Historical Note
This website started as a repository of all my technology newspaper columns and media appearances. Most of my columns are featured including my "The Chief" column which I wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. It also contains the columns I wrote when I was National President of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) including for The Australian. So it's now a bit of history.
Forward Thinking Strategies
My business colleagues have encouraged me to make the site a repository of the forward thinking strategies I have devised and shared over the years. I'm going to slowly go a step further and start offering much of the Intellectual Property I have created over the years for an optional donation for individuals and a nominal licence fee for organisations.
The forward thinking strategies topic areas will be diverse covering Hiring Strategies, Time Management, How to Present, Personal Development, Technology Trends and a favorite of mine Raising Kids. I hope to create vigorous debate and to become a clever portal for effective strategies to improve people's lives.
HR Strategies
Having run a leading HR software firm and lead with innovative search strategies in Alt-U Asia Pacific Executive Search+, I am a leading authority on how to find what everyone wants but is relatively clueless about executing - finding and securing people not looking for work. These are the elusive loyal rare diamonds, head down achieving in other organisations and making the difference you need in your business!
I will also be providing access to a key piece of Intellectual Property the SMARTFORCE Blueprint. Over the years a number of companies have enjoyed the benefits of "blueprinting" the behaviours people need to display to be successful in a role. Apart from helping to prevent costly hiring errors, the blueprint is an amazing tool to qualify out the wrong people and to excite the right ones. Once you become hooked on a SMARTFORCE Blueprint you will never go back to antiquated job descriptions.
And on the topic of wrong hires, poor hiring is the cancer of all organisations. Too many interviews, not knowing why other people are interviewing and the attitude of "I'll know it when I see it" continually sees top potential performers dropped out of the process for
the wrong reasons. I have lots to say on this topic and pull few punches.
Volunteering
In my view, there is unlikely to be a more life changing practice than the magic of volunteering. Nothing will test your patience more, teach you humility and personally develop you into an all round wonderful human! And I don't mean the people who just go to committee meetings and shoot down the ideas of others. I am talking about the hands-on volunteers who throw all their expertise and determination into it.
I had no idea that joining a sleepy branch of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) would see me as National President some 15 years later and being thrust into the media spotlight. Even my tagline, which many opposed, still stands - "ICT Professionals Shaping our Future" - and the critics have adopted it as there own.
The ACS taught me how to write, sent me to the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and gave me skills and excitement no employer could offer. The ACS experience lead to me running for Parliament, campaign managing a federal campaign and becoming President of the Liberal campaign for the City of Sydney to reelect
Councillor Shayne Mallard and maybe some more surprises. All this happened in a twelve month period from a number of my volunteering activities.
I also now have a prime time Australia dance music radio gig on 2RDJ entitled WeeKenDance. Again volunteering and the media training I obtained as a result lead to this. It's kind of cool to have a 16 year old daughter ask you for hot tracks but I can't see how you can effectively raise kids without understanding their music. This is a separate topic I will cover.
If anyone had said to me a few years ago I would have a media agent, I would have said I am too shy and introverted. What I didn't know at the time was that volunteering was going to get me all the skills in spades.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoy the site as it takes shape. Please email me any suggestions and I hope to develop to right tools to harness the power of the real experts - people like you.
Regards,
Edward Mandla |
