Goals – A-Head for Success

What is Integrative Coaching?

July 4, 2019

Integrative Coaching Coaching is a wonderful tool for those who care about getting results with more ease: it helps you achieve your goals by creating practical action plans, using tools and techniques to help achieve them and helping you to build skills to facilitate the change you seek.

Integrative Coaching does the same but it goes deeper, if required. Because sometimes there is a reason that goal achievement is elusive, or perhaps challenging. Integrative Coaching looks at what is blocking you. Unless the blocks are removed, problems will recur, especially in times of challenge. Integrative Coaching, a more sustainable approach, will look at the psychological blocks, the biological ones (tired all the time is a common factor), the emotional ones (stress and anxiety for example) plus more.

Author Philippe Rosinski says it is “… a holistic approach that calls upon multiple interconnected perspectives to facilitate the unleashing of human potential towards meaningful pursuits … from the physical to the spiritual.” In the A-HEAD for Success terms, spiritual is all about purpose and meaning. When you are aware of and completely aligned to that, everything else becomes easier and clearer.

Three Levels of Integrative Coaching

Integrative Coaching is at the forefront of The A-HEAD for Success 5D Coaching Model ™ which helps provide three levels of integrative coaching through the 5 Dimensions (Clarity, Skillset, Mindset, Stress-Resilience, Health and Energy). Of course we only work at the level of need but the process helps identify the need which is different for everyone.

Integrating a variety of approaches tailored to suit your specific needs
Integrating mind and body. A good example is that a client may present with any number of physical symptoms. For example: exhaustion (my latest book explains how complicated this condition is and why the integrative approach is so important), insomnia, headaches or Irritable Bowel Syndrome to name a few. Though there may be physical causes to these, there may also be emotional and lifestyle factors involved. Stress is very often a factor in IBS so we deal with it from a multifaceted perspective.
Integrating parts of the self. This deals with self-sabotage which may be impacting performance, health, relationships and more. So we address this internal conflict: if you feel that you have your foot on the breaks and the accelerator at the same time, self-sabotage may very well be at play, but it is often subconscious so you need to work with an expert to deal with it.

Conventional coaching tends to be somewhat formulaic and will not always address the finer details which can so impact on us. Integrative Coaching helps address the complexity of what it means to be a functioning person in a dynamic world.

Want to know how it might help you? Call me, Tricia Woolfrey, on 0345 130 0854 to find out more. Calls are no-obligation and completely confidential.

Coaching, Stress, Success

Coaching, Energy, Goals, IBS, Stress, Success

Sources of Negative Stress: New Year Expectations

January 7, 2019

New Year: Make it Happen

The New Year is always full of expectations. One week into the New Year and I am noticing three things:

One person is completely fired up and wants to leverage this focus and energy to get her year off to a great start – she’s sick of the excuses she had throughout the last year
Several who started with very good intentions which have already fallen by the wayside in the face of competing demands
Several more who have started the year overwhelmed and not sure where to start

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Goals, Stress

Goals, New Year, Stress

5 Reasons You’re Not Reaching Your Goals

February 12, 2018

By now, your year is well under construction whether through conscious effort or not. Not deciding on a direction is still a decision and still a direction. Most people, though, have goals, whether in their business lives or personal. But actually achieving them is less common. Whatever goals you have under construction, if you feel blocked, these are five of the main but surprising reasons why:

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Goals

achieving goals, blocked goals, Goals

What’s the Difference Between a Coach, a Mentor and a Consultant?

April 14, 2014

Denial or Truth They say that all the best people get support to get them to the top and to keep them there. It is a sign of vision, strength, and drive to want to take your performance and productivity seriously enough to invest in yourself and your business in this way. But how do you know what kind of support you need?

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A-Z of Business: T – Time – Achieving More in Less

July 29, 2013

Time Management How do you relate to time? Do you just see the future ahead of you, cluttered with actions and goals which threaten to suffocate you? Are you in the present moment, having fun but not getting much done? Are you stuck in the past with no idea how to develop the insight, motivation or courage to move forward? Or are you able to see time as a continuum with the past, present and future laid out in front of you?

If it is the latter, it means you are more able to learn from life experiences, get things done in the present and plan for the future.

“Not all hours and minutes are the same length” as Roger Black says. It can speed by when you are enjoying yourself, or slow down when you’re not. While we all have the same 1440 minutes every day but how is it that some people get more done than others?

It is all down to your relationship with time, how clear you are about your priorities and how everything fits in together. It is important to prioritise those things which move you towards your goals in an economical manner. This combines both effectiveness and efficiency so that your productivity improves.

A productive person is calm, focused, disciplined, flexible, balanced, has perspective and, generally, does what they say they will do. This increases your reputation with yourself and so your self-esteem enjoys a good boost too.

There are four main time enablers:

Perspective: Purpose, goals, priorities and values
Self: Self insight, self-motivation and self-management
Others: Understanding and managing others
Balance: A balance between downtime and uptime

When you have a clear perspective, with an ability to understand and manage yourself (and those others on whom you depend to get things done – or to whom you should be delegating) and balance this with self-care, you are in a much better position to improve your time management. You will also feel more resourceful, your productivity enemies slain.

Here are my top tips:

Focus on just two important items each day – this frees up your mind-clutter and gives you a sense of achievement
Fill in the spaces with smaller jobs
Have a power-hour once a week where you do all those little things you don’t have time for but which make you feel really good when they are done.
Whatever you are doing, apply your 100% attention to as you can only do one thing at once, contrary to popular belief. In addition, the stop start involved in not doing this can increase the time needed for each task by as much as 5 times!
Limit distractions – be ruthless but respectful about it
Delegate well
Manage your information overload – be super-ruthless on this one
Procrastinate discriminately – some things should be procrastinated but a lot of people procrastinate the important in favour of the trivial
Make your to do list a reality list and keep your fantasy (wish) list separate. Work your list with passion and fervour
Keep your workspace free from clutter to give yourself mindspace to think clearly and get things done

Getting things done should be a joy, not a chore, giving you a sense of empowerment, achievement and progress. By following these simple steps (which I cover in detail as part of my Achieving More in Less Time workshop), you will find that your productivity soars.

If you could use some help overcoming your time-management demons, why not book a session? Call me on 0845 130 0854.

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

Goals, Motivation, Performance, Productivity, Time Management

Achievements, Balance, Goals, Perspective, Productivity, Tasks, Time management

A-Z of Business: K – Knowledge – Your Competitive Edge?

January 17, 2013

It is estimated that 15% of success is from your technical skills whereas 85% is through gaining trust and respect. So, what has knowledge to do with this? Plenty, as it happens. Knowledge covers the whole spectrum. Good technical skills are, of course, important. But not if the knowledge is out of date. Technology is changing all the time – as are trends – and it is essential to keep abreast of what’s going on in your market place and in your profession.

Solicitors and doctors go through years of training in their profession before they are able to practice. Yet, how much training have you had to run your own department, or your own business? How much knowledge have you acquired to help you be successful? Whether you are running a department or a business of your own, the knowledge you need to be effective is extremely broad and most people simply muddle through. In the meantime, what happens to the trust and respect essential to 85% of your success?

The following table helps you to understand some of the fundamentals for trust and respect and the kind of knowledge you need for them:

TRUST AND RESPECT	KNOW-HOW
Good people and rapport skills	Influencing and leadership
Doing what you say you will do	Planning and organising
Doing an excellent job	Technical and delegation
Managing complaints effectively	Problem solving and conflict management
Meeting your obligations	Business acumen and resource management
Emotional intelligence	Understanding of people and yourself and how to manage yourself and your relationships in times of stress

Business knowledge – such as sales, marketing, finance, operations – is important whether you run your own business or manage a department as you need to see how everything fits together. These will help you to exploit strengths, minimise weaknesses, seize opportunities and handle threats from a point of strength.

So, how can you increase your knowledge? Through coaching, training, reflective learning and study. Often, you don’t know what you don’t know (in the case of business, ignorance is not bliss) and it is helpful to have someone there who can help you see your blind-spot. Having your own coach and mentor is an excellent step to take to help you stay on top of your game. For more information call 0845 130 0854 for a no obligation chat.

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

A-Z of Business: I – Influencing Skills

November 28, 2012

The ability to positively influence others with integrity is a key skill in business. It affects your ability to have people buy into you, your business, your product and your ideas. It impacts your leadership style and your ability to build constructive relationships. It can also be incredibly stressful if you are unable to influence people constructively, impacting your productivity, your sales and even your profitability.

Influence is about your ability to have a positive effect on someone. It differs from manipulation in that it is undertaken with integrity and regard to the interest of the other party. It’s about having people buy in to your ideas and perspectives, so that they say ‘yes’ to you more.

The talent for influence requires flexibility in style, clarity of outcome, the ability to understand a situation from several perspectives, and creating and maintaining a resourceful state, particularly during times of conflict, or when the stakes are high.

It is not about imposing but inspiring someone to take a particular action, while maintaining strong rapport and building positive relationships.

There are numerous language patterns which enhance your capacity to increase your powers of influence which are too numerous to go into in this short article but which I teach to many of my clients and which I include on my Influencing Skills training course. The issue, though, is not what the skills are, but the effect that they can have on your success. They can help you deal with objections and concerns so that you are able to transform potentially negative situations elegantly. It’s the YES factor!

Whether your intention is to create change, elicit support or diffuse potentially contentious situations, influencing skills can be a real boon to you in your business.

For further details, please contact Tricia Woolfrey on 0345 130 0854.

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

A-Z of Business: G – Goals: Your Targets for Success and a Solution to Overwhelm

October 18, 2012

One of the things which hinders your ability to achieve results, to maximise performance and to increase productivity, is a lack of clarity around goals. Goals help you establish priorities and are the foundation for actions which lead to success. But they aren’t enough on their own. In this article, I will share with you how to set goals which move you forward, and what else you need to do to make it all happen.

A well-known acronym – SMART – helps to make your goals more tangible. Without this, it is simply a to-do item in a sea of competing items in your cluttered mind. When you set well-defined goals, your unconscious mind is more able to organise itself into acting on them – you will have increased control, decreased stress and greater focus. If you have seen it before it will serve as a useful reminder.

Goals should be SMART:

Specific – vague goals produce vague results
Measurable – how will you know you have achieved it?
Achievable – not based on hope but reality with a contingency built in to deal with the unexpected
Relevant – how applicable is it to your business, your life, now and in the long term?
Timebound – what time scale do you want to achieve it within?

A poorly defined goal would be “Launch product”. A better goal would be “To create and execute a project plan for the January 5th product launch of Profit Serum to existing customers, our prospect database and industry media.”

Goal Considerations

It should be stated in the positive (what you want, not what you don’t want)
Identify the resources needed to achieve the goal – human, financial, physical, etc
Consider whether you can genuinely start the goal and maintain it
Look at the wider consequences of the goal
- Time and effort required
- Do you have buy-in from stakeholders?
- Whether anyone else is affected and how to deal with it if they are
- Does this goal impact the achievement of other goals? Which is more important? What can be done to achieve both?
- What you will have to give up in order to achieve it?
- Are you willing to give this up in the pursuit of the goal?
Is the goal is in keeping with your values? If not, can it be changed so that it does? If not, why do you need/want it?

Making It Happen

Finally, a goal, in itself, is nothing without a plan of action. List the steps to achieving your goal and have a system to monitor your progress and to keep you on track or adjust your course as necessary. Last, but by no means least, factor in a celebration when you have achieved it!

About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.

Goals, Performance, Profit, Success

Business, Decision making, Goals, Motivation, Performance, Profit, Strengths, Success, Targets, Tricia Woolfrey

A-Z of Business: F – Finance – 5 Tips to Help Your Business Succeed

September 24, 2012

1. Cash is King

Cash flow is the main reason for business succeeding or failing. An apparently successful business may have a full order book, and even good levels of projected profit, but if funds cannot be collected from customers in a reasonable timescale the business will fail. You should ensure your customers are aware of your payment terms before carrying out tasks and where possible advanced payments, should be requested.

Tip – Get paid on time by ensuring you have regular communication with your customer and that you have an effective credit control procedure.

2. Overtrading

This is where a business has a full order book but struggles to convert turnover (sales) into profit. This situation usually develops when tasks are taken on at a cheaper rate when compared to competitors in order to secure orders. Subsequently, the business becomes very busy but the income generated is not sufficient in order make a profit, and so the business fails. This strategy can be used carefully in order to try and build a reputation but for small businesses it should not be used in the long-term. Remember “turnover is vanity, but profit is sanity”.

Tip – You are usually in business to make money so ensure you do not under-sell your products or services unless you have a clearly defined plan.

3. Control the Controllable

Fixed costs – these costs do not vary regardless of the business activity undertaken, i.e. rent and rates.

Variable costs – these are dependant on the level of activity, i.e. heat and light or staff overtime.

Tight control and effective monitoring of these costs is essential. Whilst fixed costs by their very nature are easier to control, effective negotiation with suppliers is an important step. Variable costs can often get out of control if not properly managed, i.e. buying stock recklessly can tie up cash and may lead to unforeseen losses.

Tip – Ensure there is an efficient method of recording and managing costs. Monitor them on a regular basis.

4. Supplier Relationships

Negotiating with your suppliers is important in order to gain value for money but when evaluating a potential supplier do not focus solely on the costs. You should try and build a close working relationship with your suppliers and also consider the following:

Product efficiency – do they have a good reputation for supplying reliable products?
Delivery – can delivery be made in a timely manner?
Payment Terms – extended terms can often ease your own cash flow concerns.

Tip – Ensure you question potential suppliers to ensure they meet your key criteria.

5. Initial Funding

Many small businesses often underestimate the amount of necessary funding needed to commence trading or start a new product line or service. This lack of funding will immediately restrict any business capacity and will greatly threaten the potential growth and stability of your business. Always identify and try to properly estimate the amount of money needed to launch your business and to cover the costs for at least the first year which should include both running expenses and capital investment.

Tip – Take time to plan the financial implications of your business plans.

With thanks to:

Colin Bentall FCCA
Ford Bentall LLP
www.fordbentall.co.uk

A-Z of Business: A – Appraisals

May 29, 2012

Now, you may be thinking of appraisals as something you do to your staff to tell them where they are going wrong and put them on the right track. But it is more than that and it is more than just about your staff. Done well, it is motivational and inspiring.

Appraisals are something you can do for yourself, your business as well as your staff. It is a way of looking at:

What’s going well so you can do more of it
What could be improved so you are continuously evolving
Progress against goals so you can get back on track if you need to
Adjust your goals so that they are relevant to changing conditions such as market, environment, competition, etc
Plan for the future

It can help you really stay on top of your game if you are conducting regular appraisals of yourself, your business and your individual staff members. You first of all need a list of competencies and measures of success to appraise.

If you want to know more about how to do these well, why not book a session so you give your business the best chance of ongoing success? Call me on 0845 130 0854 to find out more.

To your success!

Tricia Woolfrey

PS Have you recently had a psychometric profile? This can really help you to understand your strengths and blindspots so you can work at your very best. Call me on 0845 130 0854 to find out more.

About Tricia Woolfrey

Tricia Woolfrey is a business, performance and productivity coach, helping people to succeed in their business, and for their business to succeed. She has extensive experience with clients across several business sectors, including IT, telecoms, event management, entertainment, recruitment, finance, PR, coaching and therapy, support services, legal and more, ranging from large corporates to start-ups and the solo-preneurs.

Prior to running her own consultancy, she was Group HR Director for a multi-national organisation and is a member of the Chartered Institute for Professional Development. Her integrative approach to change has had profound results for individuals and organisations alike.

“The results there were nothing short of fantastic”- Guy Apple, VP Marketing & Sales, NVT, UK

Appraisals, Goals, Performance, Success

Appraisal, Coaching, Employee performance, Goals, Inspiration, Motivation, Strengths, Success, Targets