Monday Mindset: Mind, Body and Business

Posted on 09 April 2012 by

Taking Care Of It AllThere is a basic principle of NLP that says ‘the mind and the body are all one system’. So as well as taking care of your mindset, how about taking care of your body?

It’s probably all too familiar to you that it’s hard to do your best work or make good decisions if you haven’t had enough sleep, had too much alcohol or you’re suffering with some physical ailment. Most people will do the ‘sensible’ thing and go to bed early the night before an important meeting or event.

How often though, do you take care of yourself simply to face an ordinary day in the office? And do you know what physical factors make the greatest difference to your overall well-being? For example, lots of people drink several cups of coffee in a day. For some, that’s fine. For others, who are not aware of their sensitivity to caffeine, those regular cups of coffee could be causing a level of physical stress that would be a barrier to working effectively.

Some people work in cramped conditions, huddled over a laptop in a corner of the dining room or spare bedroom. If that’s you and you don’t remember to stretch regularly, your mind will become as cramped as your body.

So today, take stock of how well you’re treating your body and become aware of how you can enhance your mindset by boosting your physical well-being.

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Guest blog post – written by:
Dianne LowtherMaster Trainer of NLPDianne Lowther is a Master Trainer of NLP and Principal of Brilliant Minds. She specialises in applications of NLP for leadership and business results.

Monday Mindset: Are you a Multiplier or a Diminisher?

Posted on 02 April 2012 by

Multipliers: How The Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter I’ve just finished reading a GREAT book: Multipliers: How The Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown.

The book is written primarily for leaders in corporate organizations – but the messages and lessons are equally applicable for you as a coach, if you have any kind of team. (And if you’re a Mum with any number of kids, as I’m finding out in my own household!)

The main premise of the book is that managers who work with people by being Multipliers get 2.1 times MORE from their people than people who think and behave as Diminishers.

Now don’t get me wrong – I know I need to work on many of these myself so I’m not sharing this with you from a place of ‘this is what I do’ but I’m certainly determined to progress along this path from this point forward. In fact I’m even a little nervous of my team reading this post as I know they’ll recognize many of the Diminisher traits in me right now – but that’s great – I’m up for being challenged on them as I grow into  Multiplier.

My hope is that you get this book and decide to join me on this journey.

Are you up for it?

So with that said – here are the main beliefs and assumptions of a Diminisher – (the other end of the spectrum of the Multiplier) – see if you recognize yourself in any of these…

  1. “Really intelligent people are a rare breed and I am one of the few really smart people.”
  2. “Other people will never figure things out without me.”
  3. “People who don’t ‘get it’ now never will therefore I’ll have to keep doing the thinking for everybody.”
  4. “I need to tell people what to do, make all the important decisions and jump in and take over when someone appears to be failing”

And the results of these assumptions? You will almost always be right because your assumptions cause you to manage in a way that produces subordination and dependency.

Contrast this with the mindset and behaviours of the Multiplier:

  1. “People are smart and they will figure it out and get even smarter in the process.”
  2. “People get smarter by being challenged.”
  3. “If I can find someone’s genius I can put them to work.”
  4. “I give full ownership of the task to this person AND allow them to experience the natural consequences of their actions, whether good or bad – I don’t step in and ‘rescue’ them”

Phew! A pretty tough challenge eh? Especially if you’re a bit of a ‘recovering lone ranger’ like me! The authors have a great 30 Day Challenge to help you move along the continuum to become more of a Multiplier – go check out the book.

There’s also a test you can take right here to see if you’re an Accidental Diminisher – love to know what you find out! http://multipliersbook.com/accidental-diminisher/

Monday Mindset: What to do if you’re having a shit day

Posted on 19 March 2012 by

It's Shit! Or is it?OK let’s be blunt here – some days, running your business is quite simply, shit.

Oh, for the perks of a real job, where people say ‘thank you’ and ‘great job’ and you get paid just as much whether you’re at work or on holiday and they have a canteen so you don’t have to make your own lunch and people just hand you work so you don’t have to go find your own and you get a nice steady cheque every month and you get to hang out with actual real in-the-flesh people rather than just over skype or facebook.

Phew!

Sometimes you just have to get this off your chest!

I remember thinking when I first started out in my business that once I ‘had got this business thing cracked’, I wouldn’t have days like that any more.

Well I’m sorry to break it to you but you do.

It’s true, you get a better class of problem to deal with: How do I manage my team better? Should I fly economy or business? Why won’t paypal give me back the thousands I made on my launch 15 months ago? How can I arrange my schedule so my evenings aren’t taken up with all those Joint Venture partners who really want to help me promote JigsawBox? LOL! When I look it like that, it ain’t so bad!

There are LOTS of things you can do when you’re having a shit day.

One of the fastest ways I know to get myself out of that negative spiral of thinking and into a state where I’m capable of making inspired decisions again (hint: NEVER EVER EVER make a decision about anything when you’re in the negative sprial), is to have a belly laugh.

This video did exactly that for me last week – really, is this what our lives have become?