Inspire for Life

Successful businesses start with a vision, mission statement and a business plan. Each area connects with the vision and the details within a mission statement provide guidance on how behaviours, policies and procedures and legislation merge with the “how” of the business plan – deriving an income from the services or products provided.

The “why” of a business is essentially the vision. At a recent function I was engaged by Bob and Chris Cameron from Rockcote who spoke about their lifestyle and their business vision. I was inspired by how their environmental awareness to provide lifestyle sustainability was totally infused to the very heart of their business philosophy, ethics and products.

The “what” comprises of the mission statement providing a set of Guiding Principles. You will have recognised and connected with these aspects at some level because the company might determine that they want to communicate with conviction, behave ethically, be risk aware and implement environmentally friendly products/services whilst still achieving business and strategic objectives.

Do you as a member of the community select a company based on your values?

Consider your current employment, did you seek out a company that has similar values to your own? What about your choice of supplier for your household needs – do you make an informed decision based on your criteria? Most of us at some stage in our life will have the duality of being part of a community and also being part of a business (either as an owner or as a valued employee). Each of us has the opportunity to make choices rather than leave it to chance. The day to day choices we make provide the canvas for how our character is developed!

Company … Communicates … Community

How well does business integrate with communities? And how well does your community communicate with the local businesses? If we consider the above a palindrome it provides the two way duality. Ultimately it comes down to you – how do you perceive the situation, how do you take action, do you have a strong view, do you succeed or fail to look at the impact on you and those around you, the community and the company? Do you live congruently with your values in day to day life, the place you work and the community? Bob (Rockcote) summarised his talk with a quote from a book that has guided them, Natural Capitalism “Successful businesses of the future will get their discipline from the market place, their designs from nature and their values from the community.”

Embrace choice – communicate your conviction.

If you take a ship out on the ocean, it’s too late to change its construction because the conditions call for an ice breaker model. The same analogy can be applied to your business culture – it’s difficult to restructure culture. Understanding cultural impact supports the importance of getting it defined from the outset as it is crucial to business success. Like the ship, riding the waves allows the journey to continue and with business culture, incremental change infuses the desired business culture.
What is your business culture?
Establishing a culture provides a shared system of values and beliefs that interact within the team, its structure, and its systems to produce the ways by which things are accomplished within your environment. Simply, it tells the team how to behave, what to do and where to place priorities in getting the job done. Building a culture starts with the example set by the leader and filters through into the team with everyone participating.
Sometimes as managers or leaders we overlook unacceptable behaviour because “it‘s just this once” and or it is “too difficult to deal with”. All too often that approach then becomes the norm and may become the acceptable behaviour. What then ensues is a sub-culture permeating throughout the business. When we are in touch with ourselves, our inner voice is our soul speaking to us giving guidance. In a business context, the barometer of the soul is the culture endorsed and accepted by the team.
Does your business have a reputation of retaining your team members?
Culture is positively affected in subtle ways such as through respect for people, team satisfaction, tangible benefits of a happy cohesive team, and an opportunity for the team to influence their work environment including healthy open discussions. Conversely culture is impacted negatively by aspects like absenteeism, reduced productivity, and a lack of opportunities for team members to develop thereby creating a high turnover of staff.
Essentially the culture of your business is how you go about doing business with your team – day by day. This translates to the heart of your business – the people who provide the services. Understanding the culture of your business fosters the appropriate recruitment approach to the best candidates that align with these business values and meet the behavioural expectations of a robust recruitment process. Whether you are a business owner or a team member the soul of the business that attracts and retains your team is your culture. How do you rate?
http://holisticblissmagazine.com/Articles_jULY_10

Coaching is a way of gaining greater clarity and focus around areas in your life that may not be exactly as you would like them to be. Your coach acts as a tour guide who asks some pertinent questions that allow you to connect with yourself, in a completely judgment free and confidential environment. Most of all, coaching is fun!

The quality of your life is determined by the quality of the relationship you have with the most important person in your life – YOU. This incredibly powerful relationship serves as the platform from which everything in your life evolves …. or not.

Sometimes it’s difficult to be objective about yourself or your business. Sometimes all you need is a sounding board, or someone to see a way forward that you haven’t realised. Your Inspire for Life coach listens, asks meaningful questions, gives you pointers, mentors and provides feedback. Valuable insights can be provided by our coaches to assist you to achieve your goals.

Every high performing individual is surrounded by mentors and coaches. Elite athletes, business leaders and great entertainers have a team of people supporting them to achieve their goals. An Inspire for Life coach also provides the accountability and follow up we all sometimes need to turn our dreams into reality. An Inspire for Life coach can assist you with setting goals and then developing a strategy for achieving them.

Inspire for Life coaching can help you learn about yourself, accepting your uniqueness and letting go of limiting beliefs allowing you to overcome your fear. We will work together to find new ways to approach old issues, changing sabotaging thoughts into thoughts that will support you. From this new found confidence and sustainable transformation in your life, you will observe the changes in your relationships and the way you interact with others. Understanding, forgiveness, genuineness and love are some of the changes that can occur when you willingly embrace and let go of un-resourceful beliefs and behaviours. Coaching will provide reinforcement and encouragement with these behavioural changes offering a fresh perspective.

Succeed with NLP

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is how to use the language of the mind to consistently achieve your specific desired outcome.

Language may be – pictures, sounds, feelings, tastes, smells, self-talk words and other nonverbal communication.

Our mind is the nervous system through which our experience is processed via five senses: visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory; to discover and utilise the programs that we run in our neurological systems.

In simpler terms, this is about building your emotional intelligence. By learning about yourself using the skills taught through NLP, you will develop enhanced understanding of your communication and how this affects the way you feel and what you choose to do or not do. Having this level of skill in your day to day dealings, enables you to think and act more effectively as you learn to identify the areas of your life where you are not achieving the successes you want.

NLP was developed in the 1970’s by mathematician Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder through a process called modelling. They set out to discover what it is that makes the difference between someone who is good at a skill and someone who is an expert at the same skill. This involved studying the thoughts, personal perceptions, values and actions of the most successful people in various fields and replicated their strategies. These same skills can be learned and applied by anyone wanting to improve their effectiveness in achieving outcomes quicker and easier. NLP creates the right climate for success by giving you the tools to run more effective behaviours, manage your mental, emotional and physical states of well being at any time.
As an accredited NLP practitioner, we use NLP techniques in our sessions so that you achieve maximum benefit in obtaining effective and sustainable change.

Anne is passionate about her training and courses and during June this year I travelled to France to do a 5 day Bob Ross Painting course at Le Couret. I felt such a course would allow the artist in me to emerge! Yes, it did emerge and I was able to observe my behaviours through my art work. On the fifth day I gave myself permission to be “free” in how I did my impressionist art using Bob Ross techniques. How liberating and exciting and oh, what a learning!
Have you undertaken an art course or some other course that you would like to share?
How do you take yourself out of your comfort zone?