Too tired to be efficient

Some years ago I was chatting to a friend who was working in France. He was telling me that there was no way he could leave the office before his boss, it just wasn’t the done thing. Needless to say I thought this was very interesting especially because he added that he really didn’t feel working this late was productive for him. So I asked him “What would happen if he left before the boss?” he answered he didn’t know because nobody ever did. One of the things that particularly fascinated me was; at the time in France there was a 35 hour working week in place.

Culture is a powerful force and one which is often times not even reckoned with or questioned. When you are working in a culture – business or national – most of the time you don’t even notice it is there. Ask any fish does it notice the water, or ask any human do they notice the air!

I suspect there are a lot of people at the moment putting in very long hours thinking they are getting work done but the research shows taking adequate rest is equally important for efficiency. Just look at any professional athlete – built into their training schedule are periods of rest. Although in some sports those have been a bit eroded over the past number of years – just look a the length of the rugby season these days – resulting in an increase in injuries & guys on the bench. The ‘injuries’ are not as evident in the business person because they are more insidious. The ‘injuries’ can take the form of  reduced productivity, irritability, poor decision making and over the long haul is detrimental to health and well-being.

So ask yourself are you taking care to get enough down time and rest? Eight hours is still the recommended number of hours for sleep. I know there are lots of stories about people who survive on 5 hours as though it is something to be proud of, but the key word is survive. In my mind surviving is a struggle and thriving is the way to go.  If you are not getting your 8 hours what steps are you going to take to boost your productivity by taking care of yourself?

Wish upon a star

I am wondering did you make any New Years Resolutions this year? Some people decide because they have made them in the past and did not succeed, the best thing to do is to forget it altogether. So you might consider this a little nudge to reconsider.

The Chinese New Year this year isn’t until 3rd February and it is the year of the Rabbit for 2011. So we are about mid way between the two. The Chinese New Year tradition is  seen as a great way to reconcile; forgetting all grudges, and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone. And it has popular themes of ‘happiness’, ‘wealth’ and ‘longevity’. People paint their wish on to lanterns or place the wish in the lantern and float it up into the sky, a beautiful tradition I think. Personally I also like the Chinese idea of forgetting…. and putting the past where it belongs; in the past, so you can get on with what is here now and look forward to a better brighter future.

Just imagine if your resolution was to not smoke and it was easy because you forgot to smoke…how wonderful would that be?

I digress, isn’t the word resolution interesting ‘re-solution’ which suggests that this is a solution that you have attempted before. Therefore you might find it useful to ask yourself what are you going to do differently this year? Something you did not do last time. Because, guess what, if you use the same process this time, the chances are you will get the same result which means this time next year you will be making the same New Years Resolutions all over again.  Oh! No!

So what are your New Year Re-solutions? Below are some of the most frequently quoted:

• Lose weight / Eat healthy food
• Quit smoking / Become a non-smoker
• Stop being lazy / Go to the gym / Get fit
• Get rid of anxiety / Become relaxed and confident

Not everyone finds the motivation to get started. So how can you kick start the whole thing? Some people find it useful to motivate themselves by thinking of all the good things that will result when they have succeeded. Whereas for some other people that just does not work at all. The trigger for them may be to think of all the downsides and the negative consequences of not changing. How well do you know yourself? What is the most useful trigger for you to get you started on your road to success?

Are you making enough profit in your business? At the moment many small to medium sized businesses are struggling. When you struggle quite often what happens is you do more of what is not working! Then the vicious cycle starts. And things get more stuck. Are you not saying ‘no’ to unprofitable clients? Do you know which clients are profitable & which ones are not? How focused are you in growth areas? How clear are you on your figures & cash flow? There are many roles to play in any job whether as an entrepreneur or within a career. If you were to make some adjustments in one of these roles how would that effect you and the people you work with either internally or externally? Is that something that would be of use to you?

You may be beginning to think already about places where you can make a change and start creating the results you want.

What options are available to boost your profits?

• One to one coaching in person
• One to one coaching by phone or on Skype
• NLP Business Practitioner Course – 5 Day Course
• Make your Business Profitable – 1 Day Workshop
• Make your Business Profitable – ½ Day Seminar

Is all you time taken up each day running your business? Are you playing all the roles in the organisation from cleaner, mailman, facilities manager, sales and marketing person to CEO? Do you ever take the time to step back from your business look into the future and really plan your direction, make decisions and take actions based on those decisions that will lead you in the direction you planned? Or is it more like you are muddling through going from day to day and seeing what happens? And sometimes there are good surprises and sometimes the surprises are not so good!

Are you tired of this way of working? Do you recognise yet it is now time to STOP, take a step back, review what is working and what needs changing and then begin to change the way you are doing things?

What options are available to enable you work on your business instead of in it?

• One to one coaching in person
• One to one coaching by phone or on Skype
• NLP Business Practitioner Course – 5 Day Course
• Make your Business Profitable – 1 Day Workshop
• Make your Business Profitable – ½ Day Seminar
• Manage Yourself – Not Time – 1 Day Workshop
• Manage Yourself – Not Time – ½ Day Seminar
• Having Difficult Conversations – 1 Day Workshop
• Having Difficult Conversations – ½  Day Seminar

No Body In

If absenteeism is a problem for your team or company you are not alone. Yet that is probably little consolation because absenteeism puts a strain on the rest of the team and can affect morale.

The Irish Times 26 October 2010 reported – Absenteeism costs businesses in Ireland over €563 million each year, according to a new study from the Small Firms Association (SFA).

This reference is only talking about the smaller firms in Ireland. Smaller firms tend to have lower rates of absenteeism than larger or state owned companies, so just imagine the cost to the economy. One of the most significant contributing factors to absenteeism is stress.

What can you do? You could choose to have the person or people who are regularly absent coached. Alternatively a more long term solution may be to get coaching for the team leader or manger so they can learn how to recognise the signs and discover a way to deal with it more effectively in future delivering a more sustainable result.

What options are available to deal with absenteeism?

• One to one coaching in person
• One to one coaching by phone or on Skype
• NLP Business Practitioner Course – 5 Day Course
• Having Difficult Conversations – 1 Day Workshop
• Having Difficult Conversations – ½  Day Seminar

Your review could reflect the level of stress you are under. For some people when they are stressed they may treat members of staff (without meaning to or being aware of it) in ways in which they may be treating themselves internally – by being highly critical, judgemental and harsh and with unrealistic expectations. Or if the behaviour has been long standing, this may be your style which may have worked in the past or been overlooked.

Behaviour is just behaviour and it is usually supported by attitude. Like everything in this world attitudes can change as can behaviour. Are you open to becoming curious about yourself, your attitudes, your behaviours and the perceptions of others?

If you are give me a call and let’s talk about how you might begin to tackle this and tap into other ways of behaving that could deliver more effective results for you.

What options are available?

• One to one coaching in person
• One to one coaching by phone or on Skype
• NLP Business Practitioner Course – 5 Day Course
• Building Effective Relationships – 1 Day Workshop
• Building Effective Relationships – ½  Day Seminar
• Communicate to Win – 1 Day Workshop
• Communicate to Win – ½  Day Seminar

When you write a report it is never good enough? Do you feel pressured unnecessarily? Are the goals being set for you unachievable in your mind? Are you never given the credit for your work? Does your manager make you feel small, maybe by reprimanding you in public, or by making inappropriate remarks? Or ……….(insert your own particular scenario here).

Are you ready to decide enough is enough. Are you ready to become more aware of your own automatic responses?  Do you think it could be useful to explore your own actions as well as those of others? Then you can start to finding out how you can begin behaving in alternative ways so you can have a better result? Or even make other choices….

If this sounds like something that could be of benefit to you give me a call and let’s discuss how coaching might be useful for you.

What options are available?

• One to one coaching in person
• One to one coaching by phone or on Skype
• NLP Business Practitioner Course – 5 Day Course
• Boost your Confidence & Manage your Emotions – 1 Day Workshop
• Boost your Confidence & Manage your Emotions– ½  Day Seminar
• Building Effective Relationships – 1 Day Workshop
• Building Effective Relationships – ½  Day Seminar

Is that how you feel about work and about the people you work with? As you know, all too well, work is all about relationships. In life outside work if you don’t get on with someone you can choose to just walk away, not see them or choose not to return their calls. In work that is not the case; you are ‘stuck’ with them and what they do and say.

This is probably not the best climate to walk away from a job. So what else can you do. If you were able to find a way to not be bugged by people or even just one person how would that change things for you? You may think that’s not possible. At the same time it might be worth a shot.

If you think it is worth shot give me a call and let’s discuss how things could change.

What options are available?

• One to one coaching in person
• One to one coaching by phone or on Skype
• NLP Business Practitioner Course – 5 Day Course
• Boost your Confidence & Manage your Emotions– 1 Day Workshop
• Boost your Confidence & Manage your Emotions– ½  Day Seminar
• Communicate Effectively – 1 Day Workshop
• Communicate Effectively – ½  Day Seminar

Are you keen to see more of your family, enjoy your hobbies, maintain a healthy lifestyle and succeed at work? Are you satisfied you are doing this already or are you spending too much time in one area of your life to the detriment of other areas? If you could imagine having your work-life balance just right for you what would you notice is different or better than it is now? Defining this is the first step to exploring what steps you are going to start taking on route to achieving the balance you desire.

Developing the clarity on what you want sometimes requires some assistance to support you in being able to see past the reasons you got to where you are right now and maybe even the reasons you haven’t achieved what you want….yet.

Give me a call to find out what you can do to start creating the balance you want.

The further up the organisation one goes the fewer women are represented at top levels. In this situation a woman may choose not to discuss challenges with her peers  because she may be perceived as being weak? Not always, but many times men and women approach challenges differently; is this diversity appreciated or derided? Does your body language transmit messages in conflict with your words undermining your message?

Ambitious Woman Executive

A coach provides a sounding board for the ambitious woman executive. Coaching provides an opportunity to experiment in the safety of the coaching environment. It offers insight into alternative perspectives. It can also assist in tapping into methods and styles of communicating to deliver the message even more effectively.