Useful Blogs

Aug 03 2015

‘Procrastination’ – Why do today what you can put it off until tomorrow?

How often do you find that you are about to start something with the best intentions only to find … sorry, hang on a minute, let me just read this email, oh, I better have a look into this… and sometime later we’re back to writing this feature!

There are several reasons we (and I include myself in this!) let procrastination get a grip. These may include:

Waning interest – This is sooooo boring!
Motivation – The Mojo has taken a holiday!
Skill factor – Umm, how do I do this?
Rebel – Don’t want to do it and I’ll prove I don’t have the time!
Failure – What if I can’t do this?
Success – If I do well, will they expect more?

There will be more but I have found that these 6 normally top the bill, so let’s look at them individually.

Waning interest – If, like me, when doing something that’s not that interesting, the ping of an email or something irrelevant but enjoyable suddenly seems to take precedence … STOP! Find somewhere without the distractions and concentrate.
Motivation – Do you believe you need motivation to begin a task? How about this for a radical idea, start the task and then find it! Even the initial steps to beginning a task can promote the somewhat lacking motivation. Set yourself up with a reward once complete, after this feature, a nice inexpensive filter coffee and half hour read of a book will be mine!
Skill factor –Sometimes it’s our own beliefs that hold us back. As a coach, many of my clients hold unfounded beliefs until we establish exactly where the problems lie and look at ways to overcome them. Consider breaking tasks into manageable parts. What is the starting point and the desired end goal? See what areas you are competent at, others may require some additional training or even delegating.
Rebel – Predominantly another ‘subconscious’ level barrier generated from power struggles. I was amazed how when someone gave me a task I didn’t wish to carry out I managed to find every reason for not accomplishing it on time, whereas, jobs I did enjoy, would be cleared straight away! Remove the ‘Emotional’ attachment to the task and look at it from a practical sense. How much trouble would I be in if I don’t complete it? How will this benefit my business by completing on time? Only you can know the truth of this and letting the emotional attachment go will give a much clearer picture.
Failure – None of us set out to fail, nonetheless, it is something that we learn from. Each step we take we learn something new or to persevere can win out in the end. Take J.K.Rowling for example, she got rejected by numerous publishers while working as a waitress. Her break came from the publisher’s 8yr old daughter begging him to publish it! Sometimes it’s simply down to timing!.
Success – “Now if I do this right, they’ll expect me to continue or even improve!” Maybe expectations of you will be increased? And with each successful outcome, you raise your standards once again. Consider each and every task on its own merits WITHOUT considering where it may lead.

There are many tools that can help with procrastination, however, the biggest obstacle is ourselves! Until we start to realise what our own barriers are, procrastination will let its tentacles stretch out and feed on our daily distractions.

Coaching to success work towards breaking down barriers, opening up confidence levels, assessing what’s ahead and planning to succeed in whatever goal their clients wish to attain. To improve your own levels of procrastination or focus, take the first step by contacting 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 where you’ll be assured a warm welcome to discuss how we can help.

Jul 20 2015

STRESSED?!! Know the signs and how to help yourself

Sometimes it’s difficult to know whether the way we are feeling is down to stress or something else!

To start, have a look at the following to see if you recognise any of these symptoms in yourself or someone close:

Emotional symptoms

Frantic mind wishing it to quiet down, difficulty with relaxing
Agitated, frustrated and moody
Distant to those close. Unknowingly pushing near ones away
Feeling overwhelmed, losing control, worthless
Avoiding others.

Physical symptoms

Clenched jaw, teeth grinding, headaches
Insomnia
Nervous, shaking
Low energy
Frequent colds, infections
Raised Blood Pressure

The Health & Safety Executive report 10.4 million working days are lost with one in five visits to GPs associated with stress!

We are designed to deal with stress as a way of life. This can be positive if managed as it helps us remain alert. However, life can throw too much of it our way and this is how our bodies react so we need to be able to recognise these signs nature has been kind enough to give us!

Enough of the symptoms, how do we address them? As a director or senior manager, I have personally been subjected to more stress than should be allowed so I have empathy, actually no, sympathy to those who suffer. I was both physically and mentally strong but even I started to eventually recognise the traits and did something about it before drink or smoking took over!

There is no easy one-fix-all answers, however, try out the following and see which best fits you:

Share and Time it! – When you get home or meet your partner, set up a routine to dump the day’s activities. With a time against it, ie 1hr, for both to offload. Give yourself permission to accept it’s okay to stop worrying about things.
What’s the cause? – One you recognise your own stress warning signs from above symptoms, look to see what’s causing them (Starting a new project, reports to be written, the next blog such as this, lol, items at home.
Own your feeling ~ Take control – How often does your mood change because someone else has ruined your happy time by careless comments? You own the direction of driving your emotional car, avoid giving someone else the keys! Where others are concerned, assess how they make you feel and what you need to make your mood change. Accept areas out of your control for what it is, YOU can’t change it, allow yourself to accept it. This will help reduce stress.
Relax and/or Meditate – Give yourself permission to take time out of everyday life. This truly helps as another means of disconnecting. Listen to some music, read a book, listen to a meditative audio track (something we offer), consider yoga! Try to set aside time daily for an activity, rather than becoming a slave to tasks. Even just 5-10 minutes breaks to simply breathe and think of all the pleasures you have around you while releasing negative thoughts helps!
Scheduled To-do list – Stress can be reduced by creating a timeframe to complete a given task therein. This may be considered an addition rather than a release of stress, however, people who set themselves a time limit, focus on when they start and finish with a much better chance of achieving their objective.
Mistakes happen – The stress of perfectionism adds to the pile! Learn from your mistakes, embrace them and take what benefits you can from this. This is also often related to confidence issues and mastering the fact that we are not robots gives us freedom to relax, reducing stress levels.
Don’t try to please all! – A boss, friend, neighbour always comes to you because you’re always willing to help. Is there someone else who can help that request normally thrown in your direction? Sit back, negotiate what is really important to YOU with those that aren’t.

These are just a handful of areas Coaching to Success can help and we hope this brings about an awareness if nothing else. Stress, if not recognised and managed, can lead into some really dark places, recognising the signs is the first step.

Should you be looking to move forward in Work or Life, take the first step by contacting 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 where you’ll be assured a warm welcome to discuss how we can help.

Jul 06 2015

Do you listen, ‘Truly’ listen to what the other person is saying?

You may have come across a book called “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by the recently deceased Stephen Covey, if not, it’s a good book for those wishing to become truly effective

Out of the 7 habits, one of my personal favourites is #5 “First Seek to Understand, THEN to be understood” and this is what this week’s feature is about.

In the early days of sales and retail, I soon learned that your sales would improve once you started to LISTEN to clients’ needs and NOT what I had to sell. Whether it was a ‘Deal of the week’ item or not, if it fitted their needs, great, they got double satisfaction but first and foremost the art of Listening was paramount to a successful sale.

As a coach, this is a skillset which has been enhanced to insure I hear what isn’t being said as well as what, on the surface is! From here, further incisive questions are asked, then more listening is required to reach a specific objective for clients to obtain their goals.

So how can we improve our listening skills both at work and home to help others and, in turn, ourselves as a result of this? First, look at the following questions and respond honestly with as many answers you believe relevant against each one.

How effective are my Listening Skills?

When listening to someone, I’m likely to:
I interrupt people when:
If I had to choose between speaking and listening, I’d chose to …… because:
Listening comes easy to me when:
When people express their emotions, I feel:
If I can’t have my say, I feel:
I find it easy to listen to people when:
I become easily distracted when listening if:
People I tend to find it difficult to listen to include:
The best listener I know is …… because:

Now review what you have learned about yourself as a listener and list these out.

Once accomplished, complete the following statements:

I know I actively listen well when:
Habits I find irritating in a person speaking comprise of:
To become even more effective at listening, I need to:

With a clearer understanding of your own foibles and strengths, write down what you will work on to improve your skillset.

How often have you started a conversation about something that has happened to you and before you even finish what you’re saying, another party has taken over the story with their own examples? We are all guilty of having what others say trigger our episodic memory but some of us learn that this conversation is not about Our needs but actually to ‘Listen’, in full to the other party.

So once you have mastered the skill of listening, the next step is to quell the desire to re-iterate our own examples into the situation unless it will be ‘truly’ beneficial to the other party.

If you are finding that there doesn’t appear to be anyone around to really listen to your concerns, ideas or plans or feel that an external person to your current situation who will ‘Listen’, truly listen to what you have to say, please contact the author, 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 where you’ll be assured a warm welcome to discuss how we can help.

Jun 22 2015

According to Mintzberg, Management ‘Roles’, OK! (Part 2 of 2)

Welcome to the second feature. Following on from last fortnight, we will look at the “Informational” and “Decisional” components to Mintzberg’s manament roles,

We’ve already looked at the ‘Interpersonal’ category with Figurehead(1), Leader(2) and Liaison(3) being covered, here we’ll now look at the remaining two categorise as follows…

INFORMATIONAL (PROCESSING INFORMATION)

Monitor(4) – To be effective here, learn how to gather beneficial information while avoiding overload! Train yourself to scan read for useful info such as the excess of LinkedIn notifications. Understand the changes that are occurring not just within your teams but the organisation and industry too. Actively open your eyes and not only look for changes but learn to recognise them too.

Disseminator(5) – The ability to share information. Where relevant, insure those around you are informed of useful information. To be effective here, understand that it’s not simply your opinion that counts but the use of the information to be relayed. Agendas, team briefings or face to face meetings, insure your information is factual, useful and relevant.

Spokesperson(6) – Here you are the aerial for business, a transmitter that tells outsiders what the organisation is all about. Presentation is the key to success here which entails confidence with the ability to deliver a succinct, factual and interesting performance. Some say you are born with these skills, I say you learn them and we know how to help.

DECISIONAL (USING INFORMATION)

Entrepreneaur(7) – Open mindedness is the key here. The entrepreneur will look at change for the business needs. Generating and seeking new ideas to overcome problems and then to implement them. Change Management follows a process and is a skill set in its own right and has implications that an entrepreneur will understand.

Disturbance Handler(8) – Conflict can come from either individuals or groups and the way forward is not to simply work on ‘Facts’ but to look at the emotion attached to the obstacle. You cannot let it sort itself out as it inevitably will not, so take charge early on. Empathy to both sides is essential.

Resource Allocator(9) – From seeking new equipment, staff or overtime funding, as a manager you need to understand budgets as well as the art of negotiation (see 10). Also the ability to see where prioritisation is required and where costs can be reduced (and not simply making people redundant). Further to this, analyse the business resources and consider where they are best applied.

Negotiator(10) – As a guide, prior to going into a negotiation, seek someone to role-play and gain control of emotions should it not be working out or prepare for areas not already considered. This isn’t necessarily about what’s simply best for you, seek a win-win result to insure the best outcome.

Mintzberg’s management roles is a great check list whether you are a developing manager looking to improve yourself and the company you work in or even for established managers just to refer back to.

These are simply guidelines but should you be looking to improve management skills for either yourself or those within the organisation and become accountable for your own actions, please contact the author, Neil Nutburn 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 where you’ll be assured a warm welcome to discuss how we can help.

Jun 08 2015

According to Mintzberg, Management ‘Roles’, OK! (Part 1 of 2)

How often do you find yourself involved with negotiations, compiling budgets, adjudicating disputes, acting as the go-to person and attending meetings? In each circumstance, you take up a spinning plate with a myriad of different roles along its edge and have to deal with whichever side it falls on in that spin!

Henry Mintzberg acknowledged this and diagnosed that there are 10 roles played by the manager which are then sub-divided into 3 categories, publishing them in his 1989’s book “Inside our Strange World of Organizations”.

In this feature, we will look at the introduction and then the ‘Interpersonal’ elements.

In Summary, these roles are

(1) Figurehead (5) Monitor (9) Resource Allocator

(2) Leader (6) Spokesperson (10) Negotiator

(3) Liaison (7) Entrepreneur

(4) Monitor (8) Disturbance Handler

And they are categorised:

INTERPERSONAL INFORMATIONAL DECISIONAL

Figurehead Monitor Entrepreneur

Leader Disseminator Disturbance Handler

Liaison Spokesperson Resource Allocator & Negotiator

As I worked my way up through the corporate arena, I realised I was attempting to move into new roles while still having an input in each of the preceding ones. This put a lot of stress and unnecessary pressure onto my already burdened shoulders!

With support or mentoring/coaching, I know I would have been a far better manager not just for the organisation or my teams, but for myself too. Each area is a subject in its own right, as an overview, here’s a checklist of things to consider for your own self-development even in areas you knowingly or unknowingly avoid.

Applying the Model

You can use Mintzberg’s 10 Management Roles model as a frame of reference when thinking about developing your own skills and knowledge. (This includes developing yourself in areas that you consciously or unconsciously shy away from.)

First, examine how much time you currently spend on each managerial role. Do you spend most of your day leading? Managing conflict? Disseminating information? This will help you decide which areas to work on first.

Next, get a piece of paper and write out all ten roles. Score yourself from 1-5 on each one, with 1 being “Very skilled” to 5 being “Not skilled at all.” Then hone in on the areas where you can make improvements.

INTERPERSONAL (TO PROIVIDE IDEAS AND FACTS)

Figurehead(1) – People look to you as a person with authority and for inspiration. Consider areas such as your image, reputation and how you behave as others will follow by example. It’s best to stand clear of being overly sympathetic but show empathy.

Leader(2) –As well as a business leader, you are a team leader too, looking after individual’s responsibilities and group performance. To get the best from your team, a varied skillset is required Make time for your team, don’t be too “Hands-Off” but equally, refrain from micro-management, define goals, motivate, walk the talk (lead by example), delegate and read up on emotional intelligence.

Liaison(3) – Liaising with internal staff is as important as external contacts. Look to network with peers and likeminded companies. Networking is an acquired art. There are plenty of courses and events where you can practice and develop communication skills at all levels.

Look out for the next feature in two weeks’ time where will look at the remaining 7 roles in their 2 categorise.

Should you be looking to improve management skills for either yourself or those within the organisation, please contact the author, Neil Nutburn 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 where you’ll be assured a warm welcome to discuss how we can help.