In retrospect, too often, we can see that a potential crisis has been building over an extended period. The warning signs were there; the rats started fleeing the sinking ship. The smouldering had been noticed. The red flags had been raised. Whatever metaphor you want to use, few crises come out of nowhere. Avoiding a situation is often about seeing trends and identifying that there will be a crisis if you continue in the direction you expect.
One of the critical things that bedevils crisis response is denial. You can refuse to confront the unpalatable truth of the circumstances and act as though this is not a crisis.
I attended a fascinating workshop delivered by an individual who had been working in a crisis service built up from scratch over many, many years. He and his group of volunteers based themselves at the notorious UK suicide spot, Beachy Head.
I think there’s a very big difference between the pleasure from an activity and the sense of achievement. So, what is rewarding after 70 for me comes most closely to understanding what will feel like success? What will feel like achievement?
I remember a very, very experienced professional who’d had some big corporate jobs and as he got older and more elderly, I would meet with him regularly. He told me that now, as he moved into his mid-seventies, all he believe he should do was watch and pray. To acknowledge this, he had a lapel badge with a heron. This is a bird that stands very still watching and then goes in and makes a brief intervention to catch a fish.
I recently came across a report, developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) : The Global Report on Ageism in 2021.
One of the things that is interesting in this report is how they see the definition of ageism.
I remember a very, very experienced professional who’d had some big corporate jobs and as he got older and more elderly, I would meet with him regularly. He told me that now, as he moved into his mid-seventies, all he believe he should do was watch and pray. To acknowledge this, he had a lapel badge with a heron. This is a bird that stands very still watching and then goes in and makes a brief intervention to catch a fish.
The AQai model has three strands or domains.
Things you can learn to get better at; things that reflect your response to the challenges of adaptability; things that relate to the environment within which you operate
As far as the environmental profile is concerned in the AQai assessment, environment is all about the situation that you find yourself in and your ability to influence, adapt or renegotiate that environment. The emotional health score is characterised as how often do you feel sadness or stress.
Back in March 2021, Jonathan MacDonald, Kaur Lass and myself had conversations about Mental Wellness Habits, this series of articles is based on those conversations. You can read the previous articles in the series here and here.
In my work with CEOs, Portfolio Executives and Charity leaders, I regularly see things that are stress factors. Addressing these is a critical part of what we do with people. I have had people come to me sent by their business partner because their partner recognises that they are literally working themselves to death.
So much of lasting change that we can embed in our lives comes through establishing habits, our attitude to habits is crucial to our long-term success. We can go out and do a big push to make something happen but the change you can create by doing 1% better every day for 90 days is almost 2.5 times. Habits are the key, once you’ve established a habit it’s a foundation on which you can build.
Your attitude to self is a critical component of your success. I’ve recently become very interested in the thinking behind the model of Voice Dialogue. The people who founded the movement that has become Voice Dialogue realised, in summary, we don’t have one self.
It’s hard to miss the increasing call for us to talk about our mental health. The guilty secret of mental illness that has haunted individuals and families is giving way to increasing openness and recognition that mental health is an issue for us all. If this was 25 years ago, I’d be very reluctant to share my experience of a very severe manic episode that I had in my late teens.
What do AirBnB, Uber and Groupon have in common? They were all founded during the 2008 banking crisis.
In fact, it was Andrew Wolstenholme who coined the phrase “Never Waste a Good Crisis” in his visionary report on the future of the construction industry as a sustainable, low-carbon industry at its lowest point in 2009.
In the era of the #metoo movement, there are many voices suggesting that organisations should actively manage the power relationships between employers, managers and staff to avoid situations of potential abuse.
Harry has taken the courageous step to reshape his working life and there are lessons for us all:
One of the toughest things to deal with when you are setting out as a Portfolio Executive is disappointment. You may have felt less sensitive to it when you were in your previous corporate life because you could always tell yourself that the ‘no’ wasn’t really about you – it was because of the organisation.