SORTED Magazine Interview
Last year I was interviewed by SORTED Magazine Deputy Editor Tony Yorke, and here is the article that was published in the Jan/Feb 2022 Magazine.
Roger Fairhead has a dream: he wants all men to understand they have influence; they are all leaders in some shape or form – and need to take their roles and responsibilities seriously.
Who is your rigger?
"The more you know, the more you know you don’t know."Can you tell me how to do my job? I felt like that was the question I was asking every day when I went to work at my first job after graduating.
Self Control
Tap into your won’t power.It’s really easy to give up smoking, I’ve done it loads of times. I just choose not to for now. Have you ever heard anyone say that? I know I have, and I know that I have been guilty of saying it myself on occasion too.
Do you like the things that life is showing you?
Lessons from life’s experiences.Diana Ross sings “Do you know where you’re going to?” as the theme tune to the film Mahogany. This is all about a young black girl growing up in a poor area in Chicago, with a dream of becoming a fashion designer.
PATTERN for Coaching
Learning how to breathe. Can you swim? The first milestone I remember achieving in the pool was when I learned to swim half a width. This opened up a whole new world of opportunities for me. Now, I could dive off the 5m board and wherever I landed I would be able to reach the side. I simply had to figure out which side was nearest.
It’s the way that you do it
T'ain’t what you do. Some years ago while I was managing a control system project, one of the smaller tasks was dragging on and taking longer than planned. I asked the engineer how much time he expected it would take, and I was told “about 2 weeks”. A week later he revised his estimate to be “about 10 days”.
I was an idiot
It's not my hat he chewed. "I’m sorry officer, I was an idiot and I’ll not do that again."It was a nice sunny afternoon and I was motoring along a three-lane highway with my daughter. We were driving to meet the rest of our family and my daughter had just described a situation she faced recently when the driver of a taxi she was traveling in was driving rather fast.
All you can eat buffet
Character and Competence. I’ve just returned from a conference where we had an “all you can eat” style of buffet for every meal. For a few days I was rather like a lottery winner, but with food.
What would you like to drink?
Constant change is here to stay! I was looking for the correctly attributed source of the quote: “Constant change is here to stay.” recently and I failed to locate one.
Creating Margin
Riding on black ice. Some years ago I used to commute to work on a motorbike in all weathers. I recall one particularly snowy winter’s day I became aware that there was probably a stretch of black ice hidden under the snow I was riding on.
Level 4 leadership
Who are you investing in? Mozart is universally acknowledged as one for all types of music down the ages, Gershwin was one for popular music, Lonnie Donegan was one according to Roger Glover (bassist for Deep Purple) and Elvis Presley was one according to Rolling Stone magazine.