'Value The Quiet Ones'- Naked Leader Week

When I was in IT at Cornhill Insurance I knew most of my team by name, with some exceptions, of course. Brand new starters, contractors who came and went, and a noticeably quiet man who kept himself very much to himself.

I made it my mission to get to know him – Adrian - starting with a lunch together.

I framed every question about him and he responded to each one with very short answers. I was getting nowhere, and started to feel like a police interrogator. Towards the end of our lunch I asked him:

“So, if you don’t mind my asking Adrian, what do you like to do in your personal time – perhaps a hobby?”

His response completely floored me, and I can honestly say it had a transformational impact on me, our whole IT function and a lot of the work we do in Naked Leader today.

He looked at me straight in the eyes and said, in passing:

“Yes, I am a member of Southampton Yacht Club, and also their Treasurer.”

I stopped in my tracks, and blurted out:

“Southampton, that’s quite a big boat club?”

He replied: “One of the biggest in Europe”

I asked him if he would like a cup of tea…

As you will know if you work in, or know of huge organisations, there is one time of year that everyone dreads…budget time, when there are difficult discussions across the company on how much money each department is allocated. Kinda like a huge bun fight, overseen by the Finance Director.

And I was not particularly good at it – our training, recruitment and every other budget was always cut back.

Adrian changed all that – I invited him to be my right hand on budgets and IT finance and holding suppliers to account etc.

He accepted, loved it and came alive – attending all budget meetings from then on, and coincidentally, we always got what we asked for…with a lot of fun along the way.

Everyone has value – and over a single one hour lunch I discovered that the quiet ones have SO much to offer.

With my love and best wishes to Adrian, and to you all

David

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And to catch this week's article on audio, narrated by David, just click on the link here: https://youtu.be/1f09TTzR3z8

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