How To Live The Juggle Life

Last Friday I was interviewed by a local website Longpier.com . Longpier.com is a great website run by James Harrod serving the local community with stories, videos and features. He's great at covering local events, offering live coverage by uploading pictures to Flickr, videos to YouTube and updates to Twitter. You can follow James on Twitter @longpier

Here's the interview that was filmed in the gardens of Leigh-on-Sea Library.

Play Where You Play Best

I got asked a good question in an interview last week about whether ‘juggling’ was for everyone; wasn’t it important that some people remained specialists in one field rather than be good at more than one thing?

Absolutely. I don’t think everyone can become a juggler. Instead it’s about being authentic: about your work life reflecting your multi-dimensional talents. So if your talents are brilliant but singular, don’t fake it and try to become a juggler. Stick to what you are good at, and passionate about. The world needs specialists, whether engineers, scientists, footballers or designers. But don’t be limited by your specialism, look beyond what you currently do to consider what else you are good at. Don’t limit your potential.

So juggling is not about stretching your talents in ways they don’t stretch; it’s about knowing all the stuff you’re good at and focusing on that. Stuff you’re not so good at? Delegate or outsource that.

It’s like Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide Of Saatchi & Saatchi said in my book, 'Juggle!':


‘It all starts with knowing when you are at your best and playing there all the time. I focus on those things I'm good at and try to get world class at them. The stuff I can't do I ask others to handle and choose people who are brilliant at it, significantly better than me at least. None of us is as good as all of us and I make sure that I have a bunch of inspired people around me who are all experts in their fields’. *

Last Friday I was working on the copy for my new website. I was on the 4th draft and was struggling. I knew I needed a fresh pair of eyes to polish and improve it. Sure, I could have spent hours persevering but I knew my limits; I recognised it was time to call in an expert. I ‘phoned my copywriting friend Rich and asked him to get involved.

And that’s what being an effective juggler is about; sure, stretch yourself in loads of directions that reflect your desires and talents. Play where you play best; and bring in experts for those areas where you don’t.

* you can see my video interview with Kevin here

Well Targeted Marketing?

I got this marketing email from Amazon this morning, wondering whether I might be interested in buying..... my own book.

(As it happens I've already got a few copies)

Start Wandering Around

Tom Peters has always advocated ‘Management By Wandering Around’ as one of the most effective management styles. I never had a name for it – it’s what I did in some of my own management roles. But it was something I learnt. When I started doing a management job and got busy, I spent more and more time sitting at my desk dealing with budgets, proposals, staff appraisal forms, board minutes, meeting agendas, forecasts. But I soon realised this wasn’t spending enough time walking around my team or the operation I managed. So I started wandering around, walking the floors, seeing what was going on. Of course, this got me closer to the business, to the staff and to the customers. It meant I did my job better.

I think more people in management need to get up from their desks and start wandering around. This point was brought home in a documentary I heard on Radio 4’s ‘In Business’ programme about the UK’s Timpsons shoe repair firm. John Timpson manages his 550-shop business by dropping in on them all the time to find out what's going on, day by day. He calls it 'upside-down management'. He and his son James spend 3 or 4 days each week on the road visiting their shops, talking to employees and even serving customers because in James’s words:

‘The business isn’t about what happens at head office, business is about what happens where the money’s taken, and that’s where we need to be’

Don't say 'it's not my job'

Seth Godin had a great blog post the other day entitled ‘All I Do Is Work Here’ about how some people don’t take collective responsibility at organisations – they say, ‘oh no, that’s nothing to do with me, all I do is work here’.

It reminds me of a company that I worked with. They had this really great culture where everyone from the CEO down took full and collective responsibility for what happened at the company. Everyone answered the ‘phones; when a courier turned up anyone who happened to be around would sign for a package; people in finance and admin roles stayed close to the core of the business and ‘got’ what the business did, they knew who the customers were, so they could engage with them too. This created a really strong culture that came to be at the heart of the organisation. But as the company grew, it was decided that there needed to be more organisational structure so workers could be more focused on their respective roles. A mantra of ‘that’s not my job’ was encouraged to focus on individual responsibility.

I don’t like the idea of ‘it’s not my job’. Whatever the size of an organisation, if every part of it can be encouraged to live and breathe what it does; rather than be head-down and siloed in their own role or department, that kind of culture will shine through and can really contribute to a company’s success both internally but also externally.

Ditch the rules and do it your way

In life and business we’re thrown loads of rules about how to do stuff. Policies, guidelines, standard operating procedures.

But often in order to succeed you just gotta chuck away the rules and say proudly ‘I'm going to do it my way’.

Do it.

Bits of advice...

I was interviewed for an online article recently, 'Are you putting your job before you?' which is live on the Nicole Williams website here.

I was also interviewed a while back for the News Of The World 'Fabulous' magazine about time management and how to maximise your time, that piece is here (or click on the images above).