If there's one thing we should all be doing at this time of year, its getting organised to have half a chance of fulfilling those new year's resolutions. How many times have you cleared your todo list only to find it fill up again ? I'm not suggesting that the list will never fill up again but there are things you can realistically do to keep it at bay, with a little effort. And if even thinking about getting your life better organised sends you running for the nearest happy hour, here's some tips to get you started before you head out of the door!
First off, you need to pinpoint where the clutter is coming from...emails, paperwork, and meetings are common offenders, and its time to get tough. Ask yourself 'what will I achieve by responding to this email?' or 'would I just be better making a note to phone the sender up this week?'. Ask yourself what action is needed on letters and files, whether it is essential or not, and thin out the contents of your action tray accordingly - place everything else in a 'weekend tray' and bin any unactioned contents at the end of the month. Drastic ? maybe but as long as you don't bin anything critical it works! Then there's meetings - a one hour meeting can take out a whole half day once you've got there, the meeting has overrun, then you've got back and answered emails and phonecalls. Thats without even thinking of followup, so unless a meeting is essential try a) putting off non essential meetings till then end of the week b) using the phone or c) using internet software to conference and share info online.
You'll also need to get your filing system in shape -make sure you seperate new and pending items and logically sub divide the files so as its a) clear what's in them and b) matches your schedule for doing something about it. Use colours to reflect importance and make sure any urgent items are somewhere you will see (and action!) them regularly. If you really have more documents than you can handle, some businesses do, it may be time to consider a scanning and filing system for your PC, there are various solutions around but you'll need to find the right one for your needs and budget.
If you're still having problems look for a professional organiser - as with anything else having someone help you break the backbone and break the bad habits can make all the difference. Innov8 offers affordable organising sessions and tools, for more information please visit our website www.innov8hk.biz.
Sunday, 6 January 2008
Tuesday, 1 January 2008
Consulting or Coaching ?
I recently read an article which suggested that designers were the new management consultants..interesting idea...there is certainly an element of 'designing' a small business, not so much in the creative sense (corporate ID excepted) but in terms of developing the business concept into a working business.
This brought me back to the age old question - consulting or coaching ? Some people can't keep away from crossword puzzles, I guess I can't help but dig into these questions and try and shed some light, at least in so far as I'll feel I have some understanding, and hopefully be able to bring clarity for others.
One potential client once asked 'why can't I just buy a book and work out how to do it myself'. The topic was business planning. OK I said, give it a try, but let me know if you need any help. He looked at me as if I was supposed to have said something more or tried to talk him round, but I was genuinely curious to see the result, so having felt I'd satisfied my need to be professional without having pushed the guy into hiring me when he clearly felt he had the capability to tackle it himself, I decided to let it run and see what happened.
Not having heard anything for a couple of weeks I figured I'd either met at business planning genius or he'd run into problems, so decided to make a quick call to find out. It took around 30 minutes to establish that he'd bought a good book, read and digested it and had created a suitable outline, but had developed writers block and was struggling to process the business issues and how to write intelligible text at the same time. After a soft intro, he then switched tack to 'do you know a consultant who can write it for me?'. Yes, I replied, but is that really what you want to do ? you clearly know what you want to do with your business, if you ask a consultant to write the document for you we'll lose the sublety which describes 'who' the business will be, and if you don't do it yourself you won't have been through the exercise, which by the way is an invaluable journey of discovery - discovery of the reality of what you are proposing to do, and how you are going to do it. After a long period of silence the reply comes 'so tell me what should I do' - the green light for progress. Somewhat painful process though it had been I felt that I had learned enough to be able to genuinely help him to achieve his objectives, and importantly to meet his expectations, and he had learned enough to understand where he needed help and why. The game is afoot.
What has this got to do with our question - consulting or coaching ? Don't people love labels ! The short answer in my opinion is most things boil down to a mix - hence the element of design. To be truly successful you need to have both a certain degree of knowledge, and the gut feel to design the successful mix, and of courses the people and resources to help you make it a reality. In most cases this boils down to a combination of the following...
Coaching: to help you develop an effective strategy and plan, a viable business concept and model and a roadmap for building a successful business, mentoring and motivating you as you go along, pointing out your strengths and weaknesses. A coach needs an insight on your business, you need to feel comfortable with them, and they need to be available, especially in HK where free time is virtually non existent. Once you get to a certain point you can even use web conferencing to speed things up.
Consulting: when you have a particularly important issue, problem or specialist/technical matter to deal with which exceeds your comfort zone and knowledgebase. The right consultant again has a good knowledge of your business area and subject at hand, and preferably a demonstrable track record in this area. Make sure you get at least a firm estimate before you hire.
Books, training, seminars and groups: range from worthwhile background to a waste of time. Buffing up on routine info can be a good idea, but if its anything important you should seek experienced help, if for no other reason than to make sure your proposed version of the 5W's (What, Why, When, Why, Who, How) is going to work in practice. How many people come out of training courses with a sense of true satisfaction ? and how many times have you been to a seminar or group and felt it fell far short of your expectations ? These are all great ways to build your knowledge, but there's no substitute for human experience and interaction, when push comes shove.
Of course each of us will need a different mix according to our skills, capabilities and past experience.
I've left the shameless marketing till the end but if you've got this far, let's get it over and done with...I formed Innov8 (www.innov8hk.biz) to help small business owners get a helping hand starting their business...start as you mean to go on...and to get help during periods of change and growth. Whether you decide to go it alone and call for help when things go wrong, you want a few hours a month to discuss particular issues, or someone to walk you through the entire process, we're here to help...affordable rates, alarmingly clear insights, and a no BS approach to getting the job done...
This brought me back to the age old question - consulting or coaching ? Some people can't keep away from crossword puzzles, I guess I can't help but dig into these questions and try and shed some light, at least in so far as I'll feel I have some understanding, and hopefully be able to bring clarity for others.
One potential client once asked 'why can't I just buy a book and work out how to do it myself'. The topic was business planning. OK I said, give it a try, but let me know if you need any help. He looked at me as if I was supposed to have said something more or tried to talk him round, but I was genuinely curious to see the result, so having felt I'd satisfied my need to be professional without having pushed the guy into hiring me when he clearly felt he had the capability to tackle it himself, I decided to let it run and see what happened.
Not having heard anything for a couple of weeks I figured I'd either met at business planning genius or he'd run into problems, so decided to make a quick call to find out. It took around 30 minutes to establish that he'd bought a good book, read and digested it and had created a suitable outline, but had developed writers block and was struggling to process the business issues and how to write intelligible text at the same time. After a soft intro, he then switched tack to 'do you know a consultant who can write it for me?'. Yes, I replied, but is that really what you want to do ? you clearly know what you want to do with your business, if you ask a consultant to write the document for you we'll lose the sublety which describes 'who' the business will be, and if you don't do it yourself you won't have been through the exercise, which by the way is an invaluable journey of discovery - discovery of the reality of what you are proposing to do, and how you are going to do it. After a long period of silence the reply comes 'so tell me what should I do' - the green light for progress. Somewhat painful process though it had been I felt that I had learned enough to be able to genuinely help him to achieve his objectives, and importantly to meet his expectations, and he had learned enough to understand where he needed help and why. The game is afoot.
What has this got to do with our question - consulting or coaching ? Don't people love labels ! The short answer in my opinion is most things boil down to a mix - hence the element of design. To be truly successful you need to have both a certain degree of knowledge, and the gut feel to design the successful mix, and of courses the people and resources to help you make it a reality. In most cases this boils down to a combination of the following...
Coaching: to help you develop an effective strategy and plan, a viable business concept and model and a roadmap for building a successful business, mentoring and motivating you as you go along, pointing out your strengths and weaknesses. A coach needs an insight on your business, you need to feel comfortable with them, and they need to be available, especially in HK where free time is virtually non existent. Once you get to a certain point you can even use web conferencing to speed things up.
Consulting: when you have a particularly important issue, problem or specialist/technical matter to deal with which exceeds your comfort zone and knowledgebase. The right consultant again has a good knowledge of your business area and subject at hand, and preferably a demonstrable track record in this area. Make sure you get at least a firm estimate before you hire.
Books, training, seminars and groups: range from worthwhile background to a waste of time. Buffing up on routine info can be a good idea, but if its anything important you should seek experienced help, if for no other reason than to make sure your proposed version of the 5W's (What, Why, When, Why, Who, How) is going to work in practice. How many people come out of training courses with a sense of true satisfaction ? and how many times have you been to a seminar or group and felt it fell far short of your expectations ? These are all great ways to build your knowledge, but there's no substitute for human experience and interaction, when push comes shove.
Of course each of us will need a different mix according to our skills, capabilities and past experience.
I've left the shameless marketing till the end but if you've got this far, let's get it over and done with...I formed Innov8 (www.innov8hk.biz) to help small business owners get a helping hand starting their business...start as you mean to go on...and to get help during periods of change and growth. Whether you decide to go it alone and call for help when things go wrong, you want a few hours a month to discuss particular issues, or someone to walk you through the entire process, we're here to help...affordable rates, alarmingly clear insights, and a no BS approach to getting the job done...
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