If you are reading this then you are probably a business owner and therefore interested in sales growth.
Are you interested in doing one easy thing to increase your sales quite quickly?
This blog is really aimed at business owners with a workforce.
In working with a number of business owners recently one intervention keeps yielding increased staff productivity and sales.
That intervention is engaging with your people.
How do you do that?
All employees want to know what the organisation goals are and to have those goals clearly aligned with theirs.
For example if your business vision and goal is to be the restaurant of choice in your area and increase your sales by 50% in the next 12 months then you might agree with your head chef that his/her goal is to devise an updated menu to meet the needs of the residents in the area.
From this goal your head chef may then get to thinking 'I will do my research and find out what people's preferences are and what would cause them to visit us twice as often'.
High performing businesses comprise individuals whose goals and objectives and actions are aligned with the business goals, know what is expected of them and what to do to achieve those expectations.
High performing business leaders know that by engaging staff in what they are doing they increase their productivity and increase the business sales.
Are your staff clear on your goals and objectives, are they clear on their specific role in helping to achieve that? Have they been involved in writing their job descriptions?
Whatever path this blog leads you down please let us know by leaving a comment.
For all of your business development support needs please get in touch via http://www.westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk/
Friday, 27 April 2012
Saturday, 21 April 2012
Your Life with Goals
Do you want to increase your level of happiness and enjoy your life more?
By doing things you enjoy and helping others you are likely to achieve an optimum level of happiness.
No-one is happy all of the time though optimum happiness is a great place to be.
We are by our very nature goal driven which helps with our motivation, energy, drive and purpose in life.
What I am advocating is that you set yourself two or three goals that focus on what you enjoy and helping others.
According to the athlete Roger Black the joy of goals is not the moment you get there but the struggle through the good and bad times.
Black also said that if you have passion you will always get through the bad times.
If increasing your happiness is at least partly down to doing what you enjoy and helping others then it makes sense to set goals in these areas. As Black purports "people must have an idea of the destination they want to reach or they will not go anywhere" so goal setting is as crucial in life, as in business, as in sport.
Here's your exercise for this blog.
Q1. What do you enjoying doing at work? E.g. selling my services to people
Q2. What do you enjoy doing personally and in your social life? E.g. sailing club and holidays
Q3. What do you want to help others with? E.g a charity that you are passionate about
Now your task is to set three goals for the next twelve months, one for each of your responses to the three questions.
Remember that the more SMART [specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound] you are in your goal setting the more likely you are to have the clarity and motivation to actually achieve your goals.
Please let me know how you get on with this exercise and if you would like help in 'going for gold' to achieve a happier life for yourself please get in touch via www.westofenglandcoachingandcounselling or call 01761 237400 today.
By doing things you enjoy and helping others you are likely to achieve an optimum level of happiness.
No-one is happy all of the time though optimum happiness is a great place to be.
We are by our very nature goal driven which helps with our motivation, energy, drive and purpose in life.
What I am advocating is that you set yourself two or three goals that focus on what you enjoy and helping others.
According to the athlete Roger Black the joy of goals is not the moment you get there but the struggle through the good and bad times.
Black also said that if you have passion you will always get through the bad times.
If increasing your happiness is at least partly down to doing what you enjoy and helping others then it makes sense to set goals in these areas. As Black purports "people must have an idea of the destination they want to reach or they will not go anywhere" so goal setting is as crucial in life, as in business, as in sport.
Here's your exercise for this blog.
Q1. What do you enjoying doing at work? E.g. selling my services to people
Q2. What do you enjoy doing personally and in your social life? E.g. sailing club and holidays
Q3. What do you want to help others with? E.g a charity that you are passionate about
Now your task is to set three goals for the next twelve months, one for each of your responses to the three questions.
Remember that the more SMART [specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound] you are in your goal setting the more likely you are to have the clarity and motivation to actually achieve your goals.
Please let me know how you get on with this exercise and if you would like help in 'going for gold' to achieve a happier life for yourself please get in touch via www.westofenglandcoachingandcounselling or call 01761 237400 today.
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Your Career: What is your vocation in life?
Do you want to find your vocation in life?
We are all by nature goal driven human beings.
What makes some people appear really driven is often that they are passionate about what they are doing.
For as long as I can remember my dad has designed electrical and mecahnical things.
Approaching eighty years of age he has just designed a windmill with a sail fin as part of a renewable energy project driven by his passion for research in this important area. I just received his eight page report and I am proud that he cares about the world he lives in.
What do you really care about?
Is this reflected in what you do, how you spend your time, the career path that you are on?
An exercise that some of my clients have found useful is to imagine that you are lying on your death bed [a sombre thought I know] and reflecting on your life. Got the image?
Now think about and answer the following questions:
1. What have you achieved personally - what good have you done in your world?
2. What have you achieved through your work - as an employee or as a parent [really hard work] for example?
3. What have you achieved socially and in your community?
Your answers provide a steer for addressing the gap between where you are now and these outcomes.
These answers help you to create long term, medium term and short term goals, objectives and action plans.
And rememnber that we often underestimate what we can achieve in a life time or even a year and we oftten overestimate what we can achieve in a day, a week or even a month.
If you work through this exercsie please do let me know what insights and learning you have.
If you would like support to achieve change in any area of your life please do get in touch via www.westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk.
We are all by nature goal driven human beings.
What makes some people appear really driven is often that they are passionate about what they are doing.
For as long as I can remember my dad has designed electrical and mecahnical things.
Approaching eighty years of age he has just designed a windmill with a sail fin as part of a renewable energy project driven by his passion for research in this important area. I just received his eight page report and I am proud that he cares about the world he lives in.
What do you really care about?
Is this reflected in what you do, how you spend your time, the career path that you are on?
An exercise that some of my clients have found useful is to imagine that you are lying on your death bed [a sombre thought I know] and reflecting on your life. Got the image?
Now think about and answer the following questions:
1. What have you achieved personally - what good have you done in your world?
2. What have you achieved through your work - as an employee or as a parent [really hard work] for example?
3. What have you achieved socially and in your community?
Your answers provide a steer for addressing the gap between where you are now and these outcomes.
These answers help you to create long term, medium term and short term goals, objectives and action plans.
And rememnber that we often underestimate what we can achieve in a life time or even a year and we oftten overestimate what we can achieve in a day, a week or even a month.
If you work through this exercsie please do let me know what insights and learning you have.
If you would like support to achieve change in any area of your life please do get in touch via www.westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk.
Monday, 16 April 2012
Career Coaching - Career Review
Are you considering a career move?
Whether you are embarking on a career move or not it's a good idea to conduct a career review I think at least annually.
Your expectations, needs and wants do change and this applies to your career as much as any other aspects of your life and this warrants a review.
A career review does not necessarily mean a career change. In fact the review may tell you that in most important aspects of your needs and wants your current career is well suited. Perhaps with some small adjustments you can make it the career you truly want. For example you are feeling somewhat demotivated because your boss micro-manages you and you decide to have a conversation with them about a level of delegation that would help to lift your motivation level.
A career review is also useful if you are feeling disconnected from your work and this is affecting your job satisfaction. Perhaps you have got to the stage that you feel sick on a regular basis on a Sunday night or Monday morning.
How do you go about conducting your career review?
I think that a mind map is a good tool to use here and taking the steps as follows:
1. Draw a circle in the middle of a page of blank A4 paper and write your full name plus 'who am I?' inside it.
2. Now brainstorm all of your current values - what is important to me? For example, my health, my family/friends, my work, my finances, my community, my charitable contributions.
3. Now draw lines from the inner circle, one for each of the values that you have identified.
4. Write the value along each line.
5. Now draw shorter lines emanating from each value and write on these what is important to you about each value. For example, you might write on the health value, time to take varied exercise each day, eat healthily, limit alcohol and sugar. Against my finances you might write work to achieve financial independence so I can choose what I do next.
6. Once you have exhausted the development of your values map you can hone in on any area and for now your focus is on your career.
7. Firstly what insight can you gain about your career from your whole map? For example, does your current career enable you to meet your other values such as for example spending your weekends with your family and friends or does it mean working most weekends?
8. Now, looking at the work area, are you doing the things that you enjoy? For example you may have written on the work arm of your diagram 'developing people' though your current work is mostly on your own and there is little scope for developing people.
9. Usually clues will be presented by your 'values map' which may point to you wanting to consider a career move of some sort along a continuum of more or less radical change. For example if the big picture shouts the desire for 'freedom' you may start working at a plan that involves a move to working for yourself.
10. Jot down some thoughts that you have from completing this exercise. The next step is to do some more research. A book I have found to be useful is 'what colour is my parachute?' within which there is a 'flower' to complete which will provide you with a picture of your ideal career. For example on one petal you note what skills you enjoy using and on another your remuneration needs.
Let me know how you get on with this exercise. If you feel stuck in your career and want some help to achieve a satisfying career for you, do get in touch with me via www.westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk.
Whether you are embarking on a career move or not it's a good idea to conduct a career review I think at least annually.
Your expectations, needs and wants do change and this applies to your career as much as any other aspects of your life and this warrants a review.
A career review does not necessarily mean a career change. In fact the review may tell you that in most important aspects of your needs and wants your current career is well suited. Perhaps with some small adjustments you can make it the career you truly want. For example you are feeling somewhat demotivated because your boss micro-manages you and you decide to have a conversation with them about a level of delegation that would help to lift your motivation level.
A career review is also useful if you are feeling disconnected from your work and this is affecting your job satisfaction. Perhaps you have got to the stage that you feel sick on a regular basis on a Sunday night or Monday morning.
How do you go about conducting your career review?
I think that a mind map is a good tool to use here and taking the steps as follows:
1. Draw a circle in the middle of a page of blank A4 paper and write your full name plus 'who am I?' inside it.
2. Now brainstorm all of your current values - what is important to me? For example, my health, my family/friends, my work, my finances, my community, my charitable contributions.
3. Now draw lines from the inner circle, one for each of the values that you have identified.
4. Write the value along each line.
5. Now draw shorter lines emanating from each value and write on these what is important to you about each value. For example, you might write on the health value, time to take varied exercise each day, eat healthily, limit alcohol and sugar. Against my finances you might write work to achieve financial independence so I can choose what I do next.
6. Once you have exhausted the development of your values map you can hone in on any area and for now your focus is on your career.
7. Firstly what insight can you gain about your career from your whole map? For example, does your current career enable you to meet your other values such as for example spending your weekends with your family and friends or does it mean working most weekends?
8. Now, looking at the work area, are you doing the things that you enjoy? For example you may have written on the work arm of your diagram 'developing people' though your current work is mostly on your own and there is little scope for developing people.
9. Usually clues will be presented by your 'values map' which may point to you wanting to consider a career move of some sort along a continuum of more or less radical change. For example if the big picture shouts the desire for 'freedom' you may start working at a plan that involves a move to working for yourself.
10. Jot down some thoughts that you have from completing this exercise. The next step is to do some more research. A book I have found to be useful is 'what colour is my parachute?' within which there is a 'flower' to complete which will provide you with a picture of your ideal career. For example on one petal you note what skills you enjoy using and on another your remuneration needs.
Let me know how you get on with this exercise. If you feel stuck in your career and want some help to achieve a satisfying career for you, do get in touch with me via www.westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk.
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