Donald Dull from Harvard poses three questions to break down complex strategies in actionable steps. I highly recommend this video.

Interested in learning more? I’d love to hear from you. Get in touch here: https://babettebensoussan.com.au/babettes_coaching/

Want to sharpen the way you think about business and strategy? Explore more insights and resources at https://analysiswithoutparalysis.com/

Did you know, we actually remember positive words better than negative words! Here’s an example: Don’t dump trash here!

Sounds OK. It communicates! But in your mind, something amazing happens when you read this – amazing but not good.

Why not good? Well, when you read an instruction that is worded negatively, you have to switch tracks from “I can’t dump trash here” to “where in the world AM I supposed to dump the trash!”

What is better and more effective to say is: “Dump trash here.”

Eliminating one word turns the negative order into a positive order that can be easily followed and avoids having to switch around in a thought dilemma, which wastes time and creates negative energy!

Here are a couple more to consider:

Think about the word “problem”. This word actually produces stress because we feel we must solve something and it is likely to be complicated and that we’ll be graded on how we solve the problem.

The word “challenge”, although a vast improvement over the word “problem”, still carries hidden emotional baggage. It comes with feelings that maybe you’ll be “humiliated” if your performance isn’t equal to others or you’ll have to climb over a great obstacle or run a tiring race.

The words “problem” and “challenge” are emotive words, meaning there are feelings and emotions that accompany them. Most of the time we’re unaware of these emotions as the words are so common.

When you see a challenge you naturally begin to see reasons you can’t achieve it…when you see a problem you see failure looming. With both, you’re recognising a manifestation of a fear you have. Once you’re victim to the fear of failure you can’t think in a healthy way.

The answer? Change your perspective.

What if there was no such thing as problems or challenges? What if there were only opportunities to test what you believed, no failures to keep you from trying, and only growth from your experiences?

“What would you attempt to do today if you knew you could not fail?”

There’s huge power in this kind of thinking! (Another good reason for having an objective coach in your life.)

Changing your perspective – just the way you use a word for example – helps you tap into an inner energy to accomplish your dreams. Changing your perspective helps you identify and overcome internal obstacles and barriers so you can succeed.

So think carefully about the words you use and the positive energy they bring to you and to those around you. For example, I changed the way I used the word “but”. I try to avoid it completely where possible. I did not realise that everything you say before you say “but” is in fact cancelled and the person only hears what comes after the “but”. Try for a week not to use the word “but” and see what happens. I would be most interested to hear how you go.

Curious how this applies to your own situation? Get in touch and let’s discuss: https://babettebensoussan.com.au/babettes_coaching/

It’s the first question you ask when business goes to a competitor. So… Are you really focused on improving your business, or do you simply move on and try again with the same sales approach and techniques?

Conducting win/loss analysis is one of the best ways of generating the insights you need to increase revenue and grow your business. So why aren’t you doing it?

Win/Loss Analysis (WLA) is a cost-effective, insightful, and ethical method for gathering and analyzing information about your market, customers, and competitors. WLA identifies your customer’s perceptions of specific sales situations and how you compare to your competitors. It provides a window as to why a customer is buying or not buying your products and/or services. The analysis provides information about the performance of both your firm and your competitors. The insights can then be actively used to focus sales staff more effectively in the marketplace and also to inform research and development of products.

The Benefits of WLA:

• Understand why you win and lose business

• Learn which clients are or are not good prospect

• Focus on product features customers value most

• Improve implementation, training and services

• Improve quality of customer testimonials

• Improve sales professionalism

TOP 7 QUESTIONS TO GET YOU STARTED

Answering these questions is the foundation to get the process moving in a fruitful direction.

1. What were the reasons we won/lost the last sales competition for… (a big client)?

2. Was our RFP response as effective as it could have been?

3. Are our prices truly non-competitive with our rivals? Or are other factors impacting client retention decisions?

4. How/ why can a rival keep beating us on bids for regional clients?

5. Are there opportunities to gain clients that we are not capitalizing on?

6. What operational changes do we need to make to better satisfy existing clients?

7. What changes can we make that will best empower our sales force in their daily efforts to win customers out in the field?

I have been involved with WLA since the mid 1990’s and have written about the subject since 2006. To this day, I do not understand why more companies aren’t conducting win/loss interviews, analyzing results and implementing lessons learned.

When WLA is done properly, companies gain valuable insights and are able to implement initiatives that helps them increase revenue and grow their business. It really is a win-win all around.

Interested in learning how to implement this tool, please give me a call or read this just released book by my dear friend Ellen Naylor dedicated to WLA. Check it out!

Have questions or want to learn more? I'd love to hear from you. Get in touch: https://babettebensoussan.com.au/babettes_coaching/

Held in conjunction with ‘AccountantsDaily’ earlier this year, My Business surveyed over 647 SMEs across Australia to get their take on what they saw as growth barriers to their businesses. Most (58%) said that they have been operating their businesses for 11+ years. We can say then that these businesses have been around a while.

So what were the top three barriers?

1. Attracting new Customers – 34.2%

2. Availability of skilled staff or experienced managers – 14.9%

3. Competition – 10.5%

Each of these relates to the market or competitive environment. None of these are internal issues. If nearly 60% of your growth barriers are external why is it that business executives are so internally focused?

What does this say about the quality of strategic planning, marketplace knowledge and competitive thinking? Want to lower your barriers to growth? Then take the time to understand your competitive environment. Or you could give us a call.

Ready to take the next step? Learn more and get in touch here: https://babettebensoussan.com.au/babettes_coaching/

Looking for practical insights to help you make better business decisions?

Visit: https://analysiswithoutparalysis.com/

While mistakes allow individuals to learn and grow, they can also be very costly to any company. You may recall the Maggi’s Noodle Crisis in 2015 in India, which resulted in a loss of $277 million in sales, a five-month ban on Maggi and a cost of $70 million in the recall. The damage to the brand name was even larger – half a billion dollars. Paul Buckle, Nestle’s CEO, was quoted by Fortune as saying, “This is the case where you can be so right and yet so wrong… We live in an ambiguous world. We have to be able to cope with that.”

Nestle was not able to cope with that – but a competitor was.

Baba Ramdev, owner of the fastest growing local consumer goods company in India, took advantage of Nestle’s mistake by launching a product advertised as ‘healthier’ and at a lower price point than Maggi.

The really frustrating thing about the story above, is that so few companies learn from such mistakes.

So what can you do to avoid similar mistakes in the future?

According to Gilad and Hoppe, “we must start to think differently about how business, management, and strategic intelligence works. What companies today need isn’t meticulous plans, but to constantly reassess the business and its markets and competitors.“

How often do you reassess your business environment? How can different areas of management work together on creating insights that have real competitive implications?

Below are four radical changes that will get the ball rolling for you:

1. Manage talent differently – recruit different mindsets. Self-hiring is indeed most dangerous in an ambiguous world.

2. Use competitive intelligence differently – think of it as a process for organisational thinking to outsmart competitors in an ambiguous world.

3. Work together – with decision makers for better outcomes

4. Study personal use of intelligence – understand how intelligence is used to enhance organizational learning

Want to read the full article: https://hbr.org/2016/06/the-right-way-to-use-analytics-isnt-for-planning

How are you coping with ambiguity?

If you wanted to train a flea to perform in a flea circus, you find a short drinking glass. Find a bunch of healthy fleas (be creative!), put them in the container and cover the top. Don’t take the cover off for three days. When you do, you’ll see the flea only jumps as tall as the glass was and never again further! (This goes for their next generation of fleas too.)

Application for YOU – Do you have any unsuspected “flea training” in your life that whispers: “You can’t jump that high! Don’t even try!” Your history doesn’t create your future …(sometimes it can help), but sometimes it limits you in ways you’re blind to.

We all have choices in our lives – day to day choices, life choices, choices about our friends (we can’t choose our families – although we can choose how to behave/react with them!), choices about how we show up at work, our attitudes, our thoughts even our beliefs. And the more coaching I do, the more I see how much we limit our choices to staying in the ‘safe’ zone (under that glass!).

Often times we become blind to the myriad of choices that are available to us as well as the range of options before us.

Why is that so?

The key element that defines our choices is our thinking. Our thinking in turn is driven by the “personal” energy we have.

Our personal energy is affected by the sum of all of our life’s experiences. Our learning, beliefs, values, principles, emotional scars, and even our mother’s favourite sayings all aggregate together and help form the filters through which we view and live life.

For example, if your life’s experiences taught you to be overly cautious and fearful, then, when presented with a challenge, you will see that challenge through cautious and fearful eyes, and act accordingly.

Our personal energy is created by the interplay of catabolic and anabolic energy which drives our choices, our ability to change, and our ability to maximise our current strengths.

What do I mean by this?

Catabolic energy = destructive, contracting, resisting energy (cat = down, against)

Anabolic energy = constructive, expanding, fueling energy (ana = building, upward)

Both types of energies are valuable and applicable in certain areas of life. Catabolic energy is necessary for immediate survival needs. If you were attacked by a lion, for instance, you’d want the burst of adrenaline and cortisol (catabolic hormones) to help you run as fast as you could. As a short-term survival/coping mechanism, catabolic energy can work well. Long term it is destructive and unsustainable.

Anabolic energy looks and feels different from catabolic energy. This energy is behind everything from creativity and intuition to compassion and caring. This type of energy fuels your body, your performance, your perceptions and choices, and your interactions.

The more anabolic, powerful energy you have, the more capacity, or potential, you have to achieve whatever it is you wish to do, and also, the more satisfaction you will experience in your life.

So is this the year that you will choose to take steps to create the life you want…and jump way before your height?

If you’re looking for a new direction, or to make those goals that seem so elusive become reality do this quick checklist. Yes, it’s simple, but take your time (reflect on where your thinking and judgments may be coming from) – maybe over your next cup of coffee.

Quick checklist to start the new financial year – list the three key items for each question:

• What am I proud of accomplishing over the past year?

• What didn’t I do that is still outstanding?

• What am I most pleased with?

• What am I most disappointed with? (don’t dwell on this – just note it down, it’s important to face your ‘failures’ and deal with them)

• What would I like truly like to achieve this year in my:

  • Work life

  • Personal life

  • Health and Physical Goals

These aspects of your life are intertwined and will each impact on the other.

• How will I make these become reality and am I ready to do this?

Taking the first step is the hardest but it is your choice whether you take that first step and the next one.

If you identify with the above, then I invite you as a valued reader, to chat to me over a coffee, in person, by phone or Skype and let’s see if you are ready to make your goals become reality THIS YEAR!

Any groundless or unrealistic beliefs will limit your energy and prevent you from achieving your goals – just like the lid on the flea training glass!

Working with a coach may help you leap even higher and in a coaching program, you can:

Consider your goals and aspirations

1. Identify old assumptions holding you back

2. Isolate and evaluate established, but unfounded and untested beliefs about your ability to achieve these goals

3. Search for doubts about your worthiness to reach your goals

4. Hunt for fears that may be lingering in your heart

My goal is to work with people for change – one person at a time. What is yours?

For starters, I am not YFS (Young, Fabulous & Self-Employed). I am OCS (Old, Cranky & Self-employed).

My entrepreneurial venture has been successful for 26 years now. In the world of small business, this is close to an eternity. And being at this juncture, I hate to see entrepreneurs fail simply because they didn’t pay the right type of attention to competition. If I save one business owner from going under because he or she didn’t ask the right questions, it was worth writing this article.

Many entrepreneurs are bad at competitive intelligence
My business is dedicated to teaching managers and executives about competitive intelligence which is the method by which companies unmask opportunities and threats in the market. Through the years I have trained thousands of business people in the world’s most successful companies. I’ve also seen entrepreneurs cherish being first to market with their brilliant idea or product, but forgetting that first move advantage is not enough. It happened to me too. After almost a decade of glorious loneliness at the top, competition entered my space as well. I actually trained my own competitors!

C’est la vie .

Do I keep a 30,000 feet overview of what’s happening in my competitive space? You bet. Do I follow those competitors closely, analyze traffic on their websites, compare their products, prices, keywords, AdWords, page load time, linking roots domain, changing text, quality of photos, mobile optimization, or zillion other minutia to mine, and obsess over social network chats about them and us?

Not for one minute .

The pundits’ advice is often bad advice
Go on LinkedIn, and a horde of consultants advise entrepreneurs to keep a close eye on competitors by watching social media like a hawk, tracking competitors’ online moves, analyzing site traffic patterns, and many other magical tricks.

This is simply bad advice.

If you want to stay in business, you can’t obsess about competitors.

Knowing what to look for, what is crucial, and what to ignore as a waste of time and resources. Web intelligence and web analytics are not competitive intelligence. Not by a mile. It’s a toy that makes it easy to “spy” on competitors, right from your desk, compiling tons of useless data.

If you are serious about your company’s long-term success, you don’t want to bring a toy gun to a real gun fight.

The real competitive questions worth asking
Real competitive intelligence answers the following very hard questions:

• What do I offer that’s unique and who can truly benefit?

• What are the activities that are crucial to this uniqueness? Which are the strongest links in delivering the offering? Who or what pose the real competitive threat to you?

• How do I stop competitors from imitating quickly?

• What are the strategic risks and opportunities opening up for us as the market changes?

The problem with relying heavily on web analytics and other online intelligence tools is that they replace strategic thinking with hyped up statistics or meaningless noise. This is a sure way to lose sight of the competition.

Internet trolling and social media obsession haven’t delivered one iota of better performance to anyone but the vendors supplying the tools.

For professionals like us who’ve been analyzing competition for decades for the Fortune 500, the hype surrounding web intelligence tools borders on the hilarious; its serious consequences, however, can lead to your company’s early demise.

Best advice ever: never follow competitors
Best advice #1: Never follow competitors.

Competitive intelligence is about competing, not chasing the tail of your competition, direct or indirect. Sometime, the best way to compete is actually to ignore competitors. That’s why Harvard Business School never succumbed to the wave of MOOCs free courses and cheap online education. The bankruptcy of now-defunct for-profit education chain Corinthian College is testament to the value of competitive perspective over foolishly following others.

Best advice # 2: A channel is just a channel.

Never forget that your company website is just a channel. What will make you win is what you offer on it and who needs it. If you don’t fill a real need you’d disappear, together with your fast-loading, button-happy, feature-rich mobile site with all the right SEO-grabbing keywords in place, state of the art technology just like everyone else.

Digital marketing is not strategic insight. Continuous alertness to possible market evolution requires the discipline to say “No!” That’s where strategic minds win.

Technology, anyone?

There are dozens of companies today offering free or low-cost subscription web intelligence services (e.g., Alexa, Compete, HitWise, Google Trends, SimilarWeb and Tregia are just a small sample). Any of them a clear winner over the others? The same companies that allow you to “spy” on your competitors’ traffic and analyze their data to death can’t even win their own competitive race.

Technology is not a substitute for strategy
Best advice #3: Tech is no substitute for thinking.

This is the the third lesson I teach my high tech startup audience. If you are ready for hard work, it is worth it.

The realm of competitive intelligence is the realm of “standing out.” Do not obsess over competitors’ minutia. Obsesses over your strategy and its underlying competitive perspective. It is a magnitude harder than collecting web noise, but it will pay off if you get into the habit of answering strategic questions with real competitive intelligence.

Leave web analytics for the kids who get excited with toy guns. Don’t be young, foolish and self-employed.

This article has been edited and condensed.

Benjamin Gilad is the co-founder and president of the FGH-Academy of Competitive Intelligence, the leading institution that pioneered the training and certification of competitive intelligence professionals (CIP™) world-wide. He is a former strategy professor at Rutgers University’s School of Management, and author of three books on competitive intelligence’s role in companies’ success.

Thought you would enjoy it as our Monthly Monday Motivation for May.

“How to change your energy and everyone around you by changing one little word!

In the year 2000 I was introduced to a simple and yet incredibly powerful change in my life. I removed the word “BUT” from my vocabulary. At the time when I learned this, I didn’t realise what this change would mean to me, and literally hundreds of people I have shared this concept with.

The greatest challenge was to not replace it with a “but” in disguise. We know these words as – however, although, nonetheless – just to begin with. You would know many others I’m sure.

“But” simply means; everything I said before this word is null and void. For example, the party was great but the food could have been better. So was the party great or not?

I found I became very conscious of my sentences and that “but” was my way to buy time and think. It was what I used instead of a pause or full stop in a conversation or when presenting.

The most profound discovery was in my written words. I used “but” in emails, documents and papers and it gave them a negative overtone when that was not my intention. I used it in sales pitches and PowerPoint presentations when trying to make a point. I was a “but-aholic”!

So how did I change this? I replaced the word “but” with “and”. While at first it felt grammatically incorrect, it forced me to stop and think about why I even wanted to say the word.

I found in conversations I started to pause, think and then continue without using the word. In written communication, it forced me to rethink the whole sentence because when you remove the use of ‘but’ you often have to phrase the entire sentence very differently.

Here’s an example: ” I’m sorry I didn’t finish the report, but I received your email too late.”

Instead you might say: “I’m sorry I didn’t finish the report. I received your email too late, and I will do my best to finalise it by the end of this week.”

Leaders that I have shared this with now write their messages to their customers and staff coming from the “Yes… and” perspective. They have found it easier to create a more positive energy through their communications.”

WOW! To think removing just three little letters from our vocabulary can hold that much wonderful power.

A great way to make sure you’re following “Yes… and” is to exercise self-awareness. Self-awareness is the secret weapon for lasting habit change.

Everything seems hard. We are all busy and we are all tired. We all don’t have enough money. We all know someone who says we can’t or that we would never make it. And then we are worried with what comes next. Are these excuses familiar to you?

What about these:

• Fear of change
• Fear of failure
• Fear of not being good enough
• Waiting for something to happen
• Perfectionism
• Being overwhelmed with all that you have to do
• Not know how

Well guess what – there is a battle going on….. and it is between your ears!!

Don’t surrender. While your fears may be real they are not good enough reasons for inaction. Your biggest work is in front of you and it has to do with how well you lead your life – how good are you at self-leadership?

Understanding Energy Leadership is in my opinion the missing link or secret ingredient to making all the methodologies you’ve tried and tossed aside about leadership, work — the petrol in the engine, the currency that fuels your success. Today let’s focus on energy itself. What is this mysterious quality? It’s not just movement or activity, sometimes it is stillness and reflection. Some call it a vitality or force. Energy gives us the capability to differentiate ourselves from another. Energy gives us the physical ability and drive to win the marathon — not in the first 25 miles — but in the last mile, when it is so easy to give up.

Energy can be conserved, stored, stockpiled, transformed, leaked and shared. In life we get energy from an amazing array of fuels. We can use this power to grow and develop, use our senses well, attract and repel other energy.

Now let’s look at leadership. Interestingly each of us leads by choice or default. The question is not whether you are a leader but how well you purpose to lead. To lead well takes awareness of your energy and a willingness to learn ways to use it better. Your body is a perfect example of an energy system. It’s self-contained, self-governed and thought-affected. Each thought you have contributes a specific energy pattern to the energy within and around you. There are no idle thoughts. Your energy encompasses every thought, feeling, and emotion you’ve had today, as well as, your recent actions. Because thoughts create energy in their own likeness – some can injure and others heal.

Energy Leadership Coaching is designed to reveal and develop your personally-effective style of leadership energy. This energy will positively influence and change not only you, but your family members, friends and everyone you work with and meet each day.

Albert Einstein is reputed to have said: “Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.”

Well, regardless of who said this, I know that energy is also the secret power of great leadership. Once you understand how you create your reality and attract the things you do in your life, you can create the life you really want. Where to start? Here are some tips about how to overcome fear, and any excuses you may have.

1. Identify your goal and embrace it. Use this question as a start. What do you want the change to look like? How will that give your life meaning? Think about it – even go for a walk to reflect on it.

2. Create the space – even a small space (or time) to make a change.

3. Be accountable to someone while surrounding yourself with others making similar changes themselves.

4. Take small steps that will move you forward. Movement begets movement. Now take another small step…… and change is created. It is time to decide what you intend to do next and what the next few years will mean to you.

As a child, decisions were easier. They were based on a few fundamentals:

How much does it cost? Can we afford it? What will the neighbours think? Will it get me in trouble?

As adults, here are a few more principles that may be helpful:

1. Decisions Are About Ways to Move Ahead.

The decisions that matter should be stepping stones that take us to the next part of the life we’re building. Sometimes life takes a 180degree turn, and we take a different direction to where we thought we were headed. Generally speaking, however, the decisions we make today build on the decisions we made yesterday and hopefully move us forward.

2. Logic Is Useful, But Checking In With People Is Clever.

Good decisions are informed by facts but are impacted by our thoughts and the people around us. Being aware of other people’s opinions and ideas can expand our decision logic and limit our biases and blind spots. Our decision-making process may then uncover information we had not addressed nor thought of.

3. Group Thinking Kills Good Decisions.

As a species, human history has its foundation in groups and tribes who wanted stability and were naturally not attracted to change. So be aware that you may have to fight for your ideas. The quality and the effectiveness and passion with which you present your decisions will determine your success.

Decision-making is complex and difficult and involves many factors, some contradictory to each other.
Making good decisions requires good research and fortunately, facts about any subject today are just a click away. You just have to know where to look.

Every good decision should also involve a personal ‘poll’ of the best minds that surround us. Family, tradition and religious beliefs all shape our decisions. The influences of those around us help us to optimize opportunity and minimize risk.

Decisions almost always carry an element of risk, which many people are uncomfortable with. They would rather have someone else make the decision, even when they don’t agree with it. However the more willing you are to make decisions, the more control you have over your life and circumstances.

I believe that the more I empower myself to make decisions (even though I make mistakes), I’ll always come out better by stepping up and deciding. Ultimately, I know that I will protect my interests better than anyone else.

So give it your best shot. Decide and do it!

Since our thoughts and emotions shape so much of our day-to-day lives, learning emotional first aid is essential.

In this newsletter, I’d like to start by focusing on those nagging, negative thoughts and emotions. You know the ones—the thoughts that seem to circle endlessly in your mind, the feelings that just won’t go away. We all experience moments of anger, grief, anxiety, stress, remorse, or embarrassment. These emotions are part of the human experience. Life can be challenging, and during these tough times, we often struggle mentally, trying to talk our way out of our emotions or distract ourselves. Sometimes we may even turn to food, alcohol, or other means to drown them out.

What’s fascinating is that these coping mechanisms only perpetuate the negativity in the long run. So how can we break this cycle? How can we stop these negative thoughts from controlling us?

Instead of suppressing these feelings, what if we shifted our focus inward?

A simple but powerful 4-step process called RAIN can help us approach these emotions in a healthier, more constructive way:
RAIN stands for:
R – Recognize
A – Allow
I – Investigate
N – Non-identification

Recognize
The first step is to simply recognize what you’re feeling. For example, “I’m feeling stressed,” or “I’m feeling overwhelmed.” Pause for a moment and tune in to what’s happening in your body and mind. Notice the thoughts, emotions, and sensations as they arise. Rather than trying to suppress, ignore, or fight them, approach these feelings with curiosity and openness. By acknowledging the emotion, you’re giving yourself the space to care for yourself in that moment.

Allow
Once you’ve acknowledged what you’re feeling, the next step is to allow it to be there. Acceptance doesn’t mean you have to like or agree with the situation. But allowing yourself to feel what you’re feeling without resistance can create space for calm and self-compassion.

We often have an automatic impulse to push away difficult emotions. But in doing so, we inadvertently create more tension. When you allow your emotions to exist without judgment, you’ll begin to notice a sense of ease. You’re no longer enmeshed in the emotion; instead, you’re witnessing it.

This act of allowing is an act of kindness toward yourself.

Investigate
Now that you’ve created some space, take the opportunity to investigate. Ask yourself: Why do I feel this way? Where did this feeling come from? What do I really need right now?

Think about any triggers that may have set off your emotions, or whether certain thoughts—like worries about the future or past conversations—are at the root of your feelings. Investigating with curiosity can help you understand yourself better and build a deeper relationship with your emotions.

This process of inquiry helps bring insight and, over time, can lead to dissolving some of the negative patterns.

Non-Identification
Finally, practice non-identification. This is the realization that you are not your thoughts or emotions. You are the awareness beneath these feelings. You are the awareness that lies beneath every thought, emotion and sense perception you experience.

Non-identification helps you to stop defining yourself by your emotions. Instead of saying, “I am stressed,” you begin to understand that you’re simply experiencing stress. There’s a part of you that is always still, calm, and untouched by whatever storm is passing through.

This step brings a profound sense of freedom and peace.

Remember, no matter how intense your emotions may feel, there’s always a part of you that remains steady and unshaken.

The RAIN method is a wonderful tool to help centre yourself in times of stress, overwhelm, or emotional difficulty. As Eckhart Tolle wisely said, “Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists.”

Next time you feel negative emotions arising, try practising RAIN and see how it transforms your experience. Want to learn more? How about http://www.mindful.org/tara-brach-rain-mindfulness-practice/. Tara Brach is a clinical psychologist and author of “True Refuge: Finding Peace & Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart.”

What about these –

• Fear of change

• Fear of failure

• Fear of not being good enough

• Waiting for something to happen

• Perfectionism

• Being overwhelmed with all that you have to do

• Not knowing how

Well guess what – there is a battle going on….. and it is between your ears!!

Don’t surrender! While your fears may be real they are not good enough reasons for inaction. Your biggest work is in front of you.

So here are some tips to help you overcome your excuses. They are not in any particular order. Some are quick solutions and others take work –

• Identify your goal and embrace it. Use this question as a start. What do you want the change to look like? How will that give your life meaning? Think about it – even go for a walk to reflect on it.

• Create the space – even a small space (or time) to make a change.

• Be accountable to someone while surrounding yourself with others making similar changes themselves.

• Get help and insight to uncover and understand the core of the fear that is holding you back.

• Take small steps that will move you forward. Movement begets movement. Now take another small step…… and change is created.

I find that most of my clients have difficulty addressing their fears because, in the end, it might show how vulnerable they really feel. However if we don’t understand what is holding us back, how can we then create the lives we truly desire.

You know by letting any of your worries (also known as fears) out into the light and talking about it with someone who understands, it becomes a whole lot easier to see the situation or issue for what it really is.

Just venting can make a huge difference to your perspective.

If you don’t have anyone to talk to at the moment write it out. It means you get your issue out of your head, clarify your thoughts and find clarity in the small steps available to you to move forward.

Choose to no longer go along with the ride. It is your turn to drive. Choose your own route and own what comes of it.

It is really time to decide what you intend to do next and what the next few years will mean to you. Self leadership is all about leading the life you want, while energised for success!

So how do you go about creating a more innovative and entrepreneurial environment?

Firstly we need to understand what entrepreneurship means. The press often define the term as starting and operating a new business. Managers on the other hand describe entrepreneurship in such terms as innovative, flexible, dynamic, risk taking, creative and growth oriented and these views are often used to describe the success of organisations such as Apple Computer, Google and General Electric.

However none of these definitions are precise enough for managers wishing a more entrepreneurial organisation. For every successful company there are thousands of new restaurants, clothing stores, and consulting firms who have tried to be innovative, creative and growth oriented – yet have failed.

So how can you be different? How can you make innovation, flexibility and creativity operational? To help answer these questions, we need to look at entrepreneurial behaviour.

Numerous writers on the topic suggest that the best approach is to view managerial behaviour in terms of extremes. At one extreme you have the entrepreneur who feels confident of his or her ability to seize opportunities, expecting surprises and the need to adjust to changes, with the ability to make the most of these changes and to make things happen. At the other extreme, you have the administrator who is fearful of change and the unknown and whose inclination is to bring things back to the way they were.

Most of us exist between these two extremes and research has shown that there is a close relationship between opportunity and individual needs. Companies of all sizes have difficulty in encouraging entrepreneurship when the individual’s needs and the company’s interest do not coincide. It is not an easy task.

The pressures that push a company to either end of the scale are often determined by factors of timing and resources coupled with personal, organisational and competitive forces.

However, the difference in approaches becomes apparent in response to the following questions.

Where is the opportunity for my business?

The first step to identify an opportunity requires a market or external approach rather than an internal or resource approach. It is important to remember here that most readily available information is generalised and intended to inform in a general way. Rarely is generalised information, which just about anyone can access, tailored enough to support business decision making, which has to occur in the context of a particular company’s situation.

The entrepreneur however is attuned to environmental changes, constantly scanning information, which may provide a favourable opportunity, while the administrator seeks to preserve resources and reacts defensively to possible threats.

Administratively oriented companies approach new opportunities more cautiously, while successful market oriented businesses are aware that change is inevitable and therefore keep their organisations learning.

Entrepreneurs are however not just opportunistic gamblers. They are also creative and innovative. They many not necessarily break new ground but perhaps may mix old ideas in such a way as to provide new services or applications. Some new software companies for example are simply altering slightly existing technology or repackaging it to accommodate new perceived market segments.

What resources do I have and how do I control them?

Necessity is the mother of invention and many people who start a business make imaginative use of their limited resources. An engineer may discover selling skills which she or he never knew they possessed or a restaurant owner may quickly adjust to waiting on tables. Most of the risk in entrepreneurial management lies in the effort to pursue opportunities with inadequate or inappropriate resources.

The only control that an entrepreneur needs from a resource is the ability to use it while an administrator believes that resources are inadequately controlled unless they are owned or on the payroll. Using external resources as required is in itself an opportunity to maintain costs while providing a service equal to or better than larger competitors. Entrepreneurs learn to use other people’s resources well while keeping the option open on bringing them in-house.

A small publishing company may hire a free lance to make editorial improvements, or contract with a typesetting company or binding company and even contract with a public relations firm to sell the book to stores. There is no need therefore to control all the resources necessary.

It should be remembered however that apart from the effective allocation of scarce resources, successful entrepreneurs seek plateaux of success where they can consolidate their gains before moving to pursue further opportunities. It is important, when possible, to pause to give both employees and internal systems time to adjust. This may not always be possible however as booming markets often don’t allow growing companies the luxury of a pause.

What structure is best?

In organising business, there is a distinct difference between the entrepreneur and the administrator. The entrepreneur tries to “feel” the way events are unfolding. The administrator on the other hand views organisational relationships more formally ie rights, responsibilities and authority.

Power and status, expressed in a hierarchy and financial rewards, push companies towards the administrative end with the control of the resources also influencing the approach to a business operation.

Businesses that use or rent resources by necessity develop informal networks both internally and externally from which new opportunities may be gleaned.

It is up to individual companies to allow favourable conditions for entrepreneurship to flourish. That means encouraging the pursuit of opportunity, the most appropriate commitment and use of resources and the breakdown of hierarchy. These goals are not that easy to reach particularly if your company needs to be turned around.

It is much easier and safer for companies to stay with the familiar than to explore the unknown. Only by encouraging change and experimentation can companies of all sizes adapt and grow in the midst of uncertainty.

Every day, we face a myriad of choices, both personal and professional. From small decisions like what to have for lunch to significant ones such as whether to quit a job and start a business, we generally try to reflect on our options factually.

There are various methods and tools available to help us with these choices, from flipping a coin to making pros and cons lists to conducting in-depth future projection analysis.

Emotional Choices and the Power of Response

However, let’s talk about the emotional choices we have and the power we possess in choosing our emotional responses. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” The key words here are “your consent”. We choose how we interpret what others say or do, and how we view events. Whether we reject someone’s words or take them to heart depends on our perspective and how we perceive the other person involved.

The Influence of Filters

Our perspective on a situation and the people involved is shaped by filters we’ve developed since birth. These may include:

• The language we grew up with at home

• The support we received at school

• Our social interactions

These filters can either limit or expand our perception, impacting how we view our circumstances. How we continue to experience or react to any situation is truly dependent on our choices.

Changing Our Choices

How can we change our choices or make different ones than we have in the past?

• Understand the Power of Thoughts, Feelings, and Actions: Recognise how we show up in various aspects of our life.

• Acknowledge Our Behaviour: Understand that our behaviour is based on previous learnings and experiences and that we are constantly changing beings.

• Be Open to New Learnings: Look at the choices we make and be open to new understandings and developing a new story for our life

Get Started with the ‘Power of Choice’ Template

To help you get started, download the free ‘Power of Choice’ template. It provides questions and strategies for reflection.

Need Support?

• Email me today if you’d like support in understanding your filters or to discuss the power of your choices.

• Learn more about coaching by clicking here to find out what coaching is all about.

Take control of your choices and lead a more empowered life

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the capacity to effectively perceive, express, understand and manage your emotions and the emotions of others in an effective and appropriate manner. Research has shown that EI is a strong predictor of success in the workplace, more so than IQ, skill sets, personality, and experience.

Why is Emotional Intelligence so important?

Enhancing and developing a greater awareness and application of EI will have a significant impact on all aspects of your life, including more self-awareness and improved relationships with co-workers, friends, family, and others who are significant in your life.

People who improve their EI capabilities are able to decrease stress – personally and professionally, enhance interpersonal relationships, and demonstrate greater leadership and decision-making skills. Even more important, raising EI has a direct and positive effect on your level of consciousness.

What can you do to increase your Emotional Intelligence?

Here are a few tips on how to increase your Emotional Intelligence, taken from iPEC’s Energy Leadership Development System^TM, a full coaching certification program that I undertook. They are so simple, yet so powerful!

• Begin to take notice of how your thoughts affect your emotions, and as a result, how your emotions affect your actions. Self- awareness is the key to beginning to shift your energy and increase EI. As you go through your day, be aware of how you react to situations, and what thoughts are going through your head as you do so. If someone cuts you off on the road, and your thought is ‘What an idiot,’ your resulting emotion would be anger. If you think instead ‘Wow, he must really be in a rush to get somewhere,” your emotion would most likely be very different. As you become more self-aware, you’ll be able to identify your emotional triggers.

• Journal about areas to improve your awareness and expression of your emotions. What’s working, and what’s not working for you? What relationships need improvement?

• Journal about ways to manage and control your emotions. What has been effective for you, and what hasn’t? How do you want to respond, and how can you do so?

• Practice meditation/centring to be able to build a stronger tolerance for anxiety.

• Each day, set your intention to be more aware of your thoughts/feelings and how they might affect you and/or others.

• When you’re very angry or upset, give yourself 5-10 minutes alone, prior to taking any action. Then ask yourself what would be the best way to address the situation. Think about how you’d like to respond. Taking a little break will help you better manage your response and avoid a “knee-jerk” reaction.

• Seek out others who will assist you, objectively, in providing observations of how they experience you expressing and/or managing/controlling your emotions. You may be surprised at how others view you.

• Tell others you want to increase your understanding of their thoughts and feelings and “check-in” with them periodically about this. You’ll soon become better at reading others.

• After getting a buy-in, offer feedback to those around you about their emotional awareness, expression, and management.

• Practice incorporating new skills and behaviours and being aware of how others respond to you.

• Interview others who demonstrate high EI, to learn some of their strategies for responding to stressful situations.

• Take an Energy Leadership Index^TM Learn more about Energy Leadership here.

If you’d like to increase your Emotional Intelligence and improve your outcomes both at work and at home, Get in touch!

In today’s complex world, decisions are everywhere, from the trivial to the transformative. Yet, our mental energy has limits, and decision fatigue—a state where the quality of decisions declines with the sheer number we make—poses a real challenge.

As a coach, understanding decision fatigue and equipping others to navigate it effectively is key to fostering resilience, clarity, and growth.

What Is Decision Fatigue?

Decision fatigue occurs when our ability to make quality judgments diminishes after a series of decisions. Think of your decision-making energy as a finite resource. Every choice, big or small, draws from it, leaving less mental clarity for subsequent decisions.

For leaders, entrepreneurs, or individuals navigating uncertainty, decision fatigue often shows up as procrastination, impulsive choices, or a sense of overwhelm.

A Coach’s Perspective on the Evolution of Choices

Our ancestors made survival-based decisions: food, safety, shelter. Today, we’re bombarded with endless options—from toothpaste brands to career paths. This explosion of options stretches our mental bandwidth. However, while our cognitive resources are finite, our capacity to manage them strategically is limitless with the right tools and frameworks.

The Cost of Decision Fatigue in Leadership and Life

Decision fatigue doesn’t just affect individuals—it can ripple across teams, organizations, and even families. Consider the research by Stanford professor Jonathan Levav: judges were far more likely to grant parole in the morning (70%) than later in the day (10%), irrespective of the cases. This highlights how fatigue influences even the most objective professionals.

For you as a leader, partner, or decision-maker, unchecked decision fatigue can lead to diminished productivity, strained relationships, and poor outcomes. Recognizing and addressing it is essential to thriving in today’s fast-paced world.

Strategies to Overcome Decision Fatigue

As your coach, I encourage you to approach decision fatigue with intention. Here’s how:

1. Prioritize High-Impact Decisions Early
   Make your most important decisions when your mind is fresh. Reserve the first part of your day for critical thinking and reserve less demanding tasks for later.

2. Delegate and Empower
   Hand off non-critical decisions to others. Not only does this lighten your load, but it also builds trust and fosters growth in your team or support network.

3. Streamline Options
   Too many options can paralyze progress. Narrow down possibilities to a few key ones. Simple decision-making frameworks—like pros-and-cons lists or prioritization grids—can make the process easier.

4. Create Systems and Routines
   Automate repetitive tasks and establish routines to reduce daily decision-making. This frees your mental energy for the decisions that truly matter.

5. Schedule Breaks
   Your brain needs time to recharge. Regular pauses throughout the day can reset your mental energy and improve clarity.

6. Release Perfectionism
   Not every decision needs to be flawless. “Good enough” is often better than indecision. The pursuit of perfection can drain you—focus on progress instead.

Shifting Perspective: Embracing Imperfect Decisions

Many decisions, when viewed from a broader lens, aren’t life-altering. When coaching clients, I encourage them to ask:

• Will this decision matter in a month or a year?

• What’s the worst that could happen if I choose imperfectly?

• Can this decision be revisited or adjusted later?

This perspective helps to lower the stakes, reduce anxiety, and enable confident action.

Navigating the Fear of Better Options (FOBO)

In coaching, I often encounter clients paralyzed by the fear of making the “wrong” choice, also known as FOBO (Fear of Better Options). The truth is, most decisions don’t require perfection—just momentum. By making timely decisions and learning from their outcomes, you sharpen your intuition and decision-making muscles.

Reclaim Your Decision-Making Power

Decision-making is about creating clarity and alignment with your values. The ability to decide with confidence, even in the face of uncertainty, is a skill that can be cultivated. With intentional practice and strategies, you can move through life with less stress and more purpose.

Remember: Every decision is an opportunity to learn, grow, and move forward. As your coach, I’m here to guide you in navigating options with confidence and clarity.

Adapted from: Decision Fatigue: Understanding and Overcoming the Hidden Strain on Decision- Making by Leah Fessier, Chief Newsletter, October 2, 2024

Sarah’s dilemma wasn’t unique. In fact, it was a universal challenge that many people face – the art of decision-making. She yearned for clarity, direction, and the confidence to make the right choices that would shape her career and personal life.

One day, while grappling with a particularly tough decision about a career opportunity, Sarah discovered the world of coaching. She had heard about it before but had never given it much thought. Intrigued, she decided to explore this avenue, hoping that it might offer her the guidance she so desperately sought.

Enter Coach Maya, a seasoned and compassionate decision-making coach. She had spent years helping individuals like Sarah navigate their personal and professional journeys. Coach Maya believed that everyone had the answers within themselves; they just needed the right guidance to unlock them.

Their first meeting was a revelation. Coach Maya listened intently, creating a safe space where Sarah could share her fears, doubts, and dreams. Through thought-provoking questions, Maya helped Sarah explore her values, priorities, and long-term goals. She encouraged Sarah to dig deep into her inner wisdom, empowering her to see possibilities she had never considered.

As the coaching sessions progressed, Sarah began to experience a transformation. She not only gained clarity about her decision but also developed a newfound self-awareness and confidence. With Coach Maya’s guidance, she learned to embrace the decision-making process as an opportunity for growth and self-discovery.

Their journey together was not without its challenges. Sarah faced setbacks, encountered unexpected obstacles, and even questioned her decisions at times. But Coach Maya was there every step of the way, offering unwavering support and helping Sarah build resilience. She reminded Sarah that the journey itself was as important as the destination.

Over time, Sarah made the decision that had once seemed daunting. She embraced it with courage and conviction, knowing that it aligned perfectly with her values and aspirations. With Coach Maya’s guidance, she had learned to trust her judgment and take ownership of her decisions.

Sarah’s story is a testament to the transformative power of coaching in the realm of decision-making. It’s a reminder that we all face choices that shape our lives, and with the right coach, we can navigate those choices with clarity, confidence, and purpose. Coach Maya had not only helped Sarah make a decision but had empowered her to become the author of her own story, setting her on a path towards a future filled with fulfilment and success.

And so, in the heart of the bustling city, the narrative of decision-making and coaching continued, one person at a time, unlocking the potential within and illuminating the paths toward brighter, more purposeful lives.