|
Self-Motivation during the credit Crunch
Who knows how real or 'manufactured' the latest credit crunch truly is? Whether real or perceived the fact is that people, clients and customers, and possibly yourselves are behaving differently. For those of us in business this can mean tougher times. Each sale can be tougher to make. This can make life more difficult and facing the daily challenge just that bit more stressful. So here are a few ideas to employ for yourself to keep up your motivation levels.
- Re-visit your business plan or personal goals. Remind yourself why you are doing it. Re-set your goals if you need to, to adjust for short-term changes in environment. Goals should be stretching, not impossible.
- Take each goal and remind yourself what it means to you so that it is not simply a financial figure or a set of words. What personal value does it satisfy for you? What will achieving the goal enable you to do?
- Old hat I know, but the SMART approach to goal setting still works
- Specific
- Measured
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Timed
Think about achieving each goal - project your thoughts out in time to achieving the goal - see yourself achieving it, hear the sounds of success and feel the the effects of success. Really live it in your mind! This will re-charge your motivation tremendously.
Do a personal SWOT analysis - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. Look hard at your strengths to remind you how good you are. Look at your weaknesses and do one thing to reduce these every day.
Remind yourself- 'when the going gets tough, the tough get going'. You are tough!
Every day jot down all the good things that you have achieved that day. Use this list to remind yourself of how good you are - your skills, abilities and actions.
For every project or task you set yourself, build in a reward for achieving relative to the goal. A quick break, a game on the computer, taking your partner out for a nice meal, going to the pictures etc. etc. Many people are far too quick to criticise themselves and far to slow to reward themselves.
|
 |
Face to face Coaching
Available workshop dates:
Thursday Oct 30th
Friday November 28th
Monday December 15th |
Quotes
We don't grow unless we take risks. Any successful company is riddled with failures.
James E. Burke
Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat. Malcolm Forbes
Never bend your head. Hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.
Helen Keller
It doesn't matter if you try and try and try again, and fail. It does matter if you try and fail, and fail to try again.
Charles F. Kettering |
|
Contact IntegritUs Ltd 01283 521521
07855 832667
|
Tips & Wrinkles
-
It's been said before. You have two ears and one mouth. If you listen and speak in proportion you'll be more successful. Listening actively enables you to hear and learn more. It gives you more time to gather your thoughts and speak more authoritatively when you do speak.
-
Ever heard the phrase 'There's no I in Team!'? True, this is a reference to working together for the common good. However, a sensible riposte to this statement is, 'No, but you can find ME if you look hard enough!'. Individuals make up teams and giving due consideration to your fellow team members will help a team run more smoothly.
-
When in a 'selling' situation, if ever you hear the words 'I'll think about it' or 'I'll bear that in mind', it usually means you have no yet convinced the person you are talking to and that the conversation is about to be closed. I suggest you stop there and say the following (or something very like it) 'I don't think I've convinced you yet, what do you need from me to enable you to say yes.' Try it - it works!
-
In or On the business. For those of you in business I would like to share a tip I give to many of my clients. It is very easy, in the urgency of day to day demands on your time, to spend too much time working in the business. This can mean you 'lose sight of the wood because of the trees'. I encourage you to stop regularly to work on your business. Take time out and away from everyday detail to look at the overall picture. Is it going the way you want it? have you missed anything? Are you losing your way? What do you need to change? Take the time, it will be valuable. | |
| Greetings!
Firstly, a big thank you to those of you who took the time out of your busy lives to answer my survey about this Tipsletter. Your open responses are really valuable and I will be adjusting the content of this and future issues to reflect your comments.
Working on the principle that I cannot please all of the people all of the time I will, inevitably, go with the majority view.
To share some of the results, the main content you liked in the following order:
- Personal development tips
- Tips and wrinkles
- Quotes
- Occasional humour
- Book review
You were rather indifferent to my promotion for IntegritUs so rather than carrying direct promotional details what I will do is provide dates and updates and link through to my website. Colours and images were not too good so I'll tone down the colours and work on improving images although the latter may take me a little while to solve adequately.
Well! Here we are in September - IntegritUs Ltd's 1st anniversary - although incorporated in July '07 I started trading in September '07. For me - great news! I'm still trading and growing whilst, like many businesses, August was a lean month.
The things I've learnt along the way - I'll share some over time to help others avoid some of the pitfalls.
If you have not had a look for a while, check out my website. It is always under construction and being changed so check it out if you have a moment or two. I've put all my back issues of this tipsletter on there too.
This month in the IntegritUs calendar shows development of my business partnership with Constant Contact. You can produce these letters for your own company very very simply by clicking here here. You have two options; run it all yourself or get me to do it for you. Constant Contact now enable you to run an auto-responder for your business - new contacts get a series of timed contacts from you and you only need to set it up once. Give me a call for more info or e-mail me daveglees@integritusltd.co.uk.
Oh! By the way you get 60 days FREE no obligation trial of the system.
On a personal front, I've started to study for a Higher Education Authority Certificate - I lecture in Business School at Derby Uni so thought I should become legitimate. Ooooh! My brain hurts - it's not used to having the corners dusted out.
Anyway, take care, have a successful month until next time.
Enjoy,
Dave.
P.S. Please forward to a friend and ask them to sign-up for this tipsletter
|
|
Resilience - Following your dreams
In an edition of this Tipsletter which includes an article on motivation, I can't help but share a video clip I have just watched of a talk to Harvard Graduates by J K Rowling. What an inspiration! Click on the picture or HERE to go to this video clip. Take 20 minutes out of your day to watch it -well worth your time doing so!
There is too much to pick out from her talk to comment on as much as I'd like to here but some points I would like to draw on:
- JKR had a dream and she pursued that dream - nothing would stop her. Look at her now. What an example of resilience and determination. You too will succeed if you keep your dreams in mind and drive to fulfill them.
- Failure - I have talked about failure in this arena before. I do not like the word when applied to people. It is the one aspect of her speech I would like to comment on particularly, even though I've mentioned it before. When you do not achieve something, you have, in actual fact, had a glorious learning opportunity. You have just learned far more than if you had been successful first time. Keep going, learn from your misakes and you will achieve. Even Harvard graduates and the most successful people in the world have had 'failures' in their lives. When they were learning to walk, did they not fall over! As you did, so did they, they got up and tried again.
- In this country, we are very very privileged, despite a flawed government and the nanny state. We should be really grateful and proud of our opportunities and freedoms. Perhaps it would help to remember this when we feel down and are struggling in some way!
|
|
Language & Understanding
Do they hear what you say?
A few tips on clear communications here. If you have ever experienced saying something which is completely mis-understood then maybe you could change your own language style.
This is to introduce you to the concept of 'clean' language. Language which allows the listener to understand in their own preferred style.
In Neuro-Linguistic Programming there is a concept of representational systems which are used by us all. These are:
- Visual
- Auditory
- Kinaesthetic (feeling/doing)
- Also to some extent Taste and Smell
(To read a little more about NLP, click here.) We all have preferences for the use of these. Some of us lean towards visual as a preference, others, auditory and so-on. This does not mean we prefer one to the exclusion of the others (we all use all) it simply means we will use one system preferentially.
Ever heard someone say, 'Can you see what I'm saying?'. Quite common. This sort of use of language is a reflection of the speakers representational choices. What the question really means is 'Do you understand me?'. Some of the confusion which can arise in communication may come from a difference in representational preference. If someone who 'sees' in preference speaks to someone who 'hears' then a mis-match can occur.
The way to avoid this potential problem is to keep your language clean, particularly with people you do not know. There are many neutral words to use instead such as:
- Think
- Understand
- Consider
- Know
- Decide
- Manage
- Anticipate
Not an exhaustive list but one which should give you an idea of my meaning.
So you could say, 'What do you think of that?' as opposed to, 'How do you feel about that?'. 'Do you understand my meaning?' as opposed to 'Do you see what I'm saying?'. Just a couple of examples.
Being neutral or clean in your language allows interpretation of what you mean by your listener in his or her prefererred representational system.
|
|
Genuine Free Coaching!
A quick reminder that I offer a 'try before you buy' coaching hour free of charge.
No 'I'll assess your need for free'. No '1 hours free exploratory consultation'. With IntegritUs you get the real deal to try for yourself. Check it out here. |
|
Book Review - The Tao of Motivation 
Another relatively small book and well worth reading. To be honest some of the style I do not like - for me it is a bit patronizing because the Author creates a character, Alex, who acts out the points being made. For example a subtitle to one chapter is, 'In which Alex helps someone to "go for it" '. I just don't like this approach. 'However, I still recommend the book. You may like the style and even if not, the content and the regular reference to applicable and relevant theory is well worth reading'. There are some really powerful and practical approaches contained in the book to enable you to work to motivate not only yourself but the people around you.
The book relates motivation, not only to work, but also to situations outside work.
One thing I'd argue, that you may wish to remember, when managing people it is much easier to destroy motivation than to build it. Through my career I have been very fortunate, the vast majority of my bosses have been excellent motivators and great to work for, with a couple of very notable exceptions. Chapter thirteen is interesting - it may read 'over the top' but the principle can be seen in management situations relatively easily - it is why there is so much legislation around about workplace conditions and the rights of people at work!
As usual you can obtain the book from Amazon through my website by clicking the underlined links or the picture above. |
|
Remembering Names
Do you ever feel embarrased because you cannot remember a persons name? It happens! Here is a simple way of helping your recall and no-one will know you are doing it.
Firstly. When you are introduced or introduce yourself, listen. Listen actively. All too often we simply hear the name but do not mentally take note.
Secondly, and particularly when you meet a number of people at once, do at least three the following, whichever suits you:
- Listen hard
- Observe their faces
- Make a quick cartoon of them in your mind and accentuate a physical feature
- Say their name to yourself and add a connecting word which fits together or rhymes. e.g. Tom bomb. Dick dastardly. Harry parry.
- Actively commit these to memory
- Speak back to them immediately using their name....'Hello Julie pleased to meet you!'
- If possible, as soon as you leave them, write down their name and a few memorable details. This will give you particular credibility next time you meet them and talk about previous interactions. Clients/customers respond particularly well!
People are very flattered when you remember them, particularly after only one meeting! |
| Thank you for your time - any comments?
Phone 01283 521521
If you'd like to advertise here please e-mail me
| |
|
|
|
