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.