Newsletter   Issue No.1 : May 2008

This is the website archive copy of the Newsletter sent to Registered Contacts in May 2008. If you want to receive your own copy in future, click here.

In this issue

• The Alfred Ivy Website launches and new contacts register daily. Critical friends offer support. New customers enjoy discounts.
• Are you fit and healthy? Or do you need a doctor? Have you thought about the health of your business? Practical tips to avoid the paramedics taking you to A&E.
• Strength Deployment Inventory: This month’s featured Coach; Mahnaz Bhatti explains the benefits of this learning resource.

Please add bernie.wales@alfred-ivy.co.uk to your ‘safe list’ or address book in your email program, so that you have no trouble receiving future issues.

Alfred Ivy Website Launches

On 17th March 2008 the Alfred Ivy website went live. Emails were sent out to people we knew would be interested; either because they own or run a small business – or because they would be curious about what Bernie Wales was up to. Those emails achieved the desired effect and in the first week over one hundred different people visited the site, most of them looking quite extensively through the various pages.

Gradually over the following couple of weeks, emails started to arrive with feedback. A good proportion of these were positive, encouraging and supportive. At least five percent were ‘robust’ in their approach – critical friends being open, honest and to the point.

Each of the messages was reviewed, the various points taken on board – trying to view the website from the customer’s viewpoint. Following that review we compared the suggestions and criticisms with our vision, our goals and objectives. Then we set about changing, rearranging, enhancing and revamping. The main changes separated and distinguished between services and advice for Start-Ups, New, and Young Businesses … and those for Established, Older, Growing Businesses.

Please do take a few minutes to review the website now, by clicking on Alfred Ivy and having a good look around. Then let us have your views on whether we’ve got it right or wrong … and let us have suggestions for what you’d like to see personally.

Are you fit and healthy? Or do you need a doctor?

A patient visits the doctor’s surgery one day. He walks into the consulting room, sits down, presses his index finger onto his knee and says “It hurts. It really hurts.” The doctor examines the knee and finds nothing wrong. He then explains his diagnosis to the patient and sends him away to the hospital.

The first time I meet a new client, it is often a bit like that patient visiting the doctor. The client points to the pain and says it hurts. I look at ‘the knee’ and find that the knee is a perfectly good knee. I carry out a thorough examination of ‘the patient’ and then I calmly tell them “You have a broken finger!”

Quite often in business problems present themselves. A pain is felt somewhere and the managers naturally focus their attention on that pain. All eyes are fixed on the knee and nobody is looking at the rest of the body. It is easy to make a mis-diagnosis – and if the wrong medicine is prescribed, the patient can die! Consequently it is always worth remembering that a knee, a finger, a bank balance, a sales target, is always part of a bigger system, a wider picture, a whole patient.

And of course, taking care of your health is worth doing all the time, not just when you’re ill. Prevention is better than cure and a healthy body can cope with the stresses and strains of everyday life – and can chase after the opportunities that come along. So it’s worth taking a little time NOW to see how healthy your business really is. It may be quite fit – but there’s always a little exercise you can do which will increase that fitness and improve that figure.

Take five minutes NOW to think carefully about the following health questions. Think carefully about your business body - and answer honestly!

• Who is responsible for the health of your business? Is it the doctor or the patient? Who knows your business body and how it lives its life everyday? And consequently who can do something to improve its health NOW?
• Look at the face of your business in the mirror. Is it looking tired, run down, knackered and old? Or is it looking healthy, fit, lively, happy and enthusiastic? What do your customers see when they look at your face?
• What can you do today to improve your company’s fitness? Don’t join a gym, visit once and never return. Do a little something, everyday. Walk up the stairs rather than taking the elevator. Seek improvement, note success.
• Are you recharging the batteries? Take time to refuel. Refreshed people work more efficiently than knackered people. Make sure you and your colleagues take time off – and notice the difference on your return.
• Are your customers are healthy too? It’s devastating when a close friend drops down dead, suddenly and unexpectedly. Look carefully at the health of your business friends. What are you doing to improve their life expectancy?
• Are you eating healthily? Look closely at what you’re putting into your business body. Are your expenses healthy and nutritious? Are you smoking or drinking heavily? Are you putting on weight? Excessive business cholesterol?
• Organise a thorough check up. It’s worth having an annual physical – far better than the paramedics taking you to Accident & Emergency! Invest in your future by getting a business doctor to examine you … NOW.

This month’s featured Executive Coach: Mahnaz Bhatti

Mahnaz Bhatti has extensive experience ranging from technical development, through global sales, to coaching and training. You can read her full profile by clicking here.

This month we’re featuring her work with SDI; ‘Strength Deployment Inventory’. And at the end of the article there’s a special offer just for our newsletter readers.

Strength Deployment Inventory

The Strength Deployment Inventory is a learning resource which is used throughout the corporate world and is internationally renowned for the ability to empower working environments through understanding personal strengths and motivation. As a tool it allows organisations to identify the key strengths, and weaknesses, of individuals and teams allowing the organisation to utilize and apply key skills in different parts of the business while developing staff.

The SDI is not seen as a psychometric tool but more of a learning aid. Its numerous benefits include:

• Understanding why people do things – the motivation behind the behaviour
• Analysing relationships between individuals and teams
• Allowing development of interpersonal skills through improved understanding
• Identifying conflict sequences in individuals and using this awareness to reduce conflict
• Improving communication in an organisation

To use the tool, an individual is taken through a process which maps their core motivational behaviour system on a triangle of colours (see diagram). Each colour coded area represents a personal type which can through the use of discussions, provide a better awareness and shift in behaviour and communication.

This model is based on more than 30 years of research by psychologist Elias H Porter into self concept from which he developed his relationship awareness theory. His work was heavily influenced by the likes of Sigmund Freud and Carl Rogers.

Mahnaz Bhatti facilitates SDI for Alfred Ivy as a one day workshop. 8 to 20 people usually attend – key people from a business or company. Throughout the day the strengths and weaknesses of the team are identified, conflict areas are discussed, and group discussion allows ‘future pacing’ and group understanding. Each delegate gets their own SDI book to take away, encouraging post workshop revision.

Newsletter readers who have registered their details on the Alfred Ivy website can claim a 10% discount when booking and quoting SDI-0804 before 18th May 2008.

Want to use this article in your newsletter or on your website?

You can, as long as you include this complete information with it:

Alfred Ivy Ltd publishes a monthly newsletter for entrepreneurs, business owners, company directors, solo professionals and others running businesses – large and small. If you want to get your FREE tips and advice, REGISTER NOW at http://www.alfred-ivy.co.uk/Register.aspx.

See you next month.

Bernie Wales
Director
ALFRED IVY LTD