by Ben Renshaw, Co-Director of Success Intelligence

A key principle of Success Intelligence coaching is, ‘Some people go through life, whilst others grow through life’. The choice is yours. However, in today’s climate of unpredictable change, the difference between success and failure can lie in how you prioritise your own personal development.

Every organisation I work with, such as BAA, the world’s leading airport company, or Premier Foods, the UK’s largest food provider, is investing more time, energy and resource into developing their greatest asset – their people. The cynicism that used to accompany leadership and management development programs is a thing of the past. In fact the tide has turned so much that development is now seen as a competitive advantage, including having a personal coach.

So how do you prioritise your personal development when you’ve got an overflowing inbox, a multitude of deadlines and challenging customers to serve? Well, here are 3 ideas to support your learning and development:

1. Vision for success. John is director of retail for a leading high street brand. I was invited to coach him in taking his next step. When I asked John how he had reached his current position, he responded by saying, ‘long hours’. However, he recognised that this was not sustainable going forward as he had a young family, and a recent 360 feedback exercise had pointed to the fact that people were looking to him for greater imagination and creativity, not more graft. We started our coaching program with the question, ‘What is success in your work, life and relationships?’ John was flawed. He realised that although he had worked hard to be successful, he hadn’t worked out what real success was for him. Before you get busy doing lots of stuff, stop and work out what success is for you. Ask yourself, ‘What is my definition of success?’ ‘What difference do I want to make in my work, life and relationships?’ What is most important to me?’ What do I really enjoy?’

2. Commit to your priorities. Once you have greater clarity about success you can then focus on what will help you to be truly successful. One of the biggest blocks I hear from my clients is that they are unable to prioritise what's most important due to a lack of time. We forget that we cannot manage time, we manage priorities. As we know there are only 24 hours in a day, therefore your time has to be influenced by what’s going to be most valuable. I remember a lawyer telling me that the most challenging time in his life was weaning himself off his long hours (when you’re billing in 6 minute units this is really tough). His fellow partners thought he’d lost the plot when he took 2 weeks to step back from his practice and re-evaluate how he was going to work going forward. When he did come back he discovered a renewed passion and vitality for his work, he deepened his relationships with clients and colleagues and most importantly, his family got to know him again. Ask yourself, ‘What are my key priorities to help me be successful?’

3. Ask for support. I have just returned to work following the birth of my third child. After completing my first meeting with my team members at Success Intelligence, I realised that I could feel the heat was on with the amount of work I had in the pipeline and the increased challenges at home. I couldn’t just keep doing what I had been doing prior to this change. So I asked the team for help. Specifically I requested that they give me feedback about how they see me respond to pressure and how I can be more effective. The response blew me away. The team spontaneously reached out to me and offered me great insight that will make a big difference to how I perform going forward. My friend, Robert Holden created a great motto for our sister project on happiness (www.behappy.net) ‘If you are alive you need help’. Don’t be too proud to reach out to your family, friends and colleagues and ask them to give you the support that will support your success.

by Ben Renshaw - Co Director of Success Intelligence 

The current economic crisis has turned up the heat on individuals, teams and organisations needing to find new ways of working smarter. Whether I’m running Senior Leadership Development Programs for IHG, the largest hospitality company in the world, coaching Executives at Sky, the number 1 provider of entertainment in the UK, or training Head Teachers in the Scottish Borders to become great coaches, I have found that the most effective way of helping people create new solutions is through the power of coaching.

I have identified 12 qualities for Coaching Success based on the 4 Intelligences that underpin the work of Success Intelligence – PQ (the energy of success); EQ (the heart of success); IQ (the psychology of success); and SQ (the spirit of success). The following are three of these qualities, which are particularly relevant in these unpredictable times:

1. Managing energy well for enjoying sustainable success. I’ve just returned from a very restful holiday in Thailand. It never ceases to amaze me how much rest I need to catch up with after the exertions of my regular workload and looking after my two young kids! When the pressure is on the ability to renew energy becomes even more important. It enables you to think clearly, be decisive, communicate well, and take smart moves. Coaching Action: What do you need to get re-energized? Commit to 3 actions that will improve your energy.
2. Engaging authentically through openness and honesty. Probably the biggest cause of wasted time and energy in organisations is due to the lack of openness and honesty in conversation. A client recently summoned the courage to tell his CEO that the organisation was not demonstrating enough hunger for creating sales and cited numerous examples of competitors who were taking the lead in new ways to attract custom. The CEO asked him why he hadn’t shared this opinion earlier. The client had to admit that the last time he gave direct feedback to colleagues the CEO had told him to stop putting down his peers and was therefore cautious about doing it again. By not speaking up we place a high risk of failing to address key issues. As Alan Weber, the editor of the Harvard Business Review said ‘Conversations are the new form of work’. Coaching Action: Who do I need to be more honest with? What do I need to say? When will I have this important conversation
3. Being vision led by having a clear definition of success. A key principle of Success Intelligence is, ‘Your definition of success influences every other significant decision in your life’. Now more than ever before we need to work out what real success means for us. Traditionally people have associated success with financial accomplishment and a position, e.g. being the biggest, largest, fastest etc. One of the opportunities emerging out of the global meltdown is to redefine success. I got a real surprise at the beginning of this year when I asked a client about his definition of success for 2009. Historically he had been very focused on hitting targets and beating the competition. He said that the current climate had forced him to think deeply about what really matters and he identified 3 key things as measures of success – people, development and philanthropy. Coaching Action: What is your definition of success? Schedule time to clarify success in your work, life and relationships.