Have a Truly Successful New Year!

Newsletter 15 - 30 December 2004 This is the newsletter for www.mindtools.com. It is a double opt-in newsletter. If you are not already a subscriber yourself, and you would like to subscribe, please visit http://www.mindtools.com/subscribe.htm. This newsletter is published by James Manktelow of Mind Tools Ltd, Hardwick House, Prospect Place, Swindon, SN1 3LJ, United Kingdom. To contact us, please email Newsletter@mindtools.com .

Contents: In This Issue... Looking Ahead to 2005 Midgie Speaks Out It's Goal Setting Time! A Customer Service Edge A Final Note

As the season's festivities recede and the New Year approaches, our thoughts naturally turn to the future. For some this just means making a few New Year resolutions, however for others it is an important opportunity for the stock taking, reflection and planning that will drive lasting success in the New Year.

In This Issue.

Because of this, we have dedicated this issue to giving you the information and tools you need to achieve lasting success in 2005.

Also in this New Year edition, you will find an illuminating interview with Mind Tools Career Coach, Midgie Thompson. In the interview, Midgie takes time out of her busy schedule to discuss with us many of the pressing questions posed to us by Mind Tools clients.

You will also find an advertorial article on customer service, written by team leader and people manager Lindsay Swinton. Every one of us can use a refresher course in customer service and taking a look at this again as the New Year rings-in just seems fitting.

Looking Ahead to 2005 - Leadership, Relaxation & Much More...

It’s also a good time to let you know about the developments you’ll see in Mind Tools in 2005. This should be a vintage year!

In our ongoing drive to help you learn the techniques that you need for an excellent career, we’ll soon launch a major new sub-site which will give you develop your leadership skills and build a truly successful team. In time, we hope that this will become one of the leading leadership resources on the web.

Developing our stress resources further, we’re working with our partners, Uncommon Knowledge, to bring you downloadable relaxation MP3s which will help you relax quickly and effectively (we’re launching our beta program for this later in this newsletter).

Later in the year, we’ll help you reinforce your stress management skills with our new course on Relaxation Techniques, which will give you the skills you need to quickly control the stress in your daily life.

Looking Ahead to 2005 - Giving You New Ways to Interact...

We’ll also move this newsletter onto a two-weekly schedule, so that we can give you quick, concise access to new career development articles as we publish them. And we’ll launch an online community, so that you can talk with and learn from the wider Mind Tools family.

These are only a few of the new personal and career development resources that we will give you in 2005 – there’s much, much more in the pipeline. We’ll update you on these in this newsletter as the year progresses.

All of this activity is focused on helping you achieve real career success!

Beta-Testers Needed for Our Relaxation MP3s!

I mentioned earlier the downloadable relaxation MP3s we’ve been working on with our partners, Uncommon Knowledge. These MP3s offer quick, focused relaxation in a format that’s extremely easy to use.

So that we can make them as effective as possible for you, we’d like to ask a small number of newsletter readers to review and comment on them. For our beta-testers, this will give you free access to, and a preview of, these powerful relaxation tools. What we need in return are your comments, so that we can make sure that they are as useful as possible for you. And, obviously, we’ll be pleased to give our testers final copies of the MP3s as they are launched.

If you’d like to participate, please contact me personally at Beta.Program@mindtools.com. I can only practically offer this to the first 20 people who apply so, if you're interested, please apply as soon as you read this!

And while we're talking about test programs, you'll notice that we're trying out distribution of our newsletter in HTML format. Please let us know if you find this better or if it causes you any problems!

Moving On & Taking Charge of Your Year!

Please take advantage of the articles in this newsletter to think about what you want to do this year with your life and career.

I hope that the article on coaching gives you a feel for our coaching services. If you’re short on time and under stress, our coaches help you quickly get to the root of the issues you face. And if you’re searching for direction, they will help you find a life path that is truly fulfilling.

And please use the article on goal setting to think about where you want to go in 2005, and set the goals that will lead you to career success.

Best wishes, and have an excellent New Year!

James

Mind Tools Coach Midgie Thompson Speaks Out!

Recently we chatted with Midgie Thompson, one of Mind Tools’ Career and Life Coaches, to find out exactly what is behind the idea of coaching; how she inspires Mind Tools coaching clients to achieve; and what people can expect from the coaching process. We hope you enjoy this interview with Midgie!

In a nutshell, coaching is an interaction between coach and client to facilitate learning, growth and support for achieving goals. – Midgie Thompson

How does Mind Tools Coaching work?

When someone contacts Mind Tools for coaching, we will discuss their needs with them and introduce the coach most able to help them. The coach then telephones them to arrange a no-cost 30-minute consultation. This consultation gives an opportunity for the individual to think through what they want to achieve and decide whether coaching is a means to help them achieve it.

The session also gives both the individual and the coach the opportunity to decide whether they will be able to work together effectively. We aim to get the right fit between client and coach and may, on occasion, recommend that the client talks to another coach, based on clarification of the client’s needs and the coaching expertise required.

The coach then telephones the client at pre-agreed times to conduct the coaching sessions. During the sessions, the coach helps the client identify their goals and explore their options for achieving these goals. The coach, by asking key questions at key times, can help open up opportunities and possibilities that the client was previously unaware of. This discovery process can lead the client to greater awareness and commitment to taking regular and consistent action towards their goals.

The coach also holds the client accountable to their previously agreed actions and this accountability process provides a strong element of motivation for the client. It is human nature to do what we say we’re going to do, and it is difficult to turn around and say: “No, I didn’t do my agreed actions”. If that does happen, the coach then helps the client to explore what they could do differently in the coming week to ensure they do indeed complete their agreed actions.

The client is encouraged to take notes during the coaching session so they retain a record of their thoughts and ideas for later referral and reflection. Where appropriate, the coach may direct the client to additional Mind Tools resources, or other expert resources, for further reading, clarification and information.

Who can benefit from these coaching services?

Everyone who is serious about moving their life forward, whether it is to become more successful in their career, happier with how they are living their life or to help them ‘get out of a rut’. Individuals who are committed to taking action on a regular and consistent basis will benefit from the support, encouragement and motivation a personal coach can provide.

Using a personal coach in your professional life is similar to using a personal trainer in a gym. You may achieve your fitness goals by going to the gym regularly; however, by working with a personal trainer, you achieve results faster and push yourself further. A personal coach helps you accelerate the rate of success in your life. Your coach helps you clarify where you are going, ensures you maintain your focus and direction and keeps your momentum moving forwards, in the direction of achieving your goals.

Many individuals start out with a clear picture of their goals, but then become distracted with other things in life. They may finally achieve their desired goals; however, it will probably take much longer than if they were working with a coach. A personal coach helps individuals minimize the distractions and maximize the motivation and momentum to keep them moving forward.

Imagine a professional sportsperson and how they rely on their coach. Their sports coach helps them develop the skills and strategies to be the best they can be in their individual sport. Mind Tools personal coaches help their clients develop the skills, the strategies and the habits to be the best they can be in their lives. They also provide the motivation, the incentive and the added push to help the individual give it that extra effort!

When should someone call in a professional coach?

People might call in a coach when they’ve decided that they want to accelerate their success and happiness in life or want to shift things, either in a small way or in a big way. If they have explored and tried different options but are still not satisfied with their progress, then a Mind Tools coach can help them move forward. A Mind Tools coach helps individuals examine where they are now, where they want to be in the future (and set a specific time frame to this), and shows them how they can best get there.

Individuals are sometimes overwhelmed by the immense nature of big goals and decide it’ll take too much time and effort to achieve them. However, a coach would help them break down the big goal into smaller more manageable chunk-sizes, which increases the opportunity to feel like things are moving forward and build upon the successes of achieving their smaller goals.

Success builds upon success. So, the more an individual can have that sense of achievement and satisfaction, the more they are likely to continue in that vein.

What do you aim to accomplish when working with clients, or what do you expect to see as the end result?

The main purpose of coaching is to help individuals achieve their goals. This may at times include helping them to identify or clarify the goals that will help them become more successful, happier and healthier. Often, through the process of coaching, individuals experience positive benefits in many other areas of their life, in addition to the area they focus on during the coaching. This is simply because they are developing good habits and attitudes that they transfer to other areas.

As an added bonus, individuals often become more aware of their language and how the words they use can affect them. This awareness is a result of the highly developed communication skills of the coach who helps the individual to increase their awareness of the powerful effect of their language.

Using “if” suggests there is a choice about whether the request is met or not. For example, ‘if you could do this for me …’ leaves the option open to not do it. Using the word “but” negates whatever was stated previously. For example, ‘I did two of my actions from the previous session but I didn’t do the last one’. Using the word “try” gives you a ‘get out excuse’ for not achieving something. For example, ‘I will try to get all this done before the next session.’

How did you get into coaching?

I became a professional coach after I coached myself on a major career change – without even know what coaching was all about. I was, like so many others, unhappy (and unhealthy) because of the job I was doing. I was feeling unfulfilled and wanted more out of life, but was not sure what that more was.

So, I embarked on a journey of self-discovery to help me make a major career shift. Through this process, I effectively coached myself on uncovering my true passion in life, which was helping others to grow, to become happier and healthier. Even after uncovering this passion, I still did not know how I could direction those interests and abilities in a professional manner.

After much soul-searching, and even asking many friends who have known me for years, I still did not know what to do. Then, all of a sudden I started to see and hear about personal coaching as a profession. So, I investigated what this profession was all about. I realized that throughout my professional career, spanning over 18 years in the UK and Canada in the public, private and voluntary sectors in a wide range of roles, I had always coached individuals in one way or another. It was an integral part of me that I had never capitalized on before - previously it was always an informal thing I did with colleagues and friends.

After this discovery, I knew that becoming a professional coach was the perfect profession for me, allowing me to make a profound difference in people’s lives though encouragement, support and motivation to help them stretch their comfort zones and go after their goals and their dreams.

Share with us, please, one of your most prized coaching moments.
One of my most rewarding moments in coaching was a real ‘a-ha moment’ that a client experienced. They had initially come to me about time management issues and taking time out for themselves. As we progressed through the series of coaching, the individual was feeling better and developing skills to apply in their day-to-day life; however, they were not seeing their actual progress themselves.

Then, in one particular session when they were particularly stressed with all the things they had to do and could not clearly see what the priorities were, and what should be done first, we did a particular exercise that transformed the individual. They were clearly able to see what they had to do, in what order in needed to be done and also how they could deal with situations in the future when they started to become overwhelmed with the volume of work.

This client still claims that particular session helped transform their life and they now do not become overwhelmed with the many and varied demands on their time.

Can you share some “insider secrets” with our newsletter subscribers that they can put to use today to help them on their journey for success and for happiness?

To help you prioritize all the 101-things to do on your To Do list, here are a few suggestions. First of all, STOP!

Take some time out to actually think about what you have on your plate and what is the priority. Often, we get caught up with the business of our lives and all the things we have to do and we don’t take the time to reflect on what it really important in the grand scheme of things.

Generally, we just keep doing, and doing, and doing. By taking some time out to actually review what is on your plate, and then decide what is the most important thing for you to do – in the next hour, the next day or the next week - you gain additional perspective on this which helps to see clearly what the priorities are.

When you take this time to reflect on all your tasks, ensure you take all of these To Do items in context with the big picture of your life. Ask yourself ‘How does this particular activity or task fit into my big picture? How important that it gets done today? What would happen if I didn’t do it at all? Can I delegate it to someone else?

Find out more about coaching from Midgie or other Mind Tools coaches at the following URL: http://www.mindtools.com/rs/CoachingNL.

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It’s Goal-Setting Time Again!
By Kellie Fowler

As we say good-bye to 2004, many of us are looking ahead and pondering just how we can make 2005 our year, a year that brings all the success and happiness we desire.

At Mind Tools, we boast an arsenal of proven tools, techniques and skills all useful for achieving success and happiness, while simultaneously serving to cut down on the frustration (think wasted time, changes within the workplace, problems that arise with co-workers, inevitable stressors that slow you down, etc.) that you may experience along the way.

One of our favorite tools is goal setting. And, given the start of the New Year, many of us will soon sit down with pen and paper and write down our goals for 2005.

Goal setting is actually a formal process for personal planning. By setting your goals on a routine basis (at the start of the year, every month, etc.), you propel yourself closer to achieving these goals.

Building Long Term Vision...

In fact, you should consider goal-setting your first step in reeling in your goals. By penning your goals regularly, you create a long-term vision for yourself, or a roadmap you can rely on as you make your way down the path to greater success and happiness.

Before you start, you should know that goals are actually set on different levels. You can set immediate goals or short-term goals, as well as long-term goals. To make this a fruitful process, you may find it best to start with a long-term plan.

Starting your own long-term plan is quite easy. You can think about where you want to be in 30 or 40 years. Now, write these down. Sure, these may be quite broad. For instance, you may write down that one of your goals is to retire financially secure. Or, a long-term goal may be to travel somewhere. Regardless of what it is, write it down.

Now, take a look at your long-term goals. Take the time to write under each goal the exact steps you feel you will need to reach these goals. For instance, if your goal is to retire financially secure, you may want to draft a monthly plan that details your budget, your investments, etc.

Breaking Goals Into Tiny Steps...

The ultimate goal here is to take your goals and to break these down into steps that you can then implement into a do-able daily to-do list.

You should make sure you have set goals in all areas of your life that are important to you. These areas may include family and financial, as well as career, education, public/community service, physical goals, and more.

Once you have determined your goals, the next step is to provide yourself with a 5-year plan, a 1-year plan, a six-month plan and finally a one-month plan. Can you see how this can finally be whittled down into your own daily to-do list?

And Moving Forward Day-By-Day...

Your daily to-do list is actually the next step. Keep in mind that at this early stage, your goals may be as simple as read a book or take a class.

Do not get discouraged if you find yourself revising your goals on a regular basis, which, in turn, will require modifying your daily to-do lists. While many of your long-term goals will not change, certainly some will. This is why it is important to regularly review your lists and modify them as you move forward toward your desired levels of success and happiness.

For more information on goal setting, including tips on setting your own personal and professional goals, preparing and using to-do lists, go to our goal setting page at http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html.

You can take this whole process to the next level with the new Mind Tools’ course “Make Time for Success!” (MTFS). MTFS is our new course on life planning, time management and personal effectiveness.

MTFS guides you through the process of helping you focus on the things that are truly important to you, setting the personal goals that will lead you to meaningful success, and learning the organizational and personal effectiveness skills needed to achieve outstanding performance. By using MTFS you can give real shape to your New Year thoughts about a truly fulfilling future. Find out more at http://www.mindtools.com/rs/MTFS.

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Advertorial: The Customer Service Edge
By Lyndsay Swinton, team leader and people manager

Customer service is a key differentiator between good, bad and indifferent companies. Good customer service keeps customers coming back; bad customer service drives customers away, taking their friends, family and workmates with them.

All else being equal, good customer service gives the edge over competitors. Regardless of industry, there are 9 key principals of good customer service that always make business sense.

1. Attracting new customers costs more than retaining existing customers.

A satisfied customer stays with a company longer, spends more and may deepen the relationship. For example, a happy credit card customer may enlist the company’s financial services and later take travel insurance.

This is an easy “sell”, compared with direct marketing campaigns, television advertisements and other sophisticated and expensive approaches to attract new customers.

2. Customer service costs real money.

Real costs are associated with providing customer service and companies spend in line with a customer’s value. If you are a high value customer or have the potential of being high value, you will be serviced more carefully.

Companies reduce the cost of customer service by using telephone voice response systems, outsourcing call centers to cheaper locations, and self-servicing on the Internet. However, companies risk alienating customers through providing an impersonal service.

Some Internet banking companies are trying to buck this trend by charging customers to contact them. In exchange, they hope that customers will put up with this as they receive better interest rates due to reduced overheads.

3. Understand your customers’ needs and meet them.

How can you meet your customers’ needs, if you don’t know them? To understand your customer’s needs, just listen to the “voice of the customer” and take action accordingly.

Customer listening can be done in many ways, for example feedback forms, mystery shopping, and satisfaction surveys. Some companies involve senior employees in customer listening to ensure decisions benefit the customer as much as the company.

4. Good process and product design is important.

Good customer service is only one factor in meeting customer needs. Well-designed products and processes will meet customers’ needs more often. Quality movements, such as Six Sigma, consider the “cost of quality” resulting from broken processes or products. Is it better to service the customer well than to eradicate the reason for them to contact you in the first instance?

5. Customer service must be consistent.

Customers expect consistent quality of customer service, with a similar, familiar look and feel whenever and however they contact the company.

Say you visit an expensive hairdressing salon and receive a friendly welcome, a drink and a great haircut. You are out of town and visit the same hairdressing chain and get no friendly welcome, no drink and a great haircut. Are you a satisfied customer who will use that chain again? Probably you will not, as you did not receive the same level of customer service.

6. Employees are customers, too.

The quality management movement brought the concept of internal and external customers. Traditionally, the focus was on external customers with little thought given to how internal departments interacted. Improving relationships with internal customers and suppliers assists delivery of better customer service to external customers, through reduced lead-times, increased quality and better communication.

The “Service-Profit Chain” model developed by Harvard Business School emphasizes the circular relationship between employees, customers and shareholders. Under-staffed, under-trained employees are unlikely to deliver good customer service, driving customers away. Equal effort must be made in attracting, motivating and retaining employees as is made for customers, ultimately delivering improved shareholder returns. Better shareholder returns mean more money is available to invest in employees and so the circle continues.

7. Open all communication channels.

The customer wants to contact you in many ways – face to face, by mail, phone, fax, and email - and will expect all of these communication channels to be open and easily inter-mingled.

This presents a technical challenge, as it requires an integrated, streamlined solution providing the employee with the information they need to effectively service the customer.

8. Every customer contact is a chance to shine.

If a customer contact concerns a broken process, then empowered employees will be able to resolve the complaint swiftly, possibly enhancing the customer’s perception of the company. Feeding back this information allows corrective action to be made, stopping further occurrences of the error.

If you inform customers about new products or services when they contact you, you may make a valuable sale, turning your cost center into a profit center. This is only possible when you have a good relationship with your customer, where you understand their specific needs. A targeted sales pitch will have a good chance of success, as the customer is pre-sold on the company’s reputation.

9. People expect good customer service everywhere.

Think about an average day – you travel on a train, you buy coffee, you go to work. You expect your train to be on time, clean and available to you at a reasonable cost. You expect your coffee to be hot and delivered quickly. You expect your work mates to work with you, enabling you to get the job at hand done.

People become frustrated when their expectations are not met, and increasingly demand higher service quality in more areas of their lives.

Providing outstanding customer service at the right price is the holy grail of most companies. It is worth remembering that we all experience customer service every day. We can learn from these and apply them in our own line of work, whatever it may be. Customer service will make you stand out from your competitors – make sure it’s for the right reasons!

You can visit Lyndsay Swinton’s website at www.mftrou.com, where she publishes her free no-nonsense Management Tips newsletter and a range of practical management articles.

(C) Lyndsay Swinton, 2004.

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Final note from James

As I take a look back at 2004, I am struck by just how fast this year flew by. Yet, the Mind Tools team has worked hard to add new and useful tools to our arsenal in this time. As you’ll be able to tell from this newsletter, we are particularly proud of our Make Time Success! course, which has been very well-received by our newsletter readers worldwide, and of our coaching program, which we introduced earlier this month.

As I mentioned in my introduction, I hope that you’ll be excited by the new mind tools that we will introduce you to in 2005. I’m particularly excited about the forthcoming leadership course, which I hope will give you huge benefits as you understand your own natural leadership style and learn to become a relaxed, confident and effective leader.

And of course, as a newsletter reader, you can continue to look forward to being privy to the latest breaking news, products and services offered by the Mind Tools team throughout 2005.

No doubt that this coming year will be an exciting and busy one for us all. And, as we say good-bye to 2004, we want to take this opportunity to thank you for your ongoing support. Remember, we want to hear from you if you have any comments or suggestions regarding how we can better meet your needs, or if you have products/services you are fond of and think we should share with others, or if there are interesting topics you would like to see covered in our newsletter or perhaps on the Mind Tools site.

Best wishes, and until next time!

James

James Manktelow

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