Sometimes I am surprised by the fact that I have written so many blogs and yet when I put numbers on it; (+/-) once a week for ten years, it does not seem that long or even much of an achievement in the bigger scheme of things. However, whatever the motivation, I felt the self-indulgent need to share with you the fact that this is my 500^th blog. It would be nice to put my output down to strength of character but perhaps my staying power is more fueled by a need for recognition and the never-ending search for truth? Speak to any columnist in any paper and they are likely to tell you about the bond they feel between themselves and their readers. Whether it exists or not is hard to tell but one can imagine that there must, at least, be some kind of shared value system between them? I have been reflecting a lot recently on shared values and personal characteristics. Since the early days of The Bayard Partnership, I have tried to identify the secret ingredient that distinguishes us from the people we turn away.  Imagine you had a simple check list you could simply tick off to be sure that, no matter how diverse the candidate, you ended up working and sharing your life with the ‘right’ kind of people? Getting agreement on what Bayard’s shared values are (and even a clear understanding of what each of them means in practice) is extremely difficult, but basically, they seem to fall into the following:

• Integrity
• Caring (caring about: colleagues, clients (and their customers, their products, projects, services etc. effectiveness & results)
• Confidence (‘I can do this’ attitude)
• Eager to learn and to do new things
• Take ownership
• Dare to challenge
• Creative (problem solver)

And when I reflect on my list of seven it becomes painfully clear that so much is missing but I wonder if, somehow it is sufficient and what other companies would come up with for their personnel? What I do know is, when people have all of the above they tend to be very loyal and fun to have around. Have a good week Harley