Time for a Productivity Review?

Time for a Productivity Review?

by | Jun 28, 2017

With the first six months of the year very nearly completed, are you on track to achieve all your goals for 2017?  If not maybe its time for a productivity review to assess what you are really doing every day. Are you spending time on high value income producing activities everyday, or are you getting distracted by the loads of important and urgent tasks that come across your desk, and into your email box each day.

I’ve spent the first half of the year honing my productivity skills with a mentor and it has been time well invested. I now have a new approach to how I block and tackle my days. I’m now achieving more and also having more fun doing it.  So here are some tips to get you back on track.

  • Take stock of where you are.  You need to know where you are right now and where you want to get to in order that you can figure out the next step.  Just think about it. If you are in Paris and you have no idea of where you want to visit, it doesn’t matter what directions you are given, they won’t get you to where you wnat to go. However, if you are in Paris and know you want to visit the Eiffel Tower then with some good help and advice someone can show you where you are the range of options to get there.  A mentor can do just the same for you in your business, showing the plan to help you achieve your results based on where you are right now.
  • Keep track of your most important commitment—the one you make to yourself. Productivity guru David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, contends that commitments to yourself are qualitatively different than those you make to others because your conscious mind can essentially “lose track” of them. While your boss will remind you of your commitments to her, your mind doesn’t know your email address. What Allen calls your “mental RAM” will continue to expect those commitments to be fulfilled, but you may have forgotten about them amidst the clamour of your work life. The result is the worst kind of stress, because you feel the pressure but you can’t quite figure out where it’s coming from. In his most recent book, Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life, Allen offers several effective tips for capturing these “open loops” and closing them, either by completing, canceling or renegotiating them.
  • Practice saying “No.” Do you find that your work has bled almost seamlessly into your personal life? One of the answers to this problem is often the word, “No.” You have to acquire the skill to utter that magic word in order to create some boundary around your work and create the opportunity for personal relaxation and renewal. The key is to steadfastly turn down obligations unless they further your priorities.
  • Invest in your health. This goes without saying, right? Actually, for most of us, it also goes without doing. Yet, apart from the obvious benefits of better health, increasing your physical well-being can yield tremendous benefits in terms of your productivity at work. In the view of Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, authors of The Power of Full Engagement, it is managing your energy—starting with your physical health, including diet, sleep and exercise—that is more important than managing time in improving your personal productivity.
  • Protect your mornings. Author and motivational speaker Brian Tracy refers to the “magic hour” after you get up—a time to protect yourself from the news and other distractions and concentrate on your day: What you are going to accomplish and exactly how you are going to do it. Many experts report that most people are naturally more creative and energetic in the mornings, which is an argument for applying yourself to your most challenging tasks then and saving the routine housecleaning until later in the day, one of the notions at the heart of the Morgenstern’s Never Check Email in the Morning.
  • Pick a system—any system—just pick one. How many different places do you squirrel away information? Email? Yellow pads? Daily planner? PDA? Post-it Notes stuck like a yellow halo around your computer screen? It might take a serious investment of time to sort through the options, but decide on one…and then use it. Each of the productivity experts referenced here, and the hundreds of others in the bookstore, will claim their system is the best. But most of them also acknowledge that any system that you actually use is going to be better than no system or the chaotic structure that so many of us have fallen into. As Allen puts it, in choosing an organiser, whether high-tech or a stack of 3×5 cards, go for “simplicity, speed and fun.”
  • Fun? Wait, did you say “fun”? Another important tune-up is to get reconnected with what’s happening to your personal life. Maintaining your personal relationships, relaxing and—gasp!—having fun are critical to your mental health, which, in turn, affects your energy, creativity and productivity.

But the most important tip of all is to build regular  review and reflection time into your calendar. There are countless ways you can improve your productivity, lower your stress and enhance your physical and emotional well-being. But they all require some focus, some thought and some energy. The key is to treat the process of personal renewal itself as a priority. To use Stephen Covey’s classic “maintenance” metaphor, think of this as “sharpening the saw.” Schedule it. Place it in the priority queue, assign time to it, and actually give it some of your attention. Your time will be well spent

Connect, Engage and Communicate

Connect, Engage and Communicate

by | Jun 21, 2017

If you want to get the best from your team you need to learn to connect, engage and communicate with them. Even if this isn’t your natural bent, you can learn to do this. In fact, the reason I’m writing this post today is because one of my clients said to me this week “Julia, one of the things I appreciate about you is that you’re so good at asking questions. I’m not. That’s just not how I’m wired.”

To which I responded, “Thanks for the compliment, but I’m not wired that way either.” Learning to use questions to lead isn’t a natural ability for most of us, it’s an acquired skill. And it’s not that hard to do on a skill level, it’s only hard on an implementation level. So, here are a few ideas to help you get started on unleashing your inner questioner.

1. Learn to see yourself as a developer of talent, not the boss. At the end of the day, most of us like to be tellers because we see ourselves as “the boss.” When we own the boss hat, most of us like to be in the teller role (I hired you. I pay you. Do what I tell you to do). And as long as we own that mindset, we’ll struggle with asking questions. However, if you can make the mental shift from boss to talent developer, you’ll begin to see your role completely differently (which is key because talent developers create leverage, whereas bosses don’t).

2. Make questioning your first response. I know this may feel pedantic, but when someone asks you a question, ask them a question back. Refuse to just give the answer (something that most of us who are male will always struggle with :-). Instead, when someone asks, “So, what do you think I should do?” throw it back to them, “First, tell me what you think you should do?” If they say, “I asked you first.” Just respond, “Well, how do you think I’d respond?” Return question for question. As hard as this is, don’t give the first answer.  This was something I was challenged with when working in my corporate role, but asking questions helps team members become more resourceful and ultimately take more responsibility for their actions. In today’s world of mobile communication it is just too easy for team members to abdicate any responsibility and just ask their boss. But this does not help us develop leaders of the future.

3. Open your team conversations with questions. Instead of saying, “Pete, we have a problem here. And here’s what I want you to do.” Open the conversation with a wide open question. “Pete, as you know, we have a problem here. What do you think is creating it?” Or, “What’s your best thinking about how to solve this?” Or, “Do you have any ideas about how we can eliminate this in the next 30 days?”

Yes, there is an art to asking good questions (for example, wide open questions are better for creating independent thinkers), but what’s more important is that you embrace the principle that being a questioner is a better leadership choice than being a teller. Once you do that, you’ll acquire the skill set over time through trial and error. But you’ll never get there if you don’t embrace this concept as a core leadership practice.

So do you? Do you really believe that being a leader who leads through questioning is better than being a leader who leads by telling? I hope so because the choice you make will have profound consequences for you and your company for years to come. So, choose wisely! Remember,

“If you want to get the most from your people, then you need to draw the best that is in them—out of them.”

By the way, if you’re thinking, “But asking questions sure takes a lot more time than telling,” then you probably don’t own the idea that a leader isn’t a boss, a leader is a talent developer who leverages the time, talent, treasures, resources, intellectual property and connections of their people to produce a result.

Oh, and one last thought. This principle and practice holds true whether you are leading a two person team or a two thousand person team.

Go forth and ask better questions so that you can connect, engage and communicate.

Ask Better Questions To Improve Team Performance

Ask Better Questions To Improve Team Performance

by | Jun 14, 2017

“There’s no such thing as a self-made millionaire. Only TEAM-made millionaires”

In last week’s Wednesday Wisdom we discussed the different leadership positions and the fact that in the herd leadership is shared. A horse herd operates as a team and to my mind teamwork is the most effective way in business to create success. Being in business is tough and there is simply no way that you can do everything by yourself. Each of us has own our brilliance and working with team members enables you to focus on your brilliance whilst letting others do theirs. The net effect is that everyone is in a state called flow, which is the state of least resistance. Then business becomes easy and fun.

But how do you get the best out of team members and inspire them to give of their best to help your business grow and be successful.? The answer is to ask better questions. So are you a teller or a questioner?

In other words, when you’re working with your team members (or outsourcers) do you tend to tell them what to do or do you engage them in a conversation by asking questions?

If you’re like most entrepreneurial leaders, chances are you’re the former. If that’s true, then my question to you is “How’s that working for you?”

My guess is it’s not working out as great as you’d like it to. In fact, I find that most entrepreneurial leaders are pretty frustrated with the people they’re “leading.” See if any of the following statements ring true for you

  • “They never do what I tell them to do!”
  • “It always takes her ten times longer to do what I asked her to do. If she’d just listen to me, she could get it done in one tenth of the time it’s currently taking!”
  • “I can’t understand why it’s taking him so long to do what I asked him to do.”
  • “I can’t figure out why she just can’t follow my directions.”
  • “I didn’t hire him to think. I hired him to do what I tell him to do.”

Ouch! And I fully understand those sentiments. As an entrepreneurial leader myself I understand why you want people to do what you want them to do in the way you want them to do it (after all, you are the BOSS, right? And it is YOUR company. And you do pay THE BILLS. And they do work for YOU, right?).

Furthermore, I get the whole driven part of the entrepreneurial personality. According to my Talent Dynamics profile I have lots of dynamo energy so, by personality, I like being a teller. I like saying, as chances are you do, “Here’s what I want you to do. Now, just go do it. No questions. No debate. Just get it done EXACTLY how I told you to do it.”

But, as you well know, that approach doesn’t produce the best results

The Problem With Being a Teller

What I learned, and hopefully you are as well, is that being a teller is a counterproductive leadership approach. Why? For a number of reasons. I’ll give you three.

  1. Telling doesn’t create buy in. As you know, people own what they help create, which, by definition means they don’t own what they don’t help create. So, if you or I say, “Billy, I want you to do X in Y way,” how much does he own that? Virtually nil. And if someone doesn’t own a task or project or process/procedure or event or strategy or tactic, the chances of them producing the best result will always be lower than if Billy is involved in creating the solution. Telling doesn’t work because it doesn’t create buy in or ownership.
    Note: We’re not talking about following systems here. We’re talking about solving problems or creating something new.
  2. Telling doesn’t produce the kind of people you want/need. In other words, if you’re a teller, you’re NOT developing your people to be their best (whether that’s to be a better leader or problem solver or innovator or coach or process person, etc.). Or to put it another way, if you or I are always in the telling position, then we’re not creating independent thinkers. And if we’re not creating independent thinkers, then we’ll have to keep doing all the thinking—which leads to the third reason why you don’t want to be a teller.
  3. Telling doesn’t create leverage. If you or I still have to do all the thinking, then we’re not creating leverage. We’re simply creating more work for ourselves. We become the bottleneck to growth. If our people don’t own the task, then we have to invest more time in managing and leading the task. If our people aren’t really excited about a task or project, then more conflict will occur, which means we’ll have to invest more time. Or, if the only people we’re happy with are people who will just do what they’re told, then we’ll always put a lid on the quality of the kind of employee we can hire (which, again, kills leverage).

Any way you add it up, being a teller, just isn’t the smartest leadership choice you or I can make if we want to grow a fast growing business or organisation.

The Better Option

The better option, if you want to get the best from your team is to learn to connect, engage and communicate with them. Even if this isn’t your natural bent, you can learn to do this.

Next week I’ll be sharing my best tips on how to connect through using questions.

What’s Your Preferred Leadership Position?

What’s Your Preferred Leadership Position?

by | Jun 7, 2017

One of the biggest insights that has been coming up for people recently, whilst attending my leadership workshops, has been related to their preferred leadership position. Very often when we think of leadership we assume that the leader has to be at the front, leading the charge. And yes the leader does need to set the direction for the business, but they don’t need to stay in that leadership position all the time. Sometimes they might find that leading from the back, or indeed the side might be a better solution.

So What Are The Three Positions of Leadership?

In his book Dances With Horses, Klaus Ferdinand-Hempfling identified three positions of leadership that operate on a pull-push basis and when used appropriately can achieve significant results. Position One is Leading From The Front. This leadership position is most effective in an emergency, when you need people to follow you with no negotiation. It is also a great leadership position for the CEO of a business who needs to set the strategy and direction of the business and show others where to go. However, for team members it can dis-empower them as there is no flexibility to make decisions.

Position Three is Leading From Behind. From this position you can see everything happening in front of you and so can easily course correct if things go off track. It’s a leadership position where you effectively orchestrate the energy of the group and add momentum to what is happening. Team members feel empowered however, unless the team know where you are heading, chaos can erupt as everyone heads in different directions.

Leading From The Side is Leadership Position Two. It is a very collaborative style of leadership and a great place to be to form connection with your team members. It is the place of true partnership, and is a role that all great leaders must engage in to build relationships. However, if a leader stays in this position for too long nothing gets accomplished as no-one is leading the process.

The three different positions of leadership are derived from the way that a wild horse herd operates. Typically what you will find is that within the herd there is a lead mare who operates at the front of the herd and it is her job to find suitable grazing for the herd. She navigates where to go based on the weather conditions and the needs of her herd. Do they need food, water, shelter? Whatever they need she seeks out for them.

However, in the herd leadership is not a one horse job. It is shared and this is why you will always find the lead mare working in collaboration with the lead stallion. He positions himself at the back of the herd. From here he has great perspective on what is happening in front of him. He is easily able to keep an eye out for approaching danger and keep the herd united by influencing the direction and pace that everyone is moving in.

When grazing the lead mare will often mingle with the herd and adopt leadership position two whilst checking in to ensure the rest of the herd are safe.

Great leaders recognise that the art of great leadership is knowing when to adopt each leadership position, and be able to effortlessly move between the different positions as required. That said, in my experience leaders often have a preference for one position of leadership over another. Do you know what yours is?

Once you know your preferred leadership position you can then enlist the support of others with differing preferences to help you share the leadership role. After all I think we would all agree that in todays rapidly changing environment there is simply no way that just one person can shoulder all the leadership responsibility. It needs to be Shared amongst the team, so that everyone takes responsibility and contributes to the business success.

This is what one of my clients realised after learning about the three different leadership positions: “No wonder I’m exhausted. I’ve being trying to perform all three leadership roles myself. I now see how one minute I’m setting the business strategy (position one) then I’m running back to position three to energise the business, then back to position one, and then next position two. Now I recognise this I can see how I need to enrol others to help me share the leadership. This will give me more energy and focus and help us make our team more productive”.

If you would like to experience the three different leadership positions and discover your preferred role, then why not join me on my next open workshop, where we will be exploring how to Lead On-The-Hoof and develop the leadership skills you need to be successful in today’s environment. Simply click here to find out more.

Team Building Solutions With Impact

Team Building Solutions With Impact

by | May 31, 2017

2017 Summer Team Building Programs

Transforming Leaders and Teams
♦ through natural horsepower ♦

Summer is just around the corner – which means now is the perfect time to plan your team building event.  Great leaders know that when team members have a chance to connect and build relationships, it can have a profound effect on team cohesion and productivity. They also know maintaining an effective team is a continuous process and it’s important to consistently make sure their team is working well together. Are you looking for something that:

  • Is new and different, and, combines fun with purpose?
  • Deepens positive interaction and connection between your team?
  • Serves as a catalyst for more team chemistry?
  • Harnesses the best of your team?
  • Allows you, the team leader, to participate fully with your team?

Then get your team out of the office and into the field for an experience they’ll never forget!

Call now to schedule your Half-Day, Full-Day Session or to discuss our Retreats!

When you decide to bring your team out to the Business HorsePower herd (or ask us to come to you, which we can often do), we work with you to understand your team’s needs and design a customised experience that meets your objectives.  Your team will engage in a variety of activities that seem simple, yet offer complex lessons in collaboration, partnership, trust, and commitment. Sessions are a combination of individual and small group exercises with the horses; observation, personal reflection and group discussion; individual, coaching and peer feedback.  We can also:

  • Administer team trust or team dynamic assessments. Or, incorporate your existing team or leadership assessments tools.
  • Reinforce through our curriculum any current team or leadership development program you currently have in place.
  • ‘Book end’ your team building with horses session with pre-session facilitation to more deeply prepare you, and, web-based post-session follow up to sustain your team’s learning.

Horses are Team Players

  • They live in teams and have a sophisticated understanding of team work – their interactions with your team will reflect your team’s dynamics.
  • If you want a horse to cooperate and follow you, you must make a genuine connection with them and demonstrate your commitment to partnership.
  • They seek out and willingly respond to trustworthy leadership.
  • Horses pick up nonverbal messages that we miss, or are unaware of giving.  They give us clear feedback on when we’re effective – and when we’re not!

The Benefits of Team Building

There are many benefits to team building and these include:

  • Gaining valuable insight into emotional intelligence and its impact on leadership, relationships and team productivity.
  • Practicing problem-solving ‘on the go’ and in the face of new challenges and uncertainty.
  • Becoming more focused and present as a team.
  • Creating effective and loyal followership; inspire commitment.
  • Deepening awareness of where your team gets stuck and learn how to shift ineffective behavior patterns.

I invite you to join me this summer for a team development experience with horses.  I guarantee my work.  If you feel the session does not meet your expectations, tell me by lunch time and you’ll receive a 100% refund.

To find out more simply give me a call on +44 1423 788229 and we can then co-create an experience that delivers a massive ROI for you and your team.

If you are a private individual then our next open programme which is on June 23rd might be better for you. You can find all the details here.

I can’t wait to hear from you.

 

Are You Continually Learning?

Are You Continually Learning?

by | May 17, 2017

As an entrepreneur one of my values is continual learning.  I can’t get enough of it because I know that every time I learn something new I grow and new opportunities open up for me. And you don’t have to just be an entrepreneur to keep learning, anyone has the opportunity to keep learning. And today continual learning is even easier due to the mass of free educational material available on the internet.

This is one of my favourite quotes on learning: “If you are not willing to learn no-one can help you. If you are determined to learn no-one can stop you”.  Learning and education are key tools that you can use in business and life to expand your circle of influence, create new contacts and help uplevel your own confidence levels. The more you know the more you can share your knowledge with others and help them along the journey.

I know that at a deep level I love educating people about the possibilities that are available to them. That’s one of the reasons I am a trainer, coach and consultant. It allows me to fulfil my purpose of being in service to others and helping them realise their hidden potential. One of the teachers on my journey has been Roger Hamilton. He is the creator of Wealth and Talent Dynamics and the founder of GeniusU.  What I love about his teaching is the way that all his work is based on the five elements and he manages to link practical business tools with lessons from the natural world.  He has been a big influence on my work and continues to inspire me.

So when I heard about this training he is offering I just wanted to share it will you as I know it will transform your life whether you are a business owner or not. Roger is giving away a great Entrepreneur Inspiration ebook, which I have read, and is packed with loads of examples of how other entrepreneurs have overcome adversity to achieve success.  This is supported by a video series that I know will be packed full of great content.

It’s really simply to get access to this amazing training material. Simply click here and you will be taken to the sign up page. I’m part of this training so why not join in, let me know and we can share our thoughts on this along the way.

And if you decide this training isn’t for you, great, but please do search out something else that resonates with you so that you keep expanding your comfort zone and knowledge zone and continual to grow every day.

No Magic Formula For Culture

No Magic Formula For Culture

by | May 10, 2017

I have been focusing a lot on company culture recently so I just loved this quote from Richard Branson as a company’s culture can be a severe constraint on its success or alternatively a source of strength and competitive advantage.

The culture of a business describes the character of a group of people and how they think and act as a collective. A company with a strong character will have a culture that promotes caring and treating all people well, regardless of rank and role in the business. Team members will feel protected within the company and know that colleagues have their back. This contrasts with a culture of weak character, where people feel that any protection they have comes from their ability to manage politics, promote their own success and watch their own backs.

The purpose of a healthy, high-performance culture is to support the long-term success of the business. Culture drives business results and a healthy culture creates a fulfilling place to work. In shaping culture, it is important to know what strategies, business goals and initiatives the business’s behaviours are there to support

Culture can often be viewed as just something those large corporates do but every business has a company culture. Typically in smaller businesses the company culture reflects the values of the business owner. Their values determine the activities and type of environment that the business creates. The owners values reflect whether the business is say fun and quirky or professional and serious. There is no magic formula when it comes to creating your company culture except that a great company culture focuses on the team members. Keep the team members happy. Reward and empower them and they will deliver amazing customer service, which in turn will translate into greater productivity and profitability for the business.

So how do you treat your team members? Remember you are part of your own team. Are you rewarding yourself and taking care of yourself just like you would a team member or are you being hard on yourself and beating yourself up with a stick? Be kind to yourself and remember the adage: “how you do something is how you do everything”.

What are you doing in you business that is getting mirrored in other areas of your life?

Is It Time For A Reboot?

Is It Time For A Reboot?

by | May 4, 2017

Firstly, many apologies for this week’s Wednesday Wisdom being a day late.  As you might have seen my computer had a major meltdown yesterday and threw my day into disarray. It’s amazing what happens when you don’t have a computer. I literally couldn’t do anything. It was super frustrating and I kept battling on but everything took ages to do.

Basically, in a nutshell what had happened was that my computer had been infected with some adware that meant that every time I hit return on my keyboard it automatically took me to another page.  After hours of frustration I finally called my lovely computer man who came out at 7pm at night – now that is what I call customer service – and after 2 hours finally managed to fix it. What was interesting was that on face value everything looked fine on my computer. There were no rogue files in the usual places and no illegal programmes installed.

Eventually, through trial and error, he found the pesky bug embedded deep within a seemingly innocuous add in for my internet browser.  There was nothing about the add in on face value that seemed malicious and yet it clearly was the cause of all the problems. He had to reboot everything to make everything work again and I’m delighted to say I am now back in business.

Reflecting on this incident I have been fascinated to see the parallels between what happened with my computer and what I observe happening to some of my clients.  I’m sure you have often heard the brain being referred to as being the operating system of your body.  It is what makes everything run smoothly and just like my computer everything on the surface can appear fine, but then from a dark, hidden corner of your mind some limiting beliefs come up that just prevent you from taking action. Just like the adware did to me.  Examples of some limiting beliefs could be fear of public speaking, fear of sales conversations or fear of being visible in your business.

The irony is that those limiting beliefs, many of which you are unconscious of, were embedded whilst you were growing up. They are hidden deep in your psyche and can be very difficult to detect, but rest assured they are impacting everything you do.  When you come across them there is nothing else to do but deal with them head on, and if you can’t detect them, then find an expert who can help you, just like I did with my computer man.

Of course, once you have detected the limiting belief and removed them you can then reboot your system.  Just like your computer slows down if you leave it turned on for too long, so does your mind and body. That is why sleep is so important to help renew and refresh us. But sometimes you just need to do a ctrl-alt-delete and just reboot everything and restore it to factory settings. Ironically that is what I had recently decided to do with my health. So on Monday I started a 90-day reboot programme. I’m curious to see what happens over these next 90 days as I reset my body to stop craving sugar and carbohydrates. I’m sure my energy levels will soar and I will get more motivation as well as release some excess weight.  I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

The same principles also apply to your business.  Sometimes your business needs a reboot or a jump start to get it into action which I why I am delighted to be offering one day Jump Start Your Business Intensive Days with me.  We’ll analyse what is working and not working in your business and then create a plan to move forward so that we can get your business into flow.  To find out more just give me a call. You can book into my diary here.

And as an added incentive to get to into action I have decided to offer a massive 40% reduction on my normal fees for anyone booking and paying in full before 12th May. So if you’ve ever wanted to work with me but thought you couldn’t afford it, now is the time to take action. Simply book in for a call and let’s start rebooting your business.

I can’t wait to hear from you.

Are You Over-Facing Yourself?

Are You Over-Facing Yourself?

by | Apr 26, 2017

Are you over-facing yourself? By that I mean are you setting goals for yourself that simply aren’t realistic. Now don’t get me wrong I am all for setting bold goals that stretch you and help you achieve more than you ever thought was possible. Your goals need to take you out of our comfort zone so that you can grow, but not be so big that they simply are not achievable or worst still put you into the fear zone.

Today’s post has been inspired by a client that I was having a strategy call with this week and it reflects that I have been noticing a lot with my clients recently. You see what happened is at the beginning of the year they set all these goals, and now with one third of the year gone, they are becoming disillusioned that they are not achieving all that they had hoped for.

There is a reason that goals are SMART and SMART stands for:

S – specific
M – measurable
A – achievable
R – realistic
T – timely

What you intend to achieve needs to expand your horizons but it shouldn’t be so audacious that it sends you into the fear zone, where terror sets in and leaves you paralysed, so you end up doing nothing.

I realized that is what has been happening with me and my pony Bracken training for the Wobbleberrries challenge. To believe I could teach my horse to jump 90cm from having no jumping experience at all, to teach her to canter and be balanced in the riding arena, to learn how to go to other venues and compete alongside horses she has never met, now that is a big ask. On reflection that is just too bold to achieve within 9 months. It was a step too far, and so what has happened is that I really haven’t moved forward. I’ve become paralysed by the enormity of the task and so I have not been taking action.

I’m sure you’ve all heard the adage “how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time” and this is the same approach we need to take to business and achieving goals. We need to take the first step. If we make that step too big then we won’t take any action but when we make the first step achievable and realistic and we are successful then our confidence grows. With renewed confidence we start gaining momentum and the second step seems easier, and then the third and fourth.

Little actions get results. So in the case of the work with Bracken, step one needs us to be able to master canter and get balanced, then I can add step two jumping, and then step three going to other venues. Broken down this way the goal seems achievable and realistic, something that I can do. So my goal for May is to master cantering in the arena. This is not something that is over-facing me and yet ensures that I am moving forward towards the ultimate goal. So my intention remains to complete the Wobbleberries challenge but realistically this year might not be possible, so next year it is. What is important is that I am moving forward towards that goal.

For the client who I was speaking with on that strategy call, what we established was that they needed some structure and accountability in their business. In fact because she had no structure she was procrastinating and going round in circles not moving her business forward. This was leading to a lack of confidence and self-esteem issues. Trust me I get this. When we get out of flow and start spiraling in a circle (I call this the tumble dryer effect where you are going round and round and going no where) it can be very demotivating.

So I’ve asked her to create her project list for May and share this with me so I can keep her accountable to achieving her goals. She was excited at this prospect and in the same moment I just knew she was going to over-face herself and create a massive list of goals would be nigh on impossible to achieve. Metaphorically, she was going to try and jump Beehers Brook (a large jump in the Grand National measuring nearly 5 foot) when in fact her first step was just to jump 50 cm!.

Sure should she set the intention of achieving a goal like jumping Becher’s Brook, hell yes, but just realise that to achieve this it takes many small steps. And the great thing about setting small goals and then achieving them is that it builds your confidence and self-esteem whilst also creating momentum. And we all know that the more momentum that we have the faster we will travel. When we are stuck in business taking the first few steps to move forward are always the toughest. Think an airplane. It uses 50% of its fuel simply to get off the runway! And it’s the same in business, the first few goals take time and energy as we need to put the groundwork in to make them happen, but once we have done that we can soar.

So today’s question is where are you over-facing yourself in life and business and what is just one small step that you can take to move forward? Trust me being in action and moving forward is way better that being in that tumble dryer going round and round in circles!!!

And if you need some help with your business then please reach out to me and secure one of the limited number of strategy sessions I offer each month.

Leadership Begins and Ends With Purpose

Leadership Begins and Ends With Purpose

by | Apr 12, 2017

Have you ever stopped to consider what drives you? What gets you out of bed in the morning? What gives you motivation and inspiration to keep on going in the face of adversity? The answer to the question is purpose. The reason why you do what you do. And this is why everything in business starts and ends with purpose. If as leaders we don’t define the purpose for the business, then the business is like a rudderless ship. It has no direction, no GPS, and team members don’t know what is happening.

Purpose gives team members a shared vision. It unites the team behind a single cause. It brings clarity and certainty. It helps define the values for the business, as they need to be aligned with the purpose. And business values help decision making as they provide a framework that identifies which activities you will pursue. If following an opportunity or undertaking an activity conflicts with your values then it is easy to say No, as that action is out of alignment with what you stand for.

Purpose stands at the core of everything that we do in business and right now there is a growing trend, as companies become more consciously aware, for them to become purpose-driven. Purpose is being put clearly front and centre of everything a company does. And let’s be clear, the purpose is not self-serving, for example, to make more profits. That’s not motivating to anyone. Companies focusing on becoming purpose led are recognizing that business is a force for good and are focusing on how the business impacts and contributes to society generally.

An example of a company with a great purpose is Whole Foods. Their purpose, which they call their declaration of independence is clearly written on their website and pervades everything they do.

It states: Whole Foods Market is a dynamic leader in the quality food business. We are a mission-driven company that aims to set the standards of excellence for food retailers. We are building a business in which high standards permeate all aspects of our company. Quality is a state of mind at Whole Foods Market.

Our motto — Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet — emphasizes that our vision reaches far beyond just being a food retailer. Our success in fulfilling our vision is measured by customer satisfaction, team member happiness and excellence, return on capital investment, improvement in the state of the environment and local and larger community support.

Our ability to instill a clear sense of interdependence among our various stakeholders (the people who are interested and benefit from the success of our company) is contingent upon our efforts to communicate more often, more openly, and more compassionately. Better communication equals better understanding and more trust.”

When you read this purpose statement you can’t help but feel inspired. It’s clear about what the company does, the change it is wanting to make in the world and how team members contribute to this. This purpose provides clarity, direction, focus and inspiration. As a team member you immediately know what is expected of you. A clear purpose is the fuel that ignites superior performance and delivers greater productivity and ironically profitability, as everyone is moving towards the same vision in a unified way and the business gets into a state of alignment which creates massive flow,

The leaders have clearly stated what needs to happen in the business and why. That’s why “leadership begins and ends with purpose. Everything in between is management”

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and if you need any help defining the purpose for your business or just want to connect with me to discuss how purpose-driven companies are making a real difference, then I’d love to hear from you. Simply book a conversation with me here.

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