We need to regularly pause and ‘take stock’ of various aspects of our lives. And by ‘taking stock’ I’m not referring to pilfering! We need to set aside time to assess our current status. If we aren’t sure where we are now, how can we go forward in our preferred direction? And how can we integrate continuous improvement?
A story in Mark Eppler’s book, ‘Management Mess-ups: 57 pitfalls you can avoid (and stories of those who didn’t)’ is about the author seeing fishermen on the beach with their boats turned upside down. The weather was good and there appeared no reason why they weren’t out at sea catching fish, earning a living. He spoke to them and they explained that they were ‘scraping away the barnacles’. He still didn’t understand. They elaborated that without their realising it, the barnacles under their boats, multiplied and multiplied. This meant that the boats were much heavier, less maneuverable and in some cases it cost 40% more fuel to reach the fishing areas. So they diarised one day a year where they sacrificed fishing and scraped away the barnacles that had built up over time.
Our lives are just like that. And this applies to our private and business lives. If we don’t regularly and consciously check various aspect, we will become weighed down by excess baggage, be less maneuverable and it will take more energy and effort to each our goals.
Let me give you an example: Over time I have enthusiastically recognised and optimised opportunities by adding new services. Recently I checked to make sure we’d put all on the ‘services’ section of our website. I was appalled! It was a mess! The barnacles had crept up on us. So, you can guess how I spent this weekend. Yes, I rewrote the ‘services’ section of the website with the support of Candice who does a wonderful job in keeping me on track.
So, let me show you the updated current status of the services we offer. Of course, these will continuously improve as each client asks me to develop something new. And I have now diarised to check every three months to make sure the content is the best it can be.
Services
We offer the facilitation of the following strategic interventions and also assist with implementing and sustaining ongoing strategy programmes within organisations:
- Personal Strategy
- Networking Tactics
- Sustainable Customer Service Strategy
- Working together
Effective leadership development is shows impressive results for organisations, teams and individuals.
- Communication Skills
- Enhance Your Executive Skills
- Leading in formation
We also offer programmes designed to suit specific needs.
Specialising in communication skills, Brenda Eckstein International offers a wide range of training programmes aimed mainly at executive and management levels. However, these courses can be adapted to suit specific needs:
- Communication Skills
- Enhance Your Executive Skills (EYES)
- Leading In Formation
- Networking Tactics
- Sustainable Customer Service Strategy
- Effective Delegation, Giving Instructions and How to be Assertive
- How To Get Your Point Across
- Formula Five
- Powerful Presentations
- Navigating Your Future
As an experienced Executive Coach using integral methodologies Brenda specialises in helping CEO’s, professionals and others in senior positions to shift their ‘way of being’ so that they are able to turn their ‘stumbling blocks’ into ‘stepping stones’.
- Enhance Your Executive Skills is a new course which combines Executive Coaching, training and mentoring.
Are you looking for a speaker who will adapt to meet the needs of your specific audience? Brenda has presented to a wide range of people on five continents. Her energetic talks incorporate her FLAG philosophy - Fun, Leadership, And (continuous improvement), Growth.
Keynote talks are tailored to suit the needs of organisers and audiences. Examples are:
- Navigating your future
- Jam
- I ain’t no geek
- What you say matters
- Apples, brasso and barnacles
- Network your way to success
- Be the solution
- You can make a difference
Brenda has authored two books on personal networking and regularly writes articles on a wide range of topics. Over 135 free articles covering our areas of specialty may be seen by pressing the blog tag in this website.
Having been involved in a wide range of leadership conferences on five continents, Brenda has in-depth experience as a planner, organiser and participant. She can offer mentoring and training for participants and also evaluation of the programme and event.
For more examples of ‘scraping away the barnacles’ read the posts below:
Punctuate Your Life With Purpose
For more information on the services we offer, please contact Brenda on brenda@146.66.90.172 or +27 82 4993311.
