Tag Archives: personal effectiveness

Negativity spreads quickly and will take us all down

I was chatting to someone at the office the other day. We got deep quickly on the topic of a mutual coworker – someone with a few issues in their life.

They are bleeding all over the rest of us with their sighs and “it’s all too hard…” comments about the job, leading to some poor performance. The slack created has to be picked up, of course, so no-one’s happy about it.

The chat goes downhill fast. It becomes a pile-on. Within minutes, we’ve gone way beyond anything uplifting or light and down into the murky waters.

By the end of it, we’re all stirred up. Our own productivity levels drop through the floor. The blame for this is clear, too – definitely nothing to do with us… we’re perfect!

But we are to blame.

The chat is gossip that takes us downhill faster than a black run. The decision to avoid the idle banter and stay focussed on the job sets those who get stuff done apart.

Step away. Do something else. Don’t take the bait. Stay in a positive frame of mind rather than taking the easy path and teeing off on someone who could be in real trouble.

It never ends well for those who love this kind of behaviour. The gossip kings and queens are not the ones to hang out with. Build a relationship with them, as with everyone at work, but don’t join them when the sourness takes over.

Rise above it. Be the one who leads the team in the right direction.

Don’t add fuel to the fire. Let it burn out.

Where change begins: a starter kit for real life transformation

How do you build a life from a place where you think nothing will work?

There’s a starting point from which you can measure progress. An attitude shift and some changes to the way we use time are also required. If you stick with it, it’ll change your life. It revolves around the things we do in these three main areas and the time we spend on them:

Health and fitness

Money and income

Participation in society

We all sink time into things that take away from our lives rather than add to them. One of them is the time we spend on our phones or online. Using some of this time to build skills or habits in these areas is how you guarantee that your future will be better than your past.

Confidence grows. You’ll meet people. A way forwards will become clear. Goals will be set. Milestones achieved.

Gains are possible from a standing start. The first step is on you. It’s easy to avoid action, or add plans to a list. They’ll keep staring back at you but there won’t be any change. Action makes change happen. It’s gotta come from you.

It all begins with a simple plan. Small commitments lead to bigger commitments. Before you know it, you’ll have formed habits. People will notice your positivity. The dark clouds that were following you around will disappear.

But you’ve got to take that first step. Can you do it?

If you need a hand, let me know.

Be interesting and interested

This much-used sentence is one that I heard a long time ago but still resonates with me on an almost daily basis. It’s a rare skill but it stands out like wearing bright colours or dying your hair pink. It gets you noticed.

Being interesting is something that those who have travelled the world or have years of experience can rely on – sometimes a little too much. Their stories can become repetitive. That time they swam with sharks in the Bahamas or wrestled a bear in the Dagestan mountains was a jaw-dropper the first time around, but, after a few more mentions, its impact is lost.

All it takes to be interesting is to know what you’re about and be prepared to talk about it. It’s about standing for something and having opinions. It’s having an identity and being able to explain what it means to anyone in basic terms.

The interested part is about asking questions and actually listening to the answers. It’s about your follow up questions to go deeper and find out more. It makes conversations flow and lets people focus on their favorite topic – themselves.

I always remember the people who ask me questions. They’re normally the ones with an interesting background. Isn’t that funny? Maybe they’ve worked this game out.

Get things done using these steps

1 – Hold your hand up and own whatever it is that you want to work on, fix or change.

2 – Make a simple plan with a start, a middle and an ending.

3 – Find people who can help you and form a team.

4 – Do the things you need to do and none of the things you don’t. Distractions will kill progress.

5 – Don’t stop until you’re finished.

Learnings from the last couple of years

A long time has gone by since I last wrote here, and a few things in life have changed, so here we are…

We are living in Australia as permanent residents and we are striving to build a solid foundation for ourselves. My business is growing and there are now three of us in the team, and as I continue to drive this business growth I’ve had a few things in the back of my mind, helping with the steering.

I’ll share them below in no particular order. Some are attributed to a couple the people that I read and follow for guidance and inspiration, but not all:

The more genuine your interest in other people, the more people trust you.
The better you are at listening, the more people want to spend time with you.
Be precise in what you say (Jordan Peterson).
Be very careful what you wish for as it will come to you in time.
Remember people’s names if you can and use them.
Let others save face. Don’t drop them off the cliff unless you have no choice.
Be somebody by doing something.
Become an expert and work harder at this than anything else in your life.
Our minds control everything we do.
Our attitudes will always define our results and outcomes in life.
Do things that are hard, often.
Save money and build a stack before making investments.
Think like the seasons (from Jim Rohn) – be ready for them, plant seeds and work hard to grow them.
Stay cool and shut up.
Struggle teaches us who we really are. Accept the struggle that is life.
Improve what you’re not happy with. Obsess on the things you have to improve.
The easy option = bad results.
Honesty is the way to progress.
Get people on payroll doing things they are great at and that you can’t do.
Negativity will bring you down in the end. It repels all things.
Build self confidence through small daily actions done well to then rise above your circumstances and achieve more.
If you think you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re likely to be the opposite.
Massive action taken towards a goal gets results.
Patience, passivity and caution are killers for anyone entrepreneurial.
Find your why. It will drive you through bad times and keep you focused.
Know the way broadly and achieve in many things (Musashi).

Pushing through Mondays

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For a lot of people, Mondays can be tough. Back to jobs you don’t like, working on things you don’t care about after weekends spent having fun and spending time with friends or watching all of your favourite shows on tv.

This is all great and I’m fine with this if you are happy with your lot, but so many people simply are not happy. Their complaints about Monday and how bad life is for them show they are just not seeing what is going on around them.

Most people reading this are based in the western world and live in a modern economy where jobs and opportunity are plentiful. If you are not happy with your life on a Monday and live for Friday night when you can finish work for the weekend, something is very wrong. Make some changes and get yourself back on track – in the world we live in today, you can do ANYTHING and it’s simply all down to you.

Why are you not happy? Do you want more ‘things’ in your life? Fancy cars and clothes and a new, more impressive phone maybe? Do you know what happiness means to you in your life, even? Have you taken stock and sat down to actually work out what it means to you? I suggest you do, and fast.

If you do this, you will make sure that your life is a happy one and empty of regrets. You will be honest with yourself and spend as much time as you can doing the things that make you happy and make them the real focus of your life. You will work out what your strengths are and put the maximum effort you can on these things. Every day will be the same because you are happy with where your life is going and what you do on any day of the week will be driving you towards the biggest goals in your life. How happy will you be when you achieve these goals? Massively, of course!

Turn off your tv and get to work on the definition of your future happiness and then make a plan to deliver it through hard work and laser-like focus. Be honest with yourself and good things will happen. Back yourself and let other people complain about their weaknesses (and yours, too) as you focus entirely on your greatest assets, your strengths. Do this and Mondays will become another day where the opportunities you have in front of you become clearer and clearer. Same as every other day.

Daily nudge

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I have a daily email that has been coming to me for years now and it contains the following few words, adapted from a Tom Peters article on how to stay positive and keep moving forwards when things get tough in times of recession or unemployment:

Choose your attitude – consciously positive and enthusiastic
Take the lead
Listen intently
Learn something new
Help someone
Arrive early/leave late
Eye contact

I use a service called Nudgemail to get the message sent to my inbox every day and it has been a great way to keep this handy list front of mind when things don’t always go to plan. Can highly recommend doing the same thing with your own few words or phrases that keep you on track.

Make marginal gains work for you

If you can make small increases in performance in lots of different areas, you’ll make a huge difference in overall terms. This principal of ‘marginal gains’, coined by Sir Dave Brailsford, the leader of the Sky Pro Cycling team in the UK, has been used to great success in sports as well as other areas of life and business.

Think about a target such as getting up earlier in order to achieve more. Break it down into the things that affect sleep and make a plan around changing your actions and behaviour in these areas, e.g. don’t drink caffeine after a certain time in the evening, don’t take your devices to the bedroom with you, switching them off so you are not disturbed and create a time that you stick to religiously as your absolute maximum for being in bed and asleep.

The results on a task like this can be huge. It may sound a bit dull, especially with an example such as this, but the outputs from sports performance are incredible and if you apply this principle to your own work or life it can have a huge impact.

Doing the hard things

Some things in life are just really hard.

Sometimes decisions have to be made that do not feel good and can cause a great deal of stress and strain for all those involved. These decisions can also have far-reaching implications and can change the whole course of your life and those you love and care for.

They might be decisions around work and careers. They might be decisions about where you live, who your friends are or how close to your friends you will be. They might also be around money, such as making a decision to make a life-changing purchase or commit to buying a property or a similarly huge spend.

Whatever the predicament that you find yourself in, you just have to do something about moving forwards from it and getting away from the darkness of the place you feel today. However bad today feels for you, whatever it is that you have to decide or deliver upon, you must remember a couple of things:

The sun will come up tomorrow, whatever decision you make today
There are many, many people in the world who have a lot more to deal with every day than you do and some reflection on this will do much more good than harm
The sooner you take some kind of positive action, however difficult it may seem, the sooner you can move on with your new plan and begin to execute it. Execution is what it’s all about.

Get into good habits

If you can get into some good habits, they will provide you with a really solid foundation in everything you do.

I have some really bad ones and I think we all have them, somewhere. My worst is biting my fingernails. I do it ALL THE TIME and it causes great annoyance to both me and my wife. I stopped for a while with some NLP-style help a long time ago but I got back into it very quickly. Soooo annoying!

There is a phrase that I have heard quoted a few times – “habits over good intentions, every time” – and this is what I aim for. It takes work to make a habit stick, but if you can keep at it and it will pay you back over time.

Be ready for the call

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With a bit of luck in your life, at some point in time you will get the call to the big leagues. And when that call comes, you need to be ready for it.

The work will be hard and it will feel like it is never going to be done but it will be the thing that makes you. When this kind of lucky break appears you have got to do something with it and, if you have discipline and focus, you will be prepared.

Manage yourself the right way through preparation and repetition of lots of things in your life, such as your health and diet, getting enough exercise and sleep, etc. and you will be able to take full advantage of the opportunity.

Repeat the simple things to the point that they become automatic and the call will not be a surprise – you’ll be ready and waiting.

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[If you need any help with your resume/CV, please check out my other site https://realjobsearchinsider.wordpress.com/]

Get over your fears in 2016

It doesn’t matter what it is that you’re afraid of and it doesn’t matter how you do it, but if you can make 2016 the year that you get past your fears, you’ll have a fantastic year.

So, what’s holding you back? Ask yourself this question when you’re facing something tough and listen hard to your answers. I’m sure when you do this you’ll realise that your answers are nothing much beyond excuses, really and sound quite hollow in the open air.

Keep doing this whenever you feel anxious or are struggling to overcome something you find hard or difficult. You’ll see things much more clearly and start to break through these self-imposed barriers.

Try it and see what it can do for you.

The thinking of Tom Peters

“The vitality of our network will determine our professional fate.” From The Little Big Things: 163 Ways To Pursue Excellence (2010)

The work of Tom Peters is well worth getting to know if you are interested in learning how to improve your work life and, if you are a manager, get the most from your team.

Mr Peters learned the basics in the US Navy, collecting his postgrad qualifications following active service in the Vietnam War. He also spent some time in the White House in the 70’s as a senior advisor to the Nixon administration. But the experience for which he is most renowned is his time with McKinsey & Co in the late 70’s/early 80’s – with his co-writer Bob Waterman he wrote ‘In Search of Excellence’, one of the most popular books on organisational effectiveness there has ever been.

Nowadays, Mr Peters writes and speaks extensively on getting the most out of yourself and those around you in the workplace. The quote above is taken from one of my favourite books and it’s one I highly recommend for some true pearls of wisdom on how to achieve excellence at every level and in everything you do.

It’s all about being helpful, caring about people, doing a great job no matter what and about delivering excellence in the face of whatever you are confronted by. Reading this book also makes you immediately get off your backside and take some action which is one of the main reasons I love reading his work so much.

If you’re someone that loves to learn and finds that taking action is the best way to effect some kind of change, make sure you add this one to your shopping list.

Find your groove

The need for a groove – a regular routine – is very strong with me. I feel like I’m floating along with very little control, like a balloon let loose into the air, when I don’t have this structure and this doesn’t make me feel good.

It’s also very easy to lose basic skills through not using or practising techniques that you have learned. Golf is a great example of this – take a lesson and everything feels good for a while but once you stop working on your game everything you have heard slowly floats out of your mind.

I’m on the road a lot at the moment and finding structure and routine very hard to find but I have to find it. This time is important time for me to feel good and if I need to make changes in order for this groove to be rediscovered, I need to do it as quickly as I can. Like, today!

Keep it simple and focus on the goals. This will help to realise the importance of the routine and the practice and the peace and quiet or whatever it is that gets you in your groove. If you don’t, you’ll end up with lower patience and tolerance levels, a restless and busy mind, a lack of regularity in lots of areas in your life and you’ll not feel happy. Not good and definitely not a place where you can be your best.

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Ian Mountford is a global recruitment expert and strategy coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

4 time management tips to implement into your daily life

The internet is choc-a-bloc full of tips on time management but the key to getting the best results is to find solutions that work for you. My list below is based upon the ones that I use and recommend to my clients and friends who need some help in this area and they are simple but very, very effective.

Have a read, try them out and if they work for you, stick with them – they will be the foundations upon which you deliver everything in your life, important or otherwise.

If you need help with what you do, consider taking a time management course. It’s one of the quickest and easiest ways to learn how be more productive and stay in control of your working day and some training providers, like Activia, will even help you build a personal action plan at the end of your course.

Use lists but keep them manageable:

Lots of us like lists but they can get out of control. At one time last year I caught myself with five different lists – three on separate sheets of paper and two in separate notebooks. Totally not cool.

There is also a big problem with having a list that’s so long that you never actually come to the end of it. This can be psychologically very damaging and leave you feeling like your list owns you. Again, not at all cool.

I use one long master list that contains my ongoing to-do items and then break this one down into smaller lists – one for the morning that I have to finish before I eat and another fresh one for the afternoon that is again full of tasks that must be done by the end of the day. This way, the smaller lists are way more manageable and don’t leave me with cold sweats at the size of the number of outstanding things I have to get done.

Generally a much better way to avoid panicking and leaves my mind much clearer and focussed on the tasks at hand.

Use an online calendar and set reminders:

If you’re not using your phone, even if it’s not a smartphone, to send you reminders and keep you on time for everything that’s going on in your life, you’re really missing a trick. And if you have a smartphone and are not using the calendar app that comes with all of them, work out how to use it and watch it change your life.

They are very simple to set up and you can also see the calendars of family, friends and co-workers if they give you permission so there are no excuses for missing those appointments.

You can also set alarms and reminders that will give you a heads-up at a variety of time intervals before the appointment is due and these can be in the form of an email or a special tone so that you don’t miss it. Add in colour-coding, public holidays and all of your friend’s birthday details from other apps like Facebook and you can see why they are a must-have.

Use a countdown timer:

A really good method that I learned a couple of years ago was to stick to the chucks of time you have allocated by using a countdown timer.

Mine is in the picture above and is extremely loud when it runs out of time – enough to be heard whatever I’m doing, however loud my music might be blaring out or if I’m wearing headphones, for example.

It is super-easy to drift off and forget how long you are spending on a task, especially if it’s one you really enjoy. It can also be very, very easy to watch an hour or more of your life disappear while catching up on your social media channels, so set yourself a time limit and use a timer to make sure you stick to it.

Automate or delegate wherever you can:

These options are also worth considering and are especially relevant if you charge for your services by the hour.

If you can earn more money by working for one hour than it costs for you to pay someone to do a task such as your cleaning or basic bookkeeping, for example, it makes sense to use their services.

It’s also very easy to automate regular payments and this is something that many people simply overlook. What about using tools such as MailChimp for sending email to your contacts or using online tools like Buffer or HootSuite to send your posts on Twitter and Facebook at the times you select?

Think laterally and you will find there are lots of ways to take the automation route.

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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

Keep it simple

I was looking at few of my old notes for a bit of writing inspiration and I found some very good stuff on keeping it simple:

Talk less, think more
Learn to say ‘no’ and mean it
Buy what we want, instead of what others say we want
Live in a way that is self-determined and original
Fulfil the demands of work without being controlled by it
Recognise there are many things more important than money
Know what you want
Not cost, but value
Buy one, chuck one
Avoid debt and the stress of overspending

I bought a very short book on this subject when I was a lot younger and it has since been lost or misplaced in various house moves, but that book was where some of this stuff came from and it was a really important thing for me. Following a few of these basic rules has helped me to keep my life relatively uncluttered and allowed me to sleep well at night when things have been tough.

In the world we live in today, the pressure to conform and live up to other people’s standards can be an expensive and tiresome task but still so many of us make the effort when it really isn’t required. Vanity has become of greater importance than sanity for many and this trend isn’t going to help to develop the great leaders and philanthropists of the future. Keep it simple and your chances of living a life that is full and authentic will be much greater.

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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

Sunday nights

I usually feel good on a Sunday night. Another week is ahead of us, bringing more of the challenges and opportunities that keep us moving forwards.

For many, Sunday night is not the best time. It can be filled with dread.

Sunday night brings everything that you walked away from on Friday back to the front of your brain.

The effects of this can be harmful – lack of sleep, more arguments with your partner than normal, frustration at the situation you feel you are in, etc.

Some changes to the way you see your situation can help you to see things a little differently. If you’ve got a job, that’s a positive straight out of the gate.

Get to bed and turn that screen off, but before that, make a plan for the week ahead so you know what’s coming, what you’re committed to.

Say a prayer to whoever’s watching over us, guiding the steps we take, whoever you believe it is up (or down) there.

And get some rest. Everything’s better with a good night’s sleep.

Get up, rested, and get to work.

It’s what we all have to do. Why should you be any different?

Start sweating your own assets

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If you want to make progress and hit goals in life or business, you’ve got to work hard. This post is about being more focussed than just doing more of the same and expecting better results and it is geared towards making more of ourselves and operating more effectively within the rapidly changing world we live in today. Under each of the headings – points I see as important on any journey where you are looking to improve – I’ve listed a few points of relevance that should be helpful to consider.

Make more money –

Get performance related pay and then perform
Improve your skills
Stop adding and start multiplying
Change company for a big rise

Manage people –

Know what you need to achieve yourself
Set expectations from the start
Listen hard and proactively – get all of the facts
Acknowledge people’s feelings – they play a big part in daily work
Get solutions from those with problems
Stay calm and keep a sense of humour

Communicate effectively –

Tell it like it is
Listen before you think before you speak
Keep your message consistent
If it really matters, do it face to face.
Encourage feedback and act on it

Be relaxed about stress –

Stick to your own agenda
Don’t do it if it’s not necessary
Simplify everything you do
Be happy to say no thank you

Lead from the front –

Work harder than anyone else
Set the example
Keep your problems to yourself
Tell the team what you expect from them
Listen to the team and respect their skills
Explain clearly what you expect and ensure it happens

Be more efficient –

Start work earlier
Work in small chucks
Put time for you to think in your diary
Write the agenda and stick to it
Plan today and act tomorrow

Motivate your team –

Incentivise everyone
Be tough when necessary
Train people properly
Listen to the team and get to know them
Give them space and let them get on with it

Impress your boss –

Help them meet their key objectives
Give them solutions not problems
Listen to them and ask for the benefit of their experience
Get promoted above them

Stay a decent person –

Listen
Be generous with your time and talents
Don’t hurt other people
Say thank you
Give as much as you take
Keep your conscience clear

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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

How to get the most out of your 24 hours

There are many times when I hear myself and others say that they wish they had more time. I said just this morning that if you could buy an extra day a week I would definitely be interested. But we should all really have a look at how we spend the time we have and work out where the gaps are to ensure we are as productive as we can be, especially if we like to use the ‘lack of time’ excuse for not getting things done or started.

Have you ever made a note of the way you spend your 24 hours? Even a simple breakdown of your daily activities can be truly enlightening. Go ahead and do it – make a list of every hour in a 24 hour period and note down how much time is spent sleeping, how much at work, how much travel time you have, and so on. Add in the time it takes you for meals, any exercise time, and how long you watch tv in the mornings or evenings. Be as detailed and precise as you can and also be honest with your assessments – ‘was it four episodes of Mad Men I just watched there or three?’. Then take a step back and see what you have left.

It may only be small blocks of time – 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there – But I am sure you can squeeze at least two hours from every day to focus on the things that you ‘don’t really have time for at the moment’. There is a whole world of experiences and learning out there ready and waiting for you if you can make the time for it. You could use the time to start a new fitness regime, practise a new way of cooking, learn a musical instrument or just go for a short walk to clear your head and give yourself a boost at any particular time of the day. Give this method a try and see what it can it do for you.

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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

Do great work when you’re on the clock

There can often be a temptation to dial back your efforts on a project you don’t enjoy. Something or someone is annoying you and you don’t really feel it’s worth it to deliver the best you can. I had an instance today where I had this choice and it can be very easy to go for the soft option and sit back, shrugging your shoulders as you think to yourself, “no-one’s going to notice…”.

Do great work when you’re on the clock and someone else is paying your wages, whether it’s a client or your employer. Settling for mediocrity has no value and all it does is put you in the same bracket as everyone else who is looking at life the same way as you. Stand out, make a difference and get some satisfaction from knowing you did your best. It takes effort, determination and drive to get to where you want to be and achieve your goals, but it is truly worth it. Be known as the one who always delivers their best, no matter what the circumstances and I can assure you that you’ll always be busy.

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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.