Tag: Goal

3 Steps To Achieve Your #Goal of Greater #Job Satisfaction

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A Firework Display

A Firework Display – Picture Credit Morguefile

This is the time of year for fireworks. Ideally every day we spend at work would be the kind of day to celebrate with them.

Is your work exciting, challenging and fun? If it isn’t your next goal could be changing that situation.

The Facts

According to May 2016 employee-outlook research by the CIPD* nearly a quarter of UK employees are dissatisfied with their role and ready to go elsewhere:

Job satisfaction in the UK has dropped to its lowest level in over two years and job seeking intentions have risen to almost a quarter (24%) of employees – a two and half year high.

What Options Do We Have If Work Is Dissatisfying?

Here are 3 steps to take if you want to move past the stuck-in-a-rut feeling

Achievements – List them. Take stock of what you have accomplished in the last 12 months and write down how these wins tell your story. How does the learning you have completed make you attractive as a member of a new team? Where could the new skills you have displayed add value to a new project? When have you stood out as a leader and what can you contribute beyond your day job?

Bravery – Practice it. Successful job changers spend time in uncomfortable situations. It is uncomfortable to plan how to plug gaps in your resume /CV. Getting feedback from practice interviews can be tough. Having your job applications go nowhere can be demoralizing. Keep trying.

Choices – Make smart ones. Is there a local project you can volunteer for which allows you to use your existing skills and gain new ones? Which network can you become active in to connect to people you can help? How can you use social media to show others what you are capable of?

What Is Your Next Step?

Rather than wait for the New Year why not use the ideas above to start making changes to your story. If you are inspired to take action use the comment section to tell others what you are going to do. You can Like and Share too

All the best. Roger

You can find out more about UK employees’ outlook at http://www.cipd.co.uk )

How Does Focusing On #Love Help You Tackle Your #Goals ?

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A Heart Labelled Lovee

How Much Do You Love What You Do? Image From Pexels.Com

What would it feel like if you loved how you spent your day?

Imagine if you spent every waking moment using your natural skills to create exciting results. How happy would you and your clients be at the end of the week?

Also, think about the joy you would have if your non-work time was spent with people who were supportive, optimistic and focused on the goal of exchanging their experience with others to improve products and processes.

Like doesn’t have to be a grind.

But Life Is Hard Work!

For some people, especially those taking action to achieve their goals, life is enjoyable. They are not stuck accepting an situation they don’t love. They are thinking and acting differently and achieving different and better results.

Why?

Because they want to love what they do.

So I Can Just Decide To Love What I Do?

Yes. Maybe your occupation isn’t where you find satisfaction. Love might be linked to your family life, or volunteering. Having something uplifting makes life much more enjoyable.

These and similar themes are central to Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think And Grow Rich’, life and leadership guide which was published 80 years ago this year.

To paraphrase from Hill’s 1937 publication:

We have become what we are because of our dominating thoughts and desires.

So if we keep thinking of ourselves as stuck in a rut, isolated and powerless we reduce our chances of moving forward, connecting to a support system and loving our situation.

What’s Your Next Step?

So, I’m putting this post out to encourage people feeling stuck in a rut. Invest some time in writing down what your ideal situation will be in 12 month’s time. Commit to taking action each week to move toward your goal. Share your success story with one other person so they get motivated to change too.

Are you ready to pay attention to your needs? What initial step will you take toward your goal this month? How will that step help you start loving what you do? Leave a reply and have your say.

If you are in need of some support you can always download a free copy of my ABC guide via the Members Access page. Don’t forget to Like, Share and Comment on the post through social media so you start connecting to other goal-driven people too.

Finally, however you spend it, have a brilliant February.

Roger

3 Ways To Benefit From Starting A #Teamwork #Goal This Week

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You can achieve good results when you work on your own. You can achieve great results when you work with others. Your contribution adds value to what everyone else is doing. That’s the beauty of effective teamwork.

As the saying goes: There is no ‘I’ in ‘Team’.

The video contains 3 ways you can benefit from contributing to a team this week. So if

  • raising your profile
  • connecting to other activists;
  • creating improvements at work or in the community

sound like appealing benefits, use team work to get going. Try one strategy and see how it works out. Use the comment section to share what worked well for you.

Want To See Teamwork In Action In November?

Do you want to see supportive teamwork in action? Are you are in North East London in the evening of Monday 14 November? Then why not book yourself a free place on the event welcoming Global Entrepreneurship Week at Waltham Forest Town Hall. It promises to be inspirational and motivating.

http://bit.ly/2ep06iK

Finally, feel free to Share, Like and Comment if you have found this post helpful.

Goals 2014: 3 Ideas To Help You Stand Out In Your #JobSearch

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It is that time of year.  Your goals set last January have been accomplished.  Your summer break is a fading memory and you are back into the familiar rhythm of the working week.  Hopefully you are ready to take decisive action, rather than staring out of the window at the leaves changing colour.

Your Top 3 Job Search Suggestions

If you are looking to change of your job role, or place of work you might find you need to polish up your CV / Resume and covering letter.  The information in the Tweeted link helps you do just that.

Basically the Guardian’s Job Goddess suggests that jobseekers should remember to:

  • Start their letter by talking about the fit between their experience, their skills and the role for which they are applying
  • Specify how much impact they have had in similar roles (How many customers did they have? How much revenue did they generate?)
  • Demonstrate their continuous learning strategy by mentioning what recent qualifications or experience they have gained.

Who Will You Share These Suggestions With?

If this isn’t the right time for you to be moving on who do you know who would benefit from this information?  How will you share it with them?  When are you going to do it?  I’m sure they will be grateful that you passed these ideas on.

Tweet your feedback to me @RogerD_Said or use the Comment section here.   I would love to know how these ideas help in practice.

Goals 2014: What Does Equality And Diversity Mean To You?

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What Is Your First Thought When Equality And Diversity Is Discussed?

What Is Your First Thought When Equality And Diversity Is Discussed?

Does one of your goals involve adding your voice to discussions on life in the modern workplace?  If so, do you want to contribute to the important conversation on improving equality and diversity outcomes?

I’ve good news, if your answer is ‘Yes’, as I have designed a whole-day leadership workshop on that topic and I could use your help in refining delegate materials.  I want to ensure delegates have some topical quotes to look at relevant to the experiences of teams, clients and organisations in a variety of sectors in the UK, US, EU and territories beyond.

Your Chance To Offer Some Feedback

Do take a moment to look at the bullet point questions below and offer some feedback by replying to this post, or comment through the Contact form (or via Twitter @RogerD_said ) before 19:00 BST on Monday 16 June.

If I use one of your quotes in the workshop materials you and your organisation will be credited (please say if you prefer to be anonymous).  Many thanks in advance for your help.

  • What does authentic leadership in equality and diversity look like?
  • What are the benefits of getting equality and diversity strategies right?
  • What are the challenges on the horizon for equality and diversity stakeholders?

Want To Take The Conversation Further?

If these questions have whetted your appetite and you want to take the workshop conversation further please feel free to get in touch (there’s a further chance to continue this conversation in September, so feel free to contribute your Comments below this post or across social media).

Additionally, there are more ideas relating to your work and life goals in the Archive section here and on Facebook and Google+ too.  Or if you are a LinkedIn user you can visit View Roger Dennison’s profile

Goals 2014: How Well Does Your Leadership Reflect Your Equality And Diversity Goals?

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How Effective Is Your Leadership On Equality And Diversity?

How Effective Is Your Leadership On Equality And Diversity?

If you are like many leaders it is probably a challenge to get through your To Do list and deliver your everyday goals.  If you prioritise your medium and longer term goals too, this post may appeal to you.

What Effects Does Dominant Group Thinking Produce?

Here is a 58 minute video by anti-racist speaker Tim Wise, which is worth a look, if you have time and you have stretching leadership goals which are inspired by your equality and diversity values.  In case you haven’t time for the full video there are excerpts on Youtube which you can search for.

To my mind the key take away from the video is this: Being in the dominant group can leave you thinking you have the luxury of not having to care what other people think.  That attitude will make it harder to deliver on equality and diversity goals.

The upside of dominant-group thinking is simple: You face no obstacles to getting your goals accomplished.  You don’t experience anxiety.  You also don’t need to spend time on reflection about the impact of your words.  You can behave as you want to.  After all, you are acting on behalf of people like yourself, aren’t you?

How Do People From Diverse Backgrounds Respond To Dominant Group Thinking?

People from diverse backgrounds in your current or potential audience may take a different view.  On the least damaging end of the scale if you misspeak on a one-off basis you may not face any lasting consequences.  Get in wrong often enough and the authenticity of your brand values may be called into question.

What Are The Real World Consequences Of Sending Out The Wrong Equality And Diversity Messages?

In the US, major league basketball franchise owner Donald Sterling has experienced some major consequences following media coverage of comments he made about the sort of person he wanted courtside.  Being banned for life from the NBA and forced to sell his team, the LA Clippers for $850m, may influence him to rethink his approach to equality and diversity.

In the UK, BBC television Top Gear’s presenter Jeremy Clarkson is reportedly on his final warning from the corporation, after another controversial week.  Notwithstanding the 350 million viewers his programme receives globally he is having to rethink his approach to how he broadcasts.

Thee are high profile examples, but I think the basic principles are applicable to businesses generally.  Take a few moments to review your situation.  How well do you feel your organisation is doing on Equality And Diversity at the moment?

What Question Can An Authentic Leader Ask Of Themselves To Improve Their Equality And Diversity Focus?

Whether you are in the US, UK or further afield here’s a question that can ask yourself to improve your leadership:

  • What action will I take, this month, as an authentic leader to help my organisation make better use of its diverse workforce (or to demonstrate our commitment to equality goals)?

Feel free to continue this conversation about the relationship between authentic leadership, your values, and equality and diversity within your organisation.  Do let me know what impact your action has, when you start to see some results.

By all means take a look at the further ideas relating to your work and life goals in the Archive section here, on Facebook and Google+ too.  Or if you are a Linkedin user you can View Roger Dennison’s profile and connect with me there.

Goals 2014: 2 Questions To Help You Distinguish Yourself At Work

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image of a latte

A Latte – Good For Creativity, Reflection And Patience

Is your local coffee shop your ideal third space, away from work and home? Do you reach your goals more easily with a cup of your favourite coffee in hand? Or maybe you mooch about with a Mocha when you want to refocus your work and life?

If you answered ‘yes’ just then, you may want to learn more about the BBC’s collaboration with the Open University. The first episode of Business Boomers sheds light on the subject of the rise and rise of the coffee shop, a thriving part of the hospitality sector, even after the global economic crisis of 2007-08.

Coffee Shops As Places To Change Your Life

As Chris Ward’s book ‘ Out of Office’ suggests, the wifi enabled coffee shop is a place where you can change your life, or have the big ideas which can change the world around you.  Here’s a link to the Business Boomers Open University mini site: if you are very curious you can also click on a programme summary here – Business Boomers Coffee Shop Pdf

Despite the new types of working venues and the new technologies to support that work times are still tough.  The focus remains getting the best possible results from limited resources.  How much of your To Do list gets done, or thought about outside office hours?

What Is Your Third Space?

One of my local third spaces – Cafe Le Delice – attracts customers for work and leisure by offering an attentive quality of service; handmade food; and flexible usage (reserving a private room for a voluntary project meeting for instance).  This makes it the kind of venue where work  can still get done, after the 9 to 5.

There’s an analogue to the coffee shop as third space destination of choice.  How does an individual stand apart from his or her more prominent peers, when their offer seems similar?  How do they retain the work-life balance they want whilst giving their best performance?

Your 2 Questions To Help Distinguish Yourself At Work

Here are two related questions to work on:

  • What is your unique offer and how does it stand out in quality terms from everyone else’s?
  • What actions will you take in the next 12 weeks to further differentiate your brand from others; improve your prospects; and enjoy your free time?

Help yourself to the further ideas relating to your work and life goals in the Archive section here, on Facebook and Google+ too.  Or you can go to LinkedIn and View Roger Dennison’s profile

Goals 2014: 3 Questions To Help You Decide Where To Offer Your Acts Of Service

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Your Connections Increase In Number When You Volunteer

Your Connections Increase In Number When You Volunteer

Were you following my previous posts about the reasons you should have a volunteering goal and the benefits coming your way from volunteering?  If you missed the posts on Contributing to your Community click in the Archive for 30 March and the Morale post is located there dated 8 April.

Your Acts of Service

That wider conversation led to me making a contribution to a discussion with Forbes online magazine contributor and Twitter user @tomwatson  You can get a flavour of the back and forth via this tweet:

This goes to show once you start offering thoughts and sharing views you quickly encounter the major benefit of volunteering: being connected means you can offer acts of service to others.

How Can Dunbar’s Number Help You Serve Your Contacts?

Mind you, if you can only hold stable relationships with 150 people it makes sense that as many of those people as possible are folks to whom you can be of service.  So here’s 3 questions for you based on Dunbar’s Number (those 150 people):

  • Do you want to offer service to your 5 most significant contacts, or do you feel obligated to do this (it is more authentic if you want to take action)?
  • What common characteristics do your top 5 contacts share?
  • How does that information shape the acts of service you will offer them this week?

Good luck to you with your offer to serve others.  You can get more ideas by checking out – and Liking if you want – my posts on Facebook and Google+ too.  Or if you use LinkedIn you can View Roger Dennison’s profile

Goals 2014: What Kind Of Management Do You Want To Receive?

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Here’s a question to ponder as the end of the reporting and financial year draws near:  How much does your progress at work depend on the effectiveness of your manager, or supervisor?

Some people want a line manager who is closely involved in the day to day aspects of their career.  This can reassure the job holder that their performance and development needs are at the front of their manager’s mind.  That could be crucial if progression, development or bonuses depend on the supervisor’s feedback.

Other job holders are content with a different approach.  They prefer being set realistic tasks, whose delivery is discussed at quarterly reviews.  This approach gives them breathing room.  They get on with delivering tasks that are within their capability.

The Guardian’s Work blog has just highlighted a worst case scenario.  In this situation a line manager is so ineffective that their job holder is becoming ill through over work.  The customers needs are not being effectively met and team morale is suffering.  The manager is an obstacle to the job holder achieving their goal, of being productive and happy at work.

See what you think of the feedback offered in the Tweet (then have a go at the bullet point questions)

  • How do you influence your manager to give you the support you deserve?
  • What do you say when their input isn’t quite right?
  • When do you know it is time to take action to change your situation?

Goals 2014: How’s Your Job Treating You?

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If your workplace, or career, goal is linked to the health of the economy then there is good news today from the Office for National Statistics. The UK economy grew by 1.9% in 2013, its strongest rate since 2007.

That should make promotion, professional development, or job change easier, provided you are in the right part of the UK.

Actually, according to the Centre for Cities’ research published yesterday, London continues to be critical to the UK economy. That city is creating almost 10 times more private sector jobs than the second fastest growing city, Edinburgh.

Some of these factors feature in a recent job change query in the Guardian. Follow the link in my tweet to learn more.

Two final questions for you:

  • What sort of progress are you making on your work or career goals?
  • How much more progress could you make with coaching support?