• You have NO goals. No goals is not a good thing.If you don't know where you're going, how will you know when you get there?

• You have the WRONG goals.Goals that are too high or too low are frustrating or unchallenging. Make your goals specific and realistic; high enough to stretch you but low enough to be reachable. As you accomplish, raise the bar on yourself.

• You take shortcuts. Shortcuts cost you in the long run. A half-done job is NOT better than no job. Don't sacrifice your standards or quality.

AS COMPANIES CONTINUE to look for ways to cut costs, coaching/recognition is a low-cost but high impact way to go.

In fact, managers are courting trouble if they fail to make coaching skills a priority and an instrumental part of every supervisor's job description and performance assessment, say Ron Magnus and Nate Allen, writing for leadership training consultants FMI. Managers who create a learning environment with a focus on developing staff skills and character will set themselves apart from the competition by attracting and retaining valued employees.

Those with reputations for investing in the skills and growth of their people will attract the best and most loyal employees. In other words, the staffers who work well will be more likely to stay on longer. Coaching can also be useful for: · increasing motivation; · increasing productivity; · increasing profitable growth.

GIVING PRESENTATIONS is a daunting prospect for businesses, according to a survey carried out by executive communications consultancy, The Aziz Corporation.

It found that a wide range of business tasks which involve speaking or presentation seem to strike fear, with 80% of company directors finding public speaking the most nerve-wracking activity they have to undertake.

First impressions count Whether you are presenting a business plan to your bank manager or to investors to raise money, or whether you are pitching your business to a prospective client, first impressions are all important. It may seem obvious, but putting your presentation into a smart folder can help. How you look is equally important, as Shilpa Panchmatia, founder of leadership training and coaching services company Human Xpression points out. "Dress appropriately for the occasion and make sure your appearance is clean and neat. Wear something you feel good in. It will boost your confidence."

Go for clarity Above all, aim to be clear - compiling a glossy presentation pack could prove to be a distraction and could give the idea that you are trying to hide something. If your business revolves around technology and you have to use specialised words, remember to explain these, or to include a glossary. Be clear in your own mind what is interesting, different or exciting about your business. Ensure that you don't get sidetracked by details - this may stop you from bringing out the important elements of your plan or business. Similarly, listen carefully to any questions asked and make sure you answer clearly and concisely what you have been asked.

There is a grace of kind listening, as well as a grace of kind speaking. Some men listen with an abstracted air, which shows that their thoughts are elsewhere. Or they seem to listen, but by wide answers and irrelevant questions show that they have been occupied with their own thoughts, as being more interesting, at least in their own estimation, than what you have been saying. Some listen with a kind of importunate ferocity, which makes you feel that you are being put upon your trial, and that your auditor expects beforehand that you are going to tell him a lie, or to be inaccurate, or to say something which he will disapprove, and that you must mind your expressions. Some interrupt, and will not hear you to the end. Some hear you to the end, and then forthwith begin to talk to you about a similar experience which has befallen themselves, making your case only an illustration of their own. Some, meaning to be kind, listen with such a determined, lively, violent attention, that you are at once made uncomfortable, and the charm of conversation is at an end. Many persons, whose manners will stand the test of speaking, break down under the trial of listening. Kind listening is often an act of the most delicate interior mortification, and is a great assistance towards kind speaking.

SOURCENOTE: F.W. Faber, Spiritual Conferences, 1859