After one of my “Counting Chickens” talks recently, I received a thank you card with a cartoon on the front showing a chicken standing contemplating crossing a road.
On the opposite side of the road was a sign, “Why do you need a Reason?”… a reference to the many jokes which start with the phrase “Why did the Chicken cross the road?”
So why did the chicken cross the road?
The answer: it doesn’t matter why…. To us.
But it does matter that the chicken has a reason. After all, without the reason, even though his goal might be written in the clearest terms (“Objective: To get to the other side”) he may teeter on the edge of the curb and decide not to bother today, returning home thinking, “Well I can always cross it tomorrow anyway. So what’s the rush?”
If you are not on track with your own goals, your business goals or your goals in any other area, if you have fallen behind, or simply aren't making the progress you wish, look to the reason for setting the goal in the first place. Strengthening the reason means your focus will move beyond the goal and settle on the motive for the goal. When the going gets tough, this motive will be what helps you go the extra mile to achieving your target. The motive for action … motive-ACTION.
OK, so the Chicken needs a reason to cross the road.
And remember, it must be the chicken’s reason. No one else’s reason matters.
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
Monday, 11 March 2013
Spring Cleaning your Business - Part Two
In part one we looked at having a self-upgrade as part of your Spring Cleaning.
Now, to ramp up your Business Growth and Professional Performance, let’s turn to spring cleaning the business:
Having a Business upgrade
1. Clear up any hangovers.
Clearing up all the stuff hanging over from the past is essential to signal that you are ready to take advantage of the opportunities and fresh volume of business on its way. In creating a clutter-free business and having nothing outstanding, you will often come across something to remind you of a business opportunity. Get up to date and you allow new opportunities to arrive. A signal to the “business universe” that you are ready to receive, and that there is nothing in the way of you doing all the new business which will come your way.
This requires you to get decisive about all those things in your “In tray” and the piles of paper on your desk, the emails in your inbox, and the odd files which seem to hide in briefcase compartments and get carried to and from the office every day, with all good intentions of getting round to acting on them. Clear your desk to the wood. And what about all thopse “archived files”?
Remember the F-A-R-T nemonic… There are only 4 things you can do with any piece of paper:
File
Act
Refer
Trash
That goes for your paperwork, your In-tray, your inbox.
2. Upgrade your office environment.
Clear up your office, reception area, etc. Is your furniture really what it should be? Are you “making do”? Are you well supported technologically? What does your office, your reception area say to clients? Clients want to associate with success. Again, the small things will make a huge difference here, and you don’t have to spend a fortune to make the environment you work in very stylish, of high quality and supportive of your brand.
3. Upgrade your systems.
To keep your business capacity up, and ensure you deliver first rate service from a world class practice, it’s essential you have strong business systems, procedures, processes. Take a look at the routine tasks your business does and ask “how can these be systemised so I can spend more time with clients, doing what I do best?” What is your client’s journey through your business like? What is their experience from the moment you are in contact with them, right through the process of them becoming clients and beyond? This is not just about the personal service you provide, but also the experience they have in every minute detail. How can each detail be improved? Apply this to everything that affects your interaction with your existing clients and potential clients. What they experience in their interaction with your firm will either work for you or against you, and so should be deliberately chosen… not an accident. For example, how the phone is answered, or your voicemail/ answer phone message. Do these project your brand, inspire confidence in prospective clients, speak volumes about your values?
4. Upgrade yourself and your team Professionally
This could include an upgrade in Skills, Knowledge, Activity Levels, new performance standards, professional regimes and structures. For example, when do you have your regular team meetings, and how they are formatted?
What new skills need to be developed? What courses (or even self-study and research) need to be taken to improve knowledge of products, services, the market place, technical developments?
.
What needs upgrading in each of these areas?
Make a hit list and go to work ON it.
And maybe it does mean getting all those niggly little jobs done and finally sorted, clearing out those dark cupboards where nobody goes, but where who knows what lurks!
Just as a body finds it difficult to function with clogged arteries, and just as we feel re-energized when we spring clean, so too in our business and professional lives a “spring clean” will yield immediate results. It may be that a day dedicated to a “Business Spring clean” will energise you and your team at just the right time. But if the thought of taking a day (or two!) out to “spring clean” your business fills you with horror as you are just too “snowed under”, just work on a piece at a time. Why not take the whole of March and just upgrade part of your business each day?
Now, to ramp up your Business Growth and Professional Performance, let’s turn to spring cleaning the business:
Having a Business upgrade
1. Clear up any hangovers.
Clearing up all the stuff hanging over from the past is essential to signal that you are ready to take advantage of the opportunities and fresh volume of business on its way. In creating a clutter-free business and having nothing outstanding, you will often come across something to remind you of a business opportunity. Get up to date and you allow new opportunities to arrive. A signal to the “business universe” that you are ready to receive, and that there is nothing in the way of you doing all the new business which will come your way.
This requires you to get decisive about all those things in your “In tray” and the piles of paper on your desk, the emails in your inbox, and the odd files which seem to hide in briefcase compartments and get carried to and from the office every day, with all good intentions of getting round to acting on them. Clear your desk to the wood. And what about all thopse “archived files”?
Remember the F-A-R-T nemonic… There are only 4 things you can do with any piece of paper:
File
Act
Refer
Trash
That goes for your paperwork, your In-tray, your inbox.
2. Upgrade your office environment.
Clear up your office, reception area, etc. Is your furniture really what it should be? Are you “making do”? Are you well supported technologically? What does your office, your reception area say to clients? Clients want to associate with success. Again, the small things will make a huge difference here, and you don’t have to spend a fortune to make the environment you work in very stylish, of high quality and supportive of your brand.
3. Upgrade your systems.
To keep your business capacity up, and ensure you deliver first rate service from a world class practice, it’s essential you have strong business systems, procedures, processes. Take a look at the routine tasks your business does and ask “how can these be systemised so I can spend more time with clients, doing what I do best?” What is your client’s journey through your business like? What is their experience from the moment you are in contact with them, right through the process of them becoming clients and beyond? This is not just about the personal service you provide, but also the experience they have in every minute detail. How can each detail be improved? Apply this to everything that affects your interaction with your existing clients and potential clients. What they experience in their interaction with your firm will either work for you or against you, and so should be deliberately chosen… not an accident. For example, how the phone is answered, or your voicemail/ answer phone message. Do these project your brand, inspire confidence in prospective clients, speak volumes about your values?
4. Upgrade yourself and your team Professionally
This could include an upgrade in Skills, Knowledge, Activity Levels, new performance standards, professional regimes and structures. For example, when do you have your regular team meetings, and how they are formatted?
What new skills need to be developed? What courses (or even self-study and research) need to be taken to improve knowledge of products, services, the market place, technical developments?
.
What needs upgrading in each of these areas?
Make a hit list and go to work ON it.
And maybe it does mean getting all those niggly little jobs done and finally sorted, clearing out those dark cupboards where nobody goes, but where who knows what lurks!
Just as a body finds it difficult to function with clogged arteries, and just as we feel re-energized when we spring clean, so too in our business and professional lives a “spring clean” will yield immediate results. It may be that a day dedicated to a “Business Spring clean” will energise you and your team at just the right time. But if the thought of taking a day (or two!) out to “spring clean” your business fills you with horror as you are just too “snowed under”, just work on a piece at a time. Why not take the whole of March and just upgrade part of your business each day?
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
Spring Cleaning Your Business - Part One
Driving back from a business speaking engagement last week, it was early morning, I had a long drive ahead, the sun was shining, I had music on, and was feeling relaxed.
Spring is definitely here, I thought!
Spring represents renewal, rebirth, and the start of new life, and spring cleaning your business means injecting this fresh feeling to your whole operation.
It’s at this time of year we turn to Spring-cleaning… and in business it’s no different - and I’m not just talking about clearing out a few cupboards (although, that could be part of it - certainly metaphorically!)
Just as a body finds it difficult to function with clogged arteries
and just as we feel re-energized when we spring clean, so too in our business and professional lives a “spring clean” will yield immediate results. It may be that a day dedicated to a “Business Spring clean” will energise you and your team at just the right time.
Let’s start with you…
Having a Self-Upgrade
In five steps:
1. Upgrade your appearance. This is your shop window. Is it up to scratch?
2 Upgrade the way you Act. Are you exuding confidence with every stride? As Tom Watson (founder of IBM) said: “If you want to be the best company in the world, you’ve got to act like it today, immediately.”
3. Upgrade the Words you use. Get rid of the “Weak-Speak” – so words like “try” (as in “I’ll try and do….”, or “We are trying to get more clients”), and “fine” (as in “How are you?” “Fine” – yuk, how bland!).
4. Upgrade the way you Think. Do you genuinely believe in yourself, your purpose, your company, your team, your products, and services, and the value you provide?
Think successful and you’ll be successful.
And not just at a conscious level. Have you done anything about the way you subconsciously think? - because that’s where the power is. Our behaviours, actions, and level of performance (and therefore our results and the level of success we reach), are directly influenced by the images you carry round in our heads. The associations in our mind reflect like a wave through everything we do. Upgrade the images in your mind’s eye to enhance your results. With my clients, I use a series of techniques I call Visual-is-ACTIONs for this.
5. Upgrade your Environment. Yes, a genuine Spring Clean… your office, car, home… all create a self-image that will either support you, or work against you. Clear out the clutter.
Based on these 5 areas, make up a checklist of things to blitz in the next 5 days. Sometimes simple changes and minor upgrades can have the biggest effect.
Next up… in Part Two, we’ll look at Spring Cleaning the key aspects of your business…
Spring is definitely here, I thought!
Spring represents renewal, rebirth, and the start of new life, and spring cleaning your business means injecting this fresh feeling to your whole operation.
It’s at this time of year we turn to Spring-cleaning… and in business it’s no different - and I’m not just talking about clearing out a few cupboards (although, that could be part of it - certainly metaphorically!)
Just as a body finds it difficult to function with clogged arteries
and just as we feel re-energized when we spring clean, so too in our business and professional lives a “spring clean” will yield immediate results. It may be that a day dedicated to a “Business Spring clean” will energise you and your team at just the right time.
Let’s start with you…
Having a Self-Upgrade
In five steps:
1. Upgrade your appearance. This is your shop window. Is it up to scratch?
2 Upgrade the way you Act. Are you exuding confidence with every stride? As Tom Watson (founder of IBM) said: “If you want to be the best company in the world, you’ve got to act like it today, immediately.”
3. Upgrade the Words you use. Get rid of the “Weak-Speak” – so words like “try” (as in “I’ll try and do….”, or “We are trying to get more clients”), and “fine” (as in “How are you?” “Fine” – yuk, how bland!).
4. Upgrade the way you Think. Do you genuinely believe in yourself, your purpose, your company, your team, your products, and services, and the value you provide?
Think successful and you’ll be successful.
And not just at a conscious level. Have you done anything about the way you subconsciously think? - because that’s where the power is. Our behaviours, actions, and level of performance (and therefore our results and the level of success we reach), are directly influenced by the images you carry round in our heads. The associations in our mind reflect like a wave through everything we do. Upgrade the images in your mind’s eye to enhance your results. With my clients, I use a series of techniques I call Visual-is-ACTIONs for this.
5. Upgrade your Environment. Yes, a genuine Spring Clean… your office, car, home… all create a self-image that will either support you, or work against you. Clear out the clutter.
Based on these 5 areas, make up a checklist of things to blitz in the next 5 days. Sometimes simple changes and minor upgrades can have the biggest effect.
Next up… in Part Two, we’ll look at Spring Cleaning the key aspects of your business…
Monday, 25 February 2013
The Gift of Purpose
The greatest gift I have ever received occurred in March 1999. On 18 March 1999 to be precise.
Here’s how it unfolded…
A normally healthy, mid thirties, average type of guy. On three recent occasions that early spring I had come out in an unexplained rash, or as the medics refer to it - giant urticaria. Like a heat rash which spread from head to toe. Like an allergic reaction. But to what...? Completely unexplained, completely random in its cause (that is, with no apparent link to food or any other trigger for the reaction), and completely frightening!
The fourth instance was to have almost tragic consequences…
With Elizabeth, my wife, I was to meet a business acquaintance and her partner for lunch in Edinburgh. We parked the car, and walked the short distance to the restaurant in the west end of the city. We enjoyed a light lunch and great company before leaving the restaurant to head our separate ways.
Then it began…
… as it had done on three occasions previously, with a tingling heat sensation on the back of my head, spreading to my ears, and from my hands, spreading up my arms, and from my belly spreading to my chest, waistline and groin.
It happened in seconds…
Uncomfortable. And so, time to get back to the car to drive home. Mild concern, rising to panic, as it just got worse…
By the time we had walked the three minutes back to the car, I could hardly see, as the rash had become a puffiness and my face began to swell… forehead, cheeks, neck, eyes.
I was really starting to struggle now…
I could literally see the nerve endings in my eyeballs as I went snow-blind. We reached the car, and I slumped into the passenger seat. Frantically, Elizabeth started the car, and we were off. It would be a matter of relaxing, remaining calm, and soon it would be over… just like on previous occasions.
But somehow this was worse… and I knew it.
It already felt different. It wasn’t subsiding, and I could feel that my breathing was starting to be affected. The eerie silence in which I was shrouded was the same silence I had experienced only once before - when I had flown in a glider. As the chord from the towing cable releases and the drone of the towing aircraft becomes a distant memory, the aloneness has a unique soundlessness. And it was this soundlessness, not just silence, that I was experiencing now.
The blindness came over me like a white cloud, and the nauseating taste in my mouth told me I was going to pass out.
But it wasn’t passing out. This was passing away.
At the moment my body slumped forward, my tongue swelled to fill my mouth, my mind went into overdrive, I felt myself stop breathing. and I knew for a split second that this was it! I was away! This must be how it ends.
When they say your life flashes before you…
… that’s not true.
It’s your values that flash before you. And as I cruised down that tunnel of white light (yes, all that stuff you hear about this aspect is true), it was my values that flashed before me... in my final instant.
And…
What about all the things left undone?
I reached the infinite threshold... the moment of clarity... and then I was gone.
I didn’t even hear Elizabeth make the emergency call. Didn’t hear her words.
Blue light. Flashing.
Strange hands. Voices… but distant.
Waking up on the pavement (I subsequently learned that it was several minutes later), with my body constrained on a stretcher, and a mask being put to my face was an incomprehensible shock.
What? A car crash? What happened?
“No, mate… an anaphylactic shock they call it. You died. And now you are alive.”
It was later explained that my body had simply shut down like a computer shuts down. Each function simply closed down, like the functions on your laptop close down after a day is done. And eventually, your vital functions stop.
Since then, after numerous tests, no hint has been found as to the cause, or the trigger for the reaction. It has been years now… and every day like many others who have suffered similar attacks, I have carried the epi-pen (an emergency adrenalin injector) with me in case of another severe occurrence.
When asked, I struggle to describe what happened completely, but have often referred to it as “Heaven and Hell, in a nutshell”. That’s about it.
They call it an anaphylactic shock.
I call it my Light on the Road to Damascus.
And that’s a gift.
In that moment I saw my purpose. A purpose to focus on…
Here’s how it unfolded…
A normally healthy, mid thirties, average type of guy. On three recent occasions that early spring I had come out in an unexplained rash, or as the medics refer to it - giant urticaria. Like a heat rash which spread from head to toe. Like an allergic reaction. But to what...? Completely unexplained, completely random in its cause (that is, with no apparent link to food or any other trigger for the reaction), and completely frightening!
The fourth instance was to have almost tragic consequences…
With Elizabeth, my wife, I was to meet a business acquaintance and her partner for lunch in Edinburgh. We parked the car, and walked the short distance to the restaurant in the west end of the city. We enjoyed a light lunch and great company before leaving the restaurant to head our separate ways.
Then it began…
… as it had done on three occasions previously, with a tingling heat sensation on the back of my head, spreading to my ears, and from my hands, spreading up my arms, and from my belly spreading to my chest, waistline and groin.
It happened in seconds…
Uncomfortable. And so, time to get back to the car to drive home. Mild concern, rising to panic, as it just got worse…
By the time we had walked the three minutes back to the car, I could hardly see, as the rash had become a puffiness and my face began to swell… forehead, cheeks, neck, eyes.
I was really starting to struggle now…
I could literally see the nerve endings in my eyeballs as I went snow-blind. We reached the car, and I slumped into the passenger seat. Frantically, Elizabeth started the car, and we were off. It would be a matter of relaxing, remaining calm, and soon it would be over… just like on previous occasions.
But somehow this was worse… and I knew it.
It already felt different. It wasn’t subsiding, and I could feel that my breathing was starting to be affected. The eerie silence in which I was shrouded was the same silence I had experienced only once before - when I had flown in a glider. As the chord from the towing cable releases and the drone of the towing aircraft becomes a distant memory, the aloneness has a unique soundlessness. And it was this soundlessness, not just silence, that I was experiencing now.
The blindness came over me like a white cloud, and the nauseating taste in my mouth told me I was going to pass out.
But it wasn’t passing out. This was passing away.
At the moment my body slumped forward, my tongue swelled to fill my mouth, my mind went into overdrive, I felt myself stop breathing. and I knew for a split second that this was it! I was away! This must be how it ends.
When they say your life flashes before you…
… that’s not true.
It’s your values that flash before you. And as I cruised down that tunnel of white light (yes, all that stuff you hear about this aspect is true), it was my values that flashed before me... in my final instant.
And…
What about all the things left undone?
I reached the infinite threshold... the moment of clarity... and then I was gone.
I didn’t even hear Elizabeth make the emergency call. Didn’t hear her words.
Blue light. Flashing.
Strange hands. Voices… but distant.
Waking up on the pavement (I subsequently learned that it was several minutes later), with my body constrained on a stretcher, and a mask being put to my face was an incomprehensible shock.
What? A car crash? What happened?
“No, mate… an anaphylactic shock they call it. You died. And now you are alive.”
It was later explained that my body had simply shut down like a computer shuts down. Each function simply closed down, like the functions on your laptop close down after a day is done. And eventually, your vital functions stop.
Since then, after numerous tests, no hint has been found as to the cause, or the trigger for the reaction. It has been years now… and every day like many others who have suffered similar attacks, I have carried the epi-pen (an emergency adrenalin injector) with me in case of another severe occurrence.
When asked, I struggle to describe what happened completely, but have often referred to it as “Heaven and Hell, in a nutshell”. That’s about it.
They call it an anaphylactic shock.
I call it my Light on the Road to Damascus.
And that’s a gift.
In that moment I saw my purpose. A purpose to focus on…
Monday, 11 February 2013
Creating a "No-Excuse" Environment
Clive Woodward, former England Rugby Coach, often talks about creating the "No Excuse Environment", and the impact this had on the team, culminating in them winning the Rugby World Cup in 2003.
The application in business is the same… it’s so refreshing, to agree a set of standards, a set of values, a set of goals and then adopt the no-excuse philosophy.
To expect world class, no excuses, you must support this with an environment to match. And not just a physical environment, but the right mindset/ psychological environment… a level of world class expectation.
Act world class, to be world class.
And yet, I’m sure you will have seen this too… many businesses cut corners at both ends here. They provide barely adequate facilities/ support/ environment, and neither do they hold world-class standards, values, and expectations of performance. Both parties lose out!
Better to have a fantastic support structure, great remuneration package, wonderful environment, and to demand the very best from the very best people.
It’s a World Class contract.
The application in business is the same… it’s so refreshing, to agree a set of standards, a set of values, a set of goals and then adopt the no-excuse philosophy.
To expect world class, no excuses, you must support this with an environment to match. And not just a physical environment, but the right mindset/ psychological environment… a level of world class expectation.
Act world class, to be world class.
And yet, I’m sure you will have seen this too… many businesses cut corners at both ends here. They provide barely adequate facilities/ support/ environment, and neither do they hold world-class standards, values, and expectations of performance. Both parties lose out!
Better to have a fantastic support structure, great remuneration package, wonderful environment, and to demand the very best from the very best people.
It’s a World Class contract.
Tuesday, 5 February 2013
Success is... Simple
Why is it that most people look for the "complex secrets" to success, business growth, and personal development, rather than focusing on the Simple Key?
Yes, Success is Simple!
Not easy. But Simple.
KISS = Keep it Simply Significant
and
KISS= Keep it Significantly Simple.
Hold that thought...
Yes, Success is Simple!
Not easy. But Simple.
KISS = Keep it Simply Significant
and
KISS= Keep it Significantly Simple.
Hold that thought...
Monday, 4 February 2013
Repairing the Time Drains
All our primary resources are immensely valuable… Time, Energy, and Money.
And Time is most people’s most precious resource, and the one which is most scarce.
Yet, time is so frequently wasted by many people… it just slides by.
Which is what makes so-called Time Management so difficult.
With energy and money, to some extent we are more aware of how they are allocated and used. With time, it just flows by and often we don’t realise if it has been wasted until later.
Over recent years, there has been much talk on the news and in the press about parts of the UK having a water shortage, and many have levelled criticism at the water companies for the amount of water lost to leakage from pipes in need of repair.
To continue the analogy and tie it in with some "Time Management"…
Imagine your time is like water, and is flowing through your life carried by a series of pipes, like a network of pipes which ensure your time gets to those parts of your life which need it. … many people do have enormous volumes of time lost to Leakage.
Well, if these water pipes leak, we want to repair them. And if there are leaks in our time, we want to stop them.
And if these pipes simply lead to a drain, where the time water just flows away uselessly, we want to divert the pipe to make sure the time we need can be devoted to the parts of life which need it.
So, where are the Leaks in your time system? What is it that Drains your time? What is it that you can change to make better use of your time?What is your number 1 Time Drain?
And what leak-stopping measures have you put in place/
What is your handling strategy? Your groundrules for preventing that time from ebbing away?
And Time is most people’s most precious resource, and the one which is most scarce.
Yet, time is so frequently wasted by many people… it just slides by.
Which is what makes so-called Time Management so difficult.
With energy and money, to some extent we are more aware of how they are allocated and used. With time, it just flows by and often we don’t realise if it has been wasted until later.
Over recent years, there has been much talk on the news and in the press about parts of the UK having a water shortage, and many have levelled criticism at the water companies for the amount of water lost to leakage from pipes in need of repair.
To continue the analogy and tie it in with some "Time Management"…
Imagine your time is like water, and is flowing through your life carried by a series of pipes, like a network of pipes which ensure your time gets to those parts of your life which need it. … many people do have enormous volumes of time lost to Leakage.
Well, if these water pipes leak, we want to repair them. And if there are leaks in our time, we want to stop them.
And if these pipes simply lead to a drain, where the time water just flows away uselessly, we want to divert the pipe to make sure the time we need can be devoted to the parts of life which need it.
So, where are the Leaks in your time system? What is it that Drains your time? What is it that you can change to make better use of your time?What is your number 1 Time Drain?
And what leak-stopping measures have you put in place/
What is your handling strategy? Your groundrules for preventing that time from ebbing away?
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