Top Tip for Managing Change!
I’ve been working recently with a large group of employees undergoing change. Like so many people at the moment they just don’t know what the future holds and that’s difficult. How can you start dealing with things if you don’t know what ‘things’ are? How can you manage change?
Self Esteem and Change
When we find ourselves in a state of change (over which we have no control, like a major reorganisation) our levels of confidence and self esteem can drop. In a Gallop poll on what makes for a good workplace ‘knowing what my job is and what’s expected of me’ came out as number one.
During periods of change we rarely know what’s expected of us, or what our job will be. And that leads to a fall off in productivity, less work satisfaction, and a loss of self worth. And this loss of self worth occurs just at the time we need to feel on top, to be on the radar for new roles!
Change Exercise
Here’s an exercise to try out to boost your confidence. It is crucial to remember that you are much, much more than the job you do. You have multiple skills and qualities gained over your life. Some you use in your current role; some you have probably forgotten that you even have.
Take a sheet of paper, draw up four columns headed ‘work’, ‘home/life’, ‘hobbies’ and ‘other’. The columns are just for guidance so don’t get bogged down with them.
Now list every single skill or attribute that you can think of. You don’t have to be an expert, just have some knowledge in it. It’s simply knowledge you could share if asked.
For example, you may have experienced some life events that you’ve never actually evaluated, like a divorce. The increased knowledge and experience from this will be massive but you’ve probably just absorbed it into your life without fully appreciating the experience gained. It will have included managing finances, managing loss, forging a new life, new friends, maybe helping children and family come to terms with the change, possibly involvement through the courts. Take time to think about it.
Maybe you have acquired a qualification while working, or childrearing? Perhaps you have run a charity stall? Maybe you bake cakes? Perhaps you’ve walked the Pennine way? Help out with a kids’ club? This is really a very wide ranging exercise and anything goes. It doesn’t matter how long ago; those skills, attributes and hard won knowledge are still there, accessible to you if you choose. Hopefully once you actually start the ideas will keep flowing and you will get at least 20 things down. Yes, I do mean 20. Get a friend to help if possible. Better still, do this exercise with a friend.
Now look down your list. Know that you are much more than the job you do. You’ve gained a lot of experience and skills in your life; they make you who you are. This experience of change will add to those skills and qualities. You will be stronger. You will survive.
If you are undergoing change at the moment, you may find this post on Does Change Make You Feel Stressed? helpful.
And if you are managing staff through a change process, I can send you a free ebook, simply email me.
Photo Credit: Boris Peterka
What Two Simple Words Are Stopping You?
Are there two simple words that are holding you back from getting on at work? Or from having a better quality of life? From living your life to the full?
If (there’s a clue) you find yourself oft repeating “If only…” you’ve found your two words. Two simple words that are holding you back.
If only I were cleverer…
If only I had a better boss…
If only my manager was female…
If only I lived somewhere else…
If only I had more money…
If only I was thin…
If only I could get a seat on the board…
Stop Wishing, Start Planning
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride” This phrase dates back to the 16th Century, we humans have been doing this for sometime! Basically it says stop wasting time merely thinking about stuff and go and do something!
Which is my message today. Every time we get stuck into the ‘what ifs of life we are giving away our personal power. You are extraordinary. You have amazing potential; tap into it. Take back control of your personal power. Decide what you want in life. Critically evaluate it. If your dream seems impossible at the moment, start with a smaller one, one that starts you off on your path. Get help, retrain, sign up for an evening class, start saving, get support, professional and personal. Do whatever you need to do to start making your what ifs a reality!
If this has struck a chord, take a look at When Did You Last Put a Toe in the Water?
Photo Credit: Naveen Saxena
Two Questions to Ask Today!
Just for today, why not try and have an Appreciative Inquiry day?
- Appreciation means to recognize and value the contributions or attributes of things and people around us.
- Inquiry means to explore and discover, in the spirit of seeking to better understand, and being open to new possibilities.
Put the two together and this means that by appreciating what is good and valuable in the present situation, we can discover and learn about ways to effect positive change for the future. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Of course it’s not quite that simple, especially if we have got stuck in another way of behaving. But if you practice it does become easier, I promise!
Have a go at it for the next 24 hours. Think of it as your Pollyanna personna!
Your two questions for today are:
- What is working well in my life, what is good?
- How can I do more of it?
That’s it! Just two simple questions. Give it a whirl and let me know how you get on. No negativity allowed all day…
Photo Credit: Andrejs Pidjass
How To Get People to Do What You Want!
Research into the psychology of missed appointments (doctors, dentists etc) has discovered it really doesn’t pay to be negative when trying to change behaviour.
Traditionally notices in waiting rooms read something like:
Last month we had 39 missed appointments which cost the surgery over £800 and wasted valuable time which could have been used by others. Please let us know if you are unable to attend.
These notices had no discernible effect on getting people to do what they wanted. However, when they changed their notices to something like:
Last month 90% of patients kept their appointment with us. Thank you so much!
they found that the number of missed appointments fell by 30%! Positive messages reinforcing that keeping an appointment is just normal had a very positive effect!
They also used two other methods which worked. In a non patronising way they got patients to repeat back the date of their appointment, i.e. say it out loud, and also to write it down themselves. Again this meant significantly fewer people missed appointments; they changed their behaviour.
Positive Thinking
I am not surprised at all. We know that telling someone of our intentions helps reinforce them in our minds, and that writing something down helps us do it. Which is why on my courses I encourage women to share their goals and then to write them down.
A Positive Change Exercise
Try it for yourself.
1) Write down what you’d like to achieve in the next four weeks: be realistic about how much is feasible.
2) Share your aims with a friend, talk about how you’re going to do it and add in the details.
3) Pay serious attention to the messages you give yourself. Your ‘spam’. Are these of the ‘we lost masses of money because you couldn’t be bothered to keep your appointment’ variety, or are they the encouraging ‘ way hey, brilliant you! The surgery is working well because of your efforts and consideration for others’ ? Think about it. What Way hey message would positively reinforce your good intentions?
4) Imagine yourself, in your mind’s eye, having accomplished all you want to do. Just take a few moments each day to visualise yourself being hugely successful at making those positive changes. Feeling good? Hang on to that feeling!
If you’ve enjoyed this post you might also like Three Questions for Helpful Thinking. What’s your best tip for achieving your goals?
Direct Your Energy Where You Want Results!
Direct Your Energy Where You Want to See Results!
It doesn’t matter how many self help books you read (even mine!), how much you practise circular breathing, how much you think positively, how often you chant, focus on words on the ceiling (good grief), there is no substitute for actually doing something to get where you want to be. That means real, down to earth, honest to goodness hard work, not simply thinking about what you want to happen if only everything would come together in your favour!
Phew, that was good to say! There really is no substitute for actually getting on with it. I was asked by a journalist recently if I thought the current self help culture meant people thought they ‘deserved’ to succeed, that that there was a solution for everything and everyone should be happy all the time. Good question.
I do come across this attitude from time to time, and there is masses of information out there giving you all sorts of advice about how you can be wonderful, have a great life etc. My site is full of it too. I have a passion for helping women live their lives to the max and getting out of it what they want. You will find masses of information here to help you get going, to inspire and push you on.
But anyone who has ever worked with me knows that one of my continual questions is:
‘What are you actually going to do and when are you going to do it?‘
Add Ons
All the other things I have mentioned help, of course they do, but they are additional to actually doing something. If you want to write a novel you can make yourself an inspiring room to write in. You can read books by other writers. You can sign up to writing courses. You can buy a beautiful notebook, lovely pens. All these things may motivate you to get going, build your confidence, and increase your pleasure in the task. BUT at some point the preparation has to stop and the real writing has to begin or the book will always remain an idea.
Likewise, if you want to change your job, you could buy my book, do all the exercises, listen to the visualisation. You will have prepared yourself well and got a good idea of the steps you need to take to make those changes. Hopefully I will even have inspired you to be brave and bold. BUT you still have to go out there, buy newspapers, look for jobs, and apply for them. You still have to take the risks yourself, decide when the time is right to start your own business, go into partnership with a friend, or ask the bank for a business loan.
Focus
All of the preparation is good; I wouldn’t recommend that you jump will nilly into something (well, maybe sometimes a bit of risk taking can be energising, when we just follow our instincts! It can work.)
The problem comes when all our energies go into preparing, (or complaining) and not into doing. If you have a long held dream beginning ‘one day I will…’ do you know when that ‘one day’ is? Certainly do all the preparing, and if you are in a job you loathe preparing now for a new one when times are better may help you through the interim period. But do give yourself a date when you will move from preparing into doing. Review it regularly. After all, you don’t want to be looking behind you muttering wistfully, ‘If only…’.
Eddie Izzard on Being Good, Very Good!
If you have watched the recent documentary on Eddie Izzard you will probably already be an admirer of his tenacity and drive. If you haven’t, I recommend that you do. It’s entertaining, inspirational, and very moving. Quite brilliant.
I was already a fan but listening to his story I was struck again by how high achievers in any field are never overnight successes. They work hard at their craft for their great moments and they know their stuff; they have served their apprenticeship.
And Eddie Izzard certainly knows his stuff. He knew what he wanted and he went for it. And when he went to break new ground in the US he went with humility. He didn’t expect to be an ‘overnight success’; he applied the same strategy he’d used before. Start small, get a following, learn the US audience, work hard and believe in yourself.
There was one comment in particular that I wanted to share with you. Eddie had always wanted to act and was able to use his comedy platform to get into acting. Someone said to him (I’m paraphrasing as I was too riveted to take notes!):
“But why be an average actor when you are an outstanding comedian?”
And he replied:
“I was once an average comedian”.
Take a leaf from Eddie’s book. Most of us can get to average; it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to be outstanding. Set your goal and go for it! Be outstanding! And if you need any inspiration, I thoroughly recommend a copy of Eddie’s DVD, Believe, The Eddie Izzard Story. It works for me!
Who inspires you to be outstanding?
