Thank you for sharing

Do you use Google+ ?  I've had it for a while now and didn't really get into it until a few days ago. When it first appeared you had to be given an invite to join up and so I wasn't one of those early adopters.
However, I am rapidly becoming a fan. This morning, last night and yesterday I managed to set up a profile and my middlefocus page. I have linked Blogger to Plus and if it works then this post should automatically appear on my stream and webpage. Seriously. They have made the technology transparent and all that was needed was a bit of patience.
What really impresses me though are the vast numbers of internauts out there who blog and post with show-hows.  I just wanted this post to go to them and say thank you for sharing,.  I'll be followng you and adding you to circles.

Increasing frequency

Reading across some blogs recently it is noticeable that the issue of how often to post is exercising the minds of writers. Some have decided to reduce the number of weekly posts to three and supplementing them with micro blogs on Twitter. The advantages of this are that the blog still retains prominence while readers get a little more space. The big advantage though is that the writer can concentrate on delivering a better quality post. Less is more.


It strikes me that while some are reducing to three well-crafted posts a week, I'll be upping the pace to go someway to meeting them. The new wireless keyboard and mouse combo is working well, Blogsy still delivers the magic on the iPad and the thoughts keep flowing. So I am aiming for two a week on this blog and a weekly post on each of my other two.

The trick will not only be in increasing frequency but improving quality. Hold me to it, won't you?

Leadership: Looked at the mirror recently?

The driver side wing mirror on my car has a vertical split designed to widen the field of rear view vision and minimise blind spots. It's not 100% foolproof and sometimes other cars travelling alongside can remain hidden. Ever had that experience? Get it once or twice and we quickly learn to make other checks before an important manoeuvre such as a change of direction; it can be dangerous to rely on a single viewpoint.

Workplaces these days often call for decisive actions from middle leaders navigating busy roads ahead. Although speed is of the essence it is still wise to take the time to check and signal our intentions to others likely to be affected by our actions.

We don't have the advantage of a split lens to compensate for our blind spots but we should be aware of those we have. Checking blind spots might mean that we enlist the support of others to critique our latest good idea, pointing out plusses and minuses in our direction of travel.

Checking and checking without moving is like "analysis paralysis" but driving ahead without checking is careless and dangerous. The skill is to develop a judicious mixture of both.

Books and workplace squeeze



My bookshelves are squeezed tight with all sorts of books. Of the non-fiction variety, apart from text books, the majority relate to personal and organisational improvement. Books bristling with brilliant ideas, sometimes opposed to one another. For example one advocates extensive to-do lists another says forget them. The trick is to try out the ideas for oneself and apply them to one's current situation.

I love books that make me think; for me the best "improvement" books are those which stimulate that thinking and leave me to get on with it.

Mark Twain once observed that the person who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the person who cannot read them. I know people have preferred ways of taking in information but it often surprises me that for many people their experience of the Classics is based on film or television.

In the world of effectiveness literature, a variation on Twain's point might be that the person who doesn't apply the learning from books has no advantage over the person who simply reads them.

I heard an "expert" in a radio interview decrying the self-help genre. He argued that all the guidance anyone would ever need was contained in the world's great literature. Of course, he didn't suggest where to start.....but there might be a self-help book for that!

He did have a point. Our busy, squeezed workplaces can sometimes leave us drained and a great way to recharge emotional and physical batteries is to make time and space for books. All types. Fiction introduces us to characters and situations removed from our workaday lives but with whom we can connect aspects of our own experience. Personal effectiveness literature, thoughtfully engaged with, can help us shape up to workplace squeeze.

Bookshelves: they speak volumes.