Doing our job instead of attempting to learn everyone else’s

Trying to please everyone is a risky strategy. Usually, it involves us giving too much time and energy to tasks beyond our remit. Doing our job instead of attempting to learn everyone else’s, on the contrary, puts the focus of our efforts squarely on the schedule we have decided is important to us.

It might be helping people is a central aspect of our job description. Yet even in such cases, we need to be clear about how we structure our day to achieve the maximum return possible.

By doing our job instead of attempting to learn everyone else’s, we are ensuring our tasks are completed when they should be and to the best of our ability. Expanding our knowledge is all well and good. But when it happens to the detriment of our core activities, maybe we ought to step back and review our priorities.

Thanks for reading this ‘Doing our job instead of attempting to learn everyone else’s’ post and please feel free to like and share it.

Kindest regards.

Brian.

About Brian

Brian Groves DipM FCIM Chartered Marketer, Coach, Trainer and Author, supplies professional and personal development to a portfolio of corporate and individual clients.

As an Adjunct Professor at the Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy, Brian teaches the International graduate course Personal marketing: performance skills at work.

In past semesters, he additionally taught the International graduate course Leadership coaching: bringing potential to the stage of work and the Interfaculty postgraduate course Training through drama and coaching for work.

Through coaching, training and writing, Brian works mainly with motivated young and mid-life professionals who wish to live their potential, in education, work or life in general.

Curious? You can contact Brian via e-mail (brian@bgdtcoaching.com), by clicking on the icons or leaving a comment below.

Who would you love to work with?

Asking ourselves the question ‘Who would you love to work with?’ may seem a strange thing to do. After all, many people never get the chance to pick and choice colleagues, clients or employers.

Even so, by pondering ‘Who would you love to work with?’ – and the keyword is ‘love’ – we might discover a ‘type’ of person springs to mind.

Possibly we are already happy with those around us and that’s not a bad thing. On the other hand, our response to ‘Who would you love to work with?’ could move us to make different choices going forward. Knowing our preferences gives us a benchmark to measure options against, no?

And although assembling a ‘circle of desired folk’ is not always instantaneous, there is no reason to put off beginning the process.

So, who would you love to work with? Which people bring out the best in you? With whom are you the most creative, alive, authentic, and productive? Again, who would you love to work with?

Me, I love working with people who want to live their potential.

Kindest regards.

Brian.

About Brian

Brian Groves DipM FCIM Chartered Marketer, Coach, Trainer and Author, supplies professional and personal development to a portfolio of corporate and individual clients.

As an Adjunct Professor at the Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy, Brian teaches the International graduate course Personal marketing: performance skills at work.

In past semesters, he additionally taught the International graduate course Leadership coaching: bringing potential to the stage of work and the Interfaculty postgraduate course Training through drama and coaching for work.

Through coaching, training and writing, Brian works mainly with motivated young and mid-life professionals who wish to live their potential, in education, work or life in general.

Curious? You can contact Brian via e-mail (brian@bgdtcoaching.com), by clicking on the icons or leaving a comment below.

Listening to learn, listening to engage

There are many reasons why we might choose to indulge in the very human practice of listening, including:

a) Listening to learn.

We cannot learn from others while we are talking. As such, listening to learn puts the focus on gaining information, knowledge, insights, and so forth from those speaking to us.

b) Listening to engage.

Actively showing our interest in the speaker, with gestures, comments, and questions can be part of listening to engage. By listening carefully, we are demonstrating respect for the other person, and that goes a long way towards building engagement.

So, why do you listen? Is it to learn, to engage, or for other reasons? To share your input, leave a comment below.

In the meantime, thanks for reading this ‘Listening to learn, listening to engage’ post, and please like and share it.

Brian.

About Brian

Brian Groves DipM FCIM Chartered Marketer, Coach, Trainer and Author, supplies professional and personal development to a portfolio of corporate and individual clients.

As an Adjunct Professor at the Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy, Brian teaches the International graduate courses Leadership coaching: bringing potential to the stage of work and Personal marketing: performance skills at work.

Through coaching, training and writing, Brian works mainly with motivated young and mid-life professionals who wish to live their potential, in education, work or life in general.

Curious? You can contact Brian via e-mail (brian@bgdtcoaching.com), by clicking on the icons or leaving a comment below.

How often do you play the blame game?

Is it daily, weekly, or monthly? How often do you play the blame game? To what extent do you shift responsibility for X, Y, or Z from your shoulders to those of another person?

Of course, you might be screaming at the screen right now, attempting to justify why ‘whatever’ is ‘his’ or ‘her’ fault. And by doing so, your answer to the question ‘How often do you play the blame game?’ is perhaps ‘I never stop’.

Taking responsibilities, at least for our responses and attitudes towards things upsetting us or being less than we would like, is a powerful action.

Nobody cares about our rants and raves concerning who does this or that. Think about it, how often do you play the blame game then become more frustrated when people fail to take your side or give you the comfort you feel you deserve as the victim?

On the contrary, when folk see us stepping forward to take charge of situations, even or especially those not of our making, we are modelling a proactive behaviour.

Thanks for being here today, and please feel free to like and share this ‘How often do you play the blame game?’ post.

Kindest regards.

Brian.

About Brian

Brian Groves DipM FCIM Chartered Marketer, Coach, Trainer and Author, supplies professional and personal development to a portfolio of corporate and individual clients.

As an Adjunct Professor at the Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy, Brian teaches the International graduate courses Leadership coaching: bringing potential to the stage of work and Personal marketing: performance skills at work.

Through coaching, training and writing, Brian works mainly with motivated young and mid-life professionals who wish to live their potential, in education, work or life in general.

Curious? You can contact Brian via e-mail (brian@bgdtcoaching.com), by clicking on the icons or leaving a comment below.

Not everything needs doing but something does

In a world in which we have almost unlimited opportunities, it is easy to believe we can do whatever we like. As much as this might be the case, let’s remember not everything needs doing but something does.

Clarifying ‘everything’ and ‘something’ produces valuable input to guide us in moving forward effectively. Appreciating ‘not everything needs doing but something does’ helps us focus energy on strategic measures designed to maximize our efforts.

To join the conversation on the issue ‘Not everything needs doing but something does’, leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading this ‘Not everything needs doing but something does’ post and, if you want to do something else, please like and share it.

Kindest regards.

Brian.

About Brian

Brian Groves DipM MCIM Chartered Marketer, Coach, Trainer and Author, supplies professional and personal development to a portfolio of corporate and individual clients.

As an Adjunct Professor at the Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy, Brian teaches the International graduate courses Leadership coaching: bringing potential to the stage of work and Personal marketing: performance skills at work.

Brian’s goal is to support through coaching, training and writing motivated people who wish to live their potential, in education, work or life in general.

Curious? You can contact Brian via e-mail (brian@bgdtcoaching.com), by clicking on the icons or leaving a comment below.

What does success look like to you?

Spending time pondering objectives and clarifying goals is a worthy activity to undertake regularly.

Various aspects of our life could be put in the spotlight for the sake of establishing what we wish to achieve in the short-term, medium-term, and long-term.

And once these exploration exercises are complete, it might be possible to answer the key question: what does success look like to you?

To share your response to the inquiry ‘What does success look like to you?‘, please leave a comment below.

Brian.

About Brian

Brian Groves DipM MCIM Chartered Marketer, Coach, Trainer and Author, supplies professional and personal development to a portfolio of corporate and individual clients.

As an Adjunct Professor at the Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy, Brian teaches the International graduate courses Leadership coaching: bringing potential to the stage of work and Personal marketing: performance skills at work.

Brian’s goal is to support through coaching, training and writing motivated people who wish to live their potential, in education, work or life in general.

Curious? You can contact Brian via e-mail (brian@bgdtcoaching.com), by clicking on the icons or leaving a comment below.

Reflecting on why each step matters

A leap to move from A to Z might sound attractive, but reflecting on why each step matters usually produces more concrete and less dangerous results.

By reflecting on why each step matters, we can evaluate what we need to do to ensure the proposed steps are as effective as possible.

Furthermore, reflecting on why each step matters allows us to bring together the necessary resources to achieve success once reflection turns into action.

To engage in reflecting on why each step matters as part of a discovery session coaching conversation, get in contact.

For now, thanks for reading this ‘Reflecting on why each step matters’ post.

Brian.

About Brian

Brian Groves DipM MCIM Chartered Marketer, Coach, Trainer and Author, supplies professional and personal development to a portfolio of corporate and individual clients.

As an Adjunct Professor at the Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy, Brian teaches the International graduate courses Leadership coaching: bringing potential to the stage of work and Personal marketing: performance skills at work.

Brian’s goal is to support through coaching, training and writing motivated people who wish to live their potential, in education, work or life in general.

Curious? You can contact Brian via e-mail (brian@bgdtcoaching.com), by clicking on the icons or leaving a comment below.

 

Being conscious of differing perspectives

Being conscious of differing perspectives is a prerequisite for operating as part of a team. Appreciating we all have an individual outlook on life, created with personal values and influences, is crucial to getting along together and, ideally, prospering.

Being conscious of differing perspectives opens the door to creativity, a kaleidoscope of experiences and ideas.

This variety itself is an additional benefit of moving away from workforces consisting of like-minded folk. The contrasts provided by people from varying backgrounds help stimulate fresh thinking and previously unseen opportunities.

Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts on the issue of being conscious of differing perspectives.

In the meantime, thanks for reading this ‘Being conscious of differing perspectives’ post, and please like and share it.

Brian.

About Brian

Brian Groves DipM MCIM Chartered Marketer, Coach, Trainer and Author, supplies professional and personal development to a portfolio of corporate and individual clients.

As an Adjunct Professor at the Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy, Brian teaches the International graduate courses Leadership coaching: bringing potential to the stage of work and Personal marketing: performance skills at work.

Brian’s goal is to support through coaching, training and writing motivated people who wish to live their potential, in education, work or life in general.

Curious? You can contact Brian via e-mail (brian@bgdtcoaching.com), by clicking on the icons or leaving a comment below.

 

Stop tinkering, start changing

After a period of reflection, it is good advice to stop tinkering, start changing, and move forward with desired endeavours.

Unfortunately, it is easy to get lost in the planning stage of a project, then ‘dance around the edges’ of the action plan rather than implement proposed steps.

‘Stop tinkering, start changing’ is a mantra we could adopt when looking to amend habits we have identified as working against us.

A decisive intervention will create a greater splash than a cautious dipping of the toes in the pool of development. And once we have taken this initial move, we may want to continue in this new direction.

Or not. To join the conversation on the issue of ‘Stop tinkering, start changing’, please leave a comment below.

Kindest regards.

Brian.

About Brian

Brian Groves DipM MCIM Chartered Marketer, Coach, Trainer and Author, supplies professional and personal development to a portfolio of corporate and individual clients.

As an Adjunct Professor at the Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy, Brian teaches the International graduate courses Leadership coaching: bringing potential to the stage of work and Personal marketing: performance skills at work.

Brian’s goal is to support through coaching, training and writing motivated people who wish to live their potential, in education, work or life in general.

Curious? You can contact Brian via e-mail (brian@bgdtcoaching.com), by clicking on the icons or leaving a comment below.

 

Do they really care what we think?

With around 7.5 billion people going through their daily routine, focused on personal goals and endeavours, maybe we should ask ‘Do they really care what we think?’

Naturally, the majority of the world’s population is probably not interested in our opinions, ideas, and social media posts. But what about that small group of people who are?

Knowing that for some folk the answer to the enquiry ‘Do they really care what we think?’ is a ‘Yes’, keeps us reflecting, posting, and interacting. Being part of a circle of mutual influence, one in which learning is shared and support available to all concerned, is a strategic part of work, and life, nowadays.

To share your input on this ‘Do they really care what we think?’ post, please leave a comment below.

In the meantime, thanks for stopping by to read this ‘Do they really care what we think?’ offering and don’t forget to like and share it.

Brian.

About Brian

Brian Groves DipM MCIM Chartered Marketer, Coach, Trainer and Author, supplies professional and personal development to a portfolio of corporate and individual clients.

As an Adjunct Professor at the Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy, Brian teaches the International graduate courses Leadership coaching: bringing potential to the stage of work and Personal marketing: performance skills at work.

Brian’s goal is to support through coaching, training and writing motivated people who wish to live their potential, in education, work or life in general.

Curious? You can contact Brian via e-mail (brian@bgdtcoaching.com), by clicking on the icons or leaving a comment below.