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Well today is the day, all eyes are on London’s Docklands as 20 of the world’s leaders come together for a breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea. Hopefully the nice food will spark off some inspiration and by the end of the day we will have an answer to the global economic crisis.
Yesterday the public felt they had the answer as a riot broke out in London’s financial district, more commonly known over here as “The City”, and crowds of angry people smashed their way into the RBS building in an attempt to take back what was rightly theirs – taxpayers money being used for bonuses.
So what is the answer? Is it to combine the might of 20 nations with a view to them supporting each other? Is independence for each and every country the only way to go? Should we be learning to stand on our own two feet again before helping others to stand up? Is it about leadership and who has the most power? The cavalcade of leaders cars coming to the G20 this morning would suggest this in part.
The fact is this G20 Summit is costing the UK around £19 million. The question I have is in a world of powerful communication technology where I don’t need to be in the same room as somebody to talk to them, let alone see them did we really need to bring all these world leaders together in the one place to make this happen? Does being in the same room instead of on a webcam or even, if you are feeling flush a satellite link make any difference to the outcome? Is the main benefit of all these leaders meeting up just a good show of face, a publicity stunt if you like?
Don’t get me wrong I’m not ranting against the G20, I’m just suggesting that there may be better, more economical ways to not only find an answer but also send a good message out to the public. After all if there was no central location for the G20, would there have been any riots?
Seth makes an interesting point here around unemployment and what you do with all that spare time. We can’t avoid it, redundancies are happening and if you are unfortunate enough to be one of those people how do you become more than just another statistic?
Seth talks about freelancers with more time on their hands but what about people who were actually employed by somebody, what do they do?
The effect of being made redundant is harsh and can be incredibly debilitating. For years of your life someone or something has given you something to do for at least 7 hours of the day, now if you don’t motivate yourself nobody is going to find another job for you.
Is finding a job full time work in itself? It can be, initially at least but then gaps start to appear in the day and you find yourself watching TV shows you wouldn’t normally know even existed. This is wasted time, time we’ve never had before and time we don’t automatically know how to use so it is easy to unknowingly treat it as leisure time.
Seth suggests to the freelancers to increase their reputation and visibility. As a former employee you may not even have a reputation outside of your own workplace so maybe it is time you began to build one. What are you good at? Think about both in and out of the workplace. Think about anything and everything.
For example maybe you were employed as an accountant and maybe you are an expert in a piece of accounting software such as Sage. It’s time to promote this ability by helping others and offering support on the most popular forums. Start a Sage for Dummies blog where you give simple plain advice every day. Talk to your local newspaper about writing a tax column. After as little as a year doing this your reputation and visibility will be so high you could probably start your own business and the best thing is your customer base will be already waiting – they are your fans, followers and readers with whom you have built the utmost confidence.
Alternatively maybe you have an interest outside of work that could turn a profit if you put your mind to it. That star seller rating you earned by accident on eBay could give you a head start on becoming a reseller for a product or range of products or maybe your love of the kitchen could give you a good base for a culinary qualification or even starting your own bistro. Believe it or not you don’t even need a store front to do such a thing, a local couple here in Bournemouth run a successful ding venture whereby people pay to be their dinner guests in their own home.
It is time to think on your feet. Next time you find yourself sitting in the void find a way to fill it. It could just turn things around.
Veteran blogger, successful leader, Marton House friend and all round good egg Clayton Lowe kindly sent us this article he found in the Times at the weekend.
Clicking on it will bring up a full size version but if you are still feeling a little blind you can read the full article on Times Online.
A recent article on www.trainingzone.co.uk takes a look at the training industry and the impact that the credit crunch is likely to have. Whilst no-one really knows quite what the effect will be on training budgets and decision-making it’s an interesting aticle that suggests some positive steps forward during these uncertain times:
“Don’t worry about the people you train who then leave, worry about the people you don’t train who stay.”
See the full article and its tips on making yourself recession-proof at:
http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=183378
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