Focus - Outstanding
Business Relationships
There is so much talk about the importance of relationships and the experience clients have with your organisation but how do you train and refresh in these subjects beyond the usual questioning, listening, finding common interest type stuff and avoid patronising experienced people.
Well, we have a fantastic vehicle in the Empathy Styles model.
Outstanding Business Relationships is a two day immersion in the subject which gives insights and develops skills to stand out from competitors, turn difficult clients into opportunities and overcome barriers that clients put in the way of doing business with them.
Email or give us a call on
07747 624 560 if you'd like to know more.
Free Seminar
Thurs 29 Oct, 7.30-9.15am, Oxford.
"How Your Clients May View You"
- a Barnardo’s business breakfast event
If you've got a question or some feedback on what you think of Sphere we’d love to hear from you.
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This issue of Sphere has a golfing theme to it - bear with us non-golfers (of which I am now one) we've also got The Muppets
Enjoyable reading.
Jim Wigg
Coach and Facilitator
"Try this Beaker"
Good news and sad in Sphere this month. The sad news is that an old golfing pal of mine recently passed away but in preparing his eulogy for the funeral it reminded me of some great memories and amusing incidents (one in particular recounted below) and the exceptional way he looked at life.
In our late teens and early twenties Tiggers and I played loads of golf at our local club, North Hants, in Fleet. Those were heady, carefree days when a round of golf only took two and a half hours! Well, unless you were one of the old Colonels who had to wax their moustaches between each shot. Tiggers was a laid-back character who was rarely phased by anything. And this came in very useful one particular day in the summer of '84.
We had put our names down to play in the Gold Medal - the club championship. We're on the first tee waiting for the people ahead to clear and doing a few practice swings before the off. There are a few nerves and a bit of tension as there’s a crowd of people watching from the terrace just a few yards away. Tiggers is off first. Calmly he sets himself up, swings and strikes. The ball rockets off the tee... and... and... instead of heading in the sought-after straight line towards the fairway it flies through the air only 3 inches off the ground and at a 30 degree angle, hits the ladies tee (a small box about 10" square 3 yards in front), flies backwards towards Tiggers who has to jump in the air for the ball to pass under his feet, hurtles behind him, smacks a low brick wall in front of the terrace and ricochets back towards him landing about 3 feet in front of where he started. The crowd fell about hysterically.
Most of us would have been embarrassed, frustrated, angry, upset or humiliated but not Tiggers. As usual the first expression we saw was his quietly perplexed Beaker face (of The Muppets fame) - the "eek how did that happen" look - rapidly followed by a very large smile and laughter. Then he just shrugged his shoulders: "oh well, ho hum", took a 3 wood from his bag and casually hit the ball perfectly onto the fairway!
So what do you do when you feel you're in a tricky situation or the chips seem down? Do you dwell on things and allow them to affect the future or do you find it easy to let go and move on? When the top golfer Ernie Els (nickname: The Big Easy) was asked if he really is that relaxed on the golf course he answered "I just try to stay in the moment". If you take his lead, whatever happened to you is already in the past, it doesn't have to affect now or the future. It's your response that counts. How impressed do you think the crowd was that Tiggers calmly hit the ball onto the fairway?
And by the way, I can't remember how well Tiggers did in the Gold Medal that day, but he did go on to get down to a two handicap!
...and now for some recommended "in the moment" reading
The light version: Being Happy by Andrew Matthews
The heavy version:The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
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