Jun 6, 2016 | Planning & Goal Setting, Self, Time Management
Time – Can You Ever Get Enough?
Whether you own a business or work for someone who does, you have probably experienced the “never enough time” phenomenon. When I worked in the high tech world, the saying was always that there was never enough time to do it right, but always plenty of time to go back and fix it later. This practice was also known as using the customers for beta testing.
If we want our businesses and ourselves to thrive, then we must take the time to do things right. We must also be focused on doing the right things. Stephen Covey, in his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” offers a powerful tool, the matrix based on Urgency vs. Importance to achieve both of these goals.
In this matrix, Quadrant 2, is a set of activities in a business, or your life, that are Not Urgent, but are Important – 
this quadrant is the Zone. The Zone is that place where you set aside all the busy work of the day and focus on the things that are truly important for the long-term success of your business and your life. These are activities like planning, strategy, learning and cultivating relationships.
So how do we get in The Zone? First and foremost, you have to make a conscious decision to go there. It will not happen naturally, because these tasks are not urgent, they are not in your face demanding attention! When was the last time your most important client called you up and demanded that you get to work on your budget? Probably never, but when was the last time a client complained that you didn’t have the right parts in stock, or that you delivered her order a week late? Did you take the time to tell them that earlier this year you failed to budget for sufficient stock, or that you failed to plan the replacement of that machine that you knew was on its last legs? This is one of the hardest things for my clients to see, they are constantly in the “urgency” quadrant, specifically because they don’t spend enough time in the zone. Every day I hear about how overwhelmed they are, because of all the urgent daily demands. Getting in the Zone takes practice in order to become a habit. Here are some tips for how to do so.
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Put it on your calendar on a regular basis
Scheduling time for planning activities is probably the best and maybe the only way to ensure that they get done. You should spend 20% of your time in Zone activities, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be weekly, it could be on a monthly or quarterly basis. One way is to allocate 4 hours per week to planning (medium-long term, not short term), an additional 8 hours per month, perhaps a couple of half-day sessions, and then an additional 16 hours per quarter, perhaps in an off-site session or two.
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Establish a system for accountability
To help you reinforce the need and the habit. This can take the form of a coach, an accountability partner, a mastermind group, a partner, a spouse or any other person that you will feel accountable to for following through. Be sure that they know to ask you when you are allocating your time, and how you intend to spend it. Be sure that you have deliverables to them for the output of your planning, then review and discuss it with them.
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Break up the work and the time into proper-sized chunks
Some people work best in 30-45 minute bursts, other prefer 2 hour chunks of time. Pay attention to your own attention span and work style and allocate the most efficient periods of time for you to get your work done. Break up the work into properly sized chunks so that you can accomplish something meaningful in each time period. Know yourself, and when you set aside your Zone time, make sure the chunks of time will be most effective for you.
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Pick the right time of day for your Zone activities
In every business and for every person, there are times of day or days of the week that are better or worse than others. If you know that Monday mornings are always crazy, don’t allocate any Zone time for Mondays. You also know your own daily cycles, so be sure to schedule your Zone time at a time of day that is best for the type of thinking you will be doing – creative out of the box brainstorming or detailed number-crunching.
If you want your business to be a long term success, it takes this kind of intentional disciplined planning. Success rarely happens by mistake, so be sure that you are always planning for success, not just this week, but for the next decade.
If you want to really learn how to get into the Zone, come to my TimeWise workshop Friday June 17, 2016 11:30 – 1:00.
Jan 20, 2016 | Leadership, Planning & Goal Setting, Self
What’s Your Why?
What’s Your Why? When I hit the three-year mark in my own business, I did what many business owners and entrepreneurs do, I hit a wall. No matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to find my way around it, over it, or through it. It wasn’t my sales or marketing skills, it wasn’t the delivery of my services, it was something bigger that I could not figure out. It’s funny how the world works, but I ended up at a coaches conference at about this time and in the first hour of the first day of a 3 day conference, I learned what my wall was all about. What was missing was that deep something inside of each of us that inspires and motivates us to keep going, to want to achieve more – I had lost contact with my WHY.
Your WHY is that internal motivator that keeps you going when the going gets tough – it is your personal inspiration that drives you to stay the extra hour, run the extra mile, make the hard decisions. It’s something larger than you. So let’s take a look at what goes into your “why”.
For the engineers in the audience, the formula that I use is (T/G) + (Pa) + (Pu) + (F) + (B) + (V) +(C) = WHY, which is defined as follows.
Talents/Gifts – What are your natural talents and gifts? How do you use them to make the world a better place? We are all born with certain talents and gifts, and we are most fulfilled when we use them for the benefit of all around us.
Passion – What are you passionate about? What is your favorite cause, what stirs up your emotions and fills you with energy? What makes you want to jump out of bed and get going in the morning?
Purpose – Your purpose is your intended outcome that guides your decisions and actions. What is it that you intend to achieve in the end? How do you want to impact the world?
Faith – Faith is expressed in many ways, and includes both belief in a higher power and belief in humanity. It is also described as complete confidence in a person, plan, power, etc…
Beliefs – Your beliefs are those ideas that you hold to be true. They are not necessarily factually true, but they are the truth in your mind. They can range from simple beliefs about yourself and your capacity to learn or achieve, to more complex beliefs about money, family and society. We are all limited by our beliefs, and rarely achieve beyond them.
Values – Your values are those things and ideas which you hold to be important. What are the concepts that are important to your core? Values are the basis for your decision-making.
Courage – Courage is “a quality of spirit that enables you to face danger or pain without showing fear”. It is the ability to rise above those around you who shrink at the slightest hint of risk to do what you know is right and good, to act with conviction of purpose and in accordance with your values, no matter how difficult it seems.
So take a look inside of yourself and rate yourself in each of the categories. Spend some time acknowledging your talents and gifts, rediscover your passions. Define your intended outcomes, your purpose. Revisit your faith, identify actions to strengthen it, regardless of its source or destination. Identify your positive beliefs about yourself and reinforce them, make a concerted effort to overcome your negative beliefs, replacing them with new positive beliefs to work towards. Gain clarity about your values, and make sure that your actions and decisions are congruent with them. Lastly, have courage, and continue to take the high road, do what you know is right whether it is popular or not, and never look back on what might have been. Our futures are in front of us, not behind us.
Extra credit: Read Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why”
Get in touch for more ideas on finding Your Why.
Dec 23, 2015 | Self, Time Management
How to Manage Holiday Stress Using Relaxation Techniques
This time of the year, most of us experience a high level of holiday stress. Trying to finish everything you told yourself you’d get done this year in your business, combined with the stress of shopping and family get togethers can create a load of stress all at once. Stress has many different side effects, depending on how individually you can handle it. Although the signs and symptoms may not show as quickly and severely, there are techniques which one can apply to overcome it before it gets overbearing. It is not difficult at all to learn how to manage stress, here are two effective techniques.
Meditation for Relief of Holiday Stress
Meditation is very powerful. Results are immediate, and it helps battle stress effectively in the long run too. There are many different forms of mediation, but the key to this approach is to breathe deeply by using your abdomen to get as much of oxygen possible. The more oxygen you inhale, the more relaxed you feel, and the greater the reduction in anxiety.
In order to be successful, you need to sit comfortably with your back positioned straight. Place one of your hands on your chest while keeping the other on your stomach. Breathe in through your nostrils. The hand placed on the stomach should rise whereas the other hand should slightly move. Exhale orally while you try to push out as much air as possible. Continue this technique, counting every time you exhale until you reach 50.
Muscle Relaxation Technique
In order to best manage stress, you’ll want to know a few different techniques. This is because everyone reacts to stress differently. Some individuals are mentally stressed out whereas others take on physical stress. Their muscles get contracted, causing them muscular pain.
This technique is geared towards the latter. Use the muscle relaxation technique if you have physical stress. The technique starts with the individual getting comfortable in their attire. Take off your socks, shoes, and change into loose clothes if needed. Take a few minutes if required in order to get in to a calm state of mind by breathing deeply.
Now, shift all your attention towards the right foot. Focus on the feeling, slowly, start tensing the muscles in the foot. Squeeze as tightly as you possibly can, count till 10, and then relax. Breathe deeply once again, and do the same with your left foot. Repeat with different parts of your body while working your way upwards.
Did your stress level go down as you tried these techniques?
Happy Relaxing Holidays from ActionCoach!
Oct 21, 2015 | Leadership, Self, Team
I got such positive response to my last post on creating an accountable team that I decided to turn it into a series, so, welcome to part 2!
So why put into action an accountability strategy in your business? What are the keys to putting it in place, what are the benefits and the risks?
First, creating an accountable team – one that holds themselves accountable for their results individually actually creates a congruent whole for everyone – an environment where what is best for the individual is also what is best for the company – how does that sound?
One of the keys to accountability is consequences – clear and significant consequences must exist, both positive, that you earn or receive, and negative, things that you won’t receive, based on results.
Benefits of An Accountable Team
A team that is accountable, knows what they are accountable for, so team roles are more clear and expectations are enhanced. Gaps and overlaps are reduced, so tasks don’t fall on the floor, and you can staff efficiently. Accountability creates room for developing decision-making skills and personal growth, and provides a context for goal setting. It enables people to let go of what they are not responsible for, increasing their commitment to what they are responsible, and to their measured results.
Risks of Accountability
Building accountability with your team does have risks. Because accountability requires public commitment – you and your team have to say out loud, and in writing, what you are committed to accomplishing and by when. That commitment comes with consequences – if you are not truly committed to your results you will eventually experience personal loss – when excuses are no longer an option, it can feel defeating to not achieve the results you’re expecting.
Accountability means changing cultural for many organizations – those changes will require a change to expectations and relationships with other team members. Excuses and reasons for why something didn’t get done, blaming managers, blaming other team members, blaming customers simply can no longer be part of the organizational conversation. This shift will naturally create friction with the hierarchy – as managers are expected to be accountable as well.
The Dark Side
Like any form of power accountability is open to misuse. An unfair bargain can be developed where the unfairness is made non-discussible. People can set unreasonable negative consequences for themselves or their subordinates. Incomplete accountability agreements can be made to operate exclusively in a top-down fashion rendering the concept of accountability meaningless. Be aware of these issues as you develop your culture of accountability.
The Leadership Challenge
As you create your new accountable team culture, be sure to follow these guidelines:
- Leaders seek commitment, they do not settle for compliance
- Leaders focus on results, not activities
- Leaders learn and help others to learn from mistakes
- Leaders encourage and challenge, they don’t over-control
- Leaders reward courage not caution
Next time: the Accountability Agreement and Lame Excuses Why an Accountability Strategy Wont work.
Questions on how? Get in touch.
Oct 1, 2015 | Self, Team
When things don’t go as planned in your business; schedules missed, customer’s expectations not met, quality of work not up to standards; what do you hear? Blame, excuses, denial? Or ownership of the issue, accountability for the results and responsibility for taking corrective action? If you’re like most business owners, you hear lots of reasons and excuses. How did this culture develop in your company? How did your team come to accept this behavior as the norm in your business?
Look no further than the mirror. It starts with you. Even if you are not the one making excuses, your team has witnessed you enough times accepting blame and excuses. Or visibly punishing mistakes that are not soon forgotten. People learn the acceptable excuses for explaining why they did not achieve their goals. Rewards for exceptional performance barely exceed rewards for the ordinary. And people hide the truth – to be polite and safe – and in denial.
Why is Accountability important?
It closes the gap between intention and action. Between plans and results. Between goals and success. And its the foundation of an ethical business culture. If you focus on or change nothing else but accountability in your business, you will see massive results.
Accountability and empowerment are inseparable. When someone is blaming and making excuses, they see the cause and solution as being outside of themselves. Outside of their control, influence and power. They have no capability or power to change the outcome. Accountability is a promise and an obligation, both personally and to the people around you, to deliver specific, defined results.
Accountable people are aware of the positive and negative consequences of their actions – they want different consequences – they take different actions. A team organized for accountability, to achieve a desired result, immediately becomes interdependent. In order to achieve effective interdependence, you must have the structure to support it in place. Accountability in your business requires structure, focus and clarity that supports and builds trusted relationships and gets results.
Where to Start – Key Principals of Accountability
- A personal promise – that you agree to
- Results means activities are not enough – you do whatever it takes to achieve results
- Results requires room for judgment and decision-making – empowerment to use discretion
- Neither shared nor conditional – you are responsible for your commitments – not shared with another and it is unconditional regardless of limited control, other’s mistakes, or a lack of role clarity.
As soon as you hear yourself saying “ . . . because . . “ STOP, rethink what you’re about to say. Rephrase it until you are clearly taking full responsibility, describing a situation where YOU have control to do something different. Start with you. It will not go unnoticed by your team.
May 5, 2015 | Leadership, Self, Team
5 Ways to Improve Your Communication Skills
Effective communication is key to your development and progress, not to mention that of your team! Without effective communication, you will lag behind in many aspects of your personal and professional life. And your team, therefore your business, will not reach its full potential without the tools to communicate effectively.
If you want to improve your communication skills for clarity and effectiveness, here are some vital tips for you to follow:
1. Listen Carefully
Let’s admit it, we all struggle with this. First seek to understand what the other person is saying and feeling. If you find that you are formulating a response while the other person is talking, you are NOT listening. You have to shut off that voice in order to listen. Pay attention, be patient with them and do not interrupt. Not only is it rude to cut someone off, but it makes it hard to understand what they are saying. Wait for them to finish before you even think about your feedback.
2. Body Language
Often, we don’t realize the significance of our body language, but it can account for 70% of what we communicate. After all, actions speak louder than words. Your facial expressions, eye contact and gestures reveal everything, even though you do not utter a single word.
Exercise to improve your posture. Stand straight and smile to stimulate positive feelings. Always maintain eye contact when talking to someone. Use open body gestures. Watch your facial expressions and the tone of your voice. At the same time, educate yourself about different non-verbal communication signals in different countries, cultures and societies. For example, the handshake is considered rude in some countries, whereas is it a common practice in the US.
3. Read and Write
In order to improve your verbal communication, read and write as much as you can. Read books, newspaper articles, blogs or anything of interest to boost your vocabulary and write a blog to improve your writing skills. Similarly, watching some programs related to your areas of interest and movies can also help improve one’s communication skills.
4. Ask Questions
Asking questions helps clarifying things. It shows that you are truly interested in having a conversation and understanding the other person. Moreover, it also helps overcome the fear of small talk. Learn to ask good questions, it will improve your ability to engage your audience.
5. Manage Stress
Stress can be a major impediment to effective communication. Learn to manage it. Don’t communicate with someone if your stress level will make you sound irritated or angry with them. Use humor in your conversations, keep calm, exercise and drink lots of water.
The ability to communicate clearly, concisely and coherently takes years of practice. Hence, incorporate the above mentioned steps to not just improve your communication skills, but also improve the quality of your life.
To learn more, get in touch or come to ActionClub!
