personal development Archives - Page 15 of 16

Why Commit Publicly To Your Goals?

In a post earlier today I touched on the importance of committing publicly to a goal that you are working towards. So why is it so important? Promising yourself you are going to exercise, finish your assignment for your CIPD studies or complete your application to become a member of the Learning and Performance Institute are all great goals.

The problem is you are only holding yourself accountable. If you do the work to reach your goal, that’s wonderful. But if you don’t, then no one is going to know. Committing to your goals publicly helps you hold yourself accountable to reach them.

Three Easy Ways To Commit Publicly:

Sharing your progress with colleagues, family and friends keeps you accountable to a broad group of people who have your best interests in mind. You have to answer to them if you skip a workout or if you increase your debt in some way.
Create a group on social media and form a group of like-minded people all working to help each other succeed. Peer pressure while working towards a goal can be powerful motivation. The support of others can be invaluable in keeping you on track or getting you back on track if you stumble or want to give up. You can report your progress as well as your fails, while supporting others in their progress. One more way to increase your commitment to your goal is to involve others in its achievement. Instead of engaging your competitive spirit, you can create a spirit of collaboration, cooperation and teamwork.
Commit on a blog and through an accountability partner or coach. By announcing your intentions on your blog, can hold you accountable to your actions. People will begin to lose faith in you if you don’t follow through and none of us want that do we? The same can be said of an accountability partner or coach. They are putting their time and trust into you. You don’t want to disappoint them do you?

Committing to your goals publicly is a way to get help and support from others, while returning the same for them. When others know your goals, they act as a support system you can go to when you need encouragement and motivation.

Openness enables others to hold you accountable. They will want to know what you did towards your goal that day or week, or why you didn’t work on it.

Do You Need A Goal Success Plan?

As we are now moving towards the end of the first quarter of the year it’s a good time to think about how we are doing with our goals for the year.

Do you set off with the best of intentions at the start of the year and set goals, only to eventually give up on them? Maybe you set a goal to lose 20 pounds this year. But by the middle of the year you will have given up completely. If this sounds familiar, it might be because you are trying to achieve your goals in the wrong way. Following through with your goals means you need to know the right way to achieve them. In other words, you need a goal setting success plan.

Let me share 10 steps for goal setting success that will get you back on the right track before more of the year disappears:

Focus on one goal at a time. Many people start out with several goals at once and try to do too much. At the end they become overwhelmed and lose energy and motivation. It’s a very common mistake. It is impossible to maintain your passionate energy and focus when trying to reach two or more goals at once.Choose one goal and focus on it completely. You can always go back to the other goals once you’ve accomplished your primary goal.
Write down your goals and post them someplace you’ll see them every day. Put them on your bathroom mirror, your refrigerator, on your smartphone and on your desktop. Seeing your goals every day keeps you motivated. Having them written down means you won’t forget them or get sidetracked.
Believe in your goal. Have faith in the process and believe you can accomplish it. Make your thoughts positive and turn your thoughts into reality.
Visualise your end result. Think about what your want the finish line to look like. What does it feel like, look like, smell like? How do you feel? Be absolutely clear on what you want to happen.
Create a plan of action to achieve your goal. Write down a list of the action steps you need to take. When you have a goal, but no plan of action, you aren’t sure of what to do next. It’s like driving without directions of where you want to go. You miss deadlines, don’t have priorities and are unorganized. You eventually get frustrated and your goal fails.
Know your “why.” Knowing your purpose or the reason why you want to achieve a particular goal keeps you motivated to take the steps needed to reach the goal. It helps you recognize that the goal is worth working towards.
Commit to your goal. Write down why and how you are committing to your goal and why it’s important. What does the finished goal mean to you, and why is it necessary for you to make it happen? Write down the steps you need to take to make it happen.
Hold yourself accountable. Get outside help like a coach if you need to have someone else hold you accountable. They can provide valuable feedback when you need it.
Stay focused on your goal. There will be times when you get sidetracked or you won’t know the next step you need to take. It’s easy to give up on your goal when this happens. The key is to remain focused on your goal. Take out your “why” and remind yourself the reason you are reaching for this goal.
Review your goals every day. Then take action on them. This keeps your goals fresh in your mind. It also allows you to see which steps you still need to take, and to make any adjustments that you might need to.

If you really want to succeed then you might need to think about a good goal setting success plan. By following these steps and taking action on your goal every day, you have everything you need to succeed.

Let Your Inner Leader Out – Leadership Isn’t Complicated

When we talk about Leaders and Leadership we tend to focus on the big names, the giants of business and politics don’t we? If I asked you to name leaders who come instantly to mind I would imagine that the names you will think of would generally be household names. We tend to think of leaders in terms of those who have achieved great things and often on a national or indeed global scale.

But for me there are many more leaders operating all around us than we might believe. People who are going about their daily lives, they are doing things that they are passionate about, involving others in their work and activities and delivering results. But these unsung or unlikely leaders may not even recognise it for themselves because all too often “Leadership” is elevated to the level of a mysterious set of skills and characteristics. Leadership and what it is has become an incredibly complex subject. You only have to look at the multitude of books on the art of leadership to recognise that it is a subject which many people have devoted tens of thousands of pages to.

Leadership isn’t or shouldn’t be a complex subject. It is happening all around us, people are demonstrating their leadership skills in so many different roles and in so many different ways. You don’t even have to have a team in order to be a Leader as I explain in a post here.

Those who have read other posts on this blog and anyone who knows me will be aware that I am a great believer in not over-complicating things. Which is why a few years ago I was so drawn to Steve Radcliffe’s book Leadership – Plain and Simple. As I mentioned in the post I had reason to re-read the book recently. Having done so I thought it was time to write a review. I cannot recommend this book highly enough because whether you are leading a team, job seeking or just want to approach your work from a different perspective this book has something to offer.

One of the things that you are going to appreciate about Steve Radcliffe’s book, Leadership: Plain and Simple, is that it really does delivers on what he promises in the title. The bottom line is that if you read, consider and then implement the strategies he outlines, you will find it relatively easy to start using them and then see positive results. The approach Steve outlines do not contain any elaborate or complicated formulas that frustrate or confuse readers who are looking for practical answers. The book provides you with real world examples in simple language and the tools needed to develop your leadership skills regardless of the current role that you hold.

The reason that Leadership: Plain and Simple is so engaging with readers is because Steve Radcliffe uses a unique FED approach to getting his message across. Within the 170 pages of this book, he clearly lays out his Future, Engage, and Deliver approach. Steve breaks down leadership into three clear stages:

Future – The Leader needs to have a clear vision that they can articulate about where the organisation is going. Or to put it another way they are “up to something” that they really care passionately about.
Engage – The Leader needs to be able to engage others, bring them onboard and get them moving towards that future vision.
Deliver – The Leader needs to be able to make things happen.

The approach he lays out in Leadership: Plain and Simple can be implemented as soon as the book has been completed. Through a very precise set of questioning, Steve will help you to understand exactly what your strengths already are, and where you need improvement in your leadership skills. Once you identify the areas that you are weak, the book is designed to help you to improve those areas through different scenarios that make you think about why you are lacking in those areas. The first chapters of the book go into specific detail in each of the three components of leadership, Future, Engage, and Deliver. There is one chapter dedicated to each of these practices, giving you the ability to create a strong foundation on which you build upon as you continue reading later chapters.

Once you begin reading these chapters, you will soon realize how important it is to understand what you care about and why is it so important for you to lead. Then you will learn about developing the skills needed for connecting and impacting those around you. Then once you learn to develop leadership skills, you will see how delivering through others will give you the ability to both deliver more today and in the future.

I am sure that as you read will quickly start to realise, like me, that a misconception that has been circulating for decades. There is no reason for leadership to be complicated, regardless of a persons IQ level or their job title, the natural human activity of leadership is within us all just waiting to be let out and developed. If you can create a compelling enough future, you have the ability to become an effective and powerful leader. This book will show you that if your future is compelling and you can get emotionally connected to it, you have the greatest chances of becoming a very strong leader.

As I said earlier, this is probably the best book on Leadership that I have ever read and I have read a few over the years! It’s Leadership – Plain and Simple and it’s an opportunity that’s waiting for you to grasp it.

You can buy Steve Radcliffe’s book here:

In the UK: Leadership – Plain and Simple
In the US: Leadership – Plain and Simple

Being Open to Informal Learning Experiences

It’s all too easy for us as adults to tend to think that learning ends as soon as we finish our formal qualifications or training. We may recognise that we are still learning when we participate in classroom or even online learning events related to our work but beyond that I wonder how often we consider that we are learning? If we don’t think that we are learning then there is little chance that we will stop and reflect on the learning we have experienced, evaluate the outcomes and even validate what we have learnt.

The reality is that the little thing called “life” has many ways of keeping the learning process alive and kicking. The problem is that we don’t necessarily see these informal learning experiences for what they are. Instead we view them as occurrences which can either result in something good or bad. We never really consider how we grow from them.

More importantly, we don’t always recognise the opportunities they present. There is a lot of truth in the saying “You are never too old to learn”. As someone who is genuinely passionate about encouraging awareness of continuous learning and development I wanted to take a look at some of the opportunities that we may miss for experiencing learning.

In the Workplace

One of the best examples when it comes to the workplace has to be the decisions you have to make. When the odds are stacked against you to finish a project or simply to perform your normal duties, when you have to respond to suggestions in meetings, when your boss suddenly asks you to do something different in a rush the likeliehood is that you will may need to find methods you hadn’t previously used. It may be that you use an approach that you have observed someone else use effectively or you may come up with a completely different approach. Whichever it, I would encourage you to take a few minutes towards the end of each working day or perhaps at home to think about “What did I learn today?”

What did you do differently? What new skills did you develop? Did you use any different approaches than what you would normally use? You may well be astounded to know how many new things you learn on a daily basis if you just pay attention.

In Public

What lessons can you possibly learn from being out in public? First of all, keep in mind that learning experiences don’t necessarily have to happen to you. Just observing the actions of others can be tremendously informative. . How many times have you found yourself just observing your environment? More often than not you will see or hear something you didn’t know or realise before.

Inside Family and Personal Circles

Relationships are probably the most valuable situations for learning something new. It opens up different points of view you never even considered. It might teach you how to become more patient or daring. It can also teach you to be more compassionate. These interactions will greatly affect how you interact with other people. Communication skills are developed with every conversation, especially if you don’t know the person already. Your friends and family provides a safe platform for trying new jokes and topics. By using this safe platform you learn what to say and when to say it.

Home Alone

Yes, even being alone can be a learning experience. Taking the time to reflect on your life opens the door to finding new things you didn’t know about yourself. For instance, 10 years ago you used to love gossip and telling stories. Now all of a sudden you don’t really care for rumours that much. Many elements or habits that you had fade away without you really noticing. In turn you discover that you’re actually good with something that used to be a weakness. All of this informal learning so often takes place without us even realising it’s happening.

Social Media

Let’s not forget one of my favourite places for informal learning experiences which is social media. News and opinions are available at the blink of an eye. Even better are the opportunities social media provides. Finding a nice job or getting your music video in public view is now easier than ever. It is also a place where we don’t really notice how much we learn. We find ourselves reading a blog post about learning and development or whatever is our own field of work, whilst a few minutes earlier we were looking at the obligatory cat or dog pictures. Endless information resides at our fingertips and we don’t necessarily consider the impact it has.

Just like every action leads to a reaction, so does waking up in the morning and allowing ourselves to be open to learning something. The human brain truly acts like a sponge and in the end you decide to use what has been soaked up; most of the time you won’t even notice that you are learning something. What makes these experiences so valuable? Why do you need to become more conscious about what you learn every hour?

The main reason is opportunity. All these situations usually result in some kind of opportunity. Job promotions are given to those who think further than the rest. More specifically, those who pay attention to the new skills they develop and use them at the correct time are going to reap the rewards. Ultimately it is up to us to see these opportunities when they occur, because these informal learning experiences prepared us for it.

Just about everything you do can be turned into an informal learning experience and whilst it might be a little bit too much to analyse everything, do try to reflect a little bit more on things you would normally see as insignificant. Chances are your opportunities in life will increase dramatically if you are open to and aware of the informal learning experiences that are all around you.

Prezi – Making Better Presentations

In my earlier article Carry on Learning I mentioned how learning a new piece of software such as Prezi was a great way to keep busy and to add valuable skills to your CV. There are lots of other benefits so let’s take a look at them and also how to get started making better presentations that your audience will love.

Benefits of Using Prezi – Why Use Prezi?

One of the best uses of Prezi is in education and the general learning environment. In fact, this tool is fast becoming the new presentation must-have for teachers and trainers. Recent studies have shown that a student’s attention span lasts less than 15 minutes. So when a more visually stimulating presentation tool such as Prezi is used, then we may be able to ensure that their learning is better facilitated.

Aside from its’ benefits in the learning environment, Prezi can also prove its’ worth amongst professionals in basically all fields and industries. Presentations created through Prezi promote more interaction among the audience by stimulating their visual senses.

So why use Prezi? Here are the Top Benefits of Using Prezi.

1. Prezi has a Free Option

As you know, Powerpoint is not free. Also, other similar applications that you use for free (e.g., Google Drive and OpenOffice) lack many features. But if you switch to Prezi, not only will you enjoy it without paying anything, but you will also have enough features to create stunning presentations.

2. It’s Cloud-Based

Here’s the problem with your Powerpoint slides. You’ll need an external drive or device to store them in. If you lose, forget, or accidentally damage this device, you’ll need to start from scratch. Sure, you can send a copy of your files to your email account, but think of the extra effort and time it takes.

If you use Prezi, on the other hand, you’ll say goodbye to flash drives for good. Best of all, you’ll be able to access your presentations anywhere in the world. You can even download them so you can view them offline.

3. You can create presentations that have more visual impact

Perhaps the best feature of Prezi is its zooming function. In Powerpoint, your visuals auto-adjust only to the size of your screen. With Prezi, one click is all it takes to make your images, texts, and videos larger.

4. With Prezi, you’re not confined to texts and images alone

You can embed videos from Youtube, upload PDF files, and import images from the web. These are tasks you can’t do using other applications.

5. You can enjoy simultaneous editing

If you’re working with a group, you don’t have to meet at a specific spot. As long as all of you are online, you can add sub-topics and other content to create a more dynamic presentation. In short, Prezi creates a more flexible working environment.

6. Your audience can better learn from your presentation

Unlike Powerpoint slides that break up topics into disorganized parts, Prezi allows you to create topics that are well-structured. In effect, your audience can easily see the connection between your topics and sub-topics.

How to Create Your First Prezi

Creating your first Prezi presentation is as easy as 1-2-3. Here’s a step-by-step guide.

Step 1. Go to Prezi.com and click on the blue “Get Started” button to create a free account. After filling out the necessary fields, you should be directed to your dashboard.
Step 2. Click on “New Prezi.” A new tab opens. You should see templates. Click on one.
Step 3. Start adding texts and pictures. Note that you can also insert videos. Learn to customize them to create a beautiful presentation.
Step 4. Every now and then, click on the “Present” button to see how your presentation looks like. Step 5. When done, save your work. You can also share it on Facebook or download as PDF.

In Conclusion

Prezi has many advantages over Powerpoint. You audience can easily see the interconnectedness of your topics, and your presentations help retain attention and facilitate better learning. The perfect tool for Learning and Development professionals, teachers and trainers of all sorts as well as anyone who wants to start making better presentations.