Category: Learning

Business, Collaborating, Customer Focus, Leadership, Learning, partnership, Social

We’re in – are you? – Trust Partner Services Ltd

https://www.trustpartnerservices.com/trust-joins-the-chamber/

Trust partners with the Herts Chamber

Having watched from the sidelines for some time, we decided it was time to roll up our sleeves and join the fray.

We are now officially members of the Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce and it is our intention to be a fully active member of this illustrious group.

Our WHY for this is a strong desire to be a supportive local business for other local business and to investigate further ways of acting more local. For as long as I can remember, our approach has been international, and that will remain, but we would like to become way more active locally. This is therefore, the first step into understanding the local landscape. We want to listen and learn and support where we can, as we understand our role.

Looking forward to meeting other chamber members and learning about our local business eco-systems


© 2022 Trust Partner Services Ltd Trust Partner Services LTD

Business, Learning, Personal Management

Failing is essential.

I grew up thinking that failure was a really bad thing.

It was ingrained in me. I was genuinely scared to be a failure.I’m certain it’s been to my detriment, but I guess I’ll never really know.

Worrying about failure is a really bad use of brain time and curtails trying stuff. I am certain that it holds you back.

As I’ve grown older and wiser I’ve shifted my thinking and reframed stuff to allow more freedom to think, to dream to dare. To dare to fail or succeed and always to learn.

I am definitely bolder as well as balder🤣😜, and I’d also say more creative and flexible.

I have learnt that:

👍🏻It’s ok to be wrong

👍🏻It’s ok to fail

👍🏻It’s ok if others disagree with me

I know who my supporters and detractors are, and I am really careful about the thoughts I allow space and time in my head

I am better today than yesterday, and not as good as I’ll be tomorrow.

Photo by Sebastian Arie Voortman on Pexels.com
Business, Collaborating, Customer Experience, Learning

Not quite a public service announcement

What’s a great piece of tech, or app that you’ve discovered and can’t believe everybody isn’t using it?

what3words /// The simplest way to talk about location

w3w

There are so many great use cases for this mapping technology, especially in remote or busy locations. A great use case example for me was a recent weekend break in a very rural location on a sprawling farm with no signs and several different holiday cottages.

We had ordered a takeaway and provided an address (of sorts), which, with the best will in the world was still vague at best.

Enter “what three words” and we were able to provide a pinpoint accurate location that didn’t rely on a vague postcode or mapping address.

I reckon it’s a bit of a game changer even if perhaps could be considered a bit niche.

I have no doubt that there’s a whole world of other technology/applications that I’ve never even seen or used yet that could be a game changer for me or indeed for you.

Why don’t you share your game-changing tech story so that we too can benefit from the experiences that you’ve been having?

Business, Leadership, Learning, Personal Management

Why the right coach is an external coach

I’m not totally sure why we struggle with the notion of embracing coaching as a tool to develop top-quality performance outcomes from key business leaders and teams. It’s my belief that the role of coaching tends to fall to the line managers who generally speaking have little time for coaching and equally have not benefited from investment in personal development to enable them to become good or great coaches.

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

My assertion is borne out from personal experiences in both large and small businesses and teams with the emphasis on management over coaching. Too often the managers are wrapped up in the day to day management and they also become too close to the teams and lack objectivity.

The basic premise for coaching is that the coached party has all of the resources available themselves but need external reflection to unlock and enable.

Recent conversations with a current manager have added to my certainty on this issue and the necessity for external coaching to be a part of the support to the manager and the team, keeping the team dynamics intact and ensuring the building of togetherness and cohesion

Need coaching support? Here to help Contact me

Business, Learning, partnership, Personal Management, Sales, Selling, training

Practice (alone) does not make perfect

Like all walks of life – work, sport, school – if you are practicing the wrong things, or the wrong way of doing something, you are simply repeating your errors over and over – frustrating and clearly limiting your success.

So how do you stay on track with the right things to practice? Clearly a good start point is to exercise good self discipline. This is the foundation for any personal development. Thinking that the issue is “not my fault” and the issue is caused by something “out there somewhere” is a sure fire way to have reduced control of your life. The first step therefore is to take control of yourself and your discipline including your thoughts and “self-talk”. Be sure to catch yourself talking positively with a “can do” attitude, and stop the cannot do and self limiting speak.
Finding a good coach is a smart step too – whether this is within your current role or an objective outsider. A good coach understands that as an individual, you already have all the necessary resources available to you, but they are the difference, that makes the difference.
For example, if I’m playing golf and struggling to get the results I desire, it probably makes sense to have a coach watch what I do in order to help reflect the areas for improvement – I recall this very real example where the golf pro explained to me (after watching me for a while) that he saw the problem with my game. He noted that I was trying to hit the ball…. Seemed initially to be a ridiculous comment…on closer inspection however, he was absolutely right. He went on to explain to me that if I swing the club, the club will hit the ball…. He moved my focus away from my desire to knock the ball into next week (and missing badly), into simply swinging the club accurately and all would work out.. On this occasion, I saw an instant improvement, but of course, the challenge is to keep making those improvements regularly and being consistent. This is something that your coach can bring to your performance.
This same coaching approach will produce a similar effect in sales. The challenge is that many sales managers and business owners are not well equipped to fulfill his role, so your best option is to find an external coach and develop the right habits.

Business, Learning, partnership, Sales, Selling

Transformation – things have changed

Digital transformation means many different things to different people and there is a glut of offerings in the market currently that promise you a life of luxury if you take their latest solution for your transformation journey. One of the most impactful solutions that I have witnessed is one I will write about here; It’s from a vendor called Nureva and is available exclusively here in the UK from distributor Ascentae.

Nureva Span is a cloud-based software (and hardware) solution – simply a licence that enables collaboration on any device anywhere you can connect to the internet.

So what?

Well this is the really cool part (as if that wasn’t already cool enough) – Span is a virtual canvas – a virtual white board that allows users from wherever they are, to write, draw, or place virtual Post-IT™ notes onto the virtual board. Share desktop content, add comments with virtual INK, and even follow other users who are leading a discussion – so you are quite literally ALL ON THE SAME PAGE. All users connected to the “canvas” see all of added content and contributions, as you would if you were all in the same office sticking physical notes onto a physical wall and writing comments with a marker pen.

Because th

is is a virtual canvas, there is no issue with Post-IT™ notes falling off the wall, or the issue that many security conscious business experience, in that the physical office with the physical Post-IT™ notes must be secured when empty and cannot be accessed….. With Span, you simply close the canvas and it is secure.

Take this to another level, and SPAN can be used on physical touch screen panels – multiple panels connected in software to provide a scrolling wall covering of virtual canvas. Huge real-estate for collaborators to work together on, in the same location, joined by remote participants in other locations with similar hardware components, or sat on a lounger connected via Wi-Fi or 4G on an iPad or similar device…..

This opens so many possibilities for commercial enterprises as well as for education – imagine a collaboration session finishing without the need to take your smartphone and take photos of the walls for some poor sole to spend several hours deciphering and writing up to share amongst the collaborators – That is digital transformation

Interested to learn more or perhaps have a demonstration – then drop me a note and I’ll be happy to arrange

Family, Learning

My parents continue to teach me

My mum has recently been diagnosed with a life threatening illness and yet she remains the strongest and bravest member of our family.
My mum and my dad have been together for 57 years and their love is as strong today is it ever was.

My older brother shows strength, patience and caring like I’ve never experienced before and all of this is teaching me so much (he’s always all of these things, but I’m witnessing it for myself at an important life moment).

We are not a Walton-esque family by any means. We all lead fairly independent lives and I live a distance away, but we are a family that cares for and about each other.

My parents can be trying (more so as they have aged) because I’ve not been as patient as I could or should be. This I have learnt in the last few days and I’m grateful for the lesson.

When horrible things happen, I firmly believe that there must be something positive to take from it and in this case I’m still learning to be a better person – with the help of my family and friends I’m a better man today than I was yesterday – or at least this is my hope.