Are you putting off until 2022 what you could start today?

It’s so easy to say ‘I’ll leave it until next year’ – particularly after the year we’ve just had (again).

But what’s going to change in 22 days?

You could decide to start blocking out that focus time or thinking time now.

You could have shorter meetings now.

You could start that lunchtime walk today.

I believe the key to finding ‘the thing’ is to choose something that doesn’t take too long but feels great, helps others and has a positive impact on your energy, motivation and confidence.

I’ll be honest – I was going to wait until 2022 to launch my Get it Done Challenge but my mentor challenged me to get on with it in November knowing it could add value now.

And I’m so glad I did.

Because today’s the final day of the challenge and it’s made a biiiiig difference to those who’ve shown up for 5 or 10 minutes a day, made the notes and...

If you’re a leader and you’re thinking about a career move next year, you’ll want to join me and Sue Thomas from Career Evolution Ltd for our free one hour masterclass on Tuesday 7 December at 6pm UK time.

How to search for your dream job with Sue Thomas 

Sue is an expert in career management and outplacement so who better to help you map out your Job Search strategy?!

She’ll share some top CV writing tips as well as how and where to network authentically.

And there will be an opportunity to ask Sue any questions about job search that you have.

If you can’t make the live session, the recording will be available in my Facebook Group from 8 December onwards.

If you want to attend live, you will need to register for the webinar here.

If you can’t attend live but would like access to the recording, you’ll need to join my Effortless Leader Revolution Facebook group (if you’re not already there).

Look forward to seeing you there....

This was a great question from one of the delegates on a masterclass series I’ve been running on Performance and Feedback Conversations.

They’ve loved the ideas I’ve shared from Conversational Intelligence®, on Cats and Dogs (you have to be there) and more.

It’s a conversation I often have with the coaches I supervise too. (And – guilty as charged – in my early days I often let my coaching sessions over-run).

Anyway – you care about your team members (or coachees) so it’s tempting to just keep chatting – and yet……. It cuts into everybody’s time and means we’re working late to catch up or not getting round to the important or going round in circles.

This is what helps me:

• Be clear on the time allocated for your 1-1 (not ‘as long as we need’).
• Set your intention at the beginning. Something like ‘We’ve got the action list to work through and it would also be great to catch up and...

I've been running a couple of new leadership programmes recently with a group of people who work in the same large corporate but don't know each other. They'll be working together over a few months.

One of the things we paid a lot of attention to on the first day was connecting and group building.

No specific agenda; the only ground rule was equality of listening and speaking and truly listening to connect with each other. (In other words not writing your shopping list or sending a quick email whilst other people are speaking).

This group building enables them to build trust with each other which in turn encourages open-ness, sharing, vulnerability and honesty. They start to see what they have in common and where they can encourage and support each other.

Never underestimate the power of this - whether you're running a training programme of some type or building a team, or your team is back together again in the office after WFH. It's so tempting to try to get through loads of...

I've been in full leadership programme/coaching mode of late with a two day in-house programme for senior leaders in a large corporate, my new Lead with Confidence virtual coaching group, a webinar series on performance/feedback conversations in the hybrid world, a sprinkling of new coaching clients and a team event (first one face to face in two years – Yay!).

Whatever the programme, whatever the topic, what do so many of us have in common?

Not enough time.

The hard truth is we all CHOOSE how to spend our time. And it's easy to put those 'difficult' tasks on the back burner.

It's much easier to tick off the to-do list because it gives us that immediate 'hit' of satisfaction. But the to-do list might not be focusing on the things that truly move the dial.

I learned long ago that the only way to get round to the 'difficult' tasks was to recognise what I was struggling with (fear of getting it wrong? Fear of humiliation? Not having a clue where to start?). To own it (it's fine not to...

‘Oh great – another new initiative’ (said nobody, ever).

Just like the last one but with different buzz words and shiny new objects or the latest ‘guru speak’.

Sound familiar?

In a recent conversation I had with a leadership team, we were talking about culture change.

It’s a big, meaty topic.

We talked about recognising the culture ‘that is’ before trying to change anything. (The culture is there for a reason and we need to honour or at least understand its origins even if it’s not fit for purpose now).

People won’t buy into any change if they don’t think there is a problem or if they don’t see the need for it - however hard we push. The WIIFM question is always front of mind.

This team were brimming with ideas.

So, I asked them to imagine what some of their 'stakeholders' might say if they heard some of their ideas. 'Imagine your customers are in the room - what might they want to know about this idea'?...

Much as I hate the nights drawing in, I do love an extra hour when the clocks go back at this time of year.

Just imagine - if you had an extra hour every single week (or even every single day!), how would you use it?

Here’s a challenge for your team:

‘I want everyone to find an hour a day/week to use as thinking time (or something that’s about self-care) without adding any more hours to your day. How are you going to do it?’

Best idea (that is then implemented) wins a prize.

Here’s to creating more time - because although time flies, you are the pilot!

Quite a few of my clients this year have successfully applied for promotions or new roles.

And many have been - shall we say - ‘rusty’ in that they haven’t had to write a CV or attend an interview in a very, very long time.

(It’s like riding a bike, BTW….)

If you’re thinking of moving on, I want to share these quick tips with you:

Is your CV/bio/resumé up to date? It’s worth updating it every year (at least) because you never know when you might need it or may need to adapt it for a job application.

On that note - the biggest mistake I see on CVs (apart from being too long and not tailored to the specific role being applied for) is a whole list of your responsibilities.

I DON’T CARE (yes, big shouty capitals) if you are responsible for a team of 50 people worldwide or you were responsible for re-structuring a whole department or changing the way the team worked during Covid.

None of that tells me you are any good.

I DO...