To succeed you need to out compete, out strategize, out plan and even out scheme your competitors. And if you don’t you are ‘Trumped On’ or ‘have been trumped’ or basically ‘You’re FIRED’. Funny though your ‘competitors’ happen to be your colleagues, mangers, leaders, team members and so on.

Donald Trump, the wise business man that he is, is educating us on how to succeed in business. Don’t trust anyone, If you have to work as a team then cover your back at all times - your team members may just knife you, if you fail try and blame someone else, if your team fails get rid of the weakest person, keep your team divided so that you can conquer, set your leader up for failure so that you can take their place, look for the weaknesses in your colleagues, remember them and exploit them in the future.

Amazing, if you want to climb the corporate ladder then ‘The Apprentice’ shows us all a great picture of what to do and how to be, to succeed.

Perhaps I’m naive, I mean its only reality TV and we all know that the situation is quite false, hey??? Perhaps many folk who watch it think this is what business is (perhaps it is). Well I’m boycotting the programme because I’m beginning to think that we need to find a different way to succeed in our business ventures.

So am I too idealistic if I ask whether people could uncover one another’s strengths instead of exploit their weaknesses; allow the weaker person to find a place where they can succeed instead of chucking them out; trust your colleagues instead of watching their every movement; take responsibility instead of blaming everything and everybody else; learn from failures and communicate them rather than hide them; learn from your leaders and colleagues, work with them and allow them to shine rather than trying to undermine or out-maneuver them?

Am I too idealistic if I ask whether individuals, departments, divisions, businesses or organizations collaborate rather than compete?

Perhaps I am or perhaps only 50% (or there abouts) of you think I am.

Just a note to say thanks to all the Avo’s for their support during my three week teaching prac. I was at the wonderful Jeppe High school for girls. The staff and learners were wonderful. Perhaps the best teaching prac that I have been on in my four years of university.

This is however, always a stressful time for me, as my time has to be divided between so many things! So i thank you all sooooooo much for being understanding of my limited available time.

Love from the teacher in me!

Congratulations are due to one of our talented tadpoles!! Carin is not just a pretty face and has has proven herself reliable and indespensible in the area of project support.

Carin recently worked on the SAB Operational Academies and check out the e-mail we received from the programme manager..

Hi, Carin. Just a short note to say thank you very much for the awesome job that you did assisting me with the Ops Academies. You took the ball and ran with it, as they say! Everything was done to perfection at the right time and I didn’t have to worry about a thing. When things got a little tough (for example when time was running out getting the mugs printed) you came through with flying colours. Couldn’t have done it without you, girl!

Thanks again. Cheers

Lita Currie (Theron)

Learning & Development Consultant: Distribution

The South African Breweries Limited

On the other side of the wall from my house is the most ENORMOUS avo tree - it’s probably about 3 storeys tall. The ginormous avos it religiously produces every year are too high to pick so they come crashing down, into my garden or onto my neighbours tin roof, from a dizzy height - usually before they’re ripe …… Until last year this had only caused some near misses and things going badly-bumpy in the middle of the night. (I have learned that I can, and do, levitate - but so far have not achieved this in a meditative state. I have also learned to hit the panic button to call out the Security Company unnecessarily, but don’t tell them that!). Last year, however, I came to understand why that Avo tree is there and that it has a deeper significance than just dropping unripe avos: I find myself being referred to as a “Pip” and working with an organisation that associates itself with avocado pears. Quite where that leaves me in relation to near misses and panic buttons I have yet to discover, but no doubt I shall find out.

I don’t spend much time at Avo - but love it when I do. The vibe is funky and relaxed. (And then there’s the view from the conference venue ……). Last time I was there to do a workshop I found myself standing in the kitchen quartering and de-pipping apples, amongst other equally unlikely things. Well, I guess that’s acceptable considering I wasn’t wreaking the same ‘de-pipping’ havoc on some poor unsuspecting Avo Visionary and rendering them brainless. (Oh, I use puns and word play as part of my sense of humour routine, so you might want to re-read that bearing in mind that my head was called a “pip” when I was ankle-high to a grasshoper.)

Add to that that someone had to challenge my techno-resistance so here I am blogging on the Avo Website. There are those who would be amazed. Frankly, when it comes to technology I have used my girl status to the max and made extortionate use of my techno-whizzy friends and the techno-fascinated children in my life both to fix my technology and to figure out how it works (who writes those incomprehensible user-unfriendly manuals?). I can’t relate to technology - the logic is just a bit too logical for me to grasp, I don’t like the lack of direct person-to-person contact, there’s no “touchy-feely” stuff. In fact, until last year I used to use a paper-based diary. Now I have this cellphone a horrified friend (ex-friend?) recommended that does everything. It drives me up a wall with meeting reminders, birthday reminders, SMS notifications and goodness knows what else. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with the myriads of pencils and erasers that lurk around in my life now that they are no longer needed to manage my diary. I tried Sudoku to give them a new lease on life, but that didn’t last long before Sudoku bored me. Now that I know I can do it I have no need to do any more - unless I have to (thank you, Grant!). Time to master something else new and different.

Hmmm….. I guess I just gave myself away! Yup, when something is new and different and requires me to understand, learn, grow, develop new skills,etc. I give it my all - I’m off on a mission. And boy-oh-boy do I get focused when I’m on a mission - if I had it my way, everything else in my life would come to a standstill. However, the phones ring, the meeting reminders blare, my bed calls, my stomach threatens to eat my backbone, the laundry has to be done, the stuff of life makes demands and I have to pull myself away. Once I’ve gotten and mastered something, though, I get bored - horribly quickly and it’s time to move on to something else. Big long-term, projects are not my forte - I have a hard time finishing them. That’s why I love coaching and facilitating - the people make sure that no two processes are ever the same. So although I’m “doing” the same thing all the time, the variety that people bring to the process keep it alive and fascinating for me.

My Strengths profile tells me that my top five strengths are Ideation, Strategic, Input, Command and Self-Assurance. Rather an odd profile for someone who works with people all of the time. Well, I reckoned so until I started exploring it. In a nutshell those strengths help me to see patterns in situations, people’s behaviour and their experiences - the “bigger picture” of what the world is like if I were standing in their shoes. And I put that on the table. You’d be amazed at the insights and “Aha’s” that brings up. I’m not afraid to gently and firmly confront what needs to be confronted or to say what needs to be said. The oysters open to reveal the pearls, the skin comes off the avo and flesh is peeled away to reveal the pip which has the potential to grow and flourish. And then I stand in awe and wonder as others recognise their own potential, nourish and nurture it into life and change their lives. I have seen people spread their wings and fly. The pure magic and miracle of that process consistently amazes and inspires me. It’s my “WOW”, my passion. Whoever said that magic and miracles don’t exist didn’t know what they were talking about - I see it every day in the people and world around me. And then, of course, no two people are the same which is what makes the world go around for me, which is why those strengths underpin my people skills.

It’s no wonder that technology doesn’t blow my hair back. So I tolerate this SMS, e-mail, internet thing because it’s convenient but given the choice …………. Now I find myself blogging having never even visited a chat room never mind had a chat to some stranger who is somehow in my space whilst not actually being here at all. It all just feels and seems rather disconnected to me (not that I can recall when I last availed myself of snail-mail to communicate with overseas friends and business associates - sucker for practical mission-supportive conveniences that I am!).

So, if you’re reading this, here I am in your space whilst actually being somewhere else. Re-defining my girl multi-tasking skills (which are only in evidence when I’m not missioning - and that’s not too often!).

I’m passionate about diversity whether it’s diversity of people, ideas or experiences, and have incorporated this passion into my work. My personal journey has been both challenging and rewarding, and has led me to develop strong inner power, fierce courage and ongoing curiosity, learning and growth. Out of this journey, I have created an individual and team-coaching programme, “The Authentic Leadership Programme”.

My qualities also play out in my coaching, where I coach with what is described as ‘backbone and heart’. I create a safe and supportive space for transformational conversations, which lead my coachees to achieve meaningful success. I see the immense value in my coachees that often they themselves don’t see. My coaching holds a mirror that challenges coachees both to be authentic and to achieve outstanding results in their organisations and careers.

I run Moya Transformation Facilitators, and focus mainly on working with those key individuals and teams within organisations, needing and wanting to be the best they can be, in order to perform at their fullest potential. I do this by supporting them in a journey towards self-leadership and power within, allowing them to build up and optimally use further skills required to perform excellently within their required contexts.

My clients include senior and middle management, entrepreuners, academics, authors and public speakers.

I also hold memberships with the International Society of Neuro-Semantics (ISNS), COMENSA (Coaches and Mentors of South Africa) and the Business Woman’s Association (BWA).

If you’re interested in booking Tineke as your coach, please email Carla-jo Barry.

Jules recently wrote an article for the Business Day Management Review (March).

She poses the question, “How many people do you know who are so good at thier job that they earned a promotion which took them away from that very job”?

Jules artfully tackles the subject of upskilling management so that after such a promotion they dont spend “years wallowing in the sinkhole of management incompetence”, as well as perhaps even frustrating other talented employees in the process.

Managing people is all about figuring out their strengths and learning how to play to them as individuals.

Get your edition of the April Cosmopolitan and read about Elaine in - ‘Movers - women on top’.

Movers are young women who have shown ingenuity and determination in turning a dream into a successful venture.

In the article, Elaine speaks about ‘playing to your strengths’. Avo as a company are concentrating on this and we have put our money where our mouths are, by developing a workshop around individuals and organisations playing to their strengths.

Watch the Avo Solutions space to find out more about this product.

By now you would have realised that AVO rocks, and I mean well and truly rocks. Not only do we have a kick-ass sales team, an awesome training team, and ubercool design team and two very sexy directors but we also have a new development team which is absolutely phenomenal !!!!

SAB tasked AVO with setting up a promoter curriculum to accredit all promoters who promote SAB products. Hanli our account manager (yes, the self same Zanzabari babe) set about recruiting 5 of our youngest team members: THE TADPOLES, to source the material, develop the course and develop the material. This included looking at SAB, who they are, what they do, their products and brands, consumers, markets, the legislation around alcohol consumption, managing difficult customers and other behavioural elements.

The phenomenal thing about our tadpoles is the fact that they are all full time students. So not only do they study, they work at Avo and they took up the promoter academy challenge. They were awesome. They presented the course to SAB and walked away with 5 bookings in the bag.

These are our youngest team members led by Hanli: Peter Pan and her merry band!!

Well done tadpoles, you guys are awesome.

PS : the tadpoles are: Tazzy, Carin, Carla, Nomsa and Fransie

“And you must know this law of culture: two civilisations cannot know and understand each other well. You will start going deaf and blind. You will be content in your civilisation surrounded by the hedge, but signals from the other civilisation will be as incomprehensible to you as if they had been sent by inhabitants of Venus. If you feel like it, you can become an explorer in your own country. You can become Columbus, Magellan, Livingston. But I doubt that you will have such a desire. Such expeditions are very dangerous, and you are no madman, are you?”

Ryszard Kapuscinski, The Emperor

Yesterday I was at once awed and very overwhelmed as I watched my two worlds meet. I had the privilidge to watch Tracy and Lionel Davis of the Robben Island Museum take our Standard Bank Clients through a yet another chapter of the Standard Bank “Connecting Conversations” Programme. The session took place at Consitution Hill, in the Old Fort. It started with Lionel introducing himself as an ex-political prisioner, a tour guide and an artist. It was perhaps quite piognant that the session was held the day before Human Rights Day. Listening to Lionel talk about the struggle for identity, the truimph of the human spirit, his role in the struggle for democracy and his life on the island both as a political prisioner and a resident, I am overcome by the power and wonder of this country and by the enormoity of what individuals have achieved through their desire to bring change and understanding. How is it possible that one can have suffered so deeply and yet retain such a strong sense of self and still be so utterly selfless… Listening to Lionel I cannot but be awed by his positivity and his sense of belief, by his very connectedness to his fellow human beings. Put quite simply he is because they are.

How proud I am too of Tracy and the team at Avocado Vision that can create programs like these. What has started as an idea,or rather as a discussion around what culture is, has flourished into a program that allows South Aficans to communicate, to share, to gain insight into themselves and into each other. It takes it’s basis in diversity and just grows it to a whole different level. How wonderful to be able to sit with someone and talk, how wonderful to seek to understand, how wonderful to be able to just listen and just relate to a stranger without the theories, or the posturing.

Tracy I salute you: this program allows South Africans to confront themselves, to challenge their ideas and to stand firm in their Heritage. I am so very proud to be associated with Avocado Vision. Thank you Lionel for being part of our program, for your insights into the ongoing struggle for identity, and for facilitating discussions which are enormously powerful and insightful. Thank you for your guidance during my Robben Island period and for teaching me to celebrate my background and my history!