this weeks thoughts

My friend Aidan's last post:

The secrets of successful business? If you say you're going to do something, then do it, and don't forget to keep people updated on where you're at with something they've asked you to do. The basic things are easy, but boy does it make a difference when you don't do them.

If success in business is keeping promises to others, success in personal life must be about keeping promises to yourself (and keeping yourself updated on the status on a frequent basis). And as simple as it sounds, as hard it is to actually achiveve - Creating new habits is damn hard thing to do and the gravitional pull is big. That's where I start to learn that keeping lists come in handy. As a reminder to turn off the autopilot and keep steering.

Apart from the self-motivational thoughts, life is good. I am in training program for recent hires. Last week featured a one-hour lecture of our CEO. I was impressed by his willingness to clear his agenda for this occasion.  The others sessions so far were quite interesting as they covered several strategic topics by our chief economist, a strategy officer and a general manager for Eastern Europe Operations. I assume that next week's agenda will be less stratospheric - wait and see.

Finally, it took me two days last week to forgive myself the failure to spot an error in a communication document that I was supposed to screen more thoroughly. The result was an irritated team member (annex fuss) that needed to be managed, and reduced credentials to start 'talking' them into our new marketing organisation. Finding good balance as a line manager is no easy task and still feels like a conundrum at times.

Oh, wanna see a good comedy based on the true story of con artist Steven Russell - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Jay_Russell ? Watch Jim Carey's "I love you Philip Morris".