Merry Christmas and a survey

Have a great Christmas and a brill New Year !

Please do my survey at the URL as below


http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2nxkw9kg3h6i8zr/start


Thanks a lot

Paul

Happy Christmas

The Network Yorkshire Lunch and Learn went well - thanks to all who attended . I hope that the content was useful .

We have reached that time of the year where logic is replaced by Christmas and I wonder how we managed without flashing lights outside our houses and hundreds of mince pies .

I hope everyone has a a good break and a peaceful one if they get the chance and very prosperous New Year .

Next week I am going to Nicky's gig at the Galpharm - it should be great.

New Gig and new card for Christmas

My next gig is at Bradford City Football Club on the 7th of December at 10.45 am as part of the Network Yorkshire Lunch and Learn . I will giving out a few tips on how to hit the New Year running .

Seeing as I have mentioned the New Year - you may as well have a preview of new card - for a limited time only .

Cheers - hope to see you at BCFC

Paul

Human Behaviour

Human Beings with Common Sense?

Keep coming across examples of seemingly human beings losing all sense of perspective and becoming swallowed up whole by management speak (MS or BS ?).

My favourite comes from a senior employed member of the executive of a local Council who was heard to say that they would undertake a consultation with two and three year olds about ways of increasing achievement in schools. Yes that's right two and three year old children.

This reminds briefly of a visit to an infant school by the local fire brigade who talked about fire alarms and escapes and other vital information and then asked for questions and a little girl on the front row said - “ I've got new shoes .They've got velcro on them .”


Love to see the results of that consultation.


Thanks until next time


Paul

Quick Quote

Didn't put the quick quote in

From the message board in Shine Harehills (great place by the way )

If you think professionals are expensive think about the cost of amateurs


Paul

SFP

Two things to blog about this time – self fulfilling prophecy and a quick quote.

Thanks for taking the time to read this – it might just trigger something for you . Radio 4 ran a program about entrepreneurs and one of the themes was how the various people reacted to setback or tragedy ; one of them was interviewed and said the key is to surround yourself with positive people .These gave the will to keep going when things were bad.

Background (people around you , circumstances ) leads to Beliefs giving you Attitudes & Feelings displayed in Behaviour ending in a set of Results

The Results reinforcing your beliefs and becoming a self fulfilling prophecy.

Part of my coaching sessions is to break this conditioning and therefore create more sucess.

Paul Clarke

Another Chance to see

Hi Good afternoon – its Friday . Two gigs next week – one in Dewsbury – below

and one at Network Yorkshire on Friday morning at the Old Brick Works in Drightlington – 8-10

All welcome £10 on the door

Have a great weekend – Annie (aged 11 ) is going to Wembley ,so I'll be going to ASDA then .

Paul

My next gig

I am doing a presentation the Better Business Breakfast at Hannah's Tea Rooms, Manna Food Hall, The Mill, Bradford Road, Batley, WF17 5LZ on Thursday 22nd October- at the NEW price of £5 per person!

It starts at 7.30am and will finish around 9.00 am .The presentation is called "Worms not Strawberries (sales and marketing for small businesses)".

Please email info@batleyanddewsbury.co.uk or telephone Viv Edmonds on 01924 324660/1 to book your place.

Remember – they might forget what you say but they will not forget how you made them feel.



Cheers Paul Clarke

07876 173444

Networking Stuff

Networking and First Impressions Count


Just a few thoughts on how to potentially lose a client or a useful contact before you had a chance. Jaimie Dobson on his blog talked about notices which show distrust of customers – only 1 child at once and so on; I want to just think about the face to face things which I think some people may get wrong.


Business Cards and what's on them

Everyone knows that its possible to get business cards very cheaply if not free but what does this tell me about you as a business be you a supplier or a contact to recommend . I feel it tells me that even the investment of around £70 is too much to spend to get that right impression . Am I going to recommend someone who can't spend that little bit to tell me good things about their business.

Lastly – domain names – very cheap – £100 a year or there abouts – can be paid monthly ,mine is. What would you think if my email address was Paulclarke4545@hotmail.com or worse dinkypoos@gmail.com – not a lot .

If a business is worth doing - invest and get it looking right.


Have a great time networking



Paul Clarke pc@bostonclarke.co.uk


on signs – Dave Spikey on “Something for the Weekend “ sign at Bolton Hospital –

Alsations Operating Inside

ACRONYMS

The worlds of sales , marketing and personal development love acronyms ;TLA , FLA and the 4 P's and the 5 D's and so on . I use them ,combining sales and coaching is acronym heaven .

So I thought I would share a few -

SOS – State of mind – Objective – Strategy ; a handy list aiming to help with any sales call

SMART – target setting – specific,measurable,achievable,realistic and timed .This one is well known and has many variations .

GROW – another goal setting acronym – Goal, reality,opportunity and way forward - some of my coaching activity is built around this

ASK – Activity ,skills , knowledge – describes the attributes for account management

NME – no more excuses – used to move people along and also to remove reasons not to act - work with managers especially sales managers usually invloves this


TFN

Paul

More Thoughts on Coaching

The CIPD defines coaching as ‘developing a person’s skills and knowledge so that their job performance improves, hopefully leading to the achievement of organisational objectives. It targets high performance and improvement at work, although it may also have an impact on an individual’s private life.

Who is it for?

• helping competent technical experts develop better interpersonal or managerial skills
• developing an individual’s potential and providing career support
• developing a more strategic perspective after a promotion to a more senior role
• handling conflict situations so that they are resolved effectively

Coaching usually involves some or all of the following factors

• It is essentially a non-directive form of development
• It focuses on improving performance and developing individuals’ skills
• Personal issues may be discussed but the emphasis is on performance at work
• Coaching activities have both organisational and individual goals
• It assumes that the individual is psychologically well and does not require a clinical intervention
• It provides people with feedback on both their strengths and their weaknesses
• It is a skilled activity which should be delivered by trained people

‘A study featured in Public Personnel Management Journal reports that managers who underwent a managerial training programme showed an average increase in productivity of 22.4%. However, a second group was also provided with coaching and their productivity increased by 88%. '

Paul Clarke

Who needs coaching ? Most people -well I would say that wouldn't I , but apparently Tiger woods uses coaching -

http://www.thetimes.co.za/Careers/Article.aspx?id=1035340

Have a look and see what you think


Paul

Back From Hols

Just slowly getting back into it after returning from Tenerife (hence the flower pic) where it was redders . Highlights to come open sales and leadership training days , with possible funding from LSC . More much more to follow.

Myers Briggs and Leadership

I have been Myers Briggsed . This a familiar questionnaire which adds to understanding of how we make decisions and perceive the world .The original developers of this questionnaire were Katharine Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Myers. They began creating the test in WW2,in the belief that a knowledge of personality preferences would help women entering the workplace for the first time find the sort of jobs where they would be "most comfortable and effective".

The MBTI analyses decision making ,personality types and world perceptions .For my clients I feel it give more insight into their fit into teams and how they may lead those teams. I was given a code that shows my personality type and my dominant types . One of the most interesting insights was my predicted behaviour under stress .(I am not going to discussing that here but explains some actions in the past .)

I do use questionnaires to give an insight to behaviour of the individual and the fit into the culture in their company as well as how the individual views themselves and how they are viewed(360 feedback).

I am very grateful to Sarah-Jane at Total HR for giving me this great addition to my coaching toolbox and am sure that it will give even better results for my clients .I look forward to these results.

I am going to take a bit of a break - but I will be back .

First Post - benefits

Benefits - I love strawberries but if I ever go fishing I take worms because fish like worms .

So what are the benefits of Boston Clarke .

Boston Clarke exists to help business people perform better through performance coaching and leadership development.Boston Clarke offers focus , vision , motivation , inspiration and sales insight .


How? By coaching , use of interactive diagnostics and models.

What do Boston Clarke's interventions achieve?

Enabling you to make better decisions, hit targets, improve communication and motivate your suppliers, customers and staff.
This generates more success, as well as offering a clear vision of how to stay competitive and profitable in these challenging times.

Focus is about finding the right direction and staying there; vision is where the business wants to go ; inspiration is finding and communicating that vision - motivation comes when all of these work together.

If you need to know more - contact me info@bostonclarke.co.uk / 07876 173 444