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4 Reasons You Should Invest in Your Personal Development Today

When you invest in your personal development you take responsibility for your life, your circumstances and your happiness. You become the agent, the doer, and the effect-er.

If, on the other hand, you sit back and don’t make the effort to take charge of your life you set yourself up for events to affect you. If you’re unprepared and not proactive you will end up reacting to, rather than affecting what is going on around you. Personal development is more than just working on talents you already have: it’s about growing, becoming more aware, and gaining valuable abilities that you can use to make an impact in this world. There are many other reasons why you should invest in your development,however i am going to take you through my top four:

1. Gain Confidence

We all need confidence in our lives. A sure way to build more confidence is stepping out of the ‘comfort zone’ and putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations. This leads to growth. We may be confident in some areas and not so much in areas we are working on.The more skills you have, the more confident you will become in all areas of your life. As an example if someone wanted to be better at public speaking, a great way would be joining a Toastmasters club. This not only improves speaking skills, it also assists with Leadership capabilities and overall enhancement. I find that speaking to my coach and mentor is one of the most effective ways that I build the necessary confidence i require. A coach is an accountability partner and will drive you to achieve the result you desire.

2. Learn new things

Investing in yourself can help you gain amazing opportunities as well as possibilities. It is never too late to learn new skills and develop yourself. Personal development can help you to set goals and reach your full potential. … energy as you will do them more quickly, thereby releasing more time to spend on other things. It is a lifelong process. It’s a way for people to assess their skills and qualities, consider their aims in life and set goals in order to realize and maximize their potential.Remember it is more than just an investment in your career, it’s an investment in your growth, awareness, and identity.

3. Smash your goals and achieve more

On the surface, this sounds simple – but it is actually quite time consuming and requires strategic thought and planning. Making an investment in your personal development requires you to know what you should invest your time, money and resources in. Many people don’t have plans because they rely on the organization they serve to provide them. A select few recognize that the investments your employer makes in your career are no longer enough – and most of the time these investments align with the company’s goals, not your specific performance improvement needs for skills and experience that must be transferable across all industries and organizations that you may choose to engage with in the future.

4. You will be seen as someone who takes initiative

Wouldn’t you want to be known as an action taker? someone that take the initiative instead of waiting on someone to tell you what needs to be done or what your development plan consists of? Well, Leaders take initiative and start their own development process as soon as they identify a weakness or skill set that requires time and resources to develop. Working through challenging scenarios with a professional coach will enable you to stay ready when tasks of a similar nature creep up at work.It’s better to be Prepared for an opportunity,and not have one, than to have one and not be Prepared.

Ready to take Action, Speak to one of our Coaches @ www.eliteperformers.co.za

Question: What are some of the challenges you currently facing? How are you dealing with this? Leave your comment below

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How to Get Others to Follow Your Lead

We succeed in business and in life when we influence how others think, feel, and act: getting them to accept our point of view, follow our lead, join our cause, feel our excitement, or buy our products and services. The act of influencing is such a part of our daily lives that we often don’t even realize when we (or others) are doing it.

But to succeed, we need to know how influence works…and how to use it. Here are my 4 critical elements to get others to follow you;

“Influence is our ability to lift people up to our perspective”

Building Trust

Successful teamwork is built on a foundation of trust. Each member of the team must establish trust, cultivate trust through his or her actions and words, and work to maintain it. Each member also needs to be able to trust his team members to make a commitment to the team and its goals, work competently with those goals in mind, and communicate consistently about any issues that affect the team.

Getting others to buy-in and follow your lead requires trust on a multitude of levels.

How are you working to establish and nurture this trust? Getting to know your team and openly discuss trust issues is a great way to start the process.

Having a clear vision

People need to know where they are going or what the final destination is so create a compelling vision that will make others want to follow you. I interact with individuals from numerous different industries and i find it shocking that most of them don’t know what to do or where they are headed as a team. The vision is imperative and should be communicated effectively.You could stumble and stutter over your words, but if people saw you speaking to the things you truly believed, and felt that you truly understood them and respected their views, you are far more likely to make the vital connection that would attract them to your vision.

It is critical to be clear about your leadership vision and also what your expectations are from the rest of them. Get your team involved in the vision process as this automatically creates a level of accountability. The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.

Positive Energy

You experience and create all kinds of different energies that affect how you feel and what you accomplish throughout your day. Some energies are powerful and easily recognizable, while others are more subtle and often only intuitively felt. I believe it is fair to say that everything is, in a sense, energy

Positive energy is contagious. When you constantly take in the positive energy from your surroundings, it will be visible in the outer world.

This may seem inconsequential but it’s actually critical. If you’re presenting your vision to others you have to be very careful about the energy you’re exuding. If you are speaking and leading from a place of fear it will be picked up subconsciously by your followers. You could stumble and stutter over your words, but if people saw you speaking to the things you truly believed, and felt that you truly understood them and respected their views, you were far more likely to make the vital connection that would attract them to your vision.

Communication

One of the most difficult things for leaders to do is to communicate consistently and effectively with all levels of the organization. This requires a sincere focus on communication strategy and execution to do this well. Leaders who skimp on this step pay the price!

Leaders must earn the license to lead. Not by expertise, authority, or title alone, but by influence

Important as influencing skills are, most people don’t know how to gauge their level of proficiency when it comes to influencing others. So to understand and build on a current level of influencing skills there are assessments that can be used to determine a starting point. The assessment asks questions on key components of influencing skills. The results help to provide insights into areas of strength and opportunities for growth that will help to hone this skill for overall effectiveness in changing minds, shaping opinions and moving others to act.

To learn more about our Influencing Skills Assessment Tool (ISAT) and how it can be used to develop this competency in your organization, contact us

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5 Ways to Develop Self Discipline

There are many important qualities that can contribute to a person’s achievements and happiness, but there is only one that begets sustainable, long-term success in all aspects of life: self discipline. Whether in terms of your diet, fitness, work ethic or relationships, self discipline is the number one trait needed to accomplish goals, lead a healthy lifestyle, and ultimately, be happy.

Self-discipline involves acting according to what you think instead of how you feel in the moment. Often it involves sacrificing the pleasure and thrill of the moment for what matters most in life. Therefore it is self-discipline that drives us..

“Self Discipline is about controlling your desires and impulses while staying focused on what needs to get done to achieve your goal”

This quality isn’t something that we are born with. It is rather something that we can develop over time. In fact, it’s very much like a muscle that strengthens the more we use it. Here are 5 strategies that you can use to develop the habit of self discipline:

1. Get Clear – What do you want?

What do you really want? This is a question we don’t ask ourselves very often, instead we know what we don’t want – Clarity is Power.

Consistent tuning of where you are going and how you are going to get there is very important. Repetition and authority are needed to anchor your bigger picture within you. Writing things down helps you anchor that vision very deeply. Know what gives you meaning and how to get it.

Keep in mind the big picture, allowing it to connect to an even larger picture. Keep asking questions about your purpose and answer these 3 questions first;

What do I want?

Why do I want it?

What am I going to do to achieve my desired result?

2. Identify Challenges and Obstacles

With clarity of course comes more certainty, and with more certainty it becomes easier to muster up the self-discipline needed to stick with the actions you set yourself to get the job done. However, as with all journeys you will inevitably confront obstacles that will test your discipline.

As a Leadership coach, I often work with clients who are struggling to overcome personal setbacks. They don’t know what to do, where to begin or how to move forward when adversity strikes. Moreover, they struggle to start-over again when everything seems to have fallen apart.

In such instances I will ask them a series of questions that help them gain new perspectives and understandings about their circumstances. As a result they begin to unlock hidden resources they never realized they had.Ask yourself;

What are the obstacles/challenges standing in my way?

What specific things could side-track me along my journey?

How am I going to respond to my challenges?

3. Find a Role Model

Role models are important in all areas of life because they provide inspiration, experience and motivation, and if there is a personal connection, a role model can even offer guidance, support and mentoring.

Is there someone among your friends and family that you truly admire?Could it perhaps be a work colleague? If they are getting the results that you desire, now might be a great time to reach out for assistance. Be tactful in your approach though and ask intelligent questions, find out how they discipline themselves and write it down or keep a mental note and use the information to assist you along your journey.

My suggestion would be finding 2 or 3 role models and keeping them close by as you never know what other obstacles you could be facing. Some questions to ask yourself;

Who has successfully mastered this habit?

Who is doing this right now?

What can I learn from this person that can help me along my journey?

4. Develop a Plan of Action

Developing an action plan can help change-makers turn their visions into reality, and increase efficiency and accountability . An action plan describes the way you will meet your objectives through detailed action steps that describe how and when these steps will be taken.

Keep in mind that an action plan is always a work in progress. It is not something you can write, lock in your file drawers, and forget about. Keep it visible. Display it prominently. As you change and grow, you will want to continually (usually monthly) revise your action plan to fit the changing needs.The plan should be complete, clear, and current.

Additionally, the action plan should include information and ideas on how to achieve your goals while maintaining self discipline;

What actions or changes will occur?

Who will carry out these changes?

By when they will take place, and for how long?

What resources (i.e., money, time) are needed to aid me being more self disciplined?

“Discipline is doing what you know needs to be done, even if you don’t want to do it”

5. Hold Yourself Accountable

You must hold yourself accountable and likewise you must have someone else holding you accountable for the choices and decisions you make along your journey.

Some of the most successful people I know review their to-do lists each night and every Friday. They study what they accomplished—and what they did not. Even outside of work, you can do the same. Schedule a time each week to reflect. How were your eating habits this week? Did you exercise this month? What about your spending? Did you stick to your budget or did you splurge? What can you do better next week?

Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you struggle with this, get a coach that holds you accountable. Having another voice encouraging and motivating you will help you to stick-at-it for longer through till the very end. And that’s essentially what self-discipline is all about.

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Afraid of losing Top Talent? How to win them back

The last thing a manager wants to hear is one of his star employees saying, “I quit.” Yet it happens all the time. But just because a good employee leaves doesn’t mean you can’t win this employee back. The job market today may be the fiercest in recent memory.The buzzword these days within organizations is “transformed”, however, when you have talented people in your employ, it’s important to find new and inventive ways to keep them there. Remember that one in the hand is better than ten in the tree, after all.

Address Management Issues- It’s no secret that many people leave companies because of their direct manager or supervisor. One supervisor in your business having significantly more voluntary turnover than the rest? Is this the same supervisor that you’ve been considering moving out? Do what needs to be done and always keep in mind, people leave people, Not the Organization!!
Create a culture where employees feel comfortable offering feedback. “If employees feel they have to stay quiet and keep their ideas to themselves, you’re going to find yourself in trouble”. Provide assurances that you will continue to support their career growth. You can do so by committing an amount so they can attend courses or work with a coach who can help them elevate their game. Think about whom you know that may make a great mentor for this person. Offer to make an introduction,

Gain insights from them- Surveys are one of the best ways to measure how your employees feel about the company and their jobs, and figure out what needs to change.Often the best source of information about the state of affairs within your business organization is going to come from the recently hired. Try to keep it to people who have been with the company for two weeks to two months. More or less than that and they have either not enough knowledge to be honest and open or too much to lose to risk offending.Also, One of the best ways to win back good employees is to make it a point to stay in touch. You can do this in a number of ways including sending an occasional email. Let the former employee know you’ve been thinking about him or her and wanted to reach out to see how they are doing. When doing so, consider including an article that might be of interest to them or perhaps sending a quick note about a local happening that is right up their alley.

Don’t underestimate the power of the exit interview- By identifying the factors driving employees to leave, you’ll identify the factors that could potentially drive other employees out the door – and do something about it before it’s too late. “If one of your top employees is saying something in their exit interview, chances are, there are other people within the organization who feel the same way. While an exit interview will not “save” the employee who’s actually being interviewed, it may help you retain everybody else.

Use their talent- One of the most commonly cited reasons for employees to leave the companies they work for is a distinct lack of challenge in the work. They need challenges in order to stay engaged in the tasks at hand and committed to the job. It’s great to have a big picture plan but everyone contributing to that big picture needs challenges that are achievable but somewhat aggressive (not impossible) in order to make them feel like they have something important to bring to the table and keep them coming back Monday morning after Monday morning.They need to believe they have a future within the company and that the business has a vested interest in them. Look for new challenges and increasing responsibilities to give to employees who produce consistently good results so they’ll have ample incentive to continue doing so.

Elite Performers is a team of experts specializing in Consulting, Employee Engagement, Business and Life coaching for teams and individuals as well as Leadership training and development.
We help organizations get their people strategy right and achieve their objectives.

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How Teams Can Work Better Together

Working in teams can be both beneficial and challenging at the same time. Sharing work can be less than ideal if the team members don’t work well together. In most team settings, you’ll have a leader and one or two other people who share the workload for the entire team. This can lead to pent-up feelings of resentment on the part of the worker bees, and sometimes the other team members can feel left out. Teams that work well together can greatly increase workplace productivity and creates a more cohesive company culture. Here are some tips that will help your company’s teams work well together.

Communicate Openly

When communication channels in a team are properly established and information flows easily between teammates, then that increases the ability of staff members to interact, Team members learn how to interact more efficiently with each other to perform their job duties, and they are better able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each teammate. Encourage team members to ask questions and listen to one another. This helps to build better team dynamics and stronger relationships.

Eliminate Ambiguity by Defining Roles

Have you ever experienced complete frustration at work due to unclear roles and responsibilities?
These types of problems occur when employees are unclear about their roles and responsibilities. It becomes particularly difficult when a supervisor does not “give up” the tasks she assigned to her subordinate. In some cases, it is difficult for supervisors to let go.They can be easily solved with a one to one conversation in a meeting entitled “clarifying roles and responsibilities.” This conversation should be used to discuss the specific roles of each employee and clarify who is to do what task. This usually solves the problem, but there are times when it does not.Communication will not solve the problem when a person stubbornly holds onto a role that belongs to another. It also fails to solve the problem if two people disagree about who should perform the specific role.At this point, a third party must enter the conversation to provide clarification and expectations about each employee’s assignments.

Respect individuality

Individualism promotes creativity and innovation — the lifeblood of most corporations — but it’s not terribly popular. Instead, many companies look for employees who embrace the organization’s culture and play well with others. This all-for-one-and-one-for-all structure may feel secure to those who live within it, but it stifles individualism and could cost the company its edge over competitors. When a group of people with all different skills and personalities are put together to accomplish a certain task, understanding what each team member brings to the table is critical. Each team member needs to contribute his or her strengths in order for the team to function as one.

Trust-building exercises

Trust building exercises help a team increase team trust levels.Team-building activities can be a powerful way to unite a group, develop strengths, and address weaknesses – but only if the exercises are planned and carried out strategically. In other words, there has to be a real purpose behind your decision to do the exercise – for example, improving the team’s problem-solving or creativity skills as opposed to because you felt like giving your people a nice day out of the office.

Elite Performers is a team of experts specializing in Consulting, Employee Engagement, Business and Life coaching for teams and individuals as well as Leadership training and development.

We help organizations get their people strategy right and achieve their objectives.

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