Don't Stay In The Stink

I'm passionately madly crazy about my husband. Let's get that out of the way first up so that you don't all think I'm too harsh in what I'm about to say.

But.... my husband is a fitness fanatic (well according to my standards).

Every day, all the time (yes, even when we're on holiday) my husband will run or go to the gym or do some sort of exercise. Now if he's running, my husband doesn't just go for a light jog, he runs flat out for an hour at a time and that has consequences.

I've just walked into the room we're staying in only to be met by his running gear hanging up over the doorway, the smell of which had not so lightly flavoured our room.

I wrinkled my nose, got past it and set up my laptop to return a few late night emails.

Cut to ten minutes later and as I sit here typing, I can't smell a thing wrong with the room.

My nose has adjusted to the smell and now it just smells like any old normal room.

I've stayed in the stink too long.

Now in a personal context, I can live with my husband's running clothes being on the door, but I need to know that the next day I just may end up smelling a bit like them myself. So I've got three options, move the stink (take the smell elsewhere), remove the stink (wash the clothes) or smell like the stink.

How long have you stayed in the stink at work with an employee that you knew wasn't right for your office culture? Leave it long enough and you can almost forget the problem is there, but it's not gone and you'll reek of the stink by continuing to have issues with that staff member if you don't do something about it.

How long have you stayed in the stink plugging away at a procedure, system or idea that didn't work?

How long have you stayed in the stink at a job you didn't love?

Move the stink, remove the stink or smell like the stink? Which will it be?

PS - my husband, after being read this blog, insists his running clothes smell like a daisy and in fact, he seems quite proud.

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By Kirsty Dunphey with 1 comment

Aged, Wise or Just Plain Old?

I often speak with a fantastic colleague who is older than me in pure years on the planet. But while her hair may be a number of shades greyer than mine, her youthful enthusiasm often leaves me for dead.

She knows the secret to eternal youth doesn’t come in a bottle from a major pharmaceuticals company. It comes from the people you associate with, the new ideas you put into practice and the general attitude you choose to display each day.

Whatever her classically defined age, she’s been young the entire time I’ve known her.

Think you’re too old to be young?

Ray Kroc didn’t – how old was he when he founded the global empire we now call McDonalds. He was 57.

Frank Lloyd Wright, one of my favourite architects was quoted at age 83 as saying that his next masterpiece was going to be his best. (NB: He was in his 60’s when he designed Falling Water:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallingwater)

Colonel Sanders was a spring chicken at just 62 when he established Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Too old to be young? Absolutely – but only if that’s what you believe. How young do you want to be today?

And for my next blog… the reverse for those who are actually far too young in years out there!

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By Kirsty Dunphey with 1 comment

Old or New?

When I was a young whipper-snapper aged 19 in my first year in sales I listed a property in a suburb of my home town. I’d seen other properties advertised as being in the same suburb but in the “old” part of it.

Using my superior intellect, I decided that if they were being advertised as being in “old ” – I’d go one better and advertised mine as being in “new ”.

New is better than old right?

Well, not in this case. The old part of the suburb was seen as far more desirable than the new part.

Not surprisingly I spent my open home at the property in complete peace and quiet (in other words completely alone).

Ironically – an “older” (aka more experienced) agent in my marketplace would probably have never made that mistake. “Old” once again trumps “new”!

But new doesn’t have to always lose out. New doesn’t have to deal with the assumption that “they should have known better”. If new owns up to the mistake and goes about fixing it appropriately, new can oftentimes create a better relationship than was there in the first place. New also often has more time to fix the mistake.

At that stage, as new as I was, I had fewer listings than my colleagues, I had no family commitments, I had all the time in the world to open the property 5 times a week if was necessary and all the time to put in to fix the relationship after my little slip up.

As a newbie in any industry let it sink in that you’re going to make mistakes. What you do to resolve those mistakes using all the advantages of your “newness” is what really counts and what will decide whether you get past the new stage or whether instead you move on and become new in another industry.

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By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments