Myers-Briggs®

I’ve got a few random questions…

Said the candidate I was interviewing for a senior position in a client company.

Brilliant. I love random questions. I was hoping he’d ask things like “What’s the capital of Lithuania?” or “How many wasabi peas can you fit in a smarties tube?” but no.

This man was an ESTJ and ESTJs don’t really do random.

Corporate Governance. Culture. Headcount. Productivity. Profitability. His questions were carefully structured. Ordered. Specific. Relevant. Succinct.

ESTJ is one of the 16 personality types in the Myers-Briggs® Personality Profiling model. Those with a preference for ESTJ (Extraversion – Sensing – Thinking and Judgement) tend to deal in concrete facts.

They often make strong leaders; natural architects of efficient systems and processes. The ESTJ pays  great attention to detail. more…

Charity

Please forgive me but this week, I am shamelessly promoting the fact that my brother-in-law, Sergeant Christopher Godwin, is running the Amsterdam Marathon on 17 October 2010 in memory of my step-dad.

We lost my step-dad, Valentine Flint, on 11 November last year following a long and harrowing illness triggered by a heart attack, sustained while out go-karting with colleagues from his beloved John Lewis, Oxford Street.

Chris is aiming to raise £1,000 for the British Heart Foundation.

If you are a fan of our website and you want to help, please go to:

http://original.justgiving.com/christophergodwin

for more information.

Thank you.

Wendie xxx

Monday 13 September

Leadership

Is it me or are the people that enter the Dragons’ Den more deluded than the contestants on X-Factor?

• My name is Brian. I’m looking for £100k for a 10% stake in my business. I have invented a cup, which you can fill with tea. And drink from.

• Hmmm. So you value your business at £1 million. How many of these cups have you sold?

• Four. One to my mum. One to my dad and 2 to my Uncle Harry who drinks a lot of tea and doesn’t have a dishwasher. And they all really love them.

• This is a tough market. What makes your cup so special when there are thousand out there already?

• Mine is blue. I expect to sell 2 million in the next 6 weeks and they retail at £1.99 each.

• Blue cups, eh? Novel. How much do they cost you to make?

• Err.. I don’t know. I think it’s about £3 per unit.

• Let me tell you where I am, Brian. I’m out.

Mad. The Dragons are often prone to quote the old adage “Turnover is vanity. Profit is sanity.”  And they’re right. Well, they would be. They are all multi-millionaires. more…

Monday 7 September

Skills development

Bounjourno!  La donna cucina!

This week, I have mostly been learning Italian. And trying to make cupcakes. Oh, and working 15 hours a day.

When you’re working flat out, doing the same thing day in, day out, it can be easy to fall into a rut.

I worked out long ago that when you’re in a rut, you start to fade. If you’re not learning, you’re not growing and if you’re not growing, you die.

If you’re feeling restless or bored, learn something new. It doesn’t have to be anything too taxing. You just have to enjoy it. more…