Archive for the ‘Motivation’ Category

SMARTER Resolutions It’s hard to believe, isn’t it, that we are a couple of weeks into January 2011? Everyone’s talking New Year’s Resolutions – and some people will have made and broken these already! The really committed among us may well have applied the acronym SMARTER to our resolutions, treating them as we do our work objectives, and so standing more chance that we’ll achieve them. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-related… and don’t forget the newly added Evaluated and Reviewed).	Alison Miles-Jenkins BA FCIPD, Consultant, Trainer, Speaker, Coach Managing Director Training To Achieve (UK) Ltd Turning professionals into more successful people managers and business owners since 1990
Look back and celebrate I don’t know about you, but at Training To Achieve we didn’t just do the welcoming in of the new Year. We celebrated 2010. We didn’t see the year as deserving to be shrugged off or discarded. It was a time to look back and celebrate our achievements. As learning and development experts we know how important it is for people to be motivated, to feel comfortable in their own skin, with a balanced understanding of strengths and development areas. This will help them to flourish and to achieve. We understand how powerful it is for people to acknowledge and be proud of past achievements. This provides a strong platform for taking on further challenges, to go beyond the comfort zone, take risks, learn new things and become even more successful. When I think back to the year that’s just gone, I get a great source of pleasure and pride when I think about how our company has helped our clients and their employees to achieve, especially during such challenging times.	Ask the Editor Have a question about a development or training issue? Email us your questions and we’ll answer them in the next issue. Would you like a daily tip? Just send us an email and we’ll send you a fresh tip every day.
Here’s my top ten – in no particular order: Launching our Brown Bag Lunch courses, bringing real value, a powerful learning experience and lunch to clients who were struggling to afford full day courses Setting up a scheme to support Cancer Research UK. We mainly grow through referrals and repeat business and so to thank all clients who refer us on to others, we donate £100 each time to the charity Training to be an accredited digital coach, so we can help our clients who are struggling to understand the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of using social media for business Going into a joint venture with a provider of a fantastic online 360 feedback tool that has worked wonders for many of our larger clients Launching our free Privilege Club offering clients free support, advice and preferential rates Offering free coaching sessions to clients whilst we were being trained further in corporate, executive and personal performance coaching – now another string to our bow Meeting Sir Bob Geldof in July which was truly inspirational and encouraged us to expand our horizons even further with our clients Travelling to Australia to agree a joint venture with a Sydney-based consultancy, enabling us to provide our great services to Asia Pacific clients. Plus a fabulous meeting with Willis in Sydney will hopefully enable us to help them in London as well with 2011 Learning and development events Getting to the finals of a Businesswoman of the Year competition and being given the opportunity to talk to groups of aspiring career women and working mums Winning the Education and Lifelong Business Award in November, and being able to thank all the clients who have supported us over the last 20 years. What were your highs?
As we close our first newsletter for 2011, all that remains is to wish you well for the coming year and hope you achieve everything you set out to achieve. And don’t forget to get in touch to ensure you meet your training needs and guarantee that you keep your New Year’s resolution! We look forward to hearing from you. Alison Miles-Jenkins Managing Director Training To Achieve (UK) Ltd 0845 165 6269 www.t2achieve.com	Follow us on: Facebook Linked in Ecademy Twitter

Here we are at the start of another year. Many of us use this time to make resolutions on what we want to achieve in the year ahead. It is a good time over the last few days of the holiday season before the work starts again to think about some really effective resolutions. Maybe 2011 will be the year you tackle some big projects at work, maybe it is about reconfiguring what resources you have to meet challenging times. You will know which issues need picking up and which ones you can de-prioritise until later in the year.

One of the key things about resolutions is that you need to put a note in your diary to review progress periodically; rather like performance reviews for employees, you can review your own performance against your goals or should we say resolutions?

Before you settle on a resolution, you might want to consider some of the ideas here, just in case you have not come up with an idea that you think is worth resolving to do in 2011. You may already have your list of resolutions and at the risk of adding to them it may be worth looking over these ideas just in case they help.

Tips for making resloutions that work

Here are my suggestions for making resolutions that work:

• Don’t pick too many. We all are keen to tackle issues but being unrealistic in your goals is not going to help. Think about relative priorities in terms of urgency and importance.
• Choose resolutions that you have had on your mind for some time. If you have been thinking about them already you are more likely to stick to them.
• If you are thinking about changing a behaviour pick ways of making things better rather than ways of stopping doing something.
• Start with the end in mind. Imagine what it will be like when you have achieved your goal. That will help it be real and keep you focussed on progress.

Ideas for resolutions to help you at work

If you are thinking about ideas to apply in the office, here are some of my suggestions:

1. Consider implementing an up-to-date performance management system. With the need to keep staff performing through challenging economic times a real attention to effective performance management will help.
2. How about developing those employees who you are relying on with an investment in increasing their personal effectiveness?
3. Have you reviewed your recruitment process recently? What about your recruiters: are your managers adept at sifting, interviewing and selecting the right candidates? Stop waste on poor recruitment decisions by getting in some effective advice and training.
4. Do your management team work cohesively together towards a common goal? Have they all the skills they need to support and drive the organisation forwards? Is now the time to be thinking about Management and Leadership Development programmes ?
5. Has your customer service slipped in recent times? What about the employees delivering customer service are they up to speed with their customer care training? Have their training needs been reviewed? Is now a good time to be thinking of undertaking this?
6. How is your complaints handling? Do your people feel comfortable handling complaints? Are they looking forward to turning that complaint into a compliment? If not you might want to look at developing the complaints handling skills of your team.

Whatever you decide, good luck with seeing the resolutions through.
Happy New Year from us all at Training To Achieve UK.

Alison Miles-Jenkins
Managing Director

Thanks so much to all of you who nominated me last week for the Mumpreneur of the year award 2010. I was really chuffed about it and it was particularly poignant as this year we celebrate our 20^th anniversary of the business.  It is very topical too, this week.  We have had the actress Emma Thompson declaring in the press that “working women can’t have it all”.  Her article has caused quite a furore and backlash from journalists and businesswomen who wish to prove otherwise.  And let’s not overlook the latest in a long line of dubious research published this week on the effect of working mothers on their kids and their development.  I guess it all makes for interesting but contentious reading for anyone – of any age – who has a vested interest in a family where both parental figures are working.

For those of you who don’t know me that well, it was on 30 September 1990 that I left my job as Head of Training and Development for Braintree District Council, to go it alone and set up Training To Achieve. I left a great job during a recession because I wanted to spend more time with my first daughter who was 20 months old.  The interesting twist is that 20 years on that same daughter is about to complete her second year working in the business, as my Client Services Manager. My son works part-time for me, and interestingly the entrepreneurial streak seems to have rubbed off on both of them too.  My daughter is setting up her own dancing business in her spare time and my son at 18 runs his own Tiling Company.  The jury is still out on the career path of my youngest daughter, at just 15.

I neither wish to get drawn into the debate on whether as working mums we can have it all, nor  comment on the effect on kids’ development, and the moral and ethical arguments that rage.  Each situation is unique and we all have our own reality.  What I do want to declare is that without a doubt my kids, my business and I have all developed and flourished together.  There have been highs and lows, and of course many challenges, professionally and personally.   I was asked though to give one piece of advice in support of my nomination for the award.  I want to share this with you now, as I hope it will help not just current or wannabe Mumpreneurs but also anyone who is a working parent at the moment:

“Never forget what being a Mumpreneur means and why you are going into business.  This will keep you grounded,  it will help you with your risk-taking and your prioritising.  Involve your kids in the business from any early age – they will then understand what you do and why you do it.  They will learn and benefit so much and will develop an understanding of what it takes to be working parents this century”.

Alison Miles-Jenkins Sunday Morning Blog – 7 August 2010 Blog Number 12

Do you think you can? Or do you think you can’t?

Today’s blog is deliberately challenging.  If you are not prepared to look at self-improvement and ask hard hitting questions of yourself, your teams and your organisation, please disregard this blog as it will not be for you.

Feedback from readers tells me that my most successful blog recently has been the one on ‘What are you doing to flourish when we are told to tighten our belts?’.  I hope you were able to read it because that very word ‘flourish’ seems to have captured the imagination, become a real aspiration and opened up dialogue on potential and possibilities.  And it is the theme of ‘possibilities’ that I have chosen today.   Why?  Because last week I was honoured to meet Sir Bob Geldof.

As I have said before, Achievement means a lot to me personally and Sir Bob is surely one of the greatest contemporary achievers.  Remember what he accomplished with Band Aid, and Live Aid when £100 million was raised for African famine relief?  Recall his challenging of Margaret Thatcher, leading to a major re-evaluation of British government policy towards famine relief and all his subsequent achievements.  His accolades go on and on.  Just two days ago he received an Honorary degree. 

Musical and political history was made by this man.  Listening to him I was so inspired to learn about his journey through life, the way he opened up his mind to possibilities that others would not have been able to see, and his staggering ability to challenge and to influence. 

Returning home full of the experience, I learnt a salutary lesson in current celebrity culture:  I discovered that my fifteen year old daughter was up to date with the lives of Pixie and Peaches – but knew nothing of the successes of their father!  She now knows differently!

So when we are at work, how much do we really open our minds to the infinite possibilities that are out there, just waiting to be identified and optimised?  We can’t change where we started from but we can certainly change where we end up.  How do we open our minds?  I’ve listed below some simple but provocative questions and thoughts that may help you.  They have helped me along the way:

Successful people fail more often.  Does your fear of failure get in the way of possibilities?

Reframe failure as a natural result of learning

People crave leadership. Do you let them down?

Are you a member of the I’da club  (If I’d have done that….)?

A winning attitude can achieve anything

Combine attitude and skill and you have an amazing formula

Are you creating a culture of positive thinking and belief?  If so you should see the skills level rising

Our brain is a staggering piece of kit. Do you know how to access the bits you don’t habitually use?

We CAN  change our attitude to a challenge or problem

Do you look at your business as though it is your first day?  Do so and think what you would change?

When considering new ground, consider what is the worst that could happen?  Understand and protect it – it makes calculating the risks easier

Do you ask yourself and your teams – What have you done to improve the business this week?

The good old Pareto Principle – the 80/20 rule.  Are you using it to help you cut through the cr**?

Deal with your time vampires – they are bleeding  you of your most precious resource

How much more potential do you have to unleash?

Remember – it is your subconscious that is driving the bus. Is it taking you up a one way street or on to a junction with many different routes to select?

Finally, there are: 

• people who makes things happen
• people who watch things happen
• people who wonder about what happens

Which are you?

Alison Miles-Jenkins Sunday Morning Blog – 25 July 2010 Blog Number 10