Next Placements

Hi Guys!

I realise that the next week or so is going to be a very exciting one - I am really looking forward to my next 6 month placement. While I will not go into the details here, I am certainly feeling optimistic about the placement. I, like many of you, will be working more centrally, on more strategic projects.

I really think that this will be a fantastic opportunity for all of us, though I do have a "gut feeling" that we will face slightly different challenges. I thought I would write to give you an idea of what I feel my main challenges will be over the next 6 months.

1. Change of Environment: We are no longer going to be in the branch network. If your placement is anything like mine, there will be some involvement with the branches, but I anticipate much less direct involvement. This will mean that we will have to "keep our finger on the pulse", as such, with the day to day running of the bank, and it can be difficult to do so.

2. Back to Reality: Okay, so I just wanted to include a silly reference to the great comedy Red Dwarf, but there is some relevance to my sub-title. Keeping track of the day to day runnings of the bank will be challenging enough, but we also need to maintain the relevance of our work. On a few occasions I have been handed information or a document by someone and looked at it thinking "okay, this is great, but totally useless to the real world." Another common theme is looking at a something and being left with the feeling that someone went to a lot of tine and effort to do this, but it has bugger all use. I want to make sure that any work that I do does not fall into these categories, but it may be tough.

3. Expect the unexpected: Just wanted to use a cliché this time, though this has nothing to do with leaping into the unknown. As we change our job roles, we will have different expectations place on us - I for one struggled to understand what expectations my manager had on me initially. It can be difficult as we will be meeting many of our colleagues for the first time and it’s hard to know what they expect / want.

4. The Learning Curve: I really get the impression we are going to be under a different kind of pressure. Our 6 month probation is up. We have all (I assume!) proved we are not incompetent idiots. So round one is over. Round two is going to them asking us to show what we can do. I look at probation as being a series of tests to prove to them that you are not something. The next six months is the chance to prove what you are. Though we may not always get recognised for the hard work we do, I am pretty confident it is at least noticed.

5. The fun factor: As many of you know, I chose to move countries and lifestyle to take this job. Aside from the initial stress, caused mainly by incompetent letting agents (I'll not even get started on that*), the job has been a blast. I have had great weekends, hard work, lots of variety and met some really 'interesting' people. I hope it is maintained. However, I've done the easy bit settling in and readjusting to a new lifestyle and the novelty has worn off, so that makes me ask myself, "will I deliver in my new role" and "will my new role deliver for me". It’ll be great finding out.


SO, these are my thoughts. I am really excited, but I am nervous about a few things as you can probably guess. All this talk of 'networking' and 'allowing yourself to become an authentic leader' leaves me cold. I just like to socialise and learn. Anyway, why bother saying "authentic"? If I say "I want to be a leader", the authenticity is implied in the statement! I'm not going to want to be a non authentic leader. This minor rant got me thinking - are there any successfull non authentic leaders? Any Suggestions? I came up with

1. George Bush - obvious choice.
2. Kim Jong-Il - debatable, is he actually too successfull a leader?
3. Inspector Closseau - Was he actually a leader?
4. Charles Manson - Was he a leader? I not that comfortable calling him "successfull".
5.Phillip II Spain - He launched the spanish armada. I only included him as I just read an article on it. I suppose the Armada was a success in that they got ships together and sailed around Ireland. The less said about the epic defeat, the better.

That said, it has been great to get a graduate network, and I hope that whatever happens, it will be an authentic experience and not some vacuous promise, just like the one my letting agent made.

Have a great week guys!
Kindest,

Dante


*bloody letting agent delayed my move in date, then tried to charge ME for the cleaning then didn’t fix the toilet or sing for a WEEK and...... I'll stop there. I am trying to get the week off to a great start.

Training Course - Leadership

Hi Guys!

So plenty of us were on a training course today. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Normally I feel these training courses are going to be full of "soft skills" that have no real world relevance.

I'll be honest, I didn't really want more information on ball dropping. I think you know what I mean.

Lets start with the good.

The training course did give us some interesting material to look at. Even though I reckoned that 20 questions could tell me not too much I didn't know about myself, it was interesting to see my behaviours profiled. Sure, I ended up being a certified an emotionless data hungry monster, but it was interesting to see how other people would perceive me. I think at least 3 people at my table labelled me as a green within about 30 seconds!

Still, that was interesting. I mean I learned how people may think of me! What was interesting from the presentations back from the groups was that not one person said that they strongly disagreed with the behavioural profile. Some people may have disagreed, but no disagreement was presented back.

Maybe their 20 questions were unerringly accurate.

I also enjoyed the discussion around influential leaders. Sure, every table had at least one mention of Barrack Obama and Gordon brown, but there were some examples of interesting inspirational leaders.

From my perspective, some people identified leaders who would be classified as "born leaders". As I recalled, these guys seemed to later on fall into the red category on the behavioural profile. Martin Johnson and, controversially, Kevin Keegan. I would say that these same guys had Gordon Brown as a bad leader.

Then there were the more personal leaders identified - leaders who were particularly relevant to the that one person. I am not saying there is a direct correlation, but these guys then later on seemed to end up in the Blue behavioural profile section.

Finally, my own personal choice was directly reflected in the green section. With Ayrton Senna and Richard Dawkins as my inspirational leaders, it was two independent, factually driven and analytical leaders. I would love to see the statistics of where every one else fitted in with their personal choice of leaders and whether or not their choices reflected their placement on the behavioural chart.

If I wanted to get really metaphysical, I may be inclined to ask whether people filled in that survey describing who they are or who they want to be. To be honest, for me it was probably a bit of both.

And the gent who chose Major Winters from Band of Brothers got it spot on - his leadership was defined by his impact in his absence.

A bit cliched, but probably true.

I guess the moral of the story today was that the rubbish opening video and the ropey activity that had one group making tea did not hide the fact that we had a great opportunity to look at what people inspire others, and ask why different people inspired ourselves.

It was an interesting day.

Finally, it was great to return to rugby. Why there is such an appeal to get people to rugby when it is snowing quite escapes me. BUT, lets be honest, at least coming from London I was headed True North.

Kindest,

Dante

Welcome and Our Training Course

Hello everyone!

I have started this blog as one of the guys on the grad programme. I was thinking, and as part of the 2008 intake, our first six months have been really eventful and interesting. However, from the training course today, one of the resounding features has been the great time I had meeting everyone again. With some of the guys there, it had been 6 months since I had seen them and it was great to catch up.

So here is the deal - I am going to try writing a Blog. The idea is two-fold.

a) I wanted a way to keep into contact socially and let you guys know how I was getting on.

b) I wanted a non-work environment where I can comment on certain features and experience on a day by day basis.

The way I really want the blog to work is to have weekly or Bi-weekly posts from myself, plus regular inputs from you guys. Initially, I want it to be a general discussion for our experiences and feelings. I didn't feel comfortable posting on face-book, so I am using a blogging site to give me that bit more Independence.

So, I just wanted to give you guys of a few base rules I will be adhering to to ensure fairness.

1) Initially I will moderate comments, I don't want any slagging off.
2) I will not use any names until I am more comfortable with the content and style.
3) I will keep it general but relevant - I want to let you guys know how I am getting on without discussing anything that may be misconstrued.

and Finally,

4) I want to keep it interesting. If I am ever being boring around a topic or you think I am out of line please let me know. I want to keep it fun.

I think this will be particularly great if it allows us to communicate our experiences. As we all start our next placements, we will be going in new and different directions and I really want to keep in touch with people.

So that's it for me - I will post my first comment shortly - its just about the course we were all on today!

Kindest,

Dante