Blog
You Have To Dress For The Job You Want (WT726)
This week’s inspiration comes from one of my favourite clients and his Operations Coordinator. As I sat wondering what this week’s thought would be, Ray called to give me a business progress update. He started the conversation with, “I changed my life today”. “What did you do? Sell the business?” I asked. “No”, he replied. “I was vulnerable with my team and shared my vision for the business. I wanted them to see things from my perspective.” “Amazing!” Knowing Ray as I do, I asked him what the turning point was. “I have to give credit to Kim” he said. “When I shared my vision, she responded...
I Don’t Always Want A Hamburger (WT725)
Are there things you want to do that you talk yourself out of? This was the case for David last week. As we talked he shared that he wanted to become a business coach. He had experience, results and big achievements in Sales, Systems and Strategy. He’d worked in the real estate industry and manufacturing. “What’s stopping you?” I asked. “Well, I can’t really go into the real estate industry”, he replied. “How come?” “There are so many other coaches in that industry already” he said, as he began to list half a dozen names. I knew the people he was referring to and even added a few more names....
I’m A Persecutor (WT724)
In our leadership experiences we look at what Jennifer Elliot called “The Eternal Triangle of Hate”. You might know this as “The Drama Triangle” or “Triangle of Drama”. It gets referred to a lot in personal development circles. The triangle includes three roles: The Victim The Rescuer, and The Persecutor. The victim’s belief is “I’m not ok. You’re ok. I need someone to come and save me. I’m broken.” The Rescuer believes “I’m ok. You’re ok, as long as you do what I say.” The Persecutor believes “I’m ok. You’re not ok. You can’t do it right.” At a surface level, persecutors are often seen as...
Hold The Space (WT723)
The past few months I have been retraining and refreshing with the Gordon Training International for Leader Effectiveness Training. One of the trainers, Judith Richardson, from the Effectiveness Training Institute Australia (ETIA) made a point that I think is worth sharing. We were discussing Values Collisions. Judith said, “It is such a profound leadership skill to be able to hold the space for a team member or other person when you have a different set of values to that person”. This resonated with me completely. If you think back for a minute, when was the last time you had a different...
It’s Not Hard To Live In Peace (WT722)
With everything that’s going on in the world at the moment, we could copy The Animals’ Playbook. Ross and I just spent a few weeks in South Africa. We were fortunate to be able to resit The Silva Mind Control Course at Cradle Moon. Cradle Moon is a game park. There are no predatory animals, however the animals that are there are wild and roam free. In fact, one young boy was reminded, in no uncertain terms, that animals come first, when he tried to shoe away the zebras who came to drink from the pool. As we sat in the conference room we could see the zebras marching around, stopping to graze...
Keep Your Records Up-To-Date (WT721)
If you’ve ever done any advertising on Facebook, you might have heard the term “look alike audience”. A look alike audience is an audience that Facebook creates for you based on an audience you already have. I’ve been learning how to do Facebook advertising. It sounds easy and I so appreciate the work Kellie Obrien used to do for me because I’ve found it challenging. One of my biggest challenges though wasn’t writing the copy or selecting audience interests. My biggest challenge was my lack of organised record keeping. For someone who is a systems consultant and trainer, it’s embarrassing to...
Do The Next Task (WT720)
I just love working with my clients. I learn so much. This week I want to share something I learned from Bob. Bob is a leader who loves to share his wisdom and experience with his team and luckily for us, with me too. Many years ago, Bob trained for the ironman competitions. His mentor at the time told him that if he missed a training session not to worry about it. “It’s counter productive to try and catch it up, so the best thing is to move on to the next days training and do that well”, he said. Bob adapted his training to his work. He mentors his team and reminds them, that if they get...
I Made A Decision (WT719)
We had guests around for dinner the other night. I made a quiche. When we sat down to eat, one of the guests looked at my plate quizzically and then turned to me and said, “You’re eating eggs. I didn’t think you ate eggs”. “I made a decision”, I replied. “You made a decision?” he asked. “That’s right. I decided I wanted to eat eggs again, so I decided I would.” For those of you who are not aware, for about 15 years I’ve had an intolerance to eggs if they were not cooked with flour. I became nauseous if I ate quiche, scrambled or other breakfast eggs or mayonnaise. Whilst I’m not rushing out...
Leaders Are Problem Solvers (WT718)
I’ve got a question for you. Do you think being a leader is innate or a learned skill? I had an interesting discussion recently with a new client on this very topic. He confidently told me that being a leader is innate. You are born with it. I could feel my eyebrows lift. He expanded on his reasons why this was so. During his career, he had often been promoted to leadership and management roles. He had had no formal training and had performed well. “Well, I think we’re going to disagree on this”, I said. “I teach leadership skills.” “Oh”, he replied. “If you think about what you told me...
Watch Out For The But (WT717)
“I don’t want to throw you under the bus but ….” What do you think when you hear that? For me, I think you know what you’re about to say won’t be well received, so you qualify it first. It’s like looking for approval for being the bearer of bad news or feedback. Here’s the thing about using the word “but”. When you join sentences with “but”, you negate the first sentence. “I really like your new hairstyle but I prefer you blonde.” “I think you did a good job but you missed this section of the garden.” If you want to join sentences, use the word “and”. “I really like your new hairstyle and I...