Your talk went down very well with great feedback from the delegates. They have been using examples from the evening in sessions yesterday and today, so they must have learnt!

Henley Management College, Executive Programmes.

Andys Blog

Welcome to my blog on which I hope to to share with you some comments on life and examples of what I am up to in the world of Inspirational speaking and goal setting coaching and training as well as life in general.

Welcome to my World!

Aug 31, 2010 Blog Redirection

All blog updates are now going onto my specialist ultramarathon running site www.bigandscaryrunning.com

 

March 19, 2010 Reality Used To Be A Friend Of Mine

 

After much faffing about since Joe was born just before Xmas trying this that and the other and wondering why everything seemed to be just, well, 'FAFF' Reality finally resorted to a sledgehammer blow to my thick skull to get my attention:

'What the **** do you think you're doing?' yelled an incredulous Reality.

'**** OFF!!' 

Charming. Well I'm ****ed if I'm having that, said Reality to itself - (cue sledgehammer blow)

'****!! OWWW!! What the **** was that for??'

Reality took a deep breath and composed itself. 'Right. Now that you've stopped ****ing about, pay attention: This swim Windermere, bike Fred Whitton, run Bog Graham Lake District thing back to back alpine-style...it's just not happening is it?'

Cowed silence.

'IS IT??'

'Well, no.' (Gimme a break - no one likes to admit failure, least of all me)

'So do the smart thing and let it go. It'll be still there next year, y'know.'

'I know.'

'Good. Now that's over -  for ****s sake, LIGHTEN UP NOW WILL YA??'

Reality: It used to be a friend of mine.

   

March 10, 2010: Launching New Corporate Team Ultra Challenge

Business Benefits At The Core

Teaming up with the Lakeland 100 mile ultra tour of the Lake District to provide the business benefits training and coaching package for corporate team entries.

That's right: Getting to the finish line means you're only halfway done with this gig!

50 or 100 miles - Two Feet - One Day, July 24 in the stunning Lake District.

Teams of four at the sharp end - and we design the benefits of your experience to be so much wider and deeper than that: http://www.lakeland100.com/section.php/9/1/corporate_entries

   

Andy Mouncey Presents - Set Goals To Really Grab You

 Set Goals To Really Grab You  - live footage

See an extract of Andy presenting to the Academy For Chief Executives as part of their 'Winning Through The Recession' Speaker Showcase Day.

"Performance - the motivation and the skills to step up and deliver for ourselves and the people we serve - that's emotional. How then, do we choose, plan and design, to feel how we need to feel in order to do what it is is we want to do?" Andy Mouncey

   

Feb 26 2010 It’s Not What You Think

NOT the Chris Evans autobiography…

Yesterday I was exhibiting at the Women Of Cumbria in Business day.

Let me rephrase that: Yesterday I was showing at the Women Of Cumbria…oh, never mind!
And while it was a rare treat for a bloke to get to see how ladies behave in a large group of ladies during a day for ladies – there were, oh at least three of us chaps there – THAT was not why I was there.
I thought I was there for something else, but what hit home most was the performance of Alison Johnston from Dodd & Co accountants in her workshop ‘Money – It’s Not A Dirty Word.’
 
Now maybe I don’t get out much, but I don’t know any lady accountants. What struck me first was the contrast between how uncomfortable she was doing the ‘up front speaking bit’ and how comfortable she was with her audience. It turned into a masterclass of how to make the sums side of running a business seem simple, fun - oh yeah, and pretty damn essential. So did I see that because she was a lady talking to a lady audience, or is it just my bloke filters?
 
All I know was it wasn’t the 45 minutes I thought it would be.
 
And later I spent half an hour with someone I’ve not seen for yonks  - and that turned out to be staggeringly helpful as well.
Thank you, Quirky Traveller!
 
So that was yesterday: Not what I though it would be at all.
 
   

Leader or Loser

Alright. I thought I’d resisted jumping on the Vilify John Terry bandwagon – but Steve Borthwick tipped me over the edge. So here goes:

‘Choosing to do ‘red-mist’ recently every time that man Terry was mentioned in the same breath as ‘captain’, ‘leader on the field’ or Lord help us, ‘Daddy Of The Year.’

Clearly it’s OK to have someone who is serving match suspensions for violent conduct as captain of your country – and then to appoint and rave about his successor who just happens to be  serving exactly the same sentence onto top of an equally impressive track record for off the field activity.

Is it just me, or..?

 And then to top it off I heard an interview on Radio 5 Live Sport a couple of days before the England – Wales rugby game with much maligned England captain Steve Borthwick.

So Steve, why do you think you were appointed captain?

(Now if anyone has ever made sense of a Steve Borthwick interview answer please let me know. I haven’t, couldn’t – and neither by the sound of it could the studio panel).

What I did get was this: Something along the lines of ‘how I go about my business…conduct myself on the pitch…prepare professionally…’

Hmm.

If that is truly what Steve Borthwick believes then England Rugby are even more flawed then they appear to be.

Here’s my five pennyworth:

Those things are ‘givens’ – like turning up on time – for a professional player that’s just part of the wallpaper. Or it should be.

The challenge of leadership is this:

Knowing the difference between ‘inspiration’ and ‘motivation’ – the former comes from without, the latter from within – and having the skills to help your people turn your inspiration into their motivation.

Do that, and you will have earned the right to lead - captains’ armband notwithstanding – because your people will chose you to follow.

And follow you they will.

And you can take that, Mr Professional Sportspersons, to your off-shore tax haven and deposit it.
   

2010: Some Things Are Very Different - & And Some Are Just The Same

Back in the virtual and real world after taking time off in December & January because our second son, Joe was born amidst the snows just before Xmas.
So our festive season was a bit different!

Since then we’ve been working out the Baby-Toddler bit, as well as the 'ole Business-Life-Family-Sport-Love equation.

(It’s not as though we’re the first, though, is it?)
‘Fair to say it’s a ‘work in progress.’

It’s been an interesting transition going from ‘baby-gazing’ to full-on Big & Scary Business mode. I mean, sure, there’s added leverage of the most emotionally-compelling kind there is (!) – doesn’t make figuring out the practicalities any easier.

I am pleased to report however, that after a mushy second half of January stumbling about trying to find my thread, the Daddy is straighter of back and clearer of eye:
The baby is also bigger, the Toddler a little more settled, and the Mummy still dreaming of the bliss of waking in the morning in her own time.

It’s just a future-tense compelling goal thing…

   

It’s All In The Brief

‘I need a speech on the NHS, Chris.’
Pause.
‘OK. Do we like the NHS, or do we dislike it?’
Pause.
‘We like it.’
 
Chris Roycroft-Davis sheds some light onto the detailed and extensive briefs he typically received as speechwriter from David Cameron, Leader of the Opposition.
 
Well, me and all the other folks at the Professional Speakers Association NW Chapter in Manchester this week just looked at each other as gravity progressively exerted it’s influence on our collective lower jaws…
You have got to be kidding?? No, he wasn’t. 
So what did you spend most of your time on, Chris?
‘Well, a lot of it was research…(well, with a brief like that-!) and the rest was technical aspects: Making sure there were good contrasts in the content, and writing it from the point of view of the journalists who’d do the reporting…’
 
Ah, a bit like internet  search engines then? Write it  from the point of view of those doing the searching…
‘…then the rest was rehearsing – saying it out loud time and time again to check how it sounded…’
 
And then Cameron had to deliver it like he meant it – which is a skill in itself. Personally I’m just very happy I write my own stuff!
   

I See The Future

I was at a coaching day earlier this month in Carlisle put on by Cumbria Coaching Network www.ccnetblog.co.uk Part of the afternoon was the ‘If you could draw your goals what would the picture look like? bit.
Now I do this stuff for a living and I know the theory and the power of it – though my greatest personal success to date with the whole ‘future-visioning’ thing has been using specific written goals alongside visualisation.
Which on reflection strikes me as kinda odd for someone who tends to prefer the visual and kinaesthetic mediums:
  • I’ll take a map over a written list of instructions any day
  • I’ll ask you to ‘show me’ rather than tell me
  • Ask me how it feels and you’ll get an authentic response

Can You Tell What It Is Yet?
So we are all drawing away in varying degrees of competence and style: Black and white, colour, sweeping vistas, Lowry-like matchstick people, and broad-brush creations that Rolf would be proud of.
Which in itself is no mean feat, ‘cos this is very personal stuff – I mean, this is MY future we’re looking at here!
The exercise was many things and here’s one:
A real insight into the uniqueness of the individual.

I guess there are relatively few opportunities to showcase radically different interpretations of the same brief – and for every single one of them to be ‘right.’
I mean, the guy next to me produced a simple road map with all the direction signs missing. Mine didn’t look anything like it!

He was brave enough to admit that the whole exercise left him a bit cold – which he had a real issue with as he made his living from coaching and as a Coach was he allowed to feel that? – and he actually got much more out of looking at what other people had produced!
Ah, the shades of grey amidst the absolutes…

A Bottom Line?
If it helps you get what you want in the way that you want it – and you can make it stick – it’s a legitimate strategy.

You just might not find it in the text books – nor with the person sitting next to you.