Month: February 2015 Page 1 of 2

One of the rewarding aspects of my career is having the privilege to help people get clarity on the professional and personal goals that they want to achieve.

It is always enjoyable to support them to plan a strategy and devise action steps that help turn their vision into reality.

It gives me a great deal of satisfaction when people attain challenging and stretching goals. The process we follow is that we set the goal together, get clear on the motivations for wanting to pursue the goal and develop a plan. The clients take action and we review and measure progress.

Also at the start of the process, I get clients to visualise themselves being successful and I ask them to get clear on how they will celebrate their success when they achieve their goal.

Celebrating success and the achievement of a goal is quite often overlooked. This means that people spend insufficient time reflecting on how well they have done and being proud. Clarity on how you will celebrate is helpful as it can provide additional motivation and inspiration when the going gets tough on the journey towards achieving your goal.

Taking the time to celebrate every success, no matter how big or small, helps to build confidence and make it easier to keep pushing to reach those large-scale future goals.

A celebration can give you closure on goals you’ve been working toward for a while, provide encouragement to continue and make every success even more worthwhile and fulfilling.

There is a fair chance you may have set a number of personal goals in the past – some big, some small. These could include, losing weight, getting fitter, generating more income, starting a new hobby, spending more time with the family etc.

On occasions, when you are embarking on pursuing a new goal, it is good to pause and take a few moments to list out some accomplishments big or small. This helps remind yourself of past success and of the infinite potential within you.

Your celebration doesn’t have to be a big deal. It can be something you do alone or something you share with others. It just has to make you feel good and help you enjoy your accomplishment. It doesn’t have to be expensive.

When you hit a milestone on a large project you can reward yourself with a walk, a cake, a piece of fruit or a bar of chocolate.

Here are a few other ideas for celebrating success:-

• Go out for a nice meal

• Watch a favourite TV show or film

• Arrange a trip to the cinema

• Play some sport

• Buy a bottle of your favourite drink

• Go to the gym

• Go for a long walk in the countryside or by a lake/sea

• Treat yourself to a day of rest and relaxation

• Thank everyone who supported you

• Buy yourself sometime new

• Share your news with others

• Have a party (if the goal was really big)

This week, why not take a few moments to list 10 things that you have accomplished that you can be really proud of.

Also consider if there is something that you need to celebrate or if you need to plan how you will celebrate when you achieve a goal that you are currently working on.

Quote for the week:

“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate” Oprah Winfrey

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk

Meetings hold great potential for time wasting..

Whilst it would be foolish to condemn all meetings as a waste of time, a common complaint of my corporate coaching clients is the amount of time they have to spend each week in meetings.

It seems the larger the company, the greater number of internal meetings that aren’t always as productive as they could be.

Common complaints that I hear from clients are:

• I have to attend meetings where my attendance is not always required but is expected out of habit.

• We go over the same issues week in and week out, diagnosing and dissecting problems but not coming up with solutions or clear action plans

• Our meetings rarely start and finish on time and are too long

• I get irritated by recaps for people that turn up late

• Some of the meetings are not chaired particularly well. They do not have clear objectives or an agenda.

Given how busy life is and how resources are so stretched in many organisations, it makes sense to regularly review the amount of time that you spend in meetings and ensure that it is a productive use of time. It is helpful to consider if there are more efficient ways of doing things to save time

For instance, are there alternative or better ways of communicating /sharing information?

This may include the use of technology to avoid travelling time and expense. Is it possible for people to come to you for particular meetings to save on your travel time?

You can encourage all the teams that you are involved with to adopt some best practices:-

• Ensure all meetings have a clear purpose and objectives that are clearly communicated and understood by everyone in attendance. A focused agenda with time slots allocated for each agenda item ensures that meetings are more productive and stick to allocated time.

• Another good practice to consider is to rotate the role of chairing meetings, so junior members of the team get the chance to develop and experience what it is like to keep the meeting focused and productive. It keeps the meetings fresh and helps people grow and develop.

• Consider reducing the length of meetings from 60 minute slots to 45 minutes.

• Stop doing recaps for late arrivals or holding/attending meetings with no agenda or clear objectives.

I suggest to clients that they along with their colleagues regularly review meeting effectiveness and look for ways to improve the quality of meetings.

They can do this by all of them answering the following questions:-

On a scale of 1-10 (10 being high)

• How clear were the objectives?

• How focused was the agenda/purpose of the meeting?

• How well did the group plan?

• How well did the group manage time and stick to agreed timings?

• How well were priorities set?

• How well was everybody involved and included in discussions?

• How well did people listen and understand?

• How well were conflicts and disagreements handled?

• How much responsibility did everyone take for the successful running of the meeting?

• How clear were the agreed action points?

Some supplementary questions:-

• What ideas do you have to make the meetings more productive and effective?

• Was your attendance at the meeting absolutely necessary?

• What alternative ways are there to communicate/share information?

Thought for the week:

What steps can you take to make your meetings more effective and focused? Is there an opportunity for you to save some time by attending fewer meetings or reducing the length of them?

This week’s quotation:

“Always go into meetings or negotiations with a positive attitude. Tell yourself you’re going to make this the best deal for all parties.” Natalie Massenet.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk

 

It is easy when you are a pursuing a goal, starting a new fitness regime or looking to develop a new habit to give up when the going gets tough and the initial motivation wanes.

I wonder how many people across the world have given up on the New Year’s resolutions that they made just 6 weeks ago already.

Something worth having or achieving is rarely accomplished without effort, determination or some degree of sacrifice. There are many stories about people who have achieved great things and the difficulties that they had to overcome and, the setbacks they had to deal with.

I enjoy reading stories like that. They always give me energy and inspiration and the drive to persevere with my own goals and ambitions and to inspire others to fulfil their potential.

One such story relates to Abraham Lincoln the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865.

Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War and greatest moral, constitutional and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy. Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents of all time.

One of Lincoln’s traits was that he never quit, born into poverty, Lincoln was faced with defeat throughout his life. He lost eight elections, twice failed in business and suffered a nervous breakdown. He could have quit many times – but he didn’t and because he didn’t quit, he became one of the greatest presidents in the United States history.

Here is an outline of Lincoln’s road to the White House:

• 1816 His family was forced out of their home. He had to work to support them.

• 1818 His mother died.

• 1831 Failed in business.

• 1832 Ran for state legislature – lost.

• 1832 Lost his job – wanted to go to law school but couldn’t get in.

• 1833 Borrowed some money from a friend to begin a business and by the end of the year he was bankrupt. He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off this debt.

• 1834 Ran for state legislature again – won.

• 1835 Was engaged to be married, sweetheart died and his heart was broken.

• 1836 Had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months.

• 1838 Sought to become speaker of the state legislature – defeated.

• 1840 Sought to become elector – defeated.

• 1843 Ran for Congress – lost.

• 1846 Ran for Congress again – this time he won – went to Washington and did a good job.

• 1848 Ran for re-election to Congress – lost.

• 1849 Sought the job of land officer in his home state – rejected.

• 1854 Ran for Senate of the United States – lost.

• 1856 Sought the Vice-Presidential nomination at his party’s national convention – get less than 100 votes.

• 1858 Ran for U.S. Senate again – again he lost.

• 1860 Elected president of the United States

Thought for this week

If you are thinking of giving up on something why not give it another shot? If you know someone who is having a tough time, why not share this story with them and encourage them to persevere?

If you have been contemplating starting something new, why not take the first step this week?

This week’s quotation:

“Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.” Napoleon Hill.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk