I’m Fine (WT530)

I’m Fine (WT530)

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by Shirley Dalton | 21 Aug, 2020 | Blog, Leadership

I'm fine

I was talking with a colleague this week and as we often do, we got into a deep and meaningful conversation about leadership.

We discussed the saying, “If you don’t want the answer, don’t ask the question” and the ramifications of not asking, or worse, asking and then accepting the answer, even if you don’t believe the answer.

As an example, (we’ll call him Ted), explained how his kids will sense that his energy is off or his demeanour is rather gruff and they’ll ask him, “Are you angry daddy?”. His response is usually “No, I’m not angry”, hoping they will leave it at that.

Of course, kids being kids, they don’t leave it at that and they persist, “Are you sure?”. They keep going until he either admits what he is feeling or he changes his demeanour to match what he is saying.

How often do you simply accept the answer someone gives you, even though you have an innate sense that what they are saying is not true, just because it is easier to accept than to question?

Good leaders know their people and they know when what they are saying and what they are doing or how they are showing up is out of alignment.

Good leaders are present; not distracted. They are aware. They see, they listen and they enquire.

Good leaders have taken the journey from being totally unaware to becoming aware of themselves and their team.

They give themselves permission to ask and to follow up. They don’t take the easy road to simply accept an answer at face value.

Are you a good leader or do you aspire to be? If so, you won’t accept “I’m fine” for an answer when your senses tell you, they are not fine.

Remember, it takes courage to not leave it alone. It takes courage to ask and it takes courage to confront.

What will you do next time you ask and the answer you get is “I’m fine”?

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It’s the Same Old Same Old (WT529)

It’s the Same Old Same Old (WT529)

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by Shirley Dalton | 14 Aug, 2020 | Blog, Mindset

It’s the Same Old Same Old

Have you ever found yourself saying, “it’s the same old, same old”?

According to Dictionary.Cambridge.org, it’s a phrase that’s “used to say that a situation or someone’s behaviour remains the same, especially when it is boring or annoying: Most people just keep on doing the same old same old every day.” 

Doing the same old same old behaviour concerns me when we apply it to work that we don’t want to be doing and in some cases, work that we “shouldn’t” be doing.

Another of my favourite phrases that is relevant to our discussion this week can be abbreviated to “HABU”.  “HABU” stands for “Highest And Best Use”. Of course, we’re talking about your genius, your skills, your contribution and your time.

As I’ve been working with members in our Leading Yourself and Leading Others membership and fellow travellers on this journey of life, I’ve observed a common theme over the past few weeks.

Many have been lapsing back into old habits. They’ve been seduced back into doing tasks that they don’t want to and isn’t their highest and best use.

How about you, does this apply to you, too?

It’s something I have to watch for myself as well. Making a decision and sticking to the plan tests us all.

The way forward is to look at our beliefs. If our beliefs are not in alignment with the results we want to achieve; we simply won’t achieve them. We can’t. It’s not possible because our beliefs dictate our destiny and they generate our thoughts. 

We might think that we’ve made a decision and are actually taking action, however, we often find that we can sabotage ourselves and not stick to the decision or commit to the discipline of the action and thus find ourselves back doing the same old same old.

For example, you can’t decide to start delegating and then continue to do the tasks yourself. If your beliefs are not in alignment with delegating, you’ll find all sorts of reasons and excuses as to why you must keep doing the tasks. Your vibration will also ensure that you attract people or situations into your life that prevent you from moving forward. 

This is a very serious topic. I want for you, what you want for you. Maybe it’s time to change those beliefs; make some new decisions and start looking for the evidence to support your new decisions. This is Mindset 2.0; stacking the evidence to prune your old neuro pathways and rewire your brain so you can stop doing the same old same old and start doing the things that you say you want to do.

I’m Leaving (WT528)

I’m Leaving (WT528)

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by Shirley Dalton | 7 Aug, 2020 | Blog, Leadership

WT 528 I'm Leaving

When you’ve got good people, the last thing you want to hear is “I’m leaving”. 

Talking with one of my rockstars this week, we discussed the importance of knowing your people so you don’t get blindsided when they give their notice.

“The more I know about the people I lead, the easier it is for me”, she said.

Knowing your people is the second milestone on our Blueprint for Business Freedom. 

When you know your people, you know what motivates them. You know what they want and don’t want. You understand what’s going on for them out of work. You know what’s important to them.

Think about your team. What do you know about them? 

Are they in a relationship?  

Do they have kids? 

What do they do for fun? 

What are their goals; at work and out of work? 

What is their Love Language; how do they like to be appreciated? 

How do they like to learn? 

How do they like to be managed? 

What do they like about the work they do? 

What don’t they like? 

What are they good at? 

What are they not good at? 

Are they ambitious? 

The more you know about your people, the more you’ll understand them and the more you understand them, the easier it will be to look for a win win situation to help them get what they want, so you can get what you want. 

One of my former bosses, Kip McGrath, was a master at knowing his people. I started working with him in August 2000. By December 2000, he gave me a $5000 pay increase. He also knew I was ambitious and I loved to learn and grow and develop.

A few months later, he came to me with a proposal. “I’ll give you 3 years of management training if you give me 5 years of service.”

There was no written agreement. It was a handshake. We agreed on a number of 6 monthly milestones and each time I met them, my pay and responsibility increased.

Within 3 years, I was a senior member of the executive team and had tripled my income.

Kip was such an amazing boss and mentor. He knew his people and he always found ways to create a win win situation for his employees and the business.

Back to you. How well do you know your people?

Would you see it coming before they announce “I’m leaving”?

The Power of Intention (WT527)

The Power of Intention (WT527)

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by Shirley Dalton | 31 Jul, 2020 | Blog, Mindset

WT527 The Power of Intention

Over the past few weeks I’ve been playing The Cashflow Game online, from Rich Dad Poor Dad author, Robert Kiyosaki, with a couple of my colleagues.

I’ve really enjoyed playing and have learned so much. I’ve learned lots of lessons about dealing with financial crises, like when you land on the divorce card and lose all your money or you find yourself redundant or the value of your shares gets halved and let’s not even mention the cost of having children when you land on that one.

There are plenty of positive scenarios as well, like when your shares double or you get to sell a condo or house for a big profit or your business brings in lots of extra monthly revenue.

It’s a great game and it’s free. I’ve included a link at the bottom of the thought.

The reason I’m sharing this is to also share a major lesson I learned from one of my game partners and that is, “To be intentional”.

In a couple of the games I was losing big time. I was getting annoyed and wanted to just quit and give up (life lesson number 1). My colleague, who is an Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) master coached me, “Power of intention, Shirley,” she said. 

“What do you mean?” I asked. 

“Have a look at where you are on the board and see how many moves you need to make to land on the opportunity you want.”

I still didn’t understand.

“When you click to roll the dice, be intentional about the number you want to roll.”

“Oh, okay”, and so I did.

In this week’s game, I won twice because I was intentional. I worked out the number I needed to roll on the dice to land on my dream and I was intentional about having enough money to buy it and I did.

I loved the reminder to be intentional. My partner also reminded me, “Be intentional in life. too.” It doesn’t only work in the game. The power of intention can bring you extraordinary results.

It was such a great reminder; such a great lesson. I am so grateful and wanted to share with you.

Here’s the link if you’re interested. You can play by yourself or with others: https://bit.ly/shirleycashflow. Let me know what you learn (about yourself and about managing your finances).

Please Respect Our Staff (WT526)

Please Respect Our Staff (WT526)

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by Shirley Dalton | 24 Jul, 2020 | Blog, Customer Service

WT526 Please Respect Our Staff

In these unique circumstances, I’m sure you would have seen signs in shops reminding us to be respectful to the staff. I totally agree with this and wouldn’t stop there. I think we should be respectful to everyone, including customers.

Before I share this little story, I want to put my hand up and say the situation is my fault. I created it and I take responsibility for that. What I don’t take responsibility for is the disrespectful manner in which I was treated by an Australia Post worker.

Many months ago, I purchased a book to support my friend who had written it, published it and launched it.  The book was coming from the US. It was going to take a few weeks to a few months to arrive. At the time I was in lockdown in Tasmania so I entered the address for the local post office. My mistake was that I forgot that I did that.

A few months passed. The book didn’t arrive. My friend followed it up. I still didn’t remember I had used the Post Office address. We left the area where we had been staying.

A few days later, I received an abrupt call from the postal worker. “You have a parcel here and it’s been here for weeks and you need to come and collect it.” By this time I was on the other side of the state. I was expecting to be back in the area within a few weeks and basically pleaded with the worker to hold the parcel until then.

“It was sent to you here. You must have given them the address,” admonished the worker.

Of course I had forgotten that I had used the post office address.

“Yes, I must have. I apologise that’s my fault.”

“You must have given out this address. You got it sent here and now you need to pick it up,” she repeated sternly.

In the end she agreed to hold the parcel.

About two weeks later, I missed a call from an “Unknown Caller”. They left a message.

“You haven’t picked up your parcel and it’s going to be sent back to sender. If you’ve got any problems with that, call 131 318.”

“Wow!” 

As usual, there was no contact number for the post office so I called the 1300 number. Luckily for me, I chanced upon a really helpful and understanding assistant. I explained my situation and asked if they could send the parcel (if it hadn’t been sent already) to the local caravan park where I could pick it up.

“No!” they wouldn’t do that.

It had to be sent to another post office.

Oh boy! Here we are back to the same situation.  I now have to travel to get the parcel before the next timeframe runs out.

Like I said, I take full responsibility for the situation. I don’t agree with the attitude and the lack of respect. In these unusual times, I would have thought we could be a little kinder and more flexible to each other.

Am I being unreasonable?

What would happen in your business?

Now That’s a Given (WT525)

Now That’s a Given (WT525)

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by Shirley Dalton | 17 Jul, 2020 | Blog, Business

WT525 Now That’s a Given

This week, we were on the road again in Tasmania. It’s chilly and many attractions are closed for the winter; still there are lots of opportunities to observe business. Today I want to share one of my observations with you.

Driving through a little village, I noticed a sign on the chemist’s building, it read: “Caring Staff …”. I shook my head as I thought to myself, “Yes, of course. Isn’t that a given?” That’s like an accountant advertising, “We’re good with numbers”, well I should think so.

Advertising and marketing is about helping your potential customers to understand what is unique about you. What makes you stand out from your competition? This is called your USP or Unique Selling Proposition.

One of the best examples I heard was an accountant who was into personal development and used her knowledge of personal development to motivate and empower her clients, not only about their numbers but about who they were as business owners. She was able to differentiate herself and attract the clients who wanted that.

Remember, when attracting clients, we want to attract the ones we want to work with; that means making it easy for people to disqualify themselves as well.

If you’re going to use a byline, it has to mean something and contribute to your bottom line. It has to evoke something in your potential customer to have them choose you.

Another example was a real estate agency in Launceston. The advertising stated, “We sell a house every 2.3 days”. If selling your house quickly is important to you, that might be enough to have you make enquiries or another agency may say, “We sell more than the others”, which may give you confidence they know what they are doing.

My tagline is “Reclaim Your Freedom”.  I want to attract the people who believe it’s possible to have a business and career and lifestyle. My ideal clients are those who don’t currently feel like they have freedom. There isn’t a right or wrong when it comes to your advertising and marketing IF it hits the mark for whom you want to attract.

There is a right and wrong if you use words to describe what we would expect would be a given as part of your service or product.

How about you and your business? What’s your USP? Who do you want to attract? Are you using the right words?

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