What Do I Include In A Business Strategy?

If you are at the point of developing your business strategy and would like a checklist of inclusions then this blog is for you.

You first need to articulate clearly what your business idea is and why it should be successful.

Finances are the next area to consider in full and ask yourself the following questions:

• What do you expect your turnover to be in the first, second and third years? 
• After costs what is your profitability? 
• What are your funding investor, lender requirements? 

Profitability is key. So many businesses go to the wall despite high sales due to cost management issues.

Key personnel is the next consideration so ask yourself the following questions as well:

• Who has the requisite qualifications and experience in the market and what is their financial status?
• If the business is already operating what is the history of the business and its ownership?

However, the following is a full list of checklist of inclusions for developing your business strategy:

• Customer (and potential customer) numbers, profile and mix and expected growth in use of services, products
• Customer perceptions, needs, preferences, buying patterns, and trends (by sub-sector if necessary)
• Products and services, mix, values and trends including unique selling point and ideas for new services and products
• Demographic issues and trends - especially if dependent on consumer markets
• Future regulatory and legal effects
• Prices and values, and customer perceptions in these areas
• Distribution and routes to market
• Competitor activities, strengths, weaknesses, products, services, prices and sales methods
• Intangible assets and protection - for example, copyrights and trademarks

In terms of a physical layout and structure on paper and on-screen your business strategy should have and be organised into the following sections:

• Title, version number, author, date, company/organization if applicable, details of circulation and confidentiality
• Contents page - sections with page numbers, plus a list of appendices, allowing the reader to find what they need and navigate the document easily and to refer others to particular items and page numbers when reviewing or querying your strategy
• Introduction and purpose of the plan with terms of reference
• Executive summary page - no more than a page long - what the business is, market and potential and financial returns on investment
• The Business Strategy - split into clear sections
• Appendices - detailed reference material, examples, statistics, spreadsheets, for reference and not central to the main presentation of your plan.

In summary your business strategy is a document which spells out how you will achieve your vision and mission (see earlier blogs for an explanation of these).

Meanwhile, other documents to develop include the following:

• Values and ways of working - including business ethics and responsibilities wider than the business itself such as sustainability
• SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Framed) Business Objectives
• Operational and Programme Plans.

Let us know how you get on or if you would like to work with a business coach in developing your business strategy please get in touch via our website West of England Coaching and Counselling.

Small- To Medium-Sized Business Growth

Are you the CEO or MD of a small- to medium-sized business with ambitions to grow your business?

I have been working with your peer group to help them to create high-performing organisations with the structure appropriate for the whole team to drive the business forward in a dynamic way.

How am I doing this?

We start by working out a programme which involves the whole senior management team with the aim that all senior stakeholders are actively engaged in creating a high-performing organisation.

The following are the key areas for you to focus on and begin to develop in order to start building your high-performing organisation and position it for growth:

1. A vision which all your staff can remember and relate to
2. A set of values which blend what is important to your customers and employees
3. A business strategy which delivers your vision and values
4. A clear and objective performance and talent management infrastructure
5. Ways of working that are simple and yet deliver results, such as, a common language for giving and receiving feedback

Your investment of time and money in focusing on these 5 core areas will deliver business growth.

On previous blogs I have covered vision, values and feedback and on future blogs I will cover how to develop a robust business strategy and a clear and objective performance management infrastructure so watch this space.

If this blog has developed your thinking at all please leave a comment or if there are other topics that you would like a blog on.

To work with us please visit the business coaching section of our website at West of England Coaching and Counselling.

Leadership Coaching

Are you interested in developing your leadership skills for the future to ensure you are fit for a key leadership role in the next 1, 2, 3 years and beyond?

Scores of employee surveys reveal that staff need and want more from their leaders in order to perform at their best, help their organisation deliver its objectives and keep people in jobs.

With greater pressure than ever in both the private and public sector to achieve more with fewer staff, leadership to maximise the use of resources is of paramount importance.

Gone are the days when staff respond to being told what to do - not in the way they were in the past anyway.

To engage, motivate and enthuse staff and get them performing to their best, good leaders ask them their views and act on some of these.

Good modern leaders involve the idea generators and recognise and reward their success appropriately.

Different leadership styles and approaches are called for and there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach.

If you are ambitious and driven, to feel a sense of enjoyment and fulfilment at work - as well as work at the level you want - demands a high level of leadership skill.

More and more senior leaders are turning to one-to-one tailored leadership coaching to build their skills and achieve greater effectiveness and enjoyment in their work.

Do you feel you need to develop any of the following which are key business skills and approaches for successful leadership:

• Leadership styles and approaches to address current people issues - such as under-performance
• Personal leadership vision and values
• Managing change in your team or organisation
• Pre-thinking difficult conversations with customers, staff and other senior leaders
• Building and cultivating your customer relationships
• Work-life balance - in particular achieving better health and well-being
• Creativity and innovation in product or proposition development
• Improving key processes to achieve optimum staffing levels for your business
• Building a high-performing team
• Emotional intelligence - particularly your self-awareness

Developing a leadership coaching relationship is an enjoyable journey because you can focus on tailoring your coaching programme to the kinds of needs outlined above and your specific leadership requirements.

In particular, you will benefit from working with someone you can trust to help you along your development journey.

For example, most individuals start off with a regular monthly 2-hour coaching session for about 6 months, moving this to every 2 to 3 months after this period.

Leadership coaching should always be moving you forwards, helping you to learn at a faster rate and gain better results than you would be achieving on your own.

If any of the above strikes a chord with you, a good starting point would be to discuss your position with us through our website West of England Coaching and Counselling.

Alternatively, our own coaching relationships commence with an initial Complimentary Coaching Session so you why not get in touch so we can help you decide if leadership coaching is something that you would benefit from.

What Does Business Coaching 'Do' For People?

Are you thinking about contacting someone about business coaching and want to know a bit more about what this kind of support will likely do for you?

I was motivated to write this blog by a new client who said that such a blog would have helped him to decide to start working with an executive coach sooner.

The truth is, the kind of support provided by any kind of coaching depends on what you want to achieve from the process.

Every case is different but here are some examples of what business coaching can do for individuals, their businesses and their careers:

Most of my clients who are senior executives - including MDs, directors, business owners, senior clinicians, department heads and senior managers - like to use my business coaching as a confidential sounding board for their ideas.

In fact, they come to rely on me as a confidante who they can debate and discuss things with and be challenged on issues where necessary.

I frequently use my own experience of operating in senior corporate roles to provide 'wise counsel' (a client's words - not my own) and advice when requested.

I also always look to help individuals think through what they specifically want, view their options and assess the plans they have put in place to achieve their goals.

Some clients see me for  career coaching where we work together to help them into the career move they're looking for through a process which involves assessing the skills they enjoy using the most and - in some cases  - directly approaching target organisations.

Many clients also use business coaching to help them to gain in confidence for a particular challenge, reduce their anxiety and alleviate any negative introspection or forecasting which might be holding them back

The feedback I receive from clients can also be used to help answer the original question posed in this post - 'What Does Business Coaching 'Do' For People?' - and here are some examples:

• 'Coaching really helped me to raise my game through raising my confidence levels'
• 'Coaching helps me to learn new and better ways of doing business'
• 'Reflecting with my coach helps me to think about new ways of approaching organisational effectiveness'
• 'My coach helped me to improve all of my key work relationships'
• 'Coaching helped me to achieve my goals quicker and easier than on my own'
• 'As a lone director, my coach provides an essential resource to air and discuss ideas with'
• 'I'm supporting my CEO - I needed a coach to give me support'
• 'Coaching helped me to radically change my thinking - I am now realistic, positive and able to put things into perspective'
• 'Working with a coach is like having a rudder on my boat helping me to navigate the rough waters'

If you're interested in coaching, it's a good idea to talk to people who have or are currently undergoing business coaching and I can put you in touch with these people if you want to take the first step towards taking on a business coach.

So, if you have an appetite for making changes through business coaching, career coaching or executive coaching and have any questions before you embark on this journey then please do get in touch with us via our website at West of England Coaching and Counselling.

Business Coaching for Senior Women Leaders

Are you a woman in a senior role at work?

Do you want to make your mark in business through a job in which you feel well-respected, well-paid and valued for what you achieve?

Do you care more about the organisation than your own individual needs? Are you a nurturing character?

The likelihood is that you make an excellent 'high-performing team' leader.

High performing teams have a clear vision, clear structures, team aligned and agreed goals and objectives and - where there is role clarity - positive team behaviour and change agility.

How does your team fair?

A starting point would be to assert your needs - what do you need to communicate with your team to achieve the high performing team that you want and what do you need from the Board to perform at your potential?

Is your vision aligned with that of your organisation?

Are your goals and objectives aligned with and contributing towards the organisation's?

Are you achieving results in the areas most important to the business, such as, increasing sales performance and reducing costs?

Are the behaviours of you and your team helping you to achieve in the key result areas?

Are you and your team flexible to the changing requirements of the business?

If you have answered 'Yes' to each of these questions you can develop a good business case to support what you are asking for from the Board.

If there are one or more 'No' answers then you may need to address that area before developing your business case.

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

If you would like support in achieving the next level in your career please contact us through our website at West of England Coaching and Counselling.

All Senior Managers Need A Personal Coach

Are you a Senior Manager in an organisation?

If you are, you may or may not be aware of your significance in terms of organisational performance.

I think, of all the layers within an organisational hierarchy, senior managers impact the business more than any other tier.

Senior managers influence the strategic direction of the business as well as the performance of more junior managers and staff.

Senior managers are being made more and more accountable for results - often in the form of key performance indicators (KPIs) or metrics such as, revenue targets, budget targets, people targets and so on.

Being a senior manager in today's high change transformation organisational agenda will feel at times stressful and onerous whilst often satisfying as it can help you achieve your ambitions.

Senior managers supported by an executive coach give good gearing for their organisation in that their performance impacts the performance of many others, including, line managers, staff and more senior directors or partners in the business.

Unless you are perfect - and few people are - the likelihood is that you will have development needs identified through your performance management infrastructure which would benefit from a bespoke individual programme best met by working with an executive coach (as opposed to going on a generic training course).

In particular, the non-technical part of your development - your personal competencies - are best met through a combination of coaching, group support and self-development - such as relevant reading.

Leadership coaching is on the increase and covers a multitude of skills including the following areas:

• Vision and goal setting
• Influencing and negotiating
• Decision-making
• Managing poor performance
• Handling conflict
• Delegation
• Assertiveness
• Confidence
• Presentation skills

If you are an ambitious senior manager, who also recognises your scope for further development, and are keen to explore this we would like to sign up for one of our complimentary 'Better Results Today' coaching sessions.

During these sessions we can discuss and explore your strengths and areas for development and you can sign up by simply filling in the online form on our Complimentary Coaching Sessions page on our website.

Alternatively, you can get in touch with us via email at enquiries@westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk or via our website at West of England Coaching and Counselling.

Career Coaching - Checklist

So you want to get in control of your career. Where do you start?

Start with your career goals and then progress with a strategy or approach and an action plan.

Career Goals:

• What would you like to achieve long-term, at the height of your career - your ultimate ambition?
• What about medium-term over - say the next five years?
• What about in the short-term - say 12-24 months?

Approach:

Start with a self-assessment. What are you good at? What do you enjoy doing?

If you are interested you might complete a working styles questionnaire such as Myers Briggs Type Indicator.

Action Plan:

Is your CV up to date, 1-2 pages long and are its content geared to the roles you are seeking in terms of your results to date and your capabilities (skills, knowledge and competencies)?

Do you have a good cover letter template?

What verbal self-presentation statement do you have off-pat to use with potential employers?

What will you do to prepare for an interview?

I hope this checklist is of use to you in managing your career. Please let us know how you get on and if you would like assistance please contact us via our website at West of England Coaching and Counselling.

Coaching to achieve your potential

Do you feel as though you could be doing much better in your professional working life and yet feel stuck and unsure of how to deal with this?

Are you frustrated working for others who seem to take all of the recognition for work that you deliver?

Do you think that you are achieving a small fraction of your potential?

A good personal coach will help you to clearly articulate what you want from your professional life over the long, medium and short term.

A good personal coach will help you to identify where you are currently in relation to your ambitions and goals and help you to address any barriers to your moving forwards, in particular limiting beliefs and confidence issues.

A good personal coach will help you to develop an action plan and interventions that will help you to achieve your long-, medium- and short-term ambitions and goals.

A good coach will provide you with tools and techniques to help you to get where you want to go at a pace that is right for you and to ease you into making the changes you will be making.

A good coach will provide you with optimum levels of support and challenge so you can achieve your potential, which will change as you progress in achieving your ambition and goals.

At West of England Coaching and Counselling, we all experience excellent coaching support as well as providing excellent coaching support to our clients.

We know that coaching helps us to achieve extraordinary results and we want the same for you. We are passionate about you achieving your potential and what you deserve.

What dreams would you like to make a reality through congruent goals, objectives and action plans?

You are likely to be somewhat successful now and with the help of an experienced coach you can look forward to taking the next steps up the ladder in your professional life or move careers or maximise your current opportunity.

Whatever your situation we will help you to move onwards and upwards.

Why not make a positive start in 2012 and get in touch with me personally via our website at West of England Coaching and Counselling for an investment in your future.

Career Coaching - Stay Or Look For A New Role?

I am currently working with a senior executive who needs to make a decision about whether to stay in her existing role or move to another role in another organisation.

In fact, she has a job offer on the table and the organisation concerned is so eager to have her that they have given her until the end of the calendar year to make her decision prior to giving notice in her current role.

Are you in a similar position? Perhaps you have dissatisfactions in your current role which are causing you to consider your options.

From personal experience - and in working with many executives in this area - it is important to start by thinking about what is driving you to consider a change within your career.

Can the issues which are causing you to consider change be resolved within your current role? For example, workload, work type or work location?

Have you exhausted all of the possibilities for making the changes that you want within your current role?

If the issue - or issues - are not resolvable and you are sure that you want to make the change, think through your decision carefully first and ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the rationale behind the decision? 
• What are the facts? 
• What is the logic behind your decision?
• How do you feel? 
• What impact will this decision have on your values?

But what are your options and what criteria will you use to assess these options and make a decision?

One technique which I suggested to my client - and we went though in our session - may provide you with some help. Simply answer the following questions and it should help you reach a decision:

• What would/could you gain if you moved to the/a new role?
• What would/could you lose if you moved to the/a new role?
• What would/could you keep [which is important to you] if you stay?
• What would/could you lose if you stay in your current role?

Sometimes we need to step back and see the wood for the trees.

Sometimes the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence when we may be:

• Jumping from the frying pan into the fire
• Avoiding handling issues such as relationship management that we may well come across in our next role - the saying 'Wherever I go, there I am' springs to mind here
• Experiencing the horns effect when we give a high weighting to an issue that we are unhappy about but may have not done enough to address it using all of our strengths and resources.

If you have found this blog to be useful please leave a comment and if you would like support in your career then please do get in touch via our website at West of England Coaching and Counselling - Career Coaching.

Executive Coaching

Are you an ambitious manager, senior manager or director working within a public or private sector organisation or for yourself or in a partnership?

Have you recently had your performance review and identified with your line manager areas of strengths to build on as well as possible areas for development?

Perhaps you have had some feedback through a 360-degree feedback process which has highlighted areas of development which, addressed, will help you to further your career.

Research shows that managers, senior managers and directors often develop more quickly and better through one-to-one executive coaching than through any other performance development intervention - including traditional classroom training.

This is because individual one-to-one coaching focuses on you and is tailored to your specific and precise needs within a structure that will have you feeling more motivated and confident in achieving your development objectives.

An independent coach will provide the following:

• A confidential listening ear and sounding board for your experiences, problems and solutions
• A source of advice should you request this
• In-time support, being available regularly face-to-face and also available on email and the telephone when you need them
• Work with you to clearly articulate positive, specific, measurable, realistic and time-bound objectives
• A structure to achieve your desired outcomes, such as, career progression or specific leadership skills development
• A coaching model to guide and steer discussions
• Good challenging questions that help you to think differently
• Collateral specific to your needs, such as, communication models, tools and techniques
• A non-judgemental presence coming from a supportive, positive and enabling place.

Managers, senior managers and directors who are serious about their continuous professional development and want learning on the fast-track develop business cases to secure funding for their coaching, which include coaching being an investment to help them to achieve their objectives and also improve the performance and engagement of their teams.

If you are unsure about whether to progress with coaching at this time please see my blog - are you ready, willing and able to be coached?

If you have found this blog useful please leave a comment or if you would like to discuss your personal coaching needs please get in touch in confidence via our website West of England Coaching and Counselling.

Small Business Coaching - Improve Productivity and Morale

Are you interested in learning about one simple, easy-to-implement tool which will boost staff productivity and morale?

How much do you estimate that poor communication costs your business? How much do you estimate not using all of your staff's potential is costing your business?

The truth is that when your people are not managed well it costs your business - That's the impact plain and simple.

What issues are most often behind this?.... These most common issues include the following:

1. Individual X has a development need that is ignored
2. Individual Y is only told when they get things wrong and the individual spends much time at work complaining about their manager
3. Individual Z is a manager and avoids tackling conflict so performance issues are ignored

Using a good feedback model addresses all of these issues and builds your staff productivity as well as their morale.

Psychological research shows people respond best to feedback which is specific, timely and in the ratio of 3 positives to each development point.

So how would you go about this?

• Step 1: Start with 3 specific positive things that you have seen/heard/read about them – their strengths
• Step 2: Then focus on 1 specific thing that you would like them to do more/less of that would make them even more effective/develop further/able to positively influence you. 

Focus on what you want from them NOT what you DO NOT want from them.

Ask them how they think they can achieve that - i.e. let them come up with their solutions to get their commitment to change.

Feedback in your business needs to become part of your way of working - something everyone does to get the best from each other and avoid standing still or even regressing.

If you have found this blog to be useful please leave a comment or if you would like assistance implementing this way of working into your business please get in touch via our website at West of England Coaching and Counselling - Team Development.

Small Business Coaching - Dealing With Attendance Issues

Do you have a problem with staff attendance which is primarily short term?

Have you noticed patterns to attendance issues - for example, the individual who is often sick on a Monday or Friday?

I think the best tool to deal with attendance issues is the return-to-work meeting. Why?

1. It shows the individual that they have been missed
2. If the individual is a malingerer they will be less likely to call in sick in future
3. It sends a clear message to other staff that attendance issues will be managed
4. If there is an underlying problem you can find out - for example, the individual calls in sick but the issue is really a problem at work or home

So what do you say at this meeting..... Have a think about what your goal is? What are your options and what will you do?

Here's a suggested format:

• Welcome the individual back
• Tell them that they were missed
• Check they are ready to return and have not come back early for whatever reason
• Discuss any issues that may have contributed towards or caused their absence
• Where any causes are identified discuss what help you as the employer can offer to address them
• Discuss any further action that may be necessary

You will need to prepare for this meeting and ask yourself the following questions:

• What are the advantages of holding the meeting in a private place?
• What information will you need to have in front of you relating to recent absences?
• What about sensitivity and listening skills?

You will also need to carry out certain actions after the meeting including the following:

• What about note taking?
• What adjustments need to be made for the individual if any?
• Do you need to consider disciplinary action yet?
• How will you continue to monitor the attendance issues?
• What action does your policy say you can take if the non attendance issues persist?

If you have found this blog to be useful please leave a comment or if you require an small business support please visit our website West of England Coaching and Counselling - Business Coaching.

Small Business Coaching - Tackling Poor Performance

Are you interested in tackling poor performance before it becomes a formal disciplinary issue?

What do you think are the benefits of 'nipping an issue in the bud' before it escalates?

Where are you now with the performance issue? What is the impact on your business?

What is the impact on other staff? What are your options....ignore the issue and hope it will go away or tackle it?

A really good tool towards tackling poor performance -is the following 6-step coaching model:

1. Gaining Commitment: Open the discussion in a positive way. Discuss current level of performance, agree that a problem exists and the impact of this on the business, other staff and them. Discuss and agree the size of the performance gap. Do not move on until the individual recognises a performance gap exists and that it is significant enough to warrant change – Why?
   
2. Closing The Gap: Discuss options to reach the required performance level. Review the advantages and disadvantages of each option. Encourage the individual to come up with ideas, prompting where you think necessary.
   
3. Develop The Strategy: Agree the best approach to close the performance gap. Identify performance measures that will show clearly when the new performance level has been reached. Explore any resources that may be required.
   
4. Agree The Action Plan: Who will do what and by when? Agree the time frames for when the new level of performance must be reached. Set review dates to monitor progress - including interim reviews if you think necessary. Express your confidence in the individual’s ability to deliver - keep it positive.
   
5. Action: Both of you agree to commit to the action plan. You discreetly monitor and guide 1:1 when necessary. Hold interim review sessions if required.
   
6. Review: Meet to review/measure progress towards targets. Recognise, communicate and record in writing achievements that have been made. If performance has not reached the required level go back to step 1 - make the targets more specific, the review periods shorter and be less tolerant of shortcomings e.g... ‘this is the third time we have spoken about this [specify performance gap].

If you have found this tool to be useful please leave a comment or if you would like assistance please contact us through our website at West of England Coaching and Counselling - Business Coaching.

Small Business Coaching - Managing People Tools

Do you have a small business and see that managing people is important to your profitability?

This is the first of a number of blogs which - actioned by you - will help you to increase your productivity, morale and profitability.

The first tool - I want to share with you is objective setting.

Be clear on your business plan then determine what objectives to set each of your employees which will help you to achieve your business plan - few businesses do this really well.

Make sure you avoid duplication of effort when you develop individual objectives for and with your team members.

Also, any training and development should only happen if it helps the individual or your team to achieve their objectives.

Individual objectives are important to ensure that individuals are accountable.

Clear alignment of team and individual objectives with your business plan will help to motivate staff and increase their productivity because they will see how they are adding value to the business.

All these objectives must be SMART - by that I mean:

• Specifically - What do you want them to do?
• Measurable - What will be the evidence of success? Aim to make this clear i.e. quantitative or qualitative and both if possible.
• Achievable - Do they have the resources - for example, skills, materials etc., to achieve it?
• Realistic - Is it challenging yet realistic - including the timescales involves?
• Time bound - When are they to complete it by?

Aim to review your staff objectives with individuals every 3 months and set new ones where appropriate.

Check how individuals are getting on a at least every month by asking the following questions:

• What is going well? 
• What is not going well? 
• What support can you give them?

You set the 'what' they are to achieve. Allow them to set the 'how' they are to achieve it.

With inexperienced staff you may need to help them with the 'how'.

People are naturally goal and objective driven and setting them objectives that contribute to the achievement of the company business plan will motivate your people.

Future blogs will provide advice on other people management areas including:

• How to nip poor performance in the bud early on when you spot a problem
• How to address non-attendance
• How to massively improve the way you communicate with your staff and develop them into the bargain

If you have found this blog to be useful please do leave me a comment or visit our website West of England Coaching and Counselling.

Executive Coaching: Acquiring New Skills For New Roles and Challenges

I was inspired to write this blog post after a session with an executive client today who is in a new role with fresh challenges and needs to develop their skills to make the most out of this opportunity.

My client wanted to work on acquiring these new skills one-to-one because:

1. There was no training course that offered her the specific skills she wanted in one programme
   
2. She wanted an 'expert' to focus solely on her to speed up results

We discussed how we would use our 2 hours together by first focusing on what she would leave our session with for it to have been considered a success.

We developed a goal and objectives for the session which focused on skills for developing a productive team and addressing current conflicts.

For example, I shared with my client a tool for providing feedback which builds motivation, helps to develop staff and improve their performance.

We then chose to role-play using the tool in practice. First, I acted out her role for demonstration purposes and then she followed by acting out her own role.

This reminded me how well one-on-one coaching works for executives who acquiring new skills which are not always easily labelled or neatly boxed into a traditional training course.

Perhaps you can use this blog to practice new skills with a trusted colleague. Please let me know how you get on.

If you would like support in this or any other area of personal and career development please get in touch via our website at West of England Coaching and Counselling - Executive Coaching.

Increase Your Personal Effectiveness

Are you serious about increasing your personal effectiveness?

If you are then you want to get the right support to increase your results.

In September 2011 People Management (the magazine of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development), Rob MacLachlan gives a book review for James Scouller's The Three Levels of Leadership.

The book discusses public actions leaders take in a group setting, their private actions as leaders in relation to individuals and personal and a leader's own psychological, moral and technical actions and its effect on behaviour.

MacLachlan rightly points out that the personal leadership aspect - acting confidently and without fear as a leader - is often the hardest part to master.

Scouller says 'we all have unconscious limiting beliefs and defensive behaviours which block our full potential, authentic expression and joy in our work'.

MacLachlan questions this whilst Scouller offers techniques for facilitating self-awareness and change 'whether it is realistic for the process of deep psycho-spiritual change to be navigated solely with the help of a book, however good'.

Maclachlan adds that 'few people would have the discipline or self-awareness to undertake (personal change) without a good executive coach, ideally with a psychotherapeutic training'.

I think it is very difficult - if not impossible - to be completely objective about your own stuff.

I have a coach without whom I doubt I would have made the personal changes I have made and continue to make in order to achieve my goals - personal, professional, contributional and financial.

A good coach who is able to help you to make changes will always facilitate your changes at a subconscious level and address the beliefs, values, distorted thinking and rules for life which are driving how you feel and what you and others see; your behaviours and particularly whether you appear confident, calm and without fear.

If you have found executive and personal coaching to be useful on your journey please comment on this blog or if you are serious about increasing your personal effectiveness as a leader please get in touch via our website at West of England Coaching and Counselling.

Designing Your Preferred Future

Do you feel motivated by the prospect of designing your preferred future and want help to achieve this?

The starting point is conceiving your preferred future in a way which drives you to achieve it but how do you achieve this first step?

The answer is to transport yourself into your preferred future and see what you notice first.

This involves envisioning specific details - often small and sensory based - such as what you will see,  what you will feel and what you will hear when you get where you want to be.

You also want to design the following specifics at a number of levels:

• At a behavioural level - What are you doing in your preferred future? Who will be there?
• At a competence level - What skills, knowledge and experience will you have? (Yes - this can relate to personal stuff as well)
• At an achievement level - What will your results be? Who will be benefiting from what you are doing?

As well as designing your future from your perspective, you can also shift your perspective to that of another - What would other people notice was different about the future you?

Ask yourself questions - such as 'What else?' - until you have exhausted the details and come up with alternatives which build upon your design for your future.

When you cannot think of any other questions you will know that you have exhausted your future design.

Now you get to the fun part......

Close your eyes and imagine you in your future design which you have just created.

Use all of your senses - if you can - and turn them up. Make the colours brighter and richer, the sounds more audible, the feelings stronger.

Why? For what purpose?

Using your senses builds your motivation. Imaging your future helps your mind to focus on its target and quite literally come up with ideas and options to help you to take steps to move towards your future design.

How did you get on? Please let me know or if you would like to book your complimentary 'Better Results Today' Session or visit our West of England Coaching and Counselling website.

Customised Coaching

At the end of a coaching session yesterday when I had asked how my client rated the session, he talked about finding that the best thing he experienced in the session was reflection, something he thought that he rarely did amidst his busy work schedule.

Upon further probing my client highlighted specific areas of reflection that had enabled him to think about a particular old and outdated habit which was not serving him anymore.

What clients take away from sessions is completely unique and so what you take away from coaching will be unique to you.

The whole purpose of personal coaching is that it is tailored to you and you can customise it by developing your own ideas on what you want coaching on and the approach which you would like to use to find the answers.

In terms of what you want coaching on, this may be driven by your existing job role, skills, gaps, a particular work challenge, a promotion or working with a new team.

In terms of approach, you might favour non-directive coaching which focuses on posing the right questions and helping you come up with options and ultimately solutions which you own and act on.

Some clients do like some directive coaching - particularly for career coaching and skills acquisition - where the coach offers up ideas and suggestions.

The point is that you can customise your coaching to suit you. It truly is one of the few life experiences where you can selfishly focus on you and your development.

If you sense that there are areas in your life that you want to improve on and change then personal coaching could be for you.

If you think that this may be the case please read my other blogs in particular 'Are You Ready, Willing and Able To Be Coached?' which will provide you with further insight on the coaching process.

If you would like support on your coaching journey we would love to hear from you at West of England Coaching and Counselling.

Self-Coaching: Making a Start

Are you new to personal coaching? Do you want to improve your life?

A good starting point is to have a go at coaching yourself using the following simple process.

First ask yourself the following question: 'What areas in your life are most important to you?' For example:

1. Health and well-being
2. Family Relationships
3. Work
4. Friends
5. Finances
6. Community

After identifying which areas are important to you, score your satisfaction with each area on a scale of 1-10 - where 1 is 'Most dissatisfied with' and 10 is 'Completely happy with'.

The rule here is to scale each area based upon your gut feeling towards them.

Having scored yourself, prioritise your list from 1-6 and if you want to have more than 6 areas that's fine.

For the next 6-or-so days work down the list and take one action which raises your scaling by 1 point.

For example, if your top priority is health and well-being and you scored yourself a 4, what action could you take today to raise that scaling score to 5?

An answer could to this question could be to eat a healthy meal for supper or go for a walk for an hour.

After this period give yourself a week off, then repeat the exercise and until you are consistently achieving a self-scaling of 8, 9 or even 10.

You may not want a week off in between actions but it is there if you want it.

The idea of this self-coaching is that it is quite straightforward and most people find it quite easy to do.

Sometimes, however, motivation, goal setting and taking action require support and there's nothing wrong with that.

If you are some one who likes exercising with a partner, having a personal coach is a similar concept.

A personal coach will support, guide and challenge you to achieve often extraordinary results.

Please let me know how you get on with this exercise by leaving a comment and please visit our website at West of England Coaching and Counselling.

Change Your Career Direction With Career Coaching

The Career Coaching topic is one I have been working with several clients on recently.

Are you facing redundancy - voluntary or otherwise - or re-evaluating your work life? If so, career coaching will help you to focus on what you want specifically and what is realistic.

My clients recognise that without career coaching job searching can be unfocused, tiresome and ultimately lacking the outcome you really want - one of my clients referred to this as 'jumping from the frying pan into the fire'.

If you are uncomfortable about facing this journey alone or feel unfocused then coaching can help you with everying from eliciting your aspirations, through to recognising your transferrable skills, building your confidence and helping you to present an influential CV.

This is especially useful if you currently feel institutionionalised after having been in your current role for many years.

In particular, career coaching will help you to avoid the scattergun approach of simply applying for as many jobs as possible which is often unsuccessful because the recruiter detects this.

More than anything, changing your career can be a scary, lonely and challenging time but a good career coach can help to draw out your career objectives - which change throughout life - and help you to achieve them.

If you are facing redundancy, are demotivated in your current career or looking for a change of career direction please do get in touch via enquiries@westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk.

Whether you're being supported by your current organisation or self-funding we have programmes which are both effective and affordable.