Tag: Focus

How to be a Responsible Coach

Assuming the Responsibilities that come with Being a Coach

Who can forget the famous line of Peter Parker (Spiderman’s grandfather)? He said, with great power comes great responsibility.

Society expects TV and movie superhero with extraordinary powers to be responsible for saving his town and the world from the forces of Evil. And he never let us down. Despite the temptations of owning such powers, he uses his abilities only for the good of the people around him.

Being a coach has similar parallels. Great coaches can have real power through their abilities to help others and with it, the responsibility to guide others towards success. This is REAL power that can be used to help real people in THIS world. Done well, coaches can help others turn around their lives. Done wrong, and a coach could guide a client down the wrong path.

So, with this power to coach your clients towards manifesting their personal and/or business vision comes responsibilities. Great coaches assume them all as part of the professional responsibility. This can include everything from making sure your client is moving in the right direction, getting them back on course when they are not, and developing and tracking their use of exercises to help them along the way.

There are a few things you can do to be a more responsible coach. Just as important, these same skills can be imparted to your clients to help them lead more responsible, integrity-filled lives.

How to Bring out the more Responsible You in Yourself and your Client

#1 – Develop self-awareness.
Learn and know your own strengths and weaknesses to be able to view your behaviour objectively. Recognise your shortcomings, receive feedback, and make changes when necessary. The more self-aware you become of all your aspects, the more you will know what kind of clients you can coach best and just as important those best referred to others.
The lesson is simple: the more we grow, the more we can offer, and the more we can help others.

#2: Learn to Separate Responsibility from Worry
When we hear the word responsibility, we often think to ourselves, Another task, another problem. However, responsibility is not about worrying over things given to us to work out. Consider this story:

One night at the end of the second shift, the Head of Operations walked out of the plant he managed and passed a labourer. The labourer said, “Mr. Smith, I sure wish I had your pay. But I wouldn’t want the worry that goes with it.”

Mr. Smith answered, “I give the best I can when I am here. But I drop the worry when I leave so I can be 100% with my family when I’m at home.”

You, too, can learn to give your best to challenging work, but then leave it at the door when your off-hours. Worrying accomplishes nothing except to eat away at us, and actually ends up making us less effective! Don’t let worry taint your clarity of judgment and ability to take decisive action. You can learn this as you grow.

Carrying the responsibility of coaching should not intimidate you. It is the ability to help others that coaching is all about. Embrace the responsibilities that come with it.

Nothing is gained by worrying about whether your clients achieve their goals or not. Focus on supporting and inspiring them. Be their partner in their growth. Brainstorm with them when it is called for. But ultimately, it is your client’s responsibility to assume responsibility for accomplishing their goals. You merely help them see and achieve this state.

#3: Take Calculated Risks and Learn from Your Mistakes

Effective coaches have the courage to ask their clients to take risks when results and success are uncertain. A willingness to risk failure is a core attribute of all successful people.

As a coach you can help your clients work with risk and possible failure. Help them learn to analyse their situation and options. Work with them to list the pros and cons for each option, then assign each choice a risk factor rating from 1 to 5. Next, have them determine the likelihood of each occurring. This will help them quantify and manage the risk-taking process.
Also, lead them to a better paradigm regarding failure. What is failure other than great feedback that our current course of action is not the right path? Use this information for course correction. Failure doesn’t happen until we give up. If you don’t give up, then failure is not an option.

#4: Own and admit our mistakes
Our greatest lessons and growth come through our mistakes. Everyone makes them; it is part of life. Help your client understand this, and they will be able to draw the necessary lessons and take corrective action. If we do the blame game, we don’t even take the first step (ownership) in this process.

Not only does owning our mistakes and failures help us to be more truthful and powerful in our own lives. Owning and assuming responsibility for them lets others see the integrity and virtue within us, and hence further gain their respect.

Landlords Losing Money

One of the principles of quality in industry is customer focus, and this is something that most landlords do not even consider, as all they are interested in is filling voids. It is in the interest of landlords to keep their tenants as long as possible in their property because in the long run it saves the landlord money as there is a regular cash flow going into the bank account. Landlords can go a long way to ensure that they not only help their tenants but also themselves. The following are but a few suggestions that landlords should consider if they want to keep their tenant and in some cases be able to charge a premium for what they are offering.

Tenants are not money trees they too need to earn and save to pay the rent; however, it is becoming increasingly difficult for them as their wages are below inflation. This means that bills have got higher, so they are trying to cut down wherever possible to make ends meet. As landlords you can help them, not by reducing the rent, but by helping them reduce their bills. Consider for instance of replacing all bulbs with LED bulbs, replacing shower heads with water efficient ones. from the 1st April 2018 there will be a change to the Energy Efficiency Standard Regulations to ensure that any property that is privately rented will have to have the minimum performance rating of ‘E’ on an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). So, if you must update it go beyond the ‘E’ rating and make it even more efficient.

Customer focus is not all about helping the tenant reduce bills, its also about being responsive when a tenant reports a problem. How many times have we seen a tenant report an issue only for the landlord to ignore it until the tenant has made several complaints. Gone are the days where a landlord could afford to do this as the tenants today are much savvier and will take to social media to tell everyone about the issue and the poor response. It does not take long for a landlord’s reputation to be ruined and it will take a very long time for that reputation to be built up again, and in the meantime the landlord may have lost the tenant and find it difficult to fill the void.

Landlords also need to consider their tenant’s needs, for instance tenants may want to have pets, and are willing to pay either slightly higher rents or a bigger deposit in order that they can have their beloved animals. They may want to paint walls different colours so that it feels homelier for them, the landlord should allow them to do this on the understanding that it is returned to the original colour at the end of the tenancy. Let the tenants hang pictures again on the understanding that the tenant will make good any walls where he has made holes. Consider freshening up the property every few years with some paint, either paint it for them, or give the tenant the paint so that they can do it themselves. As tenants are often busy people, especially the professional tenant, then the landlord should consider offering services such as gardening, window cleaning etc. the tenant will often pay a higher premium for such a service.

Landlords who self-manage could also make it easier for tenants to report an issue by being able to do it online rather than having to phone, as quite often the tenant only has the time to report things out of office hours due to their own workload. So, give the tenant their own portal so that they can report and track the issue that they have reported. The landlord can also use the same portal to inform the tenant in advance when inspections are due, therefore allowing the tenant to arrange for someone to be in attendance.

By doing these little things not only will landlords keep their tenants for longer they will also have happier tenants who will become the advocate for the landlord and help find tenants for other or future properties that the landlord may have.

In summary by focusing on your customer you will enhance your reputation as a landlord and you will find opportunities to be able to charge a premium rate.   

Learning about property investing from Wolves

It may seem strange to think that we as humans could learn something from animals after all are we not the top predator due to our creative minds. Wolves are always the bad characters in stories, myths and legends, nothing could be further from the truth, as wolves are very sociable, who work as a team and are highly intelligent. If we observe wolves we can obtain some insight on how to use some of their habits when it comes to investing in property. This may seem improbable, but before you dismiss it out of hand keep reading and have an open mind.

Teamwork

For wolves to succeed in nature they have to work as a team, it is the only way to survive. A lone wolf does not last long as they are social animals and need help from the rest of the pack, so they with very few exceptions soon starve, or become victims to other predators.

For an investor to succeed they have to have a team as they cannot do everything themselves. So an investor will have his power team such as Accountant, Solicitor, Broker etc. Without this team, the investor will not last as the investor will be starved from deals and other investors who are organised with teams will become predators who will take the deals away from the lone investor as they can act quickly.

Territory

Wolves know their territory intimately, nothing will happen in their territory without them knowing about it. By knowing their territory in this way the wolves know where their prey is likely to be and they also know how to use the terrain to surprise and attack their prey.

For an investor to succeed they need to know their investment area extremely well. Nothing should happen in the investor’s investment area without them knowing about it. The investor needs to know when there are changes and use their knowledge of the area to take advantage and make a potential gain.

Travel

Wolves are hunters, therefore, they travel long distances to find their prey and they search far and wide. They may travel fifty miles or more each day in search of food they can travel tirelessly for hours on end with no energy wasted.

The investor may have to travel long distances to get to their ideal investment area. Due to either the local property prices, the stock available or strategy the investor may not be able to invest in the area where they live, so it will be necessary to travel to different parts of the country. They must do this without wasting energy thinking that they have to get up early, they may have to drive for hours, etc. travel is part of investing so the investor must learn to accept this.

Hunting

Wolves are incredibly patient animals, they will carefully watch and wait to pick out a suitable prey. They are looking for a weakness that they can exploit, such as a slight lameness. Wolves will keep an eye on their potential prey by constantly checking on them to see if anything has changed that has made them weaker. Wolves may trail a herd of elk, caribou etc. for days before making its move. During this time, they are assessing the herd, looking for an animal that displays any sign of weakness, and this is just the beginning. Wolves also factor in other conditions that will affect the outcome such as weather and terrain that can tip the scales in favour of the wolves or its prey. Once a prey has been picked out the wolves become totally focused on it until they can bring it down.

The investor must also be patient, they must search out the right type of property, put in their best offer and wait and see if it will become accepted. At first, their offer may be rejected, but the investor must stay focused and keep watching and waiting and if they see no movement the investor will remind them of their offer. Once the vendor comes back with a counteroffer that they are prepared to accept then the investor will begin to negotiate and find a weakness until an agreement is reached. The investor must remain totally focused until the deal is done and contracts have been exchanged.

Conclusion

As can be seen, there are similarities between wolves and investors. Investors can learn from wolves because wolves are sociable animals that understand their territory and are fully focused as this is the only way that they can succeed in nature. The investor needs to be a sociable person that understands their investment area has the same focus and commitment if they are to succeed with their property investment journey.

 

The One Thing

Introduction

My mentor/coach Mark Dalton told me to read a book called ‘The One Thing’ by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan. If Mark tells me to read it I know it is for a reason, so I obtained a copy and having read it I know why he wanted me to read it. This book explains how and why you need to focus on the one thing that can make a difference to your business, life, relationship etc. This is about the focus and not the subject matter of what you want to apply that focus to.

Background

The authors explain that a tiny bit of focus can make a big difference; this is basically explained by the use of domino effect. ‘In 1983. Lorne Whitehead wrote in the American Journal of Physics that he’d discovered that domino falls could not only topple many things, they could also topple bigger things. He described how a single domino is capable of bringing down another domino that is actually 50 percent larger. This is an interesting concept and it was taken up by another physicist who created ‘eight dominoes out of plywood, each of which was 50 percent larger than the one before. The first was a mere two inches, the last almost three feet tall. The resulting domino fall began with a gentle tick and quickly ended ‘with a loud SLAM.’’

A demonstration of this can be seen Here.

What this is trying to convey is that by understanding and focusing on your one thing then you can make a big difference. The book looks at things that get in the way and comes up with a list called ‘The Six Lies Between you and Success’ the list is as follows:

  1. Everything matters equally
  2. Multitasking
  3. A disciplined life
  4. Willpower is always on will-call
  5. A balanced life
  6. Big is bad

The authors then go through each of these six lies and explains why they are lies.

Being a Chartered Quality Professional myself I was delighted to see the Quality Guru Joseph M. Juran mentioned with regard to the 80/20 rule as ‘GM executives invited him to review research on management compensation that followed a formula described by a little known Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto. In the 19th century, Pareto had written a mathematical model for income distribution in Italy that stated 80 percent of the land was owned by 20 percent of the people. Wealth was not evenly distributed. In fact, according to Pareto, it was actually concentrated in a highly predictable way. A pioneer of quality-control management, Juran had noticed that a handful of flaws would usually produce the majority of defects. This imbalance not only rang true to his experience, but he suspected it might be a universal law – and bigger than what Pareto had observed might be bigger than even Pareto had imagined.’ The Pareto principle or the 80/20 rule as it is known by people outside of manufacturing can be applied to your business by using the smallest amount of focused effort or input (20%) to create the biggest return or output (80%). What the book conveys is take your 20% and keep reducing it until you get to the single most important thing, so in effect, you are now looking at a 1/99 rule.

The authors explains that you need a ‘Focusing Question’ to help you to identify your one thing. It does this by the use of a model that gives you four options to frame your question.

 

An example is given on how the model is used to obtain a great question

From this example you have found a great question ‘What can I do to double sales in six months?’ This now needs to be converted into the ‘Focusing Question: “What’s the ONE Thing I can do to double sales in six months such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”’

There are three possible categories that answers can come in:

  • Doable
  • Stretch
  • Possibility

The authors suggest that you should ignore the first two and concentrate on the third answer as this is what high achievers will look for, so you should too.

The authors have several more models that are useful to help you find and focus on your One Thing which looks at Purpose, Priority, Productivity and Profit. They also suggest three commitments ‘First, you must adopt the mindset of someone seeking mastery. Mastery is a commitment to becoming the best, so to achieve extraordinary results you must embrace the extraordinary effort it represents. Second, you must continually seek the very best ways of doing things. Nothing is more futile than doing your best using an approach that can’t deliver results equal to your effort. And last, you must be willing to be held accountable to do everything you can to achieve your ONE Thing.’

Conclusion

The authors of this book certainly make it clear that you need to find your One Thing to be able to obtain great results. They give you the theory and the tools so that you can understand it and apply it to your business, life etc. It is a clear and easy read that is aimed at practicality rather than academic theory, so it is up to you to take action and apply it to find your One Thing.