10 Things To Do When You're Snowed In And Bored!!

1. Update your CV

When you have got some extra time on your hands, it is always a good time to update your CV and make it more current. You never know what it may lead to just now or in the future.

2. Read a Great Book

The famous Jim Rohn talks about increasing your value to the market place, one way to do this is to read a book that will help you learn more about a subject you are interested in or enhance your own personal development.

3. Set Yourself Some Goals

Don’t wait until 1 January 2011 to set yourself some life and career goals, while you have some time on your hands, do it just now. What do you want for yourself for the future, what have you always dreamed of doing or achieving? Write it down now.

4. Phone a Friend

Now is the time to take the perfect opportunity to phone a friend and have a good old natter. One of the best ways to spend your free time.

5. Write Your Christmas Cards

This a great time to get organised and write out all your Christmas cards. Then you can gladly tick this one off your ‘things to do’ list.

6. Watch an Old Movie

When it is cold and wintry outside there is nothing more enjoyable that sitting with a mug of hot chocolate watching an old classic black and white film. I would recommend the feel good film “It’s a Wonderful Life”.

7. Christmas Tree

Now is the time to put up your Christmas Tree, chill out and relax to some Christmas music to get you into the festive spirit.

8. Winter Clean

Use your time wisely to do all those odd jobs around the house that you’ve always been meaning to get to. De-clutter your cupboards and have a good winter clean around the house. Put the Christmas sparkle into your home sweet home.

9. Soak in a Bath

Now you have some extra time on your hands you can, light the candles, pour out a glass of some sparkly stuff and relax in a hot bath filled with your favourite soapy bubbles.

10. Write a Letter

Too often we use the convenience of email and social networks to communicate these days and often the good old snail mail is the most effective. Write a letter to a friend, they will be so amazed and delighted to receive it, you won’t regret the extra time that it took.

By Claire Murray

Powerful Co-active Coaching Questions

Assessment


• What do you make of it?

• What do you think is best?

• How do you feel about it?

Clarification

• What is the part that is not yet clear?

• How can you help me to understand more about it?

• What concerns you the most about it?

Elaboration

• What can you tell me about it?

• What other ideas/thoughts/feelings do you have about it?

• What else is happening?

Evaluation

• What is the opportunity here? What is the challenge?

• How does this fit with your plans?

• What is your assessment?

Example

• What is an example?

• How do you demonstrate this?

• What have you done in the past?

Exploration

• What do you want to explore further?

• What part of the situation have you not yet explored?

• What are your other options?

Learning

• What would you do differently in the future?

• What did you learn from this?

• What could you have done to have handled the situation better?

Inquiry

• What caused it?

• What led up to it?

• What have you tried so far?

Implementation

• What is the action plan?

• What will you have to do to get the job done?

• What will you do?

Integration

• What will you take away from this?

• How can you make sure you remember what you have learned?

• How would you pull all this together?

Outcomes

• What is your desired outcome?

• What do you want?

• How will you know you have achieved it?

Planning

• What do you plan to do about it?

• What kind of plan do you need to create?

• What could you do to improve the situation?

Substance

• What seems to be the main obstacle?

• What seems to be the trouble?

• What is stopping you from moving forward?


Extract from Co-active Coaching, 2nd Edition

TALKING Technique for Assertiveness

T A L K I N G

TALKING describes a 7 step process for handling problems in an assertive way. These are:

T – Tell the person what your issue/concern is, from your perception, and what impact it has e.g. on the performance of the individual, team, organisation. Where appropriate, relate to job expectations, duties and
responsibilities OR Policies, Systems and Procedures.

A – Ask the person what their perception of the situation is e.g. what do you think about that? Find out what is the root of the problem, (usually the poor attitude/behaviour is a symptom of the root problem).

L – Listen (actively) to what the person has to say, and reflect on where they are coming from, how they see the situation, what are the specific barriers?

K – Know exactly what the facts of the problem/issues are, from both points of view, before moving forward.

I – Identify the best way forward, exploring options and what positive impact this will have on the situation.

N – Note when you had the meeting, date, informal, formal, what was agreed.

G – Go forward with the best possible solution for the long-term solution and to build effective working relationships.

 
 
By Claire Murray

Purpose of Evaluating Performance

 Monitor progress

 Highlight areas for development

 Address issues/concerns

 Meeting role expectations

 Meeting expected standards

 Achieving goals

 Identify systems/processes for improvement

 Acknowledge good performance

 Sets and reviews targets


By Claire Murray

Purpose of Goal Setting

 To get desired results

 To hold yourself accountable

 Take action

 Monitor & evaluate progress

 Improve performance

 Set standards

 Aim to work towards

 Timescale to do it

 Goals should be SMART

Positives of Working Together

 Joint Problem Solving

 Positive Collaborations

 More and better ideas

 Work towards a common goal

 Builds good working relationships

 Strengthens the team

 Achieve more

 Improved productivity

 Improved efficiencies

Engaging Your Employees

 Listen effectively

 Ask open questions

 Encourage involvement & contribution

 Encourage joint problem solving

 Take their ideas on board

 Invest in their development

 Encourage good team work

 Give constructive feedback

 Encourage shared learning

 
 
By Claire Murray