Tag: Goals

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: 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.

Goals 2014: Your Key To The Three Main Benefits Of Being Coached

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Here, in case you missed it, is another chance to hear more about the three key benefits of being coached.

Feel free to share the information with family, colleagues and friends.  Get in touch when you are ready to arrange your own coaching programme and to start living your best life.

Goals At Work: Managing Relationships

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I hope 2014 is going well so far.  That’s especially true if you are back at work already, or about to return on Monday.

In the ideal world the work place is full of confident and competent managers and staff.   They all work well as individuals and in teams to keep their customers satisfied.  Sometimes though that isn’t the case.

The Guardian newspaper has presented another exceptional scenario in its Work blog.  Follow the link in my Tweet to see the discussion.  You will probably want to take action if the situation rings bells with you.  A coaching programme would help you take action if so.  I would be happy to help with that.

Is there any room for improvement in your working life?  What goals have you set for yourself this year to help bring that change about?

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.

How Full Is Your Bucket?

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Cover of "Understanding Psychological Con...

Cover via Amazon

In my experience some people resist change in their professional lives, even if they are unhappy.  They don’t want to benefit from taking on a new way of thinking, after a change to their circumstances.  Or they may feel that ‘at their time of life’ change is not possible and they have to put up with bad situations.

I think those people may be missing out.  That is especially true if the person is in a junior job role and change has happened around them, meaning their expectations about their working environment – personal development; pay rises; job security – are not being met.  This is true in the private sector and, the Daily Telegraph’s Jobs Editor Louisa Peacock suggests, amongst civil servants.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/9630531/Whitehall-jobs-down-30000-on-year-amid-rock-bottom-staff-morale.html

Hopefully senior managers already have, or are actively being coached to develop strategies to counteract the dip in staff morale that results from unmet expectations.

For senior managers who don’t see why action is necessary (or believe staff will put up with just about anything) Neil Conway and Rob Briner’s 2005 analysis ‘Understanding Psychological Contracts at Work’, includes the telling observation:

“When an employee believes that [their] organisation has failed to deliver its promises on a regular basis, he or she will question whether it makes sense to continue contributing to that organisation or whether it might be better to move on to another”.

The new look People Management magazine this month includes a feature on ‘Eight Ways To Reward Staff, Without Giving Them A Pay Rise’.  I like the simplicity of their final suggestion: try to say ‘thank you’ to others for their contribution.  The article suggests literally writing notes of appreciation and leaving them with colleagues who have done a good job (I can remember from personal experience how a simple act of appreciation can put a smile on someone’s face).

The magazine says this concrete expression of gratitude is an echo of Tom Rath’s and Donald O Clifton’s approach to combatting workplace negativity, set out in their book, ‘How full is your bucket?’.   I like the idea and I am going to try it out the next chance I get.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Full-Your-Bucket-Positive-Strategies/dp/1595620036

Sharing Your Goals (Or Not)

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English: Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby and ...

English: Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby and Muckwork. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am chipping away at my 2012 ‘To Do’ list of Goals and Good Intentions.  Maybe you are too.

Perhaps you are actually speeding through your list, completing your tasks in less than the time you allocated yourself.

If that doesn’t sound like your experience there are several approaches you might take to get more done.

How about doing the grimmest item first (I think the approach is inspired by Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog principle)?

Alternatively it is tempting to focus on the essential items only.

You might even have thought the easiest motivator is to tell your partner, or best friend that you aim to do X task by Y date.  That pretty much ties your hands.

I’ve found a short TED presentation by Derek Sivers in which he offers his opinion on why that last solution may not actually help.  He also suggests how you might want to tackle more goals, successfully.

http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself.html

Good luck whichever route you choose.  Now, which vegetable goes better with an amphibian main course, rice or potatoes?