Rules of the Game
  If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun. (Katharine Hepburn)
January is a hard month. It's cold, it takes time to get going again after the holidays and all that snow!
Did you make any new rules or resolutions. Have you kept them? Some of them? This bulletin is all about rules that are good and rules that don't help us at all. What rules are important to you? Let's find out.
So here we are, nearly in February. What's up for grabs? Go to the website and find out about new Sync things on the blog on our website. Click the link below
Go straight to the Sync website for more info on the opportunities available
Who's Rules?
Hell, there are no rules here, we are trying to accomplish something. (Thomas A Edison)
So how do you feel about rules? Do you like them or do you kick and throw bricks against them?
Do they help you or do they hold you back? Who's rules are you ruled by?
We might not be keeping to our New Year's resolutions, but the rules that shape our lives need a re-think sometimes to see if they are good for us to live our lives by.
Edison was right - some rules hold us back from being who we want to be, but other rules like the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) and 'Valuing People' help us to shine by backing up our rights to be heard and seen and to lead!
What do you think?
To go straight to the easy read article on Rule Breaking
Rule Breakers
One of the things that made Ian Dury great was his lyrics.These rhymes shouldn’t work, but they do. Some of them are 'Bad English'. Some of the words aren’t even real words! But they work. He ignores the rules and gets away with it. (Dave Trott, Creative Mischief)
Our case study this month is a filmed interview with Tom Mauger, lead singer from Babyhead, a Bristol based ska funk band!
Tom would admit to being a rule breaker in the past, but only around rules that made no sense to him at school where he felt he wasn't respected because he didn't do well at his lessons.
As for disability, Tom sits very much outside the disability movement himself but he does work with young disabled people in the South West alongside his band because he wants them to have the opportunities to make live music on their terms - like he did.
For Tom, Ian Dury was and an important role model. As Tom says, Ian was 'a singer first and a handsome bastard second' and disability was just one part of him.
Go straight to the filmed interview of Tom
Re-writing Rules
I’ve often wondered, can I really be a leader if I haven’t got the energy, and sometimes I’m doing less hours than other senior staff? (Suzanne Bull, CEO Attitude is Everything)
Sometimes we feel embarassed that we have to do things differently, that we don't have the same energy or need certain support.
How do we stop this? Working 100 hours a week or using words all the time is somebody else's rules about what a leader should look and be like.
Maybe we can re-write other people's rule books about what leadership looks like by being clear about how we do things differently and being proud of this!
So why don't you look at your energy, over this next month and see and feel the times when you are at your best and make some rules about how you are going to use this to achieve more at work?
Shovel your Peas
‘I was always told, like other children ...not to use my fork as a shovel with which to pick up peas. I threw that one out long ago!’ (Adrian Gilpin, Chairman, IHD)
So to end this month why don't you write some new rules for yourself? If you want to shovel in your peas because it works better for you - then go right ahead..
We'd like to share a film from TED.com. It's got great pictures and subtitles are on the site too. It will help you feel good about your dreams and goals and make February look that bit brighter. Just follow the link below to see the short film.
Sarah Pickthall
Sync Coaching
Richard St John's 8 Secrets of Success on TED
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