Coaching to Success

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Motivation starting to wane?… Here are 8 tips to get you back on track

How often do we have this image of succeeding? Setting our ship’s sails to go forth only to find we run out of wind half way there!

There are many reasons for this. Maybe we got caught up in the excitement of what will be but let the struggle of getting there elude us and our island has now become a speck somewhere on the horizon!

How do we re-gain that lost energy and get back on course? Read on and let’s get you re-aligned, heave to, weigh anchor and set sail once again.

  1. Fun! – Establish what elements could be fun to reach your goal. When we enjoy doing something, we’re more inclined to do it. Set mini personal challenges, if cold-calling is one, count how many abusive people you come across and smile as you put another tick against that category.
  2. Positive Self-talk – create ‘positive’ affirmations as to what you wish to achieve. When I ‘Gave up’ smoking some 14yrs ago, so, rather than ‘Giving up’ look to a positive such as ‘achieving a healthier lifestyle’.
  3. Look at the Motivators – Who around you appears to be motivated? E.g. I’m inspired by Richard Branson. But you can also look closer to home. A friend, customer, work colleague, those rarely disheartened. What do you notice about someone who’s motivated? What do you think they say to themselves?
  4. What if scenario – We frequently use this tool at Coaching to Success. Consider these questions, (1) What would happen if you do make that change? (2) What would happen if you didn’t? (3) What won’t happen if you do make that change? (4) What won’t happen if you don’t?
  5. Vison Board – A visual aid which uses both the logical ‘left’ (management, written) side of our brain as well as the emotional ‘right’ (creative, artistic) side. Create something artful that’s visible at work or home. Find or draw images and then do the same for steps to achieve it with dates against each.
  6. Assess the negatives – What are your obstacles? What’s holding you back? List out everything that stands in your way, then set about overcoming them.
  7. Support – Find those around you who understand what you aspire to achieve and ask them for their support. You’ll be surprised as to how people do want you to succeed, you just need to ask!
  8. Rewards – In coaching, we find people will set a reward for achieving the ultimate goal. This can be enhanced even more by setting ‘mini-rewards’ along the way for those intermediate tasks when completed. They don’t need to have massive value. E.g., I love decent coffee so when I’ve accomplished something, like writing this feature, I’ll treat myself to a lovely brew and sit back for twenty minutes to enjoy it. Chocolate??

These are but a few steps to help you achieve or at least re-align yourself to that ultimate goal. Coaching to Success work hard with their clients to insure they reach their goals by being the motivator and driving force behind them so believe in yourself and when you need that additional push, contact us.

If you wish to know more, simply take 10 minutes out to contact Neil on 07761 187238 or email neil@coachingtosuccess.co.uk and discover how we can help motivate you to keep on track and reach that destination.

5 tips to make the New Resolutions stick!!

2015 is upon us with resolutions to lose weight, give something up or re-organise your career or work/life balance.

We inevitably start off with the best intentions that rarely come to fruition! Statistics report that only 8-10% of goals are achieved. There are a myriad of reasons for this including:

  • Setting ‘Negative’ goals – I want to ‘Give’ up…, I want to ‘Lose’ …lb, I need to ‘Stop’…
  • Multitasking – With a hope you’ll reach your goal sooner.
  • Underestimating timescale – Accurately assessing time to complete without building in an element for procrastination!
  • Goals set by others or setting other’s goals – Goals need to be your own for them to work!
  • Unrealistic objectives – It’s great to aspire being the CEO of a multi-national company if you’re already on the board but don’t expect to take over in the next year if you’ve just joined!
  • Review – All too often we’re caught up in doing the activities while drifting off course without noticing as a result of not carrying out frequent reviews.

How can we change those stats to work in our favour? Coaching to Success bring you 5 top tips which aren’t rocket science but will help you reach the moon should that be your destination.

  1. MOTIVATION – What motivates us? Normally something that is important to our beliefs. Are you looking to pacify someone else or creating your own goal so they’ll reach theirs? Establish what will make it happen for YOU. Prioritise what is important to you. Focus on the outcome as hard work will be required otherwise you would have done this some time ago!
  2. Be S.M.A.R.T. – Most of us know this acronym and this is the key to success.Specific is the clarity or path to reach the final goal. Be clear in what the outcome is to be. Measurable is data, the timeline, quantities that are needed to get you there. Eg, If you want to increase your database by 100 over 6mths. That’s 17/mth or 1/day. You can then make 3 calls per day to assure 1 will sign up. Not such a big goal when broken down! Attainable is making sure it’s within reach. 1000 new contacts may not necessarily be achievable incorporating other aspects of work! Relevant is simply that. What’s the reason for reaching that number of contacts? Just to increase your likes on FB/LinkedIn isn’t relevant on its own! Time Focused is all about setting timelines. These should include intermittent goals so you can celebrate early successes as well as the ultimate end goal!
  3. Don’t just SAY it, WRITE it! – There’s a psychological link between the physical action of doing the old fashioned thing of ‘writing’ (not typing!) your goal down and action. Use positive affirmations such as ‘Will’ over ‘Would like’. ie “I will increase database by 17 new contacts per month”, as opposed to “I would like to see database increase…”
  4. Plan it –A main factor often missed is considering the steps required to arrive there. You may get as far as writing a goal down but you need to create a plan of ‘what/when’ each step is to be carried out.
  5. Keep it Alive – We have to live with it and nurture it. A journey where actions need to be taken along the way and for long-term goals. It may get hard at times, these are the moments of upmost importance to stick with the plan. If you start to lose sight, it may just be down to re-aligning your own commitment to accomplishing it.

Coaching to Success help their clients to reach goals throughout the whole year so New Year isn’t any different other than this is a time we often focus on making those all important changes.

Here’s wishing you an exceptional start to 2015, a prosperous one too. For those who want to truly excel in the upcoming year(s), please contact Neil on 07761 187238 or email your enquiry to neil@coachingtosuccess.co.uk

HAPPY NEW YEAR to one and all.

 

The 9 Hit list of common time-management mistakes … Prt 2 of 2!

Part 2 of 2: A fortnight ago we started off by discussing the first 5 parts of mistakes so commonly made in managing the tasks we have in the time to achieve them. How we manage the task is what is imperative. Time continues regardless and there are always 60 minutes in an hour, 24hrs in a day and 168hrs in in week no matter how you look at it.

See how many you’re guilty of! Here’s to the start of insuring you spend your time wisely and, in turn, create wealth for your business or time for the family or friends…

  1. PROCRASTINATION

This is the mother of all distractions from taking us away from important tasks. There are a myriad of reasons why we put things off and find other, often menial in comparison. Maybe you’re dreading the task or find it’s too big. I will often create an action plan to break the task into smaller, manageable components, work for half hour on each and then spend a last element joining the pieces together. Another is to set a time break when you will start/finish regardless of where you are. Repeat this until it is complete!

  1. MULTITASKING

So you can multi-task eh? Here’s some data for you, as a result of not concentrating on one task or another, or speaking on the phone while emailing a reply to someone, you can actually take up to 40% MORE TIME to complete a task as you are not focused on it. Also, the person on the other end of the call realises you are not giving them your full attention and we won’t even go in to mistkaes yuove made in yur emails (or article in this case)! Become aware of the traits of Multitasking to insure you don’t fall into the trap.

  1. FAILING TO COPE WITH DISTRACTIONS

I used to be forever reading emails as they pinged through or picking up the phone as yet another FB message found its way there. Now it’s different! I’ve turned off all email alerts and my phone goes on silent, as if I was in a meeting, when I have something important to accomplish. Manage your distractions as well as interruptions

  1. NOT TAKING BREAKS!

We are not robots and can’t produce the best quality work over an 8hr+ stint. This is treasured downtime which enable our brains to gain a chance to breath. We feed our bodily engines with food so feed your brain with frequent breaks. Create time in your diary to go for a walk, do some exercise anything to stop your brain focusing on what you are currently doing and when you return, you’ll be surprised as to how things become so much clearer.

Coaching to success specialise in time-management to help their clients become much more productive in work while freeing up time for family and friends. If you wish to know more, simply take 10 minutes out to contact Neil on 07761 187238 or email neil@coachingtosuccess.co.uk and discover who we can help you make those changes.

Top 8 tips on delivering truly powerful presentations

I was recently fortunate enough to watch Chris Packham displaying his photography while presenting his passion for saving wildlife around the world.

His fervour was evident through his deliverance which then got me thinking about how, as businesses people, we frequently have to do presentations. Although I now have no worry of standing up in front of an audience, I remember the days of sweating palms, nerves managing to evaporate moisture from my throat and constantly fumbling for loose change in my pockets!!

So here are Coaching to Success’ top 8 tips on how to deliver that all important presentation.

  1. Establish Credibility

Forget the long intro, keep it short and relevant. Share past involvements that lead to this presentation.

  1. Write the dialogue

Preparation to a presentation is the key! Write the whole dialogue, rehearse then rehearse again. Another tip (having learned through being a mason) is to recite it out loud, not just in your head.

  1. Deep breathing

This helps slow the racing heart down. Pace the speech to insure you don’t deliver too quickly. Try to mimic conversation speed.

  1. Jackanory time!

I may be showing my age here. Jackanory was all about storytelling and they say stats are interesting, facts convincing but stories are engaging so tell one that encourages the audience to join in with the journey!

  1. Tonality & Emphasis

When wishing to get a point across, elevate your volume and use gestures whilst altering your tone. When wishing to get facts and figures across, slow down, lower the volume so the audience needs to really listen

  1. Visual aids

Don’t play around with something you need to draw their attention to later. Keep the attention on yourself and remember (through rehearsing) when the next slide is to be shown without having to look at it.

  1. Don’t pace up and down

It’s off-putting to see someone pacing around a stage. A trick I learned was to stand on one side when delivering and to stroll to the other when asking! The audience subconsciously recognise when they are to listen or to participate. By strolling you are seen to be comfortable.

  1. Q&A Time

Always allow time for feedback. Also, members of the audience may have other questions raised as a result of what you delivered. The better you answer these with re-affirmed interest, the greater it reflects point 1. Prepare for questions that attempt to derail you. Be confident in your reply without getting personal. Plan answers for questions you feel may fit this criteria. No questions asked? Eek! No problems, have a few up your sleeve to help them. “You may still be wondering about…”, “one thing I’m often asked is..”

This is but an overview of areas to be considered but is a great foundation for getting the message across positively and confidently. You can’t be expected to know all the answers all of the time but when it comes to your presentation, this is one area you can shine in and remember, the audience are here for themselves primarily!

If you have any questions or would like to discuss how Coaching to Success can help you with that all important presentation, take the first step by contacting Neil either be email, neil.nutburn@coachingtosuccess.co.uk or call 07761 187238 where you are assured a warm welcome.

The 7 secrets of good leaders

So where do you get your inspiration from? Who in your team(s) shows that spark to become a great leader? And how are you stopping them from doing this? Yes, you read that correctly as I too have been guilty of that.

As a director, I had a team member who really wasn’t pulling their weight. They arrived on the hour. Always had lunch breaks, had their coat on 5 minutes before end of day and the highest sickness record.

A new product line was about to be launched, so I decided to give them the responsibility to manage with full support. It was then I realised that it was ‘MY’ leadership qualities that were in question. As I started to empower this person as opposed to constantly remove responsibility they flourished!

I looked to expand my own knowledge on this and other management skills and here we now arrive with the sharing of the seven secrets of good leaders which were relayed to me as I went through the coaching academy…

  1. Develop and maintain a clear vision

If you don’t know where you are heading, how can you expect those around you to know where they should be heading for!

  1. Empower staff to make that vision a reality (refer to above anecdote!)

Give power and authority (while maintaining overall responsibility) refraining from micro or distant management. Be there as a support without being controlling.

  1. Actively and continually focus on people in the context of the vision

Development is a must for continued success. Set up training, teach, insure that your team are the best that they can be by putting time into their development.

  1. Focus on team behaviour with positive expectations

Start by believing in your team! From this, understand that what they wish to achieve is the best for the organisation.

  1. Set an excellent personal example in the workplace

How can you criticise others for spending time on Facebook if you spend all your free time tweeting? Lead by example for others to follow.

  1. Maintain the highest integrity at all times

Integrity is the lasting quality in our work. It establishes reputation and promotes the credibility of our efforts. We may not always make the most popular decision but as long as it’s for the overall good of the organisation, people will know we are looking to do the best we can.

  1. Be realistic

Setting un-realistic budget targets with the intention to push teams to the limit doesn’t work! Set realistic targets that stretch the teams without breaking them. Set SMART (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals.

So start the ball rolling yourself by adopting these into your leadership manner and see the difference it makes. Then contact us and see how much further this can be improved by taking on a business coach.

For further information, contact Neil on 07761 187238 or email neil@coachingtosuccess.co.uk to discuss how brilliant Leadership results in exceptional returns. If you’re looking to Grow quicker than your rivals, we’re affiliated to the Growth Accelerator scheme, so some businesses can obtain government funding too!