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Rockstar Of Efficiency

Posted on July 7, 2020July 7, 2020 by Craig Johns in Article

Rockstar Of Efficiency

The type of life you lead is absolutely, one hundred percent, a direct result of the choices you make. There is nothing more annoying than someone continuously telling me they are ‘so busy’, ‘life is so crazy’, I can’t believe people keep ‘asking for more’, my team are ‘on edge’ right now, it’s not if ‘they will break’ but when.

So why do coaches, the captain of the team, continue to make choices that overload the system in the belief that the more we do, the more productive we will be and that the athletes and team will be better for it? It is all fine if you want to just be mediocre, develop a tired culture and see talented people flow through a revolving door.

Have you ever noticed that highly successful people, in general – as there are some crazy outliers, seem to have it all together? They remain calm under pressure, are great at juggling a hundred balls at once, manage a cohesive team, time is effortless and success seems to follow them like a magnet.

eleonora-patricola-579900-unsplash — Photo by Eleonora Patricola on Unsplash

You might think highly successful people have no life outside of work, they sleep less than five hours a day and must have a real disconnect with their family. It is generally quite the opposite and they live their lives like a high performance athlete.

In general, highly successful people are rock stars at delivering efficiency. They are extremely effective at cutting out worthless and non-practical aspects of life such as watching reality TV shows, attending every meeting, accepting all invitations that come across their desk, and indulging in activities that don’t support the end game.

goh-rhy-yan-377766-unsplash — Photo by Goh Rhy Yan on Unsplash

Time is used wisely and effectively. They set small goals each day that have a definitive time period, which creates urgency and a drive for completion. You will find that they keep goals and projects less than three months to ensure they are highly motivated and are less affected by other distractions.

Successful people are in control of their schedule and methodical about balancing their calendar. Scheduled meetings are limited to less than twenty percent of their week. They are very particular in setting aside blocks of time with no distractions so they can absorb information, allow their creativity to flow and focus their attention on the most important action items.

They are accountable to themselves and take control of situations rather than laying blame on someone else or something external.

The strengths of their team are established, gaps are identified, and everyone in the team knows their role. Team members are empowered to use their strengths for the good of the team and ensure everyone is paddling in the same direction.

cynthia-andres-346540-unsplash — Photo by Cynthia Andres on Unsplash

So what’s next for you? First you need to identify what are the non-negotiable’s in your life and at work that if you took them away would reduce performance and affect the desired life.

Then take a hard look at yourself and identify the things in your life and work that if you took them away would not have a negative effect on the way you want to live your life and the goals you have set? Once you have identified those, set out a plan to slowly eradicate those aspects one at a time.

Next establish what could be taken out of daily work activities to free up more time for growth and innovation, or to enable your mind and body the adequate recovery time so that everyone can turn up every day and deliver high performance. As per the first step, you need to work out a gradual plan, with an end date, to remove the activities.

john-torcasio-662169-unsplash — Photo by John Torcasio on Unsplash

To ensure that you become a ‘Rockstar of Efficiency’, you then need to form consistent habits over a period of 6-12 weeks, so they become ingrained in your every day life.

Life is short, maximize your time on this earth and make a small difference every day. Remember everything you do and every decision you make comes down to a choice. A choice that you have total control over!

What’s your efficiency secret?

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4 Ways To Overcome Coach Loneliness Link
Beyond The Comfort Zone Link
High Performers Cultivate More Powerful Traits Link
Are Leaders Born? Link
A Step Ahead Of The Game Link
I Make No Apologies This Is Me! Link

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Trademark Yourself

Posted on May 3, 2020May 16, 2020 by Craig Johns in Article

By Craig Johns

Do you know who you are and what your identity is?

Four years ago I was fortunate enough to deliver an impromptu presentation on Branding and Marketing for Coaches at the Triathlon Australia Performance Coach Course in Canberra at the Australian Institute of Sport. I was pretty excited to be able to speak to the next generation of performance coaches on this topic, as it is an area that isn’t given much time in the coaching world, but is extremely important to succeed in a world of limited opportunities.

“If you don’t know what you stand for, you will fall for anything.”

SANDRA YANCEY

What follows is not only practical to sports coaches, but also to business coaches. managers and leaders.

The Trap

It is common for coaches to launch into coaching as a profession, with a world of passion and emotion, and fall into the trap of coaching everyone, no matter what age, ability, desire and characteristics. Coaches are like kids in a candy store without any boundaries, and before they know it they have consumed too much and are barely able to tread water, let alone have enough energy to lift the weight off their shoulders.

Authentic Delivery

A coach is a salesperson, whether they know it or not. To sell something effectively they have to know its heart and soul. To convince, motivate and inspire an athlete and team of athletes effectively, a coach needs to be able to deliver messages authentically and consistently. They need to know what it is that separates themselves, to stand out, from the rest.

The Connection

It doesn’t matter whether a coach is a volunteer, works on a performance program or sets up their own coaching business, being able to clearly define and nurture their identity will allow them to cultivate a successful career and most importantly deliver an environment where success, for the athletes, is inevitable. The coach needs to position themselves in a way that allows potential and current athletes to perceive, think and feel more connected to them compared to other coaches or coaching businesses. (Bence, 2012)

“Your SMILE is your logo, your PERSONALITY is your business card, how you LEAVE OTHERS FEELING after an experience with you becomes your trademark.”

JAY DANZIE

Photo Credit: David Sun

Leave Your Mark

So what is branding for a coach? It’s about creating a consistent message through the way they talk, move, act, deliver, motivate, inspire and bring the best out in the athletes they are working with. It’s about developing an underpinning philosophy that the coach whole-heartedly believes in and is passionate about. It’s a way of life for the athletes the coach works with. Most importantly, it’s the distinctive aspects of the coaching style, personal characteristics and environment that leaves a mark on everyone who comes in contact with the coach.

Coaching Brand

It is important that a coach can identify what types of athletes (markets) are most suited to their coaching identity and market effectively to them. Whether it be speaking with a potential athlete for the first time or setting up a new website, the messages need to be clear, consistent and from the heart. A successful coach-athlete relationship, the foundation of coaching, is based on factors such as trust, emphatic understanding, acceptance and respect (Jowett, 2005). A clear, concise and consistent coaching brand will go along way to ensuring a successful relationship is created and developed.

People Sell, Not Products

For those starting a coaching business, it is important to know, that it’s the “person” that people are attracted to, not the product. Athletes are attracted to the personal characteristics of the coach and the business. The coaches ability to sell the products requires a consistent and powerful (coach) brand that they can passionately communicate. It is important a coach doesn’t just copy what other successful coaches are doing. They need to create their own identity.

“ Every time you shake a hand, you market your brand.”

How are you communicating your coaching identity?

Craig Johns active CEO Podcast coach consultant corporate, leadership high performance

Complexity is Your Enemy

Posted on May 1, 2020May 16, 2020 by Craig Johns in Article

By Craig Johns

Why do we fall down the trap of thinking and making things more complex than they should be?

Simplification is Sophistication. Do you find it easy to make something difficult, but a challenge to make it simple? The simpler you make something the more sophisticated it becomes.

KISS – Keep it simple stupid is a great acronym too seldom used. We often make everything very complex, leaving both ourselves and those we are talking to confused and unsure.

As Albert Einstein once said:

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”.

A common trap people fall into is thinking that it is the people were are talking too’s fault for why they don’t understand, rather than placing the emphasis back on ourselves, as the one (s) presenting the concept or information.

Being able to deliver a compelling message to our athletes or employee comes down to your ability to make it understandable to the audience you are speaking or writing to. It is common for coaches to send their athletes off with a task and for them to return as a failure, in the their eyes. This is not because the employee or athlete wasn’t capable of doing it, but because they didn’t understand what was being asked or provided to them.

It is important that you, as a coach, are able to analyze a situation and determine whether the message they are presenting is actually being understood. If you can’t explain it in less than 20% of the words you used, then it is probably too complex and you don’t understand your subject matter well enough. The ability of an athlete to understand what the coach message is, can have a major effect on the trust and support they will provide.

Richard Branson summed complexity up with the following:

“Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to make something simpler.”

How do you check if your message is being understood and whether you understand your message well enough?