Tag: Coaching

Goals 2014: Three Questions About The Health Of Your Relationship

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Chocolates Show You Care

Happy Valentine’s Day: It’s the one day you have a good reason to show you value your main relationship.  Have you opted for chocolates, flowers, or wine?

Speaking of your relationship, what’s your goal beyond today?  What else are you doing to keep improving the quality of that relationship, tomorrow and the next day?  In particular how will you:

  • Demonstrate your long-term commitment to the relationship?
  • Share your authentic self within it?
  • Deepen the element of trust the relationship depends upon?

It is worth having a action plan to maintain the health of this key part of your life.  In that way you remind yourself that you value the well-being of your every part of your life: from your main relationship, to your well-being at work, to the health of your finances.

Goals 2014: Three Strategies To Help Get Back To Work After 50

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The Journey To Work
The Journey To Work

 

How happy are you with your commute to work?  The Office for National Statistics reportedly says that 30 minute plus commuter journeys make people unhappy and anxious, especially if they travel by bus.  ONS Guardian Article

People between jobs – following redundancy – may not have the commute to contend with, but they have to face other stressors, like getting another job.

If you are in that situation your immediate goal may involve taking action to secure another job before the summer.  If so you probably know what steps you are going to take to get you there.

How would you feel if your actions didn’t produce results this summer?

What would you feel like if you didn’t secure work over the next two summers either?

How much more of a challenge would you face if you were now in your early 50s?

That is the situation highlighted in an enquiry to the Guardian newspaper from a fifty something former academic.  He describes his situation in negative terms.  Luckily he has options, if he feels positive about pursuing them.  Your positive attitude would be crucial too.

Take a few moments and follow the link in the tweet below to find out more.  There is a lot of positivity in the three valuable strategies of

  • Networking with former peers
  • Maintaining a Professional Online Presence
  • Publishing Material That Enhances Your Reputation

Your circumstances as a fifty something between jobs may be different.  Nonetheless there are some questions the scenario may raise for you:

  • What would your first step be to return to work after redundancy?
  • What would your Plan B look like if you needed one?
  • Where would you get support from whilst your plans came together?

If these are hard questions to answer you may want to spend 30 minutes, this week, writing down your responses.  That investment of time is worth it.

Keep your responses in a safe place.  Hopefully you won’t need to use them.  However if your circumstances unexpectedly change you and your coach may need to work through that material, as you plan your journey back to work.

(To find out more about coaching you can follow me On Facebook and Google+ too)

 

Goals 2014: Three Key Posting Tips

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Happy 10th birthday Facebook!  It is a long way from an audience of Harvard students in February 2004 to a global audience of 1.23 billion in 2014.

All those users face a dilemma: how do I achieve my goal of representing myself well online?  I’ve blogged (in the related tweet above) about the challenges of managing a credible personal brand on social media before, most recently after 2013’s Business Show.

How will you manage your brand this year?

When it comes to your 2014 posts, how will you manage your personal brand?  From what I can see it helps to keep posts:

  • Professional – bearing in mind regularly posts about getting wasted the night before might not impress a future employer
  • Succinct – staying on point, in fewer than 500 words, helps your reader focus on your message
  • Visual – readers appreciate eye-catching elements

How do your posts reflect your values?

It also helps to be mindful of your key values when posting.  What story are you telling about yourself?

If you are looking to make an impact on a wider community from a position of knowledge your advice and commentary could attract a strong following.  Posting on a regular schedule would make you an important presence in others’ lives.

How are you managing your data?

How mindful are you about data protection when you are online?  A bit of thought probably helps, as more and more of us contribute to the pool of Big Data being waded through by large organisations.

The goal of the European Data Protection Day (on 28 January) – branded as Data Privacy Day in the US – is simple: to inform the public about how their online data is collected and processed; helping to protect their privacy and control their digital footprint.

So, taking all of this into account, would today be a good day to start managing your digital self more thoughtfully?

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Goals 2014: Goal Setting In Three Steps

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Workshop Paperwork

Goal Setting Starts Here

 

Congratulations on surviving January.  The first of February is a great time to concentrate on goal setting, action planning and clarifying values.  Here are three key questions to aid in that process:

  • What significant outcome do you want to have achieved by Easter?
  • How you will get there?
  • How does that effort fit with your core values?

Spending even thirty minutes today writing down your response to these questions is worthwhile.  Narrow your focus by expressing your goal in terms that are:

  • positive
  • present-tense
  • realistic

Writing down your first, significant, step to make progress toward your goal helps to underscore that you are confident that you can pursue and attain the outcome you that you want.  So does making an absolute commitment to taking prompt action.  An end date in your diary, with action milestones preceding it are powerful triggers to progress.

This process isn’t the preserve of the business world.  It applies in the public sector or the world of volunteering too.

It was great therefore to meet the volunteer team at The Asian Centre, Waltham Forest – @tacwf on Twitter – and support their work on #GoalSetting yesterday.  An evening in their company showed that goal setting helps volunteer mentors on a community programme, just like it does paid professionals working on costly projects.  Clients benefit too, whether they are young mentees, or high net worth customers.

If you would like to find out more about mentoring you can contact the Asian Centre via their website www.theasiancentrewf.org.uk for more information on their successful #YouthMentoring programme.

So, when will you make time to set your next significant goal?  How can effective coaching help you deliver on your commitment to self-development?

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Goals 2014: How Happy Are You In Your Work?

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These are some thoughts of mine in response to an idea from Miya Tokumitsu, revisited in the Guardian newspaper after originally appearing in Jacobin magazine.  Needless to say I don’t share the view that only the privileged are equipped to enjoy their work.

Having looked at the discussion how would you answer these questions:

  • How important is your work compared to your family or social life?
  • How happy does it make you feel?
  • Do you have a clear goal about what you want to happen within your life this year?
  • What will you feel like when you accomplish your goal?

Asking yourself these, hard, questions will help you decide what steps you will take to enjoy your work and social life in 2014.  Get in touch to discuss how I can help with that strategy.

Goals 2014: What Does Success Look Like?

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Here is a Tweet relating to Jordan Belfort, he’s the subject of the biopic ‘The Wolf Of Wall Street’.  I haven’t seen the film, although it sounds an interesting look at 1990s concepts of success.   I’ll have to write another post once I have seen the movie.

Meanwhile I am sharing the Tweet as it contains a link to the Huffington Post.  Have a look at the link and see what you think of Mr Belfort’s ten thoughts about achieving goals.  Feel free to share this post with family, colleagues and friends.

How many of your 2014 goals relate to: Your workplace?  Your well-being?  Managing your wealth?  Let me know if you have goals that are more attainable with coaching support.

A Reminder: Your Goals Matter

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Just three hours left of 2013.  Keep an eye our for two further posts before midnight.

Meanwhile, in case you missed it, this is another chance to see my recent Tweet poll about 2014 Goals.

Get in touch, if you want to start 2014 with my professional coaching support on your side. I look forward to learning about your goals.

Tis The Season To Be Coached

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The Guardian newspaper‘s Work blog has published the dilemma of a 23-year-old who seems to lack focus in his life.  Follow the link above to learn more.

I think everyone could benefit from self-awareness about what is the best life they could be living.  I have Tweeted my view of the situation, based firmly in my approach to coaching.

Regardless of the life stage you have reached how much improvement in your professional or personal situation do you want to achieve next year?  What support could a coach provide for you in 2014?

If you are ready to make the progress you deserve get in touch with me, before 24 December.  I’m here to help.

Work: Do You Stay Or Do You Go?

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A Difficult Decision To Stay Or To Go - (c) R Dennison November 2013

A Difficult Decision To Stay Or To Go – (c) R Dennison November 2013

In my experience unexpected events can highlight the value of keeping an up-to-date life-plan.  In fact the life-planning topic came up recently when I talked to someone whose work situation took an abrupt turn, for the worse, over the summer.

Things changed to such a degree that they needed to decide whether to stay with their organisation or go, within a couple of days.  Having clarity over their work goals – and the operating values guiding them – would have helped reach that life changing decision speedily.

A query in the Guardian Newspaper’s Work blog has echoes of this scenario.  My thoughts – shown as RogerAD – are straightforward.  The decision hangs on whether the correspondent knows they would be more comfortable:

  • Staying in a job with prospects in 2014 – but little rapport with colleagues
  • Returning to a familiar – but small – organisation next year

Employment is such a significant part of life now, this is not an easy decision to contemplate.  Drawing on inner reserves of wisdom will help.  Seeking coaching support and taking the time to think the decision through will help too.

In the same situation what would your answer be?

http://www.theguardian.com/money/work-blog/2013/nov/15/go-back-old-job-career-stagnation