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Tag: Opportunities

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?

It’s Not About Change…

Posted by on in Business Coaching, Change, Covid-19, Executive Coaching, Success QuotesLeave a comment

It’s about adapting to change.

Change is the norm. Always has been. Covid-19 has been a big change for sure and it’s effects are likely to continue for some time to come. So, the key is adapting and doing our best to adapt well for the long term. Here are a few key points for adapting to change. 

The Three P’s

Be Positive – As much as possible, keep it optimistic. Our tendency is to initially fear the sky is falling but that rarely happens. Think about worst case and be prepared as best you can but hope for the best.

“Optimism, when applied to your life, develops strength and peace within you.”

– Norman Vincent Peale

Be proactive – Sudden change will give rise to fear and put us in a reactive mode, i.e. fight or flight. Self-directed change or change we prepare for allows us to respond in a more logical manner for better results. Develop contingency plans and robust systems so when the need arises, you are ready to go.

“It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses.

– George Eliot

Be Purposeful – Set your goals, both short term and long term, based on your core values. Doing so allows you to go after them and move with purpose. That purpose gets you out of bed in the morning, it helps you dispel any doubts, and it helps you to be ready for any storm that may come.

“Occupy your thoughts with purpose and you will be so busy pursuing a meaningful future there will be no time for doubt, chaos and disappointment.

– Carlos Wallace

Do your best to be positive, proactive and purposeful and you will weather the storm.

Let me know…how are you handling the change?

Rock on!

Batten down the hatches…

Posted by on in Business Coaching, Change, Covid-19, Executive Coaching, Success QuotesLeave a comment

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!

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 Fundamentals Translate…

Posted by on in Business Coaching, Executive Coaching, RunningLeave a comment

OilCreek2012achieveIt’s the fundamentals that make the difference in business, in running, and in life…and they are pretty much the same!

1. Don’t Take it Too Seriously:  It may be important but if it stresses you out, your performance will suffer…laugh often!
Runners: Leave your Garmin at home on occassion.  :-)

2. Ask:  Ask for the sale, ask for help…from the heart, for the right reasons!  No one really wants to do it alone.
Runners:  Run with buddies…to speed you up or slow you down.

3. Stay in the Moment:  What you DO right now is all that matters…not yesterday, not tomorrow.  Right now.
Runners:  Run the mile you are in!

4. Be Generous:  If you want something, give something first.  Trust that it will come back to you.  Givers gain.
Runners:  High five fellow runners, congratulate the winner, volunteer.

5. Use Your Time:  We all have the same amount of time available to us.  You can choose to use it or not.  The keyword is “USE.”
Runners:  Go run!

6. Reflect:  Take some time to slow down, look around, breathe.  Find some quiet time.  You may see something new in that mirror.
Runners:  On occasion, stop and enjoy the view, the quiet, the moment.

7. Feed the Fire Within: …to live with joy and passion but make choices with your head.
Runners:  Do what you love whether fast or slow, short or long, but listen to your body.

8. Find Balance: Work, family, faith, health…the tree that leans too far will fall.
Runners:  Mix it up, cross train, rest!

9. Find the Positive:  In winning and in losing. In Everything.
Runners:  It hurts but it’s a good hurt!

10. Face your fear:  That which we are most afraid of is exactly the thing we need to go after.
Runners:  Sign up for that race already!

11. Choose…to be successful, to be happy, to be you…then ACT on it.
Runners:  Run Steady, Run Strong!

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!

Expand Your Network, Super Charge Your Opportunities!

Posted by on in Business Coaching, Executive Coaching5 Comments

We all know the fundamental principle that building your network is good for business.  The greater your reach, the more opportunities come your way.  What’s really cool is that you don’t necessarily need to expand your network all that much to find significantly more opportunities.  Here’s an interesting way to look at it…

Imagine your network as a sphere made of people and opportunities circling all around you, i.e. the phrase sphere of influence.  Mathematically speaking, the volume of that sphere (the people and the opportunities) is:

V = ⁴⁄₃π r³

The “V” stands for volume and “r” stands for radius of the sphere.  If the radius of your sphere or your reach, is 1, then V = ⁴⁄₃π 1³= 4.18

Now, imagine you extend your reach to 2, then V = ⁴⁄₃π 2³= 33.41….and that’s a big difference…8 times bigger!  If your reach is 3, you get 27 times bigger and so on!

Expand your reach by just a little bit and your network and the opportunities that come with it grows exponentially!

So, get out there and go to that networking meeting, meet that new person, and build those relationships!

Tell me…how do you build your network?

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“What’s going to give us the most bang for our buck?”

Posted by on in Business Coaching, Executive Coaching4 Comments

There’s a segment of mathematics that focuses on finding the optimum formula for a task or series of tasks. It’s called, simply enough, optimization techniques. I like to call it, “What’s going to give us the most bang for our buck?” And, simply enough, asking this question can help us to set priorities, make better decisions, and positively impact our bottom line.

For most of us, we don’t need a lot of complicated math formulas to think optimization for business. It’s fun stuff for math majors but not really practical for the small business owner. Here are a few ways to think through and find ways to optimize your business:

1.  There are usually multiple ways to complete a task. Define each series of steps to completion. Set your measurement criteria, i.e. time, energy or money. The series of steps that lead to the best outcome, i.e. less time, less energy, or less money spent is the optimum approach and the approach you should be using to maximize your resources.

2.  Don’t assume the way you are doing things now is optimum. Very often, we do what’s comfortable or what everyone else is doing or what someone told us we should do twenty years ago. We assume it’s the best way…don’t assume…check it out!

3.  Upgrade! Changes in technology, information, knowledge, and the market makes it important to stay current. You probably don’t need to get the newest cell phone or computer every 6 months but if your technology, information, knowledge or understanding of your market is outdated…it’s costing you money and opportunity!

Let me know…how do you optimize your resources and get the most bang for your buck?

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