Steve McDermott's blog

Shortly before he died Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, asked his team to compile some of his, and other people he admired, thoughts on leadership. These might inspire you next time you have a leadership challenge:

• Looking for leadership? Look in the mirror.
• A leader is… a dealer in hope.
• Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
• Where there is no vision… the people perish.
• Study the past, live the moment, plan the future.
• Leadership is action… not position.
• There are no short cuts…to any place worth going.»more

In our house I read the Guardian and sad to say, from my point of view, my wife Candy reads the Daily Mail. My feelings are if you want to feel better about the credit crunch, swine flu etc start by stopping reading the Dail Mail. However I feel the two papers are a great way to remind ourselves that people have very different views of the world and when you are presenting you must always bear this in mind.

On another note, last week in the Guardian readers sent in some of their favourite jokes. I'm a sucker for a good pun so the follwing made me smile:»more

I've just been out to look at an injured crow which is hoping about our garden.
I noticed it's being protected by two other crows. I orginally went out to investigate after hearing the enormous racket being made by the two protectors as they dive bombed a large cat who had unwisely got too near. Once they'd driven away the cat I also saw one of the birds feed the injured crow. Perhaps they are its parents. Either way it's an impressive display of loyalty.

I always recommend that people visit a website called www.ted.com»more

I don't know if you've ever had to be vetted (and I'm not talking about Pets at Home here). It happens to me now and again. It's when a potential customer wants to speak to you first before giving you the work. This week I have been speaking to an American in Paris (no not Gene Kelly)about training his team of mainly French and Italians to be Jedi presenters.»more

I don't know if you have to visit many organisations as part of your job but I do. I'm always very sensitive to how I'm greeted when I arrive. Sometimes it's brilliant but all too often it's not. If you've read my book you'll know all about the importance of "The Four Minute Rule". Put simply this states if you get it wrong in the first four minutes then it's game over. For example, if you turn up at a hotel and there is no one around to check you in.»more

For the last few years I've had the great pleasure of working closely with Leon Taylor. Before his retirement, at the grand old age of 30, Leon was one of the world's very best divers. Famous for bringing an end to the 44 year medal drought for British divers when he won Silver in the Athens Olympics. Leon also invented the world's most difficult dive (performed to perfection by the winner of gold in Beijing)you may of heard Leon commentating on that dive for the BBC.»more

On Tuesday I was speaking to an audience of around 4000 made up from people from the DWP and Job Centre Plus. They had a voting system (with choices - a bit like on "Who wants to be a millionaire"). So I asked them to vote on who they thought I most looked like, here are the results in reverse order:

4. Buddy Holly
3. Elvis Costello
2. Gok Wan
1. Alan Carr

I don't know if you agree with the result!

how exciting can't wait yaa ayyaaa