Hi everyone,

As always, I hope your weekend was fantastic. Ems and I were at the opposite extremes of what you can do with a weekend. I took the weekend off, and did no work at all. I only glanced at my emails twice which is a major thing for me. Ems on the other hand was working – mainly so she can take this week off. It’s probably a good job we’re both attending the Master Class by Susanne Madsen  in a couple of weeks, as we both get so involved, we forget to stop sometimes.

How do you tackle balancing work and down time? Is it easy to switch off at 5:30 pm, or is work just part of life and very integrated?

Do let us know by commenting in the LinkedIn group thread  I’ve just started

Have a fabulous week
Lou (and Ems from her week off)

• Spend time with Ems and Lou and the tribe working on your Great Insider skills
• Attend the Master Class from Susanne Madsen which is focused all around Project Management – how to do it better and have a better life at the same time.

If you didn’t have to spend long hours in the office managing projects, implementations, and change what would you do with the time you save?   

Susanne will show us exactly what activities we should be focusing on and which strategies to use to become more successful and have a better work-life balance.

Susanne has moved from being an overwhelmed and frustrated Project Manager to a Program Director who’s in control and has taken back her own time and control of her career.  So she’s telling us this from experience.

 When we chatted to her about the 7 Mistakes, she thought nearly everyone of them was linked to what she’ll be talking about.

Who should attend?

Don’t let the Project Management title put you off.  We’re all managing Projects, Time and People in some way, so the content is relevant to all of us.  The workshop is for you if you want to:

• Get better results and get recognised for those results
• Reduce your stress levels and leave the office on time
• Focus on the 20% of activities that add to 80% of your results
• Build effective relationships with your clients and with your team
• Feel more energized at work
• Avoid project failure and redundancy
• Become a more inspirational and appealing leader
• Improve your project, change management and leadership skills

Book your place by clicking on the orange button

Featured Discussion:  Does the US have a shortage of Great Insiders?

Our most popular discussion this week centers on the geography of this group.  Are we a UK group which lets people in, or a worldwide hub? 

In fact, our members come from all over the place.  There’s no easy way to check as we don’t collate that information, but we know (off the top of heads) we have people from the US, India, France, Belgium, Spain, Malta and Australia and many more places I’m sure. 

So are we a UK group, with a few others – that wasn’t and isn’t the intention.  However, the group built from our networks which are mostly UK based and the events are at the moment only held here – as that’s where we are.

Does the US have a shortage of Great Insiders then?  Well, it may have a shortage of people who know they are Great Insiders or Internal Consultants – but there are plenty of people out there doing those roles.  Whatever country you’re in, businesses have people who focus on people, or process, or implementation as their day job.  They have HR, BA, H&S, Quality, Lean, Change and IT folk in them.  So surely there must be potential Great Insiders all over the States and all over the world – we just need to find them.

Freebie Friday - How to Get Social Media Working for You
Webinar
Tuesday, February 19, 2013, 7:45 PM - 8:45 PM GMT

Lou recently met Pete and was immediately impressed by how he got straight to the point, so when he let us know about this webinar, it seemed a natural Freebie Friday.

The booking page says:
“Without an effective Social Media strategy you are, well, effectively nowhere and missing out big time. Deals are being done, relationships forged, networks expanded and you're excluded.

Join Pete Thornton-Smith on his personal voyage over the last three years as he reveals his 8-point strategy that has received acclaim as a live talk to Business Groups. You will be able to take action immediately in order to raise your Social Media profile as a Business Professional.”

One of Pete’s testimonials says:
“There’s an awful lot of twaddle talked on the subject of social media – as usually happens
when something new comes along. Pete approaches the subject with his usual refreshing candour
and I particularly appreciated the ‘buzzword-free’ webinar, throwing new light on aspects of social
media that I thought, with my many years’ experience in the marketing business, I knew all about
- but then realised I didn’t. A definite recommend!”

You can find out more details and book here  http://www.thebpasgroup.co.uk/Webinar/SocMedInvite.htm