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 Heed your body’s signals and take control of your life.

What is stress? Stress is your body’s reaction to cope with all tthe demands  placed on it. By increasing the ability to listen and note to your body’s signals, you can begin to  manage your stress in a more effective way.

Your body talks to you constantly but you usually ignore it. In the morning you wake up and notice a sharp pain in your neck. You ignore it and start your daily routine. On your way to work taking train, you reach up for the strap and the pain stabs at you. You sway your head trying to get rid of the pain.

You start work when you reach office. You ignore the twinges in your neck when you pick up the phone. You continue to check your emails and do more work.

At the end of the day when you can relax for a moment, you finally “hear” the voice of your body and go to the doctor, who says you need extensive treatment. If only you had listened” to your body earlier, you lament, you could save yourself all these pains and extensive treatment. Why have you not nipped the problem in the bud.

How can you listen to yourself better? Awareness is the key. You have physical, emotional and mental reactions to stress. While these three types of reactions  often overlap, with awareness and attentiveness, you may be able to catch yourself at the onset of your stress and determine which of these tends to be your initial habitual response.

Once you understand and aware where your stress is manifestintg in the body, you can better choose the most appropriate action to manage it.

Get through the recession by being positive and taking stock of your priorities.

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During  the current economic turmoil, there is a considerable amount of your uncertainity and fear about the future.

However, recessions and market slowdown are also times for organisations and leaders to take stock and re-align their goals.

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Visible leadership

Strong leadership is required during recessions. It is easy to make money when the market is doing well, but it requires excellent skill and strong leadership to navigate a company out of a downturn.

In these times, leaders need to spend more time on the ground, listen to the market, understand and watch trends and engage with their teams.

Build Bonds

While it is normal for business contracts to be on hold during uncertain times,  it is important  to reach out to your customers and show that you genuinely care by finding out how they are doing.

In my business, I often meet people who have lost their jobs. My friend who was working in outplacements once said, “We can play a part in making sure that people we care about land safely.” It does not really matter you cannot help everyone, just let them know you care.

Attract success

In a recession, people usually ask is “How’s business?” Usually, more people tend to share about how bad is the situation.”

When I first came across this “Success attract success”, I paused to think about the messages that I had sent out to my clientsand employees. I decided to conduct a little  experiment. I made a pact with my team members  to tell anyone who cared to know that business has been good.

Often people were cuious how we can kept our profits up. Initially we made up all sort of reasons, but after two weeks business got off better and from then on, we made money in every recession. I don’t think it had to do with what we said. Rather, it was how we projected ourselves because altitude fuels altitude.

Take Stock

Use this time to reflect on matters on personal front and business level. Use this time to upgrade yourself and your team members skills and trainings. Make time re-organise and reprioritise, spend  more time with your family and reconnect with your friends and associates.

Opportunities open up when you network, so get out and meet more people. This is a good time to embark on community work as working with less unfortunate can be enriching and uplifting.

Continuous Learning

Inspire your team members. Get them to go out and motivate others. Great things can be achieved with upbeat teams. Engage their minds with new projects, plans and learning activites or success stories and good feedbacks.

Gain Ground

Do not cut back on marketing activites, in fact reverse may be true, as you can gain ground over your competitors. The idea is to find activities that would make you stand apart from others in the playing field. Combining business with community is something I personally flavour.

Many organisations will take the opportunity to rationalise costs and create savings through various means like outsourcing, resizing and offshoring and others.

Take interest to find out how your organisation is adapting to these changes and also track your competition, how they respond to the market. This will give you clues on where your industry is heading and what you need to do in order to help your organisation in thriving these conditions.

Monitor Expenses

As a business owner, there is always plenty of room for this activity on monitor expenses. Question everything like monitor hidden costs, wastage, and also consider opportunity costs. Leaders also need to lead by showing example cutting back on their own costs.

Put On a Smile

Your behaviour reflects your mood and shape your outlook. Expand your energy and circle your influence with postive activity.You can start by counting your blessings and finding your sense of humou. Have fun, attract people to your cause like a magnet.

In the first place, people would ask, “Why do I need a coach?” Let me put this question to this answer “It is your coach just your “conscience”. It is your life, your goals and aspirations that you want to work toward. The coach’s job is to coax, cajole, persuade and sometimes push you to be the best you can be.”

“My life is fine.” Some of you may protest, “I’m happy with what I am, I don’t need a coach!“ Now pinch yourself if you are tempted to say that. Ask yourself: ”Am I taking the best of my life, making the most of every moment?” “There doesn’t have to be anything wrong with you to want to run a check and make changes if you have to.” This is what Harrold said.

Even Greek philosopher Plato knew that an unexamined life is an unlived life 2000 years ago.

Your coach can do wonders just by being your sounding message, to help you discover hidden passions, put form and structure into mere aspirations or simply be your cheer leader.

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A Coach’s value

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Passion Discovery

Renowned British filmmaker John Boorman once remarks, “What is passion? It is surely the becoming of a person, are we not for most of our lives, marking time? Most of our being is at rest, unlived. In passion, the body and the spirit seek expression outside of self.”

The coach is to help you unearth and rediscover your passion. What you would love to do even though you do not get paid for it! It is our passions, the winds that propelled our vessels. Our reason is the pilot that steers her. Without winds, the vessel would not move, and without a pilot she would be lost.

If you want to live a fulfilled and happy life, you must take time to discover your passion and have a good pilot to guide you.

Learn from the World Class Speakers

It saddens me to see so many people who just occupying spaces and have not a single goal in life. If you look at the life of someone who just exists, it is very much like watching soap opera. You may not have watched it for some time but when you tune in a few weeks or some months later, it is much of the same stuff going on.

 Find your purpose in life

What is your dream? What is your real purpose in life?

If you do not know it yet, it may be time to reflect on this matter. A coach can help you develop a clearer vision and a sharper focus to propel you to wards the life you want to live.

I have met many people who gave up their dreams even before they got started because they judged themselves purely on their current state. They even forget their capability, the ability to grow. Motivational guru Zig Ziglar says, “Go as far as you can see, and when you get there, you will always be able to see even further.”

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Stand and deliver

Never discount the benefits of powerful presentation skills.

Some people may only got a few minutes of fame at a major meeting infront of the senior bosses……but this is where effective presentation skills are critical.

The bosses are looking at how you can handle the presentation and also any questions that may follow..

The image of your success or failure remains in their minds for a long time. Ability without visibility accounts for little if you want to be noticed.

 Here are nine ways to ensure that your presentations are powerful:

1. Meet objectives
2. Know your audience
3. Less is more
4. Tune in to WIIFM (What’s in it for me?)
5. Everybody loves a story, a quote and a good laugh
6. Watch your body language and throw your voice
7. Rehearse
8. Involve the audience
9. Believe in yourself

What do you want your audience to  know, feel and do? Be very clear about this in your mind and put it on paper. Refer to these points constantly when planning your presentation and just before you deliver it.

Your success will be measured against whether you met the objectives of the presentation.

 It is important to find out who are your listeners and what do they really need or want.

Decide what is the best way to reach out to them with your best message. You want your message to be relevant to them.

 Then simplify your visuals and messages. With less clutter, the audience will know what to focus on. Each slide in your presentation should have only one theme and not more. Avoid fussy animation and fancy fonts as they are a distraction.

Provide information in smaller, easy to digest portions. Your listeners will retain what you have said better, and chances are they will stay with you till the end of the presentation.

The audience is there for a reason, so you must make it worth while.

Do not have your presentation be “ nice to have”. It needs to be relevant and useful to those who are present.

If your topic is on customer service, slant it with a people development angle if you are talking to human resourse professionals, and discuss  its business implications if you are presenting to financial staff.

Every body loves stories especially it is first person’s own experiences. Add human interest and colour to your presentation. They help you to create a rapport with your audience, especially if you use some humour at the right time.

When you win over the audience, they are motivated to listen to you.

Your body language is sending signals all the time. Stand tall and project your voice and your audience will respond to you.

The interesting part is that your emotions are taking the cues from your physical self. Adjust  your posture and gestures and watch your confidence grow.

Have a physical rehearse, not just a mental one. Practise infront of a friend, family member, colleague or even your dog!

Practise telling stories, the key messages and allow for pauses after you make certain statements. Test any equipment and go through your slides.

Practise, practise….. and practise.

Ask your listeners for a show of hands or throw them a question that is rhetorical. It makes them think immediately if you allow a pause or one that warrants an answer.

They can also huddle in groups and share later. Make them active participants. Don’t forget to connect with their emotions. Your purpose is not just deliver information. Interesting presentation and good speaker will leave a fantastic impression to your audience.

You must believe that you have something of value to share with the audience. Your must believe in yourself and your message.

It’s in your hands!

If you want to be a “Power Presenter” who delivers impactful presentations each time, it takes sheer discipline and focus. Never try to do it without preparation. The key is to do your homework and rehearse thoroughly.

Your confidence will show, and the audience will respond to it and be engaged. Your success is in your hands.

What kind of leader are you, autocratic or consultative?

Learn from the world best speakers and you can be the best leader. There are several different types of leadership styles you can choose from. Whatever model it is, you can never easily implement or practise a particular style of leadership and get the results you want.

Leadership is an art and at the same time a science. All leaders should possess one key element that is to communicate their vision and values to the people they lead and to get their buy-in.

Do you review your leadership style to get your people’s buy-in from time to time?

Find out if its’ an autocratic leaership style or a consultative one.

What is autocratic leadership style?

This style is based on a top to-down approach. The leader is at the top with absolute power and can implement whatever methods he wants things to be done.

Usually, an autocratic leader will not leave much discussion room about issues as people find that in this type of environment, their voices do not carry much weight in the problem solving and decision making aspects of their organisation.

An autocratic leader drives the people and the organisation will function smoothly under the autocratic leadership. They are able to prove they delegates the work and power yet at the same time they retain a stranglehold of all those under them.

Autocratoc leaders also coached their people to do things according to their way and style they want and adopt a “my way or the highway” working environment. He often inspires fear in his followers.

While these qualities of the autocratic leader seems negative yet autocratic leadership style is not necessarily always bad. In fact, there are some circumstances which the autocratic leadership stand firm and preferred.

One instance shows that when the organisation is new and the staff members are inexperienced, they looked upon their leader to guide and lead them in their work. Another instance where autocratic leadership is much needed is when  people in the organisation are disengaged and no clear directions. There is internal politicking that is disruptive and divisive. During these circumstances, an autocratic leader has power to re-align the organisation in the right direction and whip people into shape by insisting to follow his directives.

The disadvantage of this autocratic leadership style is that over an extended period, this can strain the relationship of the leader and the people who may be resentful at towing along the line. Furthermore, the leader becomes too autocratic, he may forget that he is dealing with humans and treat them like machines. This will create a sense of dissonance in the work environment and will not be beneficial to the whole organisation in the long run.

As you do not like being lead by the leader hitting over your head which is assault, you will definitely not like this autocratic leader.

How is Consultative leadership style?

This is ideal probably to be in the long run. Nowadays the key to successful leadership is influence people and not using authority to impose on the people.
The very important essense of consultative leadership style is that the leader must learn not to impose his authority on the people. He must tactfully able to involve his subordinates in the decision making and problem solving processes. The leader potrays as a servant of the people he is leading. In consultative leadership style, the people have the power to consult the leader and are able to make suggestions which they know the leader will take them seriously.

This kind of leadership endorses empowerment rather than delegation. When a consultative leader empowers, he is giving the person concerned the authority to do what he deem necessary. The leader may draw a list of certain parameters for the person to work within and may requires that he is kept informed of the developments. The leader will not micro-manage.

The consultative leader ’s role will constantly involve the people’s development and he achieves this by being aware of the needs and wants of his people. The leader will constantly have dialogues with his people to clarify their goals and aspirations. When they are engaged this way, they are more prepared to buy into their leader’s vision and values.

The consultative leader needs to have a strong vision and a set of values. He must communicate to his people about this vision and values but unlike the autocratic leader, he will administer a people oriented management rather than a task oriented one.

A consultative leadership style enables the leader to discover the strengths and weakness of the individuals under him. He is then in a position to bring out the best in them by working fully on their strengths and minimising their weakness to the lowest possible.

What one always do before a decision is made is consult. To make the best public policy, you must listen to the people who are going to be impacted. Once the policy is determined, you can call on them to help you sell it.

Be autocratic at certain times and be a consultative leader when everything had come to a certain point. Every leader needs to be flexible and able to change when neccessary.

“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the best thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing and the worst thing is you do nothing.” Former US president Mr Theodore Roosevelt resonate this statement loud.

The task to make sound decisions for your organization, your staff or even yourself is always a challenge, especially it affects the personal and well being.

The weighter the decision the impact will be more serious, so people are more worried and the more they dare not make such decision as they feel they can’t bear the responsibilities, so it is dragged to the last minute.

Here there are four decision making styles to help you make better decisions:

1. Be Democratic
2. Be Autocratic
3. Be Concensus
4. Collective Participative

The first style of decision making involves the leader giving up ownership and control of the decision to allow the group to vote. The majority of votes will be the decision of the action taken. However this democratic style will result the group to take personal responsibility.

The Leader of the group takes full control and total ownership of the decision made.He is solely responsible for the negative and positive outcome of the decision. This autocratic style usually allows the decision to make swiftly and is best in times of emergency and crisis. However, it tends to incline towards declined morale and employee effort if it was not involve the employee during the decision making process. It also affects the leader’s credibility if the results of the decision is not positive.

In 3rd style of decision making, the leader relinquishes control of the decision, allowing the group members to take over.  The group, not the leader is responsible for the outcome. This consensus style is different from democratic decision making, it means everyone must agree and take ownership of the decision.

The style enhanced the teamwork and greater group commitment and responsibility. The result will have a higher probability of success as many ideas, perspectives and skills are involved in this process.

The collective participative style is when the leader involves the members of the organization by asking and encouraging them to offer their ideas, perceptions, knowledge and information concerning the decision.  The leader maintains total control of the decision made all though everyone’s contribution is considered.Thus, the leader is fully responsible for the outcome. While this promotes group participation and involvement which is good for team morale, the process is slow and time consuming.

All the four styles of decision making have their pros and cons, the best among the four is consensus decision making style.

Experience counts

In collective participative decision making, the leader typically consults his managers and departmental heads to assess the various policies and strategies that may affect the whole organisation before a decision can be made. This leadership style leans towards the experience of the leader and trusting the leader’s instincts. Hence he is ultimately responsible and accountable for the result.

Art and science

This decision making process is both art and science, whose leadership style is a balance of these disciplines.

When the founder of Sony, Mr Akio Mortta invented the Walkman 20 years ago, his engineers and marketing team, who conducted surveys  believed in Japan,the product would flop. But Mr  Morita went against their advice based on his own instincts. The Walkman later become such a resounding success that till  today, it remains to be one of the biggest most original breakthroughs for the Japanese conglomerate.

Learn the leadership and decision making process by learning from the World Class Speakers and renowned gurus.

Renowned Motivation guru Anthony Robbins once pass this remark, “It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”

Improve your leadership skills by raising questions.

Google search the word “leadership” and the search engine will give the references of 155,000,000 for it on the internet.

Leadership is one of the most studied, investigated and talked about topics, and it affects any one.

Even if you are not a corporate leader, you often are in situations at work or in your personal life that require you to show leadership.

According to Harvard psychologist Daniel Goleman, the author of the bestseller, Emotional intelligence, a key part of leadership is a leader’s self-awareness.

In other words, a leader must be in touch with his internal states, preferences, resources and intuitions. I call it simply the art of knowing “where you are”.

Imagine someone calls you on the phone, and you invite him over. He asks for directions on how to get to your place.

To do so, the first question you must ask is “Where are you?”

If you don’t know where he is, your leadership in giving him directions will be useless.

All direction, advice counsel or assistance comes first, from an understanding of where someone is.

In your own life, it is the same. To get to where you want to go, you must first know where you are.

This “art of waking up” as one writer called it, marks a leader as someone people want to follow.

Mr Nathan Hobbs, principal consultant at business Pyschology Consultancy, puts it this way:”Self-awareness is at the centre of all learning and development and is an important skill needed to manage our own behaviour alongside colleagues in the pursuit of an organisation’s goals.

“It is at the heart of effective leadership. Increasing self-awareness enables any member of staff to reflect more knowingly on their work performance and identify means of self improvement.”

People naturally respond well to those they respect and trust.

Emotional intelligence is not just about “being nice”. It is about getting results in the midst of working with and through others.

Once you are aware of the working styles of the leaders and teams around you, you are able to assess, assimilate and accommodate those styles which best enhance your own style.

In essence , you build trust and respect. Becoming self-aware is about observing, learning, and teaching yourself.

As you become self-aware, you begin to become aware of others and discover better strategies for leading and working with your team.

Researchers Robertson and Walt report the findings of a recent multinational study of nearly 100 chief executive officers, conducted by the Anderson Consulting Group.

 The research findings report 14 skills considered essential to effective leadership now and in the future.

Some of these skills include the ability to

• think globally
• create a shared vision
• embrace change
• live the right values
• demosntrate personal mastery and
• share leadership.

Similar to other noted writers in the field, Robertson and Walt write that no one set of universal guidelines exists in the area of leadership development.

Leadership, they say, “is grounded in a high degree of self awareness and ability to leverage on those personal strengths that set each individual apart?”

They further suggest that the ideal outcome of self-awareness is a “congruence of individual strengths  and their job?”

The challenge is that self-awareness cannot be taught.

I cannot tell you what is going on inside of you. You are the only one who knows.

One of the simplest and most powerful tools to help each person understand himself  bettter is to work with questions.

On a personal note, one of the marks of freedom for myself and my “growing up” was that I found I had a choice to change the questions I asked myself. The simple act of changing the question from “What is wrong with me” to  “What can I learn in this situation?” freed me from self doubt and insecurityand gave me a confidence I had not known before.

Imagine  for a brief momennt what it would be like if people in your organisation were  more aware of themselves.

What if  they all understood their strengths and weaknesses?

What if they didn’t have to blame others and accepted responsibility when things went wrong?

What if they could ask questions of any situation to better understand it  from a different perspective of those involved?

If these things began to happen a team or organisation woulde know itself and as a result have more confidence in its ability to succeed in a changing world.

When life throws me a challenge, am I equipped to choose the best option to deal with it?

“The talent is in the choices,” Actor Robert de Niro once said. In other words, I must make the best choice available to me at a given point of time. The more choices I have, the better chances of having to achieve my desired outcome.

Two is better than one.

In the philosophy of neutro-linguistics programming (NLP), if I have only one choice, it is not considered a choice at all.

If I have two or more choices, I have the opportunity to make the best decision to influence the outcome. I can draw on the vast resources of my brain toi create choices for myself. I can also reframe my problems and see them in a different perspective. For example, I have a choice to remain as poor as a church mouse or to become financially stable. I have a choice to be untidy or be organised. I have a choice to be complacent or to be alert to opportunity.

The Post-It pad was born.

The glue used in 3M post-it-pads was orignially meant for fixed surfaces like bulletin boards. A 3M chemist, Arthur Fry tried to find other uses for the glue but could not think of any.

One evening, while he was singing with his choir in the church, a light breeze blew his hymm sheets away. At first he was irritated. Then an idea struck his mind.He had a creative , brilliant insight. THe 3M glue could be used to stick paper onto paper. And the Post-it-pad was created.

Fry received a yearly royalty for his invention, thanks to his committed desire to find a use for one of his company products.

Only feedback, no failure when you make a wrong choice.

Sometimes the wrong choice is made and the result is failure. Take heart, making the wrong choice is better than not making any choices at all. At least, I take the initiative to take action.

Failure is not the opposite of success, but its by-product. Inaction, apathy and tolerance of mediocrity are the opposites of success.

We learn valuable lessons from failure, such as taking the hard knocks in life. The lessons are not taught in formal universities but out in the street.

In NLP, there is no such thing as “failure”. Instead , failure is actually feedback that can be used to improve your performance. Failure is a a necessary part of success. It is actually a step before success. Many quit when confronted with failure, not knowing that the next step is success.

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Domino Theory

Tom Monaghan, the founder of the Domino’s Pizza chain, was only four years old when his dad died. Poverty drove his mother to place him in an orphanage. Young Tom harboured two childhood dreams = to be a priest and to play in the Detroit Tigers, an American baseball team.

However, after a year of studying to be a priest in a seminary, he left. In 1960, he started Domino’s Pizza. Initially, it was very successful, but in the 1970s, he started losing control of the company because of rapid expansion. Domino’s was on the brink of bankruptcy.

In 1993, Tom Monaghan had rebuilt Domino’s Pizza into one of the largest pizza chains in America with a sales turnover that exceeded US2.2 billion.

Som compelling was his dream to play in the Detroit Tigers that he purchased the entire team. He also remained Domino’s president. Had he given up during his bankruptcy, he would not have enjoyed Domino’s later success and he would not have fulfilled his second childhood dream.

He chose to see his bout of failure as an opportunity to do even better. As Henry Ford once commented, “Failure is the only opportunity to begin more intelligently.”

                             Learn from the World Class Speakers

Finding the answers to four key questions about the group of people you wish to address will help you bring the message across more effectively.

As a speaker, you can gain considerably more insights of  an audience by getting the answers to some basic questions about who they are.

• What do they want?
• What do they fear?
• What do they know?
• What do they understand?

Firstly, it is not enough to know what the people in your audience need. You must also know how they perceive their needs.

Some people are known as motivational speakers. That is a misnomer. A speaker cannot motivate an audience. The audience is already motivated to do what it want to do and not what you or I want it to do.

People are like water in a faucet. The water is motivated to flow out of the faucet, but it does not have the opportunity unless you turned on the tap.

Many people are just as strongly motivated, and they are waiting for the opportunity to follow their motivations. The speaker who shows them the opportunity is instrumental in releasing a gush of energy.

Secondly, knowledge of what people fear can be a powerful tool in channelling motivation. Sometimes you need to neutralise the fear. A drowning person. terrorised at the prospect of dying, will trash and flounder, inhibing the lifeguard’s rescue efforts. But if the lifeguard can remove this fear of death, the victim will relax and cooperate with the rescuer.

On the other hand, a person who is inclined to get behind the wheel after drinking alcohol needs a healthy dose of fear- the fear of tragic death, either to himself or to others in his path.

The more you know  about your audience’s fears, the better you will be able to establish effective communication.

Thirdly, if somebody from out of town calls and asks directionns to yur place, the first thing you normally ask is “Where are  you now?”

You have to know where the people are before you can tell them how to reach their destinations.

The process is similar in any kind of communication. There has to be a point of origin and a destination.

The point of origin is what the audience already knows, understands or believes. The destination is what you want the audience to know, understand or believe after you have finished talking.

So when you speak to your audience, you must start on common  ground. You must know what thedudience knows or believes. Otherwise, you will not know where to begin the presentation.

Some people, when they speakingt on their area of expertise, like to impress their audience with how much they know. That is a sure way to lose the audience.
Your purpose is not to impress people with your knowledge in such a way that they will be influenced to do the things you want them to do.

Speakers should not worry about they know more than the audience or the audience knows more about them.

It is best to think of yourself as neither inferior nor superior to your audience; just different. You know things that your audience does not know, and the individuals in the audience know  things you do not know.

Lastly there is a big difference between knowing  and understantding. When you are driving, it is not enough to know that the light over the intersection  is red. You must also understand that a red light means you must stop.

When the Americans saw Nikita Khrushchev hold his clenched hands above his head know what the Soviet leader was doing. But they did not understand that itis a gesture of friendliness and not an act of braggadocio.

Other misunderstandings are more humorous. Here is one other example of the difference between knowing  and understanding.

A small community in a poultry growing region was holding a festival to celebrate the industry that was the backbone of its economy. As part of the festivity, some youngsters entered a poultry contest. The chickens they had raised were on display, all plucked  and cleaned and ready for the cooking pot.

Representatives of the area’s supermarkets were there, vying  for the honour of offering  their customers the prize winning product while reaping some favourable publicity.

An out of town visitor arrived just as the bidding was reaching its climax. “I’m  offered $9; who will make it 10?” chanted the auctioneer.

The visitor  looked at the boxes of high quality  poultry - about  30 pounds of it. Ten dollars seemed like a steal.

“Ten dollars,” he called, and the auctioneer said, “Sold!”

The visitor came forward, taking a crisp $10 from his wallet.

“That will be $300,” said the auctioneer.

The visitor was mortified. He knew he had bid $10 for the poultry . He thought that he was bidding $10 for the whole batch. Had he arrived at the start of the auction, he would have known that he was bidding $10 per pound.

So when you speak to an audience, be alert for any misunderstanding and be prepared to deal with it promptly. When  you are asking $10, make sure your audience understands that you mean “per pound”.

When  you understand where your audience is coming from, yhou will know how to build rapport with them.