Coaching, Focus and Happiness

You know in coaching we talk a lot about focus and how it is key to making things happen, succeeding and even improving our communication.  I don' think we talk enough about how focus also helps us to be happier....I find it hard to really enjoy things when I am spread out over 5 different things happening at the same time, not being able to have anything of depth. It is not that we don't need to multi-task but that multi-tasking should not be what is happening in our "off time"- that needs another dimension, one of focusing on depth...and I think that is rapidly disappearing in our younger generation- what do you think Here is a great article below.

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Are We Losing Our Focus?

--by Jill Suttie, syndicated from Greater Good, Dec 20, 2013

In a new book, Daniel Goleman argues that focus leads to greater happiness, better relationships, and increased productivity.

Daniel Goleman, renowned author and psychologist, writes that the ability to focus on one task to the exclusion of others is a lost art for many. Yet the skill of focus is connected to greater happiness, better relationships, and increased productivity. He writes that balancing inner, other, and out...

http://www.dailygood.org/story/605/are-we-losing-our-focus-jill-suttie/

Keeping End-of-year Hysteria in Check

A recent post on the Harvard Business Review blog talked about how to ask for direction from managers and others in dealing with work overload (see below). This reminded me of a kind of hysteria I sense in so many managers about "year end", seeing how so many are all postponing meetings, commitments, social gatherings and what not. It is as if the "year end" is "life's end", a sense of hysteria totally blown out of proportion. Of course it all comes from above, the manager on top and the one on top of him/her. And we all know that is comes from the fear of not succeeding, not meeting the numbers and so on.

With all due respect to those many people who need deadlines and guns at their heads to get things done, I think there is too much respect given here…we need to remember that important things are achieved by building structures, systems, relationships and discipline over time- let's keep this impulsive hysteria in check so that we don't find ourselves letting it lead us, rather than us lead it…

Rome was not built in a day and neither was the company you work for. Beware that end of the year hysteria may be getting the better of you and causing others to lose confidence in you as a person in a relationship. That, to my eyes, is much more important.

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(Harvard Business Review blog)

December 12, 2013

Ask for Direction with Work Overload

No matter how effective you are, you can’t fit 100 hours of work into 40 or even 60 hours a week. Rather than letting a vague sense of fear drive your decisions, take an objective approach. Gather your facts: a concise list of projects, an estimate of how long each task will take, and a visual to show the incongruence between the available time and the requested activities. This visual can be as simple as a printout of your weekly calendar or as complex as a full-scale project plan. Then ask for a strategic planning session with the people who are asking for the most work from you. Discuss which tasks might be delegated or simplified so that you can invest more time in the highest priorities. When done in this manner, asking for direction can lead to a joint effort to prioritize and work within the reality of your schedule.

Adapted from “Stop Work Overload By Setting These Boundaries” by Elizabeth Grace Saunders.

So... What's your answer to this question?

Upgrading the nuts and bolts of management

Everything has its details, its nuts and bolts, but if we get bogged down there we may never make it to where we need to be.
As a manger it is important to work powerfully from the "inside out" (inside= values + vision + passion), to never forget to get grounded and "down to earth" but be wary of getting stuck there when your job is to give guidance and direction to those who depend on you.
It is the art of self-management that one needs to learn and own, the language of listening and questioning well, focusing, prioritizing and executing.
There are countless areas in which a coach as a "partner" helps the manager improve his/her game, move it to the next level, get it to where he/she wants it to go- for example:

• How to better run meetings so that more is done with less, meaningful talk that leads to tangible and effective action.How to motivate employees by means of authentic behavior, communication ,support and teamwork.

• How to make goal-setting an art that works for you, one that guides and motivates employees.
  
•  How to present in such a way that people hear your story, react and remember your story! One of the key aspects of my management coaching is to show you how to let the power of story serve your success!

• How to upgrade your presence in your own organization, what it means to communicate effectively with your managers, colleagues and partners so you will get noticed and earn well-deserved credit.

• How to make plans that are short, focused and get things off the ground that gets anything off in running in a short process.

There are many others…

What I see in my practice time and again is that what makes coaching so effective is that the agenda, spark and drive comes from you, the client, and as such the partnership really moves people ahead on the path to success.
It is a superb- and a sorely missed!- combination of the personal and the professional. It works

Do you have a Vision?

It's about time, no?

No, not that fancy word that is plastered all over the walls in organizations, not that Big Buzz-word, but the Big Picture…what is it that you are really aiming for?
What is that ultimate picture in your mind?
What is that Big Result that you want from the thing at hand?

To me, everything needs to have a vision, even small projects and initiatives, that is where success begins and this is what we work on together- creating a "real" vision  which is very far away from that "Buzz-word vision. As the Japanese saying goes, "Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.”

Management Coaching- how does it work?

I believe that as a coach my role is to bring out the best in you (and trust me it is definitely there!), to bring out that potential that is just sitting there and waiting to be launched and applied. Together we partner in “getting it out there” and focus exactly where you need that potential to go, generating the thought processes, commitment, plans and accountability in the direction you need them to go. It is not only inspiring- it is practical, it is not only movement, but progress to a goal worth going after.

We may work on a wide gamut of issues and challenges, never forgetting where we are going and what we want to happen when we get there. I like to call it a “partnership for your success”.

Inside Outside

What a great quote: "While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us." -- Ben Franklin

Old Ben lived and died over 300 years ago, way, way before any New Age guru started sharing "mass spirituality" and yet, nothing could be more spiritual in my eyes than this great quote. Great leaders and figures share great wisdom in different forms, different "brands" perhaps but the wisdom endures. What a guy was this Ben Franklin…

I ask you and I ask myself: how much effort are we putting into controlling what happens inside us and not just outside us in our daily routines, jobs and managing others?