BLOG
It’s All About Networking (WT638)
Since we’ve been back in Newcastle (after selling the motorhome), I’ve attended a number of networking events and have even been a guest speaker at some. When I first started my business, I used to get teased by my colleagues. They would say that I would go to the opening of an envelope. Hahahaha, although I did attend a lot of networking events. Networking is a great way to meet people and promote your business, however it helps if you know the etiquette for networking. It’s not polite to thrust your business card in someone’s face. It’s not polite to harass guests to work with you. What...
If You Want Me To Listen To You (WT636)
If you’re like most people, you don’t enjoy conflict. In fact, many people will go out of their way to actively avoid conflict. In our Leading Yourself and Leading Others Experience, participants learn skills for dealing with conflict. The first skill they learn is how to actively listen. When confronted, our first reaction is to defend ourselves. We need to put ourselves aside and listen to what the other is saying, actively listen and then assert ourselves. If we’re the ones who are confronting we use a Confronting I Message. This is a statement that follows a formula, “When...
Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah (WT635)
About 16 or 17 years ago I read Jack Canfield’s book, “The Success Principles: How To Get From Where You Are Now To Where You Want To Be”. Every morning I would read a chapter before going to work. In the book, Jack gave many examples of activities the participants experienced in his week long course, “Breakthrough to Success”. As I read about the activities, I wanted to experience them for myself, which we did in 2007 when we headed to Scottsdale, Arizona to join 400 other attendees. At first I thought Jack was a bit silly sharing his activities in the book, until one of my mentors...
Dance With Their Energy (WT634)
In today’s Leading Yourself and Leading Others Experience I ended up doing an impromptu Aikido demonstration with one of the participants. Aikido is a martial art and one of its principles is to dance with the energy of your opponent. How is this relevant to leadership? As I explained in the session, when we are confronted by an angry team member or customer, often our first reaction is to push back and resist. This doesn’t help to resolve the situation. Rather it either keeps us stuck resisting each other or inflames the situation. With the principle of Aikido, you actually welcome the...
Time Log Insights (WT633)
Last week I mentioned I was completing a 14 day Time Log and this week I would share my insights. Here’s what I discovered: As I was printing and preparing for this week's Leading Yourself and Leading Others Experience I could hear my colleagues saying "Shirl, that's a job someone else could do" and I agree, it is a job someone else could do. In the process of thinking about delegating or paying OfficeWorks to do the printing, I became aware of 3 obstacles/challenges/limiting beliefs: 1. I would need to be more organised to hand over the tasks 2. I don't give clear instructions because I...
Push Push Push Rest Rest Rest (WT632)
Wowza, have the past two weeks been confronting for me. I have been completing a time log for 10 out of 14 days. The idea is to see where you are spending/investing/wasting your time in order to get more productive. It’s not meant to be judgemental although I’ve gotten myself in such a tizzy judging my time entries. I’ve also noticed the difference between the personality types as I’ve listened to some of my colleagues talking about productivity versus self-care. My “Driver” colleagues go “push push push”. More productivity. More Tasks. Get more done. Pay someone to do a lesser costing job...
Trust Them To Do The Job (WT631)
In over 40 years of working, I’ve never met anyone who said they like to be micromanaged. What is micromanaging? For me, micromanaging is not trusting your people to do the work. It’s being critical instead of grateful. Micromanagers blame others when things go wrong and they don’t take responsibility. “Why did you do that, when I told you to do this?” Micromanagers are also passive aggressive. “If I’m not around, what are you going to do – nothing?” Micromanagers confuse their people. “Why didn’t you let me check before you sent that out?” “Why don’t you think for yourself?” Micromanagers...
Don’t Get Bullied Into It (WT630)
Bullies don’t just exist in the schoolyard. Bullies exist in the workplace. Bullies exist in sales. Don’t get bullied into it. Ross called a number of tradespeople this week to get quotes for some work we need to do to the house before we move in. One “lady” he spoke to was like a piranha. She had told Ross it would be at least 12 weeks before we could expect to have the kitchen renovated. “That’s no good to me”, said Ross. “I need it done before we can move in.” “Well, let’s just book you in for one of our representatives to come and see your place and give you a quote”, she insisted. Ross...
Who Are You Recruiting? (WT629)
I’m constantly amazed at how weeks seem to have themes. This week’s theme is around recruitment. Because I know my clients and their businesses and their people really well, I’m often asked to profile potential candidates and interview them. I don’t analyse the candidates’ skills or experience; my clients do that. What I do is test for a cultural fit with the company and the people they’ll be working with directly, as well as get an insight into who the candidate is. I use a number of profiling tools, however one in particular provides insights into the candidates’ level of responsibility...
It’s Not Happening To You (WT628)
It’s 4:12am in the morning. I got up especially early to attend an online training. There was no email with the login details. I checked last night and I double checked this morning. That’s odd. They always send an email reminder. I logged in to the training portal to get the link. The training date is tomorrow. Damn! I got up early just for this and it’s not on until tomorrow; that means I have to get up early again tomorrow. Did they change the date? I was sure I had it right. I almost let myself go into the Primal state of psychological suffering. I almost started to blame. I almost...