Tag: Well-Being

Goals 2014: What Is Your Gut Feeling About The #Management & #Leadership You Receive?

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How Do You Feel About The Way You Are Managed?

How Do You Feel About The Way You Are Managed?

Here’s a question for you to ponder over the next couple of days.  How much protection does your manager offer you?  Do you feel Outstandingly nurtured?  Would you term their efforts Average? Does they need to improve?

(If you are a leader or manager how many marks out of 10 would your colleagues give you for the authenticity of your professional relationship with them)?

It Is A Good Time To Talk About Management

I think this is a good time to talk about management.  Many people are looking forward to their summer break, away from the sinking feeling they experience at work.  Some people will have reached the point where they are weighing up their options.  Others will have made up their minds and will be preparing for a job hunt when they get back to work.  If that is the case it may be because they are deeply unhappy with their management situation.

How Will You Respond To Your Concerns About The Management You Receive?

When you look at the set of goals you drew up for yourself in January did improving your job satisfaction feature on the list?  If so you will be conscious that effective management is a big factor in job satisfaction and engagement.

Now that you are taking stock at the mid-point in the year how are things looking jobwise?  What action will you take in response to your gut feeling?  Whose support will you draw on as you work out your options?

Implications Of Ineffective Management and Leadership

If inspiring leadership boosts followership then ineffective leaders and managers contribute to disengaged workers.

The quote from Kurt Barling comes from a larger article larger article relating to the concerns some black and minority ethnic staff at the BBC have in the management they receive.  The article is worth a look if you are interested in productive workplaces; engaging staff; improving team performance; equality and diversity; and leadership or management.

What Action Will You Take Now?

There is a universal point however: if one of your workplace goals is to feel positive and engaged you will feel better taking action, with support, to improve your situation rather than enduring the discomfort.  Please do get in touch (use the Contact page above) if you would like to discuss the difference coaching can make to your working life.

Do You Want Support To Develop Other Areas In Your Life?

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: Are You Making The Progress You Want To On Your #GoalsInLife?

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How Are You Feeling About Your 2014 Goals?

How Are You Feeling About Your 2014 Goals?

Your anticipation has been building for months.  Your heart beat a little faster as each week zipped by.  Now, finally, it is time for you to focus on goals (your own personal goals that is).

How Practical Did Your Goals Seem In January?

Obviously your team will measure how successful it is being during the FIFA World Cup.  Isn’t this a good time to measure your own success?

Perhaps back in early January everything looked straight forward.  You had 12 months in which to make progress on your goals relating to your: authentic leadership skills; management style; career path; work-life balance; health priorities.  Everything seemed possible.  Maybe you agreed specific goals with yourself, to make 2014 the year you:

  • pursued your next career milestone to get you into a more fulfilling job this autumn
  • created the ideal balance between your work and life, in line with your core values
  • actively competed at a sport to raise your confidence and energy levels

Well, here you are at the half way line.  Are you ready to kick off a discussion about your progress?

What Is The One Key Question You Can Ask Yourself About Your Progress?

There is probably only one key question to ask yourself, about the actions you have taken to further your aspirations to change.  Take a moment and answer honestly:

  • How happy are you with the outcomes of your actions and your rate of progress toward your goals?

What Is Your Next Action?

Hopefully you can say you are happy with your progress across the range of goals you selected six months ago.  In that case keep doing what you are doing, since it is obviously working for you.

What if you need coaching support to refocus your strategy for taking action to tackle your goals?  Then use the Contact form above, or connect with me on Twitter @RogerD_said

If you need to try a fresh approach I look forward to hearing from you.  Don’t forget, you should feel free to look at the other 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 visit View Roger Dennison’s profile too.

Goals 2014: What is the 1 step you will take to be happier this Spring?

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Dalai Lama quote on Happiness

Happiness Is Linked To Taking Action

How was your working week?  Stressy?  Unfulfilling?  Seemingly Goaless?  Don’t worry if any of those responses ring bells with you.  According to Gallup’s 2012 State of the Global Workplace research only 13% of employees are engaged by their work. That suggests the bulk of workers around the world are unhappy with their employment, to some extent.  There is action you can take to change your situation.

About a week ago I spent a day out with friends in the 30 and 40 something age range.  This social time included setting the world to rights over a meal.  Enjoying a relaxed, supportive afternoon with people who are socially engaged set me thinking.  I reckon it doesn’t take very much action to become more connected to good people and therefore a little happier.

Research about actions you can take to become happier

It turns out that research conducted by Colby College Professor Christopher Soto, discussed in the Wall Street Journal by Elizabeth Bernstein shows that as we age we become more agreeable and better connected.

Apparently there are 5 psychological domains* which help shape about half of our personality (the other half comes from our biological make up, although Dr Dean Ornish suggests in a TED Talk that your genes are not your fate).

5 Personality Domains Discussed Professor Soto’s research

We can choose an area from the following domains and set an improvement goal for ourselves within that area (I’ve worked on goals in the final domain for instance, so I can confirm that spending time with your friends, works wonders).

Conscientiousness

Agreeableness

Openness

Extraversion

Neuroticism

Your 1 Question Leading To Happiness

Here’s your 1 question:  which of these domains will you dip into during the next few days to identify your spring happiness goal?  That is your first step toward selecting the most obvious action to take, to move you toward the life you deserve at work and beyond the 9 to 5.

More About A Happy State

If you want a quick pick-me-up before diving deep into goal setting you can always clap along with Pharrell Williams whose song ‘Happy’ puts a smile on my face.  To learn more about the connection that song has made with people across the United States and around the globe try this short excerpt from an interview Oprah conducted with Mr Williams recently.

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

 

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 Get The Leadership And Management You Deserve

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What Connections Do Leaders And Managers Inspire?

What Connections Do Leaders And Managers Inspire?

How confident are you about the effectiveness of your organisation’s senior leadership? What rating would you attach to your manager’s skills?

I ask as an article by Liz Ryan for Forbes online concerning Bad Managers has triggered my post (there are other Liz Ryan articles on LinkedIn ).

I had the privilege last week of sitting in on an Enterprise Nation Webinar, at which serial entrepreneur Doug Richard talked about the goal of Improving Leadership and Management.  My favourite quote from that conversation is shown above.  The post Liz wrote reminds me that Bad Managers leave a trail of angry and demotivated employees in their wake.  The Bad Manager helps create disengagement and they are a liability to their team and their employer.

One of the least inspiring managers I ever worked for had two operating modes. One with senior colleagues, involved smiling and kissing up. Mode Two, with team members, involved micro managing and being divisive. I remember once mentioning some of the valuable lessons I’d learned from my degree course and the Manager’s response was a classic: “Oh, you have a degree. That does surprise me!”

Needless to say I was never happier than when I left that part of the organisation.  I wasn’t the only one.  Effective management binds teams together and adds value to the connections between team members.  Bad management sows the seeds of disruption.  The manager I encountered clearly needed support to improve their practice. I only hope that they received it, before their behaviour triggered a complaint.

Here are 3 questions for your consideration this week:

  • How content are you that your job goals are being supported by your current management?
  • How congruent are your values with those of the organisational leaders who have the most influence on your work?
  • What actions will you to take this week because of your answers to the 2 preceding questions?

Feel free to look at the further ideas relating to your work and life goals in the Archive section here, on Facebook and Google+ too.  Or you can always View Roger Dennison’s profile

 

Goals 2014: One Step You Can Take To Be A More Confident & Resilient Carer

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Are you feeling the strain of being a carer for an elderly parent or relative?  If the answer is “Yes” and you are in the UK then chances are you are a woman, rather than a man.  The current caring statistics and facts from Carers UK indicate that of the 3 million people in the country caring for relatives, 58% are women.

What does caring save?

Carers save the economy £119 billion per year (an average of £18,473 per carer).  However, 1 in 5 of those people who act as carers, whilst also working, are forced to give up work altogether.  The reason for this: the significant demands of combining caring and work.

What does caring cost you, the carer?

Caring obviously takes its toll on the woman, or man, making the effort to support their relative.  It can be emotionally demanding to support an elderly parent.  The carer’s well-being can take a knock.  It can also place a strain on the network of other important relationships in your life.  The emotional journey can affect your confidence too.

What questions could you ask yourself to establish how you feel about being a carer?

What is your goal regarding combining caring responsibilities with your working life? Where does your support come from while you are bearing the stress of supporting someone else?  What is the impact on your wider life and relationships of being a carer?

How do the key issues impact other people’s lives?

This question was aired in a moving edition of BBC radio 4’s Woman’s Hour today.  There are seemingly as many answers as there are carers.  For some carers unresolved family conflicts can be exposed by one person shouldering the responsibility of looking after a parent.  For others caring is an act of love, reflecting life long closeness and affection.

If you are UK Based you can find the recent editions of Woman’s Hour on iPlayer by searching for Radio 4 programming here  You can follow the programme on Twitter @BBCWomansHour

The Woman’s Hour discussion reminded me of a tweet  late last year, concerning how to manage challenging family relationships.  Do follow the link to read into the topic.

What action will you take this week to improve your confidence & resilience as a carer?

Developing an ever more secure adult identity helps: you are entitled to seek help and effective support.

How would you feel about making one inspired change, following International Women’s Day, this Saturday?  Could you share more information about the impact of your caring duties with your employer, partner, and friends?  How much better could your situation become if these important people truly understood what you were experiencing and provide you with more effective support this year?

Good luck to you as you take action to help improve your capacity to care for others and yourself.

Feel free to check out my Archive section for more thoughts on well-being and pursuing life goals.  There are further ideas relating to these areas on Facebook and Google+ too

Goals 2014: How Will You Inspire Change After International Women’s Day?

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Logo For International Women's Day

Logo For International Women’s Day – More information from http://www.internationalwomensday.com

Do you know that next Saturday, 8 March, is International Women’s Day (IWD)?  You can get a range of IWD information here  and learn how this themed day has been influencing the lives of women and men since 1911.

It’s amazing to think – at the time I write these words – that there are several hundred IWD events scheduled to take place in the UK.  There are 1000s more in the United States, Canada, Australia and countries right round the world.

These events will all be highlighting this year’s theme of Inspiring Change.  Which of the events near you will you be following, or drawing to the attention of a woman you care about?

Stay tuned.  I’ll be blogging this week about ideas which you may want to consider when you work on your goals after IWD.

Goals 2014: Do You Need More Heartfelt Satisfaction In Your Life?

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Cup Of Tea

How Are You Planning To Develop This Spring?

How has your week been so far?  In fact, how would you score your job-satisfaction in 2014 on a scale of 1 to 10 (where 10 is ‘Outstanding’)?  Are your heartfelt goals around personal fulfilment also being met?

If you score your year at 5, or lower, remember there is good news.  The weekend is close by and you can use it – in part – to help plan the improvements you want to make in your life.

If you need to put a smile on your face now perhaps you are ready for a mid-week laugh.  Here then is a short BBC film about comic Jack Stretten concerning his life on the comedy circuit.  He is clear about the relationship between his comic skills and the values he relies on in his work.  He is also clear about his goal focus.  He says “When I’m making someone laugh…that’s the best!”.  How does that clear, heartfelt, vision compare to the relationship between your skills, your values and your understanding of your goals?

It may not be appropriate for you to take an alternative career path right now.  Even so, over a cup of tea this weekend it is worth planning changes which will improve the rest of your year.  Can you invest time on Saturday or Sunday to planning your brighter future?

Why not spend 30 minutes: taking stock of your skills; listing your core values; and using that information to determine the mixture of skills and values you want to use as the spring board to improve your life.

Having that information written down will definitely help establish the blueprint you rely on as you move forward.  If improved job, or personal satisfaction, is the overarching goal you want to tackle in 2014 how will you begin to break that goal down into manageable pieces starting in March?  Coaching support can boost your success in that process, so do use the Contact form to get in touch with me.  I look forward to discussing how I can help you during your journey.

There is also plenty of helpful content here on the site, especially in the Archives.  So check out the Archive section for more inspiration and remember there are further ideas On Facebook and Google+ too.  Enjoy the rest of your week.

Goals 2014: 5 Personal Questions To Improve Your Work & Family Life

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This is the second of two posts about last week’s very first Work & Family Show at Excel, London.

Work & Family Show 2014 - Panel Discussion on the Language of Success

Work & Family Show 2014 – Panel Discussion on the Language of Success

Here’s a question.  Which one of your improvement goals has taken priority this year?  Is it improving some aspect of your work?  How about getting more from your personal or family life?

Whatever your priority you could have gained knowledge in any of these areas had you been at the Show.  The sponsor My Family Care and their partners put on practical, personal, and plenary sessions looking at the advice, inspirations and solutions that contribute to peoples’ ideal life balance.

From what I saw the audience of women on Maternity Leave, or taking a Career Break; people searching for their next job after redundancy and those looking to work flexibly, really engaged with the sessions on offer.

More details of the Work and Family event are set out here .  You can follow the feedback from the show on Twitter using the hashtag #wfshow

Personal Questions For Your Goal Setting Sessions

Meanwhile, here are the five personal insights I noted from the range of ideas offered by speakers last week.  I have added some bullet point questions for you, which you can use with your coach as you set your own goals:

On average Men are likely to apply for a promotion if they meet 60% of the recruitment criteria:

  • What more could you do to add to your skills, so you comfortably reach 70% of the recruitment criteria?

Women are likely to hold off applying for a promotion until they feel they meet 90% of the recruitment criteria:

  • What could you do to add to your skills, so you are confident you have 70% of the recruitment criteria?

You help yourself perform better by making time each day to check out your state of mind and take action, where necessary, to change limiting beliefs:

  • What is your strategy for taking stock of your inner state?

Making time to manage your personal / professional relationships in a considerate way makes your life easier:

  • How empathic are you when you manage your key relationships?

When you need to give feedback make time to pause, and comment on the behaviour rather than the individual’s personality:

  • Thinking about your previous bosses, whose feedback technique would you wish to emulate and why?

Feel free to check out my Archive section for more inspiration.  There are further ideas On Facebook and Google+ too.  Do feedback about your progress, via the Contact page here, or on Twitter @RogerD_said

Goal 2014: 3 Questions to help increase your well-being in the Year of the Male

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Plug In To Access Support

Plug In To Access Support

Have you heard the one about the man who asks his best mate for emotional support during a difficult period, and receives consistent, empathic care from his friend?  Chances are you haven’t.  Women may follow Sheryl Sandberg’s example at Facebook and ‘Lean In’ supporting each other, men don’t traditionally plug into their networks like that.

In fact British men may be spending nearly £1800 on making themselves look good outwardly according to 2012 research , but they aren’t making similar efforts to connect with their inner feelings and improve their emotional well-being.

Luckily there are new options men can adopt to tackle their well-being goals.  Those options are being explored by CALM , the mental health charity.

The charity is focusing on suicide prevention this year.  Here’s a sobering number CALM comments on , taken from a recent Office for National Statistics bulletin: suicide is the leading cause of death for British men under 50.  Such men are 3 times more likely to kill themselves than women.  That rate is comparable to the United States, where men are nearly 4 times more likely to take their own lives than women, according to the World Health Organisation .

Under the Year of the Male banner – that’s @yearofthemale on Twitter, or online at www.yearofthemale.com – the UK organisation is looking to challenge the range of influences which contribute to men’s less positive life experiences.  Perhaps we can all recognise that modern life has the potential to lead to high levels of stress, anxiety, and depression.

If you are a man and the experiences above ring bells, ask yourself how do your age, class, disability or employment status, ethnicity, family situation, religion, sexual orientation and upbringing affect your well-being?  What are you prepared to do change your well-being status this year?  Here are three more questions for you to reflect on.

  • What can you include in your health and well-being goal to make it more achievable?
  • In what ways will your goal help you live life with a greater degree of authenticity?
  • How will your goal add value to your dealings with the important people in your life?

Good luck with your actions.  Remember to check out the Archive section for more inspiration.  There are further ideas On Facebook and Google+ too