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Lead to Succeed

The Lost Art Of Listening

“Seek to understand before being understood”, Steven Covey

In a previous post called “You are sabotaging your communication“, we talked about what NOT to do with your communication. I find it useful to help my clients build some awareness regarding how they may be ineffectively communicating and negatively impacting their relationships, so they are inspired to learn some new skills. Today we’re talking about what to do to make your leadership communication more effective.

In an age of email and texting, listening skills have become a lost art. One of the best compliments I get from my clients is that I’m a great listener. I think it’s a powerful gift to really listen to someone and give them an experience of being heard. When people feel heard, they feel understood. When they feel understood, strong relationships are formed.

In this video you will learn 3 types of listening skills and you will learn how to create clarity in your communication. We’ll also discuss some problem-solving skills so you can start to facilitate and coach your staff rather then being a constant problem-solver for them. Enjoy!

Lead To Succeed: The Lost Art Of Listening from Venture Coaching on Vimeo.

Now it’s time to notice where you’re “roadblocking”. I would love to hear about your discoveries and challenges, so please comment on this post to share your experience.

If you enjoyed this post, you can sign up for my FREE Lead to Succeed Email Course (click here) and these posts will come straight to your inbox. Just click on the banner to the left, sign up and stay connected!

12 Communication Roadblocks!

“Leadership exists in conversation, make yours powerful!” Laura Watson

You are in an ideal position to be in a supportive, helping relationship with your staff and partners. But this relationship is not given, it is earned. In order for you to have this helping relationship, you must learn the difference between the “language of unacceptance” and the “language of acceptance”. I guarantee that sometimes you are inadvertently using the language of unacceptance, which is undermining your leadership.

Language that communicates unacceptance “roadblocks” communication. It subtly communicates to the listener that “I’m right” and “you’re wrong”. Over time, your listeners (staff, colleagues, spouse, children) will resist or shut down from communicating with you because they don’t want to keep feeling criticized.

I’m sure it’s not your intention to give those around you the experience of being wrong or criticized. These roadblocks represent blind spots that sabotage your communication. When I make my clients aware of these blind spots, they change their communication style and their relationships immediately improve. Today I want to help you discover your blind spots so you can improve your communication and your leadership. Enjoy!

Lead To Succeed: Communication Roadblocks from Venture Coaching on Vimeo.

Now it’s time to notice where you’re “roadblocking”. I would love to hear about your discoveries and challenges, so please comment on this post to share your experience.

How To Give Effective Feedback

“Feedback is the breakfast of champions”, Ken Blanchard

Feedback helps people learn the impact of their behavior. Feedback is shared in order to reinforce so-called “right” behaviors and to let people know what behaviors are ineffective and need changing.

Feedback is an important skill for you to master. Given effectively, your personal and business relationships will thrive. Given poorly or not at all and you’ll likely end up frustrated with unhappy staff and high turn-over rates.

Here are some interesting stats about feedback:

Managers who received feedback on their strengths showed 8.9% greater profitability
69% of employees say they would work harder if they felt their efforts were better recognized
92% of respondents agreed with the assertion, “Negative (redirecting) feedback, if delivered appropriately, is effective at improving performance.”
80% of Gen Y said they prefer on-the-spot recognition over formal reviews
77% of HR execs believe performance reviews aren’t an accurate representation of employee performance

Feedback is a powerful performance-improvement mechanism. But it needs to be delivered in a manner that does not evoke defensiveness and (ideally) motivates people to change their behavior.

As a trained communication expert, I often coach my clients on how to give effective feedback. In today’s video I share some strategies for taking your feedback skills to the “next level”. Enjoy!

Lead To Succeed: Giving Effective Feedback from Venture Coaching on Vimeo.

Now it’s time to go out and practice giving great feedback! I would love to hear about your discoveries and challenges, so please comment on this post to share your experience.

Emotional Mastery For Leaders: learn to ‘flip your switch’

Will you control your thoughts or will your thoughts control you?

Today we’re here to develop emotional mastery for business owners. In 13 yrs of running my own businesses and coaching other business leaders, I find that emotional mastery is one of the key elements defining success. Leaders who develop mastery over their thoughts and emotions grow and thrive. Those who don’t keep themselves stuck in a constant state of survival-mode; they are stressed, they experience conflict in their relationships and they often get sick.

We need to develop emotional mastery because life is miserable without it! Without personal mastery, we react impulsively to situations and people, we procrastinate and get distracted. I’ve seen business owners derail their projects, lose staff and customers and even lose their entire business because they could not manage their emotions and reactive behavior.

When we learn to master ourselves, we have focus and our performance improves. We respond thoughtfully to situations, customers and business partners. Our effectiveness improves and we become more efficient allowing us to get more done in less time. And when we practice mental and emotional mastery consistently, all areas of our life improve, we feel happier and optimistic.

Many of my coaching sessions focus on helping my clients develop emotional mastery. Today I’m sharing the tool that has made the biggest difference in my life and my client’s businesses. I hope it makes a difference for you. Enjoy!

Lead To Succeed: Developing Emotional Mastery from Venture Coaching on Vimeo.

Now it’s time to practice “flipping your switch”! I would love to hear about your discoveries, so please comment on this post to share your experience.

Time Management: learn to block your rocks!

“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important”, Steven Covey

Today’s leadership lesson is not your typical “time management” conversation.

When I first start working with my clients they are often feeling overwhelmed with their schedule. They feel like a million small urgencies are flying at them all at once and they often complain that they never have time to address important, non-urgent matters in their life and business (ie. planning, exercise, family, even sleep).

If you’re feeling similar to my clients, today I want to help you change that. I’m going to give you an easy and very useful tool for helping you think about and schedule yourself based on your priorities. This tool has a made a world of difference for me and my clients so I’m confident it will make a difference for you too, if you apply it. I call the idea, “blocking your rocks”

Lead To Succeed: Block Your Rocks from Venture Coaching on Vimeo.

Check out Steven’s video here:

Now it’s time to “block your rocks”! I would love to hear about your discoveries, so please comment on this post to share your experience.

Business planning for small business owners

“Failing to plan is planning to fail”, Benjamin Franklin

Some interesting facts about business planning and execution:

Businesses using plans are 12% more profitable
86% of executive teams spend less than an hour a month discussing strategy
Of 26,000 start-up business failures, 67% had no written plan
More than 70% of companies with a strategic plan don’t execute it
Only 30% of Directors of 1,000 public companies say their company is achieving strategic success
Formal planning reduces risk
80% of companies are dissatisfied with their planning and budgeting processes
Only 23% of companies use a formal strategic planning process to make important strategic decisions
64% of leaders who use strategic planning processes say the planning leads to strategic decisions that allow the company to meet its goals and challenges
The top 10% of large companies surveyed experience real and material benefits from their planning processes – far beyond those of average companies. They’re enjoying improved control over costs, increased foresight, improved operational performance, increased transparency and insight into the business, a sense of shared purpose, and increased profit.

*stats originally reported by Mission Facilitators International

I work with business owners all the time who don’t have plan. If they do have a plan, they are usually not executing on it because they have not created actions steps and/or they are “too busy”. Yet research tells us that successful companies have and follow a plan.

I help business owners write simple plans they can execute! Because the planning is simple and action steps are included and scheduled in a calendar, execution rates increase dramatically and so does business success!

Today I want to share the business planning and execution process my clients find so beneficial. Enjoy!

Lead To Succeed: Being Effective – Plan, Calendar, Execute! from Venture Coaching on Vimeo.

Now it’s time to get to work on your plan and follow through! I would love to hear about your discoveries, so please comment on this post to share your experience.

Develop a leadership platform: setting business goals

Here are some surprising statistics about business goals:

more than 80% of small business owners don’t keep track of business goals.
40% of people who write down goals don’t check whether they’ve achieved them.
46% of companies review or revise goals throughout the year.
50% of senior leaders, 33% of managers and 19% of front-line employees update their goals throughout the year as business needs change.

And here are some more interesting facts:

Those who write down goals achieve more than those who don’t.
Those who share commitments with colleagues and friends achieve more than those who just write down goals.
Those who send weekly progress reports to others achieve more.

Successful companies set goals. Without them, they have no defined purpose and nothing to strive for; consequently, they stagnate and struggle for meaningful accomplishments.

This lesson discusses goal setting in relation to creating a Leadership Platform. You’ll ask yourself some powerful questions so you can set exciting and inspiring goals for your business. Enjoy!

Lead To Succeed What’s Your Big Goal? from Venture Coaching on Vimeo.

Have fun working on your big goals! I would love to hear about your discoveries, so please comment on this post to share your experience.

If you enjoyed this post, you can also sign up for my FREE Lead to Succeed Email Course (click here) and these posts will come straight to your inbox. Just click on the banner to the left, sign up and stay connected!

Develop a Leadership Platform: what’s your ‘higher purpose’?

“Companies with a higher purpose are more profitable than those that just think about the bottom line”, unknown

The lower purpose of a business is about making and selling a commodity for profit. The higher purpose in business is about making a difference AND making profit.

All of the leadership experts and wellness experts seem to agree, that part of happiness is having a Higher Purpose. Something to strive for that is bigger than you. Our Higher Purpose is how we find deep meaning and fulfillment in our lives by contributing to someone or something that is bigger than ourselves.

I believe that life and business is way more fun and meaningful when it is connected with a sense of Higher Purpose. This means that our business is about more then just making money. It means that our business is about making a difference in the world of our customers (and perhaps beyond).

Any business can create a “Higher Purpose” for itself. I was recently impressed and inspired when a friend showed me a job posting that was listed at a local bank. The posting read that everyone’s job in the bank is to create “happiness”. I was stunned. This bank has defined a Higher Purpose and is building a corporate culture around the idea of creating more happiness in world.

If a bank, the epitome of profit generation, can create a higher purpose for itself, anyone can. This is a conversation I have with all of my clients and I want to share it so you can connect with your higher purpose as well. Enjoy the video.

Lead To Succeed: What’s Your Higher Purpose? from Venture Coaching on Vimeo.

Have fun working on your higher purpose! I would love to hear about your discoveries, so please comment on this post to share your experience.

Develop a Leadership Platform. What are your leadership values?

“It’s not hard to make decisions once you know what your values are”, Roy Disney

A leadership value is a principle or belief that a person or organization views as being important. Our values define us and our leadership. They represent what we hold most dear and drive our success and happiness, meaning and fulfillment in all areas of life and business.

Leadership values establish our sacred ground. They guide us in making decisions, in setting priorities and evaluating the merit of opportunities. Our values are our source of strength, of skill, of positive experience and positive results.

Our leadership values make up 1 of 4 elements in our Leadership Platform (if you missed my prior post about developing a Leadership Platform and defining your Vision, you may want to start with that post HERE). Once defined, this foundation becomes the ‘measuring stick’ from which an owner and his team can make strategical and tactical decisions and take sound action.

Like a simple house with four corners, a Leadership Platform has four elements; Vision, Values. Purpose & Goals. These four elements, once defined, create a strong foundation for your business to be built on.

This post is the second of four, designed to help you define your Leadership Platform. Check out the following video to walk through defining your Core Values.

Lead To Succeed: Defining Your Core Values from Venture Coaching on Vimeo.

Have fun working on your values! I would love to hear about your discoveries, so please comment on this post to share your experience.

Remember, this post is the 2nd of a 4-part series. If you’d like to continue developing your platform check out Part 3: Defining Your Higher Purpose.

Develop a Leadership Platform: What’s Your Vision?

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy what you stand for”, Simon Sinek

I love this quote from Simon. It reminds me that business is about way more then just making money. I believe business is about being in service to your customers and making a difference for them.

Most business owners want their business to grow (duh!) In fact, if we’re not growing, we’re dying. I see many owners go about growing for growth’s sake wanting to become bigger, faster, thinking that “bigger has to be better”. They do everything they can think of just to grow. Their decisions and actions often follow many different tangents which is exhausting for themselves and frustrating for their staff. It’s frustrating and exhausting because the decisions and actions seem haphazard and not based on a solid grounding with a sound direction. This type of growth feels like you’re flying by the ‘seat of your pants’ and is often unsustainable and doomed to implosion.

Successful, sustainable growth requires us to base our growth plan on a solid foundation. Like a house, you can’t build walls and a roof without a strong foundation. If you do, the house falls down. A successful business is the same, it needs a strong foundation to stand on. Once defined, this foundation becomes the ‘measuring stick’ from which an owner and his team can make strategical and tactical decisions and take sound action. This ‘measuring stick’ is called a Leadership Platform.

Like a simple house with four corners, a Leadership Platform has four elements; Vision, Purpose, Values & Goals. These four elements, once defined, create a strong foundation for your business to be built on.

This post is the first of four, designed to help you define your Leadership Platform. Check out the following video to understand more about building a leadership platform and to start defining your vision for your business:

Lead To Succeed: What’s Your Vision? from Venture Coaching on Vimeo.

Have fun working on your vision! Play with it and make it GRAND! Your vision should represent an exciting (and somewhat scary) possibility you see for the future of your life and business.

I would love to hear about your discoveries, so please comment on this post to share your experience.

Remember, this post is the 1st of a 4-part series. If you’d like to continue developing your platform check out Part 2: Defining Your Values.

If you enjoyed this post, you can also sign up for my FREE Lead to Succeed Email Course and these posts will come straight to your inbox. Just click on the banner to the left, sign up and stay connected!

The 5 Leadership Essentials

“Leading your business effectively happens when you lead yourself effectively”, Laura Watson

Success in life and business is highly dependent on your mindset. Your mindset will affect all areas of your life; business, health, relationships, finances, fun, you name it!

I am here to help you be more effective in life and business because I’m passionate about you being the best you can be.

You’re here because you want something different for your life and business. I see us playing this success game together, as partners.

Over 13 years of coaching I have discovered 5 Leadership Mindset Essentials that I share with my clients at the beginning of our coaching engagements. We end up revisiting these mindsets often to make sure they are doing their best to apply them.

Clients who take on and really embrace these mindsets see significant improvements in their lives and businesses. So check out this video and see how you can take your leadership abilities to the “next level”.

Lead to Succeed: The 5 Leadership Essentials from Venture Coaching on Vimeo.

Have fun working on your 5 Leadership Essentials. Take on 1 per day, make it a game, play with it and see what you notice.

I would love to hear about your discoveries, so please comment on this post to share your experience.

If you enjoyed this post, you can get more! Sign up for my FREE Lead to Succeed Email Course and these posts will come straight to your inbox. Just click on the banner to the left of this post, sign up and stay connected!

Buyer Beware! How To Choose a Business Coach

“Hiring a business coach is about trust and fit” Laura Watson

15 000 new coaches enter the profession every year. Do you realize that coaching is an unregulated profession and anyone can call themselves a coach, whether or not they have training or adhere to any professional guidelines or ethics?

Investing in your coaching is an important decision. Watch the video to learn what to expect and for tips on finding the right coach for you.

If you’re considering hiring a coach, I’d be happy to speak with you. I’d like to understand a bit about your situation and goals so we can discover whether or not there’s a fit.

The call is FREE, so there’s no risk for reaching out. Just click on the banner to the right, fill in the contact form and let’s have a conversation!