Monday, 26 November 2012

Leadership Coaching For You

If you are an executive either working for a small or large organisation or working for yourself then you will want to be continuously developing yourself professionally including how you lead yourself and others.

I am writing this blog to share with you my top five tips that can help you on your development journey in a way that leads you to better results.

1. Start by defining your DNA - who are you and what do you value? Precisely articulating what is important to you including what you want to achieve, when and how, will help you to build your trust in yourself and you will feel motivated.

2. Start to define challenging objectives that will stretch you out of your comfort zone into your learning zone and help you to grow - you will rise to the challenge and perhaps surprise yourself and be proud of yourself.

3. If you lack direction or want support on your journey recognise when coaching with a professional coach would be your best step forward to help you to achieve results that may not be possible alone, not least because we are never completely objective about ourselves.

4. As you learn along the way share what you acquire with your team and this will help you to achieve better team results. As leaders emerge use your best people to train and develop others which will also help with succession planning.

5. Know when you are winning and celebrate your successes - monitor achievements and measure against your objectives/business plan to ensure you are achieving your intended outcomes. Be transparent with yourself and your team and focus on delivering results.

If you have found this blog useful please leave a comment.

We are passionate about getting you coached and living your best life.

We can help you if you get in touch by sharing the benefits to you of executive and leadership coaching at www.westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk

Monday, 19 November 2012

Giving your staff Coaching is Powerful

If you have been thinking about developing your staff with performance coaching this blog is for you.

You know that recognition and reward in the workplace is important for staff performance improvement and retention.

In fact performance coaching for your staff has a positive impact for both your business and the individual in terms of business and individual performance and development.

Giving your key staff performance coaching has a positive impact on their motivation level because they feel valued and when they feel valued they are motivated to continue achieving results for you and them.

Having your key staff performance coached has a positive impact on their engagement which leads to improved performance levels and a better customer experience.

All of this will drive the profitability of your business.

How to achieve this in practice?

Step 1: Select a coach with proven successful results.

Step 2: Plan carefully - which of your staff will give the best gearing if coached in that their improved performance will positively impact the results of many others?

Step 3: Create a positive buzz by sharing the benefits of performance coaching with the staff that you have selected.

If this blog has helped you to make a decision about performance coaching please let us know.

To find out more about what coaching can do for your team do get in touch and experience a better work results today session yourself or discuss your required results with us so that we can help you to achieve them.

We can be contacted at www.westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk

Friday, 16 November 2012

Are you as successful as you could be?

If you are looking to improve your results at work or home then do read on.

The truth is that we are all learning until the day we die.

What do you know about yourself or from feedback that you could do to improve your results at home and/or in your personal life?

You can start by making a short list through brainstorming.

Then prioritise your list.

What is the one area that your working on would have the largest impact on your results?

Once you have the priority key area you are ready to get to work.

What would be your ideal outcome in this area?

Aim to write this as a goal for example 'I am able to re-prioritise my work each week to spend time on activities that help me to reach my goals by 31.12.12'.

What can you do in the next month, week and day to take small steps to achieve your goal?

Let me know how you get on by leaving a comment.

For support and guidance please get in touch at www.westofenglandcoachingndcounselling.co.uk

Friday, 9 November 2012

Looking for a Career that fulfils you?

If you want to find fulfilment in your work then this blog may help to channel your thinking.

Start by thinking about what your strengths are and what makes you feel good about life.

If you do not know the answer to this, what makes you feel alive, happy, positive and good about you it may be helpful to you to keep a diary fo ra few weeks.

At the end of each day, before bed, write down what the best things were that happened to you that day. Also record what you did not enjoy or were not so keen on.

After a few weeks reflect on what you have written. You may have been doing things that create negative emotions for you.

What can you do do you think to shift the balance in favour of those things that occupy your time that really work for you, that you are good at and enjoy.

Is there anything in your diary or otherwise that you were particularly moved by?

This might lead you towards your passion.

Perhaps changing your job right now might be difficult.

Try to focus on smaller things to start with that you can change such as spending more time with family or friends.

Also watch spontaneous reactions as thinking that the grass is greener can be as bad as staying in an unhappy work role and can result in continued frustration long after the initial feel good factor of leaving an unhappy job has lapsed.

What to do?

Research carefully and fully before you make the change.

Even better get some professional help with diagnosis, CV tailoring and cover letter scribing to increase your chances of fulfilment and success.

For all of your personal and professional coaching needs please get in touch at www.westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk

Friday, 2 November 2012

How do you handle relationship conflict?

If you are interested in flexing your conflict handling muscle to improve your work and personal relationships then this blog is for you.

I seem to be working a lot with clients on this area of personal development in recent months.

An excellent tool for understanding your own conflict mode preferences is the Thomas-Kilmann instrument.

My thinking is that you will want to use each of the five modes highlighted in the instrument dependent on the situation.

For example, competing (forcing) your opinion and where you focus only on your concerns is best used where there is risk to health and safety; where your integrity/ethics may be compromised or where you are leading a group of assertive individuals and need to make a stand. The skills you require here are assertiveness and not being intimidated by others.

The second way of handling conflict is accommodating.This is where you concede your concerns and allow the other person to have it their way. This is best used where the matter in hand is far more useful to the other person than it is to you. It helps to build good faith for when you need your way.

Compromising is a useful conflict handling mode when you have little time to spare and the issue is important though not imperative to you. Each of you concede elements of what you want to arrive at a middle ground or compromise solution. The key skill required here is negotiation.

My personal favourite style is collaboration. This is best used for a challenging situation that requires thought and thoroughness to arrive at a decision. Both parties work to arrive at a higher solution that may bear no resemblance to the starting points of each other. The key skills required here are questioning and listening to get all concerns and issues on the table to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution.

Sometimes avoiding is a conflict handling style that is more useful than the other four where you need to postpone a decision to acquire more information or where you consider someone else best placed to decide and own.

If you have found this blog to be useful please leave me a message.

For all of your business and personal goals support please get in touch www.westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk