who are you disapppointing?

One of my favorite poems is "The Guy in the Glass", it reminds me that the only person who will be disappointed in me, is myself. Not my parents, not my friends, not by my boss, not the JCI members, only myself. Of course - other people can be disappointed if I promise something then don't do it, or forget, but that's not the kind of disappointment I'm talking about here.

I'm talking about the more serious kind of disappointment, the am-I-fulfilling-my-expectations-to-life disappointment, the one that can lead to serious self-doubt and self-confidence issues.

One of the first things I say to members that want to get involved in JCI activities is to not disappoint themselves. In general, JCI members are ambitious young people, we see something we don't like and we fix it, we get ideas, we implement them, we go for our dreams, go-getters, sometimes even overachievers - you can call us a lot of things. And sometimes you can call us disappointed. Not in each other, but in ourselves.

Sometimes we think we can do everything, we'll spend an hour each and every morning working on JCI things, we'll get Richard Branson to come speak for us, we'll do everything, go to all meetings, travel...

And its a killer.

How, as a leader, do you deal with disappointment in a team? From an email saying "I'm sorry I didn't do what you expected", to someone who is so discouraged by their own efforts they don't even want to come to meetings any more? We've all been there - the project you don't even want to think about, the contact you should have emailed ages ago and now its too late, the note to yourself telling you to follow up on that lead...

So I do my best to not have to deal with it, telling my directors to not set themselves up for disappointment. I tell them that I will never be disappointed in them, in JCI we all participate as much as we can, but that they can be disappointed in themselves, and its a lot worse. It is better to give more than expected than less.

Yes - I am only disappointing myself, but is that really an "only"? Are we not the harshest judges of ourselves and our accomplishments?

I don't believe in living without expectations, I believe in following your dreams, being your best, but also keeping it all within reality. You should have a big hairy goal, an ambition you think is only 50% achievable, a dream to work towards and live up to. Just keep it --- you know ---- semi realistic. 

Investing in yourself - youth getting a competitive edge over their peers

There has been much written about unemployed and lazy youths having to get off their backsides. Youths – together with the rest of the UK – are facing the challenges of the recession, but not everyone is making this a disadvantage. In voluntary organisations we see many youths rediscovering the value of being an active citizen, not only to their communities, but also to their CVs and career prospects.

As President for the biggest Junior Chamber in the country, I see more and more young people looking to find that particular competitive advantage that will propel them into working life, fill that elusive gap on the CV, or help them make the next step on the career ladder.

Youth involvement in voluntary and political organisations decreased dramatically during the nineties and the first decade of the new millennium. Why? We-the voluntary organisations- don’t know. Did life get too comfortable, Did people not care about anyone but themselves? What we are seeing now is that involvement and membership in voluntary and civic organisations is again on the rise. Youths, including myself, are realizing the benefit of working for something other than our account balance.

Are we seeing the rebirth of the active and engaged youth? The abundance of jobs our parent’s generation got used to simply does not exist any more, jobs have to be created, they are not up for grabs any more.

JCI promotes youth leadership and entrepreneurship and we see that those members who lose their jobs rarely stay unemployed. Investing in oneself is worth more than investing in the bank. Getting proven hands on experience from a voluntary organisation, be it project management, leadership or budgeting, pays more in terms of real and tangible opportunities to get the dream job than any number GCSEs or A levels. Not forgetting the social and professional networks involvement in a voluntary organisation allows a person to build.

Branding JCI UK

Those who've known me for a while know I love making dresses, its just I've not had the time the last couple of years.

Combine that with a need for more visibility for JCI UK in international JCI circles and a lazy Sunday among inventive girlfriends (and pitchers of pimm's), and you have the result you can see on the left - formal dresses with a hint of Union Jack.

The greatest Chamber in the world

...at least that's our ambition.

Last night at the JCI London monthly council meeting we had a workshop with Sofie on branding, We analyzed the brand of the After Eight chocolate, then we looked at how we brand JCI London, and how we would like JCI London to be seen.

And it turns out JCI London's members are pretty ambitious! Which I like! Not only do we feel we live in the greatest city in the world, we also believe we are members of the greatest JCI chamber in the world (but to not sound too cocky, we modified it as "Becoming the greatest JCI Chamber in the world"). 

Next council meeting the 10th of May will be on membership - who our members are, how can we encourage them to be (and stay) active, how can we get more... All JCI London members are welcome. After the meetings we normally go to the pub for a pint of beer and some informal chatting.

newsletter challenges

so I'm in Dubai, something that has proven a problem for this week's newsletter. But no problem is unsolvable, and I'm sure we'll be able to find a solution.

So the thing is, Dubai (and the United Arab Emirates as a whole), bans any website they think can be against their religious or cultural sensitivities, so any website with nude images, gambling, references to alcohol etc, but also a lot of networking websites. And also Flickr, where I get the images for the newsletter from, so all the images I have in my newsletter comes up as broken links... annoying!

The yellow image of Um Saeed to the right is what I see when I try to access a blocked website.

oh well - I am sure we will find a solution, I am not the only person in the world able to do this newsletter, it might end up being sent a bit late, but challenges are there to be resolved.... otherwise I'm enjoying Dubai. Crazy working hours (I'm 4 hours ahead of the UK and 9 hours ahead of the US), lots of meetings, but also lots of sun, summer and good friends.

 Here's an image of me in front of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world. I saw this tower when it was being built, and now its finished. Its actually very very big. The base is enormous and its hard to fit the whole tower into a picture.


 Maybe this is what I will have to do, upload images to my blog and use them for the newsletter (weirdly enough blogs aren't banned...). Hum hum. 

Book review: "Collaboration" by Morten T. Hansen

I've just finished a very good book,  Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity, and Reap Big Results by Morten T. Hansen.

The book has given me great inputs and powerful tools on how to evaluate and enhance collaboration in JCI London, and also inputs for how we can implement the JCI UK Impact Plan and develop "connected autonomy" in our chambers throughout the UK.

Inspired by the book, I made this collaboration quadrant for how the chambers in the UK are working now, and where we want them to go. I really like the term "Connected Autonomy", coined by Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsicCo.

The book looks at both bad and good collaboration, opportunities and barriers for collaboration (no - collaboration isn't always right), right into the very organizational culture, analyzing what supports collaboration and what works against it.

How can we collaborate without anyone feeling threatened? How can we avoid that people think their input is not acknowledged, that their contributions are not recognized. Sometimes in teamwork, the individual disappears, the individual value disappears, and that would be of no help to JCI UK. Luckily, Mr. Hansen deals with exactly that (and a million other things, like how to build networks, how to set goals...), and I'm hoping to finish a plan of action for JCI UK this weekend that looks at how we can achieve "Connected autonomy" in our chambers.

New Directors (2)

Last week we were looking for two new directors, and this week we got them! yay!

Anne is adding to her engagements in JCI London and coming on the board with a full directorship, Anne is already local TOYP coordinator and Deputy Business Director, and now also new International Director. Too much? Anne is very efficient and has a work capacity beyond most people, and I'm trusting her to keep me up to date if something changes. Also Anne is very ambitious on behalf of JCI and wants to do as much as she can for the organisation in the years she has left as a member (membership ends at 40), something we always like!

Second new director is new member Timmy from Sweden. New to JCI and new to London Timmy made a strong impression on us already from day one, and is also ambitious in using his role as Strategic Partnership Director to build networks and visibility in London both for JCI and himself. I've had a meeting with Timmy already and I'm excited for the new push.

learning something every day...

Going through my daily news sites (in my job you need to be on top of what's going on, today's lunch discussion was who's going where in the US senate), I stumbled upon this article in the Times: Why women are such bad networkers. Of course I felt personally challenged by this article, as I consider myself a reasonably good networker (and a reasonably good trainer in networking...).

But we learn something every day, and one of the lightbulbs from this article was to maybe focus less on networking with women-only groups, but get out of my comfort zone and network with the guys too. It also reminded me to make more of an effort, research and reflect on what I do and what I learn. I'm very good at doing, I'm very intuitive, but I'm not very good at reflecting on what I've done and what I've learned.So today I'm buying a moleskine notebook, small enough to come with me everywhere, and I'll start reflecting... cross your fingers for me!

In addition the article reminded me to make more of an effort online. I read an article yesterday on how to make better use of LinkedIn, and reading the Times article was yet another reminder to get going with this. So I've rekindled my twitter account (twittername: solveigma), and will reconnect it with facebook so that I don't have to do two updates (if I find out how!).

Efficient ladies!

Last weekend's JCI Doncaster's Annual Dinner was as always inspiring. Its great meeting up with other local presidents, Senators and people from the National Board. Lots of ideas and input for how we can move forward, and also ideas for events and projects (picture is of Allison and Debbie from National Board)

This morning I've been emailing with Katie, Local President JCI Doncaster, to organise a JCI Ladies Day at the Races in Doncaster in September. We started working on the project this morning, and now, 3pm, a flier is done, the registration website is up on eventbrite (see!), and we're ready to take registrations! Efficient ladies indeed!

The races in Doncaster are some of the oldest established races in Britain. If you are interested you can read up on the history here.

The day will include a champagne breakfast as well as the required pretty dresses and hats, so if you're a JCI lady, old or young, join us!

Brands and partnerships

Today turned out to be a really long day, but very interesting!

Deputy Strategic Partnership Director Anna got in touch with Ben Leon from Bravo Lima, who met us for a drink and to talk about branding, clarity in branding, and partnerships. The meeting turned into two hours of passionate discussion about anything from entrepreneurship to the Israeli-Palestine conflict. Ben had lots of smart things to say about how JCI London can promote and profile itself, and lots of ideas for partners and partnerships. Both Anna and I had a lot of realizations during the discussion, and are both inspired for Monday's council meeting which will be themed on partnerships.

One outcome is that we need to be clearer about our message. JCI can be so many things to different people, and have so much to give, that when we want to communicate it all it does not enforce but dilute our message. Who our partners are and how we feature them also contributes to our message, or our brand, so that's something we should rethink. Finally Ben gave a range of suggestions to how we can add value to and contribute with the different partners. Lots of great ideas, lots to dig into, and lots to discuss on Monday!

After the meeting with Ben I met with Anne, and discussed the role of International Director, and how she can use JCI to promote her career. We talked about the opportunitie JCI gives to learn about and create contacts in the EU, our relations with the UN, how JCI UK/London profiles itself internationally, and just in general all the international opportunities with JCI London. And with at least 25 nationalities among our members that's not few!

Anne will present her ideas for the position at the council meeting, and hopes they will elect her as the new international director (but she might have competition...).

We're trying to do the council meetings this year less admin and bureaucracy, but more strategic; leave the directors to do (more or less) what they want with their areas, and use the monthly council meetings to decide where we want the organisation to go; what we want it to be; exchange experiences; contribute to each other through sharing synergies and ideas. Monday will be the third meeting..so its still a pretty new concept...we'll see how many shows up!