Effective communication is one of the most important pillars of effective leadership. This article looks at the elements of effective communication and how we can develop our skills in this area.
Personal Development
What is an effective leader, and can I become one with training?
What is an effective leader? Some of the questions I commonly receive as an accredited leadership trainer and a credentialed Life and Transformation coach when I’m facilitating my leadership skills program is “What is an effective leader?”, “What is effective leadership?” or “How do effective leaders behave?” I always like to start with what effective…
Managing Micromanaging
WHY does micromanaging happen? WHAT are the Effects? HOW to combat it? In an organisation what can happen is that a person gets good at their job, they perform it excellently so that the powers that be take notice and decide that a promotion is in order. Along with the promotion, an added responsibility is…
Solving a problem is as easy as taking a walk.
In 1891 a German physicist, Hermann von Helmholtz spoke about a thought process that he used when he was trying to solve a problem or make a connection or create something new. He said that this process included 4 stages. The Preparation stage – the stage where he studied, researched, explored, and acquired as much…
12. Creating The Balance
The difference between working as a CEO and a Solopreneur couldn’t be bigger. As a CEO you have teams reporting to you, and limited “me,” time. As a Solopreneur you have to motivate yourself and be accountable to keep on moving forward and It can get lonely. In this latest episode of the Createfulness podcast, “Creating…
11. The tables are turned on a crowdfunding success.
In this latest episode of the Createfulness podcast, the tables are turned as the usual host, Gary Hirson is interviewed. For 20 days he was trying to raise funds via a crowdfunding platform so that he could get to see his photographs that are to be exhibited in the Swiss Museum of transport. In this…
When counting sheep doesn’t work…what to do.
6. It’s never too young to explore personal leadership.
When is a good age to start with personal leadership development? Jayne a Life Coach and ex-school teacher, along with her husband Chris have created a multi-media platform to introduce personal leadership skills to young teenagers. Have a listen to my chat with Jayne as we discuss all that she and Chris are doing, the…
5. Keep it light, keep it interesting, and keep it going!
Paul Zamek’s mantra is, “keep it light, keep it interesting, and keep it going!” An icon in the global music industry and a fantastic raconteur, Paul, along with his wife -living according to their ideals, beliefs, and aspirations, ventured to foreign lands to start a new. In this episode, Paul not only talks about his…
Leadership and Communication Skills – College Students
I do realise that we’re currently experiencing very uncertain times. However, I wanted to introduce myself and bring to your attention what I offer in the way of upskilling students in Leadership and Life Skills. I can only imagine the stresses and strains that Chefs, kitchen, and hospitality staff must endure. Hot and enclosed environment,…
Why exploring creativity matters.
Entrepreneurship is all about being _Createful_. What is it?
Why what you decide to do with your _Createful_ expression Matters
How your choice of what you do with your #_Createful_ Matter, (our unique brand of #_createful_ expression) Matters… Whatever our #_createful_ matter is, we can tend to have doubts, to start it, or showcase it to the world. This could be related to self-doubt or doubt that our #_createful matter_ won’t be appreciated. The thing…
Being of Value is being able to Contribute more?
Recently I read this quote by Albert Einstein, “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value,” and it got me thinking. Our interpretation of success is a personal thing and if striving for success becomes all-consuming, it could result in us becoming self-centered. However, if we prefer to be of value,…
Did the pioneers of yesteryear have duvets and puffy pillows?
This morning I woke up and life seemed…shit! The wind was howling and the rain pelted the shutters. I hadn’t slept well due to stress. I was tired, irritated and all I saw was grey…through very scratchy eyes. Getting out of bed wasn’t my 1st choice. I’m busy with creating a new online program and…
Celebrating Womens’ day – a 31 day journey…Help Please!!!
Here I find myself doing research on how to do something, fun, exciting, romantic, entertaining, adventurous, etc. every day for the 31 days of August… …and “why,” you might be asking? I blame it on the combination of the extra glass or two of bootlegged wine during a lockdown lunch and being the ideal and…
There is a formula when it comes to being createful
Don’t you just love it when you come to an understanding which makes something so much easier? I’ve come to understand that there is a formula to being Createful. In a recent video, I posted I used the analogy of a train journey when it comes to the journey of being Createful – there’s a…
Sometimes you’ve just got to take a step back, and let it come together.
This last Sunday morning I was sitting outside in the garden, with my partner Helene- Marie. We were enjoying a cup of coffee on a warmer, clear, winter’s morning, chatting about this and that. Helene – Marie mentioned something related to my Createfulness program that I run, and without realising it I was internally swimming…
I’m sorry to tell you this, but you are creative!
I’m happy to tell you this, but you are creative! Sure you might not have a piece of art hanging in The Tate Gallery, or you mightn’t have won the Booker Prize for the novel you never wrote but I’m certain you’ve done the following; You’ve tried something new, You’ve been curious about something and…
Our future can only be determined by looking forward, with no reference to our past.
So here I am sitting in my office, my door is closed and just short of a sign hanging on it saying, “DON’T DISTURB!!” I’ve disconnected my internet connection, and my cell phone is upside down, off, and out of sight. All of this just to write this post. It probably all sounds quite extreme…
It’s all just a kind of magic and we’re all magicians!
What a monk taught me about a thundering silence.
The problem with mindfulness is that it lacks drama.
Mindfulness is too serene, wispy, and it takes too much work. It lacks drama – all the stuff that we love in our lives. In the movie that’s in my head, I continuously swing between the past scenes – reliving old dramas, comparing myself to others, attaching happiness, anger, and regret,…etc. Or to the future…
Coronavirus isn’t the biggest challenge anymore…no, this isn’t a conspiracy theory.
Coronavirus isn’t the main challenge anymore, there’s something more – and no this isn’t a conspiracy theory. As per the experts’ instructions, we’ve done what we can do to hopefully keep us out of the virus’s reach. We wear masks, we exercise when we can, we keep social distancing, and we continuously wash our hands.…
Hearing your own voice.
As mentioned in the last post, it’s really difficult to get your “dream” out there without help from others who see value in what you’re doing. But somehow like-minded people always seem to find each other. I was recently interviewed by Belinda Doveston from Apian Learning. Where we chatted for about 40 minutes about creativity,…
Getting help from a passionate Literacy Blogger
Hi There. We all realise that it’s one thing creating something close to our hearts but it’s another thing entirely getting it “out there,” if that’s the intention. More often than not we need all the help we can get. Earlier this year I was contacted by a French Literary blogger, Marie-Hélène Fasque, who is…
Perseverance vs Natural Ability
Many of give up on something before we start because we feel we don’t have the natural ability towards achieving it. In recent case studies conducted by Behavioral Psychologists – where they pitted teams with natural ability towards the goal against teams told to focus on perseverance. The outcome was quite interesting and to view…
3 Beliefs that are needed for us to achieve our goals.
What does success mean to you?
What does “Success” mean to you? I’m relatively short, have a shaved head, wear glasses, have to budget how I spend my money and only powerful enough to try and disagree with my girlfriend which usually results in me losing another discussion, debate or at worst an argument. Would you think me successful? The Paparazzi…
5 reasons why dreams don’t take flight
According to John C Maxwell, there are 5 reasons why dreams don’t take flight. Ever since becoming a professional photographer it was always a dream of mine to have a coffee-table book, containing my photographs, with my name on the cover. I’ve achieved that goal – twice. John C Maxwell’s reasons that our dreams don’t…
Why a Coach needs a Mentor.
Why do I need to go see Anthony Robbins? Because even Mentors need Mentors. Through the books that I’ve written and the workshops that I’ve facilitated, I’ve always said that we do have the power to achieve what we set our minds to. I’ve also said that if we silently look inwards the answers we…
Albert Einstein’s Life Changing Lessons
Albert Einstein’s Life-Changing Lessons. Albert Einstein is considered to be one of the greatest minds that has graced our planet. He believed in the power of the imagination – stating, “Value your imagination. The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.“ In my interactive book, The Magic that’s Our’s “Magic” says to Joel and…
How goal-setting can change the scenery in your life?
Are you aware that goal-setting can change the scenery of your life? What I mean is if you take a look at your life, i.e. relationships, finances, career path, health & fitness etc, are you happy with how it currently looks? If you are that’s fantastic! If not, do you want to change the scenery…
Modern day Entrepreneurs are similar to Pioneers of old.
I relate entrepreneurs to the pioneers of old. They have to be brave, deal with uncertainty, venture forth boldly into unknown territories, throwing caution to the wind, while risking all. As much as all the market research, product perfecting, and planning can be explored beforehand, at the end of the day, the entrepreneur has to…
What is mental contrasting, how, and why do we use it?
Goals for Optimists and Goals for Pessimists.
What to do when we become anxious about achieving our goals?
Why we don’t have to know exactly how we’re going to achieve our goals.
Many of the goals that we set for ourselves are positive, magnificent, grandiose, and in our minds eye they are majestic. Even though all of these qualities are extremely encouraging, not knowing how we are going to achieve the end result, coupled with the fact that the goals are (possibly) long term, can seed the…
How goal-setting creates a sense of community.
It’s always been said that more minds than one will reach a solution quicker. Does this apply to personal goals? According to Dr Gail Gross, in her blog post about goal-setting for children, one of the points she states is that when setting goals with children, we want to communicate a feeling of community rather…
