A-Head for Success

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Working From Home

Several people have spoken to me about the challenge they have in working from home.  There are those for whom this is a real boon and boosts their productivity.  But there are those for whom it is something close to a living nightmare.  Starving for connection and distraction, the thought of hunkering down, isolated, can feel very difficult indeed.

I do hope these tips help you, whatever your situation.  It’s a fairly long post because I wanted to cover off as much of the common working-from-home problems as possible.  You may want to skip to sections relevant to you, or read through the whole thing.  It should only take a few minutes.

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Enjoying More Flow – The Dynamo

Which stress personality are youIn my last article I shared with you the general principles of flow and how to get more of it.  A big part of enjoying more flow is understanding your strengths and how to play to them.   In this article, I am going to share with you the characteristics of one particular personality type – the Dynamo – and would invite you to determine whether or not this is you.   Each type has its strengths and its challenges.  The key to flow, stress resilience and productivity is learning how to be more conscious about what you bring into each activity.  Just because something is not a particular strength, doesn’t mean you can’t do it – it just takes more thought and effort.

So, what is a Dynamo?  They are people who are highly creative, competitive, visionary and goal-driven.  They tend to be more task-focused than people-focused and are great at getting things done.  They tend to be impatient though and dislike being constrained by rules.  If you think you are a Dynamo, you are probably a great starter but need to make sure that you finish things off or have a team that will do that for you.  Otherwise you will have a lot of projects that do not have sufficient ongoing attention to have continuing benefit. 

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A-Z of Business: L – Leadership-v-Management: Are You a Manager or a Leader?

How do you know if you are a manager or a leader? 

There are few job titles with the word “leader” in them.  Manager or Director (depending on your level of seniority) seem to be the titles of choice – Customer Services Manager, Finance Director, Marketing Manager, Human Resources Director, etc.  Yet, the title is not an indication.  Being a manager is as important as leadership.  However, without leadership, you are missing a crucial element in business success – winning people’s hearts and minds.

Management can be thought of as being the ‘nuts and bolts’ of your role, with duties such as:

  • Planning
  • Allocating resources
  • Organising and co-ordinating
  • Controlling and directing
  • Measuring and evaluating
  • Solving problems
  • Short term thinking for managers, medium-term thinking for directors
  • Managing systems and procedures
  • Maintaining
  • Concerned with the “when” and “how”

All of these are absolutely essential and create a framework, structure and systems to achieve results which are monitored and course-corrected on a regular basis.

A leader, by contrast will be more of a visionary and will motivate and inspire people to follow.  Their focus will be on the long-term and they will be concerned with:

  • Establishing a vision
  • Inspiring co-operation and trust
  • Developing ideas and people
  • Concerned with the “what” and “why”

Creating a vision will usually require change and a good leader will inspire the team to be motivated for that change which might otherwise be met with resistance.  A leader paints a picture that people want to be part of and want to help make happen.

Managers deal with “shoulds” (the realms of necessity) while leaders deal with “coulds” (the realms of possibility).

Of course, leadership and management are not mutually exclusive.  There is a lot of overlap between the two.  A good leader will need good management qualities.  A good manager will require good leadership qualities.  If you tend to be a good leader but are not good at the planning, implementation and problem solving, it’s essential to have a very good, reliable and loyal team to do this for you.  If you are a good manager without the leadership qualities, you will need a good leader managing you to help you pass on the vision to your team.  Both skills can be learned and, with both skills, you will be a rounded professional contributing fully to the success of your team and your business.

And, to close, off, the wonderful Stephen Covey said “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”  You have to have your vision right, otherwise you are managing the wrong things.

If you would like to have greater insight into your leadership and management skills, book a psychometric profile session.  This helps overcome blind spots and highlights development opportunities for you.  Call 0845 130 0854 to find out more.

© Tricia Woolfrey 2012

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

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

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.

© Tricia Woolfrey 2012

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

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A-Z of Business: H – Health – How Can Your Business Be Healthy If You’re Not?

To succeed in business you need to be firing on all cylinders.  In fact, you could say that the health of your business is a reflection of your own health.  If you are tired all the time, or run down with frequent bouts of colds and flu, suffer frequent headaches or if you are at the mercy of IBS, can you really be functioning at your best?

Health is more than just an absence of symptoms.  When you are healthy in every sense of the word (physically and emotionally), you will have more stamina and energy to deal with the stressors of business life; mentally you will have clarity of thought and direction, the ability to solve problems quickly and your memory will be more reliable; you will feel more motivated and less irritable; health will also mean that your immune system is strong to safeguard you from colds and flu as well as more serious illnesses.

If you’re feeling tired-all-the-time, or low motivation, it could well be as a result of your body needing to be stronger and healthier.

Your health can be affected by many factors including:

  • Food choices
  • Depleted nutrition in foods
  • Cellular health
  • Alcohol
  • Sugar
  • Cigarettes
  • Stress
  • Negative emotions
  • Environment
  • Lack of exercise

Taking care of yourself is taking care of business. We take great care of our cars:  fill them with petrol, make sure there is enough oil and water, take them for a regular MOT, but are you doing this for yourself?  For a health MOT, call 0845 130 0854.

© Tricia Woolfrey 2012

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

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

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
  1. It should be stated in the positive (what you want, not what you don’t want)
  2. Identify the resources needed to achieve the goal – human, financial,  physical, etc
  3. Consider whether you can genuinely start the goal and maintain it
  4. 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?
  5. 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!

© Tricia Woolfrey 2012

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

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A-Z of Business: E – Employees: The Ten Fundamentals for Motivated and Productive Staff

Employees can make or break your business.  Finding the right ones, putting them in the right roles and keeping them motivated can feel like a full time job in itself.  Making poor hiring decisions and mismanaging your employees is alarmingly expensive, and can influence the morale of the rest of your team, as well as having a detrimental impact on your business and your time.  Here are my ten fundamentals to get you started:

  1. When hiring, be clear about the skills, knowledge, attitudes and motivations you want from the individual.  If they don’t have the right attitude, no matter how skilful a leader you are, keeping them focussed, productive and positive will be a drain on your energy, your team and your business.
  2. Being clear about what motivates an individual helps you match them to your vacancy.  An extrovert will not thrive in an isolated role; a big thinker will make expensive errors in a job requiring lots of detail work.  Their motivation will drop quicker than you can say “job satisfaction”.
  3. An effective interview process ensures that you treat every applicant equally, you leave no stone unturned and that you are making a balanced business decision, rather than reacting to their charm at interview.  Charm over substance is never a good hiring strategy.  In addition, many hiring decisions are based on urgent need – consequences are not considered until they are experienced in glorious and painful high definition.
  4. Make sure you involve the right people in your interview process.  Having input and feedback from people who will be working with the new recruit is invaluable – not just to have a second opinion, but also to make sure they buy into the hiring decision.
  5. A comprehensive induction process will make sure your new hire gets up to speed and feels part of the company as quickly as possible.  Things to consider are:  computer, phone and desk (yes, some people forget to plan these for new recruits!); meeting work colleagues, other departments, learning about the company, it’s products, values, processes and procedures, what to do and where to go if there are any problems.
  6. Make sure your new recruit is pre-announced to the rest of the team so they are expecting them and can extend a warm welcome.  I have seen new-hires feel shunned because their team-members were not expecting them and didn’t understand the reason for them joining.
  7. Have regular 1:1s to discuss progress, plans and projects.  It is also a good time to discuss any concerns they have and, do please make sure you take action promised – it can be very demoralising otherwise.  1:1s, well run, are hugely motivational and can be a great way of increasing confidence, productivity and motivation.
  8. Delegate well.  To do this, you need to understand the skillset and motivation levels of each individual member of your team.  Some people need a lot of support and direction, others will require more autonomy.  Delegation is not about abdication, nor does it involve micro-management.  It’s about giving them what they need to perform well.  This is a complex and important area that could benefit from a several blogs in its own right.
  9. Know when to take remedial action.  A disciplinary – formal or otherwise – is about improvement.  Inaction can make a bad problem worse as the employee believes that poor performance is acceptable.  Worse, fellow-employees may also see that this is the new standard they can relax into.  Worse still, if you decide to dismiss someone after a period of inaction, it may be difficult to prove your case in a tribunal.  Dealing with problems as they arise is essential.
  10. Develop your individuals.  You need to develop them in the right way, in the right things.  You can develop them through training, coaching, increased responsibility, new projects, and secondments.

Hiring and managing employees is highly rewarding when done well.  It is, however, a minefield.  If you are even slightly concerned, or are not getting the results you want, do seek support.  With the right structures and skills in place, you can experience the rewards on several levels:  a better relationship with your staff, an empowered and motivated workforce, happier customers, greater profit and a reputation as being an employer of choice.

To your success.

Tricia Woolfrey

PS For help with hiring the right people and effective people management and development call 0845 130 0854.  This is not something you want to leave to chance.

© Tricia Woolfrey 2012

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

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A-Z of Business: A – Appraisals

 

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.

© Tricia Woolfrey 2012

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

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