How are you using your commute time?

Photo by Giallo from Pexels

A recent report by Atlas Cloud Computing highlighted a potential upside of the way Covid 19 has changed our working lives. 

Sifting through responses from 3000 people who had been office based prior to the virus and were now working from home, they came up with some interesting statistics, neatly demonstrated in their infographic.  Two very interesting things showed up.

Firstly, 4 out of 5 people i.e. 79% in the study thought that they were able to work effectively from home. Secondly 86% felt they are more productive when they worked from home.  

Schroders has told its staff that even after the pandemic they won't have to return to the office full time and can negotiate attendance with their managers. In Japan last month Fujitsu announced its 'Work Life Shift' to enable staff to prioritise working from home aiming to "introduce a new way of working that promises a more empowering, productive and creative experience for employees that will boost innovation and deliver new value to customers and society".

One of the main effects of this slide towards remote working as a norm, is the hours saved on the daily commute. Last September figures from Lloyds Bank indicated that in the UK we spend over 10 days per annum on our daily commute with the average journey time being 65 minutes each day. No doubt some people's commutes were a lot longer than that.

So what are you doing with those free hours now you aren't on a train / in a car / on a bike....? Are you in the 'add that extra hour to your work day' camp or are you in the 'wey-hey - more time for me!' camp? 

In the Fujitsu quote above the word that jumped out to me was 'creative'. Leaving aside the creativity that you might be bringing to your work if you are using those commuting hours to increase your productivity in your job, I thought I'd search for some unusual creative activity (beyond making sourdough, taking up knitting or the other well documented creative stuff we have all apparently been indulging in) during these unusual times. Here is what turned up:

Checking through my spam folder I am impressed at the creativity of names of my spammers. They all sound like a roll call of some fancy posh school. Equally impressive are the amount of people who have been having a go at relieving me of funds fraudulently using creative Paypal references. That has certainly given me something to do with those spare hours, in the battle to keep my money and my credit score.

On a more positive note, it's been very cool the way yoga and pilates teachers and personal trainers and dance teachers have taken to Zoom and possibly unfamiliar technologies to keep their clients. It's not easy to go from face-to-face to virtual if you aren't used to doing that on a regular basis. It takes time and patience! Refreshingly it means that we have become a little more forgiving when things don't go right, when you you are left contorted in gomukhasana for ages while the internet seizes. Or when you accidentally lick your spaghetti bowl forgetting you are in a video meeting. 

Without doubt a shout should go out to our young people. They've had essential bits of their growing up snatched away - restrictions on seeing friends, socialising, having the normal interactions presented by school, university, gap years, job opportunities. In spite of all that they have adapted to home learning, remote classrooms, small social groups, and getting involved in creative ways in things that matter. 

A casual trawl through the internet presented these creative young people: in May on Mental Health Awareness Day members of the Wiltshire Youth Parliament got together to share tips on managing everyday life challenges thrown up by Covid: in Mali Unicef trained young journalist Fatoumata is using her skills to fight against Covid disinformation: Chung, a young boy in Vietnam, used his passion for electronics to design an automatic hand sanitiser.

So let's take a moment to appreciate the potential creative cleverness within each of us, whether that is to give some of our extra time to 'hold' (virtually) someone else's hand through difficult times, learn a new skill that might have a small but significant effect on our environment (sewing on a button to save wasting a good garment) or find ways to add value for those we work with/for. 

Unicef - https://www.unicef.org/stories/malis-young-people-making-themselves-heard-fight-against-covid-19

Atlas Cloud Computing - https://www.atlascloud.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Get-Home-Working-Done-Infographic-Atlas-Cloud.pdf

Plan International - https://plan-uk.org/blogs/meet-five-amazing-people-making-a-difference-in-lockdown

Your Kairos Moment

                                                    Water Dew - Daniel Kux at Pexels

Here we all are, in our different and separate spaces, living and working in a changed world.

Lockdown has firstly pushed us to adapt, then to accept, then to innovate. People have found new ways of doing things, sometimes begrudgingly, sometimes with an enthusiasm to embrace opportunities for change.

What is becoming clear, is that those who have chosen to think differently and make the best of this difficult period in history are going to be the ones that thrive and flourish. Let's take a quick look at some of the thrivers:

• The Tate Galleries have introduced wonderful virtual tours and talks so that we can continue to experience the arts
• Boohoo, the online retailer picked up early on the changing trends of their clients, realising that their clients were going to be buying different clothes if they were staying indoors all the time; sales of homewear blossomed
• Drive in concerts are in the calendar at Cheltenham racecourse
• The Bishop of Manchester was delighted at the number of people joining online services, with over 400,000 people at the Palm Sunday service, more that any congregation previously.

To become a thriver, take a lesson from the Ancient Greeks. Kairos is the ' passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved' (Eric Charles White). The word Kairos means 'the opportune' or ' the right moment' and refers to a critical occasion for accurate action origin, meaning we should 'seize the moment to perform accurately and skilfully in order to achieve'.

The elements of Kairos are:

• the critical essence of time 
• the accuracy of action
• the clarity of the target

We have the critical time now, presented to us by the Covid crisis. The accuracy of action and the clarity of target are yours to choose. Grab your opportunity, make your change however small, and be clear in your objective.

Nemawashi - Good Decision Making in a Disconnected World

Green Bonzai Tree by Quang Nguyen Vinh

The Japanese use the principles of nemawashi in their business lives; it's literal meaning is “to dig round the roots”.  It is a process of preparing a plant for transplant and without proper nemawashi for example, a bonsai tree might not thrive when transplanted.  In these unusual times when Covid-19 has separated and disconnected us, we might find this principle of nemawashi useful to refer to as we struggle to make decisions in a challenging environment.

This idea of ground preparation equates to processes that will improve your decision making based on consensus and help you to make the right choices.  Nemawashi is one of the Toyota Way principles, where building consensus is integral to their ethos of embracing conflict without settling for compromise. 

Basing decisions on a process of complete consensus achieved through nemawashi results in decisions that are strong, cohesive and have the support of everyone involved.  This means ensuring that before you make any decision you implement the following: 

• Proper prior consultation and consideration
• Collecting ideas, suggestions and reviews for possible solutions in a creative way
• Persuasive and collaborative discussion of problems and issues in order to reach agreement to realise potential solutions.   

The objective of nemawashi is to retain harmony and cohesiveness where opinions differ.  By doing this groundwork you can save valuable time that might be lost by implementing the wrong strategy.  Once decisions are reached, rapid implementation can occur and you can effectively hit the ground running.  Having true consensus also means less conflict and less likelihood that someone will want to sabotage the decisions made.  By involving everyone beforehand it also allows people to feel ownership of the eventual solutions, so you get buy-in and motivation. 

In a culture where we are now meeting remotely using different meeting media, we can create the time before we gather together to get this consensus.  Time has taken on a different dimension, patience is becoming something we are more used to, meetings have to be more considered in the way they are set up and conducted. All elements reflected in nemawashi.

So, how do you go about it? The process is one of persuasion and inclusion by conversation and discussion in smaller groups so as to avoid open conflicting opinions.  For example, if you have a particular proposal in mind, or perhaps an issue that needs a solution, then you would typically start your nemawashi by seeking out those key decision makers that would be useful or relevant.  You might choose to casually chat in a small online Zoom (or other) meeting, getting a small group together for an informal discussion, or set up some break-outs during a more structured meeting. The objective is to gauge the other party’s reactions and opinions – are they really enthused, are there some bits they don’t like, do they loathe the idea, do they have any suggestions for improvements? 

 Nemawashi is by its nature, a slow nurturing process. In the last few months of living in a Covid-19 world, we have learned to use time differently so we can embrace this slow, nurturing approach to get really good results.

To make it more powerful here are some questions that embody the idea of nemawashi that you can ask people to consider and bring to the discussion at your main meeting:

• What do I think of the proposal?
• How would I improve the proposal?
• If I make this decision how will I feel – better or worse?
• Do I think this is a fair decision to all involved?
• If I had to defend this decision in a court of law would I feel sure and confident?       

This will allow everyone to bring a clear idea of what decisions they might make and the potential effects of these decisions.  This will invite inclusion, and a sense of readiness to reach consensus without conflict.  The result will be a powerful decision and something sure to succeed, a clear knowledge of why a particular move will not work and some alternatives to take forward.

SO...What IS an Entrepreneur?

What makes a great entrepreneur?    For starters, most famous entrepreneurs make their own luck. Oprah Winfrey, a famous entrepreneur,  recently said “Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity” while talking with Simon Cowell about how he became so successful.

And what is an entrepreneur anyway?  The entrepreneur definition in Webster’s Dictionary is “one who organises, manages and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.” 

So let’s look at the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur.  Some sources offer loads of different entrepreneurial characteristics,  from being creative to being able to describe situations with numbers, however let ‘s keep it simple for now.  Setting aside making your own luck, the common traits needed for becoming an entrepreneur include:

Self Belief

Entrepreneurs find their need for status is met through achievement rather than how big their house is or how many holidays they take each year.  They believe in trying things out, following their ideas and their self-belief builds through their experiences.  They are also able to deal with things not going to plan and can assume responsibility for their own failures and successes.  

Confidence

Entrepreneurs who feel in control of the situation will be persistent in the pursuit of their goals.  Confidence is bred from a positive attitude towards a challenge.

Determination and Persistence

Stories of famous entrepreneurs show they never give up.  They also get going, they don’t sit around, rather they have a sense of urgency to get up and do something...

"The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer."
- Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese's

Desire for Challenge

This entrepreneur characteristic is about grabbing opportunities.

"An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he'll quickly learn how to chew it.”
- Roy Ash, co-founder of Litton Industries

Although most people think entrepreneurs are huge risk-takers, invariably they have assessed the situation and they are taking on the challenge not just the outright risk.

Leadership

Good entrepreneurs lead.   They assume responsibility, direct and organise.  As they need to be creative while they are doing this, their objective is not to wield power, but to drive forward.

Decision making

This is the balancing act, the juggling characteristic of the entrepreneur.  The bit that helps them to identify the relationship between parts and the whole, the bit that helps them conceptualise order, set goals and make the choices.

Vision

Without this there is no entrepreneur......

"Business opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming."
- Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Enterprises

Purpose and Pleasure

It has long been understood by those in the coaching profession that in order to feel 'happy' people need to have a sense of enjoyment but also a sense of purpose in what they are doing.  Nothing particularly new there.

The key to real happiness however has been highlighted by Professor Paul Dolan who emphasises the difference in the way we view our happy state.  In essence, instead of seeing happiness as a view of how we are, we should understand it to be how we experience life.  Echoes of Epictetus here - it is not what happens to us but how we experience it that affects how we are, or as he put it “Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them".  Epictetus was a Stoic philosopher, the guys who propounded the idea that to be happy you should be virtuous and not frivolous  (simplistically put). 

Putting aside whether the pleasure part of happiness necessitates frivolity, it is worth looking at the idea of purpose as a constituent part of that state.  Recent research suggests that having a purpose can add years to your life.  Dr Patrick Hill who conducted the research said "Our findings point to the fact that finding a direction for life, and setting overarching goals for what you want to achieve can help you actually live longer, regardless of when you find your purpose." 

Well, this all sounds great, and as coaches we know it works, so find out more about how you can find your life purpose and get in touch with us.  And in the meantime, watch Adam Leipzig's talk on finding your life purpose in 5 minutes.  And remember these are the questions to answer:

• who are you?
• what do you do?
• who you do it for?
• what do those people want?
• how do they change as a result?

Let us help you find the answers. 

How qualified are you really?

You'd think that when unemployment is high, there would be few vacancies in the job market.  And that when unemployment is low, there would be quite a few vacancies not filled.  This is the Beveridge Curve.  It usually looks like this, with a downward curve, reflecting what we've just said.

A PwC report last year suggested that £930 million pound is lost annually through a lack of productivity in mismatched talent across the UK.  So what happens to the Beveridge Curve when you get this skills/job  mismatch?  Something like this...

 

The process of getting the right candidate for the job has been so refined through on-line processes that it is in danger of obliterating the person in favour of the tick-boxes and algorithms.  Where is the real person in the applications?   The nuances and judgements that a good interviewer would bring to the selection process don't come in to play until way down the line, after all the skills and talents have been 'processed' by the clever automated application software.  How do you read someone's personality effectively from an on-line form?  How do you assess those all important soft skills, non-verbal and physical communication, influencing skills, conscientiousness etc?

Well here are a few tips from those in the know for applicants generally:

• Use 'doing' words e.g. managing as well as management
• Ditch the word 'assistant' in favour of 'executive'
• Follow up on your application by calling the HR department or recruitment agency
• Make sure your CV is scannable - no fancy boxed formatting and the like
• Your LinkedIn profile is important - many employers will check it to verify your claims
• Don't be flippant - these were genuine comments in CV's : "I have technical skills that will simply take your breath away" and "I can type without looking at the keyboard"

It's a tough world out there and one way to up your chances is to get some career coaching to help you with your application. Get in touch and we'll hold your hand

Are you doing what you love?

Everyone has choices - everyone is accountable for what happens to them - everyone can be their own enabler.

Easy to say, and not always so easy to do.  Our lives are affected by our environment, our circumstances, the people we are involved with, and all of this impacts on the decisions we make and the direction our lives take.  So how many of us are doing something we love, or even just like, in our daily work activity?  If you were to ask any successful entrepreneur they would say that an essential part of their success was in pursuing something about which they are passionate. 

Therein lies the crux - is it essential to do what you are passionate about, or to do something passionately?  Here is an interesting viewpoint from Miya Tokumitsu on the 'Do What You Love' theory of work:

"DWYL is a secret handshake of the privileged and a worldview that disguises its elitism as noble self-betterment. According to this way of thinking, labor is not something one does for compensation but is an act of love. If profit doesn't happen to follow, presumably it is because the worker's passion and determination were insufficient. Its real achievement is making workers believe their labor serves the self and not the marketplace.

We don't all get to do what we want to do (however if you would like to try, then get in touch) .  The drivers for our work are often needs rather than desires.  Is it just the case that only those with a financially secure base can afford to do what they love, or can this be anyone?    And does our society value those who follow that route less than those who follow the path of need and obligation?  It would be great to see the best path being the one where you do your work with passion even if you are not passionate about it - wow, that would be something!  Here's Pugh's view...

Invest to Grow

Business gurus in the know are advising small and micro firms to invest in their businesses in 2014 to ensure growth and maintain market presence and sales.

Alongside this advice are statistics showing that businesses which seek external advice are more likely to succeed: the FSB stated that "research has shown that 70% of small businesses that receive mentoring survive for five years or more which is double the rate compared with non-mentored entrepreneurs".  Data from the BIS Small Business Survey 2012 shows that medium sized businesses are more likely to seek business advice than SME's. And 68% of the SME employers canvassed for the survey intend to grow their businesses over the next 2 to 3 years, with 60% focusing on developing leadership capability, 65% on developing new products or services and 74% by increasing their workforce skills.

So for those smaller and micro businesses not to lose out on valuable external business advice,  it is worth pointing out that business advice does not need to cost a fortune.  Carefully selected, clearly scoped coaching or mentoring with agreed outcomes can be a worthwhile investment.  Growth Accelerator is offering workshops for micro businesses with between 1-4 employees to explore routes to growth without great expenditure.  Ready for Business offers business plan support for start-ups and the new Enterprise Nation initiative will provide a supportive community for enterprising business owners.  Find out more about any of these schemes, and how business coaching can be a valuable development tool, by contacting Yourcoaching isla@yourcoaching.co.uk

HESTONWORLD

Heston Blumenthal is pretty successful  - chef, restaurateur, author, television personality - and he is hyper busy with a more than heavyweight schedule that is enough to make mere mortals reach for the smelling salts.  However he has quoted that "Just because I have done 120 hours a week doesn't mean that's the best way to do it."

And herein lies the nugget - is it really necessary to prostrate ourselves with industry and rushing around and 'doing'? Certainly it seems to be a bit trendy.  There are articles popping up all over the place mentioning witty acronyms like FOMO (fear of missing out) and SHARENTS (parents who have to share the wondrous mega achievements of their kids) and concepts such as 'Out-interesting' others (what it says on the tin).

This all rather smacks of reducing our lives to a list of goals and overachieving rather than finding a balance and sticking to our true values and motivations.  If you feel the pressure to 'out-do', 'over-excel', 'out perform' or you realise you are stringing yourself up on being in some way better or bigger it might not be that you are just trying to show off, but rather that you have got caught up in this increasingly ridiculous myth of 'doing'.  Maybe you should be looking at the real WHY of what you have set yourself to do.  It isn't just about being seen to be doing so much all the time, there isn't anything particularly impressive about overarching busyness.  Reflect instead on the real meaning and purpose of why you are pursuing those goals.  

And what better time to do this than in the festive season? Think 'Silent Night'... all is peace, all is calm....

Pascal's Wager - a good bet?

What a clever bloke Pascal was

Settle down and concentrate on this one.....Pascal's Wager was about whether or not there is a God. If you wager against there being a God and there IS a God, that is bad news for you, so you should wager for there being a God.  Pascal believed that religious belief was not a rational, but rather an existential  choice, i.e. a choice you make in the face of uncertainty.  So how do we make the right choice if we aren't basing it on a betting outcome? 

We have talked about uncertainty before and one of the things that comes up a lot in building the ability to make choices in an uncertain world, is to think about two things; 

• Firstly, do you HAVE to make that decision at that particular time?  Sometimes we get hung up on making choices and decisions, when what we might need is a little time to step away from the decision making process, clear some mental space and let the ideas and emotions free reign, leading to those moments of enlightenment that help us make the right choices.
• Secondly, it is okay to change what you are oding if things don't feel right or go the way you intended.  Someone mentioned recently that one of the reasons Angela Merkel keeps being re-elected is that she is not rigid in her political life. She is very determined but  she tries to see things from different perspectives (even her opponent's standpoint) and be collaborative and she is not afraid to change the way she does things if it will help her achieve her objectives.   

If you want a gently challenging hand in making your choices or checking the odds get in touch and we'll help you lay your bets.   Or you can visit our website to get some ideas.

Women at the Top.....again 

We have had the 'leaning in' argument from Sheryl Sandberg, (read this for an interesting male response to her talk) and then there is Marissa Mayer telling us we can have it all.  It is all quite exhausting listening to these highly successful and powerful women telling us what we should be doing.  

Now Bea Perez, Coca-Cola's chief sustainability officer has joined the fray, saying that women entrepreneurs need to be more visible.  "Investing in women is one of the most powerful ways to spur sustainable economic growth and development" she said at Coca-Cola's webchat for their 5by20 initiative.  5by20 aims to support the economic empowerment of five million female entrepreneurs across the Coca-Cola value chain by 2010.  A noble and worthy objective and particularly as it is working with small businesses across 200 countries.  

What is nice about this initiative is that it isn't all just about women at the top of massive global organisations who can afford to open a creche facility in their company because they are the CEO, or who have an army of help at home, or whose partners are prepared to fill all the gaps left by these powerful women in their demanding working days.  It is about women at all levels and this makes the Coca-Cola initiative really interesting.  We are going to keep our eye on it!

Being Bossy

We've previously talked about the nature of a good leader.  Oliver James has now related the Dark Triad of personalities to 3 types of boss:  the psychopath, the Macchiavelli and the narcissist.

This is a little worrying.  Particularly as it seems that any one of these types will probably manifest behaviours from the other two types as well. Let's look at the first type, the psychopath.  There are going to be elements of this profile that lend themselves well to being a good leader, being cunning and charming for example, and having the ability to be detached and remorseless.  However most psychopaths are of average intelligence, are untruthful and unreliable, and display poor judgement as well as being pathologically egocentric.  Not such great leadership behaviours.

What about the narcissist?  Being conceited, argumentative and selfish don't seem to put one in the front line for promotion to leadership.  Neither does expecting constant praise and admiration or expressing disdain for those you believe to be lesser mortals than you.  And as for Macchiavelli, well the man himself got on in life through his willingness and aptitude for deceit, manipulation and exploitation to gain and maintain power. 


So why do our leaders exhibit these personality types?  What is it that allows them to 'get on' and us to support them? 

All three of these types are closely associated with charisma. Macchiavellians exercise control over close relations in order to achieve their aims and they gain popularity as a result of an ability to create a desirable image that is in fact distinct from who they are, but which appeals to others.  Psychopaths are disarming and can seem to be fearlessly heroic which attracts others to them.  David T. Lykken in his book 'The Antisocial Personalities' observed that Lyndon Baines Johnson and Winston Churchill were "daring, unconventional youngsters who began by playing by their own rules" before becoming successful leaders.   Narcissistic leaders are dominant and self-confident with a sense of entitlement.  Research done in Silicon Valley revealed that narcissistic business leaders there earned more and stayed in their jobs longer.   Being action oriented and goal focused can be an appealing trait in a boss.

Whether or not we think Bill Gates, General Petraeus and Winston Churchill are examples of any of these personality types, we might be best served to look at what elements of their personalities have served us well, how those elements might be emulated and how they can inform us to recognise and nurture better leaders in the future.  Lots of scope for innovative thinking there for leadership and management training!  Meanwhile, if you fancy doing your own Meta Profile test, get in touch.

Whatchya got?

What is this thing about ‘having stuff’?  Is it a bit to do with Hegel’s idea that a person has a natural existence partly within himself and partly of such a kind that he is related to it as to an external world.  So by virtue of owning and having things we are partly building our existence in relation to our possessions?

Do we want our possessions to do our talking for us?  Does what we have validate us? Why does it have to?  What is so particularly human about the way we want things?  Should we worry about when our possessions and the getting of them starts to control us and get in the way of our moving forward?

One of the Mahavratas (great vows) in the Yoga Sutra is the principle of Aparigraha - non-possession, that no-one possesses anything.  It doesn’t deny the existence of the concept of possession, rather it promotes the idea of only taking what one needs from the world.  Andrew Hyde personifies the modern idea of getting rid of stuff:  “When we were growing up didn’t we all have the goal of a huge house full of things?  I found a far greater quality of life by rejecting things as a gauge of success".  

Our lives are led by a consumer based notion of happiness.  Having stuff makes us feel better, bigger, more successful, grander....or at least that is a widely held belief.  For some people it works, but alarm bells should ring when amassing stuff begins to be the purpose of our lives.  Aparigraha is the idea of not desiring or taking more than we need from the world, and as humans we find it difficult to do this, as we are socially conditioned to do otherwise.  And the more we accumulate the more time and energy we have to spend on looking after all that stuff, and the more anxious we become about hanging on to it.

This is not to suggest that we should all indulge in a mass ditching of everything we own and running off to discover ourselves in the horizon.  What we do need to do is be mindful of how we spend our time and energy and what we get out of having all that stuff.  If we are constantly harried by concerns over possessions, perhaps that energy could be better nurtured by streamlining or simplifying what we have in our lives.  And we can extend this to what beliefs and values we hold, and even to the people we have around us.  Fewer possessions require less maintenance, damaging relationships sap energy and personal resources, limiting beliefs prevent growth and consume us with anxiety. 

So a simple thought – ask yourself what you gain from holding on to the stuff you have, from holding on to the ideas and beliefs you have about yourself, from holding on to relationships that do not serve you well.  What would you miss out on if you let go of some this?  What doors would it open for you, what would it free you to do? How might you grow if you release your grip a bit?  Don't be governed by your stuff, take an objective view of what you need and what you really want and have a go at letting some of the unnecessary stuff go.

If this all seems a bit scary, and you could do with some hand holding to help you let go, we'll hold your hand and let it go when you are ready.

"I realise there's something incredibly honest about trees in winter, how they're experts at letting things go."  

Jeffrey McDaniel

The Trickle Down

How long will we be enthused by the feelgood emotions of the Olympics?  We heard today from double gold medallist Paralympian Natasha Baker that watching the Sydney Paralympics dressage team was her inspiration to one day win a gold medal herself.

The trickle-down effect is what makes you dash out and grab your tennis racket after watching Wimbledon, or dust down your running shoes after watching Mo Farah.  But how long is it before you are finding excuses for not actually making it to the tennis court or the gym?  If you are already engaged in sport an event like the Olympics will probably act as a continuing motivator, however if you are naturally not given to sport, it might not work for you.

Back in the 1970's it was suggested by John Bloomfield (the Chair of the Australian Institute of Sport) that watching amazing athletes might not actually be an inspiration at all.  Research [1] has suggested that to motivate people to maintain regular physical activity you need to supplement their enthusiasm with carefully constructed persuasive messages. It is not apparently enough to just get enthused by watching inspirational athletes, that will all fizzle out if you don't hear the right messages to keep you going.

The interesting bit is that the messages you need to hear have to be not just about what you are doing but also about why and how you should do it.   And there need to be a lot of these messages.  Natasha Baker talked about how important her mother was in her dream becoming reality. Perhaps her mother was a whizz at  delivering the right messages tailored in the right way, properly framed over a period of time and at the right times.

Elaborating on this idea to areas other than sports, it makes sense that if we want to maintain enthusiasm for something we do, discovering the 'why' and the 'how' of doing it is as important as the 'what', and ensuring that we surround ourselves with regular supportive and persuasive messages is essential to our success.  So our message to help you get the right messages ...... Get a coach!  It works

[1] http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/7/1/36

Business funding, loans and grants...how? where? what?

The Government has tried hard, very hard, to get our banks to lend to businesses.  And some banks have lent, so long as the business is robust enough and can prove a decent trading record.  These recipients are however not the businesses that really need the funding.  What about the struggling entrepreneurs with the great ideas that have started small, thought big and grown carefully?

We're not suggesting that every new business idea is going to work, in fact about 7 out of 10 new businesses survive for only 2 years (although statistics fluctuate).  Mr Cameron realises what a significant sector the small business economy is in the UK:   There are 4.5 million small businesses accounting for 99% of all the UK enterprise. constituting 58.8% of private sector employment with an estimated combined annual turnover of £1,500 billion.  Not to be sniffed at.  No wonder all the Government enthusiasm for backing entrepreneurs.

So back to the thorny question of how to get them funding when they need it.  Firstly the banking route, the Enterprise Finance Guarantee whereby the Government guarantees lenders 75% of the loan funding for borrowers who lack sufficient security to get a normal commercial loan.  This is delivered through approved lenders (mostly banks) on amounts between £1000 and £1million to enterprises with a turnover of up to £44 million.

Then there is the Funding for Lending initiative where commercial banks can exchange existing collateral for Treasury bills at an interest rate of 0.25%.  They will then be able to borrow wholesale money cheaply using these bills as backing and lend the wholesale money to homes and small firms.  Or at least that is the objective. Four out of ten small businesses were refused bank credit in the second quarter of 2012 (FSB) so it will be interesting to see how the banks go with this scheme.

If you are a young person wanting to start a business then you can apply to the  Start-up Loan Scheme where the Government has made around £80m available to help young people start out in business.  Anyone aged between 18-24 can apply and the average loan is around £2500, repayable within 5 years.

Following on from the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS).    Investors can commit £100,000 in any tax year and spread their investment over a number of companies, receiving up to 50% tax relief in the relevant investment year.  Businesses eligible for loans under this scheme must be no more than 2 years old, have assets less than £200,000 and fewer than 25 employees.

If all the above is just too confusing or complicated, the alternatives include organisations which match lenders to borrowers.  Thincats target loans between £50k and £1m, Seedrs specialises in lending up to £150k seed capital to entrepreneurs, Iwoca offers capital to on-line market retailers and Funding Circle offers low cost loans as well as asset-based loans.

This week Prince Charles called small businesses 'the bedrock of any economy'.  The Princes Trust Enterprise Scheme has helped 78,000 young people into a new venture so there's another option if you are a young person looking to create a new business.  Or there is the Fredericks Foundation which offers microloans up to £10,000 to people in the South of England for businesses who have been unsuccessful in raising bank funding.

And we haven't event started yet on other forms of business funding - invoice factoring, angel investors, asset funding, leadership and management funding, high growth funding, local grants or specialist industry focused grants.  It's a wonderful gallop through the tulips getting the right money for your business.  Get in touch if you want some more tips!

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Checking the Choke

Think about the last time you were in the flow of achievement and then you stalled.  What happened?  What did you suddenly become aware of?  In all likelihood, you started to 'think' about what you were doing while you were doing it.

Matthew Syed in his book Bounce talks about the 'choke' that sportsmen and women experience for no apparent reason that results in their performance diving.  These are high achieving elite athletes with years of practice and experience in their field and yet they suffer apparently inexplicable and seriously big performance failures.

Huge chunks of what we do in our lives is learned unconscious action - the obvious is the stopping at a red light behaviour.  If you break down all the individual learnings that constitute these unconscious behaviours you'd probably disintegrate into a jibbering wreck of processes and would not be able to function because of the protracted time it would take you to follow all the instructions that make up each action or behaviour.   So it seems that we do stuff well because we're not really thinking about it.

That's not to say we can all just be good at everything.  As Matthew Syed emphasises, we need to practice, a lot, over and over, in order to achieve excellence.  Once we do that, the behaviour becomes set in our unconscious and we can perform.  We still need to practice and we still need to be aware, but we are dealing now on a higher plane where the practice and awareness relate to the 'getting better' bit of our performance.  The process is one where you learn the behaviour to the point where t is unconscious  - so, you don't think about what you are doing when you are driving for instance, as this has become an implicit memory.  Choking happens when  our anxiety is such that we feel we need to take conscious control over something that should be done automatically from implicit memory.

This is the point when we perhaps we need to draw on other skills and techniques to prevent the choke.  Stepping out of the moment, concentrating on the breath, taking the time-out to make a break in the pattern of your behaviour.  Find out how some performance coaching can help you gain perspective.Take the pressure off by thinking that this is about more practice, there are other opportunities out there and this is one on the way to that, not the biggest and best and only win of your life.