Giving feedback can be difficult.  Here's a step by step process to help make it easier for you to give feedback about sensitive issues. 

Goal –  What is your goal when giving this feedback? If you want someone to arrive on time for a meeting, focus on that as an outcome.  Getting an apology for being late may feel like a good outcome, but will it change anything for next time?

Plan – Make sure you rehearse what you are going to say.  Think of the right words in advance.  Consider asking for permission to give the feedback.   Are you the right person to deliver the feedback? Also, think of the timing.  When is the best time to deliver this message? Often “in the moment” feedback can be very powerful.  (” I notice that you are late to the meeting.”)

Make it Fast – Make your feedback Factual, Accurate, Straightforward and Timely.  Ensure you have the facts straight before you tackle the issue, and keep your feedback succinct.  Try to say what you need to in the most simple and straightforward way.  Long winded feedback is uncomfortable, so keep it brief and to the point.

Listen – Get ready for a reaction.  Be prepared to let the person respond without interruption. Use active listening – "It must be difficult to have so many demands on your time.  What options do we have to make sure this doesn’t happen again for our next meeting?"

Lastly, finding the right words can make giving feedback much easier. Here are some suggested sentence starters for giving feedback.  You can use these for a variety of situations.  
 
When you… (are late for our meetings)
I think… (that you don’t value my time)
That makes me feel… (concerned about the success of the project)

I notice that you… (are late for our meetings)
I feel … (frustrated)
Because … (my time is being wasted)
How do you see it?
What can we do about that?

Kirsty Janney - My Executive Coach - Personalised Coaching Solutions - I work with individuals, managers and their teams to improve performance at work every day. For a confidential discussion about your coaching requirements, contact me at kjanney@bigpond.net.au

This article by Deborah Wilson (Director - Trevor Roberts), is a great snapshot of trends in workforce management.  Deborah is a guest blogger on my site this week. Check out her latest article and keep
on top of trends in leadership development and changes to the corporate landscape in Australia.

Is your business placed to take advantage of changes and trends over the next 5 years? Are you putting the right workforce in place now to be ready for how you will be doing business next year and beyond? 
 
Below is a snapshot of 3 workforce trends we see affecting Australian businesses over the next 5 years. 

1. Transformation to a Service Economy 
Increasingly in Australian businesses we are seeing the trend to offshore or even the elimination of entire job classes. This applies particularly to manufacturing and low skill roles. Australian businesses will become more service oriented as we focus in on the part of the supply chain that we can be most competitive, ie: building relationships with customers. 

What is your service culture? Can you compete with low priced, overseas alternatives? 

Leveraging your competitive advantage is critical to ensure you’re building expertise in sales and service arena, as the competition from overseas cheaply made products makes it all the more important to know what makes your company special to your customers. 

2. Baby Boomers, Time to Leave Work 
Do you have the right career transition strategies to deal with an ageing workforce? Will you have a shortage of experienced middle to senior management staff? 

The kind of management skills that come with experience over time can be critical to helping your business survive through the ups and downs of the economic cycle. The generational change that we are seeing in the Australian workforce now, means that increasingly younger and less experienced managers are
coming to the fore. 

Do you have the right workforce strategies in place to ensure you can attract these increasingly more scarce experienced mid-level management staff? 
 
3. Re-emergence of Leadership Development 
In the past 5 years Australian businesses have been focused on survival of the fittest. We have seen many leadership development projects cut or downsized. This trend is changing, and quickly! Over the last year, we are witnessing an increased focus on leadership development and a new dialogue about getting the
right person at the top, making sure we have the right career transition plans in place and fast tracking and keeping the good people at work. 

To succeed in this tough new business environment, your business will need the best and the brightest at the top. One of the best places to find these bright sparks is within your organisation, your challenge is to identify them and make sure they stay with you over time. In a competitive economy, these leaders of the future are highly sought after. If you put the right leadership development programs in place now, then your employer brand can become more attractive than the competition. 

To find out more about how to maximise your workforce and leadership development strategies, and ensure your business succeeds over the next 5 years, call Deborah Wilson from Trevor-Roberts for a confidential discussion on 0403 779 746.

(Deborah is currently Executive Director Client Development at Trevor-Roberts.  She is a thought leader in her field of careers.  She balances her role at Trevor Roberts as well as serving on the Council of Brisbane North Institute of TAFE and Board Director of Australia's CEO Challenge.)

Kirsty Janney - My Executive Coach - Personalised Coaching Solutions 
I work with individuals, managers and their teams to improve performance at work every day.
To find out more contact me at kjanney@bigpond.net.au

Hard conversations are the ones you put off.  They can be with a person you find difficult to communicate with, or maybe about a topic that you find uncomfortable.  These simple tips can help make hard conversations easier on you and everyone around you.

The list of hard conversation topics that come up in coaching usually focus on things like giving negative feedback; asking for a pay-rise; delivering "bad news" and the list goes on.

Here are a few things you can do next time to make a hard conversation easier on yourself.

1. Set a Goal - Decide exactly what you want to achieve with this conversation in advance. 

2. Rehearse - Practice what you are going to say, especially that one sentence that you know will be the tricky one.  

3. Keep it brief - Often when people need to have a hard conversation they "skirt" around the issue.  The receiver of your message knows when you're avoiding the issue. It's easier on everyone to keep your delivery succinct and to the point.

4. Depersonalise - Try to phrase your message in terms of your own feelings, and avoid being a finger pointer.  Deliver your message in a way that makes it easy for the other person to co-operate, instead of becoming defensive.  (eg: Instead of "When you do this, it wastes time for the whole team." try "When this happens at work, I find it very distracting.")

5. Back up Plan - Instead of worrying about the worst thing that could happen, why not re-direct this thought train into a way of creating a back up plan, in case you don't get your desired outcome.

Good luck. 

Kirsty Janney - My Executive Coach - Personalised Coaching Solutions - I work with individuals, managers and their teams to improve performance at work every day. For a confidential discussion about your coaching requirements, contact me at kjanney@bigpond.net.au

Do you focus on solutions, or solving problems?

When you focus on solving a problem, you become an expert on the problem.  When you consciously decide to focus on solutions, you become an expert on what's working.  Which one would you prefer to be?

The first step in developing a solution focussed approach to your challenges at work, or at home, is to ask;  What is it you want?  Spend as much time as you need at this stage.  Because once you have agreement on what it is you want, then the solutions will come more easily. Avoid the problem focussed trap.  Put problem focussed ideas and talk on the sideline.

When you make a conscious decision to focus yourself and your team on "What's working" instead of "What's broken", you are taking a positive approach, which in term brings a more positive attitude and increased confidence.  The team can feel more comfortable to think in terms of new alternatives, brainstorming, ideal solutions - instead of being hamstrung in the issues of the past. 

Developing a solutions focus means you zone in on 
What's wanted
What's working (in other areas / at our competition / ways other people do things)
Progress we have made already        
Resources available
Current strengths
Actions

A problem focussed discussion zones in on
What's wrong and what needs fixing
Blame and control
Causes in the past
Weaknesses / Deficits / Complications

Reference: The Solutions Focus, Paul Z Jackson & Mark McKergow, 2007.

Kirsty Janney - My Executive Coach - Personalised Coaching Solutions - I work with individuals, managers and their teams to improve performance at work every day. For a confidential discussion about your coaching requirements, contact me at kjanney@bigpond.net.au

This is a great time to set goals to be achieved by the end of the year. 

It can be easy to let goal setting slip by.  But whether you work in your own business, in a corporate environment or searching for that perfect job. Goal setting is a great way to get you on track and focussed.
 
What would you like to achieve by the end of 2013?  Your goals can be around customer numbers, increasing profit, achieving a work life balance, getting your office organised, building a website or getting a promotion. 

Whatever your target is, the key to achieving your goals is to set them!  Say it out loud.  Write it down.  Work out what you need to do to make it happen.  And start on the first task.  

It’s important to keep track of how you’re going, to give yourself a pat on the back along the way, and also keep setting new tasks each week.  
 
Kirsty Janney, My Executive Coach, - Personalised Coaching Solutions
I work with individuals, managers and their teams to improve performance at work every day. For a confidential discussion about your coaching requirements, contact me at kjanney@bigpond.net.au


 

Setting tasks and milestones each week is a great way to get yourself on track to achieving your long term goals.  It's also really important to take stock of what you're achieving along the way.

Take 5 minutes each week to remember "What have I achieved this week?"

Research shows that when we spend time to take stock of what we're doing well, this has the spin off effect of providing us with more self-confidence, broadening our mind in terms of solutions for future problems and challenges, and also helping us to feel more positive about ourselves in general.

There's many books on the power of positive thinking.  Positivity by Barbara Fredrickson, is a great one.  Medical researchers have conducted studies showing that positive thinking can actually promote better cell growth!*

So, remember this week to take 5 minutes to give yourself a pat on the back and appreciate what you've achieved.

*Crowley & Lodge (2004), "Emotion, plasticity, context and regulation: Perspectives from affective neuroscience,"  Psychological Bulletin 126: 890-909

Time Management might sound boring.  But sometimes when you're feeling overwhelmed at work, it's a good idea to stop and go back to the basics of Time Management.  It might only be some small changes to the way you're working now, but the benefits are getting that feeling of control and efficiency back in your life!

When you get on top of your time management
    You will feel organised!
    Others will find you easier to work with.
    You will have time for personal goals as well as work.
    Your key tasks will be completed.

Start your week with a plan.
    Work out the key tasks for the week. 
    Schedule your tasks from most important to least important.
    Start on the most important tasks first.

Use the 4 D's, and aim to only touch every task once.
    Do it now
    Delegate it
    Set a date
    Delete it
    
Manage People's Interruptions
    When people interrupt your work, quickly mention you're in the middle of something.
    If an interruption can't be avoided, tell them you only have 3 minutes to spare.  
    Don't ask the interrupter to sit down, avoid small talk and get straight to the point.

Play to your strengths
    When are you at your most efficient?
    Plan to do the most important work when you are feeling fired up and your brain is at it's best.

Eat the frog!
    Get the hard stuff out of the way.
    Think of all the time you'll save that you would have wasted worrying about it.

Manage email effectively
    Don't live in your inbox.
    Disable email alerts so that you can start and finish your task without interruptions.
    Set times to manage email.  Aim to check emails once you have completed the task at hand.

Control the clutter
    Don't clutter your desktop with things that distract you. (ie: Your phone!)
    Keep an inbox on your desk so that new materials aren't dumped on your workspace.
    File your work away at the end of the day before you leave.