I hope you enjoyed my last  email and blog post about Eaters and Bakers. As you know, I am launching a new virtual Group Coaching Programme in the New Year and so I went on a Digital course myself last week. Things are moving even faster since the pandemic hit us aren’t they and we have to evolve otherwise we just stand still – and probably go out of business.

Even though I have been an Entrepreneur since 2000, I realised a really important point that even the largest organisations have to keep going back to basics. To evolve, we have to keep unlearning old habits and relearning new ones and think like a Start-up Business more than ever,.

And we have to Think Big around …

• Invention
• Commercialisation
• Scaling

Invention: Google uses this term; “Moon Shot Thinking”

This is all about taking an idea and then 10X it, i.e., what would be the 10 times bigger version of this idea?

Commercialisation: What our market wants. Is our product or service a good fit for the market we want to launch in?

Scaling: How do you use the evidence and data you have gained about what you do to make smart decisions that enable you to scale up?

A fun exercise for you to do either on your own or with a group or team …

• Think of an innovative business idea based on evolving customer needs.

• Think about your customers and their evolving needs. Then pick a customer or business problem and think of an innovative way to solve this specific issue.

• Now, come up with a promising new product or service concept

• Get creative now: What types or technology could play a role? E.g., VR or A.I.

• Create a package name.

• Develop it into a two-minute elevator pitch that explains who you help and how it solves their problem.

See what comes out of it and you never know, you may very well come up with your next winning formula!

I will leave you with that thought.

With best wishes for your success and speak again soon.

Korinne 

P.S. Book a FREE Clarity Call HERE

 

 

 

Have you heard the term; “Eaters and Bakers”?

I wrote previously about Fixed and Growth Mindset and a “Baker” relates to a Growth Mindset and an “Eater” to a Fixed Mindset.

The most booming organisations like Amazon, Microsoft have integrated this concept into everything they do and the emphasis is on learning together.

We are all learning together.

We all need psychological safety and to work in an agile culture where everyone is accountable and at the same time, everyone can say what they think without fear.

The higher the level of psychological safety, the more people and companies are in their comfort zone and learning zone.

The lower the level of psychological safety, the more anxiety and apathy will exist.

There is a very good TED Talk on Psychological Safety with Amy C. Edmonson and you can see it HERE

So, I will leave you with that thought.

With best wishes for your success and I wish you a great weekend.

Korinne 

Korinne Le Page
www.CommunicationCode.co.uk
P.S. Book a FREE Clarity Call HERE

 

 

If you were asked this evening; “Tell me about your life journey so far” …

 

• Where would you begin?
• What would you include?
• What would you leave out?
• What would be the highlights?
• How would you describe where you are so far in your life journey?

I would like to share my own journey with you …

I’ve been successfully training and coaching business owners and leaders for over 25 years, helping them scale their businesses and implement effective solutions while living in alignment with their core values – but it’s not a journey that happened overnight.

As some of you will know, I live in Guernsey. Every journey has a beginning, and mine started with a career in finance. I enjoyed it to an extent and then after a while, I was slowly losing myself in the corporate world and felt detached from the life I dreamed of having. If I didn’t change, I’d never achieve all of my goals and dreams.

Leaving my island home, family, and friends to start a different career was a challenge, but I believed in myself and found a role at Heathrow Airport with Thomas Cook and then with British Airways. I progressed into a Duty Manager role in the Lost Baggage Department, where I was challenged daily by frustrated, travel-weary customers who had lost their baggage. So, I rarely met a happy customer! I had to learn how to communicate clearly and effectively, and learn fast!

My abilities didn’t go unnoticed, and my manager encouraged me to apply for BA’s training department. I appreciated her suggestion, but I was terrified of public speaking! My fears held me back, but with my brilliant manager’s encouragement, my application was successful.

I had to face my fears every day, but I built up my resilience over time, and my confidence grew. I embraced my natural communication style and discovered that less is more when speaking. Fewer words delivered calmly and genuinely have a significant impact, and people are more likely to take you seriously.

I realised that there were still so many people who are struggling to express themselves at work. They don’t know how to approach people, and they struggle to say ‘no’ and avoid conflict at all costs, to the point where they lose out.

In January 2000, I started my own training and coaching company and never looked back.

Want to learn more?

I’ve got plenty of tools that you can begin implementing right away to improve your communication skills, so get ready to start believing in yourself again!

So, what is your life journey? Let this be your thought for the week.

I love sending you emails with helpful tips and tricks that will help you to elevate your effectiveness, power and influence in a positive way. (I never spam, so feel free to unsubscribe at any time. Hopefully, you’ll appreciate the benefits of being on my mailing list!)

As an added bonus for you, I’d like to share: 

Thrive Technical Tips for Connecting and Having More Impact on Zoom

1. Don’t forget to safelist/prioritise emails from me so I don’t land in your junk file.
2. Finally, let me know what you struggle with the most by hitting ‘reply’. You can also join my Facebook Group HERE and connect on LinkedIn HERE
3. You can book your Free Clarity Session HERE

Speak soon and best wishes for your success.

Korinne 

Last week we explored the link between mindset and communication and we touched on listening.

How are your listening skills?

 

Many of us do genuinely believe that we are good listeners and even that other people are listening to us.

But are they, really?

The truth is that many of us are good talkers! Can you relate to the suggestion that we often speak in an effort to show others that we have been listening?

So, if we are speaking, we cannot be listening. We may vaguely hear what the other person is saying but it is impossible for us listen while we are talking!

Sadly, our relationships suffer because we miss what the other person is really trying to tell us. And then we might say that there has been a misunderstanding!

And how does it feel for you when you are trying to say something and being constantly interrupted, talked over, having your sentences finished for you or even when the other changes the subject completely?

Listening is just a part of the whole world of communication too!

• How do we listen AND get our point across?
• How do we speak in such a way that people want to listen to us?
• How do we influence others without manipulating or cajoling them?

Communication is a HUGE topic isn’t it!

And on top of how we communicate face-to-face, the digital age we are living in is great and it also makes it even more complicated!

It is my mission to help people who want to have much better communication and impact in their lives.

As I shared last week; I thought I was a good communicator … until the penny finally dropped! By no means am I the finished article – we are all on our own unique journey aren’t we and continue to learn and grow, and that is what the “Thought for the Week” is all about.

There’s an excellent book that really helped me and has been one of my favourite reads for several years: “Time to Think: Listening to Ignite the Human Mind” by Nancy Kline

We need to remember that giving people space and listening to them is a GIFT!

Giving them time to think (without us jumping in to speak) is PURE GOLD!

We were given TWO EARS and ONE MOUTH so we can LISTEN twice as much as we speak!

If you are not feeling seen and heard,

you can download this FREE Blueprint right now!

I hope you have enjoyed this “Thought for the Week”!

And if you haven’t already, remember that I would love to help you to explore your aspirations and create a roadmap to success with you.

You can book your Free Clarity Session and there is absolutely no obligation and we can meet via Zoom or Skype.

Have a great weekend and very best wishes for your success!

Korinne

Korinne Le Page
Thrive Coaching & Training
www.Thrive-Coaching.biz
www.CommunicationCode.co.uk

FREE GIFT: Download this Blueprint: “5 Ways to Connect and Have Impact Right Now”

I thought I was a good communicator … until the penny finally dropped!

By no means am I the finished article – we are all on our own unique journey aren’t we and continue to learn and grow, and that is what the “Thought for the Week” is all about.

I discovered that my ability to communicate was helped or hindered by my mindset at that moment.

There was a time when I was over-sensitive about criticism. Then I learned to shift my mindset to appreciate when someone takes the time and trouble to offer any kind of feedback because most people don’t.

Whether it is accurate or not doesn’t actually matter. It’s a bit like the knitted sweater your granny made for you every Christmas! You still said thank you (well probably anyway!).

Is your mindset a Fixed mindset or a Growth mindset?

Fixed:

• you don’t like being challenged and tend to deny, blame, justify and defend when you are.
• you see feedback and criticism as a personal attack and either respond emotionally, or dismiss it outright.

Growth:

If you have a growth mindset …

• you embrace challenges
• you welcome feedback as a constructive opportunity to improve and learn, and get curious about understanding criticism.

So, if you want to improve your communication skills, one of the first things to work on is your mind.

With a fixed mindset, you might know the theory of effective communication, but you won’t be able to put it into practice.

With a growth mindset, you’ll be able to harness new skills to make immediate changes and improvements to your communication style.

How do you move from a fixed to growth mindset?

You make a conscious decision to do so and then reflect this in the choices you make.

It’s as simple and difficult as that!

Over the next week, simply notice – without any self-judgement- whether you are in a fixed or growth mindset in that moment and then make a conscious choice to switch.

Our perceptions can differ to others, often dramatically, and that does not have to mean that someone is wrong or right. So, notice what perceptions you have over then next week too and whether you are judging others unfairly.

The Mindset of a Great Communicator:

When we say “great communicator”, we are not talking about a great orator who can command a stage and captivate an audience.

What we mean is a leader who can connect with their team and create engagement with each person.

So often, when people think about what communication is, they think it’s about TALKING.

But, if you have seen the research done around how much impact our WORDS, TONE and BODY LANGUAGE actually have you will know that it is as follows: –

• Words 7%,
• Tone of Voice 38% and
• Body Language 55%!

So, you can see why we have to shift our mindset if we want to be great communicators!

Over the next week, also notice what messages others are giving (again, without judgment) with the above and also notice how much impact your words, tone and body language are having or not having.

Next, we have to LISTEN!

Listening is not just hearing – it is actually putting our own thoughts, advice and all that to one side so we can actually LISTEN to someone!

• How can we listen if our mind is full with our own thoughts?
• Whose agenda are we on then?

There’s an excellent book written by Nancy Kline called; Time to Think

Giving people space and listening to them is a GIFT!

Giving them time to think (without us jumping in to speak) is GOLD!

Ask them OPEN QUESTIONS to help them think things through.

It is so much more empowering if we find our own answers than if someone tells us what THEY think we should do!

How often do you give advice without actually being asked for it?

Give people a chance to think for themselves and only after you have done that, ASK THEM if you could make a suggestion.

I hope you have enjoyed this “Thought for the Week”!

And if you haven’t already, remember that I would love to help you to explore your aspirations and create a roadmap to success with you.

You can book your Free Clarity Session and there is absolutely no obligation and we can meet via Zoom or Skype.

Have a great weekend and very best wishes for your success!

Korinne

FREE GIFT: Download my “5 Ways to be Seen ad Heard Starting Now”

• Many of us want success
• We want to be successful in life
• We want to be successful in love
• Or we just simply want to feel successful

And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, as striving for success can give us the ‘get up and go’, the motivation to keep going and better ourselves.

However, the downside can be that we lose sight of what we have achieved and, as we get drawn into everyday life, we sometimes forget about the components that bring us success.

So, ask yourself these three questions …

1.What does Success mean to you?

• What does success actually look like to you?
• What are you really aiming for?
• How will you know when you have it?
• What would you do once you get there?

2.Look at how far you have come and how successful you already are?

• What might you have not been consciously aware of in terms of how far you have come?
• On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being high), where are you right now?

You will remember that in the A to Z of success, C is for Commitment and last week’s thought for the week was about Confidence.

There are other C’s though that are key to success for all business owners and leaders; Courage, Creativity, Curiosity and Compassion. So, the Six C’s are: –

1. Commitment
2. Confidence
3. Courage
4. Creativity
5. Curiosity
6. Compassion

Now, on a scale of 1 to 10 on each of the Six C’s where are you now and for each one, ask yourself: –

• What needs to happen for you to be at a 10 on that particular C?
• What will be different in your whole life when you are at a 10 with that?
• How will you know when you are there? 

I hope you have enjoyed this “Thought for the Week”!

And if you haven’t already, remember that I would love to help you to explore your aspirations and create a roadmap to success with you.

You can book your Free Clarity Session and there is absolutely no obligation and we can meet via Zoom or Skype.

Have a great weekend and very best wishes for your success!

Korinne

FREE GIFT: Female Business Owners: Download my “5 Ways to Connect and Have Impact Right Now”

Yes, while I have completed the A to Z of Successful Business Owners and Leaders, you can still refer back to all of these here in my blog.

Once we reach our Zenith, what is the Secret to Staying Positive and Boosting Confidence?

You have your life goal(s) – do you think about / look at this every day? I have a picture of my goal over my desk so I see it several times a day, even sub-consciously.

If you don’t have a goal, then decide where you want to go and look at it every day and the things in your life that don’t drive you towards those, simply have to go!

If this is about people in your life, I am coming to that.

How to Boost Confidence?

We get confidence by actually working on things that move the needle in our life.

And we gain confidence by actually doing it!

So, confidence isn’t like this magical thing – nobody is born with confidence – that is a myth.

I was quite a shy kid. Confidence is something I created. Later in life, I had a business coach and then everything changed for the better.

We either create confidence or we create insecurity and either way we get to build that.

So, here are a couple of tips to build confidence …

1.Eliminate

There are things in your life that take away your confidence – can you agree with that?

The magical answer? I know you already know this – don’t do those!

Do you have friends in your life who tell you that you are crazy for wanting certain things and you should just be happy with your life as it is?

After talking to them you either decide you’re going to go for it – or you go away and start doubting yourself?

You get a bit of news or an idea, this person tells you it’s crazy and then you get a little insecure about it? That’s it.

It’s cumulative and just enough for you to retract and ‘play small’ and that’s never going to work for you.

So, if there’s something that pulls your confidence down, even a little bit, don’t do it!

Say no. Choose to be around people who believe in you, not those who doubt you.

What about the people you love, want in your life or have to tolerate?

If people are negative, that’s just the way they are. You may be able to influence them in a positive way to a degree, but you aren’t going to cut them out of your life.

So, we have to find a way sometimes to put barriers up with the people we love and want in our life.

When they start questioning what you’re doing in your life, ask them a question about them.

Do you find that most of the time when people are negative about the future, they are positive about the past? “Back in the good old days …”

Ask them about something in the past, or something about them and then leave when you can.

So, eliminate the things that bring down your confidence, even a little bit.

2.Commit!

Take action – you raise your confidence just by doing things.

And that’s is being courageous and enables you to gain confidence

Choose to be around people who have the skills you aspire to and you will gain capabilities too.

• Commit to it
• Be courageous
• Take action

And confidence is the by-product of that and you will find that you can’t hold back your confidence! That’s just how confidence works – we create it.

So, eliminate the things in your personal life that take away, or dent your confidence and you will see your confidence increase.

Try it – you have everything to gain!

I hope you have enjoyed this “Thought for the Week”!

And if you haven’t already, remember that I would love to help you to explore your aspirations and create a roadmap to success with you.

You can book your Free Clarity Session and there is absolutely no obligation and we can meet via Zoom or Skype.

Have a great week and very best wishes for your success!

Korinne

So, we have reached the end of the A to Z of Successful Business Owners and Leaders! Congratulations! You have reached your zenith!

This final thought is all about “Z is for Zenith” and by now, you will have achieved your big goal and made it to the top! Your self-belief, commitment, determination, knowing your ‘why’, planning, support, and taking action have all contributed to your success.

It’s common at this point to ask, what now?

It’s true, reaching a milestone is not the end. There will be time to start the process all over again – dream new dreams, set new goals, take more action, get results, and repeat.

But, for now, it’s time to celebrate.

Take a breath.

Smell the roses.

Pop a cork.

Celebrate the victory and reflect on the effort it took to get there.

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” Zig Ziglar 

Everyone wants to experience success in life – personally, professionally, physically, financially, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually.

But what is it about success that we desire?

What’s the real payoff? Money? Recognition? Title? Status? Material rewards? The tangible payoffs certainly play a role in our gratification. But there is more to success than acquiring a trinket, status, or applause for our efforts.

Regardless of your definition of success, at the end of your efforts, you are changed. You have fresh new perspectives, new knowledge and new experiences.

You’ve acquired new skills, understanding and insight into yourself, others, and the world around you.

Success brings with it a sense of renewal and transformation.

You feel a sense of pride, fulfilment, invigoration, exhilaration, and passion.

Creating value where there was none is invigorating and leaves us with a feeling of contentment and peace.

No matter what dreams you have, what goals you set for yourself, the methods you choose to realise them or the tangible results that show up, the feelings that come from working towards and reaching our dreams are always worth pursuing.

When it comes to pursuing our passions and striving to realise our dreams, perhaps it’s best we leave the last word to someone who knows a thing or two about dreams:

“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.”  Walt Disney

I hope you have enjoyed this “Thought for the Week”!

And if you haven’t already, remember that I would love to help you to explore your aspirations and create a roadmap to success with you.

You can book your Free Clarity Session and there is absolutely no obligation and we can meet via Zoom or Skype.

Have a great week and very best wishes for your success!

Korinne

Find out more about “The A to Z’s of Success”

 

So, we are approaching the end of the A to Z of Successful Business Owners and Leaders and this week is all about “The Yin & Yang of Business”

The humble letter “Y” originated as the twentieth letter of the Greek alphabet, upsilon, which was adopted into the Latin alphabet around 2,000 years ago to represent the “y” sound.

To speakers of romance languages, like French and Spanish, this “y” sound was new. And as a Germanic language, English already had a “y” sound, and so “Y” quickly found a home for itself at the tail end of our alphabet, although it has never been commonly used.

When it comes to business success, an obvious “Y” word could of course be something like “Yield”!

However, I am going to talk about Yin and Yang in Business as it is more unusual for us to consider this.

If you are familiar with Yin and Yang, you will know that …

Yin represents the female energy force in all we do, and

Yang represents the male energy force.

You will have seen the Yin & Yang symbol representing the balance between the two that exists in our World.

We know that everything comes down to balance at the end of the day;

• balancing the books,
• balancing our energy reserves,
• work-life balance, etc.

So, let’s dive in and have a look at how this can help us to succeed in business …

Strategic Management:

YIN: Looks at your business from the Outside-In, and works towards satisfying the needs of all stakeholders. Practice customer-driven innovation.

Yin is more passive and accepting and about Outside-In Strategies:

Strategic analysis of the of the industries and markets in which your company operates to identify those markets in which your company’s capabilities can yield, leading to a Sustainable Competitive Advantage.

YANG: Looks at STANDING-OUT from the competition, gaining customers, creating, formulating and implementing ventures.

YANG is more active and aggressive and about Inside-Out Strategies: 

Strategic analysis of the characteristic of your company to identify your Distinctive Corporate Capabilities (capabilities that help your company STAND OUT from its competition and sell distinctive differences in the market in which it operates). 

Your distinctive capabilities – the characteristics of your company which cannot be replicated by competitors, or can only be replicated with great difficulty – are the basis of your Sustainable Competitive Advantage.

According to the resource-based view of the company, sustainable competitive advantage is achieved by continuously developing existing and creating new resources and capabilities in response to rapidly changing market conditions.

For example, distinctive capabilities may include things like …

Patents, exclusive licenses, strong brands that lead to effective leadership, team work / tacit knowledge.

Reproducible Capabilities are those that can be bought or created by your competitors and thus by themselves cannot be a source of competitive advantage. Many technical, financial and marketing capabilities are of this kind.

Your distinctive capabilities need to be supported by an appropriate set of complementary reproducible capabilities to enable your company to sell its distinctive capabilities in the market it operates.

Balanced Management:

Effective Leadership demands a delicate balance between …

• Sensitivity and authority.
• Loose and tight leadership style.
• Internal and external.
• Tradition and innovation to achieve sustainable growth and employee satisfaction.

Look at your business from outside-in as well as inside-out and ask these questions relentlessly: –

• What’s happening in the marketplace?
• How are the needs changing? What’s causing the changes?
• Where are the resulting opportunities?

Having answered the above questions, work backwards: –

• What needs do we satisfy now? What need could we satisfy now? In future?
• What’s the gap between them and what we do now, and how to bridge it?
• What advantages and capabilities do we need to strengthen or create? What old competencies should we deemphasize?

So, coming back to Yin and Yang …

YIN: Practice Customer-Driven Innovation

YANG: Create Curiosity and Surprise to exceed expectations. Manage change and innovation proactively.

I hope you have enjoyed this “Thought for the Week”!

And if you haven’t already, remember that I would love to help you to explore your aspirations and create a roadmap to success with you.

You can book your Free Clarity Session and there is absolutely no obligation and we can meet via Zoom or Skype.

Have a great week and very best wishes for your success!

Korinne

Find out more about “The A to Z’s of Success”

Thought for the Week – X is for X-Factor and Xciting!

So, we are approaching the end of the A to Z of Successful Business Owners and Leaders and this week is all about “X is for X-Factor and Xciting!”

So, how does “Xciting” come into it?

“Xciting” gives us the X-Factor we need to be inspired in all we do.

A few weeks back, we looked at “G is for Goals”.

You will have heard about “SMART” Goals …

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Timely

Well, have you heard about EXACT Goals? In coaching, I like to explore these as opposed to SMART Goals, and I will explain why.

When it comes to your aspirations, EXACT takes you a step further. EXACT stands for …

• Explicit (with one focus)
• Xciting
• Assessable
• Challenging
• Time-framed (ideally within 3 to 6 months)

You will notice that the following are the same as in SMART:

Explicit (Specific), Assessable (Measurable) and Time-framed.

So, what is in EXACT then that is not in SMART?

Explicit – here the goal is succinct, in a few words and has one focus, and …

Xciting – positively framed and inspiring to that person

Challenging – goals that stretch us and aim high.

I used to think that setting goals was important but uninspiring and now I know why – because when I was introduced to EXACT Goals, everything changed for the better.

And I cannot emphasise enough what a difference this makes – honestly.

And it is all about where our energy is!

Our energy is much higher when we are inspired – nothing will stop us moving forward and we become anchored to that goal and it is much more likely to happen.

And this is the X-Factor and Xciting!

And a goal doesn’t have to be put into words, it can be an image in our mind, a symbol of some kind, or even a feeling.

My goal is all about Freedom and I have an image in my mind of what that looks like. For me, freedom is about peace of mind and stems from a time in my life when I didn’t have that.

So, when I established my EXACT Goal, everything changed, my goal became all-important to me and it was completely life-changing.

So, if you gave a got a goal, I invite you to check it off against EXACT and see how excited you feel. If you don’t feel excited by it, then you are not there yet!

(You might also want to revisit “G is for Goals”).

I hope you have enjoyed this “Thought for the Week”!

And if you haven’t already, remember that I would love to help you to explore your own aspirations and create a roadmap to success with you.

You can book your Free Clarity Session and there is absolutely no obligation and we can meet via Zoom or Skype.

Have a great week!

Very best wishes for your success.

Korinne

Find out more about “The A to Z’s of Success”