Coaching Skills

• No. of reasons coachee gave for his recent poor sales performance when we met this week:      Lost count after 15
• No. of real reasons why his performance was suffering: 1

I found myself giving an impromptu coaching session this week, to a usually top performing salesman who had temporarily misplaced his mojo. (Hey, I ‘m down with the kids, what can I say). more…

Podcast: Download (Duration: 19:04 — 13.1MB)

Have you ever asked yourself what drives human behaviour? Why people sometimes act in ways that you find difficult to understand?

Imagine an iceberg. The tip is above water – you can see this. The majority of the iceberg is under the water – hidden from view.

A person’s behaviour is like the tip of the iceberg – the part you can see. What drives that behaviour lies underneath the surface. Venture below surface level and you’ll discover the values, beliefs, experiences and thoughts that drive a person’s behaviour.

Listen to the podcast to find out more.

If you’d like to better understand and influence the behaviour of the people in your team, a good place to start is with some Myers Briggs or Influencing Skills training.

Myers-Briggs®

• No. of different personality types I have encountered this week:           16

• No. of different personality types I have got along well with this week:  16

This week, I have mostly been discussing Myers-Briggs®.

First, in a training session with 2 senior managers – to help them better understand the impact they have on their teams and how they can adjust their approaches for individual staff members, to get better results.

Next, in a discussion with an IT manager about how to improve his communication with the company’s executive team by making a few simple changes to the language he used. more…

Performance Management

• No. of salespeople under-performing in the company I am working with (year to date); 6 (out of 46)

• No. of these salespeople who need help rather than a kick up the bum: 5

When something like the snow gets in the way, it’s easy to use this as an excuse to fall behind with targets. In Financial Services, for example, successful salesmen and women will use such situations to their advantage. They might not be able to get out to see prospective clients but they can phone them. They can even use the snow as a conversational ice breaker (see what I did there?) to build an instant rapport.

Not everyone has the same level of drive, initiative or know-how though. It’s not that they deliberately come to work, hoping to fail. Usually people fail to deliver when they don’t know what to do or they lack confidence. This is where good team performance management comes in.

more…

Team Morale

• No. of centimetres of snow the weather men promised for Bournemouth:     21

• No. of centimetres of snow that actually arrived:      2

The Big Freeze is upon us. It fascinates me how different people react to situations like this. Some, like my brother in Kent, seized the opportunity to build a pink igloo (as you do) and convert various pieces of furniture into sledges. Others chose to add this turn of events to their list of post Christmas grumbles. more…

If you run a business you can probably put your people into one of 3 categories according to how they work and their team skills:

• Luke SkyWalkers
• Followers
• Dark Side

First, the ‘Luke Skywalkers’ of this world. These are the people who will never let you down and strive to achieve great things, whatever is thrown at them (You probably have a few of these in your organisation).

At the other end of the scale, you have those people who primarily like to moan a lot and drag everyone around them down in the process. We’ll call these people ‘The Dark Side’ (You probably have more of these). more…

Self Motivation

• No. of friends merrily wishing me Happy New Year on 31 December:   14

• No. of formerly merry friends now deeply depressed at having to return to work today: 14

Why is it that people are generally so much happier as Christmas approaches? Supermarket cashiers smile and stop making you feel like an evil planet destroyer for forgetting to bring your own carrier bags. Motorists give way on roads with a friendly wave. more…

Podcast: Download (Duration: 28:55 — 26.5MB)

There have been many studies on how non-verbal behaviour (body language such as facial expressions, gestures etc) impact communication.

Back in the 1950s, Dr Ray Birdwhistell was one of the first to suggest that no more than 30% to 35% of the social meaning of a conversation or an interaction is carried by words. (There were others before him but Dr B has by far the coolest name, so we like him best).

Today, there is a strong school of thought that, when we communicate, people pay attention to our words and actions as follows:
more…

Podcast: Download (Duration: 5:24 — 21.6MB)

Words, by their nature, are ambiguous. Why? Because we each give different words meaning – depending on our own experiences, beliefs, values, thoughts and ideas.

This video demonstrates this through a simple ‘ice breaker’ training exercise on…sex!

Take a look and you’ll see what we mean. No giggling like school kids now. This is a serious and highly scientific lesson in Communication Skills. Oh, ok then, it’s just a bit of fun…

But seriously…if we cannot agree on the meaning of a universally acknowledged, simple little word like ‘sex’, what hope do we have of ever being properly understood?

If you want to improve the clarity and impact of your communication, take a look at our Communication Skills courses or Contact Us to talk through what you need.

P.S. We run this exercise a lot and ‘love’ doesn’t come up too much. Shame on everyone. And whoever said ‘Zygot’ in a recent session – well that’s just weird.

This is the advice Gavin Aubrey of Think Training & Development gives to his trainees. Mooing like a cow can make you happier, increase motivation, and even make you live longer! This is just one of the practical approaches he and Wendie at Think Training & Development use to help demonstrate that people can control the way they think and therefore control their motivation, happiness and success.
more…

A strange question you might think, but sometimes we all tick to the same habitual beat without trying something different. That’s why Gavin and Wendie at Think Training & Development take a practical approach to their personal and management development programmes.

Trainees from more than 10 countries are turning to Think for a breath of fresh air and pragmatic approach to communication and personal development training. Whilst the media scaremonger with news of job cuts, company closures, and reduced salaries, many forward thinking companies realise that at times like this, you need your staff to be firing on all cylinders. By investing in communication skills, leadership programmes and personal development training, companies can increase staff morale and reap the rewards through increased energy, motivation and productivity. more…

Podcast: Download (Duration: 16:33 — 11.4MB)

Being an effective coach can have an astonishing impact on the people you work with. Trust me, the personal rewards you get are out of this world and the business benefits can be far reaching.

Listen to the podcast for tips on:

• Questioning & listening techniques
• Types of coaching question to ask

You cannot hope to influence a change in someone’s behaviour until they understand:

• Where they are now
• Where they want or need to get to
• What is holding them back
• What choices and options they have to move forward

If you’d like to know more about how to influence staff behaviour, check out our Influencing Skills courses, Executive Coaching or Contact Us and tell us what you need.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 6:04 — 17.6MB)

Apparently, as a human being, you have 60,000 thoughts a day; 90% are the same ones you had yesterday, and the day before, and the day before.

We tend to live out our lives ticking to an habitual beat. Sometimes you just need to ask yourself “which way do i eat my banana?”