Monday 15 August 2011

You Have The Big Ideas But They Earn the Big Bucks?


So you're thinking big and they're thinking small. Particularly annoying when they're paying you small while they rake it in.

I help a lot of people in this position. Very often, the key, as with so many aspects of human happiness - is to leverage self-interest. It's not that IU'm cybical - but it's a fact - we all have it - it's genetic - so you can bank on it being there.

In these cases, you try to find out what your bosses care about. I don't mean in the corporate lip service sense, I mean in the mucky personal sense. What would get them off the leather boogying down the corridor?

If they're still in rat-race mode (as most of us are), then that means pay and/or progression. They get those by giving the company more of what it needs, and so we're usually back into corporate goals, and that's where you new tactic comes in.

Show them how your vision can give the company more of what it says it wants, and implicitly, gives your bosses more pay and progression. Show them how they can use you to get what they want. The logical outcome is promotion & pay increases for you. Oh, and a lot of hard work and fresh challenges, which I'm guessing you're more than up for.

So - start talking in those terms. It's sometimes a super tanker, so it'll be a while before it pirouette a 180, but if you keep it up, you'll get there.

Of course, all this pressure will be polite, deferential, and couched in whatever dialect of corporatese y'all speak down there :o)

If you think I could help you, why don't we have a little chat?

Are You Appropriately Assertive?


Usually, the root of problems in this area is to do with a powerful reluctance to risk disapproval by others. We worry that to say "no" or assert other rights would be to lose approval. It's based on these false beliefs:

1. The approval of others is paramount

2. The approval of others is driven by your compliance to their wishes

3. Assertiveness is the same as, or as bad as aggressiveness

4. Nice people comply - non-compliers are arrogant or trouble-makers or something else undesirable

- and underlying all of these is a negative belief about your self-worth.

Clearly, in a work setting, we have to do what we're paid to do or risk dismissal, but there are ways to avoid being a doormat too.

As you continue to comply with the wishes of others, denying your own, you find you cannot control your life - you've given that control to others. In addition, self esteem is eroded away each time you recognise what's happening - so it's a doubly whammy and a trap.

The way out is to look very closely at the beliefs under-pinning the behaviours, and to dissolve them in a variety of ways, and this is the work I do with those clients who struggle with assertiveness.

Monday 1 August 2011

If You're Not Happy at Work - Right NOW - Read This

 

As I work more and more with clients on their working lives, it's increasingly clear that the issues we face are fewer and more consistent than in personal coaching.

A massively common issue is facing the fact that you're in the wrong job and can't or daren't get out, but that's not the topic of this post. (I can help you with it though! Let's talk)

But if you want to stay where you are, and you want help in making things a whole lot better, then it almost always comes down to  unmanageable workload, which causes stress, cripples work/life balance, and eventually leads to burnout.

The issues driving the unmanageable workload are:
  • Inability to delegate effectively
  • Inability to manage upwards and sideways
  • Poor personal effectiveness
If you feel "it's quicker to do it myself" then you're in a trap which will limit your progress permanently.

If you daren't say "no" (carefully!) then you're in another trap.

If you do not run a diary, a task list, or plan your working week, then you're on the treadmill and that's another trap.

Whichever trap you're in (probably more than one) - then you'll find that you don't have enough energy or focus to get traction on anything strategic. You're always fire fighting, rushing to meet crippling deadlines, and the really big, fun opportunities will continue to elude you.

If that's you, I can help you like I've helped so many others. My corporate clients have include consultant surgeons, school headmasters, teachers, nurses, staff nurses, admins, managers or all kinds, and individual contributors who want to be happier and go further, faster.

If you want a far nicer life at work, then let's get going. Your boss might even pay for your coaching! Send them to this page.

To explore your options, discuss your uncertainties, or to sample what's on offer, it'll cost you £10.

Here's where to press GO and make it happen.

Tuesday 1 March 2011

Work/Life Balance

Most of us work. Most of us hate it. Most of us feel we have no real choice but to endure it.

Nigel Marsh's video (below)  is very entertaining and insightful, but in my view it's light on techniques. As I often say "where's the beef?"

I work a lot with clients who are struggling to balance work and private life and i have a raft of techniques we use to bring lasting relief from crippling workloads, chaotic work-places, nightmare bosses, and corporate game-playing.

If you're ready to make changes, there is a lot of free advice in my corporate coaching sub-site. If you're ready to work with me you can start today for just £10 by booking an initial consultation.


Did you watch the video? Do you see what I mean?  He's one smart cookie - insights to make you smile - but few techniques. Beyond making tiny investments to change my working life, I don't see what he's saying we should do. I don't know what to get up and do - or do differently. (Well, buy his book, I guess).

Well, unless you have a better option - why not booking an initial consultation? It's very likely the start of dramatically improving your working life!

Thursday 27 January 2011

Why Aren't You Progressing At Work?

 Hello Jon,

So you're not progressing at work and you're bored and disheartened.

Work takes up nearly half our waking lives and so being in a job where your contribution isn't recognised nor rewarded is a waste of life, and the bleed-over affects of being unhappy at work often pollute your personal life when you get home. So this is an issue well worth sorting out.

I help lots of clients in this position and though each case is unique, there are common themes and so you may find the information below useful in your own case.

Firstly, understand who the decision makers are - the people who decide who progresses when and by how much. Know them specifically - not generically; their names and company positions. Often it's your boss, but often it isn't, though it looks that way.

Second get specific about what you want. If you want a raise - how much? If you want a promotion - to what? More responsibility? Spell it out by writing it down.

Thirdly, where possible, take your wants to your decision-maker(s) and ask them how you might get those specific things you want. Be ready to listen openly to the answers, even if they're difficult to hear.

Those three steps alone can get you a long way, but they often don't because the prospect of asking a manager for honest feedback seems daunting, and because our egos make it difficult for us to accept negative feedback as truthful. But if you can cross both of those rivers, then you're into the promised land. Now all you have to do it execute the things you were told about.

Of course, in reality, that's far from simple. It's easy to say "raise your profile in meetings" but it's often very difficult to actually do it on a sustained basis. Similarly "take a more strategic view of things" is easier said than done, and these are the challenges I help people with. However, if you do the three steps you'll be well-placed to see the landscape more clearly.

Common failure mechanisms I see in clients are:

1. Complete disconnect between reality and their internal worlds. I help them to re-connect the two, providing a pathway into the real world, which is the only one they can succeed in

2. Failure to realise that you need to do your current job very well before you can even think about getting a bigger better job. We tale an honest look at their performance and the underlying beliefs which drive it. This is often break a log-jam, freeing them up to shine.

3. Acute discomfort with the prospect of tackling issues of promotion and pay rises with those in power. I can show them ways to make the unthinkable, happen relatively painlessly.

4. An habitual focus on lamenting the problem rather than on removing it. I'm there to re-align them, to keep them goal-focussed, upbeat and creative.

5. Reluctance to work really hard to get what they want. I remind them why they're working with me, polish their goals for them, and dissolve the negative motifs driving their reluctance to commit fully.

6. Pessimism and impatience. I can challenge their thinking, tactfully esposing the faulty reasoning at the root of all pessimism.

7. Tunnel thinking - a lack of creativity. I have a box of what I call "low tricks" to free up thinking in my clients, and it's fun.

Even without me on your team, I hope this short explanation will help you to see a way forward in your career.

Good Luck on your new journey to Greatness!Chris