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How to Become Effortlessly Productive in Minutes!

As a recovering workaholic, whenever the pressure is on it is always tempting for me just to work harder, longer and stronger! The problem with this is that the more I work, the more likely it is I’ll end up burnt out and broken down (again)!

Being effortlessly productive is a much better option for both your stress levels and your creative problem solving capacity.

Here’s a few ways to achieve this zone whenever you need to…

The art of ‘action without action’

Lao Tse, an ancient Chinese philosopher practiced Wu Wei – the art of ‘action without action’. Sounds confusing, it’s simple!
The idea of this practice is to get the conscious mind out of the way, so that your creative source can work its magic!

When you put your body into the ‘exercise high’ state, you are effectively practicing Wu Wei!

Many business people don’t find the time for exercise because they don’t understand the benefits. Anytime I am ‘stuck’ or can’t think clearly, I take the dog for a walk. Inevitably, the creativity will flow and I will solve my challenge with ease. The useful thoughts seem to just rise to the top!

Creative daydreaming is another way to practice Wu Wei.

A little hammock time, or time spent just listening to the bamboo rustling in the breeze can free up your mind to create results effortlessly.

Listening to peaceful music is another great way to free up your mind chatter and let the good stuff out!

Set Your Intention

If you are into nanna naps or lucid dreaming, you can also harness your creativity by allowing the sleep state to work on your challenge whilst you are resting – just set your intention! Take note of the insights and ideas which arise immediately upon waking – these are the keys to ‘doing without doing’!

When you are engaged in effortless action, you are ‘in the zone’ or in the flow state. This is where information, opportunities and possibilities arrive out of nowhere, in ways you couldn’t possibly imagine if you were trying hard.

I have a list of at least 50 ‘actions’ which can put me into this precious creative zone.

Make Your Own List

The more easily you can achieve this state, the less stressed and the more productive you will be!!

Morale in the work place

It is a no-brainer that better morale leads to increased productivity. General morale at work can make or break a company’s success. Effective leaders keep a close eye on company morale. Staff who feel fulfilled and appreciated are far more likely to go the extra mile. They will be more loyal and your staff turnover will decrease. Creative approaches can be employed to build the morale if it is low. The best approach would be to embrace positive changes before the depressing atmosphere really takes hold.

If you recognize some of this behavior in your workplace you can be sure that morale is not as good as it could be. Eye rolls, consistent lateness, high staff turnover, lower performance and less staff collaboration. A Gallup survey recently found that only about 13% of workers are engaged in their job. Research also shows that sadly by far a large majority of people do not enjoy their work. If employees see their work as more than just a job this goes a long way to increasing productivity. Staff happiness results in greater profits for companies who take steps to improve morale.

Conventional thinking assumes that if you pay your staff better you will get more productivity. Not so it seems, we see now that financial incentives are not enough to ensure productivity.

Companies who invest in support and satisfaction generate happier workers. Work environments where the staff feels happy and appreciated are in fact up to 12% more productive. Positive feelings are invigorating for people. The human brain works better when a person feels positive.

Ask for feedback from staff in an atmosphere that accepts that all constructive criticism is good. Employees are always encouraged by being acknowledged. Brainstorming with employees regularly can avoid or mitigate many of the everyday issues that present themselves. Since employees spend more time together than they do at home with their families a supportive happy work environment goes a long way to promoting happiness.

There are many both conventional and unconventional ways to promote this improved morale.

Let the letch go If there are employees who routinely bug other members of staff. If they are sexist, racist, condescending or rude, regularly lose their cool and refuse to accept blame it would be wise to let them go. This could have a greater effect on morale, more even than increases or promotions.

Encourage staff to take time out. Research tells us that 20% of workers break for lunch, in truth being boxed in at one location all day stunts creative thought. The same employees who do not get up from their workstations are also less likely to take holidays. Time off is vital to recharge one’s brain.

Bonuses Pay for things out of the expected remuneration. Possibly pay towards technology, gym membership, transport or childcare. Celebrate accomplishments and reward employees. Occasional surprise unconditional gifts can dispose people well towards employers.

Family Open your doors to spouses, children and other family from time to time in order to connect the professional and personal worlds of your employees. Keep staff regularly apprised of opportunities to grow.

Is Your ‘To Do’ List Getting Longer While Your Life Gets Shorter?

Over the past week we’ve been experimenting with setting priorities.

Each morning we discuss or email our top 3 essential priorities for the day so that we can be more focused on what matters and more accountable for achieving results.

Here’s what’s been noticed so far:

We each always have more than 3!
If there is one ‘biggie’ on the list everything else falls out the window.
Some things seem to spill over day after day.
A lot of things get done which aren’t even on the list!!
We are still working crazy hours.

Something’s not quite working here!! Do any of these challenges sound familiar? In the interests of achieving more outcomes that matter, let’s fine tune the strategy…

Delegate more. Between the PA, Marketing Assistant, and hiring a cleaner, we could be doing a lot less stuff that chews time for little strategic result!
Set timeframes for each item – once the allotted time is up, its time to move on – finished or not! (This sure makes you think about how realistic your expectations are!)
Put aside one hour a day to do ’10 minute jobs’ – this gets a heap of the essential smaller things done each day.
Strike a better balance between the strategic and the operational – both matter!
Include more downtime – we’re not productive when we’re tired!

Do you have any other ideas which really work for you?

Executive Coaching Strategies: Exactly what is ‘Behavioural’ Coaching?

Executive coaching is all about optimising the effectiveness of individuals in leadership positions, and mainly, it has to do with developing their aptitude to captain and also move the efficiency of the people, groups and the departments they lead.

Generally speaking there are three types of executive training: behavioural change coaching, personal productivity coaching, as well as ‘energy’ training.
In this article we will fairly quickly distinguish each of these training methods and also clarify the advantages that come from the behavioural coaching methodology, so visitors can more completely recognize just what behavioral training is, and also why it is potentially the most reliable executive coaching approach to be had for career executives aspiring to develop elevated effectiveness in their ability to amplify the output of the teams and divisions they lead.

Personal productivity training
Personal productivity training has to do with assessing areas of efficiency, efficacy and individual results, basically, it’s about empowering executives to do more by prioritising in a superior way, eliciting the most from modern technological advances, obtaining clarity on their objectives and so on, so the focus is on the executive himself.

Energy training
Energy training is about breaking through restricting views and emotional responses, and also exchanging them with supportive, empowering mindsets that cause even more effective and congruent activity, so the emphasis is on the individual empowerment of the leader themselves.

Behavioral training
Behavioral training varies from the previous two methodologies in that it has to do with objectively analysing a leader’s personal leadership style, and also the manner in which this affects their ability to perform with and also via others, in order to help their people to pull off their KPI’s.

So behavioural training varies from the previous 2 training types in the sense that the focus is on detecting and also gauging the impacts an individual’s leadership form has on the effectiveness of others. Basically, it’s about the leader becoming far more capable at eliciting great work from other individuals to be much more effective, as opposed to attempting to be even more efficient themselves.

Preferably, behavioural trainers want to collaborate with executives who are already successful leaders, to help them to turn into greater, more effective leaders plus the argument for behavioural coaching being more useful compared to other forms of executive coaching is that the majority of successful leaders are already moderately experienced in managing their own energy and individual work productivity, however may not appreciate exactly how their individual leadership type impacts on the individual effectiveness of their direct reports, teams as well as their whole department. To put it simply, while they are extremely reliable achievers in their own right, they could be oblivious to the particular way their individual leadership mode influences others.
By determining their leadership approach and also guiding the leader on an examination right into how this affects their capacity to work with and also by way of others, behavioral coaching could aid executives to eliminate previously unknown impediments to performance in addition to production, both reliably and speedily.

So how long would you expect it to take to achieve measurable change in the effectiveness of a leader through behavioral coaching? You may be surprised to read that it’s generally about 6 months. This is a fairly brief time period when you consider that the end result is a capacity to routinely as well as dependably produce solid benefits right through a division and a business.

Look in the Mirror and Communicate Better

Have you ever felt frustrated because a person you were talking to simply didn’t get what you were trying to say, or because you were misunderstood. Maybe you’ve been disappointed because you were let down. If you can relate to these things, it just may be time to take a hard look in the mirror!

When communicating with anyone, it is important to remember that YOU have 100% responsibility for whatever message it is YOU want to deliver… If the person at the receiving end of your message is not ‘getting it’ in some way, the bottom line is that you need to do something different to resolve the problem.

Communication is a central component in success, and irrespective of your personality type, it is something that you can do very effectively when you work on it… and the benefits of working on your communication skills and becoming a better communicator are enormous!

What all this means is, don’t be the one who puts your head in the sand. Take responsibility for the message you wish to communicate, try multiple ways to help the person understand. Seek clarification that they do understand… and then follow up later to ensure what was understood remains so!

Whatever you do, its time to start communicating better and, through this important skill, help to make your business, career and life a whole lot easier!

3 Ways Executive Coaching May Benefit Your Work or Small business

For business leaders who are yet to work with an executive coach, there is often some trepidation about hiring one. Will it be worth the charge? If I have someone come in to show me how to run things more efficiently will this hamper my efforts to be my own boss? Still clever business men and women who have actually dealt with an executive coach before know the value of having a knowledgeable and skilled coach working with them.

You see, an executive coach is not there to tell you what to do or why and when to do things. They will never ever play the part of a boss and they without a doubt are not going to run your company for you. They play the function of a shepherd, helping steer you in the ideal direction, especially when you face real problems in your business or work or when you desire to take your game to the next level. Executive coaches work closely with you to accomplish common goals that will definitely benefit your work, company and profits.
Below are three of the very best reasons why hiring an executive coach makes good sense for your business.

How an Executive Coach Can Benefit Your Work
1. An executive coach can help you build objectives to work to. At times targets can be tough to set. Working in hectic situations under pressure it can be hard to browse a path to your goals and it can be very overwhelming at times. Still an executive coach can see through this tough time and really help you set targets that can be attained, given that they have been there before, and with the benefit of experience and twenty-twenty hindsight, they can help you find a better direction.

2. An executive coach can supply a matter-of-fact outside perspective. Let’s face it, most of us are emotionally enmeshed with our work or company because we take pride in the things we do. However that emotional attachment can cloud judgment and influence choices we make, and having somebody with an outside view can be hugely beneficial and really help guide you during tough times.

3. An executive coach can present expert help on a wide range of areas of business. While it’s safe to say that you are quite likely a specialist at exactly what you do, there will certainly be times in your career when your business has to expand or alter directions. When this takes place, you can in many instances find yourself traversing unusual waters. But working with an executive coach that has first-hand understanding of the unique problems you are facing, you will definitely have a knowledgeable individual on your side. There is no good reason to take on new scenarios alone when you can have an educated person close to you assisting you to clear the way.

What to Search for in the Perfect Business Coach

Business coaches can be useful resources to any company, particularly when a company is stalled or in decline, business coaches can come in and guide management in the right direction, help them change direction, address difficulties and get back on track. But how does one deal with getting the most appropriate business coach?
Not all coaches are equal, there are many high quality result driven coaches that dedicate their lives to what they do, nevertheless there are a a number of want to be coaches that get into coaching because they have failed in other fields and should not in actuality be coaching anybody. Making an effort to find the best coach to work with can be difficult if you do not know where to look, how do you tell the real from the unreal? The following tips are created to provide you a heads up, to help you make the perfect choice of coach for you and your circumstance.

So What Should I Try to find In A Great Business Coach?

Amongst the key things you should really search for in an expert coach is his or her performance history. Unqualified and unskilled coaches will not have the list of clients that a person who has actually committed their lives to the job. So ask for references, reviews and case studies and do your research to see just what your would-be coach has actually pulled off in the past.

What skills do they offer? This is the second thing that ought to be considered is the coaches history, the experience they can bring to the table. While excellent coaching approaches can take a client a long way, the skill-sets, experience and track record of your coach determine their capability to really coach you and help you to put programs into action. So have a look at the coaches own business background before you agree to deal with them and sign an agreement.

Another crucial subject is confidentiality. Make sure that your coach is prepared to sign a confidentiality agreement. Many individuals in the past have actually found themselves disadvantaged by surrendering private business details to business coaches who have later on shared the details with other companies in the same industry. A confidentiality agreement ought to be a non-negotiable condition of any coaching contract, and if a coach is not prepared to sign one, you should really go on to someone else.

Finally, search for a coach that is not only going to offer you recommendations but also feedback on things that you are doing. The quality of feedback provided will directly correlate to the coaches own business prior experience. Always search for a coach with a great performance history, an impressive list of clients, reviews and other proof of successful coaching engagements, and if possible try and select someone who has actually been a success in business themselves.

Why Business Coaching is a Necessity for Success

In business, rough patches can become roadblocks to your success whether you are new in business or even if you are an experienced business person. Instead of getting bogged down when the inevitable happens, why not employ somebody to assist you in improving your circumstances?
By bringing in somebody new to help you to think out of the box, you get to see the problem from a different position. Business coaches work hand in hand with their clients to help them to fix issues and drive their business forward.

However You Might Be Asking Yourself, Why Do I Require A Coach?

While you may not feel you require one now, you might in the future. Business coaches do not just provide suggestions. In truth, they offer a much broader service than some businesses appreciate. These mega coaches are constantly taking notes and for good reason. What they are doing when they listen is gather information they can later make use of to assist you make improvements in your business. This feedback is worth its weight in gold and can really help you become a better business man or woman, thereby assisting your business grow in the ideal way.
Business Coaches Have Genuine Skills That They Can Teach You
Guidance and feedback are simply two of the things that business coaches provide. They also have genuine skills that can assist you to accomplish your critical targets. There are various kinds of capability sets that coaches can share with you depending on the businesses they worked within previously.

Are Business Coaches actually worth the Expense?

While the costs to employ a professional business coach may be significant, the rewards that you and your company get are valuable. These coaches have years of experience helping others to move their companies forward. Many of the individuals that these experts assist, are faced with big concerns and are typically on the verge of losing their company due to poor direction. Business coaches come in and assist you to sort out the concerns causing failure and can help turn the ship around so the business is heading in the right direction again.
So now do you see why the services of a business coach can be invaluable? The strategies that are made as a result of partnering with a coach can have broad ranging effects.
If you are faced with a tough time in your company, don’t let your business fail because you do not understand or are stuck with which direction to move in. Instead consider the benefits of collaborating with a professional business coach and reap the rewards in your business.

Business Coaching: What the Questionnaire Results Say

Business coaching has actually been around for a while now. But many executives are just starting to become mindful of what executive coaching can offer. Because while there have actually been many professional coaches with successful track records, there are also a lot of “wanna be coaches” out there, so it can be a genuine case of “buyer beware.” There are likewise a lot who do not have the experience and know how you wish for in a coach.
A Harvard Business Review study on the executive coaching industry has exposed some really intriguing information that will help those on the fence make up their minds about the value of executive coaching. Inside this comprehensive survey, many essential questions were asked. These questions were created to spell out the right relationship between a coach and the business leader they are assisting.
The 1st question asked was: Do the coach and the executive have reasonable chemistry? If the answer is yes, this will definitely help the pair move forward and accomplish their goals. On the other hand if the response is no, it’s most likely better to try to find another coach as a coaching relationship is intimate and the person being coached needs to trust the coach.
The 2nd question and one of the most important ones was: Is the executive highly open to change? A ‘yes’ will certainly lead to an executive that is all set to get down to business and do the hard things needed to move forward and end up being more effective. However if the response is ‘no’, then it may be due to the fact that the executive is in their ‘way of being’ and unwilling to change, which won’t make for a fruitful coaching relationship.
The 3rd concern asked was: Does the executive have the dedication of his or her top management? If management is behind their leader then the coach and the leader can achieve great things together. But if management is not fully supportive of the leader, there is little point in hiring a coach as it is not really going to develop measurable results, and the full capacity of the relationship can be stunted. Typically it is a direct result of management attempting to push an executive along that coaching is used and it can definitely be a good technique for improving staff.
The 4th and last question focuses on the concern of “moving focus”. Lots of respondents who were questioned for this survey believed that their coaching focus changed in time. And this is usually an advantage. When a coach’s focus shifts, oftentimes it’s due to the fact that development has been made. The important problem is to make sure that the scope of the coaching work is well recorded, as this guarantees focus is maintained and a positive measurable outcome is more likely.

Exactly what is the Difference Between a Business Coach and a Business Mentor?

You might say that successful business people know a secret, but it’s not really the truth, it’s much less mysterious, it just that their secret isn’t discernible to many people. However if you dig around a bit and open your eyes it will soon be g clear as day . Are you curious yet? Ok, I won’t keep you in suspense, here’s the formula, practically all men and women who are incredibly prosperous in any field you care to name have employed a mentor.

So what is a mentor? A mentor is somebody else who has actually been there and done that! They have years of experience in what it requires to make it in a particular field. In business, mentors can assist you through difficult times and help bolster your odds of success, by helping you act carefully when you go up against brand-new hurdles. The very best mentors have actually lived and faced the same difficulties which you are dealing with and have had years of experience in their particular niche.

If you look beyond the title of coach, you will find that the majority of extraordinary coaches are ex-champions, or at minimum ex-players. So they are more than coaches, they do more than teach technique, they transfer experience. The concept of a mentor is that you get to pick up from their mistakes and by doing this, prevent making the exact same errors they did on their way up. This can really help to expedite your success.

Business Mentors are vital to numerous organizations and even top CEO uses them, due to the fact that they have generally confronted the predicaments that you come up against, and so they can assist you avoid some of the perils that lie on the road to success.

While Business Mentors are vital to every company, so are Business Coaches. What is the distinction, you ask? As opposed to mentors, Business Coaches will help you expand leadership and business abilities needed for success. They teach strategies where a business mentor is more a veteran confidant.

Lots of individuals take a shot and fail in business, and in any arena, it is just a rare few that get to move up to the top, and those that utilize mentors and a business coaches have a far better opportunity of success.

Who Will Mentoring Programs Help?
Any individual desiring success in any field can gain from a mentor, in truth, plenty of men and women in business including top CEO’s that are looking to fast track growth, brand-new and potential leaders that are looking for help learning the ropes, and business owners who are aiming to move their companies in the best direction. Why bog down your success by getting stuck in the traps of your marketplace. An experienced mentor will see things that you can not see, due to the fact that they have experienced the path you are on and this can help you get to your dream faster.