You Need a Driver (WT481)

You Need a Driver (WT481)

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by Shirley Dalton | 13 Sep, 2019 | Blog, Business

WT481 You Need A Driver

I’ve mentioned a few times about the REACH profile. In the past few weeks, I’ve worked with a number of companies where the executive team have completed their profiles.

It has been really interesting to see the results.

In some companies, they have at least one of each profile (Counselor, Coach, Advisor and Driver), whilst others are missing a Driver. 

You need a Driver. A Driver is focussed on the “what”. They are results and outcome focussed and they will push us to get things done.

Without a Driver, we can tend to take it a bit easy and may not accomplish as much as we are capable of.

Ross is a Driver and I’ve noticed how he drives me.  On occasions when I want to wimp out and leave it for another day, he will push and let me know that I have to get my work done so he can do his. Uh! I don’t like it. However, I recognise the need for someone to do the pushing.

Here are the key words for the profiles and how they fit together.

Counselor – “who”. They focus on the people and are great at creating team and welcoming and inducting new team members. 

Coach – “why”. They’re great at inspiring and rallying others around a cause once they understand why the cause is important.

Advisor – “how”. They want to know the details and will push you to share how you plan on achieving your goals.  Interestingly, one of my clients recently demonstrated this perfectly in a management meeting when he pushed the Chair (a Counselor) for “How? How are we going to achieve this? What is your plan?”

Driver – “what”.  What are we looking to achieve? What is the outcome we want? What resources do we need?   

Ideally your management team should have at least one of each to ensure your company covers all important aspects as mentioned above.  At the very least, you need a Driver.

What Game Will You Play (WT477)

What Game Will You Play (WT477)

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by Shirley Dalton | 16 Aug, 2019 | Blog, Business

WT 477 What game will you play?

Have you ever thought about the type of player you are, when it comes to games?

It’s an interesting concept and something I encourage you to do because “How we do anything is how we do everything”.

In the last few weeks I dipped my toe into using social media to promote my next leadership experience and I found I had to challenge a few limiting beliefs.

One of those beliefs was that I had to get everything right in order to advertise.  If I was paying for ads, I wanted to make sure that I got a return on my investment.

I had to reframe my belief and expectation to that of conducting an experiment, after all business is mostly about tweaking things until we get it right, so why did I think I had to get the ads right before I could advertise.

As I was talking to a colleague about this, he pointed out that “I only like to play games I can win”.

I responded with an embarrassed giggle. It was true. I do only like to play games I can win.

How about you? Is this the way you play or are you like my colleague who plays until he wins?

It was his turn to laugh. He said, “I will play and I don’t mind if you win, but we’re not finishing until I win. If it means we come back tomorrow to finish, we will. No-one’s going home, until I’ve won.”

<name>, what an interesting concept. If you only like to play games that you know you can or will win, does that mean you won’t play if there’s a chance of you losing and if so, is that how you play life?

Are you missing out on opportunities because they are not guaranteed?

Hmm, it’s certainly worth looking at, don’t you think?

Your Manner Matters (WT476)

Your Manner Matters (WT476)

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by Shirley Dalton | 9 Aug, 2019 | Blog, Business

WT476 Your Manner Matters

Firstly, I want to say that I am not complaining and this isn’t a rant. Rather, the goal for the stories in this week’s thought is to remind us of the importance of our manner and the impact it can have – both positive and negative. 

Here we go:

As we’ve been travelling around Far North Queensland we’ve been staying in a mix of caravan parks, national parks and free campsites. We generally only plan our itinerary a few days in advance and mostly call a prospective caravan park a few hours before we intend to arrive.

We got caught out a few times, booking and paying in advance, only to arrive and find the park was awful, so we made a rule, policy or guideline, whatever you want to call it, that says “We can enquire on the way, but not book in and pay until we’ve seen the site”.

On a couple of occasions, we’ve made the decision not to even look at a park because of the manner of the receptionist.

Here’s an example of an enquiry:

“Hello, could you please tell me if you have any sites for a motorhome for tonight please?”

“How big is the motorhome?”

“About 25 feet.”

“Have you got slide outs?”

“No.”

“You’re sure you’ve got no slide outs?”

“Yes.”

“How many nights are you staying?”

“Just the one please?”

“You’re sure it’s just one night?”

And on the conversation went until an exasperated Ross ended the call.

Turning to me, he announced, “We won’t be staying there!”

His next phone call was completely different.

“Sure we’ve got sites. Just come around when you get into town and we’ll show you what we have.”

When we arrived, the lady was extremely hospitable and gracious. She walked us around the caravan park, pointing out the various sites and inviting us to choose the one that suited us.

When we were leaving, having extended our stay by a few days, she came out of the office and thanked us for staying with them and invited us to return.

Your manner makes all the difference.

It can win or lose you business and you may not even be aware of it.

Could you say you are confident that your team are winning you business?

Are You Burning Energy? (WT471)

Are You Burning Energy? (WT471)

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by Shirley Dalton | 5 Jul, 2019 | Blog, Business

WT 471 Are you burning energy?

I’m guessing you’re well aware of the word “procrastination” and what it means?

Today I’d like to look at it from another angle.

I was talking with a client this week who was totally distressed by what he perceived as his “lack of achievement” towards his goals. (I can totally relate to that!) 

It’s not that he is lazy.

It’s not that he won’t take action.

It’s not that he’s not motivated and it’s certainly not because he doesn’t know what he is talking about. 

Indeed, he is totally frustrated because he can’t decide; he can’t choose the first step to take.

As we talked, I encouraged him to “simply lean into it” and just do something.

We burn so much energy when we waste our time trying to come to a decision.

Many of us need to see the perfect outcome before we can take a step forward.

The irony is, that life is not like that. We make progress by taking one step at a time.

Like my client, I’ve been stuck myself with making a decision about how to niche down my own business and who to attract.

I admit, it’s difficult when you have so many choices. Again, like my client, when you can serve many people with different solutions and you enjoy them all, it’s a daunting task to say “No” to some.

When you think about the energy you’re wasting, it becomes critical to stop procrastinating.

Simply make a decision, choose an action and take one small step towards it.

If you find you don’t like the direction it’s going, simply make another decision.

The only way to overcome “paralysis by analysis” is to do something.

A mentor of mine once put it this way, “Just pick a horse and ride it”.

Your task this week is to do exactly that.

If you’ve found yourself paralysed and burning energy, simply choose one small action you can take and do that.

Go on. Do it now. You can always change it.

Stop burning energy.

Do It Fat, Do It Thin, Do It Scared, Do It Anyway (WT470)

Do It Fat, Do It Thin, Do It Scared, Do It Anyway (WT470)

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by Shirley Dalton | 28 Jun, 2019 | Blog, Business

WT 470 Do it fat, do it thin, do it scared, do it anyway

In a couple of weeks, we launch our new membership site and only that we have Founding Members, I think I would have backed out of it, if I could.

It’s a curious thing that many of us experience self-doubt and fear as we embark on something new.

Listening to one of my mentors this week, he shared that every year he does something that “scares the crap” out of him.

When asked why, he replied, “To condition myself to doing things even though I may be scared. Being courageous is a muscle and it needs to be exercised just like any other muscle.”

For me I’ve been making excuses not to create videos because I am carrying a few extra kilos.

I’m also scared of putting myself out there and being criticised or rejected. 

I was so thankful to hear my mentor say that no matter what level of success you experience, the majority of people still experience self-doubt and fear.

He went on to share his story of launching a product for the first time and how some criticism almost caused him to give up and abandon the project just as they opened the cart for sales. Fortunately for him, one of his colleagues sent him a message of encouragement and he went ahead and enjoyed a hugely successful launch.

How about you? Is there something new you want to do or achieve and are finding that fear or limiting beliefs are holding you back?

I encourage you to go for it.

Do it fat, do it thin, do it scared, do it anyway.

Make Use of Your Resources (WT469)

Make Use of Your Resources (WT469)

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by Shirley Dalton | 21 Jun, 2019 | Blog, Business

WT 469 Make use of your resources

A few years ago, I was attending a training course with Clinton Swaine of Frontier Trainings. I was in the hot seat. Clinton is a master at training using experiential games. In this particular game I was the CEO. I wasn’t doing very well. The mock company was in chaos and was losing money.

Ross was there with me, although not participating in the games or training. He was actually a resource I could have used although I hadn’t thought of that until Clinton reminded me, “Shirley, you are the leader and you have resources available to you and you are not using them. Good leaders are resourceful.”

Of course I felt embarrassed at the time and it was one of those lessons that we learn the hard way.

Interestingly for me, the same concept has reappeared this week.

Earlier this year we completed 3 Leading Yourself and Leading Others experiences training about 30 people.

The experience includes some 1:1 coaching with me. As the coach, I am a resource that is available to participants. I was amazed that not all participants made use of this resource.

The time frame for coaching had an expiration but not all participants have booked their sessions, despite receiving friendly reminders.

So you get the learning this week.  Make use of your resources. Good leaders are resourceful.

It’s a great reminder to take stock of the resources that are available to you and perform an audit for yourself.

Are you using your resources? Are you being resourceful?

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