Hi everyone!
I am now moving all my blogs to Leadership Archives - Twin Life Coaching
Feel free to join me there for future blog posts. Once all blog posts here are moved over, new ones will be posted again.
Thanks everyone!
Tara
tara@twinlifecoaching.ca for your life, career, and small business coaching needs.
If you are on our social media (You Tube is where we put our video's) then you will have noticed that I have started a business tip video on Tuesdays. The first 2 are now posted: one on company values and one on your company vision.
This week's tip was about the company's vision. Does your company have one? If so, as a leader do you know what it is? Have you trained your employees on it? Does your management team review it at least annually?
Having a vision in place is very important, because not only is it a key piece of your strategy puzzle, but it allows you and your employees understand their purpose and the company's why. Understanding your purpose or why a company is there is vital. This motivates employees, helps you understand where your company is expected to be in 5 or 10 years, and helps the management team create goals to get there.
Based on some company's I have worked with, it is important that this vision is reviewed, and re-trained at least annually so the vision is refreshed for our VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world. Do not wait to review it longer than annually as there is too much that can change, especially now.
So what's your company's vision? Don't know? Go ask, be trained, then bring that knowledge to your teams so they understand not only the company's purpose, but theirs too.
Check out my Business Tip Tuesday on our YouTube channel by subscribing here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6fvKnYz18QeaSmgfCpDlBQ
Happy to help transform your leadership, business, and life too. Contact me when you are ready to be empowered to make great changes!
Tara
I finally did it! I have given notice for my full time day job, so I can coach and be a business consultant full time. Was it an easy decision? Absolutely not.
I have been working full time and then a few nights a week and Saturdays as a coach for over 5 years. I love what I do, so this was fine. However, it was time to make a decision, because as much as I love my jobs, it was becoming too much. The coaching industry is growing fast and it is now rare that I have any time off. I don't want to become burnt out and not be able to give my jobs 100%. So I made a decision.
I decided to go with my gut. You have probably heard that - listen to your gut instincts. Well, that can be hard when you are going from security to uncertainty. For me, I was worried about leaving financial security - who wouldn't be? So, my coach and myself decided this was a limiting belief for me, but as I support my family, we needed to compromise. I came up with a plan to not spend any of my coaching money...I just saved it. Then when I got to a certain value, I knew I could leave my day job knowing I had money to fall back on if needed.
I also knew that as a leader in my day job, I have a great team who will do just fine when I am gone. How do I know? Are they perfect? Heck no! No one is. There is always room to grow. However, I know that I have lead them, empowered them, allow them to make mistakes and show them that this is ok and how to fix it, and help them grow into the amazing team we now have. Will I miss my workplace? Yes I will. I will miss my work "family", my customers, and those that I have met along the way. However with social media, it is very easy to stay in touch these days and I know I will drop by the facility to say hi too.
If you know you need to move on, but have insecurities and limiting beliefs about it, there are ways to prepare just like I did with money.
Need help with this type of transition? Then reach out and let's talk.
That's it for this month! Be kind. Be safe. Be you.
Tara
Being a leader is not about telling people what to do, micromanaging, and beating down on those who make mistakes.
To be a great leader, you must see the best in people and use those strengths in your organization and help them grow on their weaknesses. If someone is struggling, you want to ensure you are not beating down on them. You need to ensure a few things:
1 - Are they brand new? If so, they need time to understand your processes, their job, and their duties. It is your job to get them the assistance they need, or help them yourself to feel part of a great team where communication and collaboration are 100% acceptable.
2 - Are they properly trained? Did you provide proper training, On-The-Job training, outsourced training, any and all training needed legally? If not, that is on you and you need to ensure that is done.
3 - Did you ask them if there are any issues? Are you actively listening? Following up after the first few days is key to understanding how they are feeling about the job, if they feel they had proper training, or if there are any hiccups you do not yet know about. Listen to what they say and create your action plan together.
4 - If they have been there awhile and all the items above are done, you need to do a Performance Improvement Plan. This is not to talk down to them. This is a plan you come up WITH them to ensure they receive any training, assistance, etc they need. You may have missed something too.
5 - If all else fails, yelling or being demeaning is still NOT acceptable as a leader. What you do is start the disciplinary process. This allows time for them to improve and also can help you show you are doing all you can should the need to terminate come up.
This is not an exhaustive list, but one you should look at to ensure you are empowering, enabling, and teaching your employees to be their own leaders and collaborative/ communicative teams.
Now go Be a Great Leader!
www.twinlifecoaching.ca
tara@twinlifecoaching.ca
I love brainstorming with my team. Getting those ideas out there even if we all laugh about why some are just impossible.
What brainstorming should not be: you and you only coming up with ideas for changes in your organization. While you may have awesome ideas, your view of the business is only 1 view and may or may not be biased in some way. So if you have some brainstorming to do, invite others to do it with you.
How to brainstorm:
1 - Gather your team (always great to have people from other areas, different levels, and different departments)
2 - Make sure everyone understands and agrees to the rules. Rules are:
a) Get a white board out, share your screen, and make the list you are coming up with visible to others.
b) Tell everyone NO answer will be considered wrong. You want anything and everything as ideas even if out of budget (maybe you can put it in budget next year, take a smaller idea from the out of range one, etc)
c) Tell everyone to have an open mind.
d) No one is permitted to judge anyone's responses at any time.
e) No one is permitted to talk about a response. This is a time solely to gather the ideas, not to discuss them - that comes later.
3 - Everyone gets a turn 1 at a time and no discussion on the ideas. The person keeping the notes or idea list writes each one down regardless of what it is.
4 - When everyone is out of ideas the meeting is done. Again NO discussion on the ideas right away.
5 - The person keeping the list sends it out to everyone to review.
6 - Give everyone time to add to the list. Do NOT remove any ideas.
7 - After an appropriate amount of time (a couple days), have another meeting to review each and every idea. Here's what you do:
a) Ask if anyone had anything else to add before you start to review the list.
b) Cross out (but don't remove) anything that you know is impossible and where there is no small idea that can come from it. Everyone needs to AGREE that this will be crossed off.
c) What is not crossed off now needs ranked. Have everyone rank it themselves first. Then go around the room down each and every open idea to see how many people wanted it and where it ranked.
d) Rank the top items and ensure everyone is in agreement as a majority.
e) Once you have the top ideas to work through, have the discussion on the first one. Figure out the idea in full. Create a goal and the steps needed to get to that goal. Assign someone to take it over, create a team, and commit to a due date. If the full team is not needed, then also do this for the next 2-3 items until everyone has something to work on.
8 - Review weekly where everyone is at in a quick accountability meeting. This keeps people on track to great things.
So, what great ideas does your team have you did not think of that are awesome? I bet there are a few now. Working with your team and other department team members is a great way to get a new set of eyes on a problem or challenge the company has. Working together can be transformational, so use it to your advantage.
Contact me today for any other help. tara@twinlifecoaching.ca
www.twinlifecoaching.ca
We are all human. Even us who think, live, and breath positivity.
I have had the hardest time this winter staying positive at work and at home. I think, like most of us, between Covid and the cold winter months of southern Ontario, it can be difficult to continue to be positive, or even neutral these days.
I have been finding myself trying for the life of me to be positive when speaking to co-workers or employees. However, at times I too am in the gossip lane (mostly about those not in Canada with my company). I reflect on this now with how can I change this going forward? I know I need to or I will fall deeper and deeper into either sadness or negativity and that is not what I want.
So, I will assign myself the great duty of always finding a way to be neutral or positive with all situations at work. Neutral with respect to what others say (we are all allowed to have opinions, but some we should keep to ourselves.) Even if something bad does happen, I will result to finding a way to use this as a lesson and build upon it for any future issues that come up...and they do...almost every day.
Another thing I have noticed this winter is that no only myself, but everyone around me is feeling the blahs. Again, this is likely due to lock downs, not seeing people, tiredness of Covid, and being tired of winter. I am hoping if I can at least stay alert and either neutral or positive in all situations, others will pick up on this and also do the same thing...rather than the majority of everyone feeling blah. Maybe this will not only lift up my happiness a notch, but perhaps others too.
We as leaders of people are not perfect. We have moments, days, or even winters of weakness, but if we can recognize this, address it, and if nothing else put a smile on our face, then maybe...just maybe, we can all get through the blah's with a better outlook, more positivity, and less negative talk or thoughts.
What do you think?
www.twinlifecoaching.ca
Do you have days when you just feel like going back to bed? The idea of going to work is a stretch? You think of all those emails, that long to do list, the whiny employee, and that big strategy meeting and just how are you going to get through it all with a smile on your face?
Let's be honest, even the best leaders can have off days. There are a few things of course, you can do to help prioritize, but this post is not about that. It is about being motivated to go to work and take care of the things you need to do, be a leader and take care of your team.
What if, instead of letting the negative thoughts go wild in your mind, we reframe our thoughts to be move positive?
Here is an example: Your thought may be 'Sigh, I have the longest meeting in history today and I will never get anything done, the emails are just going to pile high!'
What if instead you said to yourself something a bit more positive. How does this sound: 'I have the strategy meeting today, where I can put my ideas forth for how we can succeed. Oh, I need to remind myself to put my out of office on, so anyone emailing will not be expecting me to reply today.'
Do you feel the difference? Just putting a positive spin, or an idea that can assist you (out of office) you can completely change how you feel about the day. Yes, this is a simple example, but it is about reframing your thoughts to allow more positivity, which will lead you to more motivation to get up out of that bed and head to work. Remember we all have those days where we do not want to, so find a way to make it easier and better - reframe.
One more example: 'I do not want to go to work today because I have to fire John Doe later today, then I have the strategy meeting. How will I ever concentrate?' This is a bit harder as we never want to fire people. Sometimes we do need to help our mind through it though, and change this into something easier and more manageable to our mental state.
How about: 'Today I will terminate John Doe and thank him for his service. If I do this first thing this morning. I will be better able to focus on my ideas for the strategy meeting rather than thinking about the termination meeting all day.' Not a positive thought necessarily, but a reframing and rescheduling so your day will be better and you will have more focus on the ideas you have for that big strategy meeting to move the company forward.
Next time you have those negative thoughts about work, or you just want to press the snooze button one more time, try to reframe your thoughts to either be positive, or think of a way to make your life easier that day. This can help to motivate you to get through those cold winter mornings when all you want to do is stay at home.
Need help through reframing or ideas to make your rough days better? Send me a note to tara@twinlifecoaching.ca and let's talk.
Tara
www.twinlifecoaching.ca
