I remember vividly the way which you'd communicate with each other.
So [LAUGH] little things, for example, you never leave food on your plate, and
you always hand out a business card, like that.
You have to get these things right.
You have to understand the people that you're working with because
purely accidentally, you could cause offense, can't you?
There's different religions.
There's different working hours.
There's different values both in the work place and
to the ones that we're familiar with in the UK.
And at home, it's just very, very different.
So you have to be adaptive as well, don't you?
>> Yeah, absolutely.
>> So in terms of being an organizational ambassador, I would use,
as well, Ollie, the word, proud to be an ambassador.
Because I always felt quite proud if an organization asked me to go out and
do something for them.
And I think by the way that you're saying it, that would be a feature as well.
You're just proud to be out there,
to represent the organization that you're representing in an ambassadorial role.
So, we're saying that there are a number of
key core skills that go with being an organizational ambassador.
And they can be applied, some core, so they're applied all over the place.
But sometimes they can be applied, but in a different way, according to the setting.
And listening to what you've been sharing with us, Ollie,
and also, I know myself, when an organization asks you to go out and
represent them somewhere, I feel quite proud.
I really feel proud to go and represent one of my clients in a different place.
I feel proud to have been asked, and I feel proud to do it.
And I would hope that that would reflect in the way that I, and
I'm sure with you as well, would conduct yourself when you're doing these things.
So let's move on to the third aspect then of being a role model.
And this is about not just talking the talk,
it's about walking the walk, so doing what it says on the tin.
So, how have you experienced this side of being a role model?
>> Yeah, so I guess one of my approaches anyway is to
always have your house in order when people scratch underneath the surface.
because a lot of people could say, I do all these things, so I coach, or
I'm off the wall busy, or I've got a list as long as my arm.
And that does sound very dramatic, and maybe in some cases, very impressive.
But at the same time, there has to be some substance that sits behind that.
And if you want to be a role model and somebody who people look up to and
respect, choosing to say those things is one thing,
but having the information and the numbers or
whatever the measure is to back it up is a very key part of that.
>> And do you have any examples of line managers that you've reported
into that you would see as a role model, that you've aspired to?
And if you have, what was it about them that made you
aspire to learn from them in that particular way?
>> Yeah, one of my old bosses, I mean, he was very much a detail man.
He knew everything that was going on, and
he dealt with things in a similar way that I would.
He just took it in his stride, and if things came up, if things went wrong, or
there's any sort of problem, you just deal with that, just solved it.
>> So you could relate to that?
>> Yeah, absolutely, and again, I suppose it comes to scratching
beneath the surface, you would have a house that was in order.
Maybe it wasn't so much a talk of the talk, but
very much things are well under control.
>> So perhaps there's a learning point that comes there in so
far as who you look to as an inspirational role model.
Maybe somebody who would do things in a similar way that you would do.
So looks at the workplace in a similar way that you would do.
Because by the sounds of it, Ollie, the role model that you had
had a similar approach to how things should be done as to yourself.
>> Yeah, absolutely.
>> What about any examples of role models where you've looked at and think,
gosh, they do things differently?
I wonder what I could learn from them and to develop in a different way.
Have you come across anybody like that?
>> I've come across bosses who are good at talking the talk,
and whilst I guess it was never my job to scratch beneath the surface,
and check the substance of what they were saying.
One thing that always stuck with me from a boss who was a particularly good
talker was the use of how you express these things and how you spin them.
So the example specifically was,
I was in one of my first performance reviews as a manager with her.
And she said, she was talking to me about the team's performance,
and I said, things have got a lot better now.
We've got 11 people who are now delivering, as it was 11 at the time.
And she said, another way you should look at it is, last month,
1 person out of 11 achieved bonus.
And this month, 10 out of eleven have achieved bonus, so
it was more, not so much a spin on it,
but expressing things that make your impact look maximum.
