This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on Gallup.com and identifies time-off as a key contributor for increased productivity, enhanced engagement, and improved well-being.Most Company Wellness Programs Are a Bust found that by creating a culture that encourages general well-being, organizations gain a competitive edge. Managers need to shift their focus to seeing employee well-being as an end in itself, instead of a means to an end.Time-off is something we all talk about, but rarely use. What’s stopping you from taking your dream vacation?"Managers account for at least 70% of variance in employee engagement scores across business units. At your company, do your managers carve out time to take vacation, go to the gym or attend their children’s school events? If managers don’t do these sorts of things, employees will feel they can’t either."Read the full article.The post fierce resources: most company wellness programs are a bust appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

It happens. Negativity can gradually, then suddenly, creep into your team, your office, even your home.Negativity is often underestimated on an everyday level, however, its impact can be quite large. In fact, a 2012 Fierce survey shared that 78% of the respondents cited a negative attitude as the key trait of a toxic employee. Negativity trumped gossiping, laziness, and passive-aggressiveness.Can you think of someone in your life that is consistently negative? Urban Dictionary defines a Negative Nancy as "someone who commonly whines, complains, or looks at the bad side of things." A Negative Nancy or Negative Nick does not approach situations with solutions or ideas, but rather, examples of why the situations are so horrible.In short: We don’t need these people in our lives. Why do we put up with it?This week’s tip is to address a negative attitude with someone in your life before it gets worse. Get to the point, and don’t let it fester. We all deserve to travel a little lighter.Do you think negativity is the key trait of a toxic employee? Tell us in our current toxic employee survey that launched last week here.The post Fierce Tip of the Week: Bust the Negative Attitude appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

At ATD International Conference & Expo yesterday, Fierce Founder and CEO, Susan Scott, rocked the house in her session Toxic Employees: The Best Techniques for Managing Them. She discussed how we’ve all worked with toxic employees, and how perhaps, at one point we’ve even been one.There are key trends that create toxic employees in the workplace. They include when people:Are disengaged.Feel overworked.Feel stressed.Feel undervalued.Are given anonymous feedback. Which one do you see most in your organization? What do you notice about toxic employees?Take our Toxic Employee survey here. It explores how you and your employer feel about the attitudes of colleagues, positive and negative, and how these attitudes impact workplace relationships, culture, and the bottom line.We’re excited to hear your thoughts. If you attended the ATD session yesterday, what were your takeaways?The post Let’s Talk About Toxic Employees: Do You Know Any? appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on TrainingIndustry.com and explores the multiple drivers of employee engagement, from workplace pride to empowering team members.Driving Employee Engagement through Leadership examines the impact of an employee’s relationship with their direct manager. A recent study by Dale Carnegie found that 80% of employees who were dissatisfied with their direct manager were disengaged. To put it simple, employees leave because of people, not organizations.When was the last time you connected with your employees on a deeper level? It’s time to start the conversation."Successful leaders are open to receiving feedback from their team members, leadership, peers and customers. Feedback from others helps leaders to understand the impact (positive or negative) they have on others."Try these six tactics to drive engagement in your organization.Read the full article.The post Fierce Resource: Driving Employee Engagement through Leadership appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Memorial Day in the United States is upon us, and while many of us enjoy the long weekend with family time and fun barbeques, it is about something bigger.Honor those who have served our country by having conversations that are meaningful and express gratitude for those who have served our country. Outside of the United States, other countries have time dedicated to honor their fallen heroes who have courageously sacrificed their lives. Universally, we share this desire to say thank you.Do not shy away from what this holiday is about. There is real opportunity to engage in conversations with others about sacrifice, courage, and death. If your family has lost a loved one, it is powerful to remember them through conversation.Take the time to fully engage in conversations about sacrifice even if it is difficult.We at Fierce would like to take this moment to say thank you to those who have served in our armed forces and to their families.We would also love to hear from you: how are you honoring Memorial Day?The post fierce tip of the week: honor memorial day with meaningful conversations appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Susan Scott, CEO & Founder of Fierce, Inc. talks with Andrew Bateman from Human Capital Institute. In this interview, Susan and Andrew discuss:The origin of FierceBusiness trendsPersonal inspiration Some direct quotes:"Everybody basically wants real. They want real. They want real in their relationships. They want real in their work. They want real in their organizations. They want real with their leaders. There is not as much of that going around as we would all like to think.""Nobody teaches us when we are young (to be real). Nobody teaches us that it is important for us to be authentic and what that means. Although a lot of people love the word authenticity, sad to say, wouldn’t know it if it ran over them."The post Listen to an Intimate Chat with Fierce Founder, Susan Scott appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on Gallup.com and highlights how the RDO Equipment Co. grew into a construction and agricultural empire by focusing on employee and customer engagement through radical transparency.Building a Giant in the Heavy-Equipment Industry describes one company’s journey from struggling public corporation to a thriving family-owned business.  Enticed by the prospect of substantial profits in the public sector, RDO soon learned that the grass wasn’t greener on the other side. As the pressure mounted, they decided to stop talking about meeting analyst expectations and start talking about the customer and the culture again.How wide is the gap between the "official" truth and the "ground" truth in your organization?"In RDO’s modern culture, top leaders at the company say they maintain their success internally and externally by adhering to a set of action-oriented core values for business operation. These values include collaborating with employees, building customers for life, creating opportunities and committing to doing what they say and playing to win."Read the full article.The post Fierce Resource: Building a Giant in the Heavy-Equipment Industry appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

June is Professional Wellness Month, and it is time to focus on your well-being. Does this make you jump for joy? Or make you want to evaporate?  We all know health is important, yet, it can be something we overlook.As Buddha said, "To keep the body in good health is a duty…otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear."So I ask: On a scale from one to ten, how satisfied are you with how you take care of yourself?In a recent survey we conducted with women executives, 70% said they were stressed due to work/life balance. They cited depression, weight gain, and loss of sleep as top health issues related to the stress.Some of the most successful leaders I know always prioritize exercise and/or "me" time. They know taking care of themselves is critical to bringing their best selves to their work.For me, I practice yoga five to six days a week. It has been transformational for me. It allows - okay - forces me to physically step away from technology. Because yes, I was the lady jogging on the path checking her work email. With yoga, I have to disconnect. It is a safe harbor. A place to sit with myself. A place that is familiar yet has a lot of unchartered territory.This week’s tip is to take time to plan how you will take care of yourself in June and put it into action. Will you join a new gym or studio? Take up meditation? Plan some extra vacation time?Make the commitment for the next 30 days.The post Fierce Tip of the Week: Take Care of Your Health appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

A martial arts sensei said, "You are always practicing something.  The question is - What are you practicing?"  Darn good question.Whether we are practicing one-upmanship or cooperation, truth telling or lying, mentoring or self-promotion, fluency in three-letter acronyms or plain speaking, anonymous feedback or face-to-face feedback, our practices have an impact on our careers, our companies, our relationships.In Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, written during his year in a one-room cabin with few possessions, is this quote."The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life that is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run."He was talking about the bigger house, and all the stuff we buy that ends up owning us, keeping us awake at night.  Amen to that!Let’s substitute the word "practice" for "thing."The cost of a practice is the amount of life and, ultimately, dollars that must be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.There is a direct link between our practices and our results and in my work with leaders and their teams, the practice that, when it is missing costs us the most, and when it is present makes the greatest difference, is courage.  Backed up with skill.Courage is a noun that shows up as a verb. It comes from old French corage, from Latin cor, "heart".  We recognize it by what people do.  We do what frightens us, even in the face of perceived or real personal risk. The man who ran into a house that was fully engulfed in flames, to save a neighbor whom he barely knew.  We demonstrate strength in the face of pain or grief. The hiker trapped beneath a boulder, who escaped by cutting off his own arm with a Swiss Army knife.  No anesthetic.While we recognize courage in once-in-a-lifetime, go-down-in-history heroic deeds, it is far more powerful as a daily practice.  Though you might have run into that burning house, your courage may be failing you where it counts most - in your day-to-day interactions with the people who are central to your success and happiness.How can you practice more courage every day?The post The Practice of Courage appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

In survey after survey, "communication" makes the top 3 list: why marriages end, why mergers don’t work, why management has difficulty leading employees through change, why employees leave an organization, why customers stop doing business with a firm. Or, on the positive side, great communication is why marriages work, mergers go smoothly, employees embrace change, employees love their job and their boss, and why customers rave about the customer service where they do business.

The new CEO wanted to hit a homerun at his first all-hands meeting. It meant the difference in capturing their allegiance for the big turnaround he hoped to achieve with their organization. In addition to the approximately 3,000 people seated in the auditorium in from of him, he knew employees would be tuned in to the broadcast from around the world. Although already four months into the job, this would be his first big opportunity to win their confidence as a group that he could handle the job left vacant by his popular predecessor.

Janet wore a smile from the nose down; her eyes bore daggers. If I offered a Friday afternoon off for having finished a big project early, she "wished" it had been last week when she and her husband were headed out of town for the football game.  When I ordered in pizza for everyone’s lunch to celebrate a staff anniversary, she had "hoped" for barbecue.

When senior executives arrive for coaching, they often come with great motivation but guarded perspective. Either their life coach, their director of communication, an important client, or their spouse has given them some direct or implied feedback that their career or organization has hit a roadblock unless they develop more "executive presence" or overcome some other mysterious challenge.

The first day I sauntered into Miss Amos’s English class, I was scared. Not because of the subject or because this was my first day in a big city school—I was startled by her face. My first thought: Did some terrible disease do this to her?

By the time warring factions get to the executive ranks, they’ve already been routed through the normal HR channels, and one or more parties has a life coach or psychologist involved. Whether personality quirks or big egos cause the conflict really doesn’t matter if the problem continues to create havoc for your organization.

Do I need a coach supervisor?   Yes, yes, yes! If your clients keep you awake at night and you find you are getting emotionally involved, if you are concerned about consistently meeting professional coaching standards, if you need ongoing professional development, if you need guided reflection, if you want to get deeper insights into your practice and your clients in order to be the best coach you can possibly be…and much more. All professionals are supervised in their practice. If we are really serious about our standards then this is not an option. The 2009 CIPD Report "Coaching Supervision Maximising the Potential of Coaching" stated that "Coaches see the main benefits of supervision as developing coaching capability (88%) and assuring the quality of their coaching (86%)." Do you know what referral means, how to notice the clues that mean you should be considering referral and then who to go to? Are you absolutely convinced that your ethical and boundary management is all that is should be? All this and more is covered in supervision which is a thinking partnership between two professionals. It is not co-coaching. When choosing a supervisor ensure you have one who is qualified, who understands your needs and can hold the mirror up to your practice. You should be able to discuss anything with him/her that may be affecting your coaching work. S/he should contract with you, agree objectives and agendas for sessions and carry out regular reviews. Some coaches use multiple supervisors for differing aspects, others may have mentors as well. You then need to keep notes and reflect and a journal can help you to organise your reflections. We are so committed to supervision that at The Performance Solution we have reduced the cost to £75 per hour plus VAT to ensure that even those coaches starting out can afford and commit to it. We have a cohort of qualified supervisors available. If you are not in supervision - what’s the real reason and how do you justify ‘going it alone’? By the way, this applies equally to NLPers! The post Do I need a coach supervisor? appeared first on The Performance Solution.

We are often asked about the roles and responsibilities of our partnership programme where the University of Derby Corporate has established The Performance Solution as a collaborative partner of the University for the delivery of the following Higher Education programmes:   PG Certificate in Applied Coaching PG Diploma in Applied Coaching MA in Applied Coaching   These are fully accredited programmes of study, managed and delivered outside the university to allow the flexibility of study off campus and are therefore run under the partnership scheme and not in the same way as an internal programme. Holders of non-UK degree or other qualifications will be subject to the University’s normal entry procedures with regard to the assessment of the equivalence of qualifications. The Performance Solution (TPS) are responsible for checking the authenticity of such qualifications prior to formal University enrolment. Where qualifications are not HE qualifications and leaners wish to claim advanced standing or credit for modules, learners are required to put together an APL portfolio that maps and evidences their professional learning and experience to the learning outcomes of the modules that they wish to seek credit for.Where a candidate’s first language is not English, advanced English Language competence in the form of appropriate certificated learning (IELTS requirement of 7.0 or equivalent) must be demonstrated as detailed in the University of Derby Admission Regulations and these students may also be required to attend an additional English for Academic Purposes programme which will be undertaken at their own expense. All overseas non- EU students will need to provide relevant documentation to comply with the UK Border Agency Regulations if they intend to visit the UK, and copies must be provided to UDC and TPS on request.Selection to the course will be through completion of application form, and normally a face to face or telephone interview. The interview is a process of mutual selection: for applicants to discuss how the course meets their needs and the course team to judge their suitability for the course. Details of the interview are recorded in the TPS AcT database.   The Performance Solution (TPS) are responsible for the design, development, marketing, recruitment, delivery, supervision and first marking of the MA in Applied Coaching.  TPS will collect application information and paperwork and send to an administrator at UDC for enrolment. TPS will make available appropriate personnel to liaise with the University and provide all assistance and information to the University to enable the carrying out of agreed duties. Where students experience disabilities or personal difficulties TPS is the main contact point. TPS will arrange appropriate support for the students and will liaise with the University where necessary e.g. where an application for an extended period of study is felt to be appropriate. Lisa Wake (qualified and practising psychotherapist) will provide psychotherapeutic support and referral to specialists (at the student’s expense).  Jeremy Lazarus will provide performance coaching and motivational support, Dr Sally Vanson will provide support on academic standards. Dr Allan Parker will provide support on project and time management. It should be noted that in line with the philosophy of coaching and adult learning, all students are responsible for managing their study and resources, meeting agreed deadlines and submitting work as directed by their supervisors. Additional financial support through TPS or UDC is not available. Students with disabilities or special needs are dealt with as individual cases and every effort will be made to accommodate their needs in accordance with current UK legislation and the philosophy of the programme of study. This will be managed by TPS for module attendance and marking and according to University protocols for attendance at any University events e.g. professional discussions or graduation ceremonies. This is a partnership programme so the usual avenues of learning support through the main university are not open to partnership students. Students are responsible for making their own arrangements in consultation with TPS.   The University of Derby Corporate (UDC) are responsible for the proper and efficient conduct of admission and registration procedures and the maintenance of accurate records of all students. UDC will quality assure the programme, initially second making all work, and provide an external examiner for the programme and have conduct of the assessment board, according to University regulations. Administrative and student support will be provided in accordance with University regulations for collaborative partner programmes. UDC will manage graduation and certification. TPS and UDC work together to review a shared Operational Manual and update a master version where changes are made. For all enquiries and concerns, contact The Performance Solution direct: E-mail: enquiries@theperformancesolution.com Phone: 01225 867285 The Performance Solution The Studio, The Old School House Lower Westwood Bradford on Avon BA15 2AR www.theperformancesolution.com For all matters regarding academic content you should contact your supervisor. Students will have access to the digital library only, books cannot be sent out to students, SCONUL access and interlibrary loans are not permitted. Students may be able to enrol at their local university library and TPS will provide letters of introduction to confirm that students are enrolled on an HE programme, upon request. You will not receive a library or student card. Once you are enrolled you will also be given a contact at University of Derby Corporate who is responsible for any issues concerning University administration. You should only deal with this person when dealing with enrolment and eventual graduation. University of Derby Corporate University of Derby Enterprise Centre 37 Bridge Street Derby. DE1 3LA www.derby.ac.uk/corporate   The post TPS’s partnership with University of Derby appeared first on The Performance Solution.

We are all getting excited about Dr Simon Western’s Analytic Network Coaching workshop, 10-12 December in Bath. 20 people are signed up and we have two places left, so if this is the year you want to really up your game in coaching we will delighted to see you. Please contact enquiries@theperformancesolution.com to secure your place. Simon coaches senior leaders and CEO’s, who want to work on themselves, to focus on their desires, defences and their authentic self. He aligns this to their role, and then they work on the business and organizational strategy. This is value based coaching for business. With teams he specializes in team dynamics, working on strategy and creativity, working with confidence and clarity in the most challenging and senior teams. They work and learn; making strategic decisions, whilst learning about team dynamics, and personal strengths and challenges. In OD Coaching he brings together personal learning with OD interventions; Learning from each other, creating coaching cultures, forming new leadership cultures, whilst delivering business results; all supported by coaching/mentoring initiatives: Analytic-Network Coaching is a new concept in coaching, that addresses the challenges facing individuals and organizations in the 21st century. A-N coaching is a process specifically designed to take the coachee on two trajectories: Individual Analysis: on a journey of inner-depth, before working on relationships and role Network Analysis: examining the context and network to strategically influence change Most coaching approaches aim for behavioural change to improve performance, using coaching tools and techniques, that neither focus on depth (personal values, neither do they address the persons context or network, in which they live and work. The A-NC process enables the coach to work systematically and adaptively and the aims are; To discover deep personal insight and apply this to desired change, To liberate individual talent and encourage acting in ‘good faith’, To maximise a leaders influence on their networks, To develop Eco-Leadership, a new paradigm of leadership (Western 2008, 2010) To download information on the Analytic Network Coaching, click here : The post Dr Simon Western’s Analytic Network Coaching workshop appeared first on The Performance Solution.

It’s that time of year when people start thinking about living the life they have dreamed of. We receive several calls a week from coaches wanting to start their own business (or who have started a business without thinking it through). Although not in the profession of running business start-up courses we have offered coaching and mentoring around this issue and in this article we share our musings. It seems to us that many coaches, NLPers, and trainers get involved in the self help, talking therapies and personal development movement by attending training themselves. They then tell us ‘I have found my calling or purpose’, ‘I want to make a difference’ or even ‘I want to escape from the corporate world’. Our challenge is to ask whether you really understand and accept who you are. Are you a great entrepreneur? Do you understand the interplay between financial management, marketing, sales, social media, time management, self management, IT, company law, trades descriptions and data protection legislation as well as being a great and professional coach? Do you understand professional etiquette and ethics? Are you collaborative? Can you work alone (often from a spare bedroom), can you work for days on the business - often without speaking to anyone else? You have to promote yourself, speak up for yourself, and chase your own debts.  If you want to be successful, you cannot hide, go off sick, make excuses or even delegate. Have you got the motivation to succeed?  Can you really work as a sole trader? All successful businesses start with a dream. We are all entitled to our dreams however when they become a way of life, the critic and the realist must be given voices to ask; is this really, really what you want and can you live on the proceeds? What is the impact on your friends and family and how will you build a credible and professional reputation? Have you got the mind set to become self-employed or will you still think like an employee?  Running your own business means you do the little jobs (admin, filing and cleaning the toilet!) If you are running away from stress inducing situations, long travel, long working hours or political people please know that having your own business will continue to bring you stress, travel long hours and difficult people with no sick pay, no paid attendance at courses and conferences and no paid holidays. You will not be working 9 to 5, with more holidays and days off if you really want to be successful. Be realistic about your own strengths and listen to others - what do you truly have to offer? What is your competitive edge? What are your values? Will they form the nugget of a compelling brand? Owning your own coaching business isn’t a walk in the park. 30% of coaching businesses fail in the first two years. You can be fabulous at helping people with your coaching or mentoring, but if you don’t have the fundamentals of marketing and sales at the very least, you’re not going to have many people to help. You’ll either have no clients, or clients that make you want to tear your hair out! Can you afford to sack clients that don’t work for you? What is your ethical stance? The first year is fun. It often works well. New entrepreneurs have a passion and energy to get going, they have savings from their previous work and they have contacts and old friends who want to help them out and give them work as a favour. These things don’t last! You spend the first year delivering all this good work which then dries up and the cupboard is empty - now the real business starts. It’s too common to start your journey as a coach, trainer, NLPer or mentor and think that because you can transform the lives and businesses of your clients, it will be easy to start making money and live a life of freedom. We often see people struggling. We sometimes stand back and watch as colleagues become competitors. We experience people who undercut others and do the profession a disservice. We have people stalking our social media accounts and contacting our contacts - this is unethical and desperate behaviour. How to succeed; Please don’t quit your day job and jump into coaching. It will take time to build your new business, so make it a sideline if you must enter one of the most over-supplied and transient professions. Can you start from within your current employment? Put money aside for certifications. We often get asked; ‘Do I really need to take qualifications to be a coach?’ The answer is YES,  get qualified to the highest level in the area in which you want to deliver. Would you go to an unqualified Doctor or Dentist? Put aside funds for your own personal development plan. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater - what current skills, qualifications and talents can you take into your new business? E.g. from my previous profession of organisation development and human resources I bring change facilitation, organisational consulting, systemic thinking, psychometric testing, high level recruitment, employment legislation, employee engagement, cross cultural and international working, academic and vocational training and assessment, counselling, teaching and training, to add to my qualifications in coaching, mentoring and NLP. This is what makes me who I am - an international organisational development specialist and change facilitator. Take time to do a stock check on what value you have to offer clients. Decide on your niche - what is your specialist area of practice?  What is the market demand for that niche? If there isn’t one - choose another niche while you take time to educate the market that they need your original idea. Get help - yes some weeks your help will earn more than you. Think about who answers the phone (or not) when you are out coaching. What is the professional face you are trying to present? Are you trying to bath the baby, cook the dinner, walk the dog or deal with postman when you answer the phone - really not very professional! Build your network. Make contact with competitors, learn from and collaborate with them - there is nothing worse than bright eyed new entrants to the field who break the unwritten rules, undercut prices, play political games and make themselves unpopular. Behave professionally. Your brand is your ‘self’. Think about how you dress, what you do (actions speak louder than words). Develop a business plan which is integrated with your personal plan. This is about you, your future, your success and your happiness. You cannot afford to short change yourself. For more information about individual mentoring and coaching with a focus on developing your business idea contact our office enquiries@theperformancesolution.com The post Can you afford to start your own business? appeared first on The Performance Solution.

As big as your dreams are and as smart as you might think you are, you can’t do it alone. It never ceases to amaze me in the world of Coaching and NLP how aggressive some individuals can get about competing with each other when business is challenging. Providers revert to a 1980’s style of price competition - undercutting each other’s prices, associate coaches offering cheaper deals to customers of who is often their own main customer, often a generalist ‘ego led’ service proclaiming they can do anything and these and similar strategies are unsustainable. We even have examples of some players in the NLP field publicly questioning the quality and qualifications of their competitors in a naïve attempt to rid the market of a number of players. How does this behaviour underpin ‘the map is not the territory’ and other presuppositions? The problem is at an ‘identity level’. The ‘me, me, me’ mentality that has evolved and causes a paralysis in our own development. It is impossible for a human being to exist in isolation as we are connected beings. These naïve, often unprofessional and unethical behaviours do not serve the personal development industry well. One of my early retail mentors; Peter Harrison, used to say; ‘find your niche, determine your standards and hold strong when times get hard’. At that time we watched other retailers discounting products, running half price and blue cross days and adopting a bargain basement mentality and guess what - they went out of business or were taken over. We won through and our managers became highly sought after within the industry. Co-opetition is a business strategy that uses insights gained from game theory to understand when it is better for competitors to work together. It is a combination of the words cooperation and competition. The principles and practices of coopetition are credited to Harvard and Yale business professors, Adam M. Brandenburger and Barry J. Nalebuff. Competitive businesses that also cooperate when it is to their advantage are said to be in coopetition and the result is an ethical, collaborative partnership that delivers benefits to all concerned. Several years ago when working with Nationwide Building Society we were delighted to be invited to a suppliers’ event where the customer got competing businesses in the room and encouraged us to work together to design and deliver the very best service we could, in partnership with the customer. A win:win for all and it was so much fun as well as providing realtime learning. There is nothing new about Coopetition. Bengtsson and Kock (2000) postulated that relationships among competitors focuses either on competitive or on cooperative relationships between them, and the one relationship is argued to harm or threaten the other. Their research considered that two firms can be involved in and benefit from both cooperation and competition simultaneously, and hence that both types of relationships need to be emphasized at the same time. They argued that the most complex, but also the most advantageous relationship between competitors, is "coopetition" where two competitors both compete and cooperate with each other. Complexity is due to the fundamentally different and contradictory logics of interaction that competition and cooperation are built on. It is of crucial importance to separate the two different parts of the relationship to manage the complexity and thereby make it possible to benefit from such a relationship. E.g. two competing companies could collaborate to design and deliver the same course or qualification and agree to market it to different niche sectors, this reducing their own production costs and benefiting from each other’ expertise. E.g. one partner delivers a coaching programme with the corporate world which is his/her area of expertise and where s/he has credibility, the other partner may deliver the same programme albeit with more pertinent case studies in the health or sports arena. The benefits are shared learning whilst each partner plays to his/her strengths and works where s/he is most credible. Research from Bengtsson and Kock (2000) used an explorative case study of two Swedish and one Finnish industries where coopetition is to be found, to develop propositions about how the competitive and cooperative part of the relationship could be divided and managed. It was shown that the two parts can be separated depending on the activities degree of proximity to the customer and on the competitors’ access to specific resources. It was also shown that individuals within the firm only can act in accordance with one of the two logics of interaction at a time and hence that either the two parts have to be divided between individuals within the company, or that one part needs to be controlled and regulated by an intermediate actor such as a collective association e.g. the initial developer of the product or a professional association. Hendy (2014) shares that businesses of all shapes and sizes are forming co-working arrangements, enabling them to become stronger competitors in the process. This new perspective on business collaboration requires both parties to create a working arrangement that enables them to capitalise on the arrangement. Unlike traditional collaborations in which businesses may come together to offer a joint promotion, co-opetition is a Co-opetition is thriving among Australian start-ups, according to Sydney technology entrepreneur Mick Liubinskas. He’s seen lots of examples of co-opetition among education and technology companies, where many players regularly share ideas and tools. "The co-working spaces, accelerators and investors that predominantly work together to support co-founders are the ones that build successful businesses," Liubinskas says. "Most people are a part of three, or four, groups and everyone shares information and connects." Adventure Capital founder and managing partner Stuart Richardson says that co-opetition is a critical business skill. "Start-ups need to find mechanisms to scale efficiently, or face a painful death of 1000 cuts. Partnering, and forming an effective ecosystem that extends your influence and enhances your access to market is a sustainable means to achieve this." The founder of custom jewellery website StyleRocks has also benefited from a co-opetition arrangement. Pascale Helyar-Moray forged a relationship with chocolate retailer Lollypotz, which gave away StyleRocks gift certificates. The arrangement works well for StyleRocks as a cost-effective customer acquisition mechanism and also a source of revenue, Helyar-Moray says. "What we find is that gift certificates help customers make their first online purchase with StyleRocks jewellery. It also gives Lollypotz something innovative to offer their customers - the idea that customers have their chocolate now, and jewellery later." Harvard Business Review blogger Marquis Cabrera wrote recently that sharing information is a good way to build trust with your competitors in the lead-up to a co-opetition arrangement. These partnerships have also worked well for businesses that create new technologies given the high costs associated with research and development, she says. Cabrera suggests choosing partnerships where each person brings something different to the table. "In many circumstances, forming co-opetitions is better than traditional collaborations because they create transparency about motivations, agendas and goals." However, it’s important to understand how to protect your own interest whilst co-operating with competitors to maximise value. Richardson says the business relationship should be formed around a clearly articulated set of principles, which are used to ground the progress, success or need to discontinue any arrangement. "Like any relationship, it takes time and energy to develop and grow the best partnerships. And despite best intentions, sometimes they can end in tears," This is usually when one partner doesn’t stick to agreements and has differing values which cause them to try and benefit from the relationship whilst still ‘doing their own thing’. Like any great relationship the underpinning behaviours stem from ethics, authenticity, communication and shared values. Are these not the very cornerstones of the NLP and Coaching industries? The post Competition or Co-opetition? appeared first on The Performance Solution.

Business is changing at an incredible pace and we need to remain relevant and current in this fast changing world. The most important thing to question frequently relates to both ourselves and our business model being relevant to what our clients want and whether it delivers our services the way in the way clients want them delivered? I often experience coaches who ignore all the great background and experience that has allowed them to become who they are and I see them leaping off into unknown waters e.g. health professionals trying to sell their coaching services into the corporate world, where they do not have credibility, instead of realising the health market has huge challenges and through their understanding and previous experience they have an enormous amount of value to add. At The Performance Solution we specialise in the corporate arena - why? because our Directors and coaches have been there and done it, we have held board level positions in multi-national organisations, we are credible!!! We are not credible in the world of dentistry, sport etc. Of course it is possible to cross into other areas and that’s hard work. We will only remain credible if we keep learning, growing personally and providing services that engage and satisfy our clients, so much easier to build on what we already know and the network we already have. If we lose relevancy we will ultimately lose the credibility that we have today. So we must always be learning, evolving, innovating, getting better, improving, staying relevant and current in the market place. We need to be ‘fleet of foot’. Kodak was once one of the world’s biggest companies before filing for bankruptcy in January 2012, Kodak was founded in 1889 by George Eastman. From its inception, Kodak dominated the global photography industry. As late as 1976, Kodak commanded 90% of film sales and 85% of camera sales in the United States alone according to a 2005 case study for Harvard Business School. By 1988 Kodak employed over 145,000 workers worldwide. 1996 was the peak year for Kodak. The company had over two thirds of global market share. Kodak’s revenues reached nearly $16 billion, its stock exceeded $90, and the company was worth over $31 billion. The Kodak brand was the fifth most valuable brand in the world. Kodak missed the boat on digital not once, but at least three times. Besides never capitalizing on the digital camera technology it helped create, Kodak also gravely misunderstood the new ways consumers wanted to interact with their photos, the technologies involved and the market forces surrounding them. Our credibility is a result of our performance, not just our past performance but also our current performance and attitude towards our future performance. Too often we see Coaching and NLP businesses not remaining relevant, almost every week we hear of another coach going out of business or taking a job because they did not remain relevant, communicate with their clients, adjust their business models to suit our ever changing business environment. They focused on themselves and their own needs without researching the market and they paid the inevitable price. The post Credibility in the marketplace appeared first on The Performance Solution.

Today—and every day for the next 15 years—10,000 Baby Boomers will turn 65, making retirement and workforce planning a priority for every company. Start by implementing a knowledge sharing program. Read more in the ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTOR article.  

by Grant Soosalu Do you sometimes suffer from conflict between your thoughts, feelings and actions? Find yourself not acting upon or sabotaging your dreams, goals or plans? Do you have trouble making decisions or stopping unwanted behaviours or habits and don’t know why? Or sometimes feel like something is missing and you’re not fully connected with your deepest inner self? Then chances are you’re not aligned and using the power and innate wisdom of your multiple brains - the brains in your head, heart and gut. You see, when coherently aligned, your head, heart and gut produce an incredible emergent wisdom that allows you to deeply tap into intuitions and competencies that you can’t get from your head brain alone. When you learn to connect your three amazing brains you’ll experience a sense of consciousness that creates a oneness at the level of core self, deep values and your wisest and most authentic self. We don’t just have one brain! Recent Neuroscience findings have uncovered that we have complex, adaptive and functional neural networks - or ‘brains’- in our heart and gut. Respectively called the cardiac and enteric nervous systems, these adaptive neural networks display amazing levels of memory and intuitive ‘intelligence’ and there’s a growing array of evidence that these brains are deeply involved in the control and processing of numerous functions and core behavioural competencies. By combining these Neuroscience findings with behavioural modeling research, a number of key insights have emerged that have profound implications for the fields of personal evolution, NLP, coaching and adaptive leadership. Behavioural modeling research Over the last 5 years, informed by the Neuroscience findings, my colleague Marvin Oka and I have performed behavioural modeling research on how the heart and gut brains function in the practical areas of decision-making, action-taking, intuition, relationships, leadership and personal development. Along with this action-research, analysis of evidence from a wide body of divergent sources has shown that the heart and gut brains are involved in representing and processing very specific forms of intelligence and intuitive functions. For instance, the heart is optimized for processing emotions and drives our modes of connecting in relationships, while the gut handles protection, self-preservation, core identity and mobilization. What you can see from this is that each of the brains has a fundamentally different way of communicating and different concerns and domains of competence. These findings also support the commonly held notions and neuro-linguistic expressions such as trusting one’s ‘gut instinct’ and being ‘true to your heart’, and show they are more than just metaphoric. The findings also back up the assertions from many fields such as Adaptive Leadership field, saying that whole leaders need to use not only their heads, but also the innate intelligence and wisdom of both their heart and gut brains. mBIT - multiple Brain Integration Techniques So how do we do this? Facilitating the multiple brains into congruent alignment and operational effectiveness, requires a pragmatic ‘how’. So the field of mBIT has developed a suite of simple and powerful techniques that People Helpers, Teachers, Trainers, Coaches and Leaders can use in appropriate contexts. As detailed in our recently published book ‘mBraining’, these techniques and processes involve getting the client into communication with their three brains, getting them aligned around the particular issue and then getting the brains functioning at what is called their ‘highest expression’. When this is achieved, the person’s innate intuitive wisdom emerges and the quality of their decisions and actions becomes adaptively and generatively different. Neuroscience meets ancient wisdom What’s also fascinating about these new findings is that current scientific knowledge is finally catching up with deep insights from esoteric and spiritual traditions informing us for thousands of years about three powerful intelligences found in the head, heart and gut. So we’ve known at a deep and intuitive level, across the ages and within our own lives, that our intelligence, wisdom and core life competencies are not just embodied in the head. The consciousness of highest expression As indicated above. one of the many powerful models emerging from the mBIT action research work suggests that each of our brains has what is known as a ‘Highest Expression’. This is an emergent competency that expresses what it means to be truly and deeply human. It represents the highest, most optimized and adaptive class of intelligence or competency of each brain. The Highest Expressions of each brain are:  Head brain - Creativity  Heart brain - Compassion  Enteric brain - Courage What’s crucially important is that these Highest Expressions are only accessed and activated when you are in an optimal state of neurological balance, or what is defined as ‘autonomic coherence’. This is when you’re neither too stressed nor too relaxed, but are in a ‘flow state’. And it makes sense that unless you’re in a neurological flow state, your perceptions of any particular issue or situation along with your subsequent decision-making will be impaired by contrast. The good news is that mBIT provides simple yet powerful techniques for bringing yourself into autonomic coherence. Evolving your world Over the last few hundred years, the world has had a fascination and obsession with science, technology and head based rational thinking. The power of science and its benefits to our lives have driven ongoing and accelerating change throughout our society. It can be argued however, we’ve largely focused on and elevated, to our detriment, head based rational cognition over more traditional heart focused and intuitive gut based ways of knowing. Through an over-use and over-focus on our head based ways of living, our world and lives have become dangerously out of balance. By using mBIT and tapping into an integrated way of using all of your powerful neural networks, you can bring intuitive wisdom to your life and access new levels of generative consciousness to evolve your world. For further information, please either • go to www.mbraining.com or • grab a copy of the book ‘mBraining’.or • book your place on a course at enquiries@theperformancesolution.com As part of the call to action, generated by the mBraining community to bring compassion, courage and a more harmonious way of living to each of every one of us, The Performance Solution are hosting a special ‘not for profit’ course for educators, health professionals, parents, police and public sector employees in Bath on 10-13 December 2015. Please contact us to enquire about availability. The post mBIT and mBraining appeared first on The Performance Solution.

The Accelerated Millennial Manager blog post on the Chief Learning Officer’s "Ask A Gen Y" is a top story this month and it features Devon, Diane & Taylor. Leaders must be sure their fast-tracked millennial managers receive basic business training that they may have skipped over in their speed to rise professionally. Read more at the Chief Learning Officer’s "Ask A Gen Y" blog here.