6. Outward
• Consistency
• People before profit
• Reputation before revenue
Inward
• Be kind to yourself
• Permission to trust yourself
• Get out of your own way
11. Tips & Traps
• The “quiet achiever”
• Be indispensable
• Surround yourself with good people
• Recruit “bright eyes” and invest
• Give credit
• It’s OK to ask
12. Tips & Traps
• Don’t stop practicing your craft
• Don’t step away too soon
• Don’t be seduced by growth
• Air traffic control
• Invest in yourself, productivity, relationships
• Scalability & Sustainability
• Watch who you take advice from
13. Trivia
A “step” too far
• Blisters and corny puns
• Right footwear for the job
• How many pairs of shoes is too many? And who’s
to judge?
Science versus Success
• Physics wouldn’t work
• Success is littered with examples of doing the
“impossible”
• You bring the magic
Context – who am I.
Show of hands – what is Merchandise Planning? - Little known and little understood, lots of stereotypes to overcome, Not “sexy”
There is a change piece, or a “bringing people” along piece, that has been critical, especially in Aus.
25 years in Merchandise Planning specifically (20 corporate ; 5 years own business.)
Disclaimers: narrow context of “success” (more than doing well at work, status, money, what people say or think of you).
Not saying I’ve got it all figured out, these are not absolutes; (but I analyse patterns, trends and causalities for a living; hopeful the themes are statistically relevant)
TBC warm up activity (stand up, shake hands)
Now you know a bit about me – let’s find out a bit about you …
Check the representation of the audience – who am I speaking to? Show of hands, who is in corporate, who is in business for themselves, or wants to be? Who wants to switch?
Neither (ceiling nor slipper) is strictly representative of either world.
The slipper is simply the fairytale – the happily ever after – your goals, what you want to achieve.
The glass ceiling represents the barriers, obstacles, challenges , learnings – real or perceived.
Neither world is better, or more aspirational, in my opinion.
I’ve been very happy in both, I’ve been very challenged in both.
Themes are mostly common, and often more about you than the environment.
Start with what’s at the heart of things for me
I’ve always had a passion for people, service and problem solving.
My business is built on Reputation, Referrals, Results – so was my career – some things have only become clear with perspective of business overlayed.
Common across corporate and own business
Relationships I built, people I served – have become my clients, and they tell others
And if I went back into corporate, it would be driven by the same dynamic
Fascinating tracing threads
At the centre of People & Relationships is INTEGRITY
This is a model I’ve developed
(PDF in digital gift bag)
Built business on serendipity of RELATIONSHIPS – keep them in good shape
How you treat others, and how you treat yourself - both important
Do you want to be right, or do you want to be rich?
Might seem crass, but there is something in the message
Many “defining moments” in my career – all have played a pivotal role
Eg Taking the Exec role and working with the guys, all senior
Making decisions none else would
Decisions - declined, setting me up to fail, or break integrity (reporting structure) – it was the chance of a lifetime, no glass ceiling, and I still refused it – partly through fear, mostly through not wanting to do a bad job, through being set up in wrong structure
Took it for what I could learn, even if I only survived a short time, and for the people who needed me
I’ve jumped with no parachute when integrity threatened.
Over time, realized I have formulated a decision making model to help me weigh choices.
Commercial not necessarily financial – career interests, business interests.
Pick a number from 1 to 10 …
What happened? Path of least resistance
Note – in my entire career (including uni) path to date, I have never taken the path of least resistance.
Always pushed out of comfort zone, for what I could learn
With that in mind, let’s take a look at my journey
What you see vs What it takes
Examples – promotion to Executive team
Growing into the roles
Anxiety of whether can you do it
What changes – going from doing to managing
First board meeting
Personal and professional life ...
When you set a goal, get ready to duck
Having travelled the path of corporate and founder
What are the lessons?
Air traffic control – short, medium and long term – at the same time
Who you take advice from - do they have what you what? what's their track record? Lots of people will want a piece of you.
Almost of the end of our journey together today
Summary -> paradoxes
Call out what you think it means / what it means for you OR show of hands …
Timing, luck, skill
Serendipity
Relationships, teamwork
Seeds planted – don’t know when or where they will surface
Hard work, go it alone
Strength, discipline, creativity
Independence and teamwork
Double meanings in all of them, and they are all true
No right or wrong answers – same questions for same person at different time, will give different answers – not because YOU have changed
ALL OF THE ABOVE
Final words
I hope walking with me in my shoes for the last 30 mins will help you write your own fairytale ending.
Thank you to WFD
Thank you to audience
Questions from audience, if time permits
