Middlefocus

  A friend of mine, a former co-worker, turned natural curiosity to advantage and avoided a potential embarrassment. What would you do if you saw an envelope labelled like this on a desk? I couldn't resist it for long and so approached him and said, "I have to ask...what's in this envelope?" He asked me if I was sure I wanted to know. Then he said that before he showed me I must agree not to tell any of our co-workers. I agreed. The envelope contained... A book of ballots! One of his children had asked him to sell some at work and that was something he really didn't like doing. So rather than ask around, he avoided embarrassment by posting this envelope near his desk where it would be easily visible. Colleagues saw it and approached him. Of course I bought some, kept quiet and by the end of the day the envelope was down, mission accomplished. Clever? I think so. I wonder in what ways middle leaders could arouse curiosity in their workplace. How might...

Entreprendre: It's a verb that had given us the word entrepreneur with all its many connotations of business success. It is reported that George Bush once complained that the problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur although the truth of this statement is contested here . The noun has come to mean many things since it was first coined back in the early 18 century. See Wikipedia article here I like the French verb entreprendre. It breaks nicely into two parts, between and to take. To take between. For middle leaders, managing their teams and being managed themselves the verb seems appropriate. Taking between. Does that make middle leaders/managers entrepreneurs? Posted with Blogsy

You know that busy supermarket moment when you decide which check-out queue to join? That happened me a while back. The almost full car park that greeted me on arrival was a sure sign that there would be a lengthy wait. Still I had a list, needed the stuff and joined the fray. Picking the check-out The supermarket I use most has a long line of checkouts and I've noticed that the longest queues seem to be the ones nearest the exit. Further along the line, away from the exit, queues are a bit shorter so I tend to aim for one of those spots. I noticed on this visit that one of the operators was chatting to her customers as she scanned their purchases. That queue seemed to be moving fairly quickly so I joined it. Sure enough. She smiled, talked to kids in the line and engaged their frazzled parents. Here's the thing though, she worked smoothly, organising the throughput of items and slowing from time to time to match the shoppers' bagging pace. The result was that paym...

Needing some extra keys the other day, I called in to a nearby mall to get some cut. The kiosk, Timpson, supplies keys, does shoe repairs and provides other services. The person in charge was friendly, keen to please and offered a money off deal. He then handed me this simple thank you note. I don't recall any service providing me with that before. Sure, you'll see it on a till receipt but nothing quite so upfront as this. The thank you note included some commonly asked questions about the business. Is it a franchise? No, their outlets are run by colleagues trusted to serve customers in the way they think best. The note goes on...the bosses don't make the rules round here. That's fresh. Then, in response to the question, Do colleagues get their birthday off? Apparently so and they say it's a great way to say thank you to colleagues. Reading on, we learn a little bit about this family business... Father, the Chairman and son, the Chief Executive before tu...

Couldn't resist taking this picture. We had arrived at Cairnryan, Scotland and were waiting in the queue to board the evening ferry to Belfast. The satnav was still on and I noticed that we were out of road. Now there's a metaphor - out of road. Sometimes when we run out of road, reach the edge, it can feel as if there's nowhere to go but back. This road, the Belfast way, continues on the other side of the North Channel and heads for home. Next time I feel like I've reached the end of the road, I'll be checking for a bridge, tunnel or ferry. With or without a satnav.