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5 Mind-set Short Cuts to Overcome Problems

  By Christina Lattimer • July 31, 2014 - 9:40 am ,

Mind-set Mind-set – The Winning Factor

It’s been a pretty stressful week, and one of the factors which have made it so has been the work I am doing with my daughter helping her set up her online fashion store.  There are a number of factors making the process stressful, not least the damning data which show 50% of start-ups fail within 2 years of launching according to Theo Paphitis reported in the Guardian earlier this month. For me, it’s another venture, for my daughter it is the risk a culmination of 12 years of dreaming might not materialise.

Donna, my daughter has been in the fashion retail business for around 12 years and has dreamt of setting up her own store for years now.  For a number of reasons she decided now is the time.  Not least because I am now in a unique position to be able to lend some much needed support.  So a few weeks ago Sophias Studio was born and we’ve both been excited and enthused about the vision and possibilities this new venture opens up for us.  Until this week, when we seemed to hit a real sticking point.

Paphitis contends such a high percentage of new business fail because the owners either haven’t researched their subject properly or they don’t know where to get the right kind of funding, but mainly it’s because they haven’t done their homework and they simply don’t understand entrepreneurship.  This is one of the reasons Paphitis is a “passionate advocate of teaching entrepreneurship in schools”  

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We were pretty sure we’d done our homework, and our vision and plan is pretty sound, so when we hit a wall, which we always knew we would, I couldn’t understand how it became so stressful suddenly.  After all when you’re riding the tide of enthusiasm and optimism, every risk and every problem seems so small in comparison to achieving your vision.

As a solution orientated person, and knowing how passionate Donna is about her business, I was mystified why suddenly everything became such a huge problem.  The crux came like a wave; the murmurings of dissatisfaction began first, followed by a full blown crisis, and several hours of discussion later, I realised fear had entered the equation.

Of course fear enters when something we want to do almost matters too much.  It might be the fear of failing, the fear of losing one’s lifelong dream, or even simply the fear of the unknown future.

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From a personal perspective I realised I had long-ago mastered the art of counteracting fear, and I had forgotten how scary it can all be.  Don’t get me wrong of course I suffer from doubt, fear and a lack of self-belief as much as anyone else. (In fact I applaud confident people, I don’t envy them anymore, I just am grateful there are positive role models).  But I have been through the cycle of fear anxiety, failure and success so many times now; it’s not as daunting for me as it used to be. It’s not because I always know I’m going to be successful, it’s because I know with failure often comes new insights and knowledge which is just as valuable as materialising what we want.

The whole process reminded me acutely the right mind-set is essential and if the lobby for teaching entrepreneurship in schools is successful, I believe we will empower our children to be able to gleefully experiment with their dreams, goals and vision in a new and exciting way.

Donna and I got over our sticking point after a couple of wobbly days, and here are some of the mind-set factors which helped us to get to a new place of enthusiasm and purpose about this wonderful new venture, which I hope can help any of you who might be hitting problems, or are just feeling plain scared.

  1. Keep your passion while being emotionally neutral about outcomes

Although I could record (and do) many successful ventures in my life, I also remember too well a particular project I was involved in, which despite it all, should have been eminently successful, simply failed. I resisted and raged until I realised it was an almighty lesson for me to LET GO!  Once I let go, the failed project was wrapped up and buried within weeks.  One of the problems with things not turning out the way we passionately want or expect is we become afraid of the disappointment and so we become afraid to dream.   The trick to remaining passionate, while letting go of the outcome, is to realise the gold is in the journey and not the destination.  It’s all really a win/win.  You are either manifesting your dreams or learning why you aren’t; it’s simple really.

  1. The devil is in the detail

We simply can’t know all the detail in advance.  When starting a new venture unless it’s a well-worn path you’ve trod many times, it’s also going to be a learning curve.  Once you accept this truth, you become much less wedded to how things should be turning out at each corner.   Yes, of course you need a plan, and yes, you need to be optimistic you are going to be able to access the right resources, make the right margin, get the right help and team etc. etc.  But when any of these factors either doesn’t stack up or don’t appear to be what you first thought, simply ask your intuition to help you move forward.  Having to know all the detail can be risky because it can close down the possibilities.

  1. Hitting problems just means you have to learn some more

One of the biggest mistakes is believing when you hit problems, it’s an indicator your worst fear might materialise, i.e. the project or business is going to fail.  If you can honestly believe there is always a solution, and it simply hasn’t entered your awareness yet, means you can view problems with a greater level of equanimity.

  1. Pretending the project, start-up or piece of work is for someone else can keep you focused

I wasn’t surprised the fear hadn’t hit me in the same way as my daughter.  The reason for this is because the idea isn’t mine it is hers.  It’s not that I don’t care, don’t believe, or have disowned whether the business will be successful or not, it’s because I haven’t vested 12 years of dreaming about it.  I dearly want the venture to succeed because I know it matters to her.  I have also found I am much more focused, objective and uncircumspect when it comes to helping others be successful.  I realised this when I started up my own business. It sounds odd, but when I pretended I was setting it up for someone else, I was able to focus in a much more positive way.

  1. Never concern yourself with what others are doing; your own vision is good enough

There are billions of people, businesses and ideas in the world.  One of the scary parts of starting a business or project is comparing, evaluating or concerning yourself with what others are doing.  I am not saying you don’t need to understand your competitors, and of course you have to understand your market.   But if you know there is a need, and there is a market, what you need to concern yourself with is your own vision, how you can uniquely help your customers and how well you can do it.  You need to understand why you are enthused about your idea, and return to your reasons again and again.

Practicing these mind-set short cuts can help in any situation, whether it’s a job, a business or a project.  If you have any other minds set tips and hints, then go on add a comment below.

We are back on course with Sophia’s Studio, until the fear hits again!  If you want to have a peep at what we are doing, we’d love you to come like our , we would very much appreciate it!

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If you are a leader, you are continually developing and "Sharpening the Saw".  If you lead and manage teams, then you must read about our Inspirational New Leadership Programme.  Sign up now to find out more details when we launch in July 2014.  There is no obligation to undertake the programme, if you sign up today, you will simply be sent more information about the programme.  You can unsubscribe at any time!  Click below to register for further information.

   
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 4 Ways to Find Relief When Work is Getting You Down

  By Christina Lattimer • July 27, 2014 - 10:39 am

relief Finding relief from negative feelings at work are within your power

If any of you are familiar with my writing, you know that I believe happiness is a natural state of who we really are and to find one-self to be unhappy is to be out of alignment with our true selves.    There is no greater environment as the workplace to bring out the worst in ourselves and others and as many surveys and polls show, many people are just .

If you are a leader or manager, leading a family, or even a hobby team, then your inner state is an essential factor because whether you like it or not, unless you are a great actor, then many of your team are going to tap into your attitude or state and it will affect them.   Your energetic field affects everything on the planet, never mind your team.  If you’ve any doubts about this, then watching this great video which will hopefully help you to see what we already sublimely know:  The vibes we give out are felt by everyone.

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When you come to realise how important your state of being is for the benefit of your team, family or group, it creates a whole new realisation of responsibility for you as a leader.   When I first realised this responsibility a strange thing occurred, I found I was beating myself up at times when I was feeling less than happy: if I was angry, annoyed, feeling sad or any other state than being happy, I started blaming myself.  This was another big mistake.

A great book; , by Gary Zukav changed my mind about my feelings forever, when I realised my feelings were simply a guidance system, rather than an indictment of who I really was.  So while I absolutely own my feelings and state of mind, I realise that they are just a form of information, telling me that what I believe about myself or others is untrue.  That fact turns our habitual approach to our emotions upside down, but when you truly embrace this premise, then your world has changed and empowerment has begun.

I realised that instead of beating myself up from feeling negative emotions, I asked myself empowering questions.  I also found that the ability to feel better was entirely in my hands.  It is also in yours too.

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I realise if you have always been in the habit of pointing the fingers at others who you believe have “made” you feel negative, or you think you’ve no control over your emotions, or even if you’ve suppressed negative emotions for years, then this information might seem hard to believe.  What I would say to you though is to remain “open and willing” to at least consider the possibility that the way we’ve been conditioned to view our emotions is outdated, and that there is a better way.

So if it seems that your team are making you tear your hair out, or circumstances seem to be engendering fear, or you just feel eminently sad:  What I would say to you is that far from ignoring your feelings, you need to look at them and let them come up, because they are valuable information, telling you to “think again”.

To help you to find better feeling thoughts at work, here are 4 top tips in commonplace situations which will help you regain a happier state.

  1. When you aren’t achieving results, instead of focusing on “not achieving results”, find other ways of celebrating success.  While it might be a worrying time, find ways to engage your team in an empowering ways to brainstorm ideas.  Instead of asking “Why are we not achieving results? Ask “How can we do things differently to achieve the results we need?
  1. If conflict at work is an issue, then realise that your negative feelings about the situation or the people involved in the conflict is simply your perception or thoughts about the conflict are creating those negative feelings.  Let your feelings come up and don’t attach them to the conflict.  If you are able to do this, then you are more able to remain emotionally neutral in the face of conflict and thus more likely to respond appropriately instead of reacting to your negative feelings about it.
  1. I can’t remember where I read that if you are blessing someone, you can’t be mad at them at the same time. If you find yourself disliking or being irritated by someone at work, instead of letting your thoughts run amok in your head about how bad they are, how much you’d like them to leave the company; then just for a few minutes, find ways to appreciate them.  At worst you can find momentary relief from your negative thoughts, at best you can see them in a whole new light.  Practicing this pivot has made me completely change my view about people.
  1. If you are overwhelmed by the volume of work, or the number of tasks you have to do: there are many practical ways you can .   However, even if you’ve the best management system in place if your mind is still concentrating on what you have to do then you will find no relief from the situation.  First of all use whatever time management tricks you prefer to get the tasks into some semblance of order, and then whenever you find yourself feeling negatively about the volume of work, either stop thinking about it and turn your thoughts to a situation you enjoy and which will make you smile, or remember situations when you’ve felt overwhelmed in the past and realise it’s only a temporary state and it will pass, or finally in your mind’s eye, envisage yourself having everything under control and imagine what it will feel like when this happens.

So there are 4 of my top tips to find relief from negative feelings at work.  You don’t have to be a leader or a manager to practice these, and whatever your role at work, your state will have an impact.  So why not be the light to shine on others today!

Do you have any tips or experiences of finding ways to find relief from negative feelings?

If you are a leader, you are continually developing and "Sharpening the Saw".  If you lead and manage teams, then you must read about our Inspirational New Leadership Programme.  Sign up now to find out more details when we launch in July 2014.  There is no obligation to undertake the programme, if you sign up today, you will simply be sent more information about the programme.  You can unsubscribe at any time!  Click below to register for further information.

   
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3 Changes of Expression to Change Your Business Forever

  By Christina Lattimer • July 6, 2014 - 3:21 pm ,

 

Business Business “Speak” Can Close Down Employees

My son had a bit of an “Aha moment” at the weekend.  He has been struggling with motivation, which isn’t uncommon for a 17 year old with his life before him and a multitude of opportunities to choose from.

We were sitting in the car and he was talking about going to University.  Of course, being practical I trotted out my singular mantra “You only want to go and get £36k + in debt if you know what you want to do”.  Little did I realise my flippant and black and white logic was actually paralysing him from moving forward.

His “Aha moment” was when he realised that my tunnel vision type logic was flawed.  It sounds so simple, but he figured out he could still plan to go to University, go on visits, work towards it etc., but it didn’t mean by doing so, he had to close down his options to do something else, when decision time came.  He figured out that actually if he worked hard and got good results it would hold him in good stead either for Uni, a good job, and to start up a business if he wanted to.

After he realised this freedom, there was a definite spring in his step which made me realise how inadvertently I had been shutting him down from keeping his options open.  I was mystified why it was such a big “Aha moment” for him.  It hit me like a big sledgehammer that I already assumed he was keeping his options open, but that the language and way I expressed my concerns made him think I expected him to make a decision now.

The incident with my son, made me think about some of the common expressions and practices we use at work from a business perspective and how instead of motivating excellence or great business outcomes, they actually leave employees strapped into a culture of “business speak”, and “norms” of behaviour, leaving them feeling as if their hands are tied, or even worse maintaining a trance-like approach to these practices.   Of course, like the incident with my son, leaders often assume their people understand that they don’t literally mean what they say.  However, in my experience, that’s not always the case.

Here are some of the most common and badly interpreted names and expressions for business practices which can close down thinking and help maintain the status quo.  With some imagination, the way these practices are expressed can help keep minds and conversations open.

  1.  Holding a Performance Review/Appraisal

This much maligned business practice has got such a poor reputation, with connotations of a mechanical approach to giving feedback that any business leader who really wants to make a difference, must think again.  Even if the practice is good, the mere naming it of a performance appraisal or review simply dulls the brain.  Find an alternative way to express the one-to-one time a manager has with his team.  Make the process a continuous dialogue, and have milestones which enhance the way managers interact with their team.  Call them “Driving up performance” sessions” or “How you contribute” meetings”, or even just “One-to-one time”.  Of course it doesn’t matter what you call the sessions if they are mechanical tick box exercises, but by naming these valuable times with employees something meaningful, it can help people see just how important they are.

  1. Business Planning Cycle

This expression implies an especially tedious routine for people who simply hate planning.  For people who enjoy planning, it implies a process related way of approaching the business, in a set formula which might bear no resemblance to the actual issues in hand.   Replacing the traditional business planning cycle with some inspirational language can transform the whole approach to business planning.   Make the coming year a journey, with a story attached to it.  Make it interesting, amusing and exciting.  Alternative ideas could be “Our Journey of Success For 2015”, or “Involving All for Success ….”, or even “Continually improving xxx during….”    Story telling can excite and catch the imagination of your people.

  1. Achieving Results

I would love a £1 for every time I’ve heard an employee tell me the biggest problem with an organisation is their focus on results and targets to the exclusion of other things that matter in a business.  Of course, businesses have to achieve results, but at this time when ethical and values based leadership is becoming more essential, the goal posts have changed.  While any good business leader will of course understand that good business is about a multitude of factors, they may be inadvertently stifling other successes because their language is all about “Achieving Results”.   Instead of simply focusing on results, focus on “Achieving Brilliant Outcomes”,  “Our meaningful Impacts”, or even “Delivering on our Customer Success Criteria”.  Find ways to celebrate success which harnesses the conceptual and emotional sides to your customers and people.

It’s time to become aware of our propensity to close down innovation, creativity, inclusion and participation, and think again.  Next time my son talks about his future, I would simply say “Just do your best, it will all become apparent, and keep your options open”.

Do you have any pet expressions you think close people down in the workplace?  Or have you or your organisation found inspirational alternatives to standard business -speak?

If you are a leader, you are continually developing and "Sharpening the Saw".  If you lead and manage teams, then you must read about our Inspirational New Leadership Programme.  Sign up now to find out more details when we launch in July 2014.  There is no obligation to undertake the programme, if you sign up today, you will simply be sent more information about the programme.  You can unsubscribe at any time!  Click below to register for further information.

   
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3 Steps to Harness the Power of the Mind for Organisational Transformation

  By Christina Lattimer • February 20, 2014 - 2:31 pm
163145340 (1) In my article about the Hidden Power for Leadership and Life, I wrote about how beliefs, attitudes and expectations drive the outcomes within teams.  In today’s blog I am expanding on those ideas and identifying how the power of the mind can be harnessed to lead your team.

The conscious mind is selective.  If we don’t like something about ourselves or others, or we just don’t want to think about it, we can bury beliefs, ideas, thoughts and paradigms into our unconscious minds.

This could sound very efficient on a level, but in fact it isn’t really because we can still be unknowingly driven by the information stored in our unconscious which can if left undiscovered,  cause all kinds of mischief.

As individuals, developing self-awareness can identify those unhelpful buried beliefs, ideas and attitudes which can help us to become more conscious of why we might do things, and help us to better understand ourselves.

Organisational culture can equally be created by unconscious or long-forgotten beliefs and ideas about the organisation, and the most common approach, i.e. training or developing behavioural competencies are fine, but it’s like trying to get an addict to stop their addictive behaviour by giving them a set a standards to adhere to.  It’s often unsuccessful, or takes years.

Using the creativity of our mind through vision or imagination is the most powerful way to overcome those unconscious beliefs, although visionary thinking is often down to individual personality.  If you are a visionary, or an intuitive, you are more likely to tap into the power of the imagination to create your story, or future,  than someone who may be logical and deal in facts and evidence.

It is the same in an organisation. Organisations which might need lots of attention to detail and factual information to get the work done for example, are likely to attract people who are good at, and enjoy using their minds in that way.

The good news is, you don’t need to be a psychologist to take some simple actions to harness the power of the mind in a positive and affirming way to get better results. The next three steps describe a process which can help to transform the mindset of an organisation, if everyone is involved.

1.       Discover the current organisational story

What is the history? What does the team believe about the organisation?  Does the organisation have any defining stories which have helped shape the culture of today? Use focus groups, staff surveys and inquiry to piece together the collective view of the organisation by employees, customer’s, stakeholders, and anyone important in the making of that story.  Ask people to describe the organisation to you, what critical events, changes or decisions have made them draw those conclusions.  Ask them to describe successful characteristics and not so successful characteristics or decisions.  Once you have this information, you can  determine how far away the perception of employees, or customers is from where you would like it to be.

2.       Raise self-awareness by shining a light on any part of the story which might be holding the team back

A particular HR team I worked with, had their role in the organisation changed from a regulatory, decision making entity, to giving advice and options to help managers to make decisions.  A couple of years after this change, the team simply weren’t working well.  In a reflective focus group, it became apparent that even though the team were paying lip service to the new role, deep down the new role was resented and resisted.  Once this was unearthed, and people were allowed to talk about the difference in status in a way they couldn’t at the time, changes for the better came about quickly.  Determine what decisions or stories are holding your organisation back from embracing a brighter future.

3.       Change the Story

Harnessing the power of imagination, develop a vision for the future.  Tell the story of the vision.  What will it look like, feel like, and sound like.  What will people be saying about the organisation in this imagined future and how will employees feel about working for the organisation?  These are just some of the questions you can use to describe the future you want to create.  Use feedback mechanisms to bring out doubts, limiting beliefs and different ideas, about the vision,  to the surface, then find ways to strengthen belief, faith and patience about achieving the outcome.

What I have described is a simple methodology, using consciousness, self-awareness and imagination to change the culture of your team or organisation.  Can you think of any other ways the power of the mind can be used to get better results?

 

If you are a leader, you are continually developing and "Sharpening the Saw".  If you lead and manage teams, then you must read about our Inspirational New Leadership Programme.  Sign up now to find out more details when we launch in July 2014.  There is no obligation to undertake the programme, if you sign up today, you will simply be sent more information about the programme.  You can unsubscribe at any time!  Click below to register for further information.

   
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50 Ways you can make a difference as a leader for 2014 – Join the leadership challenge!

  By Christina Lattimer • January 23, 2014 - 2:05 pm
I would like to invite you to a leadership challenge.

Don’t worry there is no work required from you during this leadership challenge.  You can simply read,  observe, catch up if that is what you would like to do.  Alternatively, if something inspires you, then please join in, submit relevant articles, news, insights, contributions or even experiences.  Whatever you choose, its up to you, the only commitment is to sign up and receive the weekly updates directly to your mailbox.

You are a leader.   I know I am like a parrot repeating this to you again and again, but you are a leader to someone, from being prominent on the world stage to simply being your own inner leader, you are a leader to your employees, your kids, your family your friends and yourself.  You can lead on the world stage or simply in your own day to day routine.   Join our leadereship challenge and improve your leadership mindset!

At this stage in 2014, you are either feeling great because your New Year promises to yourself are being kept, or you once more have lapsed into the same old habits.  If the latter is the case, my only advice to you is to forgive yourself and wherever you are, I’d ask maybe to consider a slightly different approach to 2014.

Why not make 2014 a year when you concentrate on how you are leading yourself and others and your life. It’s about quality, not quantity – content, not form.  It’s about how and not what; give and not take. Join our leadership challenge.  It costs nothing!

What these following practices in the leadership challenge actually help you do is change mind-set – your own and others.  How do I know this? Because over a 30 year span of managing and leading others, these are some of the things I learned along the way and which I know if applied can change the way you lead and manage for good.

The truth is, what you give out, you get back. Newton’s 3rd Law, “To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction: or the forces of two bodies on each other are always equal and are directed in opposite directions”, while centred on physical actions and reactions, it is the same with mental and attitudinal energy too.

So come with me on a journey.  Each week of the leadership challenge,  I will expand on the suggestions below, one by one, week by week.  Updates might include a new article, related articles, research, videos or a relevant quote.  You need do nothing, but simply consider the suggestion and read the material.  If you are hoping to change the way you lead yourself, simply substitute “others or them” for “you or yourself”. If you are inspired, then I invite you to submit your articles, experiences, quotes or other relevant material for each weekly topic.  You can do this by commenting, submitting material to me in advance or providing links on the commentry. If you aren’t inspired to do so, simply sit back and enjoy.

You will know some of this, maybe a lot, and some of it might simply be a refresher or even could be new.   My hope is that the journey on the leadership challenge will be an interactive one, where we can share perceptions, views and ideas as we progress through the year.

So if you’d like to join me on the leadership challenge  journey,

50 Ways to Make a Difference As  A leader

Leadership Challenge Part One

Developing Self Awareness to Benefit Yourself and Others

  1. Remembering It’s a Journey not a Destination
  2. Accepting the power of your mind
  3. Tapping into your right-mindedness
  4. Dealing with your inner critic
  5. Understand your own personality type
  6. How to forgive yourself and give up guilt for good
  7. Developing self-trust and trust in others
  8. Practice “honest” thinking, not just positive thinking
  9. How to change limiting beliefs
  10. Understanding, you don’t know what you don’t know

Leadership Challenge Part Two

Creating A Compelling Future

  1. Developing a clear vision
  2. Communicating and engaging with others about your vision
  3. Bridging the gap between the here and now and the future
  4. Understanding the power and limitations of planning
  5. Practice Letting Go
  6. Developing resilience
  7. Developing patience and trust
  8. Keeping an open mind to opportunities
  9. Living in the present while creating your future
  10. Dealing with doubt positively

Leadership Challenge Part Three

Engaging and Motivating Others

  1. Help others feel connected to something bigger than themselves
  2. Help others feel they are part of making a significant difference
  3. Help others feel good about their positives
  4. Help others feel good about the challenging parts of themselves
  5. Demonstrate the power of giving
  6. Practice acceptance of themselves and others
  7. Practice non-judgement
  8. Practice discernment
  9. Develop new thinking skills
  10. Develop new ways to raise awareness of the impact of emotions

Leadership Challenge Part Four

Interaction and Communication

  1. Demonstrate congruent communication
  2. Make decisions with integrity
  3. Use “toward and away” motivation in your interactions with integrity
  4. Raise your awareness of how people tick
  5. Be inclusive
  6. Be visible
  7. Understand how to ask the right questions
  8. Use logical levels to increase understanding
  9. Use Carl Jung’s personality types to aid understanding
  10. True listening

Leadership Challenge Part Five

 Relationship is everything

  1. Another way of looking at relationships
  2. Giving up specialness to gain everything
  3. Dealing with difficult people
  4. Preventing conflict
  5. Responding not reacting
  6. It’s either love or fear
  7. The boomerang effect
  8. The role of gratitude
  9. Myths about others
  10. The central relationship lesson

If you are a leader, you are continually developing and "Sharpening the Saw".  If you lead and manage teams, then you must read about our Inspirational New Leadership Programme.  Sign up now to find out more details when we launch in July 2014.  There is no obligation to undertake the programme, if you sign up today, you will simply be sent more information about the programme.  You can unsubscribe at any time!  Click below to register for further information.