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People who frighten me

posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 01:37 PM

People who frighten me - I heard one of the London 2012 Olympic committee members speaking last week (i'm afraid the meeting's 'Chatham House' rules prevents me from naming her). After a very interesting overview of the preparations she was asked "What is it that most frightens you?" We all thought she was going to say something like being worried that the stadium wouldn't be ready in time or the swimming pool will leak and flood half of the East End of London, but instead she said

"The people who really frighten me are those who get into powerful positions without developing the capacity to listen".

I thought wow how true and immediately began to run off in my mind all the political leaders (and a few lesser powerful friends!) who fitted this description. It is indeed one of the most worrying aspects that many leaders can be hugely charasmatic, courageous and even inspiring but when it comes to listening to the opinions and advice of others, they become a closed book. A failure to listen usually leads to even the most impressive people losing touch over time and from this, their good ideas begin to break down. Even more worrying, the importance of listening is all too rarely emphasised in places of learning including the best business schools and yet it is essential for continued success.

Our team here at i-genius has been doing a lot of listening since we went Live at the start of the year. We have been listening to what our members have been telling us and to all those who have said they really like i-genius but decided not to join. The reasons why people don't join are varied. Some did not have a business to list when they were filling out the joining page; some were put off by the term ‘social entrepreneur’; some liked our catchphrase 'amazing people doing amazing things' but felt they were not themselves amazing enough to join. "Yes you are!" we quietly screamed.

We are going through a process of adjusting our site and how to best communicate. It is now no longer necessary to list a particular business in your profile (you can be doing great things without having a business); the term 'social entrepreneurs' still exists on our site and its what we are about but we have toned it down a bit because we know people doing good in the world come in all shapes and sizes and it is these individuals doing good which is what’s important, not what term used to describe them (apology to all those academics, institutions/foundations and government officials who make a fine career out of trying to 'define' social entrepreneurs but we just ain’t that bothered). We have also altered our catchphrase to 'meet amazing people' so those of you who feel too humble to describe yourselves as 'amazing' can relax - we reserve the right to continue to think that you are!

We have also started a series of technical up-grades to the site but well......i think you have probably read enough for now. Thanks for all your advice, comments and support - it is having a big effect on how we develop.

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