Archive for December, 2008

Many people want to achieve success in their careers.  Far fewer have a clear overall goal for their career.  Having an overall career goal is about knowing just how far you want to climb the career ladder.  Maybe middle management is as far as you want to go.  Others might aspire to be a Director or even a CEO or Managing Director.  There are a range of benefits of having a clear career goal and these include:

1. Helping you to make the best choices about potential career opportunities.
2. Helping you determine where career fits into your overall lifestyle priorities.
3. Avoiding taking short term decisions that are detrimental to achieving your end goal.

As well as having a clear career goal consider the sacrifices that you are willing and not willing to make to achieve it.  Also take the time to carry out some formal assessment of your strengths so that you can determine whether you are a good fit for the different types of roles that you might aspire to gain.

At the end of the day there is no certainty when it comes to career success but establishing a clear end goal can greatly enhance your chance of achieving what you want.

There is a great phrase that I came across which really captures the benefit of having goals.  Goals are merely dreams or desires with legs.  If you are a leader, I am sure that you want to be a success and setting goals is one of the key tools that you can use to achieve success.  So what are 5 main reasons to set goals?

 

Reason 1: Increased Focus

 

If you have a goal it gives you focus something to aim for, a target or vision to work to.  The desire to achieve that target keeps you focussed on the things that matter to achieving the outcome that you want rather than getting distracted.

 

Reason 2: Higher Motivation

 

Achieving or making progress towards a goal can be hugely motivating.  Imagine for example you want to improve your time management.  When you start you probably struggle to keep to the discipline of planning your day, keeping track of your time and managing interruptions.  Pretty quickly you start to see that the actions you are taking are having a real impact which drives and motivates you to do more.

 

Reason 3: More Success

 

If you set yourself a goal you are more likely to succeed.  Once you set an idea in your mind that you are going to do something, there is likely to be a much greater chance of success.  Why? The reason is that you will go the extra mile to achieve it.

 

Reason 4: Confidence Building

 

If you start setting and achieving goals your confidence will rise.  I use myself as an example.  I left school at 16 with basic qualifications.  I started an Accountancy Diploma at night school.  Each time I passed a set of exams it gave me the confidence to tackle the next level.  Eventually I qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant.  It gave may the confidence to apply for more and more senior jobs.

 

Reason 5:  Personal Growth

 

Every time we set a goal we grow as a person.  The reason for this is that we are probably going to have to develop or learn about something to achieve it.  Chances are we might even have to step out of our comfort zone to do it.  Maybe there was a time when you had to work really hard to achieve a goal around a presentation or proposal.  I am sure that in the process of achieving the goal you learned a lot of new skills and about what you could achieve if you put your mind to it.

 

Bottom Line – Goals lead to action and action leads to results.  So what goals will you set to achieve even more success as a leader?

Staff appraisals are an ideal opportunity to provide feedback and provide motivation for employees.  So what are the 6 key areas that you need to cover in a staff appraisal meeting:

1. The appraisal purpose
2. Employee self assessment of performance
3. Manager feedback on performance
4. Development plans
5. Career plans
6. Objectives for next period

What else would you add to the list?

Being a leader can be rewarding and at the same time challenging.  Enthusiasm is a key characteristic of being a successful leader.  So what are some of the key benefits of being an enthusiastic leader?

Benefit 1: Others follow 

Who would you be most likely to follow.  Someone who is upbeat and focuses on results or someone who focuses on circumstances?

Benefit 2: People deliver more

Have you noticed that you deliver more and go that extra step when you are working alongside someone who is enthusiastic?   I know I have.

Benefit 3: You become a role model

People who want to achieve success, look to people who they already view as successful leaders to learn from them.  Enthusiastic leaders become a role model and someone to learn from.

Benefit 4: You build a reputation

As someone who finds a way of achieving and inspiring others even when the going gets tough.

Benefit 5: You achieve personal success

If you are enthusiastic, authentic, inspirational to others and have a reputation for getting results, personal success will follow.

I have recently being doing a survey on peoples biggest challenges.  One of the most common challenges seems to be time management.  So if you are challenged when it comes to your time, what can you do about it?

1. Plan how you are going to use it
2. Set time limits for individual tasks
3. Look at your time stealers and tackle them
4. Don’t set yourself up for failure by being overly optimistic about what you can achieve
5. Keep a track of where your time is going

What else would you add to the list?

Delivering a training course recently, I was really impressed how one group used real life comparisons to illustrate some of the characteristics of the best teams.  As an example, one pointed to one of the reasons a choir works so well is that everyone has a very clearly defined role.  Team members in business teams also need to have clearly defined roles.

So often it is all too easy to fall into the trap of looking at things such as business challenges through a limited business lens.  I wonder just how many more ideas we could generate if we simply looked beyond a single lens and drew on the wealth of experiences that we all have.

Selection interviews are still the most common way of appointing new staff.  If you are the candidate, your objective is to persuade those hiring that you are the best person for the job.  Having been interviewed many times myself and interviewed loads of applicants, I believe that there are 5 things that you must be able to demonstrate in job interviews:

1. Experience so that you can step into the role and make an impact from day one.  Remember you are unlikely to be able to show experience in every aspect of the job but look for areas where you have something similar to what is required.
2. Results and achievements.  Too often candidates focus on talking about their responsibilities rather than what they have delivered in terms of results.
3. Potential.   Recruiting someone is expensive so it is important to demonstrate that you have the potential to grow and progress within the organisation.
4. Fit.  Employers want to know that you can get on with others and work successfully as part of a team.
5. Confidence.  At interviews we are all nervous.  Being confident is about knowing and believing that you have something to offer.  The way you interact during the interview and handle challenging questions demonstrates confidence.

Job interviews are not always predictable but I believe that you can increase your chances of success by focusing on the above areas.

It is claimed that some people fear giving a presentation more than death.  So what are my top tips for delivering a great presentation?

1. Check the equipment in advance
2. Make sure you know how to load the presentation
3. Take a few minutes to relax before giving a presentation
4. Don’t try to memorise words, just remember your headline and key messages
5. Pace yourself
6. Try not to be too serious- remember it is not life or death
7. Have fun

What tips do you offer when it comes to delivering a great presentation?