As one of the Team London Ambassador Trainers, I already feel privileged to see and hear  8,000 outstanding visitor hosts bring talent, diversity and passion to the training room.  To get the chance to join a relay team of 4 and warm up on the very same track that Mo Farah, Usain Bolt, Jessica Ennis and more will tread in the Olympic Stadium at the London 2012 Olympics is just the icing on the cake and a once in a lifetime experience I will treasure.  My thanks go to Right to Play who gave me and my sports marketing relay team the opportunity to take part in this Gold Challenge.

As we’re led inside  to begin our stretches, and light exercises, we strike up rapport with our fellow competitors, and this is when the adrenalin and excitement kicks in.   To walk out in to streaming sunlight, into the impeccably designed Olympic Stadium, look up to see 20,000 spectators eager to support this first ever 4 x 100m relay race instantly makes the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics very real, closer even than the 117 days to go …

Sharing the Experience

And finally, what a memorable experience to share as we kick start training second stage of the Team London Ambassadors programme this week at Stratford.   Legacy in the making!

I have to agree with The Mayor – this will be a summer like no other!

 A Mark of Distinction 

The Ambassador’s claim to fame is a mark of distinction that is respected, valued and sets an aspirational quality standard and measure.

The London 2012 Olympics is proud of their 8,000 strong team of Ambassadors, the hosts who will deliver a memorable visitor experience.   The selection process?   Approximately 34,000 people registered and the successful candidates made it through according to specific skill, experience, competency to fit around an immense  Operational infrastructure.   With such rich cultural diversity, linguistic competency is high priority.

Helen Mirren, Ambassador for Oxfam, raises awareness for women in state of poverty and gaps in social living standards.   People we trust, inspire us and we feel drawn to elect them as our role models.   And, when a ‘name is known’ it helps us realise that same person sets the template for making us all feel human.

Basic Human Needs

 We need ambassadors to bring their marks of distinction, knowledge, skills, experience and ‘known identities’ to reassure us that no matter what our station in life we can help one another, bring people together and create the sense of community Maslow endorses.   Community, feeling part of something already brings the ‘stigmas’, ‘untalked about’ subjects into the open by joining up like-minded people that no longer need to feel isolated, rather stimulated in cause.

How do We Become Ambassadors?

It all starts with self-belief.   Add passion, tenacity and identify what matters to us all and we have the core values that set us apart, yet draw others towards us.   Behaviours and actions align and we become recognised for people who do what we say we are going to do or have a good reason not to, and a relentless desire to share our learning, experience with others to help them grow.

Ambassador?

Yes, I do see myself as an Ambassador with a relentless passion to close communication gaps that inhibit people’s talent, confidence and ability to speak out.   Working in airline communications and L&D for several years, I’ve learnt to keep messages simple, reduce clutter and most importantly ask the questions that unravel the mire.  Stephen Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) springs to mind ‘Seek first to understand, then to be understood’ … a very powerful statement.   Research shows it takes 3 weeks to develop a new skill and a further 8  to embed the habit … it’s taken me longer to become a Communications Ambassador.  Though my learning never stops as my enquiring mind continues to prod for different ways to realise talent, help people find their voice, and to give themselves permission to be who they are …

 So, yes  ‘Everyone is an Ambassador’ if you have the passion, belief and like people.

It’s easy to race to the finish line, mindless of anything but just that, when we need to look, listen and be mindful of all around us.

The time is now and how you choose to behave directly affects your motivation levels as well as those around you.    So step back from the goals, take time to review and enjoy your journey as you move forward into 2012.

Celebrate your own personal moments as well as those in the upcoming 2012 London Olympics.

Do we need it?  Yes, we do.

We trust people with gravitas. They have self conviction minus the arrogance and a strength of character that’s infectious.   They make us listen with messages that carry weight and influence.

When do we need it?

In the corporate world, we are more likely to engage with individuals who present with confidence, spark effective relationships and do what they say they are going to do because they have depth.   They represent trust.  They will commit to meeting actions, readily tap into their knowledge bank to share with others and make people feel special.  Their personal brand is embued like a stick of rock.

In the sporting world, we see it.   I recently watched my eighteen year old cousin captain Millfield’s first rugby team and saw gravitas on and off the turf.    A voice of distinction encouraged his players as they went in to ‘touch, pause, engage’.   He  was equally engaging as he brought the de-brief game to life and recalled a recent school trip to Soweto where his townships’ coaching experience came to the fore – clearly enhancing his early gravitas.

He surely takes the Millfield motto ‘Molire Molendo’ to heart.

How Do We Get It?

So, how do we develop gravitas?    We need focus, disicipline, and the resilience to stay true to ourselves.   As we build our own identity based on our values, achievements, perception, we set out the foundation stones to become ‘layered’ through our people exposure, events and experiences.

Yes, we need gravitas.  

 Tools of technology are vital, though can be the inhibitors that block message translation and comprehension, resulting in confusion – and – in some cases, reactionary behaviour.

Zeldin Gets People to Talk

A recent ‘social’ event was staged by Theodore Zeldin (who studies human interaction and author of ‘Conversation’ How Talk Can Change Your Life), coaching teenagers and twenty somethings to come together for conversation.  The results showed uncomfortable body language, inability to develop rapport with one another and struggling for words.     The question arises that the language of text, email, twitter creates such abbreviation, the fuller story.

It’s easy to forget the core elements of face to face communication.    Words, tone of voice and body language combine to convey effective messages. Known as the 3V’s, verbal, vocal, visual, we readily cast them aside in our daily lives and resort to thinking, words only matter.  Wrong!

For the analysts requiring ‘source’ it was Professor Albert Mehrabian, an American communications expert, who conducted extensive research to show that words represent just 7% of message impact, tone is 38% and body language comes tops with 55% for face to face credibility and the approach must be holistic.

First Impressions?

Ever been on the receiving end of an introduction, where the person mumbles their name, looks over your shoulder or away and sounds disinterested?    It’s surprising how little effort is made in that all important interaction and first impression when what we say, how we say it and how we look and behave determines ‘that new job’, ‘new colleague’, ‘new team member’, ‘new player’, ‘new referee’.  We’re too busy to consider the basics. 

Making a Presentation?

We go straight to the lap top, spend unrealistic time crafting slides that tune the audience out at the ‘tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em’ stage, neglect eye contact as we’re too busy dipping and diving with the mouse and sounding scripted as we attempt to translate written word to spoken?   Sound familiar?

That’s before the technology ‘falls over’ leaving the presenter looking a visual wreck, minus a contingency plan, rather than a composed, competent performer.

 So How Do We Talk?

Storytelling is how we learned to talk.   Messages with a positive opening, adventure in the middle and a happy ending.   Nothing is more compelling than hearing, seeing and feeling a story face to face; we don’t tune out; we want to hear more! So let’s go back to basics when we communicate.

It’s Good to Talk

With all the great technology and on-line messaging that accelerates communication, human conversations still triumph, engage and bring us together.  

Nothing better than seeing, hearing others who make us grin, take us by surprise and educate us with gestures, facial expressions and voices that captivate.  Charismatic storytellers are the best off line communicators. 

Face to Face Travel Twitter?

Though, have you ever noticed how good old British reserve kicks in as we commute?  So many missed opportunities for face to face twitter by bus, train, tube.  The Ipod listeners, the Blackberry users, the paper enthusiasts, the personal bubble that protects one person interacting (tweeting) with another.  It is, afterall, that dedicated place of quiet, personal space and private think time that is our rite of passage before the work day kicks in.   And not everyone wants to be confronted with overpowerful banter and  excessive chatter before the golden hour of 9, if then, even … 

Though being a facilitator with curious mind, and a clear yin to yak, wouldn’t I just love to  yank those ear plugs out, ruffle those newspapers and distract even the most non morning person to spark a visual, vocal, verbal off line conversation.

Return to Work …

Secretly, we’re ready to put the work or school uniform on again and catch up with colleagues, and line managers; school friends and teachers.    As Maslow tells us our building blocks need to be in place before we feel motivated – we all need a sense of belonging and to feel part of something.  

True we’re part of something transient  when we travel, experiencing new sights, sounds our senses are engaged, and even though we think we’d like to prolong our stay, reality sets in.   As John Lennon said: ‘Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans’.      

Back to School

New teachers spark our interest, we’re learning something new, we may be in different classes, meeting new students and making new friends.    So the dread leaves us and we feel ‘included’ and looking forward to new insights.

And what we all notice is the return to traffic jams, as parents drive children to school gates, the tube is heaving once more with the full work-force and buses load up with daily commuters, while cyclists weave in and out of cycle lanes and London is buzzing once more.

Social Media is Discipline

Social media for instance warrants commitment.   It’s easy to be enthusiastic with tweeting, blogging, facebooking at start and then lose focus and become distracted from on-line communication.   Motivation levels drop and I constantly hear ‘how d’you find time for all that?’    It’s foolish to think that if we start engaging with our customers, and we then stop,  we may be perceived as inconsistent.   We are what we repeatedly do.  It’s a little like joining a gym and then not using it. 

Start with Weekly Habits

Management guru, Steven Covey takes a week in time as an invaluable measure of planning and committing to personal, business, and spiritual habits.    And being a Covey convert, I have to agree that once we set goals, priorities and measurement, we become habitual in what we do and the smallest of victories energise us and show others how motivated we are.

Athletes Are Habitual

Take a closer look at any athlete determined to clinch a new personal best.   He sets goals, paces himself and applies an ongoing commitment that subliminally becomes habitual.  Look at Mo Farah’s phenomenal performance in Korea, he’ll be reviewing his daily moves to swoop the gold in the London 2012 Olympics.   And his schedule will concentrate on both physical and mental agility.  His actions will be under global scrutiny too.

So, the message is keep acting, don’t stop, as your habits will repeatedly define you – and lead you to excellence.

Any team  seeking  high performance moves through a learning and development curve, comprising 4 stages to success:

High Performance Development

1st Stage: Unconscious Incompetency:    ‘We don’t know what we don’t know’

Our motivation levels are high, learning something new: represents honeymoon period

2^nd Stage: Conscious Incompetency: ‘We become aware of the gaps’

Question our commitment, do we continue or drop out, ie motivation dips

3^rd Stage Conscious  Competency:  ‘We’re capable but haven’t mastered yet’

We’re making good progress and motivation levels pick up

4^th Stage Unconscious Competency: ‘We do it without thinking’

High performance, the challenge here is to keep motivation levels high

And this is the stage where we look to continuous improvement to ensure we don’t slip into complacency.   So how does the England team keep the learning alive, fresh and invigorating?

 Let’s go back to Andrew Strauss’ who says the subcontinent is always the challenge due to unfamiliar conditions.   Looking at the England Cricket team’s success is centred around a strong work ethic and discipline ‘playing for each other and putting the team before the individual’.   Getting to No 1 and staying there will be harder.

So where do we start?

• Create new team values (ie what’s important) and gain team member commitment
• Team leader to set clear performance parameters with measures
• Value the individual skill and talent and contribution to the whole
• Create new goals, review and check progress
• Encourage open communication, positive mindset and behaviour

It’s already reassuring to see Andrew Flower (team director) has already started reviewing goals in light of the recent success.   In short, we need to plan, do, review to stay at the top.

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence