Category Archives: Goal Setting for Success

Got a Problem?

Posted on by

Got Pain?

In my GoTo Academy: Soft Skills Tools for the GoTo Professional continuous online coaching series, I go into the different tools, usage, and usage etiquette in detail.
If you are interested in more training in these areas, please signup for the continuing online coaching series.

I don’t often get headaches, but on Wednesday, I had a duzy.
I spent most of the morning and afternoon trying to figure out why I had this headache and what type it was:
  • Was I struggling with something with my business?
  • Was something out of alignment?
  • Was I just reacting to the high-low pressures of the upcoming summer storms?
  • Is my body just telling me to shut-down for awhile?
  • Should I focus and mediate this headache away?
  • Lay down for awhile?  (since I can’t seem to concentrate anyways)
  • Was this something people call a migraine?
  • Was it a sinus headache?
Finally it got so distracting that I could not move my head without pain. So — late afternoon, I decided to take a trip to the drug store and get some headache-powder. The Goody headache powder (not recommending it — just stating that it works for me) has always works for me. But by the time I  entered the drug store — I could not remember why I was there!
“This damn headache — it’s so distracting. Oh-yeah…. I’m here because of the headache.”
Within 5 minutes of taking the powder — I was feeling much better.  I can’t honestly tell you when it completely when away — because my attention was no longer on the headache.  But it is easy to see how we can get caught up and distracted in the “pain” that we don’t take the action to remove it.  I often use the term “we’re postponing the cure”. We’re slowing ourselves down.

I spent most of the day wondering “why I had a headache” (thinking about it) — instead of actually doing something about it. I already knew Goody would help — yet it wasn’t until late afternoon that I decided to go to the store and get it. I spent most of my day focused on the problem and not the solution ……

We talk more about how to incorporate this philosophy into the real-world professional environment in my on-line coaching academy series.  <check out our GoTo Academy: Soft Skills Tools for the GoTo Professional>
Feel free to share this newsletter with your family, friends and colleagues. My business relies on satisfied clients as the primary source of new business, and your referrals are both welcome and most sincerely appreciated!

How many mistakes do you want to make today?

Posted on by

How many mistakes do you want to make today? – Find out the secret to making zero mistakes this week, month and year.  Read on….

In my GoTo Academy: Soft Skills Tools for the GoTo Professional continuous online coaching series, we cover real-life professional dilemmas such as the below.
If you are interested in more training in these areas, please signup for the continuing online coaching series.


On Tuesday afternoon, I opened an email regarding a radio broadcast of some interest to me.  Unfortunately, the radio show was set for Tuesday (today) at 11:00am.  My initial thought was: “Darn I wonder when this originally was sent.  It looked rather interesting.  It was about smart women – and I’d like to think of myself as a smart person who happens to be a woman.”

I checked the timestamp of the email, and it was originally sent Tuesday (today) at 9:00am. Having a project manager background, my next thought was: “Darn.  That was poor planning.  These smart people weren’t really setting themselves up for success on this particular event.  Oh well….maybe they will have a replay available that I can take advantage of later.”

Wednesday, I received another email stating that the broadcast would be rescheduled.   When I opened the email the note said that it was going to be rescheduled for late Sept/Oct.  There was no other news on the topic.

  This led me to wonder:

  1. Since this message was send 24 hours after the event was supposed to take place, were people left hanging?  Or did they just broadcast another program instead?
  2. Was this rescheduled because of lack of attendance?  No one called in because of the late notice?
  3. Did the guest speaker get confused? Was he being taped today – but the actual broadcast would be later?
  4. Was this rescheduled because of technical difficulties?
  5. Was this rescheduled because the guest did not show up?
  6. Was there a mix-up on the studio reservation?
  7. Will I even want to tune in late Sept/Oct?  I can’t really set aside a date/time in my calendar.

Then my mind continued with other possibilities and conspiracies.

Things certainly pop-up and take us off-course.  Since we know this up-front, how should we  professionally approach them?  Is there a creative way to turn these events into our favor?  How can we use these mishaps to actually strength our resolve and integrity of purpose?

In this small example, should we:

  1. Be a little more transparent on what happened?  Telling our audience (or email contacts) some of the details – avoids them imagining their own answers. It also shows our integrity in taking responsibility for fixing the issue.
  2. Actually provide the rescheduled date/time?  This allows people to make note and mark it in their calendar for the future tune-in.
  3. If the future date is unknown, publish the date that the air-date will be known?  Then assure your viewers that you will update them at that time with more information.
  4. Publish this new date/time in your upcoming newsletters and scheduled promotions (now)?
  5. Provide everyone a link to the  sample taped/mp3 version?  This could be a quick summary of what was going to be said on the program, which might help keep people’s interest ignited.  We could also provide an registration page that allows us to notify these particular people of additional news and offers associated with this broadcast.

Conclusion:
Do you know why SNAFU’s and missteps happen all the time? It’s because they are not actually missteps.  Things naturally just happen.  It was our unrealistic expectations that deems the event as a mishap (not the event itself). Once again, the event is merely the event.  It is our expectations that defined it a mishap or mistake.   Therefore, it’s not the ‘mistakes’ that slow us down, but how we interpret and respond to the ‘happened events’.

Homework assignment: Think of some recent mishaps at the office.  What follow-up steps can you do ‘right now’ to turn that into an advantage?

99.98% of all mistakes are actually imagined.  What’s to say that your mistake isn’t one of those imagined?  What’s to say that this event isn’t actually an opportunity for bigger and better?

We talk more about how to incorporate this philosophy into the real-world professional environment in my on-line coaching academy series.  <check out our GoTo Academy: Soft Skills Tools for the GoTo Professional>

Feel free to share this newsletter with your family, friends and colleagues. My business relies on satisfied clients as the primary source of new business, and your referrals are both welcome and most sincerely appreciated!

Office Etiquette Tips

Posted on by
As a success and business coach, I find that transparency is the first defense against discomfort. At your next one-on-one meeting, openly discuss the following with your manager:
  1. Expected work hours (including your individual schedule regarding picking up children, volunteer schedule, etc).
  2. Communicate any deviation from the above plan when appropriate
  3. Handling business travel and expenses:  Ask your manager what is the normal expense procedures. If you are meeting a client, the you normally pick up the check for the client. Verify your assumptions with your manager.
  4. Personal calls can be taken at the desk if you have your own office. In shared offices or cubes, calls can be distracting for your office mates. It is not only interrupting your work time but your office mates day as well. On the other hand, some personal calls can not be avoided (and often will energize you toward higher performance at work).  Like office breaks, a personal call can keep us inspired and creative.  Just keep them short or schedule them for a conference room.
  5. Sending company-wide/department-wide emails only with your manager’s permission. Some managers would like to review these types of emails. Talk to your manager upfront, on how to handle these things.
  6. Sending/accepting a boss’ friend request on Facebook. My recommendation is to keep your personal facebook account separate from your work. If you feel uncomfortable inviting your boss into your home/life everyday (and weekend) — don’t mix the two. You may want to create a separate Facebook group for office people (in which you can include your boss). This allows you to communicate through facebook, by allowing certain groups access to work-events-messages and separate/limit other messages and activities for other friends.
  7. Buying candy/cookies from your boss’ children. If you really, really want the candy/cookies/Christmas wrap etc (and would be purchasing it from someone else anyway), supporting your boss’ children is a nice gesture. However, if you do not want the product, my recommendation is to simply apologize for not being able to purchase the candy/cookies because you already donate your maximum to your other charities. Most companies have a policy against solicitation and it’s normally improper for the boss to impose this type of pressure on his/her employees. It can also become a slippery slope, because other co-workers see you purchase the items and may start bringing their children’s various fundraising efforts to you as well. This is why most companies have a policy against solicitations by employees as well as outsiders.

Best way to correct a supervisor’s/boss’ error… in front of others.  In my experience, it is best to avoid “correcting”. Instead, ask permission to add some additional information or data to the current analysis. Your objective data will either substantiate the decision or give a new dimension to the discussion — without judgement or a negative reference.

If you have other confusing situations, please send them to LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

Don’t miss a tip for career and time management:  <Subscribe to the Rose Coaching newsletter here>

Interested in an online coaching series?  <check out our GoTo Academy: Tools for the GoTo Guy and Gal>

If you haven’t taken advantage of your introductory time management coaching session, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

Why do we interrupt each other?

Posted on by
 Would you like to know the following 2 secrets?
  • Why do people interrupt (or, rather, why do people who chronically interrupt do it)?
  • 3 Tips you can use to stop a constant interrupter at the office
Quick overview on ‘why’:

On the average, we speak at the rate of 125-150 words per minute. We can comprehend and listen at the rate of 600 words per minute. This means that our minds are underutilized by a factor of 4-5 when listening to others. Therefore, it’s a struggle to keep our minds on topic. Often times, we hear one or two phrases of the conversation and we jump ahead to a solution or experience that happened to us. We’re quick to share our experience and expertise before we realize that this wasn’t really the focus of conversation. Because of our boredom, we inadvertently created a tangent and separate conversation (either in our heads or out loud).

Our society also supports and encourages this lifestyle.
Not only does our minds working at a faster rate, other things are happening so fast these days. With the internet, cell phones, texting, beepers, and instant messaging – information is constantly streaming at us, for us and by us. Even our interruptions are interrupted. For instance you may be working on a task and then you get interrupted by an instance message or “online chat” by someone (or via phone call). While responding to that initial interruption, someone else enters your office. It’s situation normal. We even have a name for it: “multitasking”.

Tips:
The way you conduct yourself can greatly diminish the amount of interruptions you encounter.
1) Spell out your intentions up front.
Example: “Hey, John (the boss). Thanks for agreeing to meet me on this topic. I’m having this problem and I value your opinion on this. There are a lot of different pieces to this explanation; so please bear with me. I want to tell you the entire story. Then I want us to wrap around and get your thoughts on specific details.”
Example: “I really want to keep this meeting on schedule, so I need this meeting to be brief and to the point. The purpose of this meeting is XXX. I ask everyone’s help to keep us on target. I ask everyone for their patience and avoid interrupting each other –with one exception. I ask everyone’s permission to interrupt if I see the meeting go off topic.”
2) Value your time and others will as well.
Make use of your “Do Not Disturb” sign on your cube, phone, chat and instant message for blocks of time when you do not want to be interrupted. OR make use of “open office hours” publishing blocks of time when people can interrupt you.

Example: “Hey, Joe (co-worker). I’m in the middle of a task here. I’ll be done with this at 3:00. Let’s meet in the break room at that time to discuss your idea (or schedule a real meeting to fully discuss it).

Example: “Hey, Joe (boss). That’s a good point. I want to give that issue the proper time and focus. Because I am focused on this right project now, I can’t give it the attention that your topic deserves. Priority wise, do you want me to delay delivery on this and switch to that? Okay — I’ll be done on this by Thursday noon. Let’s schedule a longer discussion for Thursday at 2:00pm.

3) If there is a particular person that is a frequent offender (or perhaps its you), give them an additional role in the meeting. For example:

  • Ask them to be the note-taker.
  • Ask them to keep the Parking Lot list (list of important topics that were discovered but not really on the agenda).
  • Ask them to be the time-keeper

Because interruptions have become so natural, we may not even notice that we’re doing it.
Read the short article: “Interrupting is a 2-way street”

Interested in an online coaching series?  <check out our GoTo Academy: Tools for the GoTo Guy and Gal>

Don’t miss a tip for career and time management:  <Subscribe to the Rose Coaching newsletter here>

Replay with additional proactive techniques

Posted on by
With some additional proactive (Quadrant 2 preparation — sign up for the online coaching sessions for more information on this technique), you can perform even better.

You get into the office early because you need to review the results of the overnight test run, and mail in the results before the 9:00am meeting.

“Darn, the overnight test failed at stage 6.  Why did that fail?  I need to figure out why it failed and start it back up.
Oh – the error message says that there are too many input files.  It also states that the unit tests were successfully run with 20 files, which suggested that perhaps more files could be run but it wasn’t guaranteed.   I’ll create a batch file that splits these in 20 file chunks that run them in the background.  In the meantime, I’ll manually run stage 6,7 and 8 on the first 20 files.  At least I will have sample report on the data. 
The time Carl took in making these error messages more user-friendly and understandable really paid off.  I’ll make a parking lot note to thank Carl (and copy his manager) for the error message AND suggest automating the 20 file-batch  routine.  I’ll also jot down all my notes and steps.  They will be helpful in his automation of the batch pre and post processing.”

You create a  routine that takes your 1,578 files and parses them into 20 file chunks through stage 6,7 and 8.  Once the first 20 gets through stage 6, they automatically move onto stage 7 and then into stage 8 (while the next 20 are being processed through stage 6, etc).  This way just in case you can’t get through all 1,578 files before the meeting – you’ll still be able to report some preliminary results at the 9:00 meeting.
While those files are running, you create a PowerPoint slide deck on the 20 files that have already completed.  This way, you will only have to update the data, analysis and recommendations at 8:00am.

Co-workers start trickling into the office.  Your tests are still running and your PowerPoint template is complete.  If worse comes to worse, you can present your status with these files.  You take your timer with you to the coffee station and chat with others.  While at the water cooler, you overhear that the email from the executives was just them expressing how appreciative they were of everyone working extra hours to get this product delivery completed.  You were right not to be distracted by those emails — even if they were sent at 2:00am by upper management.

At 8:00am your timer goes off.  You return to your desk to complete your report.  1,000 files fully completed the tests.  You use that data to update your deck.  You take the extra step to create an analysis and next step recommendations.  At 8:30am you see Carl walk down the hall.

               “CARL!”
Carl: “Hey!  How did those tests go?”
“Great!  Do you have a moment to take a look at the results?  I want to bounce off my analysis and recommendations off you….before the meeting.”
Carl:  “Sure!  “

While you and Carl are reviewing the recommendations, the last 578 files complete.  You and Carl contemplate updating the report.  But decide against it.  The results of the last 578 didn’t change your recommendations and would cause unnecessary panic in updating the slides.  You can safely report that all the tests were completed and are in compliance with these recommendations.

If you liked this tips, more can be found at www.lauraleerose.com/blog or subscribe to my weekly newsletter at http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/

The weekly newsletter contains tips on:
1)      Time management
2)      Career maintenance
3)      Business networking
4)      Work life balance strategies

If you haven’t taken advantage of your introductory time management coaching session, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

 

Want more time? Think inside the box.

Posted on by

In my GoTo Academy: Tools for the GoTo Guy and Gal continuous online coaching series, I go into Time-boxing and the use of Parking Lot methods in detail.
If you are interested in more training in these areas, please signup for the continuing online coaching series.

Does this scenario sound familiar?

You get into the office early because you need to review the results of the overnight test run, and mail in the results before the 9:00am meeting.

“Darn, the overnight test failed at stage 6. Why did that fail? I need to figure out why and start it back up.
Man – the error code is so cryptic. I don’t know what it means or how to fix it. Carl is a waste. He is always making my job harder. His stuff is never right. I’ll get him to fix it…it’s his code. Oh – that’s right. Carl doesn’t get in the office until 8:30. But he’s probably awake. Even if he isn’t — I don’t care. I’ll find his cell number in his last email.”

When you bring up email, you notice several urgent emails from your 2nd line manager. You open those up and respond to a few other emails. In the meantime, other co-workers start to come in and you chat over some coffee.
8:45 am you see Carl coming down the hall and something triggers.

“I needed Carl for something. Oh darn! CARL!
Carl: “Hey! How are you?”
“Pitiful. The overnight run failed on stage 6 and the test results were due 2 days ago. I was able to get an extension for 9:00am today but ….”
Carl: “Dude – that’s in ten minutes. Why didn’t you call me sooner?”
“Yeah …. I ….”

Although you may not have experienced the exact scenario, but we all have time slip away because of a series of momentary distractions. Although at the time they are occurring they don’t seem sinister, but in a group they can be very destructive.

Stay tuned for the next installment (Replay with Time-boxing and Parking Lot method) to find out how to handle this situation better.

Subscribe to my weekly newsletter at http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/

The weekly newsletter contains tips on:
1) Time management
2) Career maintenance
3) Business networking
4) Work life balance strategies

If you haven’t taken advantage of your introductory time management coaching session, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

Asking the right question takes skill

Posted on by

I had a vivid dream last night.  In this dream, a friend was very proud of her published article in a certain magazine.  She asked me to read it.  I was very excited and was looking forward to a pleasant and proud read, “Sure, where is it?”

She hands me the magazine and says, “It’s in there”.

I start thumbing through the magazine.  The type was very small, and all the articles started with the same 6 words, making it:

1)      Very difficult to read, because the type was small and in italics.

2)      Time consuming, because all the article titles started the same.

I was squinting and found myself losing interest the longer I searched.  Then my self-doubt set in.  ‘Maybe I scanned the titles too quickly?  Maybe I misread some of the titles? Maybe I’ve actually passed the article?’  So I confessed, “I can’t seem to find the article in here.”

She quickly said, “It’s in there.”

The more I searched, the more impatient I became.  “I’m not seeing it.”

She was now getting frustrated, “It’s there.  Keep looking”.

By the time I found the article on page 101, I was not in the right frame of mind to read it.  At this moment I woke up with one question in my head: “Why didn’t I ask which page her article was on, in the first place?”

Asking the right question isn’t as easy as it sounds.  First – we need to recognize that an important question needs to be asked.  Second – we need to decide what that ‘important question’ would be.

In my dream, I was so caught up in the ‘action’ of finding the article that I did not pause to recognize my mounting frustration.  Although my initial goal was to pleasantly and proudly read my friend’s published article, it mutated into merely finding the article.  By the time I actually found it, I was neither pleasant nor excited.  Even though I found the article, I didn’t read it (failed at the essence of my goal).

One recommendation is to use your emotional trigger of frustration, or impatience as a sign that a question needs to be asked.

Try that trick and let me know what happens.  My June 5th newsletter article has examples on how to best use questions in your personal, professional and entrepreneurial roles.  Quickly subscribe to my weekly newsletter at http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/  to get that edition.

If you liked this tips, more can be found at www.lauraleerose.com/blog or subscribe to my weekly newsletter at http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/

The weekly newsletter contains tips on:

  1. Time management
  2. Career maintenance
  3. Business networking
  4. Work life balance strategies

If you haven’t taken advantage of your introductory time management coaching session, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

 

Which superhero are you?

Posted on by

With adversity comes super-human strength and determination.
Over the rainy weekend, I watched The Fantastic Four (a movie about 4 comic book superheroes). While watching it, it occurred to me that we possess those same inner powers.

• We have Mr. Fantastic’s ability to stretch and reach beyond what we ordinarily expect from ourselves.
• We have the Invisible Woman’s ability to telepathically send energy waves and vibrations toward other so either repel or protect.
• We have Thing’s extra ordinary strength and determination in the face of danger.
• We have the Human Touch’s has extraordinary fire and passion for things that align with our purpose.

What other comic book heroes do you align with, when called to inspired action?

Wouldn’t it be nice to have an alter-ego to call upon, to help us take that next leap?

We all have it within us.  What if we deliberately wore our superhero alter-ego to get us over that next speed bump?

What would happen?

 

 

Make compromising your second choice

Posted on by

I am a dance instructor as well as a success and business coach; and I often find things we can learn from dance.  For instance: Sometimes it is possible to make everyone happy.  You just need to be willing to take the time to look for the shared  “Win” in every opportunity.

For instance:  A beautiful couple was taking some private dance lessons from me.  At our last lesson, I asked them if they had been able to attend some dances to practice and show-off what they were learning.  The young lady confessed that they were having some disagreement about that.
She said, “He just wants to dance with me; and I want to dance with other people as well as dancing with him”.

I certainly understand both sides of that coin.  But both partners can get exactly what they want.

1) He can only dance with her.
2) She can dance with other people as well as dancing with him
3) While he is sitting out (because she is also dancing with other people), he can be on the look-out for new moves to try out on her.

This way, everyone is playing in their comfort zones.  He can relax and watch other people dance.  He can eye-spy some interesting moves that he had not tried before; while she is experiencing some new moves with the other leaders.  When they come together again, they can share what they have learned from others.

It’s like this in life as well.  When a couple comes together, it’s good to have individual interests as well as shared activities.  This way, when you have your quality time together — you have lots more stories to share. This is the same in business relationships as well as family issues.

As a business and success coach,  I realize that there are various solutions to a problem.  Few things are his way or her way; your way or their way.  If you take the time, you can often find a higher-level solution to most situations.

If you like the above tips – subscribe to my Dance Thru Life Tips newsletter at
http://eepurl.com/cSDC6

The Secret To Time

Posted on by

Here’s a time management secret I’ve never shared with anyone before.  When you use it, you will be amazed how much longer time expands for you.   Sounds hard to believe?  Keep reading and I’ll prove my point to you.

As I mentioned above, I’ve never discussed this concept before because I felt it was too powerful to share.  But when my business partner and colleague, Theresa Corcoran (motivational speaker and author of Rebound and co-author of YES, You Can!) asked me to expand on this material further, I decided to include my fan-base in this secret as well.

 [box] Relax into Time[/box]

 Don’t take time so seriously.  This sounds odd coming from an efficiency and time management coach. I make my living assisting others be more effective with their time and with their work life balance strategies.  Turning around and telling those same folks to ignore time constraints and time limits seems counter-intuitive.  Isn’t that what time and project management is all about?

You are right.  Therefore, I am not suggesting we ignore time altogether.  I’m recommending using time simply as a tool to rendezvous with the important things in our lives: people, events, and opportunities that propel us forward faster.  Indulge in the knowledge that everything that MUST GET DONE will get done.  If it doesn’t get done, it was not a MUST DO.

[box] Play with Time[/box]

‘Play’ and ‘work’ are both four letter words, yet they illicit very different emotions. Incorporate ‘play’ into everything that you do.  Focus your time and attention on your deliberate activities until it is no longer fun.  Once you have depleted your inspired action for this particular sitting, playtime is over.  Take a break.  Move onto something else with the intention of returning later.

[box] Indulge Time[/box]

Colleagues wonder how I create so many articles, eBooks and videos in such quick fashion.  How do I find the time?  It’s not much of a trick.

I wonder.
I wonder.
And wonder some more.

Then one early morning I wake up with an inspired direction that I can’t fight (as if I would want to fight it).

Conclusion:

If you have a clear direction and vision, even though you don’t have a detail understanding of how you are going to get there, normally things fall into place at exactly the right time.  Fussing and worrying about when it will appear is unproductive.  You will figure it out as you go along.

Think of it this way, if the answer is just around the corner; you need to be moving forward to greet it.  If you are stagnant, someone else will collect the prize.

Best News: If someone else collects that prize, another prize is just around the next corner. You don’t need to compete; you just need to keep moving.

If you enjoyed this article, similar articles can be found at Laura Lee Rose’s Professional Career Development Library  (or subscribe to this link http://eepurl.com/dUi81)

If you are interested in more detail professional coaching or a professional coach to help you stay on target with those goals, please consider one-on-one coaching sessions to propel you forward faster.

Copyright © 2012 www.LauraLeeRose.com