Posted by admin on May 19th, 2008 — Posted in Self Improvement Parlor
There can be many frustrations in business and more especially in management.
Lots of us, in these roles, get irritated by the smallest things - often these things seem to be about others and, in truth, are just about ourselves.
Getting honest about this is one of the biggest challenges we have.
Sometimes, it’s vital to cast all our doubts and fears to one side and get on with it.
The more polite shortening of this is ‘JDI’ - otherwise known as ‘Just Do It’.
In this little article, we’ll explore more about JDI and how this weekend, it made a magnificent difference to a small town on the Scottish/English borders.
Manager Rowan Alexander says he never wants to leave Gretna.
In four years, this little Scottish football team have moved from the incredibly unknown non-professional league called the Unibond League, to the Scottish First Division (next season) and as of this weekend, their 3-0 win over Dundee led them to the Scottish Cup Final.
Never before has a team from the Scottish Second Division got there. And they are not expecting to stop progressing till they achieve Premier League status, hopefully sometime in 2007.
Already, due to their win and that of Hearts in the second semi-final on Sunday, Gretna are assured of European football next season (as long as Hearts stay 2nd in the Scottish Premier League!)
When asked how they had achieved this, Alexander, manager since those heady days back in the Unibond, says,
“We don’t talk about things here, we do it. Nothing negative, everything is positive.”
If ever there was a time when a state of expectations, meeting with application and wonderfully supportive, encouraging and developmental management came to fruition, then surely Gretna is it.
Sometimes the seemingly ‘unachievable’ is so very achievable. We just get in our own way, prevaricating with reason after reason why we shouldn’t, can’t or mustn’t.
We fear possible outcomes which might not achieve our goals - blindly forgetting that if we don’t try, we are certain of failure.
I once worked with a client who told me that he prevaricated because at least if he didn’t try, he wouldn’t fail and the hope and dream he had would still be there.
It had taken years of practice to reach this state of inertia - it took but a few coaching sessions to encourage him that using a JDI approach would not be life-threatening.
This week you have the opportunity to move on those things you have been putting off, for whatever reason.
Let’s call it an amnesty.
Give yourself permission for slipping out of your comfort zone and into action. It might not be as chilling an experience as you may think.
© 2005-6 Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, managers and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website, http://www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com.
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Posted by admin on May 6th, 2008 — Posted in Self Improvement Parlor
How often it is we give up wanting to do something even before
we give ourselves an honest chance of succeeding.
Perhaps, we begin writing our autobiography. We get the table of
contents and the introduction written, then we let it sit
because we don’t think anyone will care.
We begin a diet over a weekend. Within a couple of days, we are
back to our normal habits because we didn’t see any immediate
results.
Maybe we want to start a desktop publishing business. We get it
started and the clients start coming in sooner than we expected.
Because of our past experiences where we have been so good at
what we did, we only remember getting bombarded with more and
more work when we wish we could have taken a break. We may see
how this can end up, so we slack off and let the business of our
dreams fade away.
Or maybe we have this idea of having our own place on the
Internet. We create a page, then we have different ideas to put
on it. Then we think of starting a business with it. Then we
also want to have a newsletter for people. Then we want to do
web pages for others. Then we go back and work on ways to get
people to read our newsletter. But we need a better web site. So
we start from scratch and the circle continues. Having too many
things we would like to do can stop us as well.
Personally, I’ve become an expert at getting out of my own way
when it comes to doing things. After all, I’ve gotten in my own
way over and over again for years.
I still fit the last one. So many different areas that interest
me, I have jumped from one thing to another to another. Like
many of the books on the bookshelf at home, I don’t think I have
ever finished one of them all the way through.
We stop ourselves in any number of ways.
- I’m not good enough: Well, on Monday, a group of students will
be given a lecture by the worst teacher. The worst actor will
star in a made-for-television movie. And the worst boy band will
put on a mini show for friends and family in their garage.
- No one will be interested: Just look around at some of the
things you see on television or read in newspapers or books or
magazines. It is amazing some things have lasted this long.
- I’m too old/young: Colonel Sanders was in his eighties when he
began his Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. Anne Frank was a
young girl when she wrote her diary which is still published and
read to this very day throughout the world.
- I don’t know what I want to do: You may not know exactly what
it may be, but there is something in the back of your mind that
is important. Especially if you know you’re not happy in what
you’re doing now, you know there’s more you want out of life.
- I want to do too much: No one says you can’t do a little of
everything. Just have to pick one that will set the groundwork
for the others. Find what is the common thread in the things you
would like, and start there. You can branch off once that
foundation is in place.
- The universe is out to get me: Ummmmm. Not at all. Once you
make up your mind and begin heading in some direction, the
universe will open up in ways you can’t see right now. People
will come into your life, events will take place, and you will
begin to see a bit further each day. But you have to make the
first moves.
Motivational speaker Les Brown in his book “It’s Not Over Until
You Win,” tells a story of a keynote speaker at a National
Speakers Association conference he attended. The speaker was
perhaps the worst speaker Les had ever heard. The man spoke in a
monotone voice and was dull as a butter knife. By the end of his
presentation, more than two-thirds of the audience had walked
out.
The speaker, noticing this said something that pretty much sums
up this column.
“The reason I am up here (Doing) and you are sitting down there
(watching) is because I represent the thoughts you have rejected
for yourself.”
Give yourself a chance and get out of your own way.
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Posted by admin on May 1st, 2008 — Posted in Self Improvement Parlor
Obviously, there are many wonderful things about having a personal coach to support and encourage you. Everyone develops their own working relationship with their coach, and each situation is unique. So, with lots of respect for all the many things you may find valuable about having a coach, here are the Top 10 things clients have said to me:
1. You get personal time to focus on YOUR concerns and priorities every month. It is a wonderful thing to have a personal, private, intimate and challenging conversation focused exclusively on helping you move forward with confidence. How often do you get the support you need to be your BEST?
2. Having a coach challenges you to play harder. Having a coach focuses your attention, it clarifies your goals and encourages you to aim higher. Your coach is your biggest cheerleader — and at times the person you love to hate the most!
3. You become more productive. You become more efficient, more effective, more results-oriented. Many clients work less and accomplish far more in less time, with less effort and with fewer false-starts.
4. You become more honest about what you REALLY want. Do you want the promotion, or more time off? Do you want more money, more prestige, or more time to work on your novel, build your boat or be with your family? Telling the truth (to yourself and to your coach) makes life much easier.
5. You have fewer frustrations. A coach will challenge you to eliminate the distractions, the frustrations, irritations and annoyances of life. They waste your time and energy, and they hold you back. Eliminate them!
6. You’ll likely have MORE money when you invest in a great coach. How? You’ll simplify your life, take control of your finances, and live, work and spend smarter. You’ll make fewer impulse purchases, have fewer unexpected bills, and stay on your budget — effortlessly! And, since you’re more productive, you may even start earning more!
7. You’ll clarify your values and live with greater integrity. You’ll discover what’s really important to you, and devise a strategy for having more of it in your life. Caution: This may result in major changes!
8. Your relationships will improve. You’ll speak with greater clarity, more confidence and more power. You’ll expect a higher level of intimacy, honesty and respect from those around you. And, you’ll set boundaries so that your needs are met, while honoring the needs and boundaries of others.
9. You’ll set much higher, larger and more astonishing goals! You’ll simply aim higher and live larger. The daily grind will no longer be enough, and you’ll expect and pursue a life that is satisfying, fulfilling and challenging. You’ll understand that you CAN have it all — that in fact, having it all is just the beginning!
10. Life will be easier and richer. Expect that, with a personal coach, your quality of life will be transformed. You’ll get up earlier, stay up later, work harder, play more, and do it all with a level of relaxed enthusiasm that is rare for adults. Kids know about it, but most adults have forgotten what it means to live and work with PASSION! Your coach will remind you!
© Copyright 2003 by Philip E. Humbert. All Rights Reserved. This article may be copied and used in your own newsletter or on your website as long as you include the following information: “Written by Dr. Philip E. Humbert, writer, speaker and success coach. Dr. Humbert has over 300 free articles, tools and resources for your success, including a great newsletter! It’s all on his website at: http://www.philiphumbert.com
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Posted by admin on April 22nd, 2008 — Posted in Self Improvement Parlor
He’s a very successful sales manger who craves results. He can’t be bothered with people who don’t produce. They are losers. He always produces the numbers year after year. The question is does he do it through bullying or coaching?
What’s the difference between bullying and coaching? This was one of the questions that ran through our mind when we were talking about Dave.
Coaching, for us, is making people do what they don’t necessarily want to do in order to achieve, to be successful.
But for Dave, success does not come naturally. We are all lazy and basically don’t want to work anyway. He believes we especially don’t want to work hard. We don’t like pain, psychological or physical, and therefore, he believes, unless he’s there giving people a good kick up the backside nothing happens. He accepts the sales targets from the CEO and the team have to deliver on them. To him personal bests are there to be broken. Its about breaking sales records. Hitting the sales targets. Getting the bonuses. If your personal best is below target then improve. Try harder. He only sees potential in the sales force and gets really, really irritable and frustrated when they don’t respond. He really cares about the business and the individuals. He just hates watching talent being wasted.
Dave also believes success in sales is a direct reflection of the amount of work that has been put in before the event. There is no point is setting out to achieve leading edge targets if you don’t put the work in on each individual before hand. Dave sees his job as motivating others to excel. People like Mike. Mike has plenty of talent. He oozes talent but he seems to stop short of full implementation. He talks a good story, has a lot of promise but appears to rest on what he has done. Capable but……stuck in the groove. Like a number of us, Mike has worked out what worked for him in the past and keeps replicating it. Yes, he always hits his sales target. But only just and Dave feels he has so much to offer. So much more talent. His talent is being wasted in Dave’s eyes.
Dave believes that sales people do not under perform because they want to. They under perform because someone or something has got to them. The question is what? After spending a great deal of time with Mike, Dave began to realise it was historical. Mike had worked for a sales manager who had given him a lot of promises and in a nut shell had never delivered on the promises. The result was that Mike didn’t really believe sales managers any more, didn’t believe that they believed in what they were saying. Mike believed that Dave was just another sales manager who would say what was necessary to get him to hit target and that was that. He had heard all the buzzwords before and basically had come to understand that the more buzzwords that were used the more difficult it was to identify any passion and commitment to either the staff or the product.
After a number of long discussions with Mike. Dave told Mike that in his opinion he had allowed himself to become a victim. A victim of circumstances. Never allow yourself to be a victim especially a victim of circumstances. If you allow yourself to be the victim you will always be the loser. You must always work to change the circumstances. They worked together to change the circumstances. Gradually Mike started to believe that perhaps Dave did have passion for the company, products and the people. Mike in turn started to reach for the stars. To find his true potential.
Dave believes passionately, that the results are always in the detail. The more effort he puts in on one to ones. The more effort he puts into the team. The more they talk and work together. The more they believe in each other. The more they get through the buzz words and understand the passion, what makes each of them really tick. The more they understand how committed everyone is to being successful. The more he knows that they will reach their, monthly, quarterly and annual targets. He leaves no stone unturned. He gives his all to the people that work for him..
Dave gives them the world, all he asks is that they make the effort and have a passion for what they do.
Is that bullying or coaching?
Graham and Julie
www.desktop-meditation.com
To improve your intuition, initiative and energy levels please go to:
http://www.desktop-meditation.com
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Posted by admin on April 21st, 2008 — Posted in Self Improvement Parlor
God. Thank you for the day today. God, I tried to do everything to the best of my abilities. I may have done few things right and others wrong. Please forgive me, my mistakes and please reward me for my successes if you so desire.
God, I want to forget today and get up fresh tomorrow. I also want to forget all of my past. God, I want to love tomorrow as if it is my birthday. I want to treat tomorrow as my new birth and forget all of my past. This will help me live life in a new way every day without any burden of the past. God, please help me doing this. God, There are many incidents of my past which were very bad when they occurred. But today, I don’t even remember them. I want to do this to all my incidents of today. I don’t want them to fade away from my memory slowly. But I want to bury them now. God, please help me doing that.
God, Please give me new ideas tomorrow. Please give me a new outlook. Let me treat all the obstacles as challenges. Let me enjoy fighting with them rather than getting frustrated by them. God, please give me a new way of looking at the things. Let all the situations be a test situation for me. Rather than getting annoyed and irritated, let me look at them as my adversaries that have to be outwitted by me. Let me do this in a playful way.
God, let me do this everyday. God, let me pray to you in the same way everyday. God thank you very much.
CDMohatta writes text for Inspirational and motivational eCards. please view some of them here. Please Carry On - Inspirational. , The Winner - Motivational and Fight It Out - Persistance.
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Posted by admin on April 18th, 2008 — Posted in Self Improvement Parlor
If you want to practice dynamic, fearless, brazen creative thinking, follow these 5 easy steps:
1. Prepare to STINK when you start to think!
Perfection is for saints and I’ve never met one. Your creative thinking is going to stink at times. You are going to come up with some truly hideous ideas. Probably a big steaming pile of them. And that’s great! You should be mentally willing to be a
target="_new" href="http://www.wilywalnut.com/human_craptivator.html" rel="nofollow">human craptivator — churning out bad ideas. Go for quantity before you look for quality. In amongst those stinkers you will find some gems. Diamonds are found in the dirt, remember. And those ‘crappy’ ideas? Well, they will fertilise your mind and combine to make new ideas and innovations. And some may not be that ‘crappy’ after all — just weird and different. Many fortunes have been made with what seem like really awful ideas.
2. Inflate your EGO!
You’ve got to think with confidence. Get off the self-pity train. Stop saying that you aren’t creative, that you wouldn’t know a good idea if it slapped you in the face and screamed, “HEY, I’M A GOOD IDEA!” You were born a genius. You’ve got the same tool set as the greatest minds that ever lived. When you dream at night, your brain creates WORLDS for pete’s sake! So tell that inner wallflower to, “Shut the %*$! up!” and start telling yourself the truth: You are a genius, you CAN do creative thinking, and you sure as hell can come up with brilliant creative ideas. Big up yourself!
3. Make it a competition!
You can take a juicy pleasure in coming up with more and better ideas than anyone else. ‘Genius’ has a nice ring about it, don’t you think? Wouldn’t you prefer to be known as the go-to guy (or gal) when innovation is on the agenda? So, become ‘the ideas person’, ‘the brainiac’ for your company, family or school. Get yourself a bunch of notebooks and journals and never be without one — and make it your daily challenge to write down the ideas that come to you. Once you start capturing these ideas — yes, even the stinkers — you create a creative thinking feedback loop with your brain that tells it: I want these ideas. Gimme more! And you’ll get more.
4. That blinking creative thinking!
Malcolm Gladwell’s book, ‘Blink’, talks about rapid cognition and the snap judgements and impressions that occur within two seconds of being presented with a new situation, person, problem or challenge. These fleeting impressions can often give us a more complete understanding of an experience before we get bogged down in too much detail. Psychologists refer to this as the ‘power of thin slicing’, the capability of human to make sense of situations based upon the thinnest slice of experience. You can use this rapid-fire thinking ability as a creative thinking technique. First, make sure you always have a notebook or audio recording device available to make note of your immediate impressions and thoughts. These could be bolts from the blue — seriously important creative ideas. Secondly, challenge yourself to generate ideas at speed. Get someone to fire a description of a creative challenge to you and immediately start scribbling down every thought and impression that comes to you. Or ask yourself a series of questions designed to generate as many varies ideas as possible — at speed. This is turbo-charged creative thinking!
5. Be the Creator!
When you create something — anything, a child, a book, a building, a picture, a pie — and then you look at it, you realise something wonderful. “That would have never existed if it weren’t for me!” The beauty of creative thinking is in the realisation that it doesn’t matter if something’s been done before because it’s never been done by YOU. We all bring something unique and different to what we do and create. Right now, there are all kinds of energetic vacuums in the Universe and these are the things that you haven’t created YET. They are out there in potentiality. And there’s a kind of expectation and demand upon you to create them. If you don’t get off your butt and start doing it, those things will never exist. And you just don’t know how that will affect the Universe and the lives of those in it. So get busy… please!
Fearless creative thinking comes naturally from the decision to be creative. Pratice these 5 easy steps to help release and focus your creative thinking ability, adjust your attitudes and generate the brilliant ideas that you are capable of.
Wily Walnut invites you to unleash your inner genius for creative thinking at
target="_new" href="http://www.wilywalnut.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.wilywalnut.com, your first stop for FREE articles on creative thinking, accessing your genius, boosting IQ, brainpower and intelligence, and brainstorming for innovative ideas. To grab a copy of Wily’s THE BRAIN SQUEEZER ezine, email: wilywalnut@getresponse.com
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Posted by admin on April 11th, 2008 — Posted in Self Improvement Parlor
If you ever wonder why your organization should invest time and money in training, then these 7 reasons should convince you.
1. Integration. Integrating people into the organization was the original purpose of training. You trained employees so that they could continue the systems, purpose, and procedures of the organization. Take the Roman Empire, for instance. “The Roman Empire grew so large and survived so long because there was no car, no radio, no papers, and no phone. You appointed your governor to run a province, fully trained him at headquarters before he went, and then sent him off to run it.” (Antony Jay). In many big organizations, integration is still the number one reason for training people.
2. Beating the Competition. Today, just knowing how the organization functions isn’t enough to ensure its survival and that of the people in it. When faced by intense competition, employees who are well-informed, well-skilled, and highly committed become the chief reason for an organization’s success. As former head of General Motors, Jack Welch, said, “An organisation’s ability to learn, and to translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.”
3. Developing Assets. It is only in the last few decades that people have woken up to the fact that their employees are their most valuable asset. When that asset is developed, it becomes more valuable to the organization as well as the employees. A study by Robert Zemsky and Susan Sharman of the University of Pennsylvania found that a 10% increase in training spend resulted in an 8.5% increase in productivity. A similar increase in capital expenditure resulted in only a 3.8% increase in productivity. In other words, training pays.
4. Performance. It is strange that, while we would never accept that a top-class athlete, doctor or circus performer could ever achieve high standards without training, we so often ignore training in the workplace. We argue that we don’t have time to train, or the means to do it, or that nothing changes afterwards. But, if it can work in every other profession, why not in the workplace? After all, would you want to be operated on by an untrained surgeon?
5. Change. The rapid changes of recent years have transformed the way we view training at work. Where once it was something given to the unskilled and under-performing by specialist departments, now it is an essential for everyone.
“Whereas in former years an organisation could expect reasonable periods of technological stability between waves of change, today in more and more industries, one change rapidly follows another. The purpose of training is to help people develop skills not only for today’s technology but for tomorrow’s and the day after’s. Learning has to be continuous for everyone because organisations face continual change in products, services, processes, markets, competition and technology.” (”Training for new technology”)
6. Practice. One of the most important aspects of training is that it allows people to get things right for when it really matters. In his book “Global Challenge”, Humphrey Walters describes how his yacht crew prepared for the BT round-the-world race with an intensive period of training. When their yacht hit the Southern Indian Ocean, disaster struck: one of the crew went overboard. The rest of the crew had just 4 minutes to save him. Their pre-race training meant they knew exactly what to do. Without the training, he would have certainly drowned.
7. Developing Excellence. We are all born with talents and gifts which nobody else quite possesses as we do. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people either live in total ignorance of their potential or fail to develop it. When professional developers discover people’s unique potential, nurture it, build on it, develop it, and release it, they do far more than help those people perform. They create excellence.
“Luciano Pavarotti, arguably the greatest tenor in the world, was an average singer in the boys’ choir at school. But, by studying, practicing, and rigorous training, he became a peak performance of excellence.” (Charles Garfield)
Without training and development, an organization today is likely to struggle to beat the competition, achieve high levels of productivity, or keep its best workers. Put training at the top of your people agenda, and your success is almost guaranteed.
© Eric Garner, ManageTrainLearn.com
For instant solutions to all your management training needs, visit www.managetrainlearn.com and download amazing FREE training software. And while you’re there, make sure you try out our prize quiz, get your surprise bonus gift, and subscribe to our fortnightly newsletter. Go and get the ManageTrainLearn experience now!
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