It’s National De-Clutter Week 7 – 14 March

Posted on March 6, 2012 by charlotte

Did you realise that the week 7th to 14th March  has been designated National De-clutter week.  I know it might sound bonkers and certainly its a radical way of looking at the traditional spring cleaning routine.  But public de-cluttering hmmm….

No doubt we can all do with a few days concentrated removal of all the clothes which no longer fit and sorting out the drawers full of things we might need sometime.  But what about mind de-cluttering?  Well I believe its a great way to give you a fresh start as well as boost  your confidence.

Lots of people carry around with them a lot of “baggage” or “clutter” in their minds. By this I mean that they are still holding onto things. Things they say they should do but don’t, or people they are not speaking to because of an earlier disagreement but wish they were. These are the ‘could do’ and the ‘should do’ in your life which can hold you back when you need to let go but believe you can’t. The emotional clutter wastes your energy and stops you focusing on something more productive instead!   Are you like this? If you are, I bet it had a negative influence on your confidence and self esteem.

The approach

Take a look at your life.  You can get rid of your ‘baggage’ by asking yourself a series of questions and by completing the following exercise. In effect, what we are doing is making certain tasks “complete”, drawing a line under them and moving on.  Bringing things to a close.

The following set of questions can be taken at one sitting or over a number of hours/days. And by writing the answers down, they become more formal.

So try it out and  watch your confidence soar!

1. Putting up with!

• Make a list of 10 things that you are putting up with at home

• Make a list of 10 things that you are putting up with at work

• Make a list of 10 things that you are putting up with in other areas of your life

• Make an action plan to get rid of/communicate these things that you have been putting up with

2. Unfinished matters!

• Make a list of things that are unresolved or unfinished in your life

• Make an action plan of how to reduce this number!

• Do you need to clear the air with anyone? If so, just do it! Life is too short!

• Did you ever say that you were going to call someone or keep in touch with someone yet have done nothing about it? If yes, call them or send an email to them today

• Stop saying I could, I would, I should, maybe, I ought

3. Your standards!

• Write down the standards that you have been saying to yourself that you should have; let go of these and write down a list of the standards that you are going to have in your life from now on.

• List five people who you admire the most. Identify their greatest qualities, behaviour and how they lead their life. What standards so they have? What standards could you raise starting today to be more like them?

• Respect that others’ standards will be different from your own. Think of five close colleagues or friends – what are their standards and how are they different from yours?

By completing these exercises you will be able to focus more on the here, the now and the future. You will now be able to let go of some of the things that have been taking up your valuable attention time. Things that up to now have affected your self esteem and confidence.

Now to tackle my desk…….

Are you de-cluttering this week?  Please share your thoughts here

Confidence is crucial part of communication.  Looking and behaving confdently means people want to listen to you and enjoy being in touch with you.  Quicklearn runs a number of communication workshops tailored to your specific needs, From Assertiveness and Influencing skills to Giving feedback and  Handling Conflict.  We also run all aspects of public speaking and presentations skills training 

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Top marks for your report

Posted on February 28, 2012 by charlotte

Reports are a very important part of business. Reports can draw together a number of different threads, presenting them in a cogent way, so that managers can make decisions and move forward. In a way they are a bit like essays – they have an introduction, analysis, conclusion, and often recommendations as well.

They are usually read by many people and need to be clear and concise.  But, for some reason, when people sit down to write a report they often lose all common sense and decide that bigger words are better and the longer the sentence the cleverer they will seem.

I even came across someone once who said he used a thesaurus to find alternative, more obscure, words to use. He admitted he thought this would make him seem clever. I begged to differ. I think it made him seem a clever-dick, while at the same time belittling his readers and irritating them. And his reports probably lost value because they were too wordy and incomprehensible.

The key to a well written report is to do your research first, plan the structure, then once drafted, edit, edit, edit.  Apart from proofreading you need to throw out any managment speak and jargon, make sure your sentences make sense.  And aim for ABC throughout -  Acuracy, Brevity and Clarity

There is skill involved in writing a good report and at Quicklearn we can help teach you that skill. Our programme will help you learn how to write clearly, concisely and persuasively, using good English and grammar but without bamboozling your audience.

We use activities, exercises, group discussions, quizzes and tests and at the end of the session you will have produced a report, which you can use as a template for future report-writing.

If you can’t wait for a course why not learn from the Useful Guide to Report Writing  packed with exercises and checklists and includes a model report you can copy

Work at it and your report will get top marks!

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Coaching and mentoring – what does it take?

Posted on February 21, 2012 by charlotte

Coaching is not an easy option but if delivered well can have a stunning impact on the recipient of the coaching.  There is far more to the role than just knowing your subject – although, if you don’t know your subject you’re not likely to be trusted.

Cast your mind back to your school days. Which teachers stood out as being excellent, inspiring you to carry on in a subject and perhaps even leading to a chosen career? What made those teachers great wasn’t just the knowledge of their subject.

In fact, you may even have had the opposite experience at school – a teacher who knew his or her subject but lacked the ability to impart that knowledge and inspire the class.

If you are thinking of being a coach or a mentor, here are some useful characteristics.

You need to:
•    show enthusiasm about the subject and about your role as coach/mentor
•    be patient
•    be knowledgeable about your subject
•    be willing to seek out new ideas and methods
•    be motivational
•    be a good communicator
•    be a good listener
•    lead by example
•    show commitment
•    go that extra mile

You probably recognise those traits as being shown by those great teachers you had. Some are natural attributes while others are acquired through undertaking your own training to be a coach or mentor.

Being a great coach or mentor can make a world of difference to your business or career.   Not everyone can do it.   Read more in our Useful Guide to Mentoring or if you are just looking for a refresher try Mentoring Essentials  or read more about our workshops at www.quicklearn.co.uk

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Saying No and meaning it……

Posted on February 14, 2012 by charlotte

I have been working with a number of groups in NHS settings who find saying NO incredibly difficult even when they are not in a position to take on extra work or stay late.  Because of their role health professionals at every level seem to feel they should be  ‘nice’ or ‘kind’ even when they are the losers.

So how can you confidently respond when someone makes a request you’d prefer not to accommodate? Here are a few ideas you can use to make sure you don’t find yourself doing something you’d very much prefer not to do.
So the request has just been posed. Pause. Is your inclination to say yes, even though there’s a voice deep down saying “no.”?

First ask yourself what possible reasons could there be for saying no?

  • It’s beyond your means?
  • It’s beyond your comfort level?
  • You have no interest in doing it?

Identify all the reasons you have for saying “no.

Identify those which stem from a lack of confidence and those from simply a lack of interest in fulfilling the request.
So let’s consider what would happen to you if you said yes?

  • You would be considered a useful team player
  • It would make your boss happy with you
  • You may improve your chance of promotion

So it comes down to a simple cost/benefit. Would the discomfort involved in saying yes outweigh the benefits of possibly going along with the request? Or, do the benefits outweigh your temporary discomforts?
Saying “no” is hard for many of us. Guilt often comes into play. Whether this guilt has its foundation in religion, the way you were brought up, or a worldview that simply says “it’s not nice to say no”, we often recognise it and make decisions we’d rather not be making, based on that perception.

Saying “NO”
You’ve made the decision, after scientifically weighing the results of your cost/benefit analysis. Can you now honestly say “NO”?
Start by practising. Go ahead and say it clearly, and self-assuredly…to the mirror. Look yourself in the eye, just say “NO.” Say it like you really mean it, and then say it again as you would to who ever made the request of you. When you pretend you’re speaking to the person who made the request, does it sound different?
When drama students train for different parts they practice and experiment with different ways to say “NO” You can try the same thing and carry on till you find one with which you’re comfortable.

Then go, and say “NO.”
And after you say “NO”? If you’re used to giving in to others, then guess what? After all that practice, you may just be surprised to find that they are not willing to accept it! They may push, rephrase the question, or make a new, not altogether different, request. So you need to be prepared for this! Know your boundary—what ARE you willing to do?
Don’t forget that when anyone asks you to do something out of your normal routine you are perfectly at liberty to say, “Can I think about that and get back to you”
No-one should be pressurised into giving an immediate answer, even if the delay is only a couple of minutes. It will give you some time to think it through and to gather your thoughts. It will also give you some time to think about how you are going to say it, the words to use and your body language.

And then what will happen?
You will find that practice makes perfect—the more you confidently say “NO” the easier it becomes. Others will respect your wishes and take you seriously when you say NO and you won’t find yourself doing things you never wanted to do in the first place. You’ll have more time to focus on the things you do want to be involved in. And best of all you will feel much more confident and proud of yourself.

We run in house workshops on Assertive Communication helping people to find the language of compromise and negotiation so that everyone wins.

Or you can read the Useful Guide to Assertiveness published by Pansophix and downloadable here

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Why write a business blog?

Posted on February 7, 2012 by charlotte

Well it’s a good question and if you ask ten different bloggers I expect you’ll get ten different answers.  For me it’s a about raising my profile with potential customers.  A well written blog can demonstrate your skills, reflect your voice, share your ideas, and provide your customers with useful information.  This in turn helps to build relationships with potential customers by using a conversational tone in your blogs.  It allows you to build your brand online – It’s a simple and effective way to show the personality of your business and you.

Blogs do not need to be long

The best blogs are those which only take three, maybe, four minutes to read.  In fact a good length for a blog is between 500 to 700 words.  Like short items in the newspaper people can quickly read them and then move on.  And once you have written your blogs you can add them together and send them out as a newsletter to your own customer base at the end of each month.  You build your online audience from the newsletter and they will continue to tell others who will then follow your blogs too.

Getting started in blogging

A great (and easy) way to get started is by using ‘how to’ questions or the answers to frequently asked questions(FAQs)   Whenever you are asked a question by a client make a note of it and your answer and then write it up to your blog posting.  A few minutes brain storming should bring you a wealth of topics to write about – the answers to which may well be of huge interest to others.

Use Keywords

As well as concentrating on good content you must also include keywords on your blog to bring it to the attention of a wider audience.  After all, your key purpose in writing is to introduce yourself to potential clients and let them see how you operate.  Make it easy for them to find you.

Make your writing readable

Never lose sight of the reader who has very little time to read your blog before moving on.  Use short words, short sentences, and short paragraphs.  Use plenty of sub headings and white space around your words to make it visually pleasing.  Check your spelling and punctuation and never publish until you have proofread it or better still got a critical friend to proofread it.

Your style of writing for the blog should be more conversational than say your brochure but the English must still be the best.  Grammatical errors or poor punctuation lessen the impact of your words and will not help you in building trusting relationships.

Remember you can inspire, engage, and persuade through words.  Take up the challenge and enjoy the effect.

Over the next few weeks I shall be writing about some of the important dos and don’ts of Good English and how to make your words memorable.  I shall also look forward to your comments.

Charlotte Mannion  runs workshops in all aspects of business writing, including report writing, minute writing, marketing material, and speeches.

Making communications work in your business – www.quicklearn.co.uk provides practical support, guidance and training workshops for smaller organisations.

 

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What is wrong with appraisals?

Posted on January 31, 2012 by charlotte

The end of January heralds the first talk of the annual performance reviews or appraisals.  HR having recovered from Christmas and New Year is busy reading up on the latest Employment Law updates when the managers coming knocking on their door for help and advice.  Many managers despair at the thought of stopping work (as they see it) to have to run the annual appraisal.  There are the usual mutterings about it being a waste of time, or they lack the skills or have no time to prepare or……..simply they are put off because the paperwork is so onerous and complicated.  The documentation has completely taken over the process and everyone has to learn again how to fill in all those forms again.

And why is it so onerous?  One of the reasons is that many company schemes have been developed over time and with lots of different inputs.  New managers bring in favourite bits from their old company’s scheme and add those to the original.  Someone reads a book on competencies or hears on the grapevine of other ways to record information and these are added to the mix.  Eventually any scheme will just buckle under the weight of documentation.  And how do they try to sort it?  Often by putting it all online or on the company intranet and the system then separates reality from the people.  It recreates itself as it blossoms and grows.

A major shock to this organic method of getting an appraisal system is introduction of competencies.  Wow, it gives us more to measure and more to score.  It’s not difficult to see why people find appraisals so unpopular. So when people question why they don’t deliver improved performance it time to start again.

I have been working recently with a company who have created software to enable an organisation to run their whole performance management online.  Looking a little like Facebook it allows staff and managers to check regularly on their progress against objectives and feed back the quick wins or seek help to achieve.  Of course you still need the one to one conversation but this way it ensures both parties know exactly what they should be talking about and the summary of that conversation agreed and uploaded.  Afterwards learning needs can be identified and a manager can see at a glance those who want or need help to improve performance and those who may be their rising stars.

Of course this is much easier, less time consuming and much more beneficial.  It works all through the year so there is no need to re-learn how to do it each time.   And it enables the annual appraisal meeting to be what should always have been – a splendid occasion to encourage and improve performance to the benefit of the individual and for the organisation.

The performance management system is transparent anyone from the board to the workers can access their role and see how their objectives work to the overall success of the business.

Quicklearn offers practical support for  organisations considering implementing performance management systems  as well as training in face to face skills so as to improve communications.   Read about our performance management workshops here

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Tips for Teaching Top Quality Customer Service

Posted on January 24, 2012 by charlotte

I have been working with a group of enthusiastic managers who are responsible for the staff who deliver customer service as part of their main role in their company.  These are some of the key tips we agreed would help them to help,  monitor and support their staff.

  • Determine what we  really mean by excellent customer service.  We have to have a thorough understanding of what we want to provide so that we can provide it consistently.
  • If we really don’t know what our customers want and expect from us, we need to do some research. Talk to focus groups and ask our staff what the most common complaints are relating to customer service.
  • Give our staff the freedom to go above and beyond the call of duty without criticism. Let them know they have a wide array of responses to choose from and that we trust their judgment. Train our staff to share pertinent customer information among themselves – likes, dislikes, quirks, needs, interests, etc. – it can all be useful knowledge.
  • Give our staff an example to model by committing ourselves to excellent customer service as well. Show them what we expect through our own interactions with customers. In addition, always reward those who go beyond the call of duty.
  • Provide training for all staff – not just those on the front line.

At the end of the morning the managers took away these key ideas and have started to share them with their staff.  My message to them is not to expect change immediately. It will take time for a new standards to be set into an organisation. Expect mistakes and acknowledge them. Use these incidents as an opportunity to recommit yourself and your organization to superior service. Apologise for any slip-ups and really listen to the customers complaints.

Why not try it yourself in your organisation and tell us how you got on.

Quicklearn runs customer service workshops and creates bespoke training for specific issues or circumstances Here are some examples of programmes we have run for other companies.

 

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How boring does a meeting have to be?

Posted on January 17, 2012 by charlotte

I am delighted to welcome Hannah Jones of Blue Kite Coaching as our guest blogger this week.  Hannah works with senior leaders in schools and says she was inspired by my recent post on meetings and decided to top it! 

I hate meetings where we are sent documents to read beforehand and then the documents are read out during the meeting.

What is worse, when this is done and then no one has much to comment on them, what was the point? What would you do if you had made time to read it beforehand, made notes of the points you wanted to raise and then heard it all again?

I certainly wouldn’t be as keen to read it in advance next time. If I haven’t made time before a meeting to read the paperwork then it can’t have been that important to me and it devalues the time of anyone who has read it already.

Thankfully I have learnt some great tools and habits to make my meetings effective and engaging. I do get to lead or facilitate many of the meeting I attend now, but still prickle at a poorly run meeting where I leave feeling worse than when I arrived.

There was one meeting I remember vividly, for all the wrong reasons, when I left feeling that I would never get that time back. It wasn’t even a meeting full of doom and gloom or where we had messed something up. It was just REALLY BORING, dragged on far too long and there was far too much talking from one or two voices (the management). I couldn’t believe that, as a team we only got to see each other once a month and the opportunity had not been taken to fire us all up ready for the next month. Instead it was as if someone had thrown a bucket of water over any burning ember of enthusiasm I had. Incidentally, I did give the manager feedback and meetings did improve, but I regularly use this memory as a reminder to make the time teams spend together as beneficial to all.

When we make meetings productive, timely and engaging we send a message to our team that their time is important and that their input is valued.

I recently had the privilege to work with a Senior Leadership Team (SLT) where the Headteacher and Deputy Head wanted the rest of the team to speak up more in meetings and actively said so, but it just wasn’t happening.

Through a short programme of Learning PlayTimes with the SLT I :

  • introduced them to simple      tools to improve their effectiveness
  • encouraged the team to see      themselves as learners and leaders
  • introduced the team to a      shared language to describe leadership
  • openly challenged the      headteacher to give the rest of the leadership team space to learn how to      be their own brand of leader

This team found their own voice in SLT meetings (I didn’t attend a single meeting!) and here is what some of the team thought and felt as as result of us working together:

  • all understand each other      better as leaders
  • I feel more valued as a team      leader and part of the leadership team
  • I feel more supported and in      tune with my colleagues
  • I have a greater      understanding of what it takes to be a successful leader within the school      environment
  • SLT has a clearer vision and      understanding of each others needs

Wouldn’t it be great if the next meeting you attended left you feeing supported and valued?
What could you do to make this a reality?

  Read more of  Hannah Jones’s Blue Kite Coaching Posts here

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Another way to alleviate presentation fears

Posted on January 10, 2012 by charlotte

If you are worried about giving presentations and pitches – and, let’s face it, very few people don’t feel at least some nerves – then here is a bit of advice which has come about from a new piece of research.  According to a study published in the journal Science, writing down worries before a stressful situation greatly boosts your performance. Just jotting down what your concerns are appears to help you focus on the job in hand.

The research was carried out among students about to sit exams. The technique was shown to be so powerful that students had a 20 per cent improvement in exam marks if they used the method just before sitting down. New as the research is I believe it is just reaffirming what we have always said: prepare, prepare, prepare – including writing down your fears and anxieties – and you are more likely to succeed.

Prof Sian Beilock of the University of Chicago, who is responsible for this research, put it succinctly. “People are in a stressful situation and worry about it and the consequences. These worries are taking up resources that should be dedicated to the task. Putting pen to paper appears to offload these worries.”

At Quicklearn, we run one to one and small group sessions helping people with their presentation skills.  Our purpose to give the ‘worried presenter’ several techniques on how to present, as well as how to handle nerves. The workshops include games and practical activities, concentrating on ‘learning by doing’ in a safe environment. If you can’t wait  you can download the Useful Guide to Public Speaking  written by Charlotte Mannion and published by Pansophix at £5.95  – It is a step by step workbook to enable you prepare a speech or a presentation from scratch.

 

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Are you writing for effect or affect?

Posted on January 3, 2012 by charlotte

There is nothing more likely to lose your audience than having an article or blog which contains poor spelling or typos.  When you present neat, high-quality and well written documents, letters, reports and proposals, you send a message to the reader that your organisation has a high self-image and cares about delivering a quality service.
Like body language signals which tell you how people are feeling, your written communications pass on messages as well.  after all when you find errors in other people’s writing you tend to focus on those rather than the message.  If you want to write effectively you need to check your work carefully so that all errors are eliminated.  And  in order to ensure that all  your written communications are presented well you need to be skilled at proof reading.  Proof reading is easier with a fresh eye.  If possible you should set your writing aside for a day or two before checking it.

• Read sentences aloud so you can hear the sentence structure or word usage mistakes.

• Check for grammar, spelling, and punctuation.  If the same things come up regularly make a list of the correct words to keep by you when you are checking.

• Make sure your punctuation helps the reader to make sense of your writing.

• Check for typing errors.  A useful technique is to read each sentence from right to left.

• Check for clichés and excessive words

• A great approach is to ask a colleague to proof read for you and you can return the favour when they need help.

Finally use the readability stats provided by Microsoft Word. You should be aiming at a reading ease of above 55% and reading grade level below 10.
This blog is marked at 64.5 for reading ease and a reading grade of 8.3.  So it  should have been an easy and undemanding read!
Quicklearn runs workshops covering business writing including minute writing, report writing, writing for marketing, letters and emails.   Check them out here

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