Making Success a Habit

Many books over the years have been written on the power of setting goals; perhaps you have attended a training course or motivational seminar in which ‘setting goals’ was a big part of the programme?

Even though goals are a key piece of the puzzle when creating success, many people end up setting goals of being successful as opposed to simply ‘making success a habit.’

Make your own success

How to work from home and stay motivated

The number of people working from home in Britain is continually rising. According to The Office for National Statistics over 3 million people now work from home and this figure has grown from just 2 million in the last few years alone.

Although the benefits of working from home may seem obvious, the challenge can be in keeping up the inspiration and work ethic throughout each day.  This article is to share some simple tips on how you can work from home and stay motivated.

How to stay proactive whilst working from home

Top Ways to Boost your Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence can sometimes be perceived as fluffy and even a little subjective. 

Fortunately, with more research being done every day on emotional intelligence (or EQ), we are now starting to realise that boosting our EQ can be a sure way to also increase your motivation and work ethic resulting in promotions, increased revenue and a happy workforce.

This article, ‘Top Ways to Boost your Emotional Intelligence’ will share some simple ways you can boost your EQ in a short time and you need nothing other than an open mind and a decision to try each exercise.

Should managers operate in a pressure free environment?

One of the overarching responsibilities of the manager is to “get the job done” and creating the environment in which this work can be done effectively and efficiently is crucial.

But should this environment be pressure free?

Pressure free management? 

“Smooth seas do not make skilful sailors” the African proverb tells us. Managers want skilful sailors (effective staff) on their team – but there is a major difference between the pressure of gentle swells and the stress of tidal waves.

It is important that managers understand the difference between pressure and stress.

There is a difference between pressure and stress. Pressure can be positive and a motivating factor, and is often essential in a job. It can help individuals achieve goals and perform better.

Stress often describes both the events that are a source of pressure and the subjective feelings associated with external events and stimuli.

The Health & Safety Executive defines stress as: 'the adverse reaction a person has to excessive pressure or other types of demands placed upon them'.

This makes a distinction between 'pressure', which can be a positive state if managed correctly, and 'stress' which can be detrimental to health.

Is pressure good?
There is a direct link between performance and the appropriate levels of pressure – too little pressure results in boredom, too much results in exhaustion. Pressure must be appropriate not only in terms of volume of work but also on its longevity.

It is natural to feel under pressure at times, because of life and work demands. If the pressure is unrelenting and there is no time for recovery, negative health effects can result.

Who has the responsibility for maintaining pressure at the appropriate level?

In 1936 Kurt Lewin advocated that Behaviour is a function of both the person and the environment -  B= f  (P/E)

This clearly states that behaviour can be influenced internally and externally – the individual manages their own internal state and the manager influences the external state. So both have a part to play in creating and maintaining pressure that makes that skilful sailor.

The management responsibility
Managers must create an environment in which their people can cope. Coping means balancing the demands and pressures placed on an individual by the job requirements with the skills and knowledge required by the capable individual within that job – so well-designed, organised and managed work is vital.
It is essential that managers have an active role in facilitating and supporting staff to do their job effectively and to contribute to the success of their team and the organisation. So within the context of that role, managers can ensure they establish the following:

• Role – do people understand their role within the organisation and whether the organisation ensures that the person does not have conflicting roles? Are jobs designed to avoid conflicting demands and are the expectation of the job role clear? 
• Appropriate Demand - are the workload, work patterns, and the work environment appropriate?
• Control -  how much empowerment do people have in taking responsibility for the way they do their work 
• Support - what encouragement, support and resources are provided by the organisation, line managers and colleagues? Are people fully trained to undertake the demands of their job?
• Relationships - is a positive working environment promoted to avoid conflict and deal with unacceptable behaviour, identify or respond to issues of concern promptly and seek constructive solutions? 
• Changes - how are organisational changes managed and communicated - are people engaged in this process?
• Feedback – are there regular opportunities for feedback on performance e.g. regular 'one to one' meetings and team meetings?

The Employees responsibility
It is essential that managers ensure their people play an active role in maintaining pressure at the appropriate level by encouraging them to:

• maintain good communication with colleagues and line management structure 
• engage in discussion about  performance and act on feedback 
• raise issues of concern at an early stage and seek constructive support and solutions 
• make use of the support and training resources available 

So, should managers operate in a pressure free environment?

No – managers should operate in a pressure controlled, pressure maintained and pressure appropriate environment.

Written by David Mathieson, a learning consultant at Capita Learning & Development.

The 3 C's to Achieving Your Goals

Just by embracing 3 simple yet powerful words, your goals can be yours.

Goal Completion

Commitment
By making a firm commitment to achieve your goals, you put aside all excuses and become more determined and focused than ever before. Successful people set and write down their goals and then refuse to budge no matter what happens until they have achieved them.

Once you have set clear, specific goals with definite tasks and deadlines, your subconscious mind will then set about finding solutions and opportunities to help you get them. Without deadlines it is easy to procrastinate and put off important tasks.

Completion
It is very common for people to complete 90% of a task and then slack off the final completion. You must discipline yourself to fight off this natural tendency and push through to completion.
Every time you complete a task your brain releases endorphins which give you a sense of well-being and elation. The greater the task, the more endorphins are released. Those that work with me regularly, know how I use the reward and punishment system for completing action steps. Well this is nature's way of rewarding you.

Everyone likes to feel like a winner and you get a feeling of winning by completing a task 100%. When this habit of task completion kicks in, your life will begin to improve in ways you can't imagine. However, the reverse is also true. The incompletion of a task is a major source of stress and anxiety. If you have ever had a major assignment that you have put off, you will understand what I am talking about. The longer you wait, the closer the deadline, the greater the stress. It can start to keep you awake at night. When you finally complete it you have a great feeling of relief.

Closure
Bringing closure to an issue is essential for you to feel happy and in control of your situation. Lack of closure, unfinished business or an incomplete task is a major source of stress, dissatisfaction and failure. It consumes an enormous amount of physical and emotional energy.

Yvonne Bleakley
Learning Consultant, Capita Learning & Development

Are You As SMART As You Think You Are?

Each New Year we resolve to lose weight, quit smoking, or whatever. In the vast majority, these aspirations end in failure, but why does this happen?

The smart money, you might say, would probably be on a lack of goal setting. Without clear, measurable goals, the reasoning goes, we are doomed to fail. SMART goal setting has become such a staple of management training that it seems superfluous to remind you that the acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable (or Active), Realistic (or Relevant) and Time-bound.

Businesses and Government have enthusiastically embraced this goal-setting model and the world of work is now awash with SMART goals. But how effective are they?

First, a quick trawl through any random sample of business plans or appraisal documents will soon reveal that very few goals are SMART in practice. Setting a truly SMART goal is quite difficult; it takes time and thought to fashion something meaningful – time that managers rarely take, in my experience.

Second: the things that are most easily measured are likely to be of the least use, and vice versa. In practice, people often measure what they most easily can, rather than what they should. Thus, for example, we might know how many meetings staff members attended, but their effectiveness therein is less well understood.

Third: organisational emphasis on goals and targets understandably shifts management attention towards results; the monitoring of "how did they get there?" is often left undone, potentially leading to nasty surprises later, when managers find good results being underpinned by dubious practices.

Last: organisational metrics are often confined to management activities. I frequently ask my course delegates: "When was the last time you were measured on your coaching activities?". "Never" is the most common, depressing, answer. It seems many senior managements, despite espousing them in principle, routinely ignore a whole raft of leadership activities for measurement purposes, filling managers' schedules by default with management activities, and thus constraining time available for leadership.

And so, as we embark upon 2012, my question to you is simple: are you as SMART at work as you think you are? 

By David Soloman, Learning Consultant, Capita Learning and Development