Sam and Paul explore the process of outsourcing and compare it to the general delegation of a task; both can be quite a minefield if you aren’t careful!

So, just because you have given the work to someone else to complete, doesn’t mean you are off the hook or no longer responsible. You still need to work with them to ensure the results are what you expect!

Whether you delegate chores at home, tasks at work or larger outsourcing projects/roles, join us as we explore the dangers and challenges of delegating a task, along with some tips and strategies to ensure it goes according to plan (and doesn’t backfire on you)!

The High Street in Halifax at 7pm

This was the question posed to me recently on Twitter. You see, I’ve been spending a LOT of time in Halifax recently. It’s a relatively small town in West Yorkshire, in the north of England. It’s situated in a valley with three main roads in and out of the town. Most of the roads are one-way and traffic can be snarled up for quite some time during rush hour. There are a couple of very large companies based there which means a lot of people commute. This, in my humble opinion, is the root of the problem.

Most people can’t wait to get out, beat the traffic and get home in time for “tea”. This leaves Halifax like a ghost town in the evenings. Most places are closed either on a Monday or Tuesday, or even worse have shut down completely. Walking down the deserted high street in the evenings all I see are pound shops, charity shops, discount bakers, pawn brokers and banks.

So after several visits I must admit I was commenting on the sorry state of the town quite a bit on Twitter. So much so that someone, quite rightly, challenged me with a question that felt like a slap around the face with a cold wet kipper. (No, I have no idea where that analogy came from either).

“There must be something good about Halifax?!”

I very quickly realised that I had fallen into the trap of wallowing. I seemed to be getting some twisted satisfaction providing details of how depressing the town was and how I couldn’t wait to get home to London.

After a few moments, I began to realise that there was something I loved about the place. The people I’m working with are the cream of their area. They are hard working, yet fun and friendly. They take time to help you when you are in need. They are a really great bunch of people to be working with.

So from now on whenever I think about returning to Halifax, I think about my work colleagues, and realise that I’m actually looking forward to seeing them. Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad, but just don’t let the bad bits blur your vision.

So my challenge to you is simple. Think about your current situation and anything that you feel is negative, or that you have a very low opinion of, and ask yourself….

There must be something good about this?

Then let me know what it is!

We all have times when the going gets tough, it’s all a part of the ups an downs of life. If you feel you are going through, or are about to, a period in your life that could be a bit of a burden, then this podcast is for you. Packed full of tips, tricks and ideas you might like to try yourself.

• Learn how to reduce the burden of long distance and frequent traveling
• Develop how to take a break, even when work is demanding a lot of your time
• How to cope with over indulgence, either self imposed or as a result of a host’s hospitality
• Techniques on how to stick to what you know is good for you
• Dealing with repetitive tasks

Find out your own ways to relieve the pressure and then let us know what works for you!

(As mentioned in the podcast here is he photo of Chris at the Pyramids!)

When is the last time you reviewed your communication with your fellow workers?

More specifically do you take control and manage up the communication between you and your manager?

During this podcast Chris and Paul talk about how you can actively work smarter and not harder.

If you have downloaded the podcast from iTunes remember to post a review and visit our website at ActionPodcast.com to leave a comment or contact one of the presenters directly. Sign up to receive the podcast directly to your inbox, plus an additional weekly blog post! You’ll also be the first to receive a copy of our new e-Book.

As part of being a member of the BNI (Business Networking International) I’m entitled to some quite good training events. I’ve recently attended their new members training and during that session they also talked about how to prepare for your 60 seconds. The type of information you should be looking to cover and how to structure it best. So with my new found leaning from the course I went home and put together my 60 second speech.It really surprised me at how differently I had to write to make it work. Writing for an article to be read, is totally different to writing something that is going to be spoken out loud. I had to really simplify my language so that each word flowed into the next. Any time I practised the speech I would find a spot that I would have difficultly in saying, so I’d see if I would simplify it more. I tested the speech out on a couple of friends who helped me tweak it some more and timed me to make sure I was hitting as close as possible to the 60 seconds.

Last Friday I went to the BNI group again and used my 60 second speech. I was almost dead on the 60 seconds and had just a few seconds to ad lib at the end. I was delighted. It wasn’t the most exciting 60 seconds, but it was effective, it covered all the points and was fluid. So how does this relate to personal development you ask?

Well this type of action is a fantastic way of building your confidence in an area that you feel needs a bit of work. By giving it a format, a structure that covers everything it needs, you are giving yourself a basic template also known as a Boilerplate. The purpose of this isn’t to then use it permanently unchanged. The idea is that once you have the basic format in plate you DO change it.

Your boilerplate is your base line, your starting point, not your end point. From your boilerplate you know what must be in place, from there as you grow in confidence and your skills develop, you can adapt it. Either with some additional preparation or, if you feel daring enough, on the fly and ad lib some new bits into it each time you use your boilerplate. That way you have something to fall back on it things go a bit wry.

Have a think about some of the places you are already using a boilerplate. Maybe cooking your favourite meal, each time you make it, it’s somehow a little different. Going to the gym, you have a basic routine that you follow, but each time you go you do something else to liven it up. Even at work you may produce the same report on a regular basis but each time you do it, you find a new and more efficient way to do some part of it. By having that boilerplate, a base line to work from, you know what to do. After a while of using that base line your creative side starts to kick in.

Although having the boilerplate may initially seem a bit restrictive and even dull, it helps you put in place the foundation upon which you can build. By having the initial structure in place, your creative side is engaged, and before you know it, new ideas are flowing. You begin to tweak things here and there. If you can think about an area of your life or a task that you need to do and you are struggling with it, think about creating a boilerplate for it. Then watch it blossom into a creative and unique tool that you can flexibly use everyday.

Just for a giggle, I’ve recorded my speech onto YouTube. I still need to use it a few more times and be able to recall it without having to read my notes. The important thing is it’s a start and from there it can only get better.

ENJOY! And please do feel free to comment, I’d love to get some feed back on how to improve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYVBOYXFnng

If you have downloaded the podcast from iTunes remember to post a review and visit our website at ActionPodcast.com to leave a comment or contact one of the presenters directly. Sign up for our newsletter to receive the podcast directly to your inbox, plus an additional weekly blog post!

Our society seems to relentlessly push us to want more and need more. “Do more with less” is a common mantra in today’s businesses, cutbacks in staff means to continue on the path of ‘getting ahead’ you simply need to put your head down, nose to the grindstone and work harder. All in the name of more. However, there is another side.

If you surveyed a group of people, and asked them for one word that describes success, they will come up with terms such as (examples in brackets):

• Progress (taking steps towards, see/feel improvement)
• Achieve (promotion, salary rise, award)
• Gain (knowledge, skills, health)
• Grow (confidence, talents, relationships)
• Acquire (insights, partnerships, tools)

Any of those terms could apply to your health, finances, spirituality, business or career, and relationships. “If it’s not growing, it’s dying” as the saying goes.

All of those points are true, accurate, and an important part of any success equation. But there is an equally important, equally powerful yet commonly overlooked part of the success equation.

Often, on our road to our own success, we reach a point where not only do we need to continue to acquire, but we also need to let go.

The flip side of the terms listed above are all incredibly important for you to continue on your journey to fulfilment and satisfaction:

• Release
• Relinquish
• Let go
• Leave
• Die

You got to where you are by all your actions, attitudes, beliefs and values you’ve adopted over the years. However, to get to where you want to go and be in your life, sometimes (…more than you realise) you need to let some things die.

For example, beliefs that no longer serve you, habits that hold you back, relationships that prevent your progress.

By embracing the ‘letting go’ side of success and deciding what you no longer need to hold on to in order to achieve your ambitions and desires, you will be liberated.

Take the following 3-minute audit now and decide what you should let go of today, in order to truly fulfil your potential, achieve your goals, or simply make a bit more progress every day.

Think of one area of your life where you are striving for more success than you are currently experiencing. Here are seven questions to help you to take action now:

• What is holding you back from making more progress, quicker progress, easier progress?
• What are your beliefs about what it takes to make the progress you want?
• Are all those beliefs true? Are you sure?
• What are your daily habits that might feel good or helpful in some way but don’t fully allow you to make the progress you want?
• What is more important to you—making progress towards your goals, or staying where you are?
• What is more risky for your long term success and fulfilment—moving forward despite the fear or feelings of discomfort, or staying trapped in your comfort zone?
• What is one thing you no longer need to have (extra plate of food?), do (constantly multi-task?), or be (a worrier?) in order to achieve your outcome?

Answer those questions now and it will become clear what you need to leave behind in order to really achieve the level of success you desire…and the success you deserve.

Leave a comment below to let us know what you’d like to let go, or where you’d like some additional suggestions on how to make this part of the success equation work for you.

During a recent session it quickly became clear that I was on the verge of taking on too much. Over the last few months the power of being coached has resulted in some significant changes in my life and how I view situations. I’d been actively putting in a lot of work, spinning a lot of plates and generally been about as busy as I could physically be.

What surprised me was that I’ve now reached a point where pretty much everything is going to plan, on track and on schedule. I found myself looking for that extra thing that would put me back into the sensation of feeling, well rushed, busy and on the edge of coping.

I had become so used to “working my butt off” that now I had been able to schedule things better, automate them or even outsource them (my new favourite thing!) I was presented with a strange feeling of “what next?”!

Thankfully working with my coach I was able to see that, I was busy, very busy in fact. I was however, working smarter, better than before and I was now producing the results without having to work 16 hours a day. Ultimately I want to keep it this way, working at a pace that is healthy and even FUN!  As long as I’m still progressing, make moves in the direction that I want to go at a pace that works, then I’m doing the right thing.

I’d love to hear from others that have almost become so used to feeling rushed, that they often end up missing that feeling when everything is going to plan. What do you do to make sure you don’t overload yourself, just because you feel you should. How do you know when enough is enough?

I’ve had sinus troubles again recently. Not an unfamiliar story. Luckily, I managed to minimise the infection this time through some timely use of nasal spray, ibuprofen and a lot of rest over the weekend despite having a list of priority things a mile long to do (including studying for an exam on the Monday).  So I got through the exam, and was back at work feeling a wee bit sorry for myself, but confident that I wasn’t posing any risk to my colleagues. I might not have been the sharpest tack in the building, but I was functioning.

However, there were times in the past when I perhaps didn’t rest; when I kept pushing myself through the things that needed doing and consequently spent weeks recovering from the serious infection that set in. Worse still, I remember instances in my corporate past when I went to work ‘sick as a dog’ with something contagious because of some urgent task or backlog of work that needed attention. So what is the right decision when all’s ill? Here are some questions to consider before you start sharing your germs around:

• How urgent are the tasks? (Is there anything that I can delegate, delay or drop?)
• If tasks are truly urgent, can I work from home?
• How much of a risk am I to myself? (Am I likely to make myself worse by going in to work? What are the consequences if I do end up bedridden?)
• How much of a risk am I to my colleagues? (Am I contagious? What is the impact to the workload and the team if I share this illness with them all?)
• How effective will I actually be when I am feeling this unwell? (How well can I concentrate? How is the quality of my work being affected?)

It might be a tough pill to swallow, but the world doesn’t stop revolving if we have a few days off ill. Sure – there are likely to be consequences, but it is worth pausing to more accurately weigh up the costs of going in to work vs giving yourself a day (or a few) to rest and recover more quickly.

What will you do when you’re next under the weather?

(And if you do decide to venture in to work when next ill, ask yourself how you feel at the end of that day – and if the answer is “worse” then what might your body be trying to tell you? A new day, a new choice!)