Bloggertone updates

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 06:35 AM PDT

When I write a blog, I ask myself what's going on for me right now. This can be a tough and uncomfortable question, and it would be a lot easier to just do some online research and expound on some trendy theme that will get picked up through my Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts. After all, adding a new twist to the already familiar is the easiest territory to cover, and it's often seen as an easy way to make money. But is it truly the best way to spend my time, and will it move me forward creatively, emotionally and financially?

We're lazy…

Tapping into the deeper levels of self is always challenging and may seem self-indulgent. Yet we all have riches buried inside us—in our brains, our hearts and our numerous life experiences. Recycling may be great for some things, such as saving our planetary resources, but it's the new, catchy, creative, innovative, imaginative, fun, playful stuff that grabs our attention—and ultimately wins our vote as well as our dollar.

We are wired for play, fun, interaction, inspiration, laughter, passion and connectedness. Yet we so readily fall into the trap of churning out the same old stuff, reverting to seemingly reliable systems, or somehow reinventing the wheel. If we want to enliven ourselves, stimulate new ideas, create new opportunities, and find greater fulfilment, we must do some digging.

To get serious about innovation, you have to go out to play

Play is seriously under-rated in business, but it is one of the core activities that inspire great innovation. It's not a linear process, and it doesn't relate to intelligence. It's all about letting go of strategic thinking, having fun with ideas, and generally allowing your chronically under-utilized brain to come up with some creative new ways of seeing things.

Think of any great innovation and ask yourself:

What established process was the innovator following?
What did the innovator draw upon to come up with the idea?
What did you feel, when you first used this new product/technology?

Usually, the greater the innovation, the less established was the process that led to it. Since there was probably no established process, the chances are that the innovation was sparked by some form of play. And when the product or technology came to market, wasn't it exciting and even somehow strangely inevitable? Didn't it prompt you to connect existing thoughts and feelings in new and satisfying ways? Creativity creating impact creating success.

Think about your own life, your own experiences.

What's unique about you? Your experiences, relationships, insights, opinions, tastes, humour and flair represent a blend of skills, talents and perspectives that provide a springboard for your own unique brand of creative thinking. All we need to do is to find ways to stimulate our creativity—rather than suppress, avoid or ignore it—and then believe in it enough to turn it into innovation. And, in doing this, we need to support each other in the workplace and beyond.

An increasing number of employees are getting burned out, suffering stress and low morale, boredom and frustration at a time when CEOs know that the key to sustainable success is innovation. Dissatisfaction and innovation don't work well together, but it's not as if no one knows how to remedy this situation. I won't go into that here but a web search reveals a ton of information and help on this subject, and also confirms that creative people live longer and are happier, healthier and more productive. So, what's to lose?

Creativity is our lifeblood

We are all naturally creative. As children, we are especially creative in play, which is encouraged until we 'need to take life more seriously' and buy into the delusions that are foisted upon us. As we use up the world's resources, get ever more crowded on our little blue planet and have to cope with increasing disengagement in the workplace as people become more cynical and disillusioned, surely we need to get creative again. We'll never solve personal, social or planetary problems by further study and emulation of the methods that got us to this point. Yet we all have the capability to innovate our way forward to a happy and sustainable future.

So I wrote this blog without reference to the web or any books. Right now, I'm focused on finding that healthy balance between striving for success and letting it unfold, while dwelling in the uncertainty of the creative process—and making time to just play and have fun. Hopefully, it will strike a chord, for some people, somewhere deep inside. Others may find it crass, obvious or boring kitchen-sink philosophy.

But whatever anyone thinks, it's from the heart and, after 60 colourful years, it's the only way I want to live. How about you?

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The post Dig Deep, Strike Gold appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

Business Performance Coaching Techniques To Create Winners

Posted: 30 Sep 2012 10:52 AM PDT

This may sound obvious, but performance coaches don't only exist in sports. No, they exist in our business lives too, but (and I oughtn't to generalise too much) they don't necessarily look like sports coaches. They're unlikely to be wearing a track suit, probably won't be shouting across a sports field, and may well not have the type of physique which we'd usually associate with a coach. However, exist they do, even if the coach doesn't actually know it.

Now what do I mean by this? I mean that unlike on the sports field, coaches might not even know that they're coaching people. What they are doing, however, is guiding others towards success by using the right ideas, words and motivators to help others to achieve success.

What is a Business Performance Coaching?

Formal or informal coaching

Some coaches are formally charged with coaching others. We'll call these people "Group A". This is either their job, or part of another role, and they'll be thinking a lot of the time about the steps needed to bring others to certain goals. In "Group B", coaches don't even know they're coaching. Instead they either get satisfaction from helping others towards achievements, or they realise that in order to reach wider business goals, they need others to be performing at their best.

Often the difference between the two types can actually become a difference in terminology and expertise. When we look at this, we realise that each group can learn from each other, and, more importantly, we can all learn from the methods, orientation and success of coaches to improve the success of our team members, or in fact anyone in the organisation.

The difference between coaching and mentoring

Starting with Group B, these people will often be mentors, rather than coaches. A mentor uses his or her expertise in the field to guide others along a path which they know, from their own experience, will be successful. In a sales situation, for example, the mentor might accompany the mentee to sales meetings, then de-brief afterwards to suggest areas for improvement, in a structured way, based on the mentor's own experience as a salesperson. In this way, the mentor passes on his or her expertise to the mentee, guiding the mentee towards success.

Those who fall into Group A are actual coaches, rather than mentors. These people coach others towards success through helping them identify their own values, align goals to these, and then self-analyse in order to modify performance and behaviour to achieve success. It is not necessary for a coach to have any expertise in the field in which they're coaching – the task is instead to ask pertinent questions and give valuable feedback to the client to enable that person to identify the steps needed to be successful.

Combining the two for business success

As we've seen, coaches may or may not be formal, and in fact some coaches may be performing these tasks naturally and providing valuable guidance simply by behaving in a way which comes naturally to them. For others, some structure is needed in order to get the best out of others.

In a business environment, it can be helpful to act as a mentor, passing on solid experience to the mentee, whilst at the same time using coaching techniques to help the mentee to find their own route to achievement, within the best practice of the mentor's knowledge.

For those who are new to this, here's a suggested 10 point process (techniques) to coach someone towards business goals:

Sit down with the mentee to discuss the task in which improvement may be needed.
Ask the mentee to describe the task as they understand it from the requirements given.
Drawing on experience, the mentor should offer guidance to clarify understanding.
Ask the mentee to rate their performance in the task on a scale of 1 to 10.
Discuss performance until both parties agree on a suitable score.
Request that the mentee describe how the task would have been performed differently if the score had be a 10.
Offer guidance where necessary.
Together, identify required actions to improve the mentee's performance to a 10, as described by the mentee.
Obtain agreement to the actions required.
Follow up after an appropriate timescale to review progress.

Do you have thoughts on this topic? Let me know how you move your staff towards business success.

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The post Business Performance Coaching Techniques To Create Winners appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.