Last week, I shared Wycliff’s inspirational story about how “lighting someone’s candle” in some way can make a huge difference to your community and our world. For him, it was simply the $1 he needed to be able to go to school.

Well, this week, I have been intentionally doing something to light someone’s candle in some way and I have done this through a couple of random acts of kindness, gifting some free coaching sessions, and giving time and attention to people I might not normally have done that for.

This is just a week and going forward, I could so easily forget to do it and life is so hectic.

And yet, in such a short time, this metaphor has become so symbolic that I can’t help wondering what in immense impact it would have if everyone in the World could do this.

So, the thought for this week is about how we form habits that become integral to our lives.

You may have heard about the 21/90 rule?  This is based on the philosophy that …

It takes 21 days to make a habit and 90 days to make it a permanent lifestyle change.

And building positive habits create a happier and long-lasting lifestyle for ourselves as well as for others.

Is there a new lifestyle change you would like to make?

If you commit to your goal for 21 consecutive days, it will become a habit.

Commit to your goal for 90 days and it will become a part of your lifestyle.

Are you ready to make some positive changes? Here are some tips to help you keep your momentum …

1. Keep it focused, you can’t do EVERYTHING. Focus on building one small habit at a time, the rest will follow.

2. Decide what you want to accomplish or change. This could be a personal or professional goal. Write it down in your planner or keep it on your laptop, making sure it is easily visible to you so you can remain focused on your goal. (Don’t be afraid of starting from the beginning, everyone must pass GO!)

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible”

– Tony Robbins –

3. What are the steps you need to take to achieve this new habit? For example; if your goal is to be more active, you might decide to try three new activities this week or plan on teaming up with a friend / colleague who often goes running. It really helps to have some accountability too doesn’t it! Whatever your goal, planning in times and dates are helpful ways to set yourself up for success and will help you to build habits and making plans with people who share your goal is a sure way to stay motivated.

4. You need to stay committed to your goal if you want to build a habit and eventually change your lifestyle. The 21/90 rule only works if you consistently stick to your plan, the days must be consecutive. If you think you’ll have trouble committing, set boundaries. For example, if you need to take a day off make sure you don’t miss two in a row.

5. Rinse and repeat! The 21/90 rule can be used again and again to achieve your goals, build habits and change your lifestyle. Start small but think big.

Start small but think big and start by lighting your own candle!

As always, I will leave you with that thought.

With best wishes for your success and speak again soon.

Korinne

www.CommunicationCode.co.uk

P.S. Book a FREE Clarity Call HERE

 

 

Last week, I left you with the thought …

While our wounds can cause us great suffering, they can also deepen our humanity.
It gives us the opportunity to be empathetic and compassionate to others in our lives because they too have been wounded.

Well, this week, I co-ran a series of virtual global conferences that are all about transforming peoples’ lives globally through conscious business / enterprise. I absolutely love these events because we all inspire and learn from each other and there’s nothing better than getting together with like-minded people.

If you were there with us, which some of you were, you will have experienced this first-hand!

And what’s most interesting is that everyone is transforming other peoples’ lives through their deepest wound.

One story from a Kenyan man called Wycliff, who was rejected as a child and lived on the streets from age 5 to age 12, touched everyone’s heart. All he needed was $1 Kenyan to be able to go to school and pass his exams. It took 7 whole years before someone came and gave him that $1.

He describes it as “It costs nothing just to light someone’s candle”

He was able to go to school! Later, another lady came along (who happens to be Nyasha my fellow co-founder of Social Enterprise Success Conferences), she gave him the $1 he needed to complete his secondary education.

Now he is the founder of Kosi Africa and has helped hundreds, if not thousands of children by making sure they all have that money to get an education and in turn transform other peoples’ lives. You can read more about his work if you would like to here: https://kosiafrica.org/about-us/

So, this thought for the week is all about …

• How can you light someone’s candle today? And …
• How can you light someone’s candle every day thereafter?

Imagine, if we are all just lighting one person’s candle every day, what a difference that will make to our community and our world!

As before, I will leave you with that thought.

With best wishes for your success and speak again soon.

Korinne  

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

Last week, I left you with the thought …

Since change is the only constant we can truly rely upon, learning to navigate and adapt to it is not just important to our survival, it’s essential for us to thrive in the bigger game of life.

And previously, when I wrote about “What is Digital”, I talked about how we have to “Unlearn and Relearn” to evolve.

Well, since I wrote about this, “change” summarises my life over the past few weeks!

When you look back at your life, I guess some of the biggest and most transformational moments have been born from some of your biggest challenges?

You have been following me for a while and will know that I previously had a successful gem stone business with my ex-husband. Our divorce was a long and drawn-out process and now it is all finally done – after 10 whole years!

Why did it take so long?

Because, apart from the fact that I found out he was a bigamist, we had a business together, properties in joint names and, yes it was messy!!

So, since the divorce was finalised, I have finally been able to cut loose, sell the house we lived in and the house where we had our business. And I had invested heavily in a large gemstone stock and had to sell the remaining assets of that business.

So, as if moving house is not challenging enough on its own, I had to go through all of the old accounts, paperwork, find a buyer for the remaining stock, work out the logistics of moving everything from East Sussex to Guernsey where I am originally from and look for a new place to buy!

I now finally feel released from the past and able to evolve and move on with my life! I have a wonderful new partner, I am passionate about the work I do and re-building my life.

I appreciate where I am now so much more because of all of the challenges I faced and overcame. And this change is so exciting!

While our wounds can cause us great suffering, they can also deepen our humanity. It gives us the opportunity to be empathetic and compassionate to others in our lives because they too have been wounded.

What is YOUR gift within YOUR deepest wound?

As before, I will leave you with that thought.

With best wishes for your success and speak again soon.

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

Last week, when I wrote about “What is Digital”, I talked about how we have to “Unlearn and Relearn” to evolve.

What are the opportunities you came up with to transform what you do and evolve?

Well, I have to admit that I remember the days when the the mobile phone didn’t exist! And sending a fax message was exciting!

Nothing to be ashamed of I guess because when each of you looks back on your life, you will have a similar realisation – how far we have come!

So, how much we will continue to transform and evolve!

Today, our children are playing games with their friends who could be anywhere around the globe. What they don’t realise is that by the time they become parents themselves, their children will think the technology that is used in the 2020’s is as antiquated as the telegrams and fax messages we relied on 20 years ago!

Adult education experts estimate that up to 40% of what tertiary students are learning will be obsolete a decade from now when they will be working in jobs that have yet to be created. Indeed, the top 10 most in-demand jobs today didn’t even exist 10 years ago. To say that we live in a changing world understates the speed of both the pace and the scope of ongoing change.

Of course. it’s not just technology that’s changing the world. Profound changes in demography and longevity have experts predicting that by 2020 there will be more people over 65 years old than under age 15 in the world’s developed countries. Add to this the social changes in family structure, the globalization of talent, and continued innovation in technology, and it’s hard to imagine just what the world and its increasingly mobile workforce will look like 20 years from now. Certainly nothing like it looked twenty years ago!

So, it’s not just about keeping up with the rate of change and the nature of the work we do, but how we do it and where. When anyone can work from anywhere, it changes the nature of work everywhere.
Traditional boundaries disappear and the global talent pool becomes more skilled and mobile, and your ability to adapt to change and proactively make changes in your life and your career is what will make a crucial difference to where you find yourself even just five years from now.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent.
It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
-Charles Darwin-

While we’re all born with an intense desire to learn, somewhere along the line many of us lose our passion for learning. Whatever the reasons, once the basics are covered, many people tend to stick with what they know and avoid situations or challenges where they may mess up or be forced to learn something new, thus creating a safe, secure and comfortable (and confining) world for themselves.

So, they do their best to mould the changes going on around them—in people, events and the general environment—to fit with their current ‘mental maps.’ They may say they’re open to change, but actually do their best to avoid it. For a while, that strategy can work fairly well. What it doesn’t do is prepare them to adapt to a future that may well require an entirely new set of maps.

As any ex-typewriter repair person might tell you, refusing to acknowledge that the world is changing will eventually land you in a tough spot, with few options and a lot of forced learning (for instance, how to live on minimum wage).

When you resist learning, unlearning and relearning, the options available to you can narrow greatly. 

When it comes to adapting to change, delay is increasingly expensive as you quickly lose your place in a world forever marching steadily forward.

Of course, it’s not about acquiring knowledge for knowledge’s sake. We can all acquire copious amounts of knowledge just by sitting on Wikipedia all day long.  Your mobile devices alone give you access to more information at your fingertips that you can process in your entire lifetime, much less actually use.

In 1992 the internet was only beginning to emerge, few people used email and students were still using encyclopaedias to research assignments (remember them?).

It was a world in which technology had yet to revolutionize business; a world where working remotely was still a rarity and many people stayed in jobs for life. So much has changed since then, including the rules for getting ahead and to succeed today we must be in a constant state of adaptation.

That is; continually unlearning old ‘rules’ and relearning new ones.

That requires continually questioning assumptions about how things work, challenging old paradigms, and ‘relearning’ what is now relevant in your job, your industry, your career and your life.

Learning agility is the name of the game. Where the rules are changing fast, your ability to be agile in letting go of old rules and learning new ones is increasingly important.

Learning agility is the key to unlocking your change proficiency and succeeding in an uncertain, unpredictable and constantly evolving environment, both personally and professionally. There are countless things you may have to unlearn in your job, business and career, even in the course of the next 12 months, such as …

• Unlearn the designs you use.
• Unlearn the methodology you use.
• Unlearn the technology you use.
• Unlearn the way you approach your brand.
• Unlearn the way you communicate your value.
• Unlearn the way you deliver your value.
• Unlearn the skills and knowledge needed to get to the next level.
• Unlearn who your target market is, what they want and why.
• Unlearn how to get the most from your employees if you have them.

Unlearning is about moving away from something – letting go, rather than acquiring. It’s like stripping old paint. It lays the foundation for the new layer of fresh learning to be acquired and to stick. But like the painter who needs to prepare a surface, stripping the paint is 70% of the work while repainting is only 30%.

‘Everyone has to bring something extra; being average is no longer enough. Everyone is looking for employees who can do critical thinking and problem solving … just to get an interview. What they are really looking for are people who can invent, re-invent and re-engineer their jobs while doing them.’
– The New York Times columnist Tom Friedman-

People who find opportunities in a changing environment are those who are actively looking for them. The choice is simple: act or be acted upon.

Since change is the only constant we can truly rely upon, learning to navigate and adapt to it is not just important to our survival, it’s essential for us to thrive in the bigger game of life.

I will leave you with that thought.

With best wishes for your success and speak again soon.

Korinne

www.CommunicationCode.co.uk

P.S. Book a FREE Clarity Call HERE

How would you actually define the word “Digital”?

Most of us may assume we know don’t we”! It’s only when we stop to think about it that we question what it actually means.

I thought I was making great progress scaling up my business until I realised that I have to keep going back to basics and redefining things.

The Government Digital Service defines it as …

“Applying the culture, practices, processes and technologies of the internet era to respond to people’s raised expectations” -@coopdigital

How much have your expectations changed over the past 2 years?

And of course, our customer expectations are changing all of the time, so how do we respond to their raised expectations?

The challenge for all organisations, whatever size we are, is;

“What does “Good” look like?”

Since the pandemic, the digital world is amplified through customer expectations and evolving technology. Because of this huge shift in consumer behaviour, much of this has become a permanent shift and customer journeys are changing.

And many companies are struggling to adapt to that shift.

The way to look at this as an organisation is through Opportunity and Challenge.

The biggest dilemma happens when we are just getting to grips with the latest technology when another wave of new technology comes along! This is now reality.

The only way forward is to unlearn and relearn.

To do this, we have to unpack our existing assumptions and repack these in a different way, creating space and capacity to do this and experimentation.

We have to innovate constantly now to keep moving with the next wave of digital innovation.

How?

Think how you can take the potential into how you think as an organisation and then really think about the possibilities and where you need to reinvent and redesign.

Think about nature … how a butterfly transforms itself.

What are the opportunities to transform what you do?

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

Also see: www.CommunicationCode.co.uk

 

 

 

 

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”