I never fail to be astounded by the number of ‘firsts’ I continue to experience in a world where change is ever more inevitable, rapid, constant, exciting, and occasionally chaotic. It’s almost as if my life, and everyone else’s from my generation, has been turned upside down – Benjamin Button style! I always thought most, if not all, of our ‘firsts’ were supposed to occur early in life, but not any longer. The “new normal” means that complacency and comfort zones will get you nowhere even faster than before.
And so on to my current ‘first’. This is my first ever blog, and, to be straight with you, I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to be writing about. I owe this dilemma to my family’s, friends’, and colleagues’ relentless quest to get me into the world of social media. I’ve finally accepted invitations to communicate with friends on Facebook, I now understand the difference between a ‘twitter’ and a ‘tweet’, and here I am having a go at blogging!
I’m told that each blog should be short, otherwise I’ll lose readers very quickly. I guess I should try to impress you so that you’ll carry on reading and then follow my blog into the future. I know I haven’t got many words to do it in so here goes.
I’ve just published my fourth book, Thriving On Pressure: Mental Toughness For Real Leaders. I went with an independent business publisher (Easton Studio Press) based in Connecticut because the topic is very timely and I wanted to get the book into the market place quickly. The first print run has sold out in less than 3 months and McGraw-Hill has just bought the rights to publish it in August this year. In the meantime, the second print run is underway and the version you see on the website (www.sustainedhighperformance.com) will be available until the end of May.
The book is based on my experiences of working with business leaders in Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies since I co-founded Lane4, a performance development consultancy, 15 years ago. I’m very proud of Lane4. It has grown into an organization of around 70 full-time employees with offices in Princeton, New Jersey (where I’m based), England, and Australia. As well as being a successful organization in a crowded market place, our quest to be a good employer is recognized regularly through prestigious industry awards. Lane4 practices what it preaches! If you want to learn more about Lane4 go to www.lane4performance.com.
OK, so another ‘first’ achieved. And it wasn’t so hard after all. My plan is to update this blog on a regular basis and it would be great to hear from you too.
