Do you need a coach?

Your need for coaching might be greater than you think.

Are you stuck in a technical job?

Are you stuck at a level that no longer satisfies you, and you think you'd make a stellar chief operating officer? If you have specialised skills, such as financial knowledge, fundraising or computer expertise, you may need a leadership coach to help you get out of your rut, er, niche.

Do your softer skills need work?

You may be a brilliant negotiator, a financial whiz or a technical genius. But do you have what it takes to manage other high-level employees? If your communication skills have been a sore spot during your annual reviews, a leadership coach might be able to help.

Are you doing just fine, thank you?

That's great. But "just fine" for your current job level might be "not good enough". If you're happy where you are, that's fine. But if you want to get to the next level, a coach can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses.

Have you lost enthusiasm?

Are you finding it difficult to get out of bed in the morning? If the projects that used to excite you now fill you with dread, you may need a career coach. But if you want to stay in your job, a leadership coach could help you identify new challenges within your industry

Are your team dynamics suffering?

Are you still getting along with the other senior managers on your team? If your interpersonal dynamics have suffered, it's time to find out why. Leadership coaches can work with you alone, or they can work with an entire team.

Do you have high staff turnover?

How does your retention compare with that of your competitors? How does it compare with your retention a year ago? If your employees seem like they've lost some of their enthusiasm, it might not be the winter blues. There may be some underlying problems you need to address.

Have you just made a big transition?

If you started a new job or just taken on a new member of your senior leadership team, there may be more adjustment pains than you expect. If you're experiencing friction with a new boss or a new subordinate, a third party may be able to help you adjust.

Is your market in flux?

Global warming, emerging markets, spiraling health care costs: Is your company prepared for the global trends overtaking the business world? If you feel like you're not prepared to confront 21st-century challenges, you could pass the baton--or hire some help.

Why not give yourself the best Christmas present ever? Start the New Year with an Enfys Acumen coaching programme and make 2008 your best year yet.

Getting the most from Executive Coaching.

Executive coaching is beginning to be seen as less of a solution to a problem and more of a tool to help people realise their full potential. With increasing numbers of top-level executives having tried and benefited from it.

Fellow coach, Matt Henkes has looked at how its effectiveness can be measured.It wasn't too long ago that many saw business coaching as just the latest fad, soon to find itself condemned to the same pile as sparkly disco trousers and the CB radio. However, with increasing numbers of firms turning to coaches to help employees realise their full potential, is it something HR should be seriously considering for its executives?

Executive coaching has increased steadily since the late 1990s, despite some experts considering it to have a limited shelf-life. As proof of its growing popularity, a 2005 study from the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) suggested that almost 90 per cent of organisations employed coaching activities in their leader development strategies, with two-thirds hiring external coaches to work with more senior or high-potential employees.

Gil Schwenk, principal consultant at the Bath Consultancy Group (BCG), believes its popularity could be due to the fact it is often more effective than simple, traditional training courses because the development is focused on the individual. However, it's not an either/or choice, he adds. "There's a place for both as they do different things," Schwenk explains.

The confusion seems to be over what coaching actually is, compared to mentoring or training. Isobel Rimmer, director of coaching firm Masterclass, describes it in terms of holding a mirror up to the person being coached. "They're seeing for themselves what they're doing and what they're thinking, and then making decisions on whether they like what they see and whether they need to change," she says. "The sharp HR people are very aware now of how coaching can be a very powerful way of working with people and raising the bar in what they do."

Choices

Coaching can come from within the organisation or from exterior consultants. Which you use will depend on your budget and what you want to achieve.

Although it is often cheaper in the long run to train up a cadre within your firm than to hire an outsider, it is worth considering that the relationship between an internal coach and an executive who may hold a fair amount of sway in the company is unlikely to be as fair and frank from both sides as it could be with an external coach. Senior executives are less likely to divulge their deepest professional fears to a subordinate.

As a coach, our job is to challenge our subject. If you're working with a client as an external coach and you push them too far, you've lost one of your clients, says Schwenk. If you do that as an internal coach, you've lost your job. "It’s extreme and rarely happens, but it's a concern that might be there for internal coaches," he adds.

Coaching is 'hip' at the moment, but is still a relatively new discipline. And with so many firms employing the approach, it's important not to just jump on the bandwagon. All parties must be clear on what is expected from the process, which is why discussions between HR, the coach and the coachee, can help define what these goals are. For example, if the goal is to modify a number of behavioural shortcomings, these must be agreed in the coaching contract.

Measuring

There are various ways to measure whether the sessions have been effective. Sharon Brockway, a senior consultant at the Roffey Park development consultancy, believes the trend for many firms is to look at the individual experience, often using one-to-one conversations between the coachee and HR to gauge effectiveness.

There are useful pieces of information HR practitioners can gain from these types of interviews. Even though it may seem quite a one sided view, it can show you if the coaching has been effective in the eyes of the individual. How effective that is in terms of their changed behaviour might be another story, but you are at least gaining a sense of their perception of the process.

Another approach becoming popular is to gather 360 degree information before and after the coaching process to glean any changes in behaviour or performance. The drawback to this, however, is the large amount of information that needs to be gathered and collated by HR. "Not all of it will necessarily apply to the coaching context," warns Brockway. "In that sense, it makes quite a lot of work for HR – separating out what is key for the coaching process and what isn't."

However, it is possible you won't have any specific aims defined at the beginning, depending on why you have employed a coach. Brockway says HR directors are increasingly turning to coaches as a way of helping senior figures reach their full potential, rather than to fix a problem. In this instance, there may not initially be any particular area that demands attention; the manager is already good at their job and the specific skills or behaviours they need to work on will only become apparent as the sessions progress.

This is a relatively new approach in the coaching world and an area where there is currently much discussion. "Some people are saying there's advantage in keeping it loose and letting the goals develop as you go through it," says Schwenk. "I think there’s merit in that."

However, he admits he is "concerned" by this approach. Firms are investing a lot of money into the process while not being clear about why they want coaching in the first place.

Coaching can be a good way to help senior people who often have no one in whom to confide openly about their hopes and feelings. "The benefits of having someone to listen are clearly very hard to measure," says business psychologist Sherridan Hughes. "But if someone feels that they benefited from the coaching and are not able to put a finger on exactly how, that should not be discounted."

What ‘Coaching’ means to a hotel management team

I recently came across this article, and thought I couldn't have said it better myself, so here it is:

Be Thankful - Author Unknown

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don't know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you're tired and weary
Because it means you've made a difference.

It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.

GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessing.

Plan Your Perfect Christmas Now

As the shops begin to display their full ranges of seasonal gift ideas, they are putting plans into action that were formulated almost a year ago. For many of us, Christmas is a last minute rush and an expensive time of rampant consumerism and materialism.

So at the Enfys Acumen, we believe this is a good time to start planning your own perfect Christmas. Not in a materialistic sense, but in a sense that is measured by contentment and satisfaction.

In a few one-hour telephone conversations, at weekly intervals, I invite you to review where you are now and where you want to be in the future. Together we can create a strategy for getting to where you want to be and define the actions that will produce the desired results.

I’m always keen to point out however that a coach is simply the catalyst. It is the you, the client who makes the decisions and the commitment. For a great many of my clients, the weekly reporting back of progress is the spur that keeps them on target.

A lot of Christmas stress results from people trusting to luck that ‘everything will be alright’ rather than taking control and ensuring that they actually make everything as they want it to be.

I frequently ask my clients,

“What would you choose to do in your life if you could do absolutely anything with no limitations, no prospect of failure and no accountability to anyone?”

I am no longer surprised when clients answer this innocent question with a long list of what they don’t want to do. It seems to be a natural reaction. I don’t let them off the hook that easily. I listen and keep returning to the positive side of the question. Eventually I will get them to admit to themselves, and often this is for the first time, what it is that they really want to do. This awareness can be the best Christmas present that you can give to yourself.

It is nowhere near as selfish as it sounds either. My clients discover that, once they have a plan for their life and achievements and are working towards its fulfilment, all the other areas of their lives improve as well. Partners, relatives and colleagues alike notice a new sense of purpose, a new enthusiasm and a contagious happiness.

You may not be able to wrap all this up in pretty paper but even so, its value is beyond measure.

I am always happy to discuss this or other aspects of my approach to coaching, absolutely free of any cost or obligation. You can contact me during usual office hours on 01633 769657 or by email anytime.

Use These Longer Evenings

If, like me, you lead an active outdoor life you will think of the autumn dusk as coming too early and making your evenings shorter. If you spend much of your time indoors you will see them as longer evenings.

The hours of darkness are the same for everyone. It is only your perception of them that is different. As a professional coach I notice that no two people see the world
in exactly the same way. The art of achieving success in life is to ensure that you see every challenge or opportunity in its most positive light - and this is a great time of year to start doing this.

In a few one-hour telephone conversations, at weekly intervals, I invite my clients to review where they are now and where they want to be in the future. Together we create a strategy for getting to where they want to be and define the actions that will produce the desired results. As I always say, moving from dreaming to action.

I am quick to point out that as the coach, I am simply the catalyst. It is the client who makes the decisions and the commitment. For a great many, the weekly reporting back of progress is the spur that keeps them on target.

Many of us are too busy working at earning a living to actually take time out for living fully. I begin by asking a client,

‘What would you choose to do in your life if you could do absolutely anything with no limitations, no prospect of failure and no accountability to anyone?’

I am no longer surprised when clients answer this innocent question with a long list of what they don’t want to do. It seems to be a natural reaction. I don’t let them off the hook that easily. I listen and keep returning to the positive side of the question. Eventually I will get them to admit to themselves, and often this is for the first time, what it is that they really want to do.

Coaching is a painless procedure that seeks to eliminate limitations, ensure success and allow individuals to take personal responsibility for their own lives.

Some clients are amazed at how liberated they feel when they realise that they can and should take control over their own lives. Too many just go with the flow and respond to the pressures of what others think they should do. With coaching they can change from this ‘victim’ mentality to one of ‘victor’ thinking. And anyone can do it.

I am always happy to discuss this or other aspects of my approach to coaching, absolutely free of any cost or obligation.

Achieve Your Business Results Through Executive Coaching That Yields a 500% Plus ROI

The following is an article by Leanne Hoagland Smith that she has very kindly allowed me to reproduce – it really does speak for itself

What if you could have a 500% plus return for very pound that you invested in your employees? What would that mean for your business? Possibly right now you are thinking that this is not possible and even if it was, any business owner would jump at the chance for such an incredible investment?

First, it is true. So begin looking for that jump rope. According to a recent report by MetrixGlobal for a Fortune 500 company, executive coaching provided a 529% return on investment. This report is supported by other research including Dell Computers. Half of the 761 senior managers at Dell Computer Corporation recently received executive coaching within a two-year time period. Dell has been actively monitoring these managers through pre-determined measurements. One of these criteria indicates that executives who received coaching tended to be promoted more often than those who were not coached.

If you are now convinced that coaching is a viable strategy to enhance your bottom line, then what do you need to do as a business owner to implement a coaching programme?

First, research any coach or coaching organisation that you are considering. Ask for specific references where measurable results were put in place prior to the coaching. The coaching should be results focused with clearly identifiable measurements. Also, coaching certification should not be a limiting factor as many certified coaches fail to earn even mid five figures. The determining factor should be about the results that the coach has delivered with his or her clients.

Second, look for a coaching programme that works with your company and can be quickly and affordably aligned to your company’s culture. This curriculum should also be easily adapted to other training and development group sessions as well as to the different roles within the organization including Executive Leadership, Management, Supervision and Leadership.

Third, coaching is a personal relationship between the coach and the client. Your employees must feel comfortable with the coach. Some preliminary communication should take place with your employees before the implementation of a coaching program.

Fourth, the coaching curriculum should be structured, proven and provide numerous opportunities for application and feedback.

Fifth, everyone in the organisation needs to support and reinforce the coaching program. Management above those in the coaching programme must understand and be in agreement with the programme.

To be truly effective, an excellent coaching approach extends beyond the professional life into the personal life. For it is within each individual personally where the performance excellence evolves.

Coaching is a proven way to dramatically enhance your bottom line provided you incorporate at least these five strategies. By taking such action, you can achieve your goals quicker and leave your competition in the dust. That is unless of course they decide to enact a coaching initiative before you do. So what are you waiting for?

12 Customer-centred tips – whatever your business

1 Serve others or yourself: your choice

We have a choice every day of serving or being self-serving. Too many leaders are self-serving. We need new role models for leadership.

2 What business are you really in?

The financial services industry should aim to be in the "peace of mind" business. Disney doesn’t say "We’re in the theme park business." They say ‘We are in the happiness business."

3 What are your values?

Only 10% of companies set values. Those that do tend to make two mistakes – too many values (research shows people can only handle three or four) – and failing to rank the values. Life is about value conflict.

4 Stop killing creativity

What kills creativity? In large organisations you have to prove that a new idea will become a £50 million business before you can launch it. Those kinds of projections don’t work. You don’t know if it’s going to be a £50m business. I don’t know. Nobody knows.

5 Stop accepting other people’s frameworks

Once you have learnt someone else’s framework, you are bound to think within it. Michael Porter and others will tell you your strategy is based on how you create value through your value chain. But, good strategists by-pass the value chain completely. Michael Dell’s business plan was rejected by his Professor because it defied Porter’s reliance on a value chain. So, Dell launched it anyway. Don’t use frameworks or case studies to learn. Think about the product, service or company five years from now and how it should be. That is where your strategy starts: it frees you from having a limiting framework.

6 Knowledge is obsolete. Sense is not.

It’s not the knowledge economy. The Japanese compulsory education system takes nine years, in which you have to memorise masses of knowledge. That knowledge can be condensed onto a pound coin. But, you can’t automate ‘That sounds right’ or ‘That feels right.’ Today, those two things are far more important than the ability to say ‘That’s the right answer.’"

7 Know what motivates people.

It’s different for different people – including yourself. Sir Steve Redgrave, the five-times Olympic Gold Medal winner summed it up: “Some people train to win. I used to train just not to lose. Know what your motivation is. That’s what will bring consistency of perfection.”

8 You can’t manage customers

I hate the use of the words Customer Management. It assumes we can do things with them. When we talk about Customer Relationship management or CRM, what is the assumption we make? That WE can manage the relationship, that the consumer is passive and a recipient.

9 You cannot market an experience

Just think of high net worth experiences for a moment – a meal in a top notch restaurant, an concert with your favourite band, choir or orchestra, an exotic holiday. The people who sell these things aren’t selling at the cost of provision, because you pay for the experience. You cannot market an experience, You co-create it. It’s contextual and depends on who you are with.

10 We misunderstand customer-centric

Prof CK Prahalad, the distinguished corporate strategist said "Becoming customer-centred does NOT mean the firm becomes more customer oriented. It means the consumer becomes part of the unit of analysis, becomes part of the value creation."

11 No more sectors

Stop thinking ‘sectors’. The consumers decide what sectors they are in, what their ‘portfolio’ is. For example, the individual consumer decides what their personal health portfolio of products and services is – their wellness portfolio – not Merck or Pfizer, who only have 10% of it. When you realise there are no sectors, you can create hybrids. Tesco and Asda are now in financial services. The traditional boundaries are irrelevant.

12 Failure isn’t all it’s cracked up to be

“The secret of success is the capacity to survive failure,” said Noel Coward. Failure teaches you about life. My life is, at the moment, much sweeter for it. - Gerald Ratner

Why not let the Enfys Acumen help you develop your business or organisation, have a look at our website for more information about organisational development and executive or management coaching.

Getting out of the grip of busy-ness

Regular readers of this blog, will know that I am quite a keen gardener and I try to spend as much time as I can in my allotment. I often end a session spending a few minutes just sitting on a bench admiring the sunset, listening to the birds, contemplating my seedlings and what I can plant next and recently I watched a couple of bats zigzagging around me hunting for their evening meal, I am in heaven.

However, I am also reminded of how we all get caught up in the grip of “busy-ness.” The compulsion to complete things, meet deadlines, fit in just a bit more and then a bit extra.

This was a timely reminder for me that being “on the go” over a long period of time does take its toll. I am reminded of the stress I suffered before escaping the rat race to start my own organisational development and coaching practice and live my dream.

We are living in times where busy-ness has become the norm for most people - beyond a choice – almost a survival necessity. But where does it end?

Here are some thoughts, reflections and reminders for you:

1 Being constantly busy can rob us from focusing on what is truly important rather than what is urgent along with a consequent list of activities to tick off. Keep an eye on your more developmental and progressive, long-term goals and remember, sometimes “less is more.”

2 Important and nurturing relationships can be overlooked in favour of other more pressing work demands. The quality of those very relationships, which provide us with nourishment and care, can suffer.

3 As much as we may love doing what we do, we are much more than our jobs.

4 Take a few minutes and do a “busy-ness scan”. Where and how might you be over stressing yourself? Watch out for any body signals that need attention. Do not ignore the basics of good health and self-care. This is what will give you the longevity so you keep doing what you love doing..…longer!

5 Consciously schedule time to chill out for some serious rest, relaxation and fun. Down times are good for re-fueling your mind, body and soul. And yes – you may have to re-visit your priorities, time frames, delegation, and practice of saying NO. And as you do this, how about a “gratitude scan” for all that is still wondrous about your life?

So take a pause and get in touch with where you might be out of balance and take some positive and healthy steps to connect with the neglected you.

Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should keep doing it. If you would like some coaching in your life - management, executive, corporate / organisational or life coaching, why not contact the Enfys Acumen today.

Why coach? What's the return for investing valuable time in coaching?

Every organisation has its own approach to performance management and coaching, but more often or not coaching is something a line manager or supervisor does to a more junior member of staff.

At the Enfys Acumen we view coaching as an interactive process. Our approach to coaching helps individuals grow as professionals and contribute fully to the success of an organisation or business. Done well, it can turn performance management into a collaborative process that benefits everyone.

In today's environment of rapidly changing technology and evolving organisations, coaching can have a strategic impact. It ensures continuous learning and develops people to meet current and future needs. Coaching is an investment that you make in developing your key resource, people, for the long-term benefit of the organisation.

About 6 out of 10 (59%) organisations currently offer coaching to their managers and executives, according to a survey of more than 300 companies by Manchester, a human capital consulting firm. Another 20% of organisations said they plan to offer such coaching within the next year.

Here's why

Most organisations need to improve productivity to fuel growth and profitability. Productivity doesn't happen when people are only focusing on the financial or technical issues. They also must build the capacity of managers to help their employees with the intangible elements of human interaction - because the work gets done through personal relationships. The key to ROI is developing and sustaining individual and group behaviours through personal relationships to achieve the desired business results. Executive coaching encourages the organisational development to get this done.

The Enfys Acumen is leading the way with executive coaching and can work with all kinds of organisations and businesses to develop the capability of their staff. Ask us how we can support you to introduce coaching into your workplace.

Spring Clean Your Life

Spring cleaning has its origins in ancient history. Back then, with no labour saving devices and no electricity, spring marked the start of the season when the weather allowed a complete cleaning of the cave or house.

Since then, the tradition has been maintained but now there is a new angle. It is called coaching and it is, in effect, spring cleaning for your life.

In my view and the view of the thousands of people who receive regular coaching sessions, coaching is one of the most effective ways of staying green and growing instead of becoming ripe and rotten. It is simply a way of looking at where you are now, where you want to be in the future and how you are going to get there.

As a trained, professional coach I help my clients to do just that in a series of one hour telephone conversations at weekly intervals. A few people are able to do this for themselves, but the vast majority find that having an outsider like me to keep them on course is a vital ingredient in their life spring cleaning.

Frankly, I am not interested in how they got to where they are now. The only place that they can start to change their life is here and now. So we focus totally on the future and the actions that will lead to the positive results that they desire.

In the same way that our homes can become musty during the winter months and often look in need of a new lick of paint, so our lives can become a bit tattered and full of mental junk that no longer serves us well.

We all, without exception, carry a load of excess baggage in the form of worry, guilt, fears and false beliefs or expectations. I am a great believer in the power of a positive mental attitude and very few of us ever achieve anything approaching our full potential.

In coaching, clients are shown how they can easily let go of all this baggage to create room in their lives for new and exciting challenges. Many of my clients are amazed at the positive impact that even a small change or shift in attitude can produce. This really is spring cleaning for the mind.

In the same way that the onset of spring is often the catalyst that triggers a burst of domestic action, so a coach can be the catalyst that allows amazing and positive changes to happen.

I am always happy to discuss this or other aspects of his approach to coaching, absolutely free of any cost or obligation. You can the Enfys Acumen at any time or by telephone during usual office hours on 01633 769352.

I am still surprised at how often my clients tell me that their emotional and mental spring cleaning is like a weight being lifted from their shoulders. The joy is that they do it all themselves, I am just there to show them how.

10 tips for developing better relationships

Twenty years ago I qualified as a teacher and my first position was in a residential school for boys who were labelled in those days as emotionally and behaviourally disturbed - an awful label I know and it certainly helped me to realise that labels are for jam jars not for people.

I entered the teaching profession with lots of values and a real vision to make an impact on developing young people. Although I'd had various holiday jobs over the years, this was my first experience of the real world of work. I think at the time I used to see the world through rose tinted specs, but over the next two years my worldview changed significantly and now I realise it wasn't necessarily for the better and has had a very negative effect on my professional life.

The term I started coincided with the appointment of a new headteacher, it was his first headship and even though I am sure he was a great teacher, he lacked a lot of skills in managing and motivating his staff team. I really learnt a lot about how not to manage and motivate people and some of the pitfalls in organisational development.

In the two years I worked at that school, I think I only went into the headteacher's office about three times, one of which was for the actual job interview. I never had any one-to-one support and the only feedback I ever got tended to be negative and involved a ticking off in front of the kids. I'm sure you can well imagine how that made me feel.

Although I enjoyed the teaching side of things I really hated the school environment and couldn't wait to get away from there at the end of the day. I'm sure I used to get on my housemates nerves moaning about my job and complaining or rather in line with my view of life at the time, I would be making excuses for my boss. After all it was his first management position, he was only developing his skills too!

One day things really hit home. I had gone home quite upset and started making excuses for the headteacher again when a friend really pulled me down to earth.

"Stop there!" she said "This man is your manager, he's doing the job because he demonstrated to someone he could do it , he is getting paid twice as much as you are, you deserve to be supported and developed in your role."

I thought right, I either stand up to him or get out of that environment as soon as I possibly can. I chose the latter and at the end of term I was gone, off to pastures new and out of the teaching profession completely. I was escaping or running away. What I resolved in my own mind however was that I would never again expect less than the best possible support from my line manager.

Now I have had several jobs since that first teaching job and have had some great managers and some downright awful ones. What I did however was set myself some very high expectations for the way I wanted to be managed and how I, in return, would manage my staff. When my manager or the people responsible for employing and supporting me didn't fulfil my expectations of them or if my staff didn't meet my standards and in my mind, refused to be motivated and led in the right direction, I would often get myself into a rut of depression and consequently the quality of my own work and impact would suffer. I would be on a downward spiral until I lifted myself out of the situation by moving on to employment elsewhere. Running away again.

Since starting the Enfys Acumen however, becoming my own boss and having no-one else to blame as it were, I have put a huge amount of effort into personal development and understand now that I had placed myself in a position that I was setting myself up failure. Nobody is perfect and managers and staff have a shared responsibility to the team-playing role.

I have written before about teams and how in a team you have some people you are completely comfortable with and others you don't necessarily want to have much to do with, but recognise they too have a crucial role to play. See my blog post on Teamwork and Bicycles.

The rest of this post gives 10 tips on developing better relationships. I wish I'd discovered them sooner. If you are in a role where other people aren't meeting your expectations, I'm sure you'll find them useful:

1. Remember that however unreasonable someone is acting, their behaviour is derived from a positive intention. When you act as if all behaviour has a positive intention behind it, through discovering it, your life will become more pleasant. An example: You meet an angry person and you think how childish and silly they are. But if you were to ask yourself, "what is the positive intention behind this persons angry behaviour?", you could come up with something useful that allows you to feel more comfortable. For instance people often act angry because behind this they believe it will protect them from harm.

2. When you find yourself feeling uncomfortable in an interaction get some perspective by disassociating. In your mind's eye see yourself and the other person interacting over there, rather like you would if you were to see a video film of the situation.

3. Step into their shoes. This is one of the most powerful methods for gaining wisdom about your relationships. To begin, you imagine communicating with the other person, noticing how they talk, observe their facial expressions and so on. You then step into their shoes and see through their eyes and hear through their ears. So of course you will be looking at yourself! Run through a conversation you've had before, that could have been better. Notice yourself and become aware of how seeing things from this other person's perspective gives you new insights into the relationship.

4. What assumptions are you making about the other person? Are you willing to challenge those assumptions? Pick one. What is the opposite of that? eg narrow minded/open minded.
Now imagine interacting with the person with this new attitude.

5. Step into the WE frame: Think about a person you want to get along with better. Disassociate: Picture both of you interacting in your minds eye. Now allow yourself to find a common purpose between the two of you. Of course if you can't come up with anything you can always fall back on the fact that you are just two human beings who are trying to experience more happiness.

6. Funify your boss (or that irritating colleague). Many people experience difficulties communicating with their boss. It's often due to being too serious. So here is a simple, quick way to inject the antidote: FUN! Okay, picture your boss or whoever. And then notice their facial features. What stands out? Is it their nose, their eyes, eye brows, chin? Now you simply exaggerate those features rather like a caricature cartoonist does. Exaggerate and funify it in such a way that it makes you laugh or at least feel better towards the relationship.

7. No Failure, only feedback (or learning experiences.) A really useful way to make beneficial changes is to view everything as a learning experience. So thinking about a relationship you find challenging, notice how you usually respond to the person and then ask yourself, "How else could I respond?" How many different ways could you respond in your interactions? Come up with at least 3 possibilities. This enables your mind to generate more flexibility of behaviour.

8. Often when we experience difficulties in our relationships it is due to focusing on faults. This distorts our perception of the overall relationship, which is really a mixture of good and bad qualities. To re-focus our attention on the bigger picture begin to remember qualities you admire in the other person. Come up with three, picture them, increase the size of the images and place them around an image of the faulty qualities of the person. And remember positive intention, take a look at Tip 1 again!

9. What would be the consequence of staying stuck in the same relationship dynamic with a particular person, say ten years from now?! The fact is if you want to experience better relationships YOU are going to have to change your viewpoints or attitude. It's okay, this can be fairly simple. Imagine stepping into the future ten years from now and look back at that relationship and notice that it has remained in the same stuck pattern year after year for ten years! Looking at it like this, acting as if it could really happen, allow your feelings to arise that make you say, "enough is enough I MUST change!"

10. Think of someone you would like to get along with better. Choose someone of medium level problematic-ness and then read the following questions slowly: Isn't it true that all of the problems that we experience when relating to others is due to OUR feelings? What if we were to change our feelings? This could make things easier couldn't it?

If you are stuck in a professional relationship that is giving you grief in some way, why not try some personal coaching or ask the Enfys Acumen to help with developing a strategy to help your team work together more effectively.

Success - creating a life that matters

Are you a successful person? That is a huge question isn’t it? What does success mean? Do you judge success by how much money you have in the bank? How many people you people you employ? Is it determined by the kind of car you drive or the type of house you live in? Success can mean different things to different people can’t it?

I came across a great book recently called Success built to last: creating a life that matters. It is written by Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery and Mark Thompson. They have focused their work talking to over 200 people the world over who have achieved great personal success and fulfilment that will last their lifetime and beyond. Some of the people are famous some are not – just ordinary people who share powerful patterns of lifelong success. I don’t want to give the whole story away and thoroughly recommend that you read book yourself, but would like to share this quotation with you:

“Healthy, sustainable societies require the creation of healthy, sustainable organisations, and great organisations and societies can only be built by human beings who can grow and create meaningful success.”

The book talks about three simple pieces that must fit together for lasting success:

• Meaning

• Thought

• Action

The authors stress that putting these pieces together is not an easy process, but that is what the Enfys Acumen is all about isn’t it?

If you need support to develop your understanding of what the meaning of success is to you, to develop the kind of thought patterns that encourage you to be succesful and to plan the actions you need to take, then why not get in touch today.

Performance management won't happen over night

Regular readers of my articles will know that I am a strong advocate for supporting businesses and organisations to develop a positive culture of accountability to ensure everyone concerned sees what needs to be done, owns it for themselves, has a role in solving the issue and goes off to do whatever is necessary to achieve the needed results.

In his own recent article Dan Martin expounds similar sentiments and asks:

“Is performance management simply about managing the way employees perform?”

“If you answered yes, you'd be wrong” writes Dan. “The process is actually more complex than the phrase suggests and as a result many organisations struggle to successfully embrace it.”

The Enfys Acumen model of organisational development has been addressing this for some time, but why is this approach so relevant?

In simple terms, performance management is the holistic approach to managing performance across an organisation. However, the term does require slightly more description. Angela Baron and Michael Armstrong, from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and two of the UK's leading experts on the subject, define it as:

"A process which contributes to the effective management of individuals and teams in order to achieve high levels of organisational performance. As such, it establishes shared understanding about what is to be achieved and an approach to leading and developing people which will ensure that it is achieved."

Monica Franco, research fellow at the Centre for Business Performance, Cranfield School of Management, says a key element is that the process should be linked to the direction an organisation is taking. "Performance management could be defined as the set of processes by which organisations manage their performance in line with their corporate strategy," she claims.

The experts agree then that where organisations fail on their definition of performance management is when they only focus on the practical processes used. While things such as employee appraisals, talent development and rewards are of course vitally important they are simply the tools which are used to help manage performance. Just having these tools in place is not enough. Effort above and beyond them is required.

As we have been saying, success in a business or organisation is very much about achieving a culture of accountability and this sort of thing just can’t happen over night that’s why a staged approach like ours is so valuable. We suggest that effective performance management needs a four stage process and a strong programme of coaching to ensure people stay on target and receive the kind of support they need and deserve.

Organisational development must be seen as a living process and not something written on a tablet of stone, organisations are after all organic, evolving, growing bodies.

To find out more about the Enfys Acumen organisational development click here or please get in touch we’d love to talk to you about it.

The Guy in the Glass

I've just stumbled across this poem. Isn't it great?

The Guy in the Glass

by Dale Wimbrow, (c) 1934

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf,

And the world makes you King for a day,

Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,

And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn't your Father, or Mother, or Wife,

Who judgement upon you must pass.

The feller whose verdict counts most in your life

Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He's the feller to please, never mind all the rest,

For he's with you clear up to the end,

And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test

If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and "chisel" a plum,

And think you're a wonderful guy,

But the man in the glass says you're only a bum

If you can't look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,

And get pats on the back as you pass,

But your final reward will be heartaches and tears

If you've cheated the guy in the glass.

Start shovelling for greater business success

Last week's snowfall made me think. While shovelling snow from my front drive to get the car our without sliding into the gate post, I remembered an article I read recently about leverage and organisation and business development.

Leverage is about using the resources you have available to make sure you get the best returns for your business or organisation. I think the concept is equally relevant whether you are looking to secure a better income, improve your personal performance or have a greater impact as a voluntary or community organisation.

Let's get back to those shovels:


Shovel 1: Projects

Start making much smarter choices about which projects and tasks are really worth your time, and which should be ditched. I look at every project from the perspective of not only immediate short-term rewards, but also how it will continue making a difference for months or years to come. Make a list today.

Shovel 2: Time

Don't obsess about not having enough time. You all have all the time in the world to make the kind of money you need or develop the quality of life you desire for yourself or community. You just need to choose the right projects and have a bigger vision! Sometimes you need time away from day-to-day business to be more creative and fresh. What is your vision? Take some time out to clarify it.

Shovel 3:Customers, Clients and Service Users

It is easy to think that any customer, client or service user is better than none at all. If you think about it though, it becomes painfully clear that you can't be all things to all people, so that it's essential to screen customers and clients carefully and to take only highly committed and well paying clients. This might be challenging to some VCOs or public services, but think about the value of a major success for one service user might have on raising expectations for others with similar needs.

Shovel 4: Products and Services

You might thrive on the creative energy of creating new ways of doing things, I know I do, but how much time is spent just talking about things and not achieving anything - remember a camel is a horse designed by a committee! Why not put more effort into thinking why you want to do something and then develop ways for having fewer products and services on the back burner and get smarter, quicker.

Shovel 5: Alliances

I am a great believer in the idea that together we are better, that's why I am such a great fan of networking and having alliances with people like Vivienne, Steve and Elena. Just think what you might be able to achieve by being commited to achieving results with other people, businesses and services. With whom can you form alliances?

Shovel 6: Technology

Just 12 years ago I worked in an open plan office with 20-30 other people in a wide variety of roles and where there were just two PCs. One was dominated by the team coordinator and the other was in a corner collecting dust. I soon became frustrated with handwriting letters and documents, giving them to someone else to type (and as I was quite junior, was far down the pecking order for getting things done!), correcting the typos and then waiting hours and sometimes days to get the final copy back - so I vowed to conquer Word Perfect. Oh, how times have changed! Now I communicate daily with people around the globe, have information when I need it, do most of my marketing online, create presentations, record speeches, update my website and break down so many barriers with emails, now that's leverage! I know by the very fact that you are reading this that I am probably preaching to the converted, but am still flabbergasted that there are so many people in leadership and management positions that are not making the best use of the technology so readily available. Why not print this off give them the article with my best wishes.

Shovel 7: My Coach

Who is your coach? I made a conscious decision to have a coach to help me grow my business and achieve my goals in life. By regularly working with a coach, I am helped to find find more and more "bigger shovels" in my business. If you are committed to a successful life and career, you must get yourself a coach.

Bigger Shovel 8: Goals

What are your goals for your business or organisation, your career and your home life? Are these goals little more than making sure the next contract comes in, getting through to the next grant round, carrying on working until your pension matures or to have another holiday in the same place you have been to for the last 10 years. If so, don't you think there may be more to life than that and you are without a doubt able to achieve a great deal more. Set yourself some clear goals, work out how you can achieve them.

As you can see, there are many ways to experience growth using leverage. If you are working harder than ever, and settling for less money, fewer customers or clients and less enjoyment, this is your lifetime opportunity to change it.

The Enfys Acumen can help, why not get in touch today?