The Business of Life!

The business of life is a fascinating subject.  Whether we’re educators, homemakers, charity workers, carers, entrepreneurs, business owners, creative, service or armed forces personnel; employed or self-employed, it’s all business!

 

Leadership and personal development courses, coaches and training resources are plentiful; I’ve attended and benefited from many, without even touching on and enjoying the literary resource from books and audio books.
As a child, it never crossed my mind that ‘normal people’ won Olympic medals, never mind knew that they wanted to.  When my local Rotary Club sponsored me to attend their Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) programme in my 20s, rather than following and trying to make the best of the journey I thought I was on, I realised it was MY journey to plan, direct and steer.

In the early days books like Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, The E-Myth Revisited  and Rich Dad Poor Dad illustrated entrepreneurship and new ways of looking at the business of life.  Audio/visual learners can now also enjoy the experience of watching TED talks. For anyone interested in education of any kind, making time to watch Sir Ken Robinson will be time well spent.  This animated one on changing education paradigms was my introduction to his work and I still love it. 

Recently I had the privilege of meeting Lis Protherough who is passionate about ‘…students everywhere to aim high, be all that they can be and keep on climbing.’  She has established her business around this, writing The Book on Successful Teens and is leading by example with her own sons. 

So, with everything pointing me towards entrepreneurship, it was interesting to come across this article  highlighting some of the pitfalls. 

Robert Kiyosaki laid out a strategic plan for developing his key business skills, leadership, sales, marketing and finance.  Ken Robinson talks about why education is changing and needs to change and Lis talks about the 3 pillars of success in her YSC Training Programme:

1. Personal effectiveness,
2. Practical finance and 
3. Modern entrepreneurship. 

I’m an advocate of collaboration and sharing.  Learning from others to further my goals, sharing my knowledge to support others in achieving theirs and working together to achieve a greater result than would be possible by working alone as well as creating opportunities for young people to start fulfilling their dreams.  I believe this is consistent with seeing the return of apprenticeships in the UK as an alternative segue from education to work.  

Recently I heard a teenager quoted as saying 'but it really doesn't matter how you look Mum, people really don't care anymore!'  While it may not be AS important as it might have been in the past, being empowered, authentic and visible (as your true self) is key to supporting you in achieving your goals.  If you don’t look the part, it will take you a lot longer and you’ll have to work harder to convince people that you know what you’re talking about.  Nothing works alone in this life and while your own expertise is paramount, communication is becoming increasingly more visual (YouTube) and all communication needs to support who you are, whether it’s a still photo, a filmed presentation/conversation or a face to face meeting, the messages need to converge not diverge or worse, conflict. 

As a young graduate, investing in myself with a Colour and Style consultation was one of the best things I did, further developing this to gain clarity on my personal brand has been a key enabler for me in focusing on pursuing what’s important to me while progressing my career.  While it's never one thing alone, I'm clear this is one of my investments that has delivered the greatest ROI (return on Investment).

What were some of your best investments or resources that empowered you to move forward in your life?

Colour in Business

Colour affects us, influences us and is therefore an important consideration in the clothes we wear, but what of its use in business? 

Far be it for me to pass on idle gossip, but I’ve heard it said that staff at Coca-Cola are not allowed to use blue in presentations (Pepsi colours?).  So how DO you choose the colours you might use to represent information?  Looking to your logo and brand palette is a good source but potentially limiting if it’s a single colour.
As the first colour the eye sees, Red is used to attract attention to sales in shops and in presentations would be an obvious way of highlighting information requiring the reader’s attention.   Traffic light colours of red, amber and green can be effective in flagging states of alert, Red for danger, Yellow/Amber as a ‘warning’ and Green for ‘go’!
Having worked consciously and proactively with colour for 20 years, I enjoyed reading a new perspective on the use of colour.   Perceptual Edge  works with ‘visual business intelligence’, ‘enlightening analysis and communication’, Stephen Few’s article introduces ‘rules’ to support you in making effective choices of colour, shade and intensity for business presentations. 

You can read the full article online.  In it Stephen provides some great illustrations of the fact that colours change according to the colours surrounding them.  The following squares are all the same colour, yet the varying background causes them to change their appearance.

 

This image, courtesy of Wikipedia, illustrates the same effect.  The chosen colours can therefore affect the visibility, legibility and readability, resulting in either helping or hindering the reader.  For example, colour filters are regularly used in schools to aid children learning to read.  Only this morning I witnessed a blue filter being successfully employed by a dyslexic child, who'd progressed more in the past few weeks than in the previous academic year.

 

Your progress can be helped or hindered by the way you present yourself.  Powerful dressing is about congruence with you, your product/service/organisation and your audience.  Just as dressing appropriately (and consistently) helps hold the audience's attention, so careful (and consistent) selection of colour in presentations will minimise the potential for distraction, helping to focus the reader’s attention.

Maureen Stone writes more specifically about ‘Choosing Colours’, explaining the principles of colour design in relation to contrast and analogy and providing evidence for using contrast rather than colour to aid legibility. 

Stephen refers to nature’s intelligent use of colour, particularly brights, to attract pollinators.  I love the fact that Hoverflies cleverly adopt the ‘danger, keep clear’ uniform of bees and wasps to protect themselves from predators.  What inspiration can you borrow?

Both authors point to the Color Brewer website, a resource enabling you to experiment (using a map illustration) with choosing effective colour palettes and also providing the facility to download the palettes for use.

Whether we see and perceive colours in the same way as our neighbour is almost irrelevant, having worked with both blind and colour blind clients through colour analysis I can attest to the power of colour working – just differently!

What experience do you have of working with colour?