The Sunday Spotlight

A 3 minute read.

3 things. A learning, a win and a thank you.

Let's see where this takes us....

A lesson. ??

The internet is full of rubbish. It’s easy to end up down a rabbit hole and to find words attributed to people that never spoke them. This week was no exception.?

On Monday I discovered a triad of really useful questions. However, their provenance was disputed.?

What would the world be like if, before we opened our mouths to speak, we asked ourselves the following:

Is it true?

Is it kind?

Is it necessary??

This three-part inquiry has certainly made me pause for thought on several of this week's Zoom calls!?

Was it Socrates that first posed these questions? Were they uttered by the Buddha? Or did the Quakers originate them under the title of “the three-fold sieve”??

As far as I can tell they actually first appeared in print as the title of a poem by Mary Ann Pietzker, first published in 1872. So credit to Mary for capturing them on the page.?

But regardless of their attribution, what simple, universal common sense is contained in those nine words.

?As I look around at the news cycle and the vitriol on my social media feeds I’m making a commitment to challenge myself to exceed the bar of truth, kindness and necessity with every word. I invite you to do the same.?

A challenging lesson.

A win. ??

This week’s win isn’t mine.?

Instead, it belongs to 30 future leaders in the Hull and Humber region.?

For the last 5 years we have been providing communication skills training to the Top Thirty Under Thirty programme which offers an amazing group of young leaders a year of coaching and development.?

On Friday night, Laura and I got to attend the awards ceremony with Tom Wright , one of our coaching team, to see for ourselves just what an impact the programme makes.?

The stories from the alumni and winners were really inspiring. Massive kudos to Simon Jones and his other training partners for creating something truly remarkable.?

A massive win for all involved.

A thank you. ??

Every now and again we are blessed by the kindness of strangers. Someone walks into our lives, completely out of the blue and makes a powerful and unexpected contribution.

This week I had the opportunity to spend an hour with an absolute expert in the field of YouTube channels. With no expectation of anything in return, he held up a mirror to the mistakes I’ve been making and offered invaluable advice on how to improve things.?

Like many things in life when you get too close, you lose perspective. Things that you would see on behalf of others become blindspots for yourself. What should be obvious is anything but.?

That’s the value of feedback, the value of coaching and mentoring. It helps you tune in to a way of seeing things that was previously invisible.?

There aren’t any quick fixes and progress will require hard graft but I’m hugely excited about what I can achieve.?

Thank you Bo for sharing so generously. I promise to pay it forward.

I hope this was useful in some way.

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Enjoy the week ahead. Talk next Sunday.

Dominic