Doing well at work: Intro

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Introduction

My name is Bob Windmill and I am the Managing Director of Windmill Insight Solutions Ltd.My passion is helping people and organisations become better at what they want to do. My blog is a way of sharing with you the sorts of projects I am involved in.

I also write how you can help yourself or your organisation become better at what you do. Of course, what “better” means is an entirely different discussion, but I will write about that on another day.

Learning from failure

Much of what I will be talking about I learned from the best teacher in the business – Failure.

If you don’t believe that failure is good teacher just have a look at video clip from Michael Jordan, arguably the best basketball player that has ever lived.

He is quite clear that he became the player he is because he tried and failed, but then bounced back.

Any-one who is or has been job hunting will know this well. Even at my best I would only get about every fourth or fifth job that I went for.

If I hadn’t decided to re-group and keep trying after the initial disappointments I would probably still be doing smelly laboratory tests for a living.

My point is this – the only time you really fail is when you give up.

Future topics

Below I’ve given a flavour of some of the topics I’ll be writing about:

  • Being a great worker. My thoughts on how you can learn to be the worker that you colleagues, bosses and client value and want to work with. There is no quick fix here but by learning what works and what doesn’t we can become the individual valued by colleagues and clients.
  • T Shaped Skills. How to become the well rounded individual who can step up to a challenge and do well at it. Will everything you try work out? No chance. But each failure gives you the opportunity to learn and do better next time
  • “Better” vs “Perfect”. A discussion on the benefits of improving a product or service incrementally rather than trying to make it  perfect first time. Will all you product and service ideas work? Again – No chance. But each failure will help improve your next idea.
  • Crash and Ignite. Normally the phrase is “crash and Burn” which indicates failure. I my case the crash was literally that; a life threatening crash racing a motorcycle on the Isle of Man. However this lead to a whole new career direction, which I think of as a setback igniting a new opportunity.
  • Work vs Play. I am constantly amazed by the number of people who do tremendous things in their leisure time but then don’t do the same at work. Learn how to recognised leisure skills that can help you at work.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading this post. If you have thoughts on what I have written so far please leave a comment. Also if you have an idea for a topic for this series let me know and  I’ll be delighted to find a space for it.

Thanks again

Bob windmill

4 thoughts on “Doing well at work: Intro

  1. Looking forward to the new blog Bob. The best book I’ve ever read on the subject was ‘The Rules of Work’ by Richard Templar. His best rule (in my opinion) ‘Treat your boss like a customer’

  2. Hi Stephen,

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me. I like the idea of “treat your boss like a customer”.

    It is clearly true because your boss is hiring your services and, like a customer, will expects something in return for the money being invested.

    Thinking out loud, there is probably a good argument for extending this thinking to other colleagues and team members. I’ll be giving that some thought.

    Thanks again.

    Bob Windmill

  3. Hi Bob from rainy Swaziland
    Thanks for this lovely post! My first thoughts were Oh!! to your being in business for 40years! Then the biggest teacher in business – failure! How true and yet not frequently recognised. I am encouraged and looking forward to reading more post.

  4. Hello Happiness.

    What a wonderful name to be blessed with!

    I’m pleased that you liked this post. It is based on nearly 40 years of business experience yet my first day at work only seems like yesterday.

    Sometimes the pressures and setbacks of work can grind a person down but I still feel as young and enthusiastic as I did on that first day.

    I believe this is because I learnt the lesson of learning from failure early on in my career. After all, how can you be worn down by something that you know will help you grow and develop.

    Thank you again for your comment and I look forward to hearing from you again in the future.

    Regards.

    Bob

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