Category Archives: Food for Thought
Some people focused Food for Thought.
Making 2012 count by asking ‘why’ not ‘what’…
Most people I know will have given some thought over the break about what they might want to achieve in the coming year – either personally, professionally or both. For many of us though, we might have made plans in the past only for them to gather dust, metaphorically or literally on our desks, perhaps leaving us with a sense of under-achievement or (at the least) a bit demotivated.
This article looks to give you some ‘food for thought’ in how you make your plans meaningful for you and your business by focusing first on the outcome you are trying to achieve – i.e. the ‘why’, before moving onto the ‘what’ and ‘how’. For those of your who have read some of Stephen Covey’s work, the phrase ‘beginning with the end in mind’ may well spring to mind.
Five reasons that this ‘outcome approach’ works include:
- It really focuses you on WHY you are doing something – and in the process filters out ‘noise’ and ‘stuff’ that might otherwise distract you.
- It makes your goals positive – you will be driving towards something good, not doing something just to ‘fix a problem’ or move away from a negative situation.
- The WHAT becomes intensely focused and you can make better decisions knowing what your desired outcomes REALLY are.
- You are more likely to be motivated by the WHY and the results it can give you, than the practicalities of the ‘what’.
- You will have a clearer picture of what success looks/feels/sounds like for you so will recognise it when you get there.
Have you set your personal 2012 ‘Olympic’ Goals?
I am a firm believer in trying to do what we all can to ‘switch off’ during the holiday season, but once the mince pies are gone or (in my case) the box of ‘Celebrations’ is eaten (and it does not take long), the time away from the ‘day job’ is a natural time for reflection, planning and goal setting.
To aid the process, I’ve honed down my own questioning and planning process this year to a few key questions, which you might find useful in planning your personal development and own ‘Olympic Goals’ for 2012.
- What went REALLY well this year – what area of strength from 2011 do I want to build on in 2012?
- What could have been better? Are these areas I want (or need) to develop…or not?
- Based on (1) and (2) above, what are my THREE KEY AREAS of focus for next year? You might want to mind map or brainstorm these.
- What would other people see me doing or hear me saying if I was successful in these goals by Dec 2012? How would I feel?
- What are the baby steps I need to take to move towards these goals in January 2012?
I hope these help and wish you every success in your personal development in 2012.
The 5 key people challenges in property and construction (and the questions to ask yourself to stop them affecting your business)
As a result of my work with contractors, developers and construction consultants, I can see broad ‘people development’ themes which emerge as a cause of decreased efficiency which, regardless of market conditions, hit the bottom line.
Not all of these will apply to every organisation, but the themes I’ve seen across different types of organisations within the sector see can be summarised into the key areas shown. The ‘questions to ask’ section invites you to consider how your organisation fares.
Challenge 1: A ‘missing tier’ of leadership and management capability.
Many firms seem to have ‘stripped out’ mid-tier managers to cut costs, along with a corresponding number of delivery teams. There is seems to be a large capability gap between senior managers and service deliverers which is storing up issues for the future.
Questions to ask yourself
- What are the development plans in place for succession planning for new leaders and in particular, career growth for those looking to move up when the market is more active?
- Is there a clear career ladder based on business need? Has this been communicated?
- Are those less senior being given opportunities to grow?
- What can you do now to help those in less senior roles to develop – can they be coached, mentored and given challenging projects as part of a development plan?
Push yourself to peak performance
I had a great day yesterday at The Entrepreneurs Circle monthly meet in Ascot with Nigel Botterill. As well as Nigel’s inspirational morning session, one of the speakers, Terry Gormley, focused on the personal changes you can make to drive yourself to better performance.
Given my ‘day job’ developing leadership and management skills with construction consultants and property professionals, he sparked a few thoughts around what we all might do today to drive our performance up. Read the rest of this entry
Strong Project Teams in Eight Simple Steps
Need to create a stronger project team? Here are some tips in a bitesize Food for Thought Video Strong Project Teams in 8 Simple Steps.
Five Easy Ways to Inspire Others Today
So, how are you going to inspire others right now…today? Click here for some quick and easy tips… 5 Easy Ways to Inspire Others Today.
Creating competitive advantage through learning
The concept of the ‘learning organisation’, where a business continually strives to learn in order to acheive competitive advantage in it’s market, has been around for some time now and is highly relevant in today’s knowledge economy. With this in mind, Chaseville recently undertook a study looking at the theory of learning organisations and the practical reality of the concept in business. The following are simple questions that can be asked to determine how far a business is on the journey to being such an organisation.
How does your business fare? Read the rest of this entry
360 feedback & lessons learnt
Having worked with a number of 360 tools over the last few years, my aim here is to share some lessons learnt. These focus on identifying what you are trying to acheive upfront, ensuring you select the right tool for the job, managing business and individual expectations, remaining led by your desired outcome and working with the individual being rated to ensure they get the most from the process. Read the rest of this entry
Talent spotting made easy
I was once told by a CEO that the best way for someone to succeed in his business was for them to “make sure they were in people’s minds when something needs doing“. This way, he told me, “with a flexible approach and an open mind, they will be given more opportunities than they can imagine”. In saying this, he was essentially acknowledging the psychology of human nature which dictates we like to work with people we know and like, and who we trust to get the job done well. We’ll pick them for new opportunities and, in the process, they will be naturally developed. But is talent spotting and development really that easy? Read the rest of this entry
Maximise effectivess by focusing on outcomes
I wonder how many of us are focused on the practicalities of our task lists today, as opposed to how we might approach our ‘to do’ lists differently to achieve the same outcomes, both personally and for our customers or clients.
If we define an outcome as ‘something that follows from an action, or situation; result; consequence’, what is it that you really want to achieve today? By responding to this question at a fundamental level and developing a ‘desired outcome’ approach today, I wonder how your plans for the day, week and month might change? Read the rest of this entry
