‘Like’ our ethos and what we believe in.

This morning I received an email update stating that a comment had been provided on one of my posts on Linkedin.  The comment read:

“I might read some of your post if you stop liking what you’ve posted, I consider the practice to be offensive.”

Now, seeing that – and being English- I immediately felt embarrassment and a little bit guilty that I had caused offence. I really did feel a great need to apologise to the commentator directly.  I felt bad! And if I had caused offence to one individual what impact was I having on other LinkedIn contacts? ‘Liking’ my posts is a habit I’ve got into – and really just part of my ‘thing’ when it comes to posting.

I hurriedly deleted my post.

By the way I only know the commentator through LinkedIn and they provide insightful comment and links on a range of professional issues, I’ve had a look at their blog which is content rich – and I, personally have found very helpful. Still and all -sorry!

Anyhow, that was this morning.

At lunchtime I went home for a bite to eat (Heinz tomato soup) with my wife and talked about our day so far.  I’d got an opportunity to work overseas, which was nice, a few other bits and pieces on developing partnerships and I also mentioned the ‘like’ comments.  My wife said:

“Do you not like what you post – do you not believe in what you’re writing?”

And I thought that was so insightful.  I explained the etiquette on LinkedIn and batted that around for a couple of slurps of soup – and that led me to writing this post.

Feedback is good. It informs behaviour and practices. It jolted me out of my habit of postings, which is learning I very much appreciate. It also made me think about the ethos applied to my postings as well as the work of the whole team here at Brian Farrington.  So what do I believe in? What is our ethos? Well, Ive given that some thought, post-lunch, and have come up with this:

1.            Demonstrate trust – be trusted to get the job done, ensuring that both ours and the clients’ objectives are understood.  At Brian Farrington we continue to aspire to be recognised as subject matter experts in Procurement, risk and proposals.

2.            Show respect – we listen to and act upon others’ own hard-earned experience and expertise. We take a collaborative approach to work.

3.            Give encouragement – our approach is not to criticise when standards can be improved, but find out what the problem is and assist in eliminating future repeated incidents. ‘Facilitating’ is a dreadful word!  But the activity captured in the term reflects our ‘none of us knows more than all of us’ approach.

4.            Value diversity – we recognise that what works for motivating one person, won’t necessarily work for another. Our flexible approach is aimed at getting the best out of different types of people.

5.            Performance visibility – we set clear objectives and recognise other’s insights (and subsequent achievement). There are ‘no surprises’ or political machinations emanating from the Brian Farrington approach.

6.            Quality assured – Procurement is not a passing interest, it is our vocation!  And the standards have been achieved in challenging environments for over 30 years.

The community that I engage with on LinkedIn and social media more broadly already know (many of) the things that will make them more successful in procurement, risk and proposals. They are potentially complex. Success is not determined by big, one-off, complex new strategies.

Our approach, which we seek to reflect in our social media presence, is to work with people interested in procurement – listening, talking, exploring, and iteratively developing procurement competencies through small, but integrated actions consistently implemented and aligned with achieving business goals.

That captures our ethos and what we believe in.

I may not in the future ‘like’ quite as many of my posts as I have done so far but I do fully believe in the advice, tools and techniques explored in my posts – and the value of the work of the whole team here at Brian Farrington.

Thanks

Steve