coaching

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Fuel your creativity

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In my day to day, I face a variety of internal and customer-facing situations, both positive and negative, and being able to communicate effectively has served me well throughout it all. What I love about my job is that I get to bring talented people into an engaging environment where they can make a difference. I think that talented people working together for the greater good around the world will determine our future.

Remember just because you were born talented doesn’t mean you are the best, there will be someone working harder than you and that person will succeed. Contact me via e-mail to book a motivational coaching session.

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”
— Tim Notke

Change into something that elevates you

c/o Getty Images

Why can’t we be seen until we learn to see?
I think to see means that you have empathy, it means to realise that no one cares about you and your opinion, they care about themselves and their own opinion. If you can’t see them for who they are and for where their fears, desires, and dreams, they will ignore you because they only want to hang out with people who can see them. Being seen is an unlimited need that people you serve have and if you can see them and understand them, you can tell them a story that they want to hear and they are more likely to engage with you. Remember that you cannot be empathic to everyone, you cannot see and understand everyone, so pick who you are going to see and understand and do that.

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”
— Norman Vincent Peale

Productive meetings

One to one meeting’s are an excellent way to develop leadership and improve performance, but are these meetings productive? This is a good question as I have many years’ experiences from consulting and coaching organisations of every size, from start-ups to multi-nationals. I think one should focus on your attitude, efforts, and actions, and I do this by guiding you through a process which will improve communication between you and your team. I look at 3 phases:

1.     What’s the problem and what are the outcomes we can achieve by solving these problems? And this has got nothing to do with the product or service, it’s all about understanding what’s the most important thing for the client.

2.     How are we going to solve the problem and achieve the outcomes we want?

3.     Who are we going to do this with?

The power of goal setting

According to psychological research, written goals are much more powerful than unwritten ones. I think by writing down goals we start to anticipate how we will achieve those goals and start to build our way power as our brains just does not have enough working memory to do all that without committing the goals to paper.

There are three types of goals: process goals, performance goals and outcome goals. As a former athlete, I think process goals are the most valuable since practising reaching a process goal is demanding and if you fail, it will not be as public as failing to achieve an outcome goal.

“Plans are irrelevant; planning is everything. ”
— Winston Churchill

Solid foundations

Image c/o Liz Fosslien ©

I think that when you place a milestone in the path to action, it is more likely that people will complete that action. Truly skilled consultants and coaches start by asking themselves:

1) How can I shorten my clients’ path to their desired outcome?

2) How can I accelerate my clients’ speed to getting big results?

Contact me via e-mail for a discovery meeting.

A couple of key takeaways

As a coach, I can help your team to clarify these basic questions:

  • What do you see as your fundamental task and goals?

  • Who are your most important customers, users, and stakeholders?

  • What are their main needs?



 

And then I would continue on the development track with these questions:

  • In which areas do you see the need for you to develop your practice?

  • What areas of competence do you want to develop in yourself?

  • What types of tasks do you have the courage to embark on in the long term?

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Pause and reflect

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According to the Oxford English dictionary, “…a pause is a short period when you stop doing something before continuing, and when you reflect on something, you think deeply about it.” In these strange, uncertain and frightening times, how is it that some people ‘keep calm and carry on’, while others panic?

  • Get active and do some form of regular physical activity, even if it’s just walking 10 minutes a day.

  • Keep learning as your mind need to keep active too, so give it a regular workout.

  • Random acts of kindness are contagious, please spread the word.

  • We are hardwired to want social connections as they are essential to good mental wellbeing.

  • Take time to notice things, whether it’s your neighbour’s new hairstyle or reflecting on your experiences.

  • Caring for others, it’s essential to do what’s right for the global community.

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Discover the person you were born to be

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Stress is the body’s response when it senses danger. We all experience stress and need it to function, but when stress interferes with our lives, it becomes a problem. Too much stress, for too long, can make us ill. If unaddressed, stress can cause mental health issues like depression or anxiety and harm our physical health. Listen to your being, it’s continuously giving you hints. It is a still, small voice and it does not shout at you, that is true. If you are a little silent you will start feeling your way. ‘

“Never try to be another, and you will become mature. Maturity is accepting the re-sponsibility of being oneself, whatsoever the cost. Risking all to be oneself, that’s what maturity is all about.”
— Osho

I offer a customised process for implementing, executing, and measuring your results, once you have identified, defined, and described the results you want. I’ll give you the tools and inspire you to tap into your personal drive, identifying and leveraging natural talents, and applying them toward accomplishing your goals. Contact me via e-mail when you are ready to discover and create your ideal future. 

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A process to understand

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I recently discovered a beautiful Hebrew word, “kavod”, and it means honour and respect. Honour and respect are very important in any society but even more so in Middle Eastern societies. The Middle East is a place where people swear “on the honour of their mother” without thinking too much. Perhaps we should ask ourselves, “Is it kavod?” before everything we say, think, or do. 

 

Most people don’t know the difference between coaching, mentoring, and training. Rather than having a one size fits all approach, I try to use self-discovery methods to enable the customer to see where they fit in. If you want your brand to stand out in these competitive, unstable times, you’ll want to shift from a product-based “what” brand to a mission-driven “why” business. Shifting your brand and business from “What” to “Why" will bring huge economic benefit and help you secure optimal customer preference and loyalty.

Never give up

Most salespersons are looking for the success strategy, but because of their psychology, for example, fears, worries, views about the economic situation, etc., are keeping them from maximising their capabilities. Usually when you think that you’re not good enough, in reality what’s holding you back is 80% psychology and 20% mechanics. Top salespersons think mostly about their goals and their priorities and how to achieve them. Top salespersons think about their actions and activities each day, they think about the number people they need to call, the number people they need to send proposals to each day, the number things they need to read and study, etc., etc. Always thinking about what they want!

When you think about what you want it makes you happy and positive, it makes you think that you are in control of your whole life. I think success comes from planning! If you truly want success, then do what top salespersons do – engage with an executive coach and develop a plan. Contact me via e-mail for 1-on-1 executive coaching.

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Wisdom on Wednesday

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Nowadays we have very few guidelines and an awful lot of options, and all these options are giving us quite a bit of uncertainty and self-doubt. We need leaders that can create big promises to customers, and help their organisations deliver on those promises. Leaders who master both strategy and execution start by building a bold but executable strategy. Next, they ensure that the company is investing behind the change. And last, they make sure the entire organisation is motivated to go the journey.

 

There are 4 parts of emotional intelligence (EQ):

1.         Self-awareness
2.         Self-management
3.         Empathising
4.         Social skills




Within each and every one of these domains are there specific learned and learnable abilities that will make sales executives outstanding performers. Within the self-management cluster there’s not only better managing of negative emotions, there’s also adaptability. Maintaining a positive outlook, no matter what happens in your life, keeping an eye on that long-term goal despite setbacks, obstacles, and distractions. Mindfulness doesn’t help you directly with any of these but if you want to look at all the EQ attributes and competencies then I’ll be willing to guide you through the process of additional learning. Contact me via e-mail for 1-on-1 executive coaching.

Pay attention

In this current climate, attention is not only a rare commodity and also a precious one. As humans we are getting better and better at staying focussed and keeping the attention on ourselves, as when I pay attention to you, I don’t have it anymore and in that moment is gone forever. We all have the capacity to improve our attention as it’s like building a muscle. The thing about awareness is that they are not making any more of it.  If you choose to focus your awareness and energy on things and people that bring you pleasure and satisfaction, you have a very good chance of being happy in a world full of unhappiness, uncertainty, and fear.

Have you ever noticed that when you need something, you start seeing this item anywhere you go? For example, a friend who asked you to buy yellow roses for an event and all of the sudden yellow roses are everywhere- in the supermarket, gardens, etc. It is the same thing with goals. Your attention is a limited thing, you only notice what you need. So, the trick is to position your goals in your head like it is something you truly need. We must apply this knowledge as it’s too important not to.

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We are very distracted

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We are living in environments with all kinds of competing information and we often work and live-in places that are also overloaded with information. The ability to selectively focus on certain things and ignore other things is part of our capacity as humans. There are distractions everywhere and this is the first time in human history where almost every on the planet has a mobile device. These devices have all kinds of attractions, amusements, and diversions, so we are constantly being pulled away from that one thing we need to do, and I think mindfulness can help.  

What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is where you use your strength of concentration to become a witness to your own thoughts and feelings. I think mindfulness is a mental work out, every time you bring your mind back into focus you are strengthening your concentration. Instead of being fused by our experience, we can step back and still participate in the experience fully and have more control over our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

 

Your ability as a salesperson to fix your attention on what matters and ignore distractions is a valid predictor of positive financial outcomes. Mindfulness is a method of training your attention in bringing it where you want and keeping where you want it to be. Contact me via e-mail for 1:1 coaching cognitive control sessions.

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Embark on your journey now

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As a salesperson you already know there is a vast difference between understanding something well enough to buy it as opposed to understanding it well enough to sell it. Zig Ziglar described selling as a transference of feeling and I tend to agree with him. I think effective sales procedures work everywhere and you do not need to be a “natural born” salesperson in order to be a good one. Selling is an exciting profession and in many ways a complex one. There are many specialists in the field and no one person has a monopoly on all the information.

The reaction to success is different for different people. A common problem people experience, following success, is to go into an emotional dive or feel depressed. There may be a bit of an anti-climax afterwards due to the loss of focus and routine. I have never seen a spreadsheet that tells you how you should treat people. How do you react when you experience a dive in emotions? Contact me via e-mail for tolerance, understanding as well as solid actions.

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Stop and smell the roses

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Happiness is an inside job, you really should not assign anyone else that much power over your life. Most people operate on autopilot, doing the same things today that didn’t work yesterday. They rarely stop to measure the impact of their actions on themselves and others, and how those actions affect their total well-being. As you stop to literally smell the roses, you start to realise other areas in your life where you could slow down a little to enjoy the beauty that surrounds you.


Many people wait for something to happen or someone to help them live their best lives. They expect others to make them happy and they think they have lost the ability to improve their lives. I think there are three components of happiness - something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to. Think about it, if we have useful work, sustaining relationships, and the promise of pleasure, it is hard to be unhappy. And I use the term “work” to encompass any activity, paid or unpaid, that gives us a feeling of personal significance. If your daily actions and choices are making you unhappy, contact me via e-mail and let's arrange a meeting.

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The nod of approval

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c/o Financial Times

c/o Financial Times

Life is short and you don’t have time to figure everything out by yourself. Now if you could just align your work with your why.

·      Have you taken full advantage of the opportunities offered to you?

·      Do you have habits that are destroying your health and well-being?

·      Are there things that you could do that would make things around you better?

·      Have you said what you need to say to your colleagues? 

Contact me via e-mail for mentoring or coaching sessions. Another voice, another opinion, this could be the catalyst for the change you have been seeking to make.

“Dependent people need others to get what they want. Independent people can get what they want through their own effort. Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success.”
— Stephen Covey in "The 7 Habits of Effective People"
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From talk to action

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Many people are lacking a connection to their purpose or creating fulfilment in their lives. I love telling stories and I’m passionate about the impact and the effects storytelling has on society. Getting clarity in my message so that I can share it with the right people in the right way, so it can help me grow my impact. I think the biggest communication problem is that we don't listen to understand, we listen to reply as you will never get what you love by attacking what you hate. 

As human beings we are moved by emotion, not by information and data. I help people build that emotional connection whether it's in a one to one conversation or if you have to give a presentation in front of many people. Being your true self and conveying the message in a way that is going to connect. Contact me via e-mail for training or workshops about: How to connect with people in ways that influences and moves them?

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You can figure it out by yourself

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I won the birthday lottery and have great parents who encouraged me to follow my dreams and do something of use. I think skills are far more important than talent, because we are all born with talent. Here are nine qualities I admire more than skills:

  1. Compassion

  2. Sympathy

  3. Empathy

  4. Kindness

  5. Gratitude

  6. Humility

  7. Patience

  8. Self awareness

  9. Sincerity

Contact me via e-mail as I will not tell you what to do, I will just guide and help you figure out how to best use the resources that are available.

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Things that rhyme show up

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It’s quite clear that the world needs more peace of mind and justice if we are to recover from the pandemic. I spent the weekend with some good friends in the Swedish countryside, this experience of fishing and hunting for mushrooms was amazing. We found both Karl Johan’s and chanterelles. We cooked them with garlic, onions, and cream, we ate them with French toast as a starter and they were delicious.

 

Millions of years ago on earth everyone was a hunter, nowadays, there are hunters and farmers. I think that being a hunter requires a different skillset than being a farmer. We have only had ca. 500 years’ experience of being farmers, and as a farmer you get really good at sitting still and focussing and making tiny incremental improvements. In a world that moves so fast with trends and habits, the old hunting skills of being able to notice just a little bit of movement in the bush are still valuable.

What do I do?
I help people to see where they are and what’s holding them back, and then I help them get to where they want to go. I try to educate, connect, and lead a small group of people who actually care. Contact me via e-mail to arrange a meeting.