Vision | Brenda Eckstein International

Personal Resources Updated

June 14, 2016 by Brenda Leave a Comment

When facilitating ‘personal strategy’ during ‘leadership development’ sessions or developing a ‘three year vision’ during a series of ‘networking tactics’ workshops, I like to set the scene by asking participants to imagine themselves three-years hence. Sometimes we prefer to take a one-year time frame. Life moves fast!

We start by considering ‘personal resources’. This helps to focus the participant’s thinking and ‘ground’ the development of their vision statement. Although I have provided similar articles in October 2011 and May 2012, I am sharing the updated questions I have developed for clients.

Please imagine what you’d like your life to look like in three years’ time and answer the questions below which relate to personal resources:

Resource questions for a three-year personal strategy template

Please reflect on the following questions:

Financial
What capital do you wish to have accumulated?
What are you earning?
What income are you generating on a regular basis?
How are you doing this?
How have you invested your money?

Employment
Where are you working?
What are you doing?
What position do you hold?
What opportunities are there for future growth in this job – or elsewhere?
And how are you going to achieve this?
What secondary firm or business might you also be involved in?

People
Which people are significant in:
• your personal life?
• your business life?
• your community life?

Time
How are you allocating your time? This is a big question as it covers:
• your personal life?
• your business life?
• your community life?
What are you doing in your ‘spare’ time?

Energy
How are you building your personal energy?
How are you conserving it?
How are you spending it?

Technology
How ‘up to date’ are you?
How are you effectively incorporating the latest available technology where beneficial?

Knowledge, skills and qualifications
What new skills have you acquired in the last 3 years?
What new qualifications have you achieved?
What are you aiming for in the next period?

Transport
What means of transport do you have or use?
What vehicles do you own?

Brand
Your personal brand is a resource.
How have you built it?
How are you promoting it?

Coaching
Yes, coaching is a resource.
What have you done to make sure that you are exposed to the right coaching for you?
How are you benefitting?
What other forms of self-development might you be engaged in?

Network
Your personal network is a powerful resource.
What are you doing to build and maintain relationships?
How are you improving your skills as a networker?
What are you doing to expand your network in a meaningful way?

Equipment and supplies
What equipment and supplies are relevant to your needs?

Community upliftment
What community upliftment programmes are you involved in?
What part does social responsibility play in your life?

Environmental awareness
How are you helping to protect the environment?

Other
You are welcome to add your own questions here. Please also let me know if you think of other questions I should include. Thank you!

If you’d like to know more about our leadership development programmes, personal strategy, networking tactics, executive coaching or any of our other services, you are welcome to contact me - Phone: +27 33 3425432, Mobile: + 27 82 4993311, e-mail: brenda@146.66.90.172

141: What makes me tick?

November 18, 2013 by Brenda Leave a Comment

What makes me tick? One of the highlights of my week is participating in an informal leadership forum held at 6:30am every Friday morning. In the small diverse group are the headmaster of a private junior school, the principal trauma surgeon of a 900-bed hospital, an industrialist, a graphic designer, COO of an environmental organisation, the director of the ‘mental health society’, a coach (that’s me!), the manager of a coffee bar, two pensioners, a chartered accountant etc. So what does this ‘unlikely combination’ of individuals (from different fields) have in common? We all have a passion for leadership excellence and value each other’s willingness to share our experiences and expertise.

This morning I shared ideas on capturing the hearts and minds of our team-members. Twelve participants added valuable input. So here is an outline of what we covered:

Leading and managing may go ‘hand in hand’. Although different business schools and authors use a range of definitions, there is usually a strong overlap. We manage the present and we lead to the future. If we don’t get the job done, we won’t ever reach our future state. Yet, having a vision with no means of sustaining the present will also create a vacuum preventing us from working towards the future.

So, how can strong leaders or managers go about creating high performing teams where the needs of the task, team and individual are all met? I believe that just getting the job done is no longer enough. We have to bring out the best in individuals. And in order to do that, we need to connect at both head and heart levels.

Let me put ‘what makes me tick?’ in context. I was privileged to attend an address by Kevin Roberts, worldwide CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, branding experts. His clients include Brand China and Brand United Nations. But there is a catch here. He is no longer talking about ‘branding’. He believes so strongly that we have to capture the hearts and the minds of our target customers that he now refers to ‘love marks’.

He provided background and elaborated on the role of business and showed us how we now go ‘beyond’ what was previously stated as the purpose of business. He outlined various approached to the role of business. For example, Jack Welch believes that the role is to create shareholder value. Peter Drucker refers to ‘creating a customer’. However, Kevin Roberts sees the role of business as making the world a better place for everyone. For some this is a huge revelation as this approach enhances the importance of social responsibility. This again connects ‘head and heart’ and informs our actions.

So, now that we have some of the concepts in context, let’s look at how we can tap into the hearts of the members of teams that we lead. We need to engage them as we want more than just their ‘hands’. We want them to connect and be committed to achieving quality results.

With technology meeting more and more of our needs, often there is less connection between humans. And a challenge facing current leaders and managers is ‘how do we get people to interact and build positive relationships’? For our own management team, I developed a simple exercise which we practised on a regular basis and I have adapted it to suit the needs of various organisations, businesses and professional teams.

Here are the steps in developing and using a ‘What makes me tick’? questionnaire:

Develop a list of relevant questions for your leadership or management team. An example follows. Once trust has been built with these team-members, the concept could be extended to other teams in the organisation.
All the members of the team fill in their answers.
The completed sheets may be shared in a number of ways. In some cases a copy is given only to the leader. In other cases each member of the team is provided with a copy.
At each weekly meeting, a different team member’s answers may be shared and discussed. In other cases the leader may keep them all ‘on the back burner’ and only when the need arises refer to one of the points on the questionaire: For example: ‘Matthew, I noticed that you preferred working in a quiet environment. How are others helping to avoid unnecessary noise?’

In that way you will help to bring out the best in the members of your team through giving them an opportunity to share information which in the course of ‘getting the job done’ may never surface. In addition, the interaction when using the information (management meetings, one-on-one etc.) leads to positive growth.

In summary, this method helps to treat individuals as special and unique. We can use this questionnaire to find out what their ‘hot buttons’ are. And then we focus on the things that motivate them. Thus team performance can be enhanced through helping others to achieve their potential. Press their ‘hot buttons’!

What makes me tick? – Questionnaire - example

Please provide only that information which you are happy to share with this team.

Full name:
Name or nickname by which you like to be addressed by team-members:
Pronunciation:
Who am I?
Some of my greatest achievements are….
Who are the ‘significant others’ in my private life?
Some personal issues facing me right now:
Please avoid contacting me during the following ‘after hours’ times:
Cell number: E-mail address:
Birthday (day and month):
Favourite foods: Foods I do not eat:
Favourite type of music:
I work better/worse when music is playing:
The type of books/articles I enjoy reading:
Interests and hobbies:
Sport – involvement:
Other organisations to which I belong:
You will help me to perform better at work if you encourage me by ….
Please try to avoid the following behaviour/expectations when dealing with me…
Things that irritate me/pet hates and aversions (not necessarily in the workplace):
I feel respected when:
I show sincere appreciation by:
Some reasons I really enjoy working for this hospital, school, organisation, company or firm:
Some reasons I’m excited about the changes in the organisation:
Some strengths which I bring to this team:
What potential do I have that has not yet been tapped (at work)?
Areas of my work performance I am trying to improve:
- You could help me in the following way:
Working as a member of this team, you’ll bring out the best in me if you could
- do the following:
- avoid the following:
Parts of my work I love:
Parts of my work I don’t enjoy:
Further information which will help you to get to know me better:

For more information on the facilitation of Leadership Development, please contact Brenda on brenda@146.66.90.172 or +27 82 4993311.

111: Listen to the Universe

March 7, 2013 by Brenda Leave a Comment

Listen to the Universe so that you’ll know when the Universe is listening to you – and responding. Many of us spend a great deal of time managing the present. We fight deadlines, and feel as though we have little time to work towards the future. However, each of us is a ‘gift’ to the world and we need to spend time uncovering and discovering our purpose. How can we build in line with our authentic selves? And often this ‘building’ may seem overwhelming. But once we start, the Universe seems to send us what we need.

Let me tell you a story. As a coach, I want to be the best possible coach so that I can help my clients ‘turn stumbling blocks’ into ‘stepping stones’. In looking carefully at myself, and through being coached by an excellent coach, I realized that I’m much better at ‘output’ rather than ‘input’. I love writing these blogs, developing training programmes, speaking in front of audiences, and I write volumes. I have improved my listening skills (input) to an extent where I do focus on my clients when coaching but find that I’m not spending enough ‘quality time’ reading. (And I really have been trying to do my practices!) This also is in line with ‘practice what you teach’. But my reading was just not good enough.

Then yesterday I went to Graemor’s (an accounting firm) birthday celebration and there were amazing prices to be won. I was hoping that I’d win the airflights or one of the other spectacular ‘lucky draws’. But I won something even better…… the Universe knew I was trying to read more, and sent me 8 (yes, 8) amazing books donated by the local branch of Exclusive books. But what is even more incredible is that the books range from cooking to business to inspirational and cover the whole spectrum. I’m going to gain such enjoyment from reading these books.

So, when you crystallise your thoughts and voice them, the Universe listens and assists you. So that is why you need to be clear as to what you need. In addition, you have to stay open and ‘tuned in’ to what is happening around you. So, focus and peripheral vision are two skills we need to develop.

For more information on ‘Executive Coaching’ please contact Brenda Eckstein on +27 82 4993311 or e-mail brenda@146.66.90.172. The website is www.strategy-leadership.com

109: Drive your life

February 27, 2013 by Brenda Leave a Comment

Life is an exciting journey and you can choose to be a passenger or drive your own vehicle. Which is your preferred way of functioning? And if you are in the driver’s seat, how defensively do you function? This is important in any place that you are ‘on the road’. However, in South Africa where the accident rate and hi-jacking rate are unfortunately exceptionally high, we need to pay even more attention to reducing risk.

Recently at one of our Sunday Breakfast Club meetings held at the auspicious Oyster Box Hotel at Umhlanga, we were privileged to have East Coast Radio’s, ‘Trafficguy’, Johann von Bargen as our guest-speaker. Affectionately known as ‘JvB’, he emphasised lessons and showed us practical ways of minimising risk.

The 'Trafficguy', Johann von Bargen.

By combining his unique experience in the ‘Police Force’ and practical day-to-day knowledge working with traffic and mishaps, using humour he painted vivid ‘word pictures’ and regaled us with stories, each of which had a powerful lesson. His teachings provide excellent metaphors for reducing risks as we travel the journey of life. Let’s look at just a few of those covered:

1. The risk of separation

In discussing ‘anti hi-jacking techniques’, JvB asked us to distinguish between ‘theft’ and ‘hijacking’. Do you know the difference? He explained that technically, ‘hijacking’ is where the thieves separate you from your car’. The next question becomes: what can I do to minimise the risk of this happening to me?

In life, our adaption to others’ expectations often robs us of being our ‘authentic selves’. Our real selves and the ‘person we have become’ are separated. We sometimes no longer feel ‘whole’. So what can we do to make ourselves more aware of what we are doing and minimise the risk of losing our true identity? ‘Executive Coaching’ can play and effective and important role in ‘getting us back on the road’.

2. Respond rather than react

‘Trafficguy’ warned us that if we were in the process of being hijacked that we should not ‘fight with the hijackers’. That sounds obvious. These guys have guns and could use them. JvB warned, ‘these guys react to you in the way that you interact with them’.

Isn’t that true in most aspects of our lives? In highly emotional situations, if we can pause, step back and respond (rather than react) we have a far higher chance of getting out of these difficult circumstances. Practice in these techniques is an important part of our ‘executive coaching’ programmes.

3. ‘Think like a hijacker’

JvB asked a simple question: what do hi-jackers really want? Most of us failed that question because our automatic answer was ‘my car’. No, that is not what the hi-jackers really want. Occasionally they may need a ‘getaway car’, but in most cases their goal is ‘money’. They want to get rid of the car as quickly as possible and convert it to cash.

So, what information are we unknowingly providing to hi-jackers? What patterns of behaviour do we perpetuate? For example, do we always leave home at the same time, follow the same route, and arrive at the office at the same time each day? How predictable are we? In doing this we are providing observable information that hi-jackers can quickly and easily use to their advantage.

By consciously breaking patterns we make ourselves less vulnerable (to those with negative intentions). If we want to reduce the risk of being hi-jacked we should consciously be aware of our behaviour and purposely change our patterns.

So, what is it that others really want from us? If we know what they want and how they think, we can adapt our behaviour to reduce the risk of misfortune. How do we consciously ‘tune in’ to their needs and consider the way they are thinking? Understanding and not presuming that others needs are the same as ours goes a long way in reducing risk.

4. Look far ahead and be pro-active

By ‘far ahead’ JvB is not talking about only as far as two cars in front of us. The emphasis is on distance. The further we project our vision, the more likely we are to be able to observe, interpret and take appropriate action. Timing is important.

In addition I like to help clients to look at peripheral vision. What is happening ahead, behind, to the left to the right, above and below? Again, this metaphor can be used in ‘driving our lives’. For example, ‘above’ and ‘below’ can apply literally or in our families, to different generations. In our work lives, it could refer to levels of management in large organisations. Are we alert to what might be happening? This links to ‘Who moved my cheese’ and the principle, ‘smell the cheese often’. What changes are there. What might be happening?

In coaching we provide simple ‘self-observations’ and ‘practices’ that help to ‘look beyond’ and take appropriate action. What might be happening beyond our ‘normal’ comfort zones? We need to constantly ‘scan the environment so that we can minimize threats and maximize opportunities.

5. Keep moving

Further advice given by JvB was ‘keep moving’. If we are moving, especially at high-crime intersections, we are less of a target than those who are stationery. The statistic that he gave was that by moving (instead of stopping) we have 97% less chance of being hi-jacked. An example that he gave was that if an individual were travelling at 20km per hour, no person ‘on foot’ would be able to hold a gun at their heads. And a large percentage of hi-jackers are on foot.

In addition, easing up slowly to an intersection where the traffic-light is red means that we spend less time in a dangerous area. By looking far ahead and pacing our driving we can arrive at the intersection when the light is green, or even spend less time at the intersection. By proceeding without stopping we reduce our risk enormously.

So, how do we apply this metaphor to ‘driving our lives’? The more we fully understand dangers and the more we consciously modify behaviour to minimize potential risk, the more likely we are to proceed without incidents.

6. Stop at a safe distance

Stopping too late or in a dangerous area can have severe consequences. This may sound like an unnecessary warning? But embroidered with Johann's real-life examples, it is an important lesson.

How often do we, hampered by diverted attention come to a halt too late? And this applies in all aspects of our lives. Focus is important. We need to find the balance and still take the risks necessary for us to grow. Stagnation results if we spend too long in our ‘comfort zones’. Yet we need to be aware and consciously stop before it is too late

7. Reverse park

This is an interesting lesson. I have found that in countries like Australia, where the risk is much lower than here, people are much more likely to ‘reverse park’ than in this country where we need to do this as a matter of habit. The advantages are enormous and Johann explored the advantages and possible barriers to our doing this.

So, how does this lesson apply in other areas of our lives? If we are facing the right way at the start of a journey, we have a ‘head-start’ on those who need to manoeuvre to get going. Think of the time and effort it takes to first reverse, turn your car and then get going. Always reverse park and you’ll be able to have a clean start in the journeys ahead.

These are just a few of the profound lessons shared by Johann and I’m grateful for the role he plays in making this world a safer place for everyone.

How can you take the ‘lessons in anti-hijacking’ and use these as metaphors for improving the way you cope with challenges in your life?

For further information on Executive Coaching, please contact Brenda Eckstein on +27 82 4993311 or e-mail brenda@146.66.90.172. The website is www.strategy-leadership.com

107: Leadership tips for women (and men!)

February 20, 2013 by Brenda Leave a Comment

Women in leadership roles constantly have many competing demands impacting on them. They sort out the washing, try to listen to the children, stack dishes, make an urgent business phone call, brush their hair, smear lipstick and yet calmly walk into the boardroom minutes later. Female leaders often take challenges like this in their stride.

Seeing the ‘bright side’ and treating problems as challenges are just some of the characteristics that enable female leaders to achieve remarkably. Juggling our business and personal lives prepares us for the ‘war zones’ that we often face. And if we acknowledge that every one of us is a leader in one aspect of our lives or another, we have a great deal to be proud of.

As an ‘executive coach’, I find that women (and men!) benefit from simple relevant practices and I’m going to share three tips with you.

Tip 1: ‘breathing practice’

This simple practice works well if applied consistently. All it takes is commitment to doing the practice every day at roughly the same time for at least three weeks. If done properly, that three-minute practice can change your life. It becomes a tool which you can use ‘in the moment’ when the need arises.

Here are the instructions: Stand against a wall making sure that your head, shoulders, torso and legs touch the wall. I know that we all have humps and bumps in different places – so do your best to have as much of you connecting with the wall (or door) as possible. Once you are in that position, take a deep breath making sure the air fills the bottom of your lungs first. Slowly take in air, filling to the top. Hold your breath for a few seconds. After that, slowly release the air starting with concentrating on the top of your lungs. Empty downwards until your lungs feel empty. Take one or two normal breaths and repeat. Your goal is to get up to five breaths with no ‘normal breaths’ between.

So what is the point of this practice? Firstly, it helps you develop a ‘posture of confidence’. When we are stressed or tired our bodies often sag forwards. This upright posture counteracts that. It also helps us to feel more ‘in control’. In addition, by ‘opening up’, we benefit through taking in more oxygen. And by concentrating on our breathing, something we usually do unconsciously, we can’t think about much else. So this helps to clear our minds. Thus immediately after the practice, we can ‘respond’ to situations rather than ‘react’ as we have reduced the emotion that is making us feel stressed. By creating a pause in our activities, we can fill that ‘space’ with positive thoughts.

However, to add this practice to our toolbox, we need to do it every day in order to create new pathways or habits. This tool becomes our default so that when we need to use it, we remember and do this self-correction automatically. So, for example, if we are chairing a meeting where the situation is becoming volatile, we call a 5-minute recess, go off to the ‘ladies’, shut the door and do our breathing standing against that same door. I coach a CEO who goes off to the deserted kitchen and does her practice there.

This same practice works well in all domains of our lives. So, once it has become a default activity, through self-awareness, we catch ourselves ‘in the moment’ and ‘self-correct’. When we are feeling angry or upset with our partners, or we feel exhausted with children demanding our time, that is the time to ‘take a break’ for those few minutes and go and do our breathing practice in private. We’ll return to the situation able to cope better. We’ll respond rather than react and thus are less likely to ‘snap’ at others in a grumpy way that makes us feel guilty and miserable (over our behaviour) afterwards. Thus we will have more energy for positive interaction.

Tip 2: ‘peripheral vision’

Another practice that has helped many of my clients involves developing our ‘peripheral vision’. We are often so engrossed in the task at hand that we don’t pay enough attention to what is happening around us. And as a leader, this is important in the broader context. We need to constantly ‘scan the environment’, assessing change and looking for threats and opportunities.

To encourage awareness I simply ask that each time clients climb in the driver’s seat of their cars, that they carefully examine all three mirrors to get the different views of what is happening behind them. And they do this each time they stop (obviously not while they are driving!) at traffic lights or anywhere else. It sounds so simple, yet it is surprising that most of us don’t do that automatically. Again, doing this every day for three weeks creates new habits. And it is interesting how developing our peripheral vision impacts on all aspects of our private and business lives.

As leaders, we are ‘in the driving seat’. Let’s function more effectively. We need to notice changes and be able to ‘tune in’ using all our senses.

Tip 3: Executive coaching

Whether you aspiring to a leadership position, or are sustaining a current leadership role, a good executive coach can help you to turn your ‘stumbling blocks’ into ‘stepping stones’. This takes away stress, enables the client to enjoy ‘balance’ and achieve more. A shift in your ‘way of being’ brings great benefits. This coaching can take place ‘in person’, via phone or Skype. Find a coach that suits you and your needs.

Being effective as a female leader in business presents many challenges and we need to be able to draw on our inherent strengths. By following the three tips above, we can enhance our leadership skills in business and this can translate into benefits in our home and community lives as well.

For further information on leadership development programmes and ‘executive coaching’ please contact Brenda on +27 82 4993311 or +27 33 3425432 – email brenda@146.66.90.172 or www.strategy-leadership.com

Growth and Personal Strategy

November 1, 2012 by Brenda Leave a Comment

‘Growth’ is an important theme in our exciting new 6-week ‘EYES’ (Enhance Your Executive Skills) course which combines individual spontaneous ‘Executive Coaching’ sessions with personal strategy facilitation and group training. The purpose of this unique course is to ‘kickstart’ participants’ performance so that they can begin 2013 on a high note. In the first three sessions the themes were Fun, Leadership, And (continuous improvement) and in the fourth session on November 1 2012 we encompass Growth.

We need to see our business and private lives in context. Unless we fully appreciate our current status, how can we set goals or move forward to a new specific location? Participants have insightfully clarified their ‘touchstones’ and values and are currently projecting ‘resources’ to the desired levels for the end of 2013. This week each will establish vision and set relevant, appropriate and achievable goals and tactics. Crucial to this process is clarity on personal ‘critical success factors’.

Let’s have a look at these. In order to successfully achieve their ‘vision’ for the end of 2013, it is critical that they are covering the basic FLAG principles:

F: Maximising Energy (and having Fun!)
L: Leading and being forward-focussed – self and teams
A: Continuously improving - ‘an attitude of positive discontent’
G: Growing (knowledge, skills, competencies)

In addition the following are also essential in achieving personal success:

Spirituality and enriching ourselves emotionally
Addressing the needs of those whom we serve
Being agile and yet ‘grounded’ (mentally and physically)
Networking through positive relationships and ‘connections’
Communicating effectively – finding my ‘voice’
Integrating

Let’s consider each of these headings and the questions that participants should be asking themselves. This is not a comprehensive list, but rather a starting point. Please add your own additional questions:

Critical questions

1. F: Maximising energy (and having Fun!)

Energy is renewable. How am I managing my energy?
In what ways am I building energy through conscious attention to quality sleep and rest, fresh air, foods, liquids, cardiovascular and strength exercises?
In which ways am I honouring my body?
How am I tapping into ‘the wisdom of my body’?

2. L: Leading and being forward-focussed – self and teams

How clear are my vision, goals and tactics?
What am I doing to ensure that my behaviour is ‘forward focused’ on goal-directed behaviour?
How clearly and timeously am I communicating my vision, goals and tactics to my teams (work and home)?
How am I recognising and motivating those in my work and home teams?
What am I doing to empower others so that they can reach potential?
What am I doing to reward or ‘shine up’ myself?

3. A: Continuously improving - ‘an attitude of positive discontent’

How am I honouring my ‘authentic self’ in promoting my ‘personal brand’?
How am I continuously improving the way I operate in all domains of my life?
Pegged against my current status and the status of those impacting on me, how am I ensuring that I continuously use my tactics to move towards my goals and vision?
What routines have I instituted to regularly check that every aspect of my life is ‘the best it can be’? (In other words, how am I practising ‘an attitude of positive discontent’?)

4. G: Growing (knowledge, skills, competencies)

What am I doing to ‘create space’ so that I can grow?
What am I doing to establish new ‘pathways’, learn new things (neuroplasticity)?
How am I going to add value to my current qualifications?

5. Spirituality and enriching ourselves emotionally

How connected do I feel to the universe?
What practices do I engage in?
How am I maximising the incorporation of my ‘touchstones’ into my daily life?
How am I caring for my emotional needs?
What have I done to ensure that ‘reach out’ is a default and that I ‘shine up’ others?
How is ‘being kind to myself’ incorporated in my self-leadership?

6. Addressing the needs of those whom we serve

Who are the people I serve? How clearly have I identified them?
What business, community and private roles do I play?
Who are those people or entities who have power over me?
What am I doing to minimise the impact of those who are toxic to me?
How am I consciously assessing and meeting the needs of those whom I serve (where appropriate)?
What am I doing to be of greater service to those whom I serve?

7. Being agile and yet ‘grounded’ (mentally and physically)

How agile am I? How effectively can I recognise and optimise opportunities?
What am I doing to improve my agility?
What can I do to improve the speed at which I move towards positive opportunities and away from negative influences?
What grounding practices do I regularly engage in?

8. Networking through positive relationships and ‘connections’

How consistently am I genuinely adopting an attitude of ‘what can I do for you’?
How do I go about building and sustaining positive relationships in all aspects of my life?
How am I ‘harnessing the power of collective networking’?
What is my strategy for taking my networking to a higher level?
What am I doing to build and sustain positive relationships?
What does the term ‘federated’ mean to me and how am I incorporating?

9. Communicating effectively – finding my ‘voice’

What am I doing to constantly ensure that I communicate effectively and at the right time?
How am I making sure that my messages have been understood in the way in which I intended them?
How constructively do I deal with feedback (given or received)?
How am I using my voice?

10. Integrating

How am I integrating all aspects of my life?
What should I be doing to find greater balance over all areas of my life?

Reflect carefully on these questions. What other questions should you be asking?

Record your answers and use constructively in setting your plans for the future. Build in tactics that will support your intentions and help you to be the success that you deserve to be.

If you’d like further information on the training we offer, personal strategy, leadership development or executive coaching, please contact me - brenda@146.66.90.172, Phone: +27 33 3425432, Mobile: + 27 82 4993311.

Personal Resources

May 23, 2012 by Brenda Leave a Comment

When facilitating ‘personal strategy’ during ‘leadership development’ sessions or developing a ‘three year vision’ during ‘networking tactics’ sessions, I like to set the scene by asking participants to imagine themselves three-years hence. Sometimes we prefer to take a one-year time frame. Life moves fast!

We start by considering ‘personal resources’. This helps to focus the participant’s thinking and ‘ground’ the development of our vision statement. Although I provided a similar list in an article in October 2011, I am sharing the updated questions I developed for a client yesterday. Please let me know if you think of other questions I should include. Thank you! Please imagine what you’d like your life to look like in three years time and answer the questions below which relate to personal resources:

Resources

Financial

What capital do you wish to have accumulated?

What are you earning?

What income are you generating on a regular basis?

How are you doing this?

How have you invested your money?

Employment

Where are you working?

What are you doing?

What opportunities are there for future growth?

And how are you going to achieve this?

Human

Which groups of people or individuals are significant in:

your personal life?
your business life?
your community life?

Time

How are you allocating your time in:

Your personal life?
Your business?
Your community life?

Energy

How are you building your personal energy?

How are you conserving it?

How are you allocating or spending it?

Accommodation

Where are you living? Describe.

Knowledge and qualifications

How have you progressed in the last three years?

What new skills have you acquired?

What new qualifications have you achieved?

What are your goals for the next period?

Transport

What daily means of transport do you have or use?

Brand

Your personal brand is a resource.

How have you built it?

How are you promoting it?

Coaching

Yes, coaching is a resource.

What have you done to make sure that you are exposed to the right coaching for you?

How are you benefitting?

Network

Your personal network is a powerful resource.

What are you doing to build and maintain relationships?

How are you improving your skills as a networker?

What are you doing to expand your network in a meaningful way?

Technology

How ‘up to date’ are you?

Can you effectively incorporate the latest relevant and available technology where beneficial?

Other

Please add your own questions here.

If you’d like to know more about our facilitation of leadership development, personal strategy, networking tactics, integral coaching or any of our other services, you are welcome to contact me - Phone: +27 33 3425432, Mobile: + 27 82 4993311, brenda@146.66.90.172.

New Year Resolutions: The Morning After…

May 9, 2011 by Brenda Leave a Comment

There is hope! Your dreams can come true! Although ‘the morning after’ may make your New Year resolutions seem dismal, it can be the second day of an exciting journey!

The expression, ‘the morning after’ often implies negativity. And that’s exactly what I intended. By the time you read this, you may already have started to wonder why you bothered making ‘New Year resolutions’ or thinking about some positive personal change you could bring about as we entered 2011? Past failures may have conditioned you to think ‘my New Year resolutions never work’ so you may not even try making them. Even if your New Year resolutions have provided some success, why do they fade into insignificance by ‘the morning after’ New Year? - or within the next week? Sustainability is a challenge.

The challenge
‘New Year resolutions’ are often made as ‘stand alone’ intentions. I believe that most people treat ‘resolutions’ as events or transactions, so intentions are not followed by sustainable action.

If we consider our ‘resolutions’ as part of a process we will be more successful. We need to plan, implement and monitor results.

Your vision of your future
I have coined the term ‘resource-centered personal strategy’ for my approach and it begins with an individual’s vision of the future. In other words, where do you want to be in three years? That needs a great deal of careful consideration. And what action plans do you need to work through in order to achieve your vision? Your New Year resolutions will fit in as part of the overall plan.

Critical success factors
Let’s step back. A few years ago, the great business guru, Ken Blanchard advocated that in order to be successful a business needed to be continuously improving, customer driven, ‘fast and flexible’ and cost effective. I worked on this concept at the time and used these principles. As time passed I added another critical success factor, ‘networked’ (which includes relationship building) and I have now added a new component which I’ll call ‘convenient’.

Resources
I believe those same principles or ‘critical success factors’ can play an important part in ensuring personal success, too. For this article, I’m concentrating only on the critical success factor, ‘cost effective’. I use this term to refer not only to finances but to all resources (in the broader context) available to us. How have we accumulated each resource and how are we using or allocating all our resources. In other words, the main question to ask is: What do I want my resources to be in three years time? And how am I going to be using each resource? How effectively will I be getting ‘maximum mileage’ out of each component?

I run many training courses on personal strategy. Participants include adults in a wide range of professions and businesses and they may be at any level in their organisation from CEO down to other levels. These sessions are sometimes run for individuals privately or for groups of individuals. However, each individual develops their own plan.

These courses are always adapted to suit specific needs. For example, each year I run training courses for young engineers (metallurgical, chemical, mechanical) and we look at a three-year time-frame for each individual’s ‘plan’. That is a good ‘chunk’ or time-frame, long enough to plan significant change or stabilisation and yet short enough to work with. I stress that answers need to be realistic, yet stretch people out of their comfort zones. Examples of the questions relating to ‘resources’ that I ask are:

Resource
Question (answers need to be given as though the participant has projected themselves three years into the future)
Financial
What capital do you wish to have accumulated?
What are you earning?
What income are you generating on a regular basis?
How are you doing this?
How have you invested your money?
Employment
Where are you working?
What are you doing?
What opportunities are there for future growth?
And how are you going to achieve this?
Human
Which people are significant in your personal life, your business life and your community life?
Time
How are you allocating your time? (This is a big question as it covers personal, business and community.)
Energy
How are you building your personal energy?
How are you conserving it?
How are you spending it?
Accommodation
Where are you living? Describe.
Knowledge and qualifications
How have you progressed in the last three years?
What new skills have you acquired?
What new qualifications have you achieved?
What are you aiming for in the next period?
Transport
What means of transport do you have or use?
Brand
Your personal brand is a resource.
How have you built it?
How are you promoting it?
Coaching
Yes, coaching is a resource. What have you done to make sure that you are exposed to the right coaching for you? How are you benefitting?
Network
Your personal network is a powerful resource. What are you doing to build and maintain relationships?
How are you improving your skills as a networker?
What are you doing to expand your network in a meaningful way?
Technology
How ‘up to date’ are you?
Can you effectively incorporate the latest available technology where beneficial?
The above are representative of questions covered in the workshops. Not all questions are included here. However, answering these would be a good start!

The process
Please ponder the above questions. They deserve your careful consideration. They will help to shape the picture that you are painting of your life and achievements in three years time.
Picture
A. The process starts by looking at your life in three years time and being sure that you know how you envision your future.
Now
B. Then we say: ‘That is where I want to be but where am I now relating to each of those questions’?
Gap
C. For each resource, look at your picture of the future and your current status. The difference between the two is the ‘gap’ that you are going to use for planning purposes.
Action plan
D. This is where the action really begins. For each resource in your life, in terms of that gap, you can now set three-year action plans covering your goals.
6-month goals
E. Then you need to break those goals down into manageable chunks. In other words, put time frames to each action. If you are looking at three years, a good idea is to have six 6-month periods and decide which of the goals you are going to achieve in each period. By concentrating on specific outcomes for each 6-month period, you’ll be more likely to achieve success.

Watchpoint: Make sure that your goals for each 6-month period are manageable. Sometimes you’ll find it better to spread your goals linked to a specific resource over more than one 6-month period. In other cases, goals relating to a specific resource may not appear in certain 6-month periods as they have been allocated to other periods.

Implement
F. The first period being now. And it doesn’t have to be the official ‘New Year’. This marks the implementation or ‘execution’ of the goals for the first period.
Control
G. You’ll also need to introduce a monitoring and reporting system. I appreciate that mostly you’ll be reporting to yourself. But by diarising each report date (say once a month) and monitoring the progress on each goal, you can deal with deviations as they arise.
Evaluate
H. At the end of the first 6-month period, it will be exciting to see how much progress you have made.
Next cycle
I. You then begin the second 6-month period and repeat the whole process.

So what I’m saying is that you shouldn’t be looking at your New Year resolutions as isolated events or goals. They should form part of the whole picture of what you are going to achieve over a three-year period. That way you have a far greater chance of success.

Summary
There is no need for ‘the morning after’ New Year to seem dismal. It can be the second day of an exciting journey towards success.

In my first book, ‘Networking Tactics’ I combined personal strategy with networking tactics. However, success in applying these concepts with individuals and groups has fuelled my passion. I continue to incorporate new concepts and improve in other ways. Hence my new approach as captured above is my ‘resource centered’ approach to personal strategy. It works!

What Are You Not Seeing?

May 9, 2011 by Brenda Leave a Comment

I didn’t know I couldn’t juggle. This was an important discovery! Why? I thought I was good at ‘keeping all the balls in the air’.

Let me give you some background: over the years I have become more and more aware of the importance of informal and ‘strategic’ alliances. So, with an attitude of ‘what can I do to help you?’ I gravitate towards people with similar occupations and interests. It’s all about interacting with people where I feel a sense of shared interest.

I love networking! It’s about connecting:

people with people,
people with information or
people with opportunities

So, on Thursday when my plans changed and I could make use of an opportunity to participate in a presenter’s workshop where the topic was ‘leadership’, I made use of the opportunity. John Dickinson of ‘Living in Full Colour’ was the presenter and he captivated us throughout the day with his excellent stories and examples. His coaching style and experiential learning methodology were an integral part of enabling the participants to see his powerful messages for themselves.

For example, at one point he asked us to form a circle and take two ‘balls’ from a pile in the centre. He then juggled two of them and asked us to do the same. Whew! People managed with varying degrees of competence. But I was useless! I couldn’t even do the simple ‘throw and catch’ without dropping them. This was a big lesson! I had not realised I couldn’t juggle – because I had never tried!

Was this an important lesson? Yes it was! The message to me was that ‘what we are not seeing’ can lead to complacency. And to me, complacency and stagnation go together. My question was that if I lacked dexterity in that aspect of my life, what other areas should I be looking at?

The story continues: I was fascinated at the break to notice that a few people had gone to the pile of ‘balls’ and were practising their juggling. To me it appeared that these were the people who were good at juggling. They were attracted to the balls and automatically practised when there was an opportunity. This is a reflection on life in general: we enthusiastically pursue what we have a passion for and this helps us to get better and better. If we aren’t good at something or don’t enjoy it, we don’t make use of opportunities to improve.

It would seem that we have to make a conscious effort to perfect weaknesses. But I do follow the current trend in leadership development which implies that unless a weakness is ‘critical’ we shouldn’t be as obsessed by improvement as we used to be. If we encourage people to spend time on their passions or strengths, the results will usually be compounded. (See ‘The Extraordinary Leader: turning good managers into great leaders’ – Zenger and Folkman, ISBN 978-0-07-138747-7)

I asked John where I could buy some juggling balls and he graciously invited us to take some home with us. So, I took two. That evening, because I automatically try to do more thing than one thing at a time, I took the balls and practised juggling during the news. At first my attempts were pathetic. But, by the end of the TV news I could juggle! (Not well, but I could juggle two balls!) I appreciate that I have a long road to go, but this is a beginning.

So, what is the importance of learning to juggle? What are the lessons from this story?

Some of the questions I’d ask are:

How are you going about exposing yourself to new and different situations, people, experiences etc.? How are you expanding your horizons?
What else are you doing to become aware of ‘what you are not seeing’?
In order to improve in a specific area, once you have self-observed over a period of time, what relevant activities are you going to practise on an ongoing basis? And be specific about this.
How are you going to build on to this new habit and transfer it to other aspects of your life?

We need to constantly stretch ourselves in relevant ways. This builds up the myelin sheaths around our nerve fibres and prepares us for greater things. If we continue doing the same things over and over, we are not necessarily building ‘new myelin’ or improving ourselves in other ways.

There is a further anecdote relating to the balls. My (almost unconscious) question to myself was: ‘how else can I use the balls’? I had placed them on top of the bookshelf in my office as a reminder of the learnings I had gained from them. I was determined to ‘keep the lesson alive’ and discovered an opportunity. Whenever I’m engrossed in a project at my computer I set the countdown timer for 45 minutes. I have it a distance from my desk and getting up to switch it off is a reminder that I need to get up and move. Now, each time the timer sounds, I walk across the room and juggle for a minute.

I have absolutely no intention of ever letting anyone see me juggle. It’s just nice to know that my blinkers have been taken off!

You can see that I’m passionate about coaching, good coaching, effective coaching. And it begins with ourselves. What are you doing to ‘take your blinkers off’? Be focussed on your vision, pursue those things that you are truly committed to (not just what society or others want you to do) but make sure that you ‘have your blinkers off’ – so that you notice what is going on around you. You need to be able to recognise and optimise opportunities. That requires action, effort. But, do it! Just do it! And the benefits will be enormous.