Rule 1

(Aly Pendlebury, Taming Tigers’ Operations Manager wasn’t sure whether or not she could write a blog. The rest of us reckoned that she certainly could. A quick £1 bet later and she accepted the challenge.
So here’s Aly’s first blog – feel free to leave a message on the blog or on Facebook if you like it.)

When Charles Unwin in the “Manual of Detection” by Jedediah Berry finds himself being pushed into a new job he doesn’t want, he is convinced it is a mistake.

When you consider agreeing to something that you believe to be wrong for you, is it because you are letting other people write your story. Who is holding the pen?  They may think that they know where you want to be and what you want to do – but do they really?  Are they party to your aspirations and the challenges that you want to face? It seems unlikely.

Can you say (unlike Charles) that you are following Rule 3 and “Heading in the direction of where you want to arrive, each day”, or has the steering wheel been taken out of your hands?

Remember – ACT BOLDLY and say STOP when you need to, however SCARY this may seem and however loudly the TIGER roars. Change your RULEBOOK and TAKE CHARGE.

Aly.

Click on the image to view the Rule 7 video

So do I. We all do. Partly because they trained us at school/college/university for 12-20 years to get it right or be publically criticised/denied the qualification. Partly because in our early careers we had to deliver exactly what the boss wanted or be publically criticised/denied the promotion. We are taught that getting it wrong has consequences that we should fear and avoid.

Then one day we arrive in a position when we not only have to get it right, we also have to decide what “right” is. IN fact, “right” will only be defined in hindsight! Now it is about setting goals and strategy, choosing how to lead our people, designing a stunning kettle, deciding whether to invest in the shift to shooting in Hi Def or 3D or selling a new drug to a nervous doctor.  this is no longer about repeating what others taught us or about performing a task as specified.

Now the Tiger enters the equation with teeth bared. Some careers stop here. Others start here. The difference is rarely whether they actually “got it right”. The difference is whether they “got it” at all.

Now there is no “right”. There are infinite possible routes and many variables we cannot control. There is emotion, passion, vision, data, advice, criticism and self-doubt but there is no certainty. Eventually we make a decision and act. Or we don’t (putting it to a committee to dilute all passion and share the risk of failure doesn’t count).

When you are ready and have done the best planning you can, move out of research mode and into warrior. Act decisively and intend to win, not to get it right.

Over to you,

Jim

Click on the image to view the Rule 1 video

If you have seen a Taming Tigers presentation but not read the book, there are pieces of the jigsaw that you are missing. There’s only so much I can cram into an hour slot.

So here is an important missing piece. The Ten Rules for Taming Tigers are divided into four groups.

·         The Integrity Rules (Rules 1-3)

·         The Leadership Rules (Rules 4-6)

·         The Change Rules (Rules 7-9)

·         The Esteem Rule (Rule 10)

Over the next few days, I’ll introduce you to these groupings and explain their significance. I’ll start today with the Integrity Rules

The Integrity Rules

Rules 1-3  are called the Integrity Rules. They are designed to assist in bringing us back into integrity with ourselves, to highlight our ego created fears and our related blame and avoidance strategies. Through the bold action in Rule 1 – Act boldly today – time is limited –  we are invited to test the water and admit that we are not helpless. The reason that we do not do the things we wish or need to do is almost always fear. When considering the bold action, most people can find no reason not to take it other than fear and uncertainty. We are not, of course, talking about leaping blindly and irreversibly in up to our necks at this stage. Merely taking a bold step towards finding the right path. This requires us to face the Tiger head on.

Through the re-assessment of the Rulebook  in Rule 2 – Re-write your Rulebook – challenge it hourly – we are invited to examine with honesty and scrutiny those beliefs that we hold dear (and societal “Rules” or norms that we buy in to) that enable us to play victim rather than face new realities.

Through the creation of our own purpose and daily commitment to its accomplishment in Rule 3 – Head in the direction of where you want to arrive, every day, we can glimpse ourselves in a new, truer light. We can choose to move forward each day. “Ruts” become a distant memory. This need not be daily movement to a big goal. It can be daily movement in more personal and subtle areas.

Through the work that we do over the first three Rules a new freedom begins to become possible. That freedom, of course, is to fearlessly be ourselves. The price of freedom: facing the Tiger with honesty.

The prize: living in integrity with ourselves.

Please feel free to post comments, thoughts and experiences.

Jim

Click on the image to view the Rule 1 video

Click on the image to view the Rule 2 video

Click on the image to view the Rule 3 video

“Casablanca” is one of my top three movies. My favourite part is the final five minutes. Ending the film with “the beginning of a beautiful friendship” is the perfect close.  I only wish I’d thought of it first. But just before that comes the best line in the film:

“If that plane leaves the ground and you’re not with him you’ll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life”.

What’s the plane you need to get on? When does it take off?

And are you going to tame those Tigers and be on board? Or will you regret it? Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life?

Here’s looking at you, kid!

Jim.

PS – Here are Bogart and Bergman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpoyshqB8-o, give yourself a treat!

Click on the image to view the Rule 1 video

We’re well into the 21st Century. “Salesmen/women” exist in only small pockets now. Darwin’s laws in action.

Those who are still “selling” are in trouble. In 2009, they may die out. There is a new mindset. “Features, benefits and objection handling” are still in there – but they are buried deep and barely visible within a new framework. If these elements plus a few “closing techniques” plus some half remembered NLP “mindtricks” multiplied by the number of calls per week made make up a cornerstone of your strategy for claiming an increased share of a market with decreasing total spend – I wish you luck. You will surely need all you can get.

Instead?

Make friends, earn trust, solve problems. This does two things:

1 It makes “selling” a whole lot easier to deal with (and more fun and stimulating) for the person “selling” – It removes the Tiger for most people once you phrase it – and approach it – like this. And whether you are reading this with “HR Director”,”Head of Market Research” or “Events Organiser” on your card or whether you are in “sales” – you sell something and in this particular year you’d better deal with the Tiger and up your game. And we’re already nearly at the end of January (Rule 1 is currently paying big dividends to Tiger tamers in a tough market).

2 It increases your chances of making a successful “sale” to your internal or external clients.

Why? People want to deal with people they like and, critically, trust. Did you ever trust a “salesman”? Thought not. Me neither.

People buy things to solve their problems. Whether that problem is how to impress when they pull up at the office in their nice car or whether it is to get their accounts done with the minimum of time and effort or [insert your customers' problem here - and if you cannot, take a walk NOW and think it through] , they buy from you to solve it.

Find out that problem. Don’t assume. It’s subtler than that. Make friends with the person and demonstrate your ability to solve it for them. Act with integrity at every stage and demonstrate that you deserve their trust.

And care. Care beyond hitting the numbers. I know if you care because I have budget. I know if you care because you want to work with me to solve my problems. You know too. So do “they”. If you could fake it well enough that “they” couldn’t tell, you’d be in Hollywood.

And, of course, deliver.

Simple as that folks. Except, of course, it’s not. It’s a big shift in mindset and involves skills that may or may not be intuitive. If you want to ensure that you and your people are making friends and solving problems rather than selling, take a look at the Taming Tigers Learning course “Sell”.

Or ring up your current training partner and see if they want to solve your problem for you.

Every success out there!

Jim.

Over the month of January, there is a lot happening at Taming Tigers.

• we advertise the new Live Shows – 1 day seminars and a London theatre show – and the book with a radio campaign starting on 12 January
• the new Taming Tigers Website goes live on 12 January (you can buy tickets on there also)
• the new Taming Tigers Learning team are taking to the road to deliver the most cost effective – and inspiring – skills training on the marketplace

We are celebrating with a brand new collection of videos to remind you of the 10 Rules. Here is the first one.

Please feel free to forward this post on to any friends that you think would enjoy the film.

Act Boldly!

Jim.

(Due to huge demand we are keeping the free download of the book available on the site for now)

… for the new year. Take something on instead.

Write a chapter of your story in 2009 that you’ll be really proud of and really inspired to get on with creating.

Start it today or within 3 hours of arriving back at work. Try Rule 1 – “Time is limited, act boldy today!” Do something stimulating and different to get the 2009 chapter started and get face to face with the Tiger that you’ll be up against.

“Giving something up”, starts the year with a hardship. Sure, go ahead and quit smoking, cut down on the units, cut up the credit card, get those running shoes out – whatever you need to do. But do it as a way to achieve the big thing. Do it as an exciting step that you want to take on route to the thing that inspires you.

Not with me? Well how about climbing a mountain to raise money for your local children’s hospital – could the thought of all those happy faces make an exciting reason to give up the fags? And just think of the weight you’d lose in training…

Wishing you a great 2009,

Jim.

PS – If the profits of doom [sic] are spoiling your plans for 2009, please scroll down to the “Mind the Gap” post below and check this lone voice out from today’s UK Times newspaper. Nice thoughts for Travellers on these Winter’s Nights, eh?

I was up early this morning and had the radio for company. I started with Radio Four, the UK’s leading speech radio. After a while, that made me concerned for the future of my business – can anything or anybody survive a recession that’s certain to rival the great depression?

Then I turned to  commercial radio. Some music to brighten the morning. Within thirty minutes our own government had paid, with my cash, for me to listen to a child actress telling all of the nation’s children, busily preparing for school and the magic of Christmas, that their main worry should be that if she smokes, your mother could soon be dead. They then described to the children, and me, in anatomically precise detail the horrific internal injuries about to be suffered by a seemingly decent man not wearing his seat belt.

Enough radio. The Times had dropped through the letterbox. No respite. Later this week I will fly. At the airport the government has demanded that unemployed actors shout “any gels or liquids” loudly at me to remind me that there was once a suggestion that Colgate could be a threat to our nation and I will have to take my shoes off. Unless the man on the shoe machine wants a cup of tea. Then the security threat that my shoes pose lessens for twenty minutes, and the machine is closed.

MIND THE GAP. Fear sells newspapers. Fear allows politicians to re-assure and seem vital. There is a lot of hard work going into making you feel insecure at present. It is no longer a wild conspiracy theory to observe that this is very clearly intentional.

Sure we’re in a tricky economy and need to be smart. Sure we shouldn’t smoke and should wear a seatbelt. Sure there have been some dreadful terrorist attrocities, and we’ve carefully stirred that dangerous pot up further for the past six years. But most of us are lucky enough to be in fine health and financially surviving and not suffering in a cholera epidemic and, in the UK, far safer than we were during the IRA bombs of the 70′s. We’re not sending our children to fight in trenches. Let’s get a grip here!

Rule 6. There is no safety in numbers. Stand apart from the crowd. We’re very privileged. Don’t let “them” add to your Tiger’s roar today. Don’t let that roar come into your meeting rooms and conversations at work. Don’t buy your newspaper. Treat yourself to the Racing Post instead!

Enjoy it! Help others to enjoy it! Create a Rule 1 bold action and make something exciting happen today. Don’t let their Rule 2 Rulebook become yours without a curious and questioning mind as your filter.

Mind the Gap between what you hear and what you observe and relax a little.

You will very, very rarely see any “advertorial” on this blog. That is not it’s purpose.

But today we are emailing many thousands of people with an invitation to download a copy of Taming Tigers for free. If you received my email today – thanks for dropping by the blog!

We are giving the book away (until Dec 14th only – available in all good bookshops from the 1st Jan!) to attempt to kick start the creation of a community. A community of energy and adventure, a community of Tiger tamers and change makers. And a community needs people – like you – to get it started!

So if you want to be a part of the Taming Tigers Global Community and both give and receive support to make things happen out there, please sign up to this blog through the subscribe button on this page. Get involved in discussions here, post comments and suggest topics that you think should be covered.

Be heard!

Join our community on Facebook also and invite your friends to do the same. There on our Wall you can make a bold Rule 1 Pledge to get something done, ask the community for help or share a Victory that you have achieved to give some energy out there. Just click here to get involved.

And finally, please pass on the email that you received today to as many people as you wish. Please don’t forward the link to download the book, or your pdf copy. Please forward the whole email so that they can download the book themselves and get involved.

Rule 1 – Act Boldly Today – Who knows where it could lead us?!

Spread the word…

Jim.