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Attitude

May 07
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Building a Winning Team Culture

By Attitude, Blogpost, inspirations, Leadership, management, mindset

Each organisation or company is different from each other. They may engage in the same line of business but they differ in the way they operate the business. Another thing that would be different is the culture. To be more specific, their team culture. Team culture is the sum of the beliefs, values and attitudes shared by the team members. It is how the team members cooperate and work with one other in reaching a common goal. Teams within a company may have different team cultures but are generally influenced by the company’s culture as a whole. Building a winning team culture contributes greatly to the success of the company.

Your company’s team culture can make or break your company. According to most companies, a large percentage believes that a company lacking a good team culture is unlikely to succeed. It does make sense since a good or a winning team culture revolves around the team members efficiently working with each other. To put it simply, excellent teamwork leads to success.

Culture based on your core values

You are the leader. This is your business. You are in the driver’s seat. You need to infuse a bit of your personality, attitude and core values in your team culture. Do you expect the best but still encourage a relaxed atmosphere? Create a culture of balance between work and play. Do you value customer service above everything else? Work with people who have great personality and are accommodating. Is innovation your thing? Nurture and promote innovators within your company. Take the time to think about what type of culture that will fit you, your company and your brand.

Communication

Communication has always been one of the most important aspects in our personal lives. This is no different in business. When developing a team culture, talk with your team. We all want to be heard. People want to be able to voice out their concerns without fear of repercussions. People want to be able to share their ideas. An open communication culture can build trust between the company and its employees.

Just have fun

We all know that saying about all work and no play. This is especially true in the competitive business and corporate world. A burnt out team member is no good to the team. Building a winning team culture includes ensuring that members of the team are happy with their job. A happy team member is more productive and tends to be more engaging to fellow team members. Come up with fun activities or events from time to time. Foster the idea that you take both work and fun seriously.

Let them know that you expect the best, and in turn you are also giving your best to the team.

Apr 26
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Challenges to New Team Members

By Attitude, Blogpost, challenges, Entrepreneurship, excellence, Food for thought, Goals, Human resources, Leadership, management, stress, Success

You have now successfully hired new team members to your organisation. The team is ready to take the journey with you to achieve your business goals. Everyone is onboard and have a clear understanding of your company’s mission and vision. Morale is high and everyone is pumped up. Everything looks perfect and good to go.

But is it really? Even with a tried and tested onboarding process, new staff members can experience problems in the first few weeks of working in your company. As time goes on, it is very unlikely that they will speak up about the challenges and issues that they are facing. This can lead to further problems that might affect their productivity and the business as a whole. As a leader and business owner, you can watch out of for these things and hopefully resolve them as soon as possible.

Adjustment to Relocation

Some of your new hires might have relocated from another city or even from another country to work for your company. They might have brought their families with them. This can cause issues especially if they are unfamiliar with the new location. Despite this being a personal issue, it might negatively affect their work. They might even start to rethink if they made the right decision.

One way of handling this is simply through communication. Your HR can schedule a meeting with the employee and come up with suggestions to resolve the issue or at least lessen the burden of the problem. They can also have them talk to another employee who had gone through the same issue so they can get advice and share their experiences.

Managerial Issues

It can be common for new employees to not be able to form a good relationship with their managers. This can be due to conflicting ideas, or the managerial style not fitting the employee’s style.

Once signs of this problem come up, it is best to have your HR or your onboarding department to get in touch with the employee. It’s important to get to the root of the problem and smooth things out. They could advise the employee and manager to stay in touch regularly so they can get a feel for each other’s way of doing things. It all comes down to understanding and working as a team.

Expectations and Results

Sometimes, new employees tend to take on too much too quickly. This is done to hopefully impress their supervisors or co-workers without knowing that this can lead to unnecessary overload and eventually burning out.

Regularly remind everyone in your organisation to take on reasonable expectations. Trying to achieve impossible expectations can be stressful and is counterproductive in the long run.

Apr 23
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Keep Focused: Ways To Shy Away From Distractions

By Attitude, Blogpost, challenges, Food for thought, Goals, habits, mindset

Having focus to achieve what you want is not as easy as it sounds, not with all the distractions that we are facing in our daily lives. Having said that, how do we keep the main thing – the main thing? We are already in the second quarter of the year – do you have a concrete plan on how to spend the next 90 days? Here are some questions I need you to ask yourself and let’s see how these can help us achieve our goals this quarter and on the next.

  • How do you limit distractions?
  • How do you keep the noise out?
  • How do you keep focus?
  • How do you keep the main thing, the main thing?

Typically, this coming quarter we got so many distractions. If you choose to give in to these distractions, we need to consider some things. We’ve got a lot of holidays coming up that the team members can take, clients can take. So,

  • How do you keep focus?
  • How do you ensure that stuff still gets done?
  • How do you ensure that you stay on track?
  • How do you minimize the noise?

How do you keep focused?

There are a couple of things that we do with our clients to help them keep their focus on different tasks or things that they need to do:

  • Phones off unless you’re making phone calls;
  • Emails off unless you’re on email time; and
  • One of the most important things is – who you need to be here right now?

We have over 555 different characteristics. We need to tune in to that person that we need to be for that specific task, for that specific focus on that we need to be focused in.

If it’s making calls, fantastic! Who does that need to be? Who do you need to drop on more of that?

If it’s putting to your proposal, fantastic! Who do you need to be more of that?

So, it’s tapping into that “beingness of you,” it’s all inside of you to ensure you maintain that focus, maintain those characteristics in order to achieve that result.

What happens so often is that people bounce. They bounce from emails to phone calls, to team – like a lucky pinball machine. And what happens when we bounce? Our energy goes up and down. We get overwhelmed so much easily and quicker, and we get frustrated because we feel that we’re not going forward.

Who do you need to be right now?

Now, let’s focus on how do you need to be? This is where an ideal week comes in a place, but more importantly with the ideal week is – who do you need to be in those chunks of time?

That’s the goal thing! That’s the missing link so often I see with people when they’re creating an ideal week, is who do you need to be in that time frame? Not that task associated but who do you need to be in order to do that task on that focused time.

So, there we go! Let’s keep the main thing – the main thing.

Let’s keep the focus.

Let’s keep the drive.

Let’s minimize the distraction.

Let’s achieve some great results today.

Apr 16
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Getting High Performers to Come to You

By Attitude, challenges, Entrepreneurship, excellence, Goals, Human resources, Leadership, management, opportunities, Success

The performance of your team members is one the pillars of a successful business. You may already have a huge market and a solid business plan in place to reach your business goals but without a good team behind you, the journey will be harder than it should be. Having a competitive team is essential if you want to stay ahead of the competition and create opportunities for further growth.

A high performing talent can have a positive impact and facilitate growth in your business, but we all know that getting those individuals to join your team is not an easy task. As a business owner, one thing that you can do is to make your company enticing to these high performers.

Team Leaders

Make it clear that you are looking for leaders. High performing individuals tend to be natural leaders and will see this as a challenge. They will assume that you are hiring them to facilitate growth and make positive changes in your company. Empowering them will allow these talents to shine and to step up to every challenge. This will foster an environment where leadership tasks are driven by the team members which can be an advantage when it comes to quick and efficient decision making.

Partnership

High performers know what their worth is. They know that whenever they are in business, positive things tend to happen. These individuals are not looking for the standard compensation packages like salaries, bonuses and benefits. They already know that they can get those at a competitive rate. As a business owner, offer up a financial partnership with them. Build a compensation plan that will show them that you want to share the value and wealth that they will create by being a part of your company. Being considered as a partner will encourage them to bring out their best, knowing it will also benefit them.

Confidence

High performers are always on the lookout for organisations that know how to succeed and is always expected to succeed. A culture of confidence within the company means that the company has seen multiple successes in their line of business.

Business awards, or recognition received by the company showing that it is a leader in the industry will make it more attractive to high performing employees. These companies are expected by the employees to succeed and grow because it has done so time and again. Company growth means that employees also have opportunities to grow and develop their career.

Apr 09
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Interviewing Potential New Hires

By Attitude, Blogpost, challenges, Entrepreneurship, excellence, Goals, Human resources, Leadership, management, Success

Expanding your business means hiring new employees to fill up different job positions. You need professionals who are competent and have the drive to achieve your company’s goals. You, or your company’s human resource department may start posting online for available job positions.

Once you start receiving those job applications, you can start narrowing down the applicants based on their experience, qualifications and skills. How do you correctly select who shares your vision and passion? How do you know who has the talent to take your business to the next level? This is where the importance of interviewing applicants come into play.

Through a job interview you will be able to assess a candidate’s experience, skills and mindset on the job that he is applying for. This will allow you to know the potential employee on a personal basis. If that person does not work well with a team or has a questionable attitude, skills and experience mean nothing. Some companies are moving toward favoring test scores in the employee selection process. However, most still rely on the good, old-fashioned way. So how do you conduct a proper job interview?

Prepare a List

Whether you have an interview team or you are doing it solo, make sure to prepare a list of the skills, experience, qualities and knowledge that you are looking for in an employee. Using this list, come up with questions to be able to efficiently gather the necessary information on each applicant. If you have an interview team, make sure that they understand their role in the applicant assessment process.

Legal Job Interview Questions

In a job interview, not everything is up for discussion. Ask legal interview questions that will highlight their strengths and weaknesses pertaining to the job that they are applying for. Avoid illegal job interview questions that could make you a target for a lawsuit. Questions about their marital status or if they plan to have or already have children should be avoided.

Relaxed Atmosphere

A friendly handshake in an onsite interview or a friendly greeting in a phone interview can go a long way. Establish a connection with the applicant to make him or her comfortable during the interview. A relaxed applicant would be able to provide you with accurate information that you need during the selection process. This will allow you to gauge their personalities and attitudes and make a decision if they are a good fit for your team.

Feb 26
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Lifting Up Your KPIs

By Attitude, Blogpost, challenges, mindset

Lifting Up Your KPIs

When we’re driving somewhere we haven’t been to before, we normally turn on GPS and follow the instructions, right? It tells us when to turn right, left or go straight ahead. We don’t have GPS in business, so we have to rely on reviews, and we have to rely on checks and balance along the way. These checks and balance are called KPIs – and they aren’t always easy to hit. Sometimes you just find yourself needing help in lifting up your KPIs.

Where Do You Start?

So, are you hitting your KPIs? There are challenges in finding right and meaningful measures to set up the business’ KPI. But if you are consistently unable to hit the KPI that you set for yourself at the beginning of the year, nine out of ten times, the issue lies with the person in the mirror. How well do you deal with distractions? How good at you with time management?

If you consistently failed at every KPI evaluation, all is not lost. What do you need to improve your numbers? What do you need to do to improve your calls, for example? You need to get your scripts planned out ahead of time. To review and be familiar with the scripts. You need to plan out the scripts the night or the day before.

3 Things That Will Set You Up For Success

Let me share with you three strategies that are sure to lift up your KPI points:

  1. Make sure that you have the entire week mapped out ahead of you. What do you need to do? What tasks need to be completed? Plan your schedule. Prioritise. When you map out your schedule for the week you have a clear idea what to expect, what to do, and when to do it. You have your timeline set, and you know that at this certain day of the week, these pressing tasks should be finished. I should be working on these.
  2. Sticking to Your Ideal Week. Now that you have the week mapped out, all you need to do is to follow the plan. The ideal week is one where everything goes as planned. The pending tasks that you planned to work on, you should be able to complete them by the end of the week. How do you accomplish this? You need to focus, focus, focus. Focus on what needs to be done. Focus on the task ahead and ignore distractions. Manage your time and make sure that the time you spent at work are productive.
  3. Develop a Good Ritual. I cannot say this enough, people are creatures of habit. We tend to do the same things, over and over. This is why it is important to develop a good ritual. Start the day right. Wake up early. Go for a run, exercise. Then have a leisurely breakfast. When you get to work your mind is relaxed, and focused on completing your tasks. If you wake up late you tend to rush through things, and you get to work with your mind on other things that you haven’t done. “What did I forget to do?” “I forgot I have to do this…” and so on, and so forth. You’re not fully focused on the task.

Self-Evaluation

So whenever you see that you’re not hitting your goals and you need help in lifting up your KPIs, ask yourself – how well are you planning each week and each day? How well are you mapping your ideal week and sticking to it? How well are you doing your rituals?

Feb 22
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Facing Adversity: Your Road to Success

By Attitude, Blogpost, challenges, Goals, mindset, Success

You may or you may not know, I recently just we went over to New Zealand, Rotorua and completed another Ultramarathon. It was a grueling 102 kilometre run to Rotorua, which is to the north island of New Zealand.

I’ve done couple of races like this in the past, but this one was absolutely spectacular. And there are different number of elements why the race was so spectacular: It was the inclination, it was the declination, it was the terrain, it was the scenery. There are a lot of amazing lessons I took personally from that race.

Lessons from the BIG RACE

The first lesson was, obviously, how to breakdown a biggie goal. 102 kilometres, right? Huge!

Another element is that, reverse engineering that into one aid station, to the next aid station, checkpoint, checkpoint and checkpoint. It’s a bit like a goal, right? You got a big audacious goal, reverse engineer it down and go through each station as you go.

Another lesson that I took away from doing the Ultramarathon is, what happens when things don’t go your way?

So, what happens at 30km in? Achilles blew out. Hip blew out. I was in a world of pain. So, I had a couple of options: I could push on or I could pull out.

And so, I thought – “I’ve done all the training. I’ve come this far, I’m not gonna be pulling out at 30km.” So, I sucked it up and just kept on going. And obviously, with a bit of help, I got through each aid station.

It’s a really good analogy of – what happens when you’re facing adversity? What happens when you face a challenge? Do you go, “Ah, I’ve check out. I’m out!” Or do you actually push through?

Because mostly what happens when you push through the other side, that’s where the goal is guys. That’s where true success is. It’s getting through each ceiling. Getting through that next level.

So, you may be having troubles with your team. You may be having troubles with sales. You may be having troubles in any business. But the element of pushing through, that comes from having that support crew around you. It comes from having that team around you. Knowing what resources you’ve got – your backpack on your back, your water and everything like that to get you through to the next checkpoint.

How about you? How do you face your own adversities in your personal and work life? Sometimes, it helps to know that you have reliable people around you. Surround yourself with the right support group and you will definitely overcome any challenges that comes your way.

Feb 05
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Breathe, Visualize and Move

By Blogpost, Attitude, Food for thought, habits, mindset

Was there ever a time that you felt overwhelmed by so many things that are going on around you? Tasks that you need to finish, work that are piling up by the minute? How did you cope?

I want to share with you today the importance of B.V.M.: B for Breathe, V for Visualize, and M for Move. It’s a cool exercise that we do with a lot of our clients.

This is also an opportunity to really give you a tool that’s going to help you to get through the next couple of weeks at least.

So often, we have so many plates that are spinning around and around at the same time. What I notice is that people go from one plate, starts spinning, and go to another plate – and start spinning, and so on and so forth.

And what it does, it actually results to headache. People get overwhelmed with too much going on at the same time. People get frustrated.

So B.V.M actually allows you to transition those plate spinning. Transition those different tasks, activities or deliverable that you need to be working on throughout that day.

And this process really gets you centered, and it allows you to get clear on who you need to become and what you need to step into.

Breathe

Obviously breathing is a huge component. We all breathe, but how deep and how often do we actually really breathe? So, what happens is that when emotion is high – when you got so many stuff happening, your emotion’s through the roof – logic is usually low.

What happens is that, when we become quite emotive, we start to breathe from the neck part up. And we start to take short breaths, and we start to get more emotional.

And so, by breathing – it has to be some nice deep belly breaths. It enables you to decrease that high stake emotional component and start to get into more of a logistical kind of way of thinking.

Then, it starts to ground you. It starts to decrease that frustration and decrease that feeling of being overwhelmed. And when we do just a couple of, say 3 nice deep breaths, it starts to center us and it starts to ground us on where we are at right now.

If you are feeling overwhelmed then you can try this step right now. Clear your mind and take three deep belly breaths. How did that make you feel? It’s not time to move to the next step –

Visualize

Second component is Visualize. V for Visualize. Visualizing then moving into that next task. Moving into who I need to become or what am I about to do. You, seeing that task. You, visualizing that task in your mind.

Because what happens is that, when we play up our video screens in our internal mind – it starts to shift our behavior. It starts to shift our physiology. It starts to shift that internal reaction, those reactive models inside of us.

When it starts to shift our responses, then our physiology changes. Our behavior changes. Then our activity changes. Therefore, our results also change. So, V is to Visualize what’s coming up in your mind.

Visualizing the task is you preparing your mind and body to do the task. It may be a task that you do not particularly enjoy. It could be something tedious. Instead of putting it off, visualize yourself doing the task. Get a clear picture in your mind of yourself doing it.

Move

The last component is M for Move. And what I love to do, and I love to suggest to clients is, when we’re going through this B.V.M – we’re energetic beings. So, the more you move, energy creates energy. When people go out and don’t have enough energy on time – it’s like, nope, wrong.

Movement helps you do more, it creates more energy. And so, you know, if it’s a lap around the block – if it’s a lap around the office, if it’s a lap around your chair – by shifting your energy, by utilizing that movement, it starts to release those endorphins. Release those hormones that you can start to then find the energy to do the activity that you need to move in to.

So B.V.M: Breathe, Visualize and Move – this really helps you to transition from task to task. Really helps you transition from going to one conversation, then to a different conversation. And starts to help you get through the day and get through the activities, and obviously help you to achieve the goals that you want to achieve.

Jan 22
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The Magic of Saying Thank You

By Attitude, habits, mindset

Today is a good opportunity to stop and review the week that you’ve just had, and to just talk about some of the key lessons and those Aha! moments that you’ve taken for the week.

So, what about you? What’s been some of your wins over this last week that you can share down below? What are you most proud of? What are some achievements that you’ve done? Things that you want to highlight – and what about some of the lessons that you’ve learned this week as well?

I’m just heading out from the office today and I would like to share with you what I learned this week. What I want to share with you is about the power of actually saying one word, or maybe two words – THANK YOU.

It’s really a powerful thing, because of the energy that is associated with the words “Thank You” is quite profound and quite powerful.

So often we take so many things for granted, when things are expected and we receive them, we sometimes take them without any acknowledgement. But when we stop and actually just go, “you know what? Thank you for that. I really appreciate, I really acknowledge you for doing that.” No matter how big or how small it was, it goes a long way.

What you can actually see when you say those two key words or one key word is, it opens up their whole paradigm. It opens up their smiles and it opens up their whole energy. It only takes a second to say it, no effort on your part, really. Not only is it polite to say thank you, but saying it transforms the entire experience.

How many of you have experienced this? When someone – a coworker or family recognizes your efforts, no matter how small and gives you a sincere thank you, doesn’t the encounter leave you feeling positive? Wouldn’t you want to leave that same feeling to the person that you’re communicating with?

I hope the realization allows you to incorporate these two words when dealing with people. It enhances the experience for both the giver and the receiver.

So, who’ve we said thank you to over this last week? And who can you say thank you over the weekend, or over this coming week?

Make someone’s day! Really acknowledge someone, really light someone up. So – WINS, LESSONS and THANK YOU.

Thank you and have a good day.

Jan 11
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Engagement and Influence

By Attitude, Blogpost, habits, mindset

Lesson for the week: Engagement and Influence

I love presenting and talking and coaching – is one of my geniuses that I love doing it. I can do it daily. But, it’s all well and good doing it – but how do you engage?

When you are having conversations, how do you engage? How do you engage with your teams, and how do you engage with your clients?

Obviously you cannot use a “one size fits all” approach. You have to get really personal. You have to really listen in order to connect. You need to communicate on a personal level.

Engagement is not limited to face-to-face meetings. Be active in Social Media. Facebook and Instagram are no longer simply avenues for selfies and vacation pics. You can use them to share information, and discuss your genius.

Podcasts and blogs are also good avenues for customer engagement. If you have a blog, take note that good content equals great engagement. People will read, listen and they will respond to your inputs as long as you provide quality content.

That’s one of the big lessons that we’ve learned throughout this week – it’s engagement.

Another lesson that we learned this week is influence

Having the ability to affect someone’s ideas, character or choices. This is not an easy thing to achieve.

Even this morning as I was running a training session for a client, we talked about influence.

We talked about how are you influencing those people around you? How are you influencing prospective clients, particularly in this market? How are you influencing your current clients?

So, looking at all those different components for us is around engagement and influence.

Now I want you to ask yourselves again:

How do you engage? How do you influence the people around you? Share your thoughts and leave a comment below.