problem solving.”

One such example was the team of engineers working on the Challenger Space Shuttle. They knew that the O rings were faulty and yet said nothing because they didn’t want to delay the project or risk bad press. Unfortunately, we know how that ended.

If you’ve got something to say; if you have information to share, I encourage you to be courageous and share it. You might be surprised at the response you get. You might find that even though your message might not be exactly what people want to hear, they will respect you for speaking up and having the courage to get things changed.

Your challenge this week is to speak up. Go ahead, say what’s on your mind. Share what needs to be shared. Nothing can be improved or resolved if you don’t.

P.S. This month’s free online training is scheduled for Friday 16th July at 11:00am Sydney Time – Discover the Secrets to Finding, Hiring and Keeping the Right People. You can register here: https://shirleydalton.convertri.com/finding-hiring-keeping-the-right-people

P.P.S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.       

Nobody is Helping (WT575)

Nobody is Helping (WT575)

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by Shirley Dalton | 2 Jul, 2021 | Blog, Leadership

WT 575 Nobody is helping

We were stopped at the traffic lights on a hot and humid Friday afternoon in Darwin.

“OMG! Ross”, I yelled, “Nobody is helping” as I pointed to a young guy who was laying underneath his motorbike at the traffic lights on the side street to us.

As we were waiting for the lights to turn green I watched in horror as I saw the guy and the bike fall over.

I was stunned that nobody rushed to help.

There was a car in front of him and a car behind him and a long line of traffic.

Our lights turned green and we crossed the intersection and pulled up.

Without thinking, I jumped out of the van and ran to his aid.

Thankfully, by this time another man had appeared to help, amidst the women from the front car who only seemed interested in whether he had damaged their car before taking off.

We got the bike off him and picked the broken pieces up off the road and moved to the grass across the road.

He was shaken but okay.

He was more concerned that it wasn’t his bike.

He mentioned he was the apprentice and was able to call someone to come with a trailer to pick him up.

The other guy on the scene was able to wait with him.

I raced over to the motorhome and got him a bottle of water.

With that we got going.

“Wow, I can’t believe people didn’t rush to help”, I said to Ross.

It really upset me to see people just sitting in their car watching.

I know I’m not supposed to judge. Well that’s a judgement of myself, isn’t it?

It was another sad example of what psychologists call “The Bystander Effect”.

What this means is that if you’re in trouble, you’re better off to have just one other person around because if there are many, they will all stand back, thinking that someone else will help and of course, nobody does.

I’m curious. What would you have done?

Would you have sat in your car or would you have gone to his aid?

No judgement.

P.S. This month’s free online training is scheduled for Friday 16th July at 11:00am Sydney Time – Discover the Secrets to Finding, Hiring and Keeping the Right People. Click here to register.

P.P.S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.

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