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

 

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.

Breaking the News

Third entry in a series of blogs to help those made redundant.

So you’ve been made redundant. It’s a shock, you probably feel angry, confused and worried. Worst of all you start to wonder how you are going to break the news to your partner and family.

I’ve been there and I remember how it felt. I was more upset about how my partner would feel when I told her than I was about the news itself. I also remember the intense turmoil of indecision, of whether to call or wait until I could tell her in person .

For me then; and it’s my advice today; don’t ring and tell the news. This is the type of news that should be given in person so that you can provide some comfort.

The only time I would suggest you ring is if the person might find out from someone else. It might be that you have a neighbour who works in the same company who might tell his partner; who might tell yours. In that instance I would suggest calling.

Whether over the phone or in person I would tell the news at the first opportunity. It isn’t going to get easier if you delay and  frankly, there is no good time to share this type of information.

What I would do is ensure that you and your partner are in a position to speak openly and freely. This is a conversation that might get emotional and that’s okay. You simply need to ensure that people have the space to vent their feelings.

Consequently I would try to have the conversation without children present and with as little chance of them interrupting as possible. I’m not a big fan of television for children but this is one of those times where putting on a film for them would be ideal.

If you come home and have to create the above space to speak then simply tell your partner that you have something serious to talk about and you want to do it without interruptions. To any children, explain that you need a few minutes to talk to mum or dad about some grown up stuff and please would they not interrupt you.

Once you have the space, give the news simply and directly. Tell them the outcome: redundancy – and then give them the all details as you have them. It’s bad news no matter how you spin it and whilst being made redundant can be a great career move (more on that in a later blog) at the time it only feels like bad news.

Do expect your partner to get upset and it’s okay to get upset yourself as you share the news. Find a common strength to go on. I know that many people, especially men of an older generation, were brought up not to show emotions. Nonsense I would say. Feel the pain, empathise with your partner and remember that no one has died. You still have a future and what you can take from this event is a desire to move forward into the future together.

Once you have shared the news with your partner decide how and when you are going to tell the children or other involved parties.

And once all the news sharing has been done I would suggest taking some time out to all be together. Have a family meal, play a game, watch a movie or simply sit and talk about other things. Find strength and comfort in each other.

Tomorrow is another day and tomorrow is when you can plan the rest of your future.

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

This is the third in a series of blogs aimed at helping people who are facing redundancy. The other two were Surviving Redundancy and Marshalling Your Resources. All can be found in the Surviving Redundancy catagory.

Defining Beauty

Have you ever seen, or met, a natural leader – someone who had that pure leadership quality?

I have had that privilege; not often but I have had it. Those people make you stop in your tracks and take note of them. Now let me ask you. . .

Have you ever seen a beautiful man or woman? The type of natural beauty that stops you in your tracks and takes your breath away?

I hope so, for your sake I really hope so, for it’s a wonderful moment when it happens.

But do you realise that the beauty that stopped you in your tracks might have failed to turn my head even a little?  Your vision of loveliness might well be of no interest to me.

And here is the really interesting part: you could eulogise about your beauty, you could describe her in exquisite detail and wax as lyrical as Shakespeare and you probably wouldn’t change my mind.

This stems not from stubbornness on my part but rather from the fact that some things are defined by the observer and some things truly defy definition.

Beauty, like leadership, is one of those indefinable things. Just as you can recognise beauty when you see it you can also recognise leadership when you come across it.

Definition, not recognition, is the challenge.

This means that learning how to be a good leader is very difficult. Normally to learn a skill or a topic you break down the activity into its component parts and practice those, slowly evolving a procedure that blends all the components into the desired skill or topic. Naturally this means if you can’t come up with the component parts it makes it very difficult learning to learn the skill or activity.

And frankly this is where many ‘leadership’ courses go wrong. They attempt the impossible by creating a list of characteristics that people should adopt to become a ‘leader’.

Like specifying the characteristics of ‘natural beauty’, this is a flawed activity, as everyone’s definition will be different. Each leader needs to tap into their own strengths and decide how to use them effectively.

So is there hope or have I written this simply to pass on bad news? Well those who know me or have read my previous blogs will know that I attempt always to be positive so yes, I have an idea about learning, and developing, your leadership ability.

Consider that whilst all leaders have different personal attributes they all share one thing; they are all examples of something. The thing or attribute that they are an example of varies, it might be  ‘grace under pressure’, or ‘courage in the face of the enemy’ but the result is that their followers, those people who let themselves be led or influenced by the leader, see them as an example of something positive.

So consider your situation – in your assigned position what would you like your followers to do? Identify that and you identify what you need to be an example of.

I do a lot of work in the sales world where a sales manager’s first and most important job is universally to ensure sales are made. A sales manager must therefore be an example of a sales man. When he demonstrates that, (and how to do that will vary from role to role) he will be a leader to those on his team. So step one on your journey to being a leader is to identify what you need to be an example of.

Very likely in fact there will be a number of things you need to be an example of. It might be that your first step is to ask your team. What would they like to see you doing or getting involved in? Once you have a list of things I would approach it in the same way as any personal development; I would recommend that you develop each of those areas individually over time.

After all becoming a leader is a process not an event.

And when you see a beautiful person don’t try to break down the experience into components – simply enjoy the moment!

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

Picture by Scott Nathan – with thanks.

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/

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