Meet Your Goals

Monday 17 January 2011

Support to Help You 'Meet Your Goals' and Achieve Success

We all know that the economy has forced many people to reassess their careers and face up to tough challenges and choices. This can be an opportunity for positive change but it can also be very scary if you are unsupported.

Meet your Goals is an executive coaching business offering tailored support and resources to help you fight back. Our approach takes you on a very practical journey to establish what you need to meet your ambitions
Here is what some clients have said,

...."Thank you for all of the help you have given me – I have appreciated it so much. I hope your business continues to do well as you are a wonderful coach.... "   Kristy.

...."I am moving into a sales role on 1 October which, 12 months ago, I would have said was about as far out of my comfort zone as I could imagine. I am very grateful to you and to the very kind manager who arranged for me to meet you. It was definitely a turning point in my career as I would not have pushed myself otherwise. Every time I have my negative voice chipping away I will remember your fantastic advice ..."   Caroline.

....“Kathy always presents energy and enthusiasm in her work. She is focused, creative and highly motivated and consistently good natured. I hired Kathy from Meet your Goals, as a personal coach/mentor and she was a pleasure to work with. She is a true professional with excellent knowledge of her profession"   Tracey

...."I found Kathy charismatic, motivating, understanding and energising, with the ability to understand my vision and engage with me to achieve it. She is a real people person and I would not hesitate to recommend Kathy. She enabled me to gain confidence and greater self esteem and enabled me to believe in myself".   Vicki

Kathy Whymark, the principal coach and owner, says ‘We all have dreams that we would love to see become a reality. They will always remain dreams unless we take actions to move towards our desired outcomes. My role is to help clients create a set of well-crafted, compelling goals which detail exactly what they want and how they will get there.

Please contact us when you are ready to take the next steps to re-launching your career. To set up an initial, no obligation consultation, please call Kathy on 07826077140 or email mail@meetyourgoals.co.uk or visit our website http://www.meetyourgoals.co.uk

About Meet Your Goals
Meet your goals is an executive coaching and support business. Our services are designed to help you respond positively to the post credit crunch world so you can really ‘fire up’ your career.

Meet Your Goals: Strategies for becoming more assertive

In order to understand what is meant by assertive behaviour, it is necessary to think about what constitutes passive and aggressive styles of communication.

Passive style is characterised by:

· Inaction and indecision.

· A tendency to be easy to get along with and pleasant.

· An unwillingness to stand up for your rights for fear of offending others.

· Discomfort at expressing anger.

· A tendency to deny or suppress feelings.

· Resentment under the surface producing stress and tension.

Aggressive style is characterised by:

· Intrusiveness.

· Anger and domination that alienates others who oppose you.

· Usually suspicious of others.

· Stress and the inability to form close, trusting and caring interpersonal relationships.

Assertive style is characterised by:

· Fairness and strength of character.

· The ability to stand up for your rights in a non-threatening manner.

· Sensitivity to the rights and feelings of others.

· A relaxed and easy going style.

· Openness about your feelings.

· Good mechanisms for coping with stress and the ability to maintain long-standing intimate relationships.

A three line message

In a difficult situation where you want to say “no” but fear you will say “yes” or where the subject matter makes you feel uncomfortable, such as asking for a pay increase, it is advisable to prepare a three line message. This can take the following pattern:

· You understand and summarise the facts of the situation

· You indicate your feelings towards the situation

· Your state your requirements, reasons and benefits to the other person

For example:

When you………(state facts)

I feel uncomfortable …….. (state feelings)

I would like ……… (state requirements) and in this way we will be able to work more effectively together ……..(state benefits)

How can you be more assertive?

There are many strategies that will help you be more assertive. Here are a few to get you started:

· Acknowledge and be honest to yourself about your own feelings.

· Adopt a new positive inner dialogue for situations where you need to be more assertive.

· Be clear, specific and direct in what you say. Practice your communication beforehand.

· If appropriate, keep repeating your message if you encounter objections and remember to keep your voice down and your emotions in check.

· If necessary, ask for clarification if you are uncertain about something.

· Adopt appropriate body language to back up your assertion.

· Keep calm and stick to the point.

· Always respect the rights of the other person.

· Take time out if you feel weakened or threatened by the situation.

And finally

Ask these questions next time you have a difficult conversation planned:

· What is my desired outcome?

· At which point will I settle?

· What will I agree to ‘trade off’ in order to get a settlement?

· How can I express my message more clearly?

· How can I be more specific about what I say?

· Will I feel comfortable doing this?

· Can I stick to my message?

· What body language will I use to back up my message?

Coaches at Meet Your Goals can help with all aspects of career and performance management and meetings can be conducted face to face, by email at Kathy.whymark@meetyourgoals.co.uk or by telephone 01428 653977/ 07826 077140.

Professional Development in Credit Crunch Times

With the economy in free fall, continuous professional development (CPD) has never been so important. Contrary to popular belief CPD isn't just about training. And it's a good job that it isn't as training budgets are being squeezed and activities curtailed. CPD is much more than this; it is a combination of approaches, ideas and techniques that will help you manage your own learning and growth in order to meet your goals. Potential activities include: coaching, networking, shadowing, volunteering, action learning, seeking feedback, modelling behaviour on exceptional professionals and regularly practicing a specific behaviour, undertaking special project work and mentoring.

The focus of CPD is firmly on results; the benefits that professional development can bring you and you alone. An important thing to remember is that one size doesn't fit all. Wherever you are in your career now and whatever you want to achieve in the future, your CPD should be tailored to your needs.

The benefits are clear to see and aren't just felt when you're going for promotion or looking for a new role with a different employer. Many employers now value learning as a core competency and will be looking to see what actions you have taken in the recent past.

CPD helps builds your personal brand. It will offer you confidence and credibility as you can view your progression by tracking your learning. A further benefit is that very often you can earn more by showcasing your achievements or at least it helps you stand out from the crowd. This can be a particularly useful tool when you are discussing your performance at appraisal time. It can also help you achieve your career goals by focusing on your training and development needs.

From the organisational perspective it allows you to cope positively with change by continually updating your skills set. In addition you can become more productive and efficient by reflecting on your learning and highlighting gaps in your knowledge and experience base and by taking appropriate actions to remedy.

Finally it is useful to remember that CPD isn't a fixed process. Instead it is a question of setting yourself SMART development goals and then charting your progress towards achieving them. It's about where you want to be and how you plan to get there. To be really effective, the approach should be based on reflection; a practice that focuses on outcomes and results, rather than 'time spent' or 'things done'.

Meet Your Goals: Manage your professional brand

Tom Peters coined the phrase the 'brand called you' in the 1990's and self marketing has never been more important than it is today. To be successful professionals need to continually build and enhance their brand and this branding is a key differentiator that works on all levels. If you articulate a clear and simple message about how you offer value and this is delivered consistently over time it will help you stand out from the crowd.

The following checklist will help you successfully build your brand

· Gain insight – clearly understand what you have to offer? Using product branding principles you need to list your features and benefits. What are your skills and attributes and what is holding you back from taking action now? By clearly understanding your strengths you will be able to identify exactly how, and where, these specific strengths can help you in your current situation. In addition you may even be able to build your job around these strengths and be in a position to learn new skills and techniques to further build this strength. Furthermore, from this you may also find the opportunities that are missing in your current role remedy.

· Be mindful of brand supporting behaviours. Remember that everything you do, say or write adds value to, or takes value from, your own brand issue. For example, if you say you are results orientated and customer focused you must always deliver on your promises. This means that attention needs to be paid to the small things such as responding promptly to internal customer requests, setting ‘out of office’ notices and always meeting targets and deadlines.

This also extends to your work clothes. A professional who wishes to be taken seriously will not wear shorts and flip flops to an office.

· Raise your profile and get yourself known not only in your own organisation but also in your professional networks. There are a number of ways you can do this. Internally you can get involved, speak up at meetings, participate in projects, join committees and extend your list of contacts. Externally you can join a professional body, take courses and engage in volunteering activities.

· Pay attention to your learning. Not only does continuing professional development (CPD) help to build your personal brand it also can give you confidence and credibility as you view your progression by tracking your learning. Activities can include: coaching, networking, shadowing, action learning, seeking feedback, regularly practicing a specific behaviour and mentoring.

· Also learn from your mistakes. You can only learn from a mistake after you admit you’ve made it. As soon as you start blaming other people you distance yourself from any possible learning and growth. Very often substantial progress has only been made when mistakes have been identified, their causes analysed and new learning embedded.

And finally

Giving clear and consistent messages means you can still evolve and change as you should regularly evaluate your brand and make adjustments as and when necessary. Everyone has a chance to stand out. Everyone has a chance to learn, improve and build their skills. The more you learn the more you build a brand and the more you can offer back. The trick is to make your brand more useful and valuable to others.