Business Coaching to Help You Grow Your Business and Achieve Your Personal Best!

Tag: Change

Work from Home & the Long Game

Posted by on in Business Coaching, Change, Covid-19, Executive Coaching, Success Quotes2 Comments

As the economy opens back up, many people will be finding working from home as part of the new norm. Some business owners and employees want it, some not so much. Wherever you stand, if you have not settled into the WFH format yet, here are a few tips to get you there.:

Think Habits – Our habits determine our success. Do the right things, do them consistently.

Establish Routines – Get into a rhythm and stay there as best you can. Map out your days and your ideal calendar to help you stay on task and avoid distractions. If the first Monday of the month from 8:00 – 12:00 works best for admin work, make it so every month.

Be Professional – Some people can be productive in their jammies. If that is you, awesome. If you need to shower, shave, and put on a suit, do that. If you need to do a Zoom meeting, be sure to follow the prescribed dress code!

Find Your Space – If you do not have a separate home office space with a door, do your best to create a space that will work for you. Find a corner of the family room or basement, set-up a desk, put a calendar on the wall, and whatever else you need to say, “This is my work space and don’t bother me when I am here.” Train family to respect the work schedule and workspace as best as possible.

Self-Care – Be careful this does not get lost in the confusion of being at home vs being at work. Take care of yourself first so that you can take care of everything else.

• Take frequent breaks – get up and walk around, get a drink of water, etc.
• Disconnect when you need to especially from the social media blitz.
• Remember, me time is allowed and necessary.

Finally, WFH is likely to be a large part of the new norm. We were trending that way before Covid-19 and we are definitely there now. So, plan for the long term to WFH and remember a key element to a successful work from home effort is communication. When people are at a distance, we can lose sight of the need for and the effectiveness of our communication so…

Include this last tip into your routine: Call first, call often!

Let me know, how do you find success with WFH?

Batten down the hatches…

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shipstorm
Batten down the hatches!

Weathering the storm is the norm right now.  Battening down the hatches is necessary to help ships keep water out and stay afloat in stormy waters.  In days long gone, the key elements “to batten” include the wooden grates over the hatches in the ships deck, the tarps thrown over the hatches, and furring strips nailed around the edges or ropes to hold the tarps in place.

Four key business elements that help batten down the hatches during troubled times include:

  1. Map out your marketing strategy – having this in place and effective implementation are critical always but especially during the storm.  Keeping your marketing active versus cost cutting approaches makes all the difference between businesses that survive and those that thrive.
  2. Diversify your customer base and service offerings – As a part of 1. above, diversity helps to keep your business off the revenue rollercoaster through tough times as well as any usual seasonal effects.
  3. Plan worst case…sound strategic planning includes what if worst case scenarios most of which won’t ever happen.  But if they did, you are more likely to have a contingency plan ready to go and even if you don’t have just the right plan, working through scenarios is good practice and helps to ensure you and your team can meet the challenge when the need arises.
  4. Set aside a rainy day fund – Every cent counts and even a small rainy day fund sets the right tone for your team from core values to daily cash flow management.

“If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting.”
Benjamin Franklin

If you didn’t have these four key business elements in place before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, you might be feeling the pain.  If so, triage your business and get through as best you can.  When you get a moment and catch your breath, schedule a time for you and your team to take a look at the four key elements above so when the next storm comes, you can batten down the hatches!

Covid-19 Anxiety, Find Your One Thing…

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Covid-19 and social distancing for the last couple of weeks has been stressing me to my limit as it probably has for you too.  Being off my routine, in lockdown mode (I know, safe at home) worrying about business stuff and family stuff and with a lot fewer warm hugs has really knocked me off my game.  Can’t sleep, stress eating, not getting out to run (worsens everything) and a low level anxiety from everywhere have been the new norm…the negativity creeps on you and before you know it, it’s hitting you hard.  Thankfully, my friend Tim Cole sent me a link to an insightful article by Mitch Albom in the Detroit Free Press which I really needed today.  Mitch writes about Knox who has an incredible story…a blessed ray of sunshine all the way from Haiti that helped Mitch find his one thing.BikeRideJoy

My one thing…this weekend, my 9 year old son finally learned to ride his bike overcoming a ton of anxiety.  He’s been putting it off for years.  There was a super stress moment and some tears but he pushed through and of course, once he got the hang of it he didn’t want to stop.  He rode about 8 miles before the day was done and he didn’t let me help in any of it except to cheer him from a distance and adjust the seat and the brakes a few times.  This win was all him!  I got a long warm hug for the assist and then he let go but came back and gave me a second long warm hug, bonus!  :)

In writing this I also realize for the umpteenth time, that we have rays of sunshine all around us all day every day.  We just have to get out of our funk and look for them.  Life’s best things are the littlest things right under our noses.

As these next days and weeks come and go, find your one thing(s), your rays of sunshine, and count your blessings.  And if you can, help someone else find theirs because we are all of us everywhere on quite the rollercoaster.  Thank you Mitch and thank you Tim!

What is your one thing?

 

Write it on your heart…

Posted by on in Business Coaching, Executive Coaching, Running, Success QuotesLeave a comment

Stay in the moment for that is where you find
peace
productivity
prosperity
business will be good…you will be strong…life will be balanced

on your heart

the greatest good…

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tis the season for good deeds and the greatest good starts at home

first within
then six degrees
to change the world

changeyourheart

Recognize Your Progress

Posted by on in Business Coaching, Executive Coaching, Running, Success Quotes1 Comment

strivebuddhaprog·ress

noun

1.  a movement toward a goal or to a further or higher stage.

positive change…an attitude…a vision…a change of pace…one more mile…the next level…even the smallest of steps

with heart

Success starts with the one…

Posted by on in Business Coaching, Executive Coaching, Success Quotes1 Comment

Starfish1aDid a presentation yesterday afternoon…65 staff and managers…they had a long morning covering their business agenda, just finished lunch, small room,  too warm, a captive audience for the most part…

Topic was emotional intelligence and personal accountability…it was looking to be a tough afternoon…and it was…but we pressed on.  Had good interaction, a few laughs, a few light bulbs during the exercises…it was good.

There was one that did not say much…the quiet one…but I could tell he was listening…he did the exercises, wrote while others around him laughed off theirs…he wrote carefully…kept it to himself.

Near the end, volunteers around the room shared their takeaways for self-improvement, for change…they were good…lose weight, stop smoking, be kind, help others…all good things, challenging, admirable.

I risked it…asked him to share…he looked down as he spoke…the room went quiet as he courageously admitted many faults….seeing himself being distant, angry, frustrated, impatient, the yelling and screaming, so hard to be home, so much sadness…but owning his behavior, his part in their pain…his plan to be a better man…to let go his anger, be more attentative, be more patient, respectful, bring his family to a better place…all with a deep sincerity you could feel in your heart…

Silence…I looked up…tears all around the room…they hadn’t known…then the applause…for the one.

“Change your thoughts and you change your world.”
– Norman Vincent Peale

Success is a choice…

Posted by on in Business Coaching, Executive Coaching, Running, Success Quotes4 Comments

The choices we make now move us to a better place in life or a worse place.  What choices are you making?

So I put in my application…western states 100…holding my breath till December 7th! :-)

wser-logo-180

 

Fear is a question…

Posted by on in Executive Coaching, Running2 Comments

“Fear is a question: What are you afraid of, and why? Just as the seed of health is in illness, because illness contains information, your fears are a treasure house of self-knowledge if you explore them.” – Marilyn Ferguson

Fear is the signal…nightrunning
to ask a question
to focus
that there may be walls
that there may be opportunity
to change
to step in and explore

Whether one mile or a hundred miles, face your fear!

Awareness…

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“Awareness is the birthplace of possibility. Everything you want to
do, everything you want to be, starts here. To be a successful visionary, you
must be as aware as possible. At every moment, many paths lead forward.
Awareness tells you which is the right one to take.” – Deepak Chopra

It’s key to…
– good leadership
– good followership
– your team
– your customers
– your work
– your future
– your legacy.

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