Coach Train Learn

KISS - All About Simplicity

Often, when we are trying to build relationships with our people, we get all hung up on being outwardly open with them.

And we complicate things - a lot!

I was working with a bunch of clients this week, teaching some coaching tools. It struck me how challenging it is when you are starting out to keep on the simple side of simple.

It also struck me how challenging I find this for myself.

You may have heard all about those ‘Six Wise Men’; the open questioning words starting with ‘W’.

• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?
• How? - Well OK, not all starting with ‘W’!

Building relationships well, means that you can afford to ask a focused, one-line question of people, starting with just one of these words. Helping them find out a lot about whatever it is you are talking about. See the key word here - help them find a lot about it - not you.

So try out starting a question with one of these little words, keep it short and snappy, and then shut up.

Leave your people to do the talking - they will! And they will love you listening to whatever they tell you. It makes them feel listened too and, more especially, truly heard.

And that builds the trust and relationship they have with you - which is just what you want. In fact it’s a cornerstone of getting the best from people.

So take care to KISS this week!

Keep It Simple - Stupid!

Ten Steps to Doing Less in Your Business

You’ve been there and done it. You’ve got the tee-shirt and your experiences mean that you can cut so many corners.

So you do. It’s easier. You respond to all the requests, questions, challenges and mistakes of your people. By fixing them.

And after a while two things happen… Continue Reading »

Make Your Meeting Productive - Easy!

Ever been to a meeting where you wondered what had been agreed.

Only to show up a month later and find out that there had been no progress, partly because no-one knew what was expected of them. So they kept quiet with their heads down!

How frustrating!

To save this being a problem, one possibility that works really well is to have someone capture actions and who is accountable (and by when) for that action during the meeting.

This is then circulated to everyone immediately as the meeting closes, so there are no doubts.

Attendees know exactly what is expected of them and like a little miracle, things start to happen.

And those meetings aren’t so meaningless any more.

Action

Accountability

Timeframe

Written

Circulated

Five key words to make your meetings become much more productive!

It’s Not What You Say, It’s The Way That You Say It

“OK, so what’s happened? … Well, yes you can do it that way. And let me show you a way that sometimes works well for us too”

“You did what - that’s crazy. Why didn’t you do it the way you were told? Don’t you ever listen to what I say?”

Two approaches - pretty clearly eh?

If you were on the receiving end of these two acknowledgements of when something seems to have gone wrong, how would you feel about the relationship you have with your boss/manager etc? Continue Reading »

Top 5 Key People Management Secrets!

Your business, whether it is small, medium or large. If you lead a team of employees. Or even CEO a multi-mega-sized business - it doesn’t matter.

You have to have the skills to get the best out of your people. Your people management skills have to be more than up to scratch… Continue Reading »

Enlightened Managers CAN Manage Performance

In an interesting article at Human Resources Online, Alan Lee tells simply the inevitable truth.

Managers can manage performance effectively if they have the skills, focus and indeed courage to be objective and strong enough to downgrade poor performers.

Lee also asks, “The question many organisations face is how many enlightened managers do we have in our ranks?”

In my own experience and sadly - few.

So, there’s work to be done…

Checkout the whole article at http://www.humanresourcesonline.net/news/12128