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"Imagination is more important than knowledge." * * * * * This newsletter is sent to you by CoachBenita.. Copyright © 2008, Benita Stafford-Smith and CoachBenita. All rights reserved. Nothing in this newsletter may be reproduced or published without the written permission of the individual author and/or copyright owner. |
The Coach Approach, March 2008 This month's theme: Re-creation Week One: The Stay Interview Today’s workplaces are changing. Since the 80’s it has been an employer's market—one job, hundreds of applications. Thus the saying, It’s not what you know, it’s who you know!! As the boomers retire, employers are facing new challenges. It is now an employee’s market. Here is an excerpt from The Stay Interview, written
by Pam Gramiak, IBEX,(ibexpayroll.com)
that shows how one employer, IBEX, an employer of choice, is
recreating itself to win the war for talent.
* * * * * Week Two: Intention One of the steps in re-creation is creating your intention. With the DVD and book, The Secret, so popular today, the concept of intention is getting lots of attention. What a great reminder to each of us how important intention is in the creation and re-creation process. Knowing what we wish to create is so important. Remember if you don’t know where you are going any path will do. You may still reach your goal but the time and effort it takes to get there will be a lot greater. The path goes forward, backward, to the left, then to the right, going around and around. With clear intention the pathway is smooth and easy, perhaps not quite a straight line but the clearer the intention the straighter the path becomes, saving you lots of time and energy. What are the obstacles you are putting up along your path? How many detours and side trips are you taking along the way? Are you feeling lost? Wondering why everything takes so long and is so much work? If you answered yes to these questions it is time to clarify your intention. This will guide your decisions. Clarity is such a beautiful thing. What do you do to achieve clarity? What do you do to ensure you are staying true to your intention? Suggestions: Get and study the book: Law of Attraction, The Science of Attracting More of What You Want and Less of What You Don’t by Michael Losier. The exercises and tools are very useful. Email me, benita@coachbenita.com and I will send you 28 Principles of Attraction by Thomas Leonard. You can use these principles as a framework. * * * * * Week Three: Creative Environments We all perform many roles during the day- employer, employee, spouse, parent, daughter/son, granddaughter/grandson, friend, business partner, advisor, volunteer—and we all perform many roles within each of these. How do you create environments that augment each of your roles? Some are given to you; for example, you may work in an office or a studio, and hopefully you easily switch roles when you enter your home. How do you create environments that allow you to switch roles easily and effortlessly within the larger role? For example, how do you as a manager and leader switch from developing your staff to completing your monthly reports? Different tasks, different skills. In What We Ache For: Creativity and the Unfolding of the
Soul, Oriah Mountain Dreamer states: I have found this to be true for myself. I write my newsletters and books at my home office, away from my business office where I coach clients and develop speaking material. How do you create an environment that allows you to switch roles? I have heard of managers who only coach their staff in another office, separate from the day to day business activities of their office space. They meet suppliers at a table set aside in their business office and meet with clients in the company’s board room. A resource that I find very useful is a set of cards titled One Hat At a Time. Each card is a different hat representing a different role. A picture of a hat on the front and provocative questions pertaining to the hat on the back. Available at www.onehatatatime.com. It comes complete with a guidebook and 32 cards. Example: The first time I drew a card I drew the Turban—"Gaze into your crystal ball. Calm and quiet your rational mind. What’s left? What do you see? Put on the turban to see possibilities for the future, patterns in the stars, wisdom of the ages, and take great knowing leaps of intuition. Ask and the answer will become known to you." How do you switch from employee to volunteer? Parent to child? Friend to boss? * * * * * Week Four: A Creativity Exercise Spring is a wonderful time of year. The earth is starting to wake up after its hibernation. Spring fever is starting to burst forth! So let’s have a little fun this week and try this exercise to get the creative juices flowing. Try this exercise from What We Ache For: Creativity and the Unfolding of the Soul, Oriah Mountain Dreamer. Each day answer the following questions for three to five minutes each. Commit to doing this every day for a set period of time (a week minimum, a month maximum). Let your answers go wherever the writing takes you. Be as concrete as you can. Each time you write an answer, ask yourself, What is the truest thing I can say in response to this question in the moment? Who are you? I am... Where did you come from? I came from... Where are you going? I am going... Why are you here? I am here... At the end of the week or month which you have set aside to repeatedly do this exercise, reread all of your answers. What do you notice? Are there any surprises? How did your answer change with the repetition of the question? Are there reoccurring themes, images or ideas? What is spring calling you to do? Are you ready for re-creation? * * * * * |
