Coaching in Context

Coaching in Context

by Dave DeFilippo

Coaching has become more in vogue in recent years, and it can be a powerful element in a leadership development program as well as for targeted development with executives. According to a 2009 Harvard Business Review research report "The Realities of Executive Coaching," coaching can take on myriad forms and address numerous objectives, but it does work. Considering the wide range of potential coaching approaches, talent leaders can ensure that it works by defining this resource in the appropriate organizational and individual context for their organizations.

What Exactly Is Coaching?

The practice can include elements of mentoring, consulting, counseling and even simple advice. The 15-year old, 16,000-member International Coach Federation defines coaching as "partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential."

In the business context, this solution can be used to help practice new techniques for a board presentation, develop a strategic plan or lead a business transformation. In all these cases, the coaching subject benefits by having an external, objective voice facilitate self-discovery and recommend new practices, while at the same time taking responsibility for any actions needed to achieve results.

There is wide variation in the way organizations use coaches and in the suppliers who sell these services. Essentially, there are some really good coaches and some really bad ones out there, so talent managers need to discern between these extremes.

Whether the objective is to build leadership capability, facilitate succession planning or assist with executive transitions, coaching can be an effective part of the solution.

According to Harvard's "Realities of Executive Coaching" report, 94 percent of coaching engagements focus on executive transitions and high-potential development, so this investment is typically targeted at the most critical segments of the organization.

"Giving leaders the support of structured, individualized coaching is critical to build our business' future leadership bench strength," said Sarah Allen, head of human resources for BNY Mellon Asset Management.

While the economic crisis of the past 18 to 24 months has provided a temporary truce in the war for talent, with high unemployment and employees thankful to have jobs, the post- crisis realities of managing talent are already beginning to shift. As companies gradually return to profitability, top performers will have external mobility options to meet career goals.

Consider these predictions from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Over the next 10 years, the percentage of workers older than 55 will grow by more than 30 percent, while the percentage who are 30 years old will remain flat. The end result is a net deficit in the number of skilled workers available to take on roles of increased complexity. This presents a challenge for talent leaders working to ensure a talent pipeline in a more competitive marketplace.

Targeted coaching engagements can enhance organizational and individual capabilities. To put coaching into the most meaningful context, talent leaders should devise and implement guiding principles and engagement standards that meet their organizational capability requirements and the individual's development goals.

At BNY Mellon Asset Management, addressing these dual purposes is essential because of its operating model: 20 worldwide institutional investment firms, each with distinct investment styles, cultures and talent requirements. In this structure, coaching addresses the appropriate balance of organizational and individual capability-building needs by acknowledging the differences of the firms while simultaneously developing individuals in the broader organizational context.

The Coaching Process

There are five principles for talent leaders to consider when adding coaching to their talent development portfolio to help ensure context is set and revisited during the process.

1. Facilitate participant self-reflection with 360 assessment. Whether using an internally developed or externally supplied 360 assessment, this multi-rater evaluation process is an integral step to start the self-discovery process and to give structure to the coaching conversation.

2. Write a customized development proposal to address and build on strengths and opportunities identified by the 360 assessment.

3. Engage the coaching subject's direct manager in the development planning process to define actions and ensure involvement early in the process.

4. Start the work by incorporating new practices into the coaching subject's regular routines. Using new techniques when leading teams or with colleagues is an appropriate way to try out new skills, self-assess efficacy and ask for feedback.

5. Evaluate the coaching engagement at defined intervals to gauge progress and make adjustments. For example, in addition to the 360 assessment, would a personality assessment such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator add more depth? How are the subject's team and colleagues reacting to any associated behavior changes? Incorporating and adjusting these principles to fit the organizational context will produce the most impact from coaching engagements.

The Coaching Engagement

During the coaching engagement design, the coaching process is placed into context, which is critical to achieve the desired outcomes. The following questions should be addressed: What is the objective for this individual and for the organization? What does success look like? How will we evaluate progress?

When considering the employee, coach and organization, this investment of time and resources should not be taken lightly for practical and symbolic reasons. Coaching engagements should be designed as a series of purposeful conversations that lead to results. Consider these three elements to establish the most meaningful context.

1. Assessment

To ensure there is an appropriate fit between coach and coachee, facilitate introductions to several coaches so the subject can choose and establish rapport and purpose early. Once a coach is chosen, organize a formal contracting meeting to ensure there is agreement on engagement steps, elements and even the simple details such as scheduling and contact information.

Next, discuss the 360 results and any additional assessments to identify strengths and opportunities in order to begin the work at hand. Once these results have been digested and a development plan drafted, bring the participant's direct manager into a three-way discussion. This creates a strong link early in the engagement between coach, subject and manager so the development progress is sustainable and time bound. It is through these initial planning steps that the context for the coaching process is established in an overt and meaningful way so that successful outcomes will be achieved.

2. Application

With support from the coach to incorporate new practices on the job and by trying out new skills, behavior change is possible, confidence is built and transformation is ultimately sustainable. The most meaningful application is in business interactions and tasks where behaviors have been hard-wired over time. For example, for the executive who dominates her team meetings, what impact could waiting to be the last person to comment on a topic have? Instead of leading with suggestions, what if she asked questions to stimulate team discussion?

The conundrum of this stage is that the context has changed for the coachee and her colleagues. It can feel as if she is taking three steps forward only to take two steps backward when implementing new skills the first few times. Further, she may find a particular practice or approach is not suited to her personality. The beauty of this stage is the learning process: What works and what doesn't are both appropriate outcomes in that, for these behavior changes to be authentic, the subject has to find the fit and rhythm that will make these changes sustainable long term.

"Trying new approaches started with setting the stage for change with my team, as everyone knew that I was engaged in a 360 and coaching process," said Sue Ann Cormack, executive vice president for BNY Mellon Asset Management's Cash Investment Strategies. "I asked them to let me try new things, such as asking questions differently and listening more attentively, which has led to more productive and diverse dialogue. The key was to commit to these actions even though it was initially out of my comfort zone. Through practice it has now become second nature."

3. Evaluation

At a defined point in the coaching engagement, it is important to evaluate progress and determine next steps. Conducting a three-way update meeting with the coachee's direct manager to discuss progress is an effective way to reinforce the desire for continued support and feedback and to assess business impact. Ask some of the following questions: In which areas does the coachee self-assess progress? In which area does the manager observe progress? What additional areas are opportunities to focus? This evaluation step serves to reinforce progress made and point to additional areas of focus that connect the individual back to the organizational context. During this stage, ask direct reports and co-workers for feedback; this is an additional way to refine development goals and build confidence. Co-workers may not believe that changes are real, so discussing and acknowledging them can reinforce sustainable progress.

In the post-economic crisis world of shifting demographics - with a more cautious use of resources and increased complexity - now more than ever talent leaders need to address the context in which solutions such as coaching are designed and implemented to effectively achieve business and individual outcomes.

[About the Author: Dave DeFilippo is chief learning officer for BNY Mellon Asset Management, a former teacher and coach, and a graduate of Georgetown University's leadership coaching program.]

Accumulation Vs Passing-it-on.

Accumulation Vs Passing-it-on by Pradeep Kr Maheshwari

 

 

-        In the pursuit of learning, everyday something is acquired. In the pursuit of Tao, everyday something is given away. – Lao Tzu

-        Do not struggle. Go with the flow of things and you will be yourself at one with the mysterious unity of the universe. – Chuang Tzu

 

 

Everyone is talking of Happiness. Let me talk about unhappiness. Why are we unhappy? In other terms this question reflects our inner being’s query of:  Which way to happiness. If we can find a way to cut out unhappiness, then surely happiness would result? We need to delve a little deeper.

 

Do you ever feel the Universe? Are aware of its flow? Have you ever been lonely and in that state of self-pity which is also a state of questioning, wondered where all of this was moving to? Life comes and goes. The rivers flow on and on. The plants grow and grow.

Something is moving towards something; in spite of our inability to see the bigger picture.

 

In contrast see how we pattern our lives. The very first mistake is that we do everything in our power to stop the flow. First we cut ourselves from the “everflowing” that is happening all around us. Then we purposefully train ourselves to acquire and accumulate. This becomes our wealth. Then we put all our energies in saving it from grabbers and are mostly worried sick. Then when all this activity has provided us with all our wealth, it is often time to move on which we fight against tooth and nail. Is this the way to happiness?

 

The saying “Live happily ever after” is a joke played by humanity on itself. First there is no ever after. It is all in the now. The present now creates the future now; and our miserable existence rebirths itself everyday. So perhaps it is time to sit by the river and growing trees and re-ponder over the question and rework our priorities.

 

Let’s ask ourselves the ultimate question “Quo Vadis?” – wither goest thou? Life is not there to accumulate things; that is conclusively clear. Then what is it? But then who am I to be professing so much?

 

Let me speak from the greater personalities who have seen the error of our ways and have shown the way to be followed. I have learnt that having too much is in-prisoning and we must learn to live with less and let the rest move on. And the knowledge acquired has to be put into practice or it stales, locked up in the head.

 

-        Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. - Goethe

-        Remember people or for that matter the universe, remember you for your actions; not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold but then so does a hard-boiled egg. - unkown

-        Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in. - Napoleon Bonaparte

-        Never mistake motion for action. - E Hemingway

 

From the above it is clear. That everything comes to us and that the universe is taking care of things if we shall let it; if only we can grow out of our narrow-minded agendas but everything also needs to be later passed on. Or will get passed on willy-nilly.

 

So perhaps to not be unhappy we just need to learn to flow rather than grow too many rigid roots and not stick on to what we really do not need?

 

The blind boy and beautiful flower

Author: Unknown

The park bench was deserted as I sat down to read beneath the long, straggly branches of an old tree. Disillusioned by life with good reason to frown, for the world was intent on dragging me down. If that weren't enough to ruin my day, a young boy out of breath approached me, all tired from play.

He stood right before me with his head tilted down and said with great excitement, "Look what I found!" In his hand was a flower, and what a pitiful sight, with its petals all worn - not enough rain, or too little light. Wanting him to take his dead flower and go off to play, I faked a small smile and then shifted away. But instead of retreating he sat next to my side and placed the flower to his nose and declared with overacted surprise, "It sure smells pretty and it's beautiful, too. That's why I picked it; here, it's for you." The weed before me was dying or dead. Not vibrant of colors: orange, yellow or red. But I knew I must take it, or he might never leave.

So I reached for the flower, and replied, "Just what I need." But instead of him placing the flower in my hand, he held it mid-air without reason. It was then that I noticed for the very first time that weed-toting boy could not see: he was blind.

I heard my voice quiver; tears shone in the sun as I thanked him for picking the very best one. "You're welcome," he smiled, and then ran off to play; unaware of the impact he'd had on my day. I sat there and wondered how did he know of my self-indulged plight? Perhaps from his heart, he'd been blessed with true sight. Through the eyes of a blind child, at last I could see the problem was not with the world; the problem was me. And for all of those times I myself had been blind, I vowed to see the beauty in life, and appreciate every second that's mine. And then I held that wilted flower up to my nose and breathed in the fragrance of a beautiful rose and smiled as I watched that young boy, another weed in his hand, about to change the life of an unsuspecting old man.

What is LUCK? - Interesting

Morning Motivation

Morning Motivation
Source: Unknown

When I woke up this morning lying in bed,
I was asking myself;
What are some of the secrets of success in life?
I found the answer right there,
in my very room.
AND NOT TO FORGET,
THE CARPET  SAID...
KNEEL DOWN AND PRAY.

Carry a Heart that Never Hates.

Carry a Smile that Never Fades.

Carry a Touch that Never Hurts..

The Rain

The Rain
Source: Unknown

It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80's arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.  I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would be able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.

While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry.

The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I inquired as to her
health.  
 
He told me thatshe had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease.

As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late.

He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.

I was surprised, and asked him, 'And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?'

He smiled as he patted my hand and said,

'She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is.'

I had to hold back
tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arm, and thought,

'That is the kind of love I want in my life.'

True love is neither physical, nor romantic.

True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be.

With all the jokes and fun that are in e-mails, sometimes there is one that comes along that has an
important message.. This one I thought I could share with you.

The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.

I hope you share this with someone you care about. I just did.

'Life isn't about how to survive the storm, 
 
But how to dance in the rain.' 
 
We are all getting Older 
 
Tomorrow may be our turn.
Enjoy life now-it has an expiry date!

Do You Know Your Company's Personality?

Do You Know Your Company's Personality?
by Adam Nelson

CLOs can become integral to their organizations' decision-making strategies by fully understanding their companies as personalities.

Strategies are constantly changing. Today we do one thing. Tomorrow we do another. In fact, the only successful strategy is adaptability - to markets, financial conditions and regulations.

So, obviously, learning and development must follow suit. Developing learning environments that support and accelerate an agile business strategy presents a complex journey, but it is crucial. Without flexibility, direction and speed in L&D, organizations will trend toward shifting the burden to outside expertise, further distancing the company's opportunity for competitive adaptability. Learning organizations must continue to innovate to create a dynamic learning system - but to do so will require heightened awareness, better alignment, sophisticated analytics and the utilization of proven methodologies from other disciplines.

Knowledge to Self

The first thing to consider is the "eyes" of the organization - how it sees itself as a group of individuals working toward a common purpose. Conjoining learning practices to business strategy is impossible without a reflexive awareness of the company. Organizations do what they do as systems of people with strengths, weaknesses and quirks that develop into a personality.

But an organization' s personality is not its culture. Culture is a set of behaviors that represent the communicative aspects of a company. A personality, on the other hand, is how an organization does what it does, from insight and ethics to action. It speaks to how groups communicate, but also to how the organization moves, thinks and measures success. It largely defines how the collective sum will react to a business challenge. In the endless debate of nature versus nurture, it's the ever-elusive and unchangeable nature. Knowing this nature intimately is the wonderful craft of a CLO - it defines how and when to intervene; what risks to take to let the organization learn on its own; where to spend; and when to accelerate.

Organizations are not machines that can be taken apart and fixed, but rather are social systems. And social systems are only useful within a context. What does an organization do when faced with domestic competition versus foreign regulation? In which context will the nature of of the organization thrive? It's not a matter of taking competency inventories against a necessary set. This is a reactive and generative capacity in the true light of native capability. Add or develop talent as one will, but without an appreciation of the spectrum of adaptability, success will be short-lived. High-leverage opportunities to build strength will go unutilized, while reactive, can't-win situations will be over-resourced in an attempt to swim upstream.

Awareness happens at many levels - building connection and extensive dialogue with internal business clients, developing frameworks within L&D for how to understand the organization, and working with external customers and partners to develop external perspective on how the company presents itself. Regional perspective is also critical to investigate, as the strengths of the company will likely be perceived with different lenses in different cultures, all of which will bring awareness of the true adaptability against certain challenges.

Decision making is of unique consequence while building awareness of social systems. Heavy lifting happens in the white space of ideas and action as they hop through the neurons of a company's brain. Undoubtedly, when employees move from one company to another, they stay the same as people, but so does the company. When a learning organization stops focusing on people and starts getting to know its company's consciousness, it will know how and when to move the company's feet.

A Seat at the Table

The next step is to apply knowledge of a company's overall being to strategic decisions. Strategies are set based on market context relative to goals and risk. With a thoughtful awareness of the company's true capabilities, both in part and sum, risk can be greatly reduced at both the strategic and tactical level.

Learning professionals are often advised to and strive to get "a seat at the table" in their organizations. Such "seats" come from possessing a certain level of business acumen. Learning is fundamentally a business function, not an academic or a humanitarian one, and extensive analytics, financial muscle, valuable market context and visionary insight are the cornerstones of the discipline. The immediate goal should therefore be to invest training resources in business acumen skills for L&D staff.

Absent a role in the decision-making process, the potential risks and opportunity inherent in the learning function will go underrepresented to the company's detriment. So much of strategy is about how the organization' s strengths can be exercised toward a changing market or internal consideration. It's not a binary question - it's the push and pull of what is and what can be done. Knowing the native capabilities of the entire organization or the supported units is fundamental to any contribution at the decision-making table.

L&D professionals should develop business-oriented analytics, consider the history of their organization and build learning into that narrative. They should ask themselves how their department will be affected in the event of a crisis, economic or otherwise. On a constantly shifting strategic cycle, there's little time to react and retool. In aggressive cycles, the company can only do what it does and know and communicate what it can do in terms of business outcomes and a measurable upside.

Alignment isn't always built at the executive table, either. Through awareness of internal clients' challenges, strengths and goals, tactics can be impacted on a broad or specialized level to cause the group or company to move better, faster and move efficiently. Proactively building relationships within the organization and developing political capital and trust frequently distinguish success from failure. Relationships within the company can prove more effective than senior executive support.

L&D pros should ask themselves how prepared their team is to build alignment across the entire company; what's required to get there; how insulated the L&D group is; and how "just in case" relationships can be fostered and tested.

L&D's contributions to business outcomes are often unclear. Learning and development is inherently a supportive function, and measurement therefore tends to focus on secondary or tertiary outcomes from specific initiatives. Why invest in L&D? Often the answer to this question is speculative. In turn, this lack of assurance contributes to the cycle of under-consultation and lack of involvement in the decision-making process. The trappings of an L&D organization can be measured in the distance from the performance indicators of the rest of the business.

A pragmatic set of measures lends credibility and caution to the contribution learning plays. And this is not about learner satisfaction or scores. Through partnership with the rest of the organization, true ownership must be established toward the same goals the rest of the organization is measuring itself against. If metrics don't exist, demand them. In today's environment, learning professionals must have the same level of analytical capability as their business counterparts. The change begins with a question, and the question should always be: What impact will we have on the business, and how will we demonstrate it?

Get Agile

Learning groups are way too slow. Tools that encourage the distributed development of learning programs are changing the pace, but much more is required. Progressive software development groups use a set of concepts collectively referred to as "agile," and more and more companies are also using the principles to manage their businesses and reduce market lag and therefore cost and risk. Agile development uses life cycles as short as one to four weeks; self-organizing, highly autonomous teams; and rapid feedback to produce outputs that adapt closely with business strategy. It embraces a philosophy of analytics and eschews any long-term planning.

In an agile process, whether used for software or managing a business, any concept of "perfect" is considered to be 90 percent fictional in even the best light. Partial releases of design are taken to customers at least monthly and tested extensively against a core set of outcomes with different approaches to the problem. The projects are managed by independent teams with a core set of roles that is overlaid upon standard development. L&D organizations can learn from this approach. Even with the concept of L&D as a service organization now in widespread use, metrics in L&D can be fuzzy, outcomes can be unclear and very little market -i.e., organization - analysis and segmentation occurs ahead of development.

L&D professionals should ask themselves: What does your market need, and how quickly will you know if you've seen a result? How positioned are you to adapt to a less-than-desirable outcome? Do you build programs, pilot and then release them, or are you developing a program in two- to-four-week sprints and constantly iterating market feedback into the program? Learning groups must begin to act like entrepreneurial upstarts and spend every dime on reducing delusion and achieving business results just as measurable as revenue using agile practices.

Hand on the Throttle

A special advantage of being agile in a midsized or large organization is the amount of talent available on which to build a rapid development capability. Sun's notable use of technology to source knowledge bites within the organization, especially toward ends that are inherently short-lived - e.g., product knowledge or customer information - is a great example. Effective for temporal insights, it also sets the stage for how to source development of longer-life development or to power more strategic road maps.

Learning leaders are product owners who own metrics that align with their business partners. They take accountability not for releases, but for impact on an ongoing basis. This is not only measurement in the sense of a single program's goals, but also ownership of the speed with which critical results are delivered across varied initiatives and attempts. It's do-or-die time for learners and the teams who serve them. This is running the business of learning as a business - sourcing development, delivery and modality based on extensive testing to create a desired result. Many organizations are using broader sourcing within the company to achieve velocity, but few are fully embracing a business mandate for speed and innovation as authentic entrepreneurs.

Ultimately, adaptability is about knowing oneself - boundaries, capabilities and pitfalls. Self-awareness allows one to find success in the world through more effective trial and error. Individuals do it quickly and constantly as they continue to discover themselves and others. Organizations aren't that different, except they frequently make gross miscalculations on the flexibility and rarely assume the same level of personal accountability.

Business strategies change. The best ones rapidly iterate within a larger vision of the future and dance with the company in lockstep. L&D can and must coordinate with those strategies by developing a market-oriented business of learning that aligns with those priorities just as any other function does. Doing so effectively will require a mind shift established on awareness, analytics and velocity - a sustainable and rapidly evolving approach to a known opportunity. Know, leverage what's know, and become learning entrepreneurs.


[About the Author: Adam Nelson works with organizations to reinvent their learning, talent, and change strategies.]

6 Ways Goals Help You Get Things Done

6 Ways Goals Help You Get Things Done

Source:Goals to Action

Virtually all time management experts agree that goals are a very important component of effective time management. So here are the top 6 ways goals help you be more productive and get things done.


1) Goals help you establish priorities & decide what's truly important


As I've mentioned before, to manage your time effectively you need to realize that you can't do EVERYTHING. So you have to choose what you are going to spend your valuable time on and what you are NOT going to do at all. And that means prioritizing.

The process of identifying and writing down your top goals helps you figure out what's most important and valuable to you. And the clarity that comes from this process is invaluable for setting priorities and truly focusing on what matters most.


2) Achieving worthwhile goals is a GREAT way to spend your time


Henry David Thoreau said, "It's not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?"

In The Effective Executive, management guru Peter Drucker says that effectiveness is the critical quality that distinguishes great achievers from everyone else.

That's because true productivity and achievement are not just about getting things done. Much more important than how much "stuff" you get done is whether your actions are helping you create the results you truly want in your business and your life; in other words, true productivity and achievement need effectiveness; they're about getting the right things done.

That's why achieving worthwhile goals is a great way to spend your time. In fact, one of the questions you can ask yourself regularly to decide if you are being productive or not is this,
"Are my actions moving me closer to one or more of my important goals?"

But to ask and answer this question, you need to know what your goals are.


3) Goals help you achieve better work/life balance


A couple of months ago I described a simple but very effective practice you can use to help you gain better work/life balance. I've personally used this method for over a year with very good results.

The main idea is to identify the key areas of your life (the ones you think are most important) and to focus on one key area each month. So one month you can focus on health, another one on
finances, another one on your key relationships and so on.

The question is: have you actually done anything to improve or balance these key areas of your life in the past couple of months?

Or are you pretty much in the same boat you were in back then?

These key areas of your life are NOT going to improve by accident... and if you neglect them for too long, things might actually get worse.

This is the first day of June and the 28 Day Goal Challenge is a *perfect* way to put this practice into motion and gradually get your life back in balance.

The truth is that there will never be a "perfect" or right time start the process and get back into balance, the only time is now and just 11 minutes per day is all it takes...


4) Goals give you a target to aim for


Dr. Maxwell Maltz, author of the classic Psycho-Cybernetics, said that human beings have a built-in goal seeking "success mechanism" that is part of the subconscious mind. This success
mechanism is constantly searching for ways to help us reach our targets and find answers to our problems. According to Maltz, we work and feel better when our success mechanism is fully engaged going after clear targets.

All we have to do to use this mechanism is to give it a target.

Without one, our success mechanism lies dormant, or worse, pursues targets we didn't consciously choose, both of which interfere with our productivity.

Goals provide your success mechanism with clear targets of your own choosing based on what is most important to you.


5) Goals help you concentrate your time and effort


One important reason goals help you get things done is that they encourage you to focus and concentrate your time, energy, and resources on a single objective; even if it is just for a few hours at a time.

This type of concentrated power can produce results that are much greater than those achievable through the diffused and unfocused energy many people use to get through their days.

A clear example of the power of the concentration and focusing of energy can be seen in a simple magnifying glass. The light from the sun arrives at the Earth as diffused energy.

We know the energy is there because we can feel the heat from sunlight on our skin. When this diffused energy is concentrated through a magnifying glass, and then focused on a specific point,
it can easily burn a piece of paper or wood. The same amount of energy that in one instance could only produce a very slight increase in temperature, when focused can start a fire.

One major time management challenge we are facing today is that there are more things available for us to do than anyone could possibly attempt, let alone accomplish, in an entire lifetime. If we are not careful, it is very easy to diffuse our time and energy with many different trivial pursuits, aimless distractions, and general busyness.

Goals provide a way to focus and concentrate your time and energy into carefully chosen targets that are designed to make significant positive impacts in your life.


6) Goals give you a roadmap and action plan


One of the best ways to deal with large or overwhelming projects is to break them up into a series of intermediate achievable steps and get to work on each piece one by one. As Brian Tracy likes to say, "By the yard it's hard, but inch by inch it's a cinch!"

That's why the Action Planning aspect of goals can help you escape from overwhelm and actually get started on your most important projects and goals.

Nothing to Fear

Nothing to Fear

By Author Unknown

There's nothing to fear --- you're as good as the best,
As strong as the mightiest, too.
You can win in every battle or test;
For there's no one just like you.
There's only one you in the world today;
So nobody else, you see,
Can do your work in as fine a way:
You're the only you there'll be !  


So face the world, and all life is yours
To conquer and love and live:
And you'll find the happiness that endures
In just the measure you give;
There's nothing too good for you to possess,
Nor heights where you cannot go:
Your power is more than belief or guess ---
It is something you have to know.

 
There is nothing to fear --- you can and you will.
For you are the invincible you.
Set your foot on the highest hill ---
There's nothing you cannot do.

-- Author Unknown