Blog
Let’s Talk About Accountability (WT771)
It always amazes me how themes seem to appear at different times. The past month or so, the theme of Accountability has popped up enough times to be more than a coincidence. As I prepared to present The 5 Pillars to Become an Effective Leader, I was reminded again and again to hold myself accountable. One of the pillars is “Support for Success”. If you look at all the successful leaders, sportspeople, politicians, business people, one thing they have in common is they haven’t gotten there alone. Many have team members to help them, and the majority of them have coaches and mentors. Why is...
The Way You Practise Is The Way You Perform (WT770)
I confess, up until recently I haven’t been someone who placed a great deal of importance on practise. I’d put a bit of effort into something and then “wing” the rest of it, often with less than optimal results. More recently I’ve gained a huge appreciation for practise and the reason for that is because I am understanding more about how our brains work. Practising increases the traffic in our neural networks. The more traffic, the quicker we act and the quicker we learn. I’ve been working with clients lately helping them to create new neural pathways, in other words, to rewire their brains....
What Is The Missing Link To Team Efficiency? (WT769)
This week I was working onsite with clients looking at their systems. Like many business owners, they were frustrated because their people were not being efficient. “How can we improve our efficiency? they asked. That’s a great question. What do you think the answer is? What do you think is the missing link? If you said “Role Clarity”, you are correct. “Role Clarity?” “How does that improve efficiency?” If you think about it, your people come to work to do a good job and feel good about themselves and the contribution they make. In order to do that, they need to know what they have to do, to...
He’s Not Getting The Job (WT768)
Recently we had some storm damage, nothing like Cyclone Alfred up north, but enough to have to get the bay windows resealed and fixed. We used Hipages to request quotes from qualified tradespeople. One man called straight away on the Friday. We’ll call him Jack. Jack quoted $850 to come and do the work the next day, (Saturday) which was forecast to be raining. We were a little surprised that: He quoted without looking at the job He could get there the next day. What thoughts would you have about a tradesperson who isn’t booked out weeks or months in advance? Anyway, Ross told him another...
I Only Remember The Three (WT767)
Last week I presented two x 2 hour webinars, “Reset Your Mindset: 4 Steps to Change Your Thoughts and Change Your Life”. It was the first time I had presented these webinars and I was quite nervous. In the month leading up to the presentations I had to learn new software. I practised and practised to give myself the best chance of success. As we discussed in the webinar, the more we do something the more myelin we produce around our neurons and the more myelin, the quicker the response & habit formation. (In fact, it can be the difference between your neuron firing 100 times faster or...
They Should … (WT766)
This week I was teaching the concept of Values Collisions, from Thomas Gordon’s Leader Effectiveness Training. I thought I’d share it with you too. A values collision is a conflict in which the values of two parties clash, but there is no tangible effect. There are many many opportunities for Values Collisions in the workplace and at home. For example, say you vape and I don’t. Unless I’m in the room with you, you vaping doesn’t affect me. When it comes to values, we won’t generally change our values just because someone says we should. For example, if I was to say,...
Why Save It? (WT765)
What do you do when you receive a gift? Do you save it or spend it or start using it straight away? Ross and I have different strategies. Ross is a saver. I’m a spender/user. For example, if we receive money for birthdays or Christmas or chocolates for Easter, I’ve spent, used or eaten mine within a week. Ross still has his weeks and sometimes months later, (which I usually manage to share – Hahaha!) It was the same when we both attended Weight Watchers years ago. We had discretionary points to use over the week and mine were usually consumed within the first couple of days and Ross still...
The Truth About Loyalty (WT764)
I’m ever surprised at where the inspiration for the Weekly Thoughts come from. This week Ross and I were watching a series called “Shantaram” on Apple TV. It was based on the book by the same name and means “Man of Peace”. There was a scene where two very powerful women were testing each other out with their words. Asking about a man that one of the women was close to, the other asked, “Are you in love with him?” To which, she replied, “No, but I am loyal to him.” “Ah,” replied the questioner. “There are only 3 reasons why people are loyal: They are in love They are afraid They feel...
In Perfect Time (WT763)
Do you get yourself in a tizzy when things don’t go according to plan? Are you a bit of a control freak; wanting things to be done the way you want them done, when you want them done? I used to be like that. I’ve mellowed over the years. I’ve come to realise and accept that things happen In Perfect Time. Last week our air conditioner stopped working. We called a few people. One person had a look at it and said, “That’s a warranty job. I can fix it, but it will cost you thousands because I am not an authorised warranty repairer.” He told us who to contact, which proved challenging because we...
You’ll Get Used To It (WT762)
It’s a sad fact that a lot of people do not like change, even though most of the time, change can be positive. This week, I’m going to share my understanding of how the brain works and how we can hack the system to speed up learning and change habits. First, a disclaimer. I am not a neuroscientist, so my understanding may not be 100% textbook correct. This week I bought a new computer and 2 new monitors and what feels like a very large keyboard. For the past 6 years I’ve been working with a HP laptop. I bought the new computer and monitors to make it easier to present my webinars and group...