Focus

Focus definition:

• the concentration of attention or energy on something
• concentrate: direct one’s attention on something
• cause to converge on or toward a central point

On the outside this week has been a week of opposites – on Monday I was running a head hunting course for recruitment consultants and on Sunday I will be delivering the first module in a personal development program for a martial arts academy.

What is interesting are the similarities.

At a break in the head hunt training the recruitment consultants asked me how to be successful in recruitment – a very common question. The week before I had asked Sensei Craig Long, six times British kickboxing champion and owner of the York Martial Arts Academy what made people successful at martial arts. The answer it turns out is the same thing; focus.

But let’s put some perspective on this in case I’m just getting carried away as us personal development specialists can do; so just how much different does focusing on a goal or objective make?

Consider the following two statements; one is true, one is not:

1) If you focus on a goal or an objective you will reach it.

2) If you focus on a goal or an objective you will get closer to your goal and increase your chances of reaching it and being totally successful.

Being a realist I would offer the second statement as the true one. Focus does not guarantee success but it increases the odds in your favour!

And whether you are preparing for martial art combat, building a career or working towards a personal goal improving the odds has to be a good thing!

Until next time; be successful

Stephen

Trainer, Coach, Public Speaker

NEW Addition: PS – A very interesting comment has been added by a reader – I would invite all other readers to read it and add their thoughts

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Coming next on edenchanges.com – more recruitment specific tips

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We would be delighted to discuss your corporate training or coaching needs so call us, or email us, today to discuss:

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Photograph by the talented Jade Macalla,  photo manipulation by me

 

Dress to Impress

Earlier in the year I was in a meeting held by three of the most senior people at a client of mine. In the meeting the potential future managers within the business were being considered.

Various names were put forward and the last name presented was that of a particularly talented and successful individual. A conversation was then had about that person and one of the three people present, the managing director, was particularly negative about the person.

When asked the managing director said “Well for a start it would help if they looked like a manager. I don’t think I have ever seen them wear a suit jacket. When they improve their appearance then I’ll consider them as a potential manager. That’s their first step.”

To date that person has not been put on the management program that I designed and am now delivering for the company. And yes they have had the advice that they need to improve their dress code however they are choosing not to follow it. The company in turn is holding to its position of needing to; literally, see something better from the individual.

The truth of the matter is this – your colleagues, your superiors and your clients will all judge you, to some degree, on your appearance. The deeper truth is more shocking – you will judge yourself on how you look.

A business person who doesn’t care about their appearance will not care about their work. A business person who fails to consider how well presented they are for business will often fail to consider how professionally they act, talk and work.

Certainly that is the view that other business professionals will take of them.

A positive consequence of this is that you can develop your potential in business and thus influence your own career and earning potential by motivating yourself through your own dress code.

If you really are a business professional then show that to the world and most importantly . . . dress to impress yourself.

Until next time;

Stephen

Coach, Trainer, Public Speaker

www.edenchanges.com

(0) 1757 249 380

PS In case anyone is worried I checked with my client before sharing this story! All work done by Edenchanges is done in the utmost confidentiality.

Photography by Ksenia Korneychuk with thanks.

Four Management Tips

“Space is big, really big. You might think it’s a long way down to the shops but that’s just peanuts to space.”

So the late, great Douglas Adams wrote in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. He was writing about space but equally he could have been writing about management.

The depth and breadth of management is immense and every manager in every organisation in the world is faced with their own unique challenges. Even managers in the same company face unique challenges as a result of the different individuals who make up their team.

So how do you begin to navigate through the vastness of management? Well read on for some thoughts.

Mirror view – take a good long hard look in the mirror – that’s the first person to manage; you. Consider what you need to do as a manager – co-ordinate people’s effort, motivation and behaviour. If you can do it well then you are a success; if not you fail as a manager. So who better to start with than the person you have the most control over?

By taking into hand your own character and personality and ensuring you do all you are supposed to do you will learn a lot about managing other people. Consider that versions of the temptations and weaknesses that inflict you will also be in them.

It also has another benefit:

Be an example – to effectively manage you need to be an example of the standards you are expecting. Few things breed discontent faster than a manager who says one thing and then does another. In the management coaching and training I have done the best teams learn, through observation, from each other.

So the second benefit of managing yourself first is that by doing that you will automatically become more like the positive example you want to be.

Whatever type of example you set your people will learn from it. You therefore must be the example you want them to be.

24/7 – Following on from the above the tough news is that your example needs to be constant. In the same way that you get paid to be a manager for the full time you are at work you are required to be an example the full time you are there.

As a manager you are in the spot light constantly; your behaviour is being judged and commented on. Not acting like a manager for a morning or a day, for whatever reason, will weaken your image and damage your authority.

Moving up the career ladder does certainly demand more from you!

Consistency – The best managers are consistent in their actions and reactions. If you want to ruin the morale of a team simply set them a task, have it started then cancel it and start another one. Do that a few times without good reason and you will see morale drop through the floor.

As a manager therefore you need to be consistent with your plans – ensure they are followed out and run the full course. Additionally your reactions to news, both good and bad, should be consistent. People are uncomfortable with unpredictability especially in those they report to.

Being consistent in your reactions will make you more approachable and will enhance communication in the team. This isn’t to say that you don’t ever change direction but rather that you don’t change casually or randomly.

In some ways a manager does not have the ability to be as free with their feelings as others. You are given greater responsibility and remuneration and have greater career potential than those that work for you. This comes with a price – you must control your actions and think them through more.

I believe the above points go close to the heart of the topic of management and whilst there is much more that could be said I trust the above advice will act as a starting point to help you manage more successfully!

Until next time

Stephen Hart

Illustration by MoonChilde; with thanks.

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For further information on management contact Edenchanges. We offer a very successful range of management training and coaching services which are suitable for any organisation looking to sharpen up its people’s management skills. For further information contact us via the details below.

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We would be delighted to discuss your management training needs so call us, or email us, today to discuss:

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The Art of Silence in the Corporate World

Silence is your secret weapon in the corporate world.

Senior managers and directors, contrary to what many inexperienced business people feel, want their people to say less.

What they would really like is for their people to say the right thing, then go and do it!

We live in a world of information overload and time is being squeezed from all directions. In the corporate world less is truly more when it comes to business people chattering away.

Yet silence is something that a lot of people struggle with; equating silence with weakness. With many people thinking, “if I was really sharp and clever I’d always have something to say. People expect people to talk so I’d better say something. . .”

Sadly the consequence of this is a litany of pointless, half hearted and half thought through statements that doesn’t aid the situation at hand but rather obscures it. Worse still some of those half baked statements then get acted upon with, shall we say, questionable results!

So let’s explore this issue and see if indeed there is strength, and wisdom, in silence. . .

When no one is listening say nothing

 There are occasions where you will have something to share that actually no one else cares about hearing. It might be that you would have an audience later but at that moment in time people really are doing other things and don’t want to hear what it is you have to say. This is definitely a moment to remain silent.

Sure it can be disappointing. you have something you want to share but communication is about timing as well as content. If your current audience doesn’t want to hear right now perhaps they will later. And if not then find a different audience for that discussion.

Create space for ideas to grow

I’ve been in lots of board meetings where people clearly felt the need to quick fire ideas.  Now there is a place for that. And there is also a place for sitting there and thinking through the ramifications of ideas, taking ideas mulling them over and then putting forward a view.

In my experience managing directors and CEO’s would rather hear a great idea in a moment or two than an average idea instantly.

Have the strength to say that you are thinking through a point. You will be respected for that.

Control the situation

Being silent can give you control of a situation. By being silent you often force other people to speak. This can result in them saying more than they intended. This then give you more information to work with. Also it gives you a change to time your comments more effectively.

Also assuming you can be comfortable in your silence you will give off a thoughtful air and one of mastery of the situation. The other person, who is jabbering away, is the person people will perceive as weak or flustered.

Enables you to actively listen

One of the first thing you learn as a business coach is to stay silent whilst the other person is speaking. You are taught this for a number of reasons and one of the key ones is it enables you to listen properly. Proper listening, or active listening, is really focusing on what the person is saying, and not saying. By intentionally being silent, you can concentrate on actively listening to their words, tone, pitch andthe other subtle verbal clues they will be giving off.

Equally you will be able to observe their body language, possibly giving you a truer meaning of their statements than their words alone!

 In summary

I hope you can see that there is strength and wisdom in moments of silence. A few seconds can be all it takes to turn what would have been an average thought into a brilliant one. Give yourself that time. Impress your bosses and achieve your potential! 

Until next time

Stephen Hart

Trainer, Coach, Public Speaker

Based in the UK; Working Globally

Thanks to Natasaa for the photo 

http://natasaa.deviantart.com/

Visibility

There is a storm raging through the business world. Large companies and small companies alike are being battered and buffeted. So what can you do to weather the storm?

Well first have a little faith. The economy will recover, industry will pick up and the job market will regrow. That’s economics for you. It never stops even though it can be a roller coaster ride sometimes!

In the meantime there are some steps you can take to avoid the worst of the storm. In this blog I want to talk about one of them, specifically; personal visibility.

This is a principle that can make or break even the best career’s yet is often overlooked even by experienced business people. The heart and sole of it is this – it doesn’t matter how good you are if no one else sees how good you are.

Let me illustrate like this – you know all those talentless people you have seen who seem to do really well? The ones who are always talking to the bosses and getting promotions for no reason that you can work out. They were visible. The bosses knew what they had done because the individuals made sure that the bosses knew.

Bosses, whether managers, directors or other title holders, like to know what people are doing. It makes them slightly uneasy when they don’t. So to have someone confirm their part in actions makes the bosses comfortable.

Further bosses are universally busy. I know it might not always look it from where you are but take my word for it they are busy! Consequently they don’t remember all the details all of the time.

So if you and Bob work on a project equally but Bob goes and chats to the boss about the project what will happen is this: The boss will remember that Bob worked on that project and you helped Bob or were involved in some way.

And this will happen not because Bob bad mouthed you but simply because Bob actually talked about the project and his involvement and you didn’t. Unfair perhaps but really all the boss is doing is filtering and storing information and they just aren’t in a position to remember everything so they tend to remember what is easy to remember and what is headlined the most. Namely Bob. Not you.

So make sure your boss knows what you are doing. Not in great detail or in a ‘kiss ass’ way but in a ‘I’m doing my job’ solid, reliable way.

The other thing you can do to really make yourself visible is go to your bosses with ideas. People doing a job often complain that they know ways that it can be done better or more efficiently. Given the economic environment efficiency is at an all time premium so go to your bosses with ideas. Especially ideas that affect things outside of your immediate area. Someone who is concerned about the company at large is always a valuable asset. And if you have ideas about improving your immediate job then absolutely go and talk to them.

Do bear in mind that possible there are reasons that things are done in a certain way so present ideas not demands. When you do, whether or not your ideas are implemented, your personal visibility will be increased. Consistently doing this will help your chances of weathering the current storm and in the future it could be a career defining habit.

Until next time;

Stephen Hart

Picture by Chaand; with thanks.

Your Potential

Let me give you a New Year gift.

What I’d like to give you is something that I would normally save for when I was acting as a life or career coach with you. Something valuable; something powerful.

It is a statement that applies to everyone who reads this blog and to everyone who doesn’t. For this is a statement that once you realise it’s truth, and it’s significance, will make you see yourself and everyone else on the planet in a different light.

So here it is, please read it slowly and savour it:

“You have not yet reached your full potential.”

Does it make you smile? Does it make the future seem a little brighter? Does it give you a little hope?

Who ever you are, what ever you are, you can do more, see more, and be more in 2009 than you have before.

We are not machines with maximum operating efficiencies; nor are we just people – we are limitless people. We, each one of us, has the potential to be amazing.

So I am not going to tell you that you can achieve whatever you want in 2009 but I am going to tell you that you can achieve more of what you want.

You can, and it is your choice, become more of a saint or a sinner as you wish. Whatever virtues you have, you can develop them; whatever vices can equally be increased. It does come down to choice, and I will talk more about that over the coming months.

‘You have not yet reached your full potential’ is my gift to you all this New Year period.

May it unlock potential and open your hearts and minds to possibilities.

Best regards

Stephen Hart

Thanks to John for the splendid picture

Marshalling Your Resources

Companies don’t want to make people redundant. That’s never their aim. Circumstances force them to do so. Consequently many companies will be sympathetic to workers and want to help them.

Even in the unlucky event that a company doesn’t appear to want to care you should be able to find sympathetic people within the organisation who can help you.

As mentioned in Surviving Redundancy one of the first this things you must do is ask your company what support they can provide. In particular find out how long you can keep any company equipment such as phone, car, laptop etc.

This is one of those times where, assuming your really need it, I’d be perfectly willing to beg, please and call in favours. Once when I had been made suddenly redundant I found myself being asked to clear my desk and leave immediately.

As this happened at the height of summer I had the usual personal items plus a large desk fan that I had brought in myself. Not really wanting to carry this armful of items home on the bus I asked the divisional director, who had just made me redundant, for money for taxi fare – he obliged.

It’s a small example, and I’m not saying tap your boss for a loan, what I’m saying is call in favours if it is going to help you. Ask to keep the car for another week; to help you get to interviews or ask to use laptop to produce your cv.

Looking at the bigger picture coaches, like myself, and career management firms are available for hire by companies to provide support and advice to people who have been made redundant. If your company hasn’t brought in someone then suggest they do. Also if your company has one, talk to your human resources department about helping you start your job hunting.

Again if the company officially won’t help you speak to people within the business if looking for career advice ask one of the directors or senior managers if they would be willing to help you. If typing and laying out a CV is a problem then see if you can find a sympathetic administrator or secretary.

The simply fact is that you are in a crisis situation and you need to marshal your resources to help you come out a winner. So start with those resources immediately to hand – your company.

In my next blog on redundancy I will talk about how to bring the news of your redundancy  home- that will appear later this week.

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

Picture by kind permission of Amanda Jones

Surviving Redundancy

Redundancy is a plague that is sweeping the country. Companies make the headlines but it’s the people that suffer.

This is the first in a new series of twice weekly blogs in which I will be outlining strategies for surviving redundancy.

To begin at the beginning let me empathise with you. I can remember vividly each time I was made redundant. The shock and numb disbelief, the crushing realisation that despite being good at my job and working hard circumstances outside of my control had taken it away from me.

After the shock of the announcement two things always hit me. First, how was I going to tell my wife and second, how was I going to pay the bills?

What I have learnt over time, and it’s really the first lesson I would share with you, is it’s okay to have these feelings. It’s okay for a mature man, or woman, to be upset about losing their job and to be worried about what is going to happen next.

So be upset, be angry, hate the injustice and feel those feelings but don’t, and this is important, don’t let them blind you to the practical tasks ahead.

The very first practical task is to find out the exact details of your redundancy. When is it happening, how much will you be paid and when will you receive payment. And if you are in possession of company equipment e.g. car, laptop or phone you need to find out how long you can keep possession of those.

You should find out that information at the time they announce your redundancy. Make sure you get specific details. You want to know exact dates and amounts. Remember to always be professional and polite and consider if the person making the announcement is the right person with whom to discuss the decision. It might be that they are only the messenger not the decision maker.

Further to the previous point, if you ask the questions listed below consider who else you could ask. It might be that you personally know other senior people in the business who could help you. This is all about your future after all so consider all angles.

If you didn’t find this blog until after you had been made redundant there is no reason why you shouldn’t go back to your company and ask the following questions:

1. Why is this happening specifically to me?
2. How could the decision be overturned?
3. What circumstances would need to exist to have the decision overturned?
4. How far back would it be possible to delay the redundancy date?
5. What other roles are available within the company / group?
6. Who can I get a good reference from?
7. What support will you give me?

The harsh fact of your situation is that your income has ended yet your bills are ongoing. This is a crisis situation and you need to maximise all your resources. Your biggest resource at this moment, even though it might not feel like it, is your current company.

It’s going to feel lousy, you’ll be angry, worried and anxious for the future. That’s normal and healthy. Let yourself feel those emotions with out recrimination and make sure you ask the practical questions listed above to make your situation as informed as possible. Knowledge is power after all.

In the next blog, on redundancy – Marshalling Your Resources I discuss the types of support that your company can provide and in the blog after that I will discuss the really hard part – letting your partner and family know what has happened.

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

Picture by demostheses with thanks

Sphere of Influence

Before I put my cards on the table and tell you what this blog is about let me ask you a favour…once I’ve told you please keep reading because whilst it’s a topic that’s been done to death in a hundred books and far too many web articles I’ve got a point to make that might just help you…

So cards on the table…this blog is going to be about networking – business networking in particular and about a mistake that I know quite a few people are making…

To illustrate the networking mistake let me describe an old networking game that has been around as long as networking itself…namely the ‘business card collection game’.

In this game when you attend a business exhibition or a networking event the aim is to collect as many business cards as possible. Very simply the person who collects the most cards wins.

The idea behind the game was to prompt people who were nervous about networking and changing cards to do just that; collect them. And it works. It works in so far as as you end up with a collection of cards. But what value do those cards have? How much actual business value did you get from winning the business card collection game?

I’ll answer that question in a minute but first I want to fast forward to the present day and look at the modern version of the business card game.

Today a lot of networking is done online either more casually through sites such as Facebook or Bebo or more formally through Linkedin and it’s ilk. On these sites it is relatively easy to increase your network numbers and this can give the fantastic impression that your influence, and your business, is expanding. It’s also tempting, and I know people who do this, to boast and brag about the number of people in your network. And this is where the mistake lies.

Yes the point of networking is about numbers but not just any numbers. It’s not actually about the  number of people that you have the name of but rather the numbers of people you know. And even that doesn’t take it far enough because effective networking is about how many people you know who you can influence.

When I say influence I mean people who you can call upon to do something for you whether that is give you advice, meet you, purchase from you etc. Now for you to be able to influence someone you have to have some relationship with the person.

I am sure all of you reading this can realise that sending someone an invitation to connect with you via Linkedin doesn’t form a very deep relationship. It actually has to be followed up with real communication.

So don’t be misled by the numbers of names that you have; focus rather on increasing your sphere of influence by communicating with people and helping others.

Good luck increasing your sphere of influence!

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

Photograph by Michael Lazich and used by kind permission. His other work can be seen at http://exciter69.deviantart.com/

Stepping off the roof

This is a blog entry for anyone who is in business or sports who wants to move themselves forward in their careers.  I am going to highlight one of the most important personal attributes that you need to cultivate in order to be success in your career.

I’m going to highlight this attribute by citing the example of Peter Petrelli, a fictional character in the television show Heroes. Now I suspect many of you will have seen this show however, for those of you haven’t or for those of you who have forgotten the very beginning of the show, let me describe the situation…

Peter Petrelli was a man who was having dreams, visions even, of being able to fly. These visions became more and more real until finally Peter made his way to the top of an apartment block and, standing on the edge of the roof, he paused, clearly deliberating over the dilemma of having enough faith in his visions to risk everything or to playing it safe.

After what seems like an eternity of deliberation he steps off the roof…

Now for two reasons I’m not going to say what happens next to peter – first I’m not going to spoil such an excellent show for you if you haven’t seen it and secondly what happens to Peter isn’t relevant to this blog!

What is relevant is the faith that Peter had in what would happen next. He believed he had the ability to fly, he had faith that he was special and that he could do incredible things.

For you to have a serious chance to develop your career you have to have faith in yourself. You have to have faith that you can learn what you need to learn to take the next step. You have to have faith that you have the ability to grow as a person to face the challenges that promotion would bring.

If you lack faith in yourself you will not seek out opportunities because you will not believe yourself capable of dealing with them. Other people will recognise this hesitation in you and not trust you with new opportunities or new challenges.

Study great, successful men and woman in sports, politics or business and you will find that they all had faith in themselves. A few modern examples include Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Pele, Margaret Thatcher, Sir Alan Sugar, Sir Richard Branson… and the list goes on.

Indeed it has been my experience, and it is certainly my belief, that all truly successful people had faith in their abilities long before anyone else did. Their faith made other people believe in them. Their faith created opportunities they were able to utilise to further their careers.

My suggestion to you then is this:

Think hard about how much faith you have in your innate abilities and learn to cultivate and grow that faith daily through positive actions.

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

Perfection is Flawed

As a business coach I am going to recommend that you don’t strive for perfection. That in fact the quest for perfection is a fool’s quest and should be abandoned immediately!

Now the reason behind my thinking is very simple…perfection itself doesn’t exist.

It’s an illusion, a concept that can not be given actual form in the real world.

In the world of mathematics you might be able to have the perfect answer to a question but in the arena of human endeavours perfection ceases to be a real possibility. After all however good someone becomes someone else can always improve on it.

And worse than that very often how well someone has done something or how good something is literally no more than a matter of opinion.

So if perfection isn’t the goal what should be? Try excellence.

Now yes, excellent is another concept, another idea that within the field of human endeavours is hard to positively identify. However, and it is an important however, this time it is possible to more accurately measure it.

I can, for example, recognise an excellent sales pitch when I hear it. And I can even write down what would constitute an excellent sales pitch and train someone else to recognise it. I couldn’t however describe a perfect sales pitch. There is always something that could have been changed or altered.

So, assuming you want to excel in your career, whatever field of business that might be in, may I recommend you focus on being excellent. This is something that can be reached, a solid goal that is worth pursuing.

I could end this blog on that note but I would rather give you something in addition to theory. Something that you can put into action. So in brief let me outline your first three steps on the road of career excellence:

1. Commit to the task – commit to the challenge of being excellent at what you do for a living. It might sound obvious but that psychological commitment is the first real step – just as proposing is the first real step of commitment prior to a lifetime of marriage!
2. Identify the first action -here I can’t be more specific as it depends on what you want to excel at – you need to identify the first definitive piece of action that you need to take – it might be asking to work with a particular person, or purchasing a ‘how to’ manual, or subscribing to a blog or newsletter…whatever it is you need to identify the first action
3. Take action - this is where most people fail – they go through the theoretical steps listed above but then fail to take real action – they fail to do anything real…so take action by doing the action you identified at point 2 above!

A quick warning for those of you who heed the above advice…please realise that excellence is a long journey and it requires determination, persistency and a constant desire to excel. You do not become excellent at anything by only doing something once!

To balance of my warning the good news is that whilst excellence is a journey  many of the rewards you will receive will come from the journey itself even before you become truly excellent!

So take that first step and commence the journey.

Good luck.

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

Career Polish

Career Polish

I rather like it when advice you get from your parents turns out to be true. It gives me a warm feeling to know that it was from my dad or from my mother. It puts a smile on my face and it makes the sharing of the advice that much sweeter.

And today I would like to share some career advice that I received many moons ago from my dad…

When I was growing up my dad, who worked in pensions and investments, would always tell me how important it was in business to polish your shoes.

He would recount stories of eager young sales people who would come in for interviews with expensive suits and firm handshakes. He would tell in great detail the exact moment when those people failed to make the right impression. The moment that the interviewer looked down and saw their shoes…

When I think back to when my dad first told me those tales I remember being inspired to polish my school shoes and more than that I believed that he had given me an advantage over my peers and that I must remember the lesson for the years ahead.

Well the years passed and as a typically cynical teenager I rebelled against a lot of good advice yet somehow I could never quite shake my faith in the polishing advice. Not that I did it all the time of course but rather the feeling that it was good advice was always in me, even when I failed to act on that feeling!

Towards the end of my teenage years I did wonder if the advice was a little old school. Whether in this modern age something like polished shoes would really be taken into account when considering the suitability of a talented young person.

That was quite a few years ago now and the millennium has come and gone and now I’m a business professional in my own right with, amongst other experience, almost a decade in the recruitment and headhunting world. And you know what…my dad was right.

I’ve heard from countless CEO’s and MD’s of multi million pound international companies over the last decade who tell me that one of the signs of a true business person is a pair of well polished shoes.

And it’s not only the ’silver haired’ brigade who thinks this. I know several wealthy entrepreneurs aged under 35 for whom polished shoes indicates an individual who is both serious about business and has an eye for detail.

It has also been said to me by several managing directors that polished shoes in a candidate is a mark of respect towards the interviewing company, a way of saying ‘I respect you and your business enough to make an effort to look my best.’ and the message the interviewers read into this is ‘if they can make an effort like that about their appearance probably they will make a great effort about their jobs.’

I think the reason that my faith in my dad’s advice never truly wavered during my teenage years was that it always felt so good, so diligent and just so right when I did actually pick up the polish and a cloth and shine my shoes. The proof was in the pudding as they say.

So if you are not moved by my retelling of my dad’s advice let me set you a challenge. Tonight go home from work and polish your shoes.

Polish them really well and leave them out by the door that you will leave your home from tomorrow. In the morning see how it feels when you go to put them on and then, even more importantly, see how great you feel once you have put them on.

You see what I have learnt is that people notice when you have polished your shoes and people react positively to the signals that effort sends out. And one of the most important people to notice will be you.

Until next time

Stephen

Stephen Hart