Going First Class, Travelling in the Wrong Direction

Have you ever been on such a high that you missed the detail?

Recently, I was the Conference Speaker at a large Symposium in London. After I walked off that stage I was buzzing and the feel good factor just continued.  I was in the zone; living my dream and being of service to the corporate clients all around me.

I got into a taxi and headed to Euston Station, my return ticket was off peak so I decided to upgrade to a peak time ticket. I paid an extra £130 and the guy who sold me the ticket began to glow as well, so much so that he told me to go and sit in the First Class coach G.  I followed some other people and found coach G.  I was relaxed and made a phone call, ten minutes later I looked at my watch and it was 5:21pm, Virgin Trains must be running late I thought as we were due to leave at 5:07pm.  Then I looked out the window and saw platform 5 was on the other side, which was the platform I was supposed to be on!

I turned to the gentleman in the seat behind me and asked him if this train was for Liverpool. No was his reply as the train was pulling out of the station, this train was heading for Manchester. How could I have missed the detail when I was in the zone?

What to do when in the zone

1. Stay grounded
2. Pay attention
3. Remember to sweat the detail
4. Be aware of your surroundings

Be First Class – Travel First Class

I live by a simple motto saying ‘Don’t talk about it, be it…’

To be it means we have to be first class, no excuses, no poor me. It takes discipline and courage to be what you came here to be. When you are first class, no one questions you, they just know it.

By the essence and the presence of who you are and everyone who works for you, it’s not about walk the talk; it's about be the talk… be the brand. Be the product or service that you are. Ooze it, radiate it, respect it… the world right now needs presence, energy and positivity.

Change Your Environment

Are you getting the results you want in life and business?

If not, maybe it’s time to look at what’s going on in your environment. When you surround yourself with the right environment, you have a better chance of succeeding. This might mean:

• Rearranging the office.
• Rearranging your home.
• Studying books on people who have succeeded at what you want to do or be.
• Looking at who you currently mix with… maybe it’s time to attract new friends and business associates into your life.

Eight Top Tips for Changing the Environment

1. Write a clear out list.
2. Clear out the clutter.
3. Be ruthless; get rid of anything you don’t love. Example: books, pictures, dead plants.
4. Sort out your files in the office.
5. Add colour to the office with fresh flowers.
6. If you work in a sales environment, put a picture of what you will buy with the money you will earn from new sales.
7. Bring in healthy snacks to the office, ones that will increase your energy levels.
8. Place two litres of water on your desk and drink it before the end of your day.

When there is beauty and order in your environment, you are more likely to succeed.

Why Not?

Why not be world-class?
Why not be the best that only you can be?
Why not work smarter instead of harder?
Why not ask yourself deep thought provoking questions that will take you to the next level every day of your life?
Why not live in the stretch zone every day?
Why not learn a new skill?
Why not think bigger than ever before?
Why not set a great intention today and really go for it?
Why not begin with the end in mind? Feel it, see it and hear it as if it has already happened.
Why not do that difficult thing you have been putting off until today?
Why not pick up the phone and call someone you have never spoken to before?
Why not take action on something in your life that until now you have been putting on hold?
Why not step into fear and move past it?
Why not write a list of what you will no longer tolerate in your life?
Why not be brave and ask?
Why not change your environment today?

When we ask and challenge ourselves with the question why not, we open the inner doors in our minds to boundless possibility. We change how we think and feel and our life changes around us.

Three Biggest Distractions in Business

What takes your time away?  Have you ever gone on facebook for five minutes and lost an hour?

The same can happen when you open your inbox, pick up the phone or get caught up in gossip within the workplace. Time and energy are precious; they are the two things we cannot ever get back again once lost.

I recently had a telephone conversation with a business associate in Minneapolis.  She was stressed and overwhelmed by the fact that there were 3,500 unread emails in her inbox… WOW was my first reaction and then okay how do you deal with it?

Four Top Tips for Handling Emails

1. Stop using your inbox as a storage box.
2. Put chunks of time aside each day when you will focus on your inbox, no more than three times a day.
3. As you open each email, delete, respond or file out of your inbox.
4. Be ruthless and delete anything that has been lying in your inbox for months.

How to Handle Phone Distractions

1. Work as a team.
2. If you have a deadline to meet, work with a colleague next to you and ask him/her to take calls for you for one hour, then you can help them in return.
3. Return all your outgoing calls in one hour chunks. Build it into your diary.

How to Handle People Who Waste Time

1. Be firm and clear. Arrange to speak to them over lunch or at a coffee break.
2. Always when meeting, set a start and finish time.

I encourage you to use your energy wisely because without world class levels of energy, you cannot be or reach world class in business.

Are You Meeting Your Customer’s Needs?

The world in 2011 is transforming like never before and with it customer’s habits and needs have and are changing. We are all caught up on the hamster wheel of global change; however some things will never change, like meeting the customers on their level, asking the right questions and solving the current pain in their market place.

Seven Tips on How to Meet Your Customer’s Needs: 

1. Communicate, ask questions and shut up.
2. Get deep on what your customer really want and need, not what you think they need.
3. Find out what they love.
4. Find out what they are passionate about.
5. Know at least 20 things about your top customers.
6. Send a gift to them, example: books, tickets, flowers, be original.
7. Personalise your gifts.

Why not in 2011 become so brilliant at what you do that you become the number one go to source in your market.

 

What to Do When Your Life Is Delayed

Have you ever had the experience where you were delayed for hours at an airport somewhere in the world?

Last week I checked in at Liverpool Airport to take the short 35 minute flight to Dublin.  I had one and a half hours to spare so I bought myself a black coffee.  As I looked at the board I couldn't believe what I saw, my flight which was due out at 11:05am was now not departing until 3:35pm.  At that moment all around me, the negativity started moaning and whingeing and I had to quickly reframe my thinking.

• What if I used this time to write my blogs in advance?
• What if I used this time to go over the final points of my Master Class for the next day?
• What if I reviewed my goals and vision for 2011?

By just changing my thinking to ‘what if’, my whole mindset changed and I achieved more in the following four and a half hours than I had in the last two days.

Top Tips on What to Do When Your Life is Delayed

1. Ask yourself ‘what if'?
2. Always go prepared to an airport, take a book, laptop, notebook, pens.
3. Move away from negative Nellie’s and Ned’s.
4. Breathe in relaxation, breathe out stress.
5. Find a comfortable chair/table from where you can work, read or just relax.
6. Use your time wisely.
7. Clean up your to do list.

Pause and be grateful that at least you were not sitting on a plane on the runway for four and a half hours and know that sometimes in life delays can be positive.

You just don’t know who you might connect with along the way.

Ghosts of Leaders Past

Have you ever stopped and pondered on what resonance you will leave behind when your work is done?

I was recently completing a Leadership Programme within a large corporate and as the organisation was closing one building down, we were asked to complete the programme within another of its buildings on site.

As we walked to the conference room, we passed room after room of empty furniture, chairs and tables, stacked on top of each other… the ghosts of days gone by.  Some of the desks were very beautiful and expensive and I could not help but wonder what kind of leader used to use each desk.

• I wondered how did they manage their people?
• Did they lead with integrity?
• Did they foresee the changes that were coming?

The Lessons I Learned from the Ghosts of Leaders Past Experience:

• If you had six months to live, would you still do what you are currently doing?
• Make a difference today, don’t wait until tomorrow.
• The price of discipline is much less than the pain of regret.
• Go deep in tough times and evaluate everything you do.
• Look ahead and ask yourself as a leader, how would you perform if everything fell apart and you were told to clear your desk?

Life is too short for long pity parties, learn to embrace, change, get rid of the crap and focus on what is great in your life now.