What are you giving this Christmas?

It’s here again…that magical time of the year is here again…oh yes it’s Christmas.

Usually every holiday, especially that time of the year, people start becoming forgiving, forgetting and all about giving, and making others happy.

This Christmas, have you thought about what you want to give? And by this I don’t mean gifts or any materials items, I meant what do you want to give people around you?

This might seem selfish; however, to end up the year with a great achievement, what about giving people at the office something that will help them end their year on a better tone.

In order to do that, you have to practice, in a simple yet a very powerful way, the art of coaching, and more specifically how to make people feel understood.

By coaching people, you will strengthen your relationships, people will feel that you are a source of trust and you will feel like you have made a difference in your workplace.

If you are ready, then you are 5 steps away of becoming a workplace catalyst of change :

1- What’s in it for them: Often in our conversations we end up talking about ourselves and fail to understand or learn what people are truly saying.

In order to do that we have to Actively Listen; doing that requires that you give the full attention to people when you ask them a question, yes it means leaving your computer keyboard or your phone to concentrate on what they are saying.

2- Ask open questions: And that relates to point one, the question will have to be about them, and you will have to resist introducing your personal stories in the conversation unless you are asked to. A sample open question is: “What motivates you?” and if they answer growth or achievement resist the temptation to say “me too” or “yes I also like….. because it makes me….” Remember you want to be helping others so try to learn about them.

3- Encourage them to come up with their own ideas: If you asked them what motivates them or what makes them happy, ask them how would they like to take things forward, and by this I mean what are possible ways for them to reach their goals. Again here, resist the temptation of giving personal advice; instead encourage them to come up with ideas and solutions.

4- Listening to their ideas. Listening is a big part of helping others. When someone is telling you about a certain idea, try to learn what this idea truly represents. Summarize what they have said to make sure you got it correctly, this will also show the speaker that you are truly listening to them,

5- Help them turn their ideas into actions Ideas are useless unless they are executed. In order to make an idea happen, one has to turn it into a plan of action. A good way that will make their ideas happen is to make them fill a table like the one below:

What is the action point that you will execute	By when will that point be achieved	What Support do you need and from whom	How will you track your progress measure your success

Make sure they are specific when they fill the table, and ask them to choose a mentor ( it could be you) to follow up on those action points.

Christmas is a time of giving, and the self satisfaction from giving others new ways to think is priceless. So Merry Christmas, and good luck.

Camil El Khoury is The Author of "Do What you Love, Love What you do" and the Chief Vision Officer of ideas group; the leading experiential learning firm in the AME region (Africa and the Middle East)

Do you really need discipline?

by Hussein Hallak EVP and Facilitator ideas group

Not a day goes by without somebody saying or shouting those three words in our eardrums... You Need DISCIPLINE!

It is usually followed by;

You need to be more organized, on time, lose weight, wake up early, pay the bills, finish you meal, and clean your room…!!

Discipline, don’t you just hate that word....?

It gives way, to the idea of being confined, limited to act in a certain way, and follow specific rules. That is enough to scare the heck out of anyone...

It also means to punish, and to penalize Not particularly something you want!

Still, true discipline is vital in our lives, it is the essence of true success, a must for a purposeful life. So, what do we do?

Let us first clarify a few things:

When you think about being “disciplined”, you probably relate it to being “organized”, “punctual”, “rigid”, “orderly”, “playing by the rules” and “limited”... That’s not necessarily bad; however, try to think, “Knowledgeable”, “active”, “action oriented”, and “prepared”. All are uncommon, but very relevant meanings of the word “Disciplined”.

Let us say you came to your office one day and it was a total mess, it happens to the best of us. The first thing on your mind is to get “organized”. So, you spend many hours, sometimes days, organizing that mess. The reward is an organized office, which is great. However, once you start searching among the “organized” piles for a particular paper you need, well... Pretty soon the office is back to being a mess again! Maybe even worse than before?! Especially when you are in a hurry to get that paper...You’re back to square one... Why? Because you organized the mess...

So, what can you do?

1- Know what are the things you want, and most importantly what are the things you don’t want.

2- take action, throw away what you don’t want, and keep what you want.

3- You know there will be more papers coming through your front door, so be prepared; create a simple process, and allocate certain places for certain things...

In fact if you commit only to the first two steps, you eliminate 80 percent of the mess...

Being organized is reactive. Being disciplined is proactive.

Commitment is tuff. Discipline makes it natural!

We are talking about common sense, universal wisdom, true purpose and unwavering commitment.

We are talking about “true discipline”; the art of living in alignment with your truth;

Be aware of what’s important; your values, your purpose, your truth... Essentially

“You”.

Follow your intuition. It is the inner compass guiding you through your life’s journey. It will align you with who you really are.

Finally; keep it simple... 90% of plans and strategies never get executed because they are too complex. Take your plans and strategies, and cut them down to a maximum of three steps. Choose a life of harmony, joy and peace; A life of discipline.

Ideas group participates in the Leadership Best Practise conference in Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi

Ideas group , The Middle East and Africa’s most successful experiential learning consultancy, was again the proud sponsor of Etisalat Academy’s “ Leadership Best Practices conference” in Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi. This event was organized in partnership with the Ministry of Interior and under the auspices of His Highness Lt. Gen. Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Interior.

The Event welcomed more than 200 delegates, all eager to learn from the best practices on Leadership from four very talented speakers. This panel included Rowan Gibson, a bestselling author and international speaker, Alan Stevens the communication expert, author & managing director of Mediacoach, Prof. Christo Neil who is the head of centre for leadership studies for the University of Stellenbosch and Dr. Ahmed Shalabi a regional consultant on management. The event was chaired by Camil El Khoury, an international speaker, author and the Chief Vision Officer of ideas group.

Ideas group took the chance to introduce once again 4 new experiential learning programs:

· The Psychology of Success a talent development program that includes communications, time management, focus and building extraordinary beliefs.

· Getting down to business Write and present like professionals.

· Social mania getting results out of social networking while keeping your employees focused.

· No excuses only Results A sales and customer service winning approach to get more done.

Moamar Safi, Senior Client Partner at ideas group, said, “Our commitment to develop experiential learning as a substitute for training and development in the region has never been greater, and we are really proud of our partnership with Etisalat Academy”

Media Contact:

For Further information please contact ideas group media team on info@ideasgrp.com www.ideasgrp.com

Dubai's debt is not a big problem….unless we want it to be

The past couple of months have witnessed optimism in Dubai’s businesses; People realized that there is no use of being over protective and that corporate spending is the only way to build back confidence.

Just until… Dubai has asked to delay payment on billions of dollars of debt issued by conglomerate Dubai World and its main property subsidiary Nakheel.

As this might come at a shock, analysts around the region were not that surprised by the news, as for the past year real estate in Dubai was disastrous and the restructuring of Nakheel did not make the most of sense.

The funny part is how the international media disagrees on what could be the possible results of that standstill. The “TIMESONLINE” entitles its article “Dubai debt fears threaten credit crunch 2 — and RBS is exposed” and talks about how serious this second version of the crisis could be for the whole world. While CNN.com entitles its article “Dubai debt woes 'a drama, but no crisis” and says the debt revelations from Dubai this week will not lead the global economy back into recession, but have seriously damaged the Emirate's standing as a leading financial hub.

The pessimism in the British media stems from the amount of money that British banks have been exposed to in the troubled Dubai World case , notably RBS, Barclays and HSBC.

The solution:

Abu Dhabi has promised to look at the Dubai World setback, and to offer a case by case solution, in efforts to assist its little brother Dubai in solving its problems. People tend to forget that Abu Dhabi and Dubai are both part of the same country, and if the reputation of Dubai is ruined, Abu Dhabi will also be affected.

Now is the time for the UAE private companies to step in and help the general Dubai atmosphere gaining confidence. A lot of opportunities still exist in the country, access to liquidity is still available and as “Banque Saudi Fransi - Credit Agricole Group” puts it “quality deterioration simply is not an issue in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar”

What companies in the private and public sectors should do is to continue on hiring, spending and investing, without shying off, and the Emirates will be back on track as if nothing happened.

Camil El Khoury

The Author is the Chief Vision Officer of ideas group www.ideasgrp.com

ideas Group is a global learning and human capital development firm specialized in leadership and team development. We help our clients become high performance organizations and foster a sustainable growth.
We strive to continue on partnering with our clients, finding solutions for their sustainable performance through services that include management consulting, generic courses for immediate impact, tailor-made workshops and transformational experiential learning experiences. Ideas group provide consultancy services and learning & development training to a number of Clients in the UK, UAE (Abu Dhabi, Dubai), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Morocco and Lebanon.

I want to quit my job but...

A lot of people come to me saying: “I want to quit my job and start doing what I love, but we live in the real world and that world is not perfect, besides my family depends on me and who would hire me in a time of financial downturn” and the list of excuses is seasonal; it could include political situations, bankrupting industries, age, gender and whatever comes to your mind.

My usual response is a question: “Besides thinking of quitting your job, what are the steps that you are taking in order to be closer to what you love?” and the answer is often a disappointing look on my questioner’s face.

When you want to implement a change in your life, it doesn’t come suddenly and luck has nothing to do with it; it is about being prepared to move into the next step; Preparation meeting opportunity… that is luck, opportunity without preparation is called missing out and not bad luck.

Being proactive is about choosing what you want to achieve instead of letting the society, your family, or your boss choose on your behalf, it is about taking control of your life and start acting on it. The below 4 steps will help you keep on track in your self-discovery journey.

1- Discover your values:

Before deciding on what you want to do, you have to understand who you are, what do you believe in, and what are the important things for you. Once you come up with your values, put them to the test and make sure that they are not only there because they sound good but because those are your genuine values.

2- Differentiate between a hobby and a career:

When you find your driving force and decide on what you want to be doing, make sure that you differentiate hobbies from careers. Anything that you love and doesn’t make you any money is a hobby and any other thing that you love and provides enough money to cover up your needs is a career.

3- Take it one step at a time:

If you want to jump in the new venture without preparation, there is a big chance that you will be quitting at the beginning. Think about your long term goals, divide the goals into yearly chunks and then schedule them weekly. Doing that, will ensure a smooth transition from your current state to your desired state.

4- Be persistent

The common observed behavior between Sir Richard Branson, Nicolas Hayek, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Oprah is that they didn’t quit at the first difficult challenge, and as a matter of fact the ride was not easy for them. With the recurring persistence, they have managed to keep on track and achieved what they were meant to be achieving.

So next time you think of a change, look for what you can do and what you can influence and not what concerns you.

Camil Khoury is the Chief Vision Officer of ideas group and author of “Do what you Love, Love what you do” www.ideasgrp.com

Organizational growth is not enough to get our corporate organisation out of the crisis

Every corporate, public, or non-governmental organization spend a large amount of their time looking for growth. Growth by itself is not healthy if it is not sustainable; the pre-crisis era witnessed an unexpected growth in several markets, but only organizations that thought their sustainable growth wisely and did not rely on external factors and luck to impact the bottom line, are the ones that are still on an upward trend even during the toughest times.

When observing those organizations closely, we notice that they all share three similar principles:

Hire Great people: Often when companies hire someone, they replace another position, fill a gap, or create a new position to follow the company’s growth or serve the corporate strategy; all of those is done in a rush or sense of urgency. However hiring people should not be based on urgency for the following reason: Whenever hiring is linked to urgency, the position will be filled with the best candidate; best out of what? You guessed right best out of those who applied or those who were headhunted. The case should be different; we should map out our corporate strategy and decide on the key people needed for the coming 3 to 5 years and start looking for those people. We will know exactly what profiles we are looking for and should only hire the people that have more than a 90% match to that profile. At the end of the day we want to have people with responsibilities not people with mere jobs.

Turn the systems into a culture: To start with, any organization that is aiming for sustainable growth should create a set of systems, in a way that responsibilities are distributed and agreed upon with the Human Capital Talents. Those responsibilities should not be owned by certain persons, but by a team of people, in a way that the organization does not become dependent on people but systems. One common characteristic of leaders, is that they groom other leaders; take the example of Texas Instruments (TI) CEO Jerry Junkins who died from a heart attack while on a business trip to Europe. Junkins was known to be the person that reshaped TI and brought unexpected growth to the company. As Junkins was a great leader he made sure to groom people around him and Tom Engibous who was the head of the semiconductor unit became CEO and continued the growth path. Note if Junkins was a solo player, his whole organization would have suffered of his absence.

Once we create the systems and make sure that those are our greatness systems, we have to turn them into a culture, by adding an accountability factor to each responsibility, making the whole organization live that culture.

Never stop asking questions: The secret of great CEOs or heads of organizations is that they always seek to learn, asking questions and not taking things for granted. On the other hand companies that were once growing and started declining rapidly are companies that became arrogant and took things for granted. By asking questions, the leadership team should have a set goal of either increasing innovation, or reviewing the organizational Critical Success Factors.

Camil El Khoury

Keeping careers alive in the recession

Here is the full article of the extract that was published in the Abu Dhabi newspaper "The National"

Looking for a job can become a tiring process, and one of the most frustrating events in a person’s life. The longer it takes to find a job, the more pressure we are exposed to, and the wider our negative loop becomes. Luckily we don’t necessarily have to enter a negative loop if we try to think differently and abandon the traditional job search mindset. Below are some observations that I have learned from my clients, both on the employers and candidates side, that will help you steer away from the conventional job hunt process.

Do What you Love: There is no point of looking for a job merely for the sake of having a job; people who do this mistake end up miserable, waking up every day to the same routine. When looking for your next job try to find out what is your mission in life, what makes you happy, what fulfills your mind, soul and spirit.

Become an expert in your field: All it takes is some dedication to your subject and a bit of extra work and you can become an expert. Employers want to hire people that will bring value to their organizations. Start by getting top books on your subject area (lists found on amazon.com), research it on the internet, and start blogging and tweeting about it, in no time you will become a thought after person in that area.

Find a mentor: Why to reinvent the wheel. A lot of people in key positions, struggled like you to find a job, and struggled again to reach the positions they reached today. Find a mentor who will help you with the shortcuts and ease up the path to your next vision. Make sure you share the same values with your mentor and build a long term relationship with that person even after you get the job.

Use a different approach: Can you imagine how many resumes employers get each day? If your resume is just like the rest, chances that you will be called for an interview are very low. Something different, that stands out will increase your chances dramatically. Just the other day I have received an email with a resume that stood out from what I usually get, and although there wasn’t an opening for a position that the candidate was looking for, I have decided to interview them and made an offer. What I have envisioned as an employer was an added value, just by seeing something different.

Leverage the power of networking: If your potential employer is not coming after you, it is time for you to go after them; in sales, networking is the process of being in the right place in the right time. Yes you can control that by attending events, conferences, iftars or just investigate where your potential employer hangs out and try to have lunch in the same place. With the help of visualization and a strong determination you will find the courage to introduce yourself at the right moment. You will be amazed how powerful this technique is. Another networking tool is to ask people around you about their connections; there is always someone you know, who would be happy to give you referrals that will get you where you want to get.

Remember “If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.”

The author, Camil El Khoury is the Chief Vision Officer of Ideas Group, an organisation that helps clients improve their performance using experiential learning techniques. www.ideagrp.com

Lebanon; is it time to move back?

We have all read or heard about the amazing articles in the New York Times, Paris Match, the Washington post and other reputable Media about the high life in Lebanon, and how the country doesn’t need a lot of time of peace to re-stabilize and position itself as the jewel of the Middle East.

Lebanon is known to be one of the world’s top provider of Human resources; according to “Information-International” 2 out of 5 Lebanese live and work abroad, not counting people who have abandoned their citizenship and either live in the Americas, Europe or Africa.

The Lebanese diaspora usually wait for a period of political stagnation to come and visit Lebanon checking on relatives. This time it was a bit different for them; as the financial crisis has worsened their situation abroad -a phenomenon that is not apparent in their original country due to an excellent banking regulatory practice, and a risk avert financial strategy- they thought of Lebanon as something more than a vacation time.

Lebanese expatriates coming to Beirut are witnessing an out of this world ambiance, an atmosphere that haven’t been seen before, one that caters to all levels, wether you are a family enjoying some quiet time at the beach, in the mountains, or a young crowd looking for exceptional parties with world class music and entertainment performers, the place became so charming that it is hard for them to leave.

Hard to leave means looking for a job in the country; is this viable or is it just emotional?

Let’s have a look at the economical situation and the growth forecast.

The country witnessed a growth rate of 4% to date in 2009, and could reach a 6% if it starts filling the gap in infrastructure shortages. Investment in real estate and infrastructure are not shy, where foreign direct investment plays a big role, and several new projects were announced.

Fears of political stability might be a question that job seekers ask, while the political situation affects directly the job market, Lebanon has managed to position itself as an operations hub for Corporates in the region and is regaining its service exporting culture which will continue even when the stability is an issue.

With more and more opportunities on the employment market, human capital pay has risen in Lebanon as compared with the past 10 years, and foreign expertise is rewarded, having said that, the pay is still below other countries in the region what is justified by a lower cost of living.

In a nutshell, Lebanon’s outlook is very optimistic and with the expertise that the expatriates could bring, the infrastructure gap will be filled and the country will build on the services niche that it has always dominated.

www.ideasgrp.com

Corporates and SME’s are we ready for the after crisis boom?

Signs of relief started to show, and some economies are starting to pick up.

The most optimistic markets, in the experts’ opinion, are the markets of the Middle East region. Some cities in that region didn’t stop or even slow down in expenditures; take for example Abu Dhabi and Qatar not to mention Lebanon who witnessed a boom because of the recent political stability and a healthy banking system.

As we write this blog, most of the Arab world will be fasting for the month of Ramadan, a month known for being quiet when it comes to business.

This year Ramadan ends in mid September and this is when the action will start picking up. The question that asks itself: Are we ready for a sudden boom of business?

As head of companies or business units, our most important order of the day will be creating and aligning a strategy that will get us where we should be placed in the market. This strategy, depending on our focus and vision, will need to place us ahead of our competition, on the top of our clients' requests and/or in the league of innovative companies.

The below 7 question check list can be used to see if we are on the right track to benefit from the coming economical growth

1. Do we have a clear Vision of where we want to be?
2. Do we really know where are we Placed right now?
3. Do we know what our 3 Critical Success Factors are?
4. Did we create multiple Scenarios about external and internal driving factors?
5. Do we constantly Involve our talents (employees) in the strategy formulation?
6. Do we follow strict execution KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)?
7. Do we constantly ask ourselves how can our product/service bring Value?

Once we have an answer to those 7 questions we will be ready to receive any change and make of it an opportunity.

To find out how we can help you turn change into opportunities and optimize your Human Capital Performance, visit us on www.ideasgrp.com or drop us a line on info@ideasgrp.com

Why choose experiential Learning?

Proven to have the greatest impact on adult learning, experiential learning is where learning and development are achieved through personally determined experience and involvement - similar to that of a child learning by their first experiences.

ideas group's decision to base 90% of its programs on Experiential Learning came from thorough researches of how to engage the participants into having a lasting efficiency that translates into organizational superior sustainable performance .

to know more about this topic go to www.ideasgrp.com