Accountability – melclifford

Imagine

November 29, 2017 No Comments

Extra from The Four Agreements – Don Miguel Ruiz Using your imagination and your eyes of perception, I want you to see yourself living a new life, a new dream, a life where you don’t need to justify your existence and you are free to be who you really are. Imagine that you have permission to be happy and to really enjoy your life. Your life is free of conflict with yourself and others. Imagine living your life without fear of expressing your dreams. You know what you want, what you don’t want and when you want it. You are free to change your life the way you really want to. You are not afraid to ask for what you need, to say yes or no to anything or anyone. Imagine living your life without the fear of being judged by others. You no longer rule your behaviour according to what others may think about you. You are no longer responsible for anyone’s opinion. You have no need to control anyone, and no one controls you, either. Imagine living your life without judging others. You can easily forgive others and let go of any judgments that you have. You don’t have the need to be right, and you don’t need to make anyone else wrong. You respect yourself and everyone else, and they respect you in return. Imagine living without the fear of loving and not being loved. You are no longer afraid to be rejected, and you don’t have the need to be accepted. You can say “I love you” with no shame or justification. You can walk in the world with you heart completely open and not be afraid to be hurt.

The Outside Does Not Work

March 4, 2016 No Comments

We are born from the light within to make a difference Given birth and life to add to our world Curiosity, creativity, all natural in seeking new ways Maturity in life, to be better at all things We meet the light only to be captured by the dark We leave the dark only to enter back into the light Seeing for a short time both sides in a balance of life The darkness grows stronger, by greed, corruption and failing minds Mankind forever changing the balance The light struggles to stay light and show a better way We have choice, we think, yet pressured to surrender to the dark We have free will to make a difference in our balance Go within and find your light For the outside does not work

Deal or No Deal ?

July 3, 2012 No Comments

e Voting machines for SALE – Ireland cost €55m sold €70K Deal or No Deal ? Decision makers in buying the e Voting machines were Noel Dempsey, Martin Cullen, Bertie Ahern are they answerable? Deal or No Deal? Storage payments and a 25 year storage lease awarded to one Mr Duffy who is the nephew of the person in charge of awarding this Government contract – Deal or No Deal? Why is it that we have plenty of Questions but no Answers or Action? Deal or No Deal – Born on the 4th July

CEO’s Undercover –What a Joke

February 25, 2011 No Comments

Have you been watching these TV programmes about CEO’s or MD’s of organisations who go undercover and work alongside their employees for one week to find out what’s wrong in the Company? After the week they go home and their partners greet them with something like “oh darling how was it – how was it dealing with those little people “ But wait for it, on Monday morning they arrive to their cosy board room where all the people who are suppose to know what’s wrong in the business and who should be sorting it out are sitting there waiting to be told what is going on in the Company. Then you hear the CEO saying something like “I worked with X down in production and they said ……. we must fix this now in our business, and the person responsible for this section of the company nodding their head in agreement. I know what they are thinking – wait till I get my hands on that bastard. All the other senior Directors sitting around the table are praying that the CEO will not mention anything about their department. Next thing the CEO calls the individuals whom they have worked with over the week to HEAD OFFICE (most important place) and surprises them with look it’s me your CEO not old nobody as you thought I was last week and guess what here is a holiday for you. Please give me a break – if the directors and senior individuals in your company including the CEO do not know what is going on in their business and are not out working alongside those who are delivering the services or products and if they are not listening or meeting their clients and customers then they should not be in their job. It’s a simple as that

Influencing – is it a position or a skill?

January 13, 2011 No Comments

People are influenced by many things, in business it is often by a great vision or how others behave and act towards you. How the leadership behave and encourage you to develop and grow within your role. One can also be influenced by treats, fear and the use of authority or by the position someone holds. If you hold a senior position in business my advice is to use your skills of personal influence rather than using positional power. One day your position will be gone and so will the power you think it might hold. If you have the skill and ability to influence by your vision and good treatment of others this can never be lost. If you can only influence others by using your positional power – stop now and learn how to influence through better methods. You will see that results will be more effective with greater impact for all.

The People Business

October 11, 2010 No Comments

What makes a great HR Director? It is my opinion that most of the time over 95% of the employees within an organisation would not recognise their HR Director even if they were standing in front of them. They may have seen at some stage a photograph of them but they would never have spoken to them either face to face or by phone. Why is this? because from my experience most HR Directors are too busy with some other stuff, than actually meeting, listening, talking and understanding the people that they represent within the organisation. So if you hold the position of the HR Director ask yourself what your role is and who do you represent? If the answer to these questions are around the “people” than how often have you left your office and met any or all of these people – how many employees’ names who work for your organisation could you write down right now – even if you were to write all of those employees who work within the same building where you are located. How many employees to the person work within your organisation and where are they all located? Ask yourself what do you really know or even understand about any of the employees? Next time you start out to go to work ask yourself where you should be going- to your office or to meet the people who work for the business. For these people provide you with your position for without them, there is no need for you. Does your organisation have the right HR Director or does your organisation need one?

55,000 New Jobs per year No excuses please

September 30, 2010 No Comments

One Tuesday this week I made comments about an article I read very recently on leadership and the pressures it carries and what one should do published in the Globe and Mail Newspaper. As I stated in my post it was very basic stuff. I made comments on what I believed were the required skills to lead either an organisation or a country for that matter. Just recently the leader of the Irish Government Mr. Brian Cowen made a big deal about calling in, wait for it 11 Senior CEO’s who have responsibility for job creation in Ireland to account for themselves. Now if you had an organisation where you were paying 11 CEO’s to create jobs within your business would you expect them to deliver? If they did not deliver what would you do about it? Well Brian Cowen and his 11 senior people not including a full ministerial position must have had a great little chat and then went off about their business again. In my managerial opinion I would have kept the meeting short and simple and delivered the following message to each of the CEO’s including the Minister responsible. “Each of you have to create 5,000 new jobs each year for the next three years, if you are not able to do this then you should not be in the job for which you are well paid to carry out. So if you have not delivered the required amount not 4,999 but 5,000 new jobs at the end of each year’s please send your resignation to me and I will find someone that can do the job you are being paid to do” Now that’s leadership, for if I was not delivering on the job I was paid to carry out I would be held accountable and fired. So what’s so different about each and every one of these 11 CEO’s and there numerous staff. It’s simple 11 senior highly paid state agencies executives by 5,000 new jobs each equal 55, 000 new jobs which in turn equals 165,000 over three years. It is only 25,000 jobs more than the so called FAS agency is projecting in a recent report based on their five years time frame. End of discussion end of meeting and no excuses.

Who are they protecting?

September 8, 2010 No Comments

It seems to me that there are more rules and regulations in place to protect those that waste Government money then there are to protect those that just want to do a good job within the Public Sector. Protecting those that make claims of false and excessive expenses, those that sign off on major pay offs for individuals who contribute to the wastage. What about those that care and really work hard at what they do to contribute to a better service/society. Does nobody have the courage to stand up and do what is right? What does suspended mean in the public sector? Does it mean:- Have a nice break or holiday for a few weeks on full pay until this all blows over! We think you have been taking the piss with your expenses so ease off and wait till this all blows over and don’t do it again (what happened to the word stealing!!) Listen we have to be seen to do something so just lay low for a few weeks and apologise (oh! forgot we don’t do apologises – just say you have done nothing wrong and you will be proven innocent when there is an enquiry) Listen we have real problems and we are going to use you to keep the journalists side tracked and away from the real problems so don’t worry we see you right on this- wink -wink What happened to the word “your fired”? The issues are coming hard and fast it is difficult to keep on top of them all. Maybe for once we could have a league style table of all the issues over the past few years. Published once per week in a national newspaper and just add the new ones so we can keep track and focus. Here is just a very small sample of suggested heading and only a very small sample of the recent issues. Issue Action taken by Government Cost to taxpayer Post Tunnel Overspend None €150Million overspend Luas Overspend None €471Million Overspend Electronic Voting Machines and Storage None €52 Million and €800,000 per year to store M50 Toll Bridge None €500 million+ Purchase of Land Dublin Dock New Prison None €427 Million purchase price €35 Million Anglo Irish Bank Other Irish Banks Support and Pay rises None €BILLIONS Dear Great grand Children greed left you this debt The HSE Management and its management structures, the Ballymun Water Tower, the Minister and TD’s expenses claims and on and on and on. We erect plagues and monument to celebrate success what about one to remind us of the corruption and greed that exists. We easily forget and just focus on the latest scandal – I feel it is important that there is a chart published each week with all of the issues and a running total so those individuals responsible can be reminded of their failures.

Who Will Break the Mould?

July 19, 2010 No Comments

I have not written around the area of politics lately but I feel the complete lack of accountability and responsibility taken by a lot of Politicians is becoming more ridiculous. There are those who are doing considerable good work and are extremely effective in their roles and unfortunately get tarnished with the same brush. But those politicians and public servants who are totally ineffectiveness and mismanage their positions never get fired from their jobs –Why? There seems to be a total lack of common sense missing in their world. I have come to the conclusion that there must be a set of rules or codes written that one is given when they enter the political arena. In my opinion the following rules must be within the top ten. Rule Book – How to be a Successful Politician 1 -10 Never admit to anything unless you are 100% sure you will get positive credit for it Never tell the truth, even if you can’t get away with it and you have to step aside for a while there is always away out for you with full benefits and pay Never under any circumstances accept accountability or responsibility for anything – always ensure you have someone else or agency to blame You are only in office for a five year periods , so if you are totally infective you can always get elected again with the same old crap only this time dress it up more and hire some consultants (family members) to assist you Always promise everything and delivery nothing on time or within the agree budget or that works as it should. Always claim as much expenses as possible under the systems available (its call milking the system or taking the piss) If you have another public service job make sure you can return to it at any stage with all benefits and pensions still available to you Travel as much as you can and bring as many family members with you. Various trips can be found in the politician’s manual under J for junkets. Look for the trips and conferences that are of no value to the position you may hold or your country, these are the best ones to go on. For example “The Impact of Tropical rain fall on the kiwi fruit” is a good one because you can add “The impact of Tropical rain fall on the kiwi fruit and its knock on effects to the school going children of county?” It is vital you always have the “add on” phase, samples can be found in your manual under F for found out. Make sure that when those (your friends) you have placed in positions of authority (state agencies and boards) really mess up that you get them the largest pay off and pensions available, as it could be your turn next. Functions and dinners are free so ensure you drink and eat well If you can follow these rules to the letter and are very comfortable in doing so – then politics is for you – Or – will you write new rules and serve the people and society you are elected to serve?

Innocent Until Proven Guilty

June 21, 2010 No Comments

If you had a team of people working for you who were guilty of the following actions and who ran your business into the ground and left generations to come with an enormous debt because of their inabilities and self greed, what would you do? Charge Sheet Totally incompetent Total lack of any accountability for their actions Total waste of financial resources Totally overpaid for the positions they hold Dishonest with their expenses and claiming for grants Major over spending and wastage on projects vs. actual budgeted cost Purchasing of equipments in excess of €53Million that would never be used and continue to cost the company just under €1M per year to store Decentralisation of the business at an enormous cost to you and then decentralisation would not take place and continue to cost the company Oversee the development of software systems that would cost over €170M and then never deliver anything. Pay for top consultancy advise in the region of €60M to support this project and produce failure Appointment of individuals to Boards who were incompetent and who would oversee financial wastage Provide opportunities to their select few at the total expense of the majority Total mismanagement of the business and its assets Blame everyone else except themselves and their colleagues Provide large payoffs to those who were incompetent Expect it is their right to walk away scot free without any charges or being brought to justice for their actions “Shall I go on your Honour?” I put it to you the people what is your verdict? “Guilty as charged your Honour”. I ask the people – and what will you do now? – “Nothing your Honour” Then I say to you the people you deserve what you have got. Because if you continue to do what you have always done you will always get what you have always got Change is in your hands

Mel Clifford

Mel Clifford

Blog & News

Tag: Accountability

Imagine

The Outside Does Not Work

Deal or No Deal ?

CEO’s Undercover –What a Joke

Influencing – is it a position or a skill?

The People Business

55,000 New Jobs per year No excuses please

Who are they protecting?

Who Will Break the Mould?

Innocent Until Proven Guilty

Mel Clifford