The last decade has been a period of extreme confidence.  All the markets continued to rise and rise for the majority of the decade.  We were told to believe in ourselves, we learnt that investing was a necessary behaviour to grow wealth, we made business decisions based on the high point of our revenue, and the environment was one where more wealth was created than any previous decade.  Some of the numbers during the last 10 years were staggering – there were more new cars sold, there were more property transactions, there were more people in employment, the average earning capacity of an individual rose to record levels and more wealth was created in the last 10 years than in the previous 50 years.  So when you reach such highs, why did the sudden drop come so unexpectedly? 

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As 2009 draws to a close I start to think about the year that I have had and the year that lye’s ahead. It is my time to take responsibility. What sort of year have I had and how will I take ownership of it? My book deliver is inspired through a letter that I write to myself each year. In 2007 one commitment I made to myself was to complete a book – a collection of writings for me. Little did I know that Deliver my book would be the outcome in April 2009.

I can attribute many achievements and positives from writing my own letter. It is my self ownership. It is my transparent life on paper for me.

I begin to think about my letter now and I will write it prior to the end of the year.

My letter is headed up ‘Dear Carey’. It now has 5 headings I included an additional heading ‘MyPromises’ in 2008

1. 2009 My Year
2. 2010 Family 
3. 2010 Health 
4. 2010 Work
5. 2010 My Promises                     

Then I will open up my letter from last year. I know what it is in that letter but it has remained sealed from the day I signed it. Anything that I do not remember has not been important. I have much to be thankful for in 2009.

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This week I had the pleasure of being involved with the signing of our first Indian retail real estate business which will be located in Delhi, India.  The signing ceremony was attended by the Chairman of our company together with our Financial Controller and the two parties from India.  As we sat down and talked about the final stages of the Agreement, we were about to sign and the Indian parties said “we just need to hold for a moment”.  They went to the corner of the room and had a short discussion then they came back and we all proceeded to sign the documents. 

We then exchanged the documents, and I then went to shake hands but immediately the senior person from the Indian delegation got up, came around to my side of the table and gave me a hug but held on for longer than I expected.  He then went around the table and did this with each person in attendance from our side.  I suddenly learnt that expressions of gratitude are very much part of a cultural understanding and while the agreement will remain as part of confirmation that we have a relationship, the gesture to bring his culture to ours seemed to give the agreement and the relationship so much more.   The way we do things is to shake hands – I wonder what that would have meant to them?

I ask him later why did he have a short discussion before he signed – he said to ensure the order of gratitude.

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I am about to board a plane to Queenstown and although I do not think about it much I am going to be putting my life in the hands of one company, one plane, and hopefully two pilots.  The reason why I don’t think about much is because 99.99% of flights land safely in a track record that is unrivaled by any other industry.

On a daily basis worldwide there are 68,000 flights through different companies, flying different planes with different pilots and different passengers but with Read the rest of this entry »

When will you ever have more time than you do right now?

When we talk about resources for leaders in economic terms three usually come to mind:  labour, capital and land.  There is a fourth resource that may be considered for an individual to be far more important – that of  TIME.  

Time management experts have developed a model which helps prioritise leadership activities and to make the use of time more effective.  This is broken up into the areas of Important and Non-Important, Urgent and Non-Urgent.   On the left hand side of the quadrant graph is the area that effective leaders spend their time.  The area on the right hand side of the graph is potentially the leader who is run by crisis management.  Lets take a closer look at the left hand side of the graph:

Urgent and Important:  There activities are deadline driven, importance based on consistency, potentially demanding problems, response to a specialised area with the business.  This area of the quadrant should take up 40% of a given week.  These activities are generally prioritised first, however they can cause stress because they sit in a time sensitive zone.

Important, but Not Urgent:  There is no doubt that the best leaders spend the most amount of time in this area of their business.  It includes preparation and planning, execution of projects, crisis prevention, long term diary management, recruitment and skill improvement.  Whenever a leader in a business is undertaking these activities they can focus on the future successfully and begin to prioritise the direction of the business. 

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