Welcome to High5 Friday, a brief look back at this week and 5 things or people, that caught my eye and made me feel upbeat and want to share with you.  There is so much negativity in the world, I thought this might resonate with others and who knows, you may be one of the people I mention in a future edition.

1.       Be Yourself, Be Great, Spread Your Wings & Fly

I am passionate about helping people develop, grow and reach their full potential and it has been wonderful to see Paula Harding do just that over the last twelve months.  Paula is an Executive Assistant at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.  She is a truly great ambassador of the EA/PA profession and also founder of #begreatermerseyside.

I’ve only met Paula once, at a PA learning, development and networking event in Liverpool at which I was speaking.  We connected via LinkedIn and other social media channels and it’s been a delight to see, via her posts how she has grown in confidence over the last twelve months.  Always positive in what she posts and more than anyone else I know, is exemplary at sharing those great stories we come across on social media that she knows will help her colleagues in her profession.  This week she undertook a 1-hour Twitter chat, sharing her experience of using LinkedIn.  She managed to give great advice to 20 questions in that hour, to give you an idea, I did similarly recently and only managed 5.

2.       Put Others At Ease So They Can Give Their Best

Recently, I was invited to appear on Business Connections Live TV, run by Linda Bazant and Steve Hyland.  Each week, the show features a business expert, who is interviewed by Steve for an hour on their topic of expertise.  No breaks, no outtakes and one crack at it.  I’d never been on live TV before and was asked at short notice if I could appear earlier than scheduled due to someone being ill.  To be honest, I was terrified.  Yes, I regularly speak in front of hundreds at conferences and facilitate 1-2 day learning programmes but this was totally different to anything I’d experienced.

When I arrived Linda met me, offered me a drink and showed me round the studios, giving me an overview of how things worked and what would happen.  Then Steve, who hosts the show appeared.  We sat in a comfortable area outside the studios and just chatted about anything and everything which reduced my heart beats per minute considerably.  A quick brush of make-up on my balding head to stop the beads of sweat showing and I was good to go.

I thoroughly enjoyed being on the show, thanks in large to being put at ease by Linda and Steve.

Business Connections Live TV now has over 200 hours of advise and tips from business experts to help others achieve success. If you want to watch my interview about how to develop high-performing teams to help you or even just to see if you can spot any beads of sweat on my forehead, you can do so using this link, Cracking The Code Of High-Performance Teamwork.  You will also be able to view the other interviews that are archived.

3.       Little Positive Things Can Make A Big Difference

This week, I was in London, speaking at a leadership conference and stayed at the Premier Inn London Victoria.  I had just booked B&B as was unsure what I would be doing for dinner.  As the evening was a nice one, I know, unusual in the UK in Summer, I decided to head to central London to take some night shots with my camera.  As the sunset at just gone 8pm, I decided to have dinner at the hotel before heading into London on the tube. Marina, one of the receptionists enquired as to whether I’d booked dinner as part of my stay.  I told her no, just the B&B as I didn’t know what I’d be doing.  She said, not a problem, mention it to my colleague Gael in the restaurant and he will put it through at the discounted rate as though you had booked the whole package.  Not a lot of a saving but it meant a lot to me that Marina had told me.

When Gael took my order, my starter came out in a timely fashion and was delicious (Prawn Cocktail).  There then seem to be a long wait for my main.  I was about to mention something to Gael when he appeared with another red wine in his hand.  He then apologised that my main was taking longer than expected due to a problem with the gas in the kitchen.  He then offered me the glass of red wine as an apology for the delay.  Wow, again a small thing that made all the difference to me.  I have to say, the Chicken Makhani & Rice, Naan, Poppadom and Chutney were worth the wait.

Unfortunately Marina and Gael aren’t on LinkedIn however I did send an email to Leana Pacanac, the Operations Manager at the hotel, so hopefully they will know what they did had a big positive difference.

Funnily enough, the delay worked perfectly for me as well, as I arrived in central London just before the sunset, so was able to take some great nights shots of some of the iconic buildings and bridges in London, which I shared in my post The Best London Night Photography Locations.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed these stories and that you have a great end to the week and weekend.

Wishing you continued success and happiness in both work and life.

Yours behaviourally, Nick

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