Audit / Edit / Analysis / Diagnosis / Knowledge / Skills

I have been thinking about these words for days and they keep buzzing round and round in my head. The starting point was being invited to prepare a skills audit for a new client. Now I just love the opportunity to get stuck in to a project like this. It's a process of creativity - designing, questioning, collecting, collating  and so on and I like  that sort of thing.

It's made me consider: what do we really know? What do we just think we know but others would disagree? What would we like others to think we know? I was working with a client using Johari's window the other day to highlight some of these areas so you can see the way I'm thinking these days!

  So here's a list of things that I think I know:

Our relationships with others provides the backdrop to all our well-being.

Not everything can be mended but most things can be made better.

Most people benefit from some sort of structure to their lives and setting achievable goals.

And in the words of the great philosopher,Sir Mick Jagger - you can't always get what you want.

Now how is this going to frame my thinking around a skills audit? Well, I believe in asking unconventional questions in order to get people going and have decided to brainstorm a few ideas before setting out any formal questionnaire. That should get the creative juices flowing, eh?

Back soon,

Angie

Websites, work and woes!

What a week! A new website - thanks Josh and Patrick for everything - all the usual teething troubles and I have discovered (again) that patience is certainly not one of my virtues. So I would like to say sorry to anybody who caught me in a bad moment this week. Especially sorry to my best friend, Sue because I took it all out on her doorbell yesterday!

But it's also been a week for two amazing experiences. A team away-day with four people who genuinely wanted to explore how they communicate with each other. Boy did they take some risks! It was a real joy to work with them and watch the morning unfold.

From there, on to the finals of the Sussex Young Enterprise competition, held at Roedean( simply gorgeous, my dears). These 8 groups of talented and brilliant young people spent an evening with me in February, going through the basics of presenting with impact. This year, I was one of the judges and it was very satisfying to see how many of them had taken the advice on board. It was wonderful to see them describe their fledgling companies and their enthusiasm was infectious. I didn't really want to pick a winner but one group stood out from the rest and so they won the trophy. I'm glad I was involved and wish them every success for the future.

Have a great weekend.

Angie

The Tender Trap

It's finished! One million hours and forty headaches and goodness knows how many hearts in mouth later - THE TENDER (what's been taking up every minute of my living day for the past three weeks)  is finished!!! Hooray! I am ready to unpack the street party bunting in celebration, regardless of whether we get the contract or not.

Has it been agony? Yup. Have I lost sleep over it? Yup. Has it been worthwhile? Oh yes (oh no, that sounds like that awful insurance doggie thing on tv doesn't it?)

Let me explain: the thing is, it's been a while since I challenged myself to seriously pick over the whole operation and despite the slog, it has been fascinating to see how things have changed over the years since I last produced a comprehensive portfolio.

Result? It's good, thorough and definitely something I am proud of.

Enough blowing of own trumpet and must mention Gorgeous Husband for putting the whole thing together so that it is a thing of beauty.

But I wouldn't want anyone to think I don't have a life apart from work so here's the lowdown on this weekend:

Friday lunch at Skylon - very plush and very  naughty on the diet / healthy eating front.

Saturday Gym (to make up for Friday's lunch) just me with the trainer, therefore still aching all over.

Saturday evening over to friends and out for more diet-busting activity.

Sunday phone calls, coffee with pals, walk on sea front and of course: finishing The Tender.

Now it's Sunday evening - I must have earned a couple of hours in front of telly with Foyle's War, don't you think?

More soon.....

Angie 

Drowning in paper

No blog for a few days because I am drowning in paper - well not so much paper as computer screen. The tender is coming together but it has taken something like 50 hours to collect everything, check it through, write my own bits and then pass it to gorgeous husband who is now making it look quite beautiful by designing the whole document and producing it on fine paper.

Meantime, three visits to the gym; two hot dinners; 10 plates of salad; five phone calls to friends to prove I am still a human being; one trip to visit best friend's mother and one Lovefilm movie but don't ask me what it was.

So life sort of goes on but I'll be glad to get back to doing delivering and less admin.

And, crumbs! It's end of year returns and all that as well.

Today was a joy - 16 people in the training room and all up for trying out new ideas, thinking outside the box and being great fun. Sometimes I can't believe I get paid to do this!

See you soon,

Angie.

A bright spark

Last week I had a fantastic experience so here I am blogging about it.

I have been coaching a young male client who has made a fantastic success out of his career in the finance sector. The papers have been full of the current financial crisis  and I was interested to know how he felt about this, his future, our future (ok, I admit -  in particular did he think the value of my house will come tumbling down and I will have to live in a one-bedroomed hovel in my old age?) and I found his thoughts on all of this refreshing and inspiring.

In a nutshell, he said:

Some of us have mad a lot of money in the past five years so we should stop bleating and whining about a slow-down in the housing market.

All of us have spent money as if it was going out of fashion

Yes, we may all be doing 40% less business over the next two years, compared with the last five, but it's 40% of an awful lot.

There are other things to do than getting preoccupied with how much money we

 have / make / lose etc.

I was knocked out by his approach and hope he spreads the message around a bit.

Meantime, I have been glued to my computer for three days, working on the tender. Thank goodness for the gym - which is where I'm off to right now.

More soon.

Angie

One Step Backwards

I'm so new to this blogging that I realised I didn't really do a good intro yesterday.

So here is what I'd want you to know about me:

I am female in my 50s (well you didn't really think I'd say exactly how far into my 50s, did 

you?)

I have one gorgeous husband, one beautiful and clever and wonderful grown-up daughter, 2 siblings (one of each kind) who are probably better to me than I deserve and, amazingly, 2 aged but extremely interesting parents - still alive.

I have the best girlfriends ever (some great guys as friends too) who keep me sane and I hope I reciprocate.

I live in Brighton which is a pretty cool place provided you can avoid a) the traffic, b) the hen parties and c) the dog mess. The sun definitely shines more here than most other parts of the UK and there is not a single day in the year when you won't come across someone wearing shorts. I love it.

I work like a thing posessed; writing and delivering training courses, consultancy, coaching - I never want to retire.

Gorgeous husband is a graphic designer and we share an office with never a cross word.

Ok that's it for now - see you soon.

It snowed in April

It snowed for hours yesterday and all the kids in our street came out to play snowball-fighting. One brave and energetic dad joined them and he was the only one really having fun because the poor little ones had no idea what to do, given there were no buttons to press or noises that went 'bleep'.

We went to see some friends who had taken photos in the park - could have been anywhere in Switzerland or Austria, but without the mountains.

All this provided fantastic displacement activity from what I was supposed to be doing, which is preparing a  tender for a piece of work that would be both interesting and lucrative.

Let me introduce myself, then: Angie Konrad, training consultant. My company, Voicewaves, provides training in all areas of personal development, focusing especially on vocal skills. I love it - I love everything about my work, even the bits that give me sleepless nights. And there are plenty of those!

New to blogging but am going to give it a go. Maybe I can even find out how to put my photo on this page?

See you soon.

Angie