Friday 25 January

Wow, Friday again and it’s nearly February. Where is the time going? I am three weeks into my Weight Watchers regime and have lost 10 Ibs which I’m pleased about. I’m hoping for the full stone by Monday night’s weigh in. Only another 60 Ibs to go (hopefully by the end of May)...

I read an interesting and thought provoking piece in the Harvard Business Review this week, adapted from some work by Scott Edinger. It’s worth remembering, particularly for all of you managers and aspiring directors.

Make Emotional Connections with Your Employees

The higher up you go in an organization, the more important it is to connect with your employees on a personal level. Show people you work with that there is more to your relationship than the job. Here are three ways to forge these connections:

Give your undivided attention. This sounds simple, but it's easy to overlook when you are overloaded with ringing phones and packed inboxes. In conversations, put everything down and focus exclusively on what's being said.

Remember emotions are contagious. If you're feeling particularly anxious or negative, make an effort to quarantine yourself. When you're feeling especially buoyant, go to more meetings and spend more time with others.

Get out there. Even if you’re an introvert, reach out to people, engage them in discussion, and actively provide feedback. You can’t connect from behind a closed office door.

Adapted from “Three Ways Leaders Make Emotional Connections” by Scott Edinger.

One of the major pieces of work that I’m involved in at the moment is developing and writing the new Business Plan for the organisation. This will be our plan for the next 4 years. When starting a piece of work like this it is important to reflect and think hard about what is happening in the world around us. I am using a PESTLE analysis to summarise the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental impact on our county, communities and organisation. I thought that I would share a section of this with you in my blogs over the next few weeks so you are aware of the thinking behind the plan.

These future scenarios will need to be explored further and then addressed in our Business Plan. I’ll share some of the economic influencers that we will have to deal with next week.

For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.

Thanks for reading and we’ll talk again in a week or so.

Carlton