STRENGTHS FOCUS

Just read Marcus Buckingham's latest book "The Truth About You" and watched the associated video's. He's taken 2 decades of interviewing leaders on behalf of Gallup.com, combined with research from his previous 4 books and synthesised the information into this simple DVD-Book kit.

This kit is powerful for 2 reasons. Firstly the message of 'Playing to Strengths' is backed up with robust Gallup.com data and secondly it is delivered with such passion and simplicity, that even the most disengaged employee or 'old school' manager couldn't help but follow Buckingham's advice. I've been coaching others to focus on their strengths for years, but have not found a book that delivers the message as clearly as this book does.

Check out the links below, read the book, get your team to read it and tell me about your thoughts and successes.

http://www.marcusbuckingham.com/ & www.tmbc.com/truth

www.marcusbuckingham.com/site/why_strengths/video.php

www.marcusbuckingham.com/site/resources/videos.php

For 5 more videos, click on the title of this blog 'Strengths Focus' above.

GOAL PLANNING

Click on the Weblink below to watch a short video on how to use my Clock-Face Goal Planning Tool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XZEZ5QB9FY&ap=%2526fmt%3D22

I used 'Mind Manager' from http://www.mindjet.com/ to construct the Mind-Map.
Send me an email if you would like to receive the Clock Plan Mind-Map.

I used 'Jing' from http://www.jingproject.com/ to record the MPEG-4 video before uploading to YouTube.

Let me know how you get on with my Clock-Face Goal Planner.

5 Time Management Tips

1- Use the 4 D's of email inbox management.
(a) Delete
(b) Delegate
(c) Do Now, if it only needs 2minutes spent on a reply.
(d) Do later and flick off to a 'Later file' for coming back to when priorities have been resolved.

2 - Turn off your mobile voicemail and divert to a paging service for the following reasons.
(a) if its important they'll leave a message and if its not they wont.
(b) the instant text message from the operator saves having to call voicemail back.
(c) the text message comes with a reply phone number and saves fossicking for a pen while checking voicemail on the hop.
(d) the operator and can ask preset questions from certain categories of callers
(e) the operator can give preset information to certain categories of callers.

3 - Consider spending a minimum of 4hrs a week mentoring staff, as you'll be amazed at the time you'll save by delegating more and more than you ever imagined possible.

4- Train staff to write emails which only need a yes/no from you. If a challenge arises, they should ideally come up with at least 2 options requiring you to simply pick one.

5- Listen to audio education on the way into work and return calls on the way home. As Brian Tracy says, "When you are at work, WORK."