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At Phoenix we always place a great emphasis on understanding exactly what it is our clients are trying to achieve.  This part of the training process is so valuable and yet it is so rarely done as effectively as it might.  At best, it involves a meeting with a selection of key stakeholders, whereupon broad objectives are agreed and content is designed around these.  In many cases it is simply based upon managerial observations and anecdotal feedback which does not always get to the root of the real development issues.  What’s more, the participants themselves are rarely involved in this process which is also not ideal.  By consulting with at least some of those who will actually be attending the training, you not only get a better chance of designing something relevant but also of establishing participant “buy-in”.

This is a particular concern when designing content for telephone sales workshops.  We are often told that the participants need help on a particular skill – for example, closing, negotiating or questioning.  No problem – we’ll design something around these and in many cases, what we design will work pretty effectively and provide the participants with some key tools and techniques that will improve their results.  But how much better could it have been, had we been able to do some real analysis and actually listen to the quality of calls that the participants have been making to their potential or existing clients.

Call recording equipment has been around for many years, however, it is expensive to install and has usually only been utilised at larger call centre operations.  Improved technology has however now made it very easy for any type of organisation to benefit from call recording and here at Phoenix, we have really begun to see just how useful it can be.  Phonecoach provide a very straightforward system which enables call recording simply by adding a prefix to the number dialled – there’s no hardware involved and all the recorded calls are automatically saved as MP3 files.

By being able to listen to exactly what is being said, by both sales person and customer, we are in a much better position to identify what’s working and what skills need further developing.  From a design point of view this “reality check” enables us to focus only on those areas that really need it, ensuring that the training is lean and extremely relevant.  Where appropriate, we can even use the recorded calls to illustrate key learning points during the training itself – which can also be very powerful for the participants.

For just £24 + vat, we can record up to 500 minutes of calls, which is usually enough to get a good selection of a team’s telephone sales activity over a week or so.  After some thorough analysis, we report our findings back to the client and only then, will we design a course based on what’s actually happening.  This ensures that any sloppy techniques can be instantly identified & addressed, leading to a direct impact on an individual’s sales performance. Which is, after all, exactly what any high quality sales training should do.

It read like this -

“I am working for the French Business Schools since 2004, and I am in charge of helping some French students to find a company based in London for their UNPAID Internships.

There is NO fees, NO expenses for your company as it is a TOTALLY UNPAID Internship (We are covering ALL the expenses, There is NO Costs, NO Expenses, NO Fees for your company).”

Having read it a couple more times and briefly mulled over the potential of employing a French student, my rather cautious nature kicked in and I quickly dismissed the whole idea.

A few days later, a colleague and I were reviewing a recent meeting with our online marketing consultants.  We had been told in no uncertain terms that we needed to undertake a major piece of analysis before we could begin to implement a truly effective campaign. Of course, this analysis called for the one thing we’re in really short supply of right now – our time.  However, as the prospect of late nights and a weekend spent in the office loomed, my thoughts returned to that email.

There were a few raised eyebrows when I put forward the idea at our weekly meeting and I must admit that I was as sceptical as anyone at first. However, having done a bit of research I begun to warm to the idea and a few days after having declared our interest, we arranged a telephone interview with our prospective intern – Ms Chéryl Bourjac.  Chéryl, who is originally from Guadeloupe, was in her second year at the ISC Business School in Paris and needed to spend six weeks working for a UK based company as part of her degree.

Although the conversation was brief, I felt thoroughly reassured by her enthusiasm and agreed there and then to offer a six week internship at Phoenix.

Chéryl has now been with us for two weeks and her assistance to all parts of the business has been invaluable.  She has already completed the first stage of the marketing analysis and has impressed us all with her strong work ethic and attention to detail.  At the same time, her English is improving quickly and I’m sure that she is learning a lot from working in a company like Phoenix.

Overall, I’m delighted that we agreed to the internship and I would certainly have no hesitation in doing so again.  I think that the scepticism we have for such placements probably stems from the concept of work experience which here in the UK has always been associated with surly school children showing little or no interest in the job.  In Europe, “Internships” are viewed as a key part of many College courses and provide a valuable experience for both parties – which is exactly how we both feel now.   If your company gets a similar opportunity, do please try it – if it’s anything like our experience, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how it works out.

Whatever the result of the General Election taking place in the UK today, the expectation is that there is a period of belt-tightening on its way.  Some are even talking about an ‘Age of Austerity’, and I think that may well be the case, relative to the past 30 years at least.  The UK’s public indebtedness is so large that in order to reduce the deficit, cuts in spending by government plus rises in taxes seem to be a certainty.

However, the economy has only recently come back to growth and no administration will want to send us back into recession if they can help it, so whoever ends up in charge at Downing St (numbers 10 & 11) will want to manage the process of debt reduction without stifling the business recovery.

So, we wait to see whether and where the axe will fall – and those of us in Learning & Development wait specifically to see the ramifications for us.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to predict that the public sector will see major cutbacks, in budgets, in staffing levels, perhaps both.  In the private sector, increased taxation (however it comes) may discourage firms from taking on additional headcount in the short term.  But it’s my view that this period is bringing with it great opportunity for improving organisational productivity.  We have already seen that the recession of the past couple of years has forced a lot of organisations to be leaner and more focused, and the prescription looks like being more of the same going forward.

Whatever happens, planners and senior managers in both sectors (and the third sector too) will surely be looking for increased efficiency – getting more out of less – and it’s not before time as far as many parts of the public sector are concerned.

The big question for managers and learning & development professionals is what the impact of the new austerity will be on development budgets.  The obvious response and instinct from some will be a thick red line through the training allocation; but those who stop to think it through may actually go the other way…

For if the objective is to get more done, to a higher standard, by fewer people, then training has a massive role to play.  It’s not enough to tell people to work harder – you need to give them the tools to work smarter.  Where working hours are closely defined and overtime attracts a premium cost, the challenge is really to overhaul mindsets and eliminate wastage, both of which training & coaching can help with.  The private sector faces the same to differing degrees, plus it has the added challenge of fierce competition for talent, and retaining the talent it attracts.

Dealing with change, effective leadership, improved communication, better performance management, alignment of team goals, efficient time & self management… The list is long.  These are fundamental skills and behaviours that learning & development can improve, and they are the drivers that will deliver the efficiencies that organisations everywhere need in the years to come.

Compared to what Ken Blanchard calls the ‘cost of doing nothing’, tailored, targeted and professional training & development can make a huge contribution to pulling the UK out of the mire – the key is to concentrate on outcomes and use professionals with proven track record.

Tim Holmes, Director

This was no doubt partly due to the fact that we couldn’t really offer our clients anything along these lines, but more so due to my belief that this type of training was the very antithesis of everything that makes Phoenix special.

Our focus has always been on delivering practical, results based training where the emphasis is on what gets done differently once participants return to work, not on how many credits they have been awarded or what type of certificate they will receive.  In my experience, too much training is simply commissioned on the basis of what form of recognition the participants get.  Traditionally, this is meant to provide some form of motivation but if the training is not up to scratch, then no matter what they receive at the end, participant levels of engagement will still sink very quickly.

Having said all that, we have often wished for some kind of independent recognition for the quality of our delivery and content and who better to provide this than the Institute of Leadership & Management – the world’s best known accrediting body.

Through their endorsed award scheme, the ILM have provided us with the ideal solution.  Phoenix have been able to retain all the best aspects of our programmes’ content and delivery, whilst adding an assessment section that ensures the participants put into practice everything that they have learnt on the course.  In many ways, the additional assessment has really strengthened our offering and it fits perfectly with our results focussed training.  Now participants and their colleagues will see exactly how the learning has been used, as it has to be documented on a regular basis over a six week period.  A 500 word case study is also required which again will indicate the participants’ understanding of the content and how best to use it.

On successful completion of both the course and the assessment, participants are indeed awarded an ILM certificate however, for most participants this is only a subsidiary benefit.  The real prize is becoming a better manager and leader and being able to demonstrate this to their colleagues.

Phoenix currently deliver ILM Endorsed open courses in Essential Management Skills & Inspirational Leadership and are about to offer endorsed modular programmes in both Management & Leadership Skills.  Our unique approach, style of delivery and focus on results will remain as strong as ever, but with the ILM’s Endorsement our products are now even more attractive to a wide range of clients & participants across the world.

I will always believe that good training should be about improving performance and delivering results, but if you can achieve this and also provide participants with some kind of appropriate recognition then perhaps we have an ideal solution.

Written by Oliver Osmond – Sales Director

I cycle all year round, I cycle to work, I cycle to the pub, to see friends, to the cinema. Sometimes I cycle just a few miles a day, sometimes eighty or more.  It’s an exhilarating pastime, but at times, a frustrating one.  When I first started riding a bike in London I was terrified.  I found driving in the City daunting enough, but on a bike, sharing the roads with cars, lorries and buses was like nothing I’d ever experienced.  Like many adults that turn to cycling, I hadn’t ridden since childhood, I knew nothing of bikes, of v-brakes, of rear derailleurs and bottom brackets; of chainwhips and star nuts.  I was uninitiated, confused and a little nervous.  I did almost everything wrong.  I bought the wrong bike, the wrong clothing, the wrong lock.  I couldn’t change gear properly, I couldn’t fix a puncture, I rode in the gutter and my bike handling skills were awful.  I was knocked off and knocked out by a black cab, I spent 4 hours in A&E, I had my top lip stitched back together.   I didn’t ask for help, but I wasn’t offered any.

Unfortunately this is the default position.  You buy a bike and off you go.  A good shop might give you a quick run down on the correct use of gears and brakes, might make some suggestions around what other kit you’ll need, many won’t.  Cycling is enjoying an unprecedented boom in London and the UK.  The big cycling chains have all opened new branches in London over the past few months and are reaping the benefits.  Yet I’ve never come across a shop that advertises what training and support is available, let alone offers any sort of training to their customers.  Of course this isn’t their job, but it wouldn’t hurt them to point out to new cyclists that there are resources available, and places you can turn to, places like the CTC?  These days even TFL have got in on the act, although they don’t make things particularly easy – requiring form filling and the (ever empty) promise that someone ‘will be in touch with more information.’

I gleaned my knowledge from trial and error, cycling forums, the inestimable Sheldon Brown (RIP) and manufacturer sites like Park Tool.  All very useful for understanding more about bikes themselves, less useful for understanding how to ride safely in a busy city like London.  This is where training would be invaluable.  Perhaps there’s an assumption among new cyclists that you don’t need to learn how to ride a bike in a city environment, that training is somehow unnecessary, or only for children.  Or perhaps they simply aren’t aware that there is help out there if you can take the time to look.  Sadly the lack of training usually results in people riding badly, something I see every day, whether its scattering pedestrians as they ride blithely across busy zebra crossings; risking death by riding on the inside of buses and HGV’s; cycling in the dark with no lights or reflectives or cruising through red lights.  The vast majority of these cyclists seem totally unaware of the potential consequences of their actions.  It’s this that I find so frustrating.  Not only are they endangering themselves and others, but their basic lack of ‘cycle-sense’ does nothing to encourage harmonious relations between pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.  I’m sure much of this poor cycling stems from a ignorance, a lack of skills and perhaps a lack of confidence, all things that effective training always looks to address.

I’m not advocating compulsory cycle training, but perhaps if the cycling industry, government and local authorities were a little more vocal in promoting training we could reduce accidents and fatalities and ultimately encourage more people on to two wheels?

Written by James Ashburnham – Relationship Manager

As I write this blog I feel slightly embarrassed that after nearly fifteen years of running my own business, today was the first time that I attended a networking event.  I have been to conferences and seminars but not an out and out networking event.  I have to say that I have always been a bit dismissive of the idea of going to such an event.  My impression of a networking event was of lots of people all selling their products and services at each other.  I now realise that networking events could be like that but also could offer a lot more to those who attend.

The event I attended was hosted by the Southwark Chamber of Commerce.  When we arrived we were greeted positively and encouraged to grab a cup of tea or coffee and “mingle”.  At this point I thought “here we go” small talk time and was quite pleased to discover that there didn’t appear to be anymore tea available so I quickly made myself busy seeking out some more.  However, once the tea had arrived and my fellow tea drinkers and I started to introduce ourselves and chat, I realised that it is the small talk that gets it all going.  Lots of people find small talk a little awkward, talking to those that you don’t know can often be difficult.  The networking event environment actually helps you here.  The fact that you don’t know anybody means that you have to dive in.  There appeared to be a collective sense of “well we’re here so we might as well talk”.  I suppose that is obvious and seasoned networkers would understand this.  After a short period we were invited into a dining room where breakfast was to be served.  A sit down breakfast, again not what I was expecting, I thought a bit of mingling, few cups of tea, breakfast with those who you came with and go!

As my colleague, James and I entered the dining room, I decided that there was no point sitting next to him, so I headed to the other end of the table and found myself sitting at the head of the table, a chair others had avoided I think.  First good decision:  don’t sit next to your colleague, it is comfortable but limits your networking options.  I found myself next to a guy called Tony and a lady called Chica without going into detail, they worked for very different organisations.  I soon got into the swing of introducing myself to others around my end of the table but the Chair of the Chamber of Commerce also asked everyone to formally introduce themselves in turn to everyone round the table.  People took their chance to make a good impression and it gave everyone a chance to identify who they might want to have a chat with at some point.  The Chair of the Chamber welcomed us all and reminded us of what the Chamber was all about and it made me start to think about other benefits of this type of event.

The dining room created a very open environment that encouraged conversation and the attendees were taking their chance.  Chica and I did have a chat about training and our roles in the organisations we worked in but actually the bulk of our conversation was about the changing face of South London.  Tony gave me some ideas about how we might go about printing up some training documents and manuals, which was food for thought at the very least.  OK, I didn’t make the deal of the century, James seems to have made more progress in that department.

I did leave with the feeling that I would certainly attend such an event again and felt that somewhere along the line these conversations and contacts will lead to something.  That something may be some training being sold but it also might mean when I do need some printing, some financial advice, a new business property or a self portrait for my office, I might know just the person to contact.  So I now view these events as not just about promoting what we do, they are also about finding out what others do and how they do it.  Overall, I think the message is “don’t underestimate the networking event”.  Make the most of them not only as way of promoting your business but as a way of creating a support network to draw upon.

Foot note:  one day after this event somebody booked onto one of our Introduction to Sales courses as a direct result of a conversation had at the event.  So I am now even keener on networking events!

Written by Bill Osmond – MD

Our broad experience has taught us much, but today I’d like to focus on one key area – Buying Training.

Many organisations make the mistake of buying training as a reactive response to a perceived problem – i.e. arranging sales training if the figures have dropped off, or management training if staff morale is low. The problem with such reactive training is that it tends to be generic or (to coin an awful HR phrase), ‘sheep dip’ in nature, the kind of training that tackles the symptoms and not the cause. Typically this approach to training results in a short-term lift but changes nothing in the long term, effectively offering very little return on investment, and in the worst case, actually disengaging staff and hindering their development.

With that in mind here are four things to think about when arranging training:

1: What are you trying to achieve?

Before arranging any training, it is vital to have an understanding of what you want to achieve, and why. Put simply, the training must be designed to address the requirements of the participants. Sending sales people who struggle to close deals on a ‘closing skills’ course, may appear to be logical at first sight, but what if the underlying reason for their difficulty lies elsewhere – for example in poor questioning skills, or in the way they are managed? So talk to your staff, and talk to training providers, be open to new ideas and be ready to have your assumption challenged.

2: Train the right people!

You’d be amazed how often our trainers hear the phrase ‘my manager needs to go on this course.’ When thinking about training, you need to make sure that you are focusing on the right people. For example, if a sales team are underperforming, then it may mean that they need some help, but what about the sales manager? Is the team’s performance down to them? Perhaps the manager lacks the skills to motivate and support their staff effectively. If this is the case, then all the sales training in the world will not address the root cause. The same goes for middle managers, ask yourself, can any of their issues be traced upwards? What behaviours do the senior management team display, and are any of the negatives trickling down. Senior people can find it hard to admit that they’d like some support, but there’s nothing remedial about good training, personal development can only be positive.

3: Make the training relevant!

Sadly we often meet clients who have previously suffered poor training. Sometimes this is down to weak delivery, but often the cause is simpler – the training was not participant relevant. If participants cannot see how to link what they are learning back to their own roles, then at best they may find the training interesting, but not particularly useful, and at worst they may be bored and irritated. In order to be effective, training must be made relevant on a personal level. In practice this means effective pre-course consultancy – ensuring the provider understand participant requirements as well as organisational ones. By keeping group sizes small you can ensure that participants are able to fully engage with the trainer, and understand how to apply what they are learning to their workplace.

4: The importance of support.

Before embarking on any training, whether it be a one day course or a full blown programme, we’d recommend that you think very carefully about how you plan to support the training. Effective support is absolutely key to the success of any training event; without support it is almost impossible to embed learning and sustain any long term improvement in performance. Staff should come back from any training event feeling excited, motivated and eager to put new ideas and skills to the test. Invariably not everything new they try will work first time, they may meet resistance from colleagues, lack the confidence to make changes, or just struggle to transfer classroom learnt skills to the reality of the workplace. If there are no systems in place to support newly trained staff, then the vast majority of them will lapse back in to old habits, effectively rendering the training worthless. On the other hand, well supported staff will maintain momentum and continue to improve and develop. There are many ways of providing support, but in our experience there are two broad methods which prove particularly effective when combined:

Firstly, ensure that management are fully aware of what the training entailed. This may mean just reading the course agenda, arranging a debrief with the provider, with the stakeholders, or just pending time speaking with their staff about the training. Only by understanding what the training entailed can managers hope to provide valuable support. There’s nothing more damaging to training effectiveness than a manager who appears disinterested, or simply expects their staff to improve post-training, without offering to support them!

Secondly, ensure that staff take responsibility for their own development. At Phoenix we ask participants to complete a personal action plan. This doesn’t have to be anything major, just a commitment to trying out some new ideas or making a few changes on the back of the training. Ideally these plans should be shared with line managers and followed up on – if the participant has met their goals then this is an opportunity for praise (and a great indicator of success), if they are struggling then it’s an opportunity to provide further support and encourage development.

James Ashburnham, Client Manager, Phoenix Training

As Phoenix continue to grow steadily, having recently taken on another full time trainer, we decided that now would be a good time to review our existing office and training space and explore the possibility of moving into somewhere larger.

The recession has led to a surplus of office space in central London and we thought that there would be a good chance of securing a long term lease at a bargain price.  What’s more, we were sure that London’s lettings agents would be falling over themselves to convince us of the value of their properties and how they would be just ideal for a training company with our particular needs.  Sadly, our experience of the latter could not have been more different.

Now, I know estate agents are an easy target but I can assure you that this isn’t yet another dig at the profession as a whole.  It is however designed to expose the lack of basic sales skills that those we met displayed, and to reinforce how critical it is to have the core skills in place before you can even hope to sell in today’s tough markets.

On arriving at the first potential office, we were left hanging around for 15 minutes before the agent finally arrived.  We’re all late on occasions and there may well have been a good reason, but the very least we could have expected was a call to manage our expectations.  Every week, I’m amazed by sales people who think that it is acceptable to turn up ten, fifteen or even thirty minutes late without so much as a phone call.  It’s not, and in most cases you’ve lost the sale before you’ve even begun.

Nevertheless, we’re still keen buyers so, on this occasion, the agent’s transgression will be forgotten if he can really convince us of how this office space will work for us.  On first inspection, it all looks pretty good – modern, stylish and in a great location – but we just couldn’t visualise where the training room would go, mainly because the whole space was still a shell.  We turn to the expert for inspiration, but he’s actually walked away to the other side of the space to take a mobile phone call, and is merrily chatting away oblivious to us!  The moment is lost.  On finally regaining his attention, his answers lack conviction and we’re left totally unconvinced by the potential of the office.  On reflection, the phone incident, though scarcely believable, was hopefully a never to be repeated mistake; however, from a sales perspective, the lack of expertise was even more worrying and is actually very common indeed.  If you’re going to sell anything – property, software, pharmaceuticals, even training services – you must know all there is to know about your product or service and be able to relate this knowledge to your customer.

Despite our initial experience, we were still in the market for a new office, so headed off to view another couple of options with high hopes.  Both agents were on time which was a good start and both had properties with real potential and yet, once again, simple mistakes were made that resulted in the collapse of the sale.  At the first, we were left abandoned in the office whilst the agent enjoyed some banter with the builders over the road!  With no one to ask about the details, how could we be expected to commit?  Just like our mobile phone friend, they demonstrated an unbelievable lack of interest in us.

The next and final viewing was going well, until the agent admitted that the landlord was not interested in the property as a whole and that he doubted he’d be willing to modernize the 1970’s décor in the common areas.  Now honesty is a real virtue, but by creating a picture of uncertainty and possible conflict with the landlord, he immediately lost us.  Potential customers want assurances and certainty before they commit, not vagueness and ambiguity.

You may think that I’ve exaggerated things here, but I can assure you these experiences are very real indeed and I’m sure they are repeated in sales situations in many different markets.  One final thing that struck me with all three agents, was that not one of them even asked us what we actually did – maybe they already knew, but it is this lack of basic questioning and interest in our business that meant we were never going to commit.    Maybe we just got a bad bunch who have got lazy, simply used to taking orders rather than actually selling, but in the current climate a return to the basics would go a long way to winning more business.

We’ve now given up the search for a new office, instead looking for a larger space at our current Leathermarket site run by Workspace.  What’s more, we’ve recently run some training events for their site managers to make sure that they properly engage with the customers and create a fantastic picture of what the office will look like once they’ve moved in. After all, it’s this image that will create the real desire in the customer to move in.  Simple but effective.

Oliver Osmond – Sales Director, Phoenix Training

The focus of the day was about working more effectively together and increasing trust and communication throughout the team. Following a consultation with two members of the Executive team, an event was designed that would highlight the business challenges that were currently being faced and the positive impact that effective teamwork, communication and collaboration would have on both the results and the engagement and motivation of the whole team

I had heard a lot about team building days previously and I always wondered what they were about and what participants actually learn on a day like this. Even more importantly, I had questioned how what happened on a team building day would link back to the everyday working environment. I have to say though that the whole event really opened my eyes; it was delivered in a really unique style, incorporating high levels of creativity, interaction and challenge!

One of the things that I noticed was that initially the participants were a bit reluctant to put all their trust in each other believing that they were in competition, although that was never in the brief they received. Once they realised that by working together they could achieve more, they began to share information and resources with amazing results.

Through effective communication, collaboration, teamwork and trust, everyone worked more efficiently and tasks were finished far quicker. The difference in the levels of individual and collective motivation, commitment to the task and quality of the results was astounding.

As we started the review of the activity, one of things that I found most interesting was that it was the participants, rather than waiting for the facilitator to do it, that recognised and highlighted many of the things that I have mentioned. Talking openly about what had happened during the activity and the impact that it had on them, they also started to relate many of the examples to work specific situations. Finally, and without much prompting, they also began to plan how they needed to take the ‘learns’ from the activity and apply them back at work to achieve a truly collaborative result.

Having observed the event and spoken with the members of the Executive team, it is apparent that the Team Building day is simply the first step towards the embedding of a new set of team behaviours that will improve results even further. The Executive team were quick to recognise that to embed and sustain the change, will require their time and continued focus to make the new behaviours habitual.

Yapp Brothers have begun this process and are already beginning to establish their ground rules. It is these behavioural ground rules that will underpin the vision, values and performance of the company going forward.  Phoenix has and will continue to support this process. Three months later it is clear to everyone that the day was not simply fun but more importantly it has created a real difference in their work environment with the participants consistently still demonstrating the collaborative team behaviours and seeing a tangible difference in motivation and results .

One of the conclusions that I drew from attending the event is that a day out of the office rather than just being fun needs to give people a chance to stop for a moment, step back from their day to day tasks and spend a bit of time re-evaluating their strengths & development areas.  People need to be given the opportunity to ask themselves – what works for me currently or what am I good at? What is more challenging or more difficult?  How can I begin to work or build upon and address these areas? And finally what help, direction or support do I need for others around me?  From a team perspective, a day like this offers the chance for people to get to know each other again even often after working together for years. It can be a real eye opener for people to become more aware of and appreciate others’ strengths. They can then truly start to recognise and implement  their strengths to achieve the maximum individual, collective and business potential.

It was a brilliant day and I’m really looking forward to getting involved in another event soon!

Well another year has passed and it’s time for a new set of New Year resolutions that you won’t stick to past the end of the first week.

I’ve heard this comment many times over the last couple of days and have been guilty of saying it to others as well.

Statements like that seem a bit negative really, why won’t your friend be able to abstain from drinking, why won’t you be able to lose that couple (in your dreams, more like a stone) of pounds that you have gained over the last six months and why won’t you be able to look after yourself more and get fitter? The answer to all of these questions is, of course, you can if you really want it enough.

There a couple of things that I really want to achieve over the next six months or so, I know I can do it but I don’t want to tempt fate by telling everyone what they are just yet… I have decided to be one of the people who actually wants to achieve something first before I tell everyone what it is I am trying to achieve. I have made the mistake too many times before of telling people what I am going to do only to end up with egg on my face.   Having said that I don’t have the best track record with resolutions, maybe that is because I kept telling everybody what my resolutions were and they kept telling me that I wouldn’t stick at it past the first week. Isn’t it funny how if you keep telling someone something, eventually they will believe it!

I suppose what I’m really talking about here is setting myself a couple of Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound (SMART) goals.

Someone once told me that ‘the difference between lots of activity and lots of productivity is a good process’.

SMART is a good process and like many of the leadership and management tools and processes, the most work comes up front. I find that coming up with a really Specific goal is actually pretty hard.

In order to make SMART work there are some things that need to be considered:

Specific – “What is happening or where are you currently?” “What exactly do you want or need to achieve and why is it important to you?” and “What difference will achieving it make?”

Once you have identified the goal you want to work on, using the remainder of the SMART model will really help to support you in making it happen and keep the negativity at bay. There are a couple of quick and simple ideas for each of these:

Measurable - Make sure that your goal is tangible; can you see, feel and quantify the difference?

Achievable - Do you have the resources that you need to make this happen? E.g. learning to drive, do you have access to a car to practise in?

Realistic – In the ‘real’ world opposed to  the ‘happy clappy’ training world is this a practical goal?  My advice would be to have lots of small check points along the way as opposed to one massive goal. Taking this approach has a dual purpose. 1. It is easier to measure small steps and every time you reach one of the milestones you have achieved something. 2. You will keep both the internal and the external negativity at bay.

Time Bound – So when are you going to start and when will you need to achieve your goal by?

Ok, got all of that?  Now, all we need to do is start doing it rather than just talking about it.  One of the things that I really want to achieve this year is….

See, already I nearly gave the game away and told you about my resolutions before I had even started.

I’m off now to rewrite some of my resolutions.

Good luck to you all, I promise to tell you later about mine if you tell me about yours.