General

May 11 2015

The art of just getting on with it

With the full knowledge a deadline was looming to write this feature, other ‘Little’ jobs that needed to be completed consistently remained in focus because I wasn’t clear on what it was I needed to write about

Funny really, I was procrastinating as well as hiding away from the task in hand. And then I took my own advice and set about following one or two of the following

How many times have you found yourself in a similar situation where you know you have a project to start, a job that needs to be done or something needs to be prepared but you aren’t clear on what it is so we find ‘warranted’ distractions that take us away (justifiably, of course!) from what really needs to be addressed

We’re all fallible, so such things happen to even us who should know better but it affects us differently. Much like I did here, you can learn to recognise it, then address it with the help of such methods that now follow.

TIME-MATRIX – Steven Covey’s matrix is a 2×2 square. Along the top is ‘Urgent’ (Left) and ‘Not Urgent’ (Right). Down the side is ‘Important’ (Top) and ‘Not Important’ (Bottom). In each quadrant , asses what is Important/Urgent (Manage), Important/Not Urgent (Focus), Not Important/Urgent (Avoid) or Not Important/Not Urgent (Avoid)
CARTESIAN QUADRANT – Similar to above, this time, along the top (a) If you do make that change & (b) if you don’t make that change. Along the side, (c) will happen & (d) won’t Once drawn, this will help give a much clearer picture of importance to focus on this or any other area where a decision needs to be made.
EMAILS – Turn off warnings that an email had arrived. Helping to avoid the temptation to continually check each and every new one.
MONOTASK SETTING – Focus on one task at a time. Although ‘Emergencies’ may arise, can you assess their urgency? Do they all need to be done NOW?
PROCRASTINATION – Guide your wandering thoughts back to where or what you are doing. If thoughts drift, acknowledge what you’re doing and a little self-talk of getting back onto the item in hand.
STOP JUGGLING – You will inevitably be drawn back into to quagmire of multitasking and when you do, take a short break from everything! Allow your mind to re-focus, the stress levels to reduce and concentration to reframe itself.
PRIORITISE – If you are clear as to what is truly urgent as opposed to preferring to do, this will help with the focus too.

These are but a few ideas to help you get back on track. There are others that will also help and this is where a coach can help you to gain focus and meet the objectives, in the meantime, address these and see how you get on.

Coaching to Success’ director, Neil Nutburn, welcomes your enquiries if you are struggling with juggling all those tasks or, as above, avoiding the ones that need to be completed. Contact Neil on 07761 187238 or email neil@coachingtosuccess.co.uk and if you’re online, have a look at his interview video at https://youtu.be/RvCwOL4hPco

Apr 13 2015

To employ, Or not to employ … That is the question

Things are starting to look up and business is moving forward. Time to expand … hang on though! That involves recruitment! How do we know we’ll get the right person(s)?

Swiftly we go from a positive outlook to uncertainty, questioning if it’s the right thing to do! And that step forward becomes less attractive! Has this raised questions within your own company I wonder?

We’re not recruiters but what we do know is people are your biggest investment and, as importantly, your biggest asset so what happens when you take the plunge and bring them on board?

When employed you might expect them to be up and running straight away and forget it takes some a little longer to settle in!

If, they simply don’t seem to understand WHAT you’re telling them, this might be because of HOW you’re telling them!

Consider the following 7 Learning traits that we all fall into. See what your preferred style is and then how you go about understanding those coming on board thus helping/teaching the new recruit(s) according to ‘their’ thinking. Stephen Covey’s habit #5 depicts “Seek first to understand… Then to be understood”, master this and you will lead the way to communicating with those important assets.

VISUAL (SEEING):

Prefer colour, layout, and spatial organisation in your relationship with ‘Visual’ words in your dialect (eg not just “It was large” but “It was as big as a hot-air balloon”).
Use images, pictures and other visual media with colour highlighting major/minor associations.

AURAL (HEARING):

Use sound to provide a background aiding visualisations.
When creating reminders, make the most of rhythm and rhyme. Set them to create a jingle.

VERBAL (LINGUISTIC):

Use role-playing to teach verbal exchanges such as negotiations sales or cold calls.
Record your teachings and use it later for reviews.
When you read content aloud, make it dramatic and varied.

KINESTHETIC (FEELING-TACTILE-PHYSICAL)

Introduce writing and drawing of diagrams in your teaching.
Use physical objects as much as possible.
Describe the physical feelings of your actions.

LOGICAL (MATHEMATICS)

They may find it challenging to change existing behaviours or habits.
Create systems thinking to help understanding the bigger picture.
Create and use lists by extracting key points from the teaching material.

SOCIAL (INTERPERSONAL):

Sharing key information with others in groups aiding understanding by exploring all variations on a theme.
Ask they share ideas and present to other people.
Introduce role-playing.

SOLITARY (INTERNAL-EMOTIONAL):

Self-study and solitude learning is preferred.
Modelling is a powerful technique to help them associate themselves internally with others.
Align objectives/goals with their beliefs and values.

The most important thing is to understand that we are not all the same and people aren’t being awkward or belligerent, it’s just that they may not ‘see’ things the same way as you (oops! That’s just given away my thinking style! Did you spot it?).

Coaching to Success use a myriad of tools to help get messages across to employees through their workshops and one-to-one sessions, should you be in a position to undergo employing new members of staff, contact Neil on 07761 187238 or email neil@coachingtosuccess.co.uk for an informal conversation to see how we can help increase the productivity of new staff or other matters concerning business development.

Mar 30 2015

How is your Self-Motivation doing? Need a pick-me-up?

Sometimes, in those moments of slump, we need to find areas of inspiration to get motivated! So take charge of your goals and here’s help to achieve this…

Self-motivation is a complicated subject as what drives us can be different as to what drives others. A common link is the ability to set challenging yet reachable goals that push us.

With this in mind, here are three factors to build levels in self-motivation.

1. Confidence – Building self-confidence

As a martial artist, had I considered my competitors to be too strong or fast I would never have entered competitions. When it came to grading, had I thought them too challenging, well, I wouldn’t have progressed.

This is no different in our lives or business. Those who don’t believe in themselves or their abilities will start by thinking “I know I can’t do that” and will often achieve their own self-fulfilling prophecy. Those with a positive outlook will think “OK, that didn’t work but this one set-back won’t stop me” approach.

Building from a point of self-confidence insures a much greater chance of success. The consequential joy that this brings positively hits the endorphins setting you up wanting the next challenge, creating a self-perpetuating circle.

Steps to help confidence:

Set goals that are obtainable and go get them! Then get the feel-good factor.
Ask friends and colleagues what they see as your strengths – you may be surprised!
Do a self-analysis on SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunity, Threats). Focus on areas you could stretch or improve yourself (W & O)
Look back on your achievements. Remember how you felt.

There may be knock-backs but look to what positive things you can take from this.

2. Positive, Pro-active and future forecasting way of thinking

This is an assisting factor to self-confidence. If you constantly look for the negatives, you will find them and continue to live by that mantra, however, those who find the positive will likewise, fulfil that mantra too.

When questioned about the number of attempts to develop the light bulb, Thomas Edison replied “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10000 ways that won’t work”! Now that’s positive mind-setting.

Steps to help Positive Thinking:

Challenge ‘Negative’ thoughts, replace with ‘Positive’ ones. Re-frame the way you say things (ie, not to ‘give up’ but to ‘aim for’)
Visualise how things will look better once your goal has been achieved
Read books on positive thinking styles (put ‘positive thinking’ into Amazon for a plethora of choices!)

3. Strong goals (S.M.A.R.T.)

You’re most probably already aware of the SMART acronym (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time scale). By setting these, self-confidence increases as each stage is achieved giving focus on ‘Positive’ mind-set.

Look at every component of SMART and set your goal around these.

Steps to help setting strong goals:

Make goals difficult enough to be interesting but not unsurmountable
Progress report! Frequently check up on how you are doing
Prioritise – make sure things are in order of relevance and importance (check out this blog for time management matrix)

Coaching to Success are renowned for being another element of motivation, and that’s being held accountable to someone! If you make a commitment to someone, you’re chances of success improves dramatically and we’re here to help support you along YOUR journey of self-motivation.

Whether looking to gain clarity to what you are aiming to achieve or needing that assistance to get you on your self-motivational journey, Coaching to Success are here to help. For further information, simply call Neil on 07761 187238 or email neil@coachingtosuccess.co.uk for an informal conversation to see how we can help increase your ‘Mojo’ or other matters concerning business development

Mar 16 2015

Some tips on how to communicate stronger by knowing other’s preferred thinking senses!

Understanding these can assist communication channels immensely as human beings process information by using the five senses of seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting. These allow the mind to code and understand what is happening. Some will be more developed or favoured than the others and it is these preferred senses that will be used to represent their world.

Once aware of this, you can detect the preferred sense of anyone you are talking to. Then you can adapt the way you speak to enhance the other party’s understanding.

Eg Jill “I feel like he’s not in touch with his team”, Mike “I hear what you’re saying, we seem to be on the same wavelength but how do we get him to listen?” … Jill is obviously tactile whereas Mike is auditory.

Here are some commonly heard conversational clues to see which area people feel comfortable in:

‘Seeing’ or ‘Visual’:

I get the picture
See what I mean
That is colourful, coming from you
Show me what you mean
We’ll look back on this someday

‘Hearing’ or ‘Auditory’:

Sounds good to me
Clear as a bell
I just turned a deaf ear to…
I hear what you say
Ah, that’s music to my ears

‘Feeling’, ‘Tactile’ or ‘Kinaesthetic’:

I feel good about this
He’ll get the sharp end of my tongue
I cannot get a grip on this
I felt right at home
The pressure to complete was incredible

‘Smelling’ or ‘Olfactory’:

This smells fishy
I smell a rat
As sweet as a rose
He had a nose for which direction to go

‘Tasting’ or ‘Gustatory’:

Let us chew it over
Like eating a piece of cake
It left a nasty taste
She’s so sweet

Although the last two are rare, a further clue is that olfactory types will often sniff before they make a decision – to see if it smells right and gustatory people may smack their lips or make swallowing sounds – to get the taste.

EXERCISE:

As fast as you can, using the answer that immediately feels right for you, tick one from each of the three options given in the sections below.

I like to learn by…

( ) Seeing how to do it

( ) Hearing a talk

( ) Having a go, hands-on

I make decisions by…

( ) Getting a clear picture

( ) Finding out how it sounds

( ) Attending to my gut feeling

I buy things based on…

( ) Colour, style and appearance

( ) Its description, sound or salesperson’s patter

( ) The feel of the thing

I find it easier to…

( ) Draw a picture

( ) Sing or hum a tune

( ) Play sport

By opting mainly for the first statement, you are probably primarily visual.

Selecting the middle option suggests that you are primarily auditory.

The third option indicates a kinaesthetic preference.

Improved communication and productivity can be obtained by listening first, understanding the other person’s preferred thinking sense and conversing in that style. It will assist in offering clarity and a stronger likelihood that your message will be understood.

If you want to better understand the way you communicate to others and how you can increase engagement, contact Coaching to Success’ Neil Nutburn, email neil@coachingtosuccess.co.uk or call 07761 187238 to set up a meeting to discuss areas that could help.

Coaching to success is all about creating successful businesses, firms and organisations. We’re here to insure you succeed.

Mar 02 2015

How do you handle rejection in business?

We all know rejection can be hard to handle and in services such as mine, where the open minded can see the benefits that a good coach can bring but some can’t, therefore, rejection is an element of moving forward for me and especially where people don’t really understand the benefits on offer.

You can’t avoid rejection whether it be in relationships, life or work but the positive is that it helps with development and self-education as you identify areas for adaptation and change.

More often than not though, it is the feeling that affects our emotions and emotions aren’t logical, so let’s put some rationality into the equation.

Don’t take it personally – ‘Personally’ is an emotional state and often rejection makes us feel as if it is ourselves that is under attack. Self-doubt creeps in, ‘How could I have presented it better?’, ‘What went wrong?’, ‘Why didn’t they like me?’

Now look at it differently – what was it about the proposal/idea that was rejected?

Frequently it’s not about the person but the offering that is being rejected yet we apply rejection to our thoughts and they in turn connect to emotions! It’s often a simple case that what is being proposed doesn’t meet the criteria so take yourself out of the equation and then re-assess the situation.

Focus on control – Those with Internal Focus believe they have control over what happens in their lives. Those with External Focus believe it’s others, chance or even fate that have control. So decide whether you will allow others to influence the way you feel or take control of it yourself.

This may sound a tad harsh but maybe it needs to be said to ourselves!

Learn – Look at this logically and learn from the rejection. Whether it was simply a case of the presentation could have been better or not matching the recipient’s needs etc., gather ‘facts’.

If you can establish what the reason was (removing emotion!) for the rejection, you will be able to improve thereafter. Carry out a self-analysis of areas you believe contributed to the rejection.

Better still, don’t make assumptions, ask! Make it clear you have accepted the rejection but in wishing to learn from this experience ask what didn’t work for them. You may be surprised to find out how freely the recipient will be in giving you this information (if you’re willing to ask).

I have been dumbfounded on occasions with reasons that I simply wouldn’t have even considered. I have certainly been educated in not to assume!

In business, rejection is part of day to day activities. Your resilience to deal with it, learn from it and take action on your new found knowledge is the key.

As that old expression goes, you can please some of the people some of the time… so it’s not all about you as a person but more likely a mismatch between what or how you are making the offering and not an assault on you or your emotions!

Coaching to Success helps you find yourself, give support and offers clarity to what you are aiming to achieve with the means of getting there. For further information, simply call Neil on 07761 187238 or email neil@coachingtosuccess.co.uk for an informal conversation to see how we can help increase your Locus of control or other matters concerning business development.