January 2010

Happy New Year, and a big welcome to my 2042 subscribers. May the year ahead be everything you want, in all of your life.

4 days on from New Year and many resolutions will have been made and broken. Rather than rush into resolutions, it may be better to take some time out to set some goals, for your career, relationships and wider life. I've an article on this below.

My main goal for the last 3 months has been to get fit and healthy. Each month I share my fat loss progress with you, and I'm bang on target, having lost 35lb in 3 months. Ben Carpenter, my personal trainer is very pleased with my progress and has quoted me on his blog. One reason for sharing this is that it really helps you to achieve a goal if you tell people.

It's been an exciting and busy year for me and I'm now regularly featured on radio and in print, in some ways this is great publicity, but with the publication of the government guide Parent Motivators, which I was asked to write, one bullet out of the 18 page booklet, on showing 'tough love' was seized on by much of the media leading to a very tough interview with Vanessa Feltz and even hate emails! Luckly the other radio interviews were much more positive. I've put links to a couple of recordings later on in this newsletter. This topic was still in the news 5 days later with a related article in The Saturday edition of The Times - No my home won't be a hotel for my grown up kids.

Over the next few months I'll be featured in Hotel Magazine, Esquire and Woman and Home - more details to follow.

In this months issue:

• Article 1: A new year - a time to look backwards and forward
• Article 2: Should you be a manager?
• Interview coaching feedback
• Are you on Linked In?
• In the media in December
• Twitter
• What Denise did last month
• In the Blog

I’ve been thinking of putting some structure to my blog writing. what I’m thinking of is:

Monday: – Motivational stuff to set people up for the week
Tuesday: – Career discovery
Wednesday: – Job search
Thursday: – Assessments
Friday: – Career Management and my fitness update

Does this sound good? Let me know what you think?

Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you would like to discuss working with me or if you have any suggestions for my newsletter.

I look forward to talking to you again next time.

Kindest regards,

Article 1: A new year - a time to look backwards and forward

This is not just a new year, but also a new decade. Have a think back to the dawn of the new millennium; what were you doing at the start of the year 2000 and also this time last year, and how far have you come? Did you set yourself goals and create plans for what you were going to do? Regardless, in what way have things changed and how are you now?

Think about what has gone well for you, and make sure you do more of this.

Think about what hasn't gone well, what your part in them was and what you can learn from this

Think about the future and what you want to do. Do you have dreams you have abandoned? What would help take your life to the next level?  What are you tolerating that you want to get rid of?

It can often be helpful to write things down and talk to others?

• Are you where you want to be in your career?  Do you know where you want to be in 1, 3, 5 and more years time?
• What about your health - is it as good as it can be, what baby changes could you introduce? Should you be looking to make changes that are more radical?
  Think about your relationship with others - family, friends and the wider community. We all differ in what we want; do you have the relationships you do want?
  What about your personal development - your interests, your passions, the way you grow and develop as a person.

Some of us will set goals, just because it is the start of a new year, and for most people within a week the goals will have been forgotten. But you don't have to set a goal on the 1st of a year, you can set them at any time, and better to take some time to set the right goal for you. Too often, we can look back and wish we had started something back then, but we can't change the past, but we can get started on a new future.

3 months ago, I got on the scale and was full of regret for the 3 stone I'd gained in less than 3 years, but wishing it hadn't happened wasn't going to get the weight off. I decided to make massive changes and did a radical over haul of what I ate and focused on exercise with a personal trainer. It's certainly not been easy but to lose 2.5 stone in 3 months is right on my target. Having a target has really helped, and telling my trainer each week and writing on my blog has helped me keep focused, the last thing I wanted to do was to have to write about putting weight on!

So if you decide to set some goals here's some advice

1. Write them down - it begins to take more of your attention.
2. Put the list where it is visible - a post it note on your bathroom mirror, on your computer or both?
3. If you have a big goal, like my weight loss, break it down into smaller goals so you have mini rewards along the way.
4. Tell people - once you start talking with others you will feel more accountable.
5. It's good to have stretch goals but make sure you have an intermediate goal you can reach.
6. Feel good for the progress you make and don't be discouraged by an occasional set back just get back on track again.
7. be aware you might be sabotaged by other people so keep your focus strong and learn to say no!
8. You will probably have more than one goal so have some that are easy and that can quickly be accomplished, this will then help you get focused on more long term goals.
9. Put some timescales around your goals and prioritise what you want to achieve.
10. Think about support - I have a personal trainer to help with my health and fitness goals, what sort of support will work best for you?

There is no moment like the present. The man who will not execute his resolutions when they are fresh upon him can have no hope from them afterwards; they will be dissipated, lost, and perish in the hurry and scurry of the world, or sunk in the slough of indolence.

-Marie Edgeworth

Know someone who needs a job?

'Denise tells it how it is. In a simple straightforward format Denise leads you through the many routes to job search and highlights the potential pitfalls. If you follow her 28 day plan, you will be able to focus your search, make real progress and maintain high levels of motivation. Great book, one I now recommend to my own career coaching clients'. Jane Child, Coach, Career Changes

Subscriber offer

Buy the book and get all the forms included in the book as a downloadable PDF for free, You just need to forward me your Amazon receipt. Worth £6. The workbook means you don’t need to write in your book, and you can print out as many copies of each form as you need.

Article 2: Should you be a manager?

A typical career path is to start as a team member, whether as a sales associate, PR officer or accountant and then get promoted to team leader, manager and into a more senior role. But is this playing to your strengths?

Not all of us are ideally suited to the manager role, but in the UK and USA there is no professional career path, such as you find in Germany. That’s why we have brilliant sales associates becoming mediocre managers and professionals (including psychologists!) moving out of their area of expertise into a role that doesn’t necessarily play to their strengths.

For some people a move into management is a really great job – they have the natural talent to manage others and being able to get the job done through others is something they relish.

I'd like to set aside mentoring and coaching as although this is part of a managers’ role, it is not the only thing that a manager does – there is also the monitoring, planning, organising, and a key aspect of management is to manage other people to do something rather than doing it yourself. That’s what some people find difficult.

I regularly use the Highlands Ability Battery with my clients and when we discuss the driving abilities I can see if someone is a good match as a manager, or not. Some clients are disappointed, so we discuss what a manager does and how their abilities match and they (almost always) get the eureka moment.

Read more >>

Interview Coaching Feedback

Rahul - successful through interview coaching: Your bespoke approach, including professionalism, dedication and understanding, has helped me to build a platform for me to plan and implement winning interview techniques as well as gaining confidence in other areas of recruitment processes.Click here to read the feedback letter.

Interview Coaching 'I would highly recommend Denise's Interview Coaching sessions. I decided to try them after making it to interview stage but no further on several occasions. Denise was able to quickly pinpoint where I was going wrong and provide me with the confidence and skills to break the pattern. I put these into practice at my next interview and was offered the Job!' R Hignett

“My interviewing experience is into the thousands, and I’ve now completed well over 2,500 interviews and I know what makes someone successful at interview.” Click here to read why you should choose Denise as your interview coach.

Are you on Linked In?

If you are looking for a new job, Linked In should be an essential part of your self marketing programme. It's one of the best online networking tools used by millions of professionals around the world. It's free to join and you can 'link in' with people you know and people who you would like to know. Gather recommendations from people you work with before you leave! and connect with people who are interesting. Click to get through to my summary and then click on the yellow box that says 'View Full Programme' and then click 'add Denise to your network' so we can connect.

In the Media in December

• 29 December 2009 talking about Parent Motivators on The Today Programme, interviewed by Justin Webb, Radio Gloucestershire, Vanessa Feltz's show, on Talk Sport Radio with Jeremy Kyle and with Victoria Derbyshire on Radio 5 live
• 2 December 2009: City Talk Radio - how to motivate yourself
• Lots of newspaper coverage following the publication of Parent Motivators. I was asked to write this for the Department of Business Innovation and Skills.
• 08 December 2009 Talking about Graduate Talent Pool with a number of Radio stations - Sky News Radio, Heart FM, Colourful Radio, Express FM, Star FM, The Eye, Westside FM, Hayes FM, plus a pre record for Heart Radio and creating a podcast.
• 03 December 2009: Radio Gloucestershire - Regular call on the breakfast show
• Top Sante, Why do I get nervous at parties, January edition page 53
• SHE Magazine, How to get a job, page 1 and page 2 November 2009 (links now on my site so you can read this

Twitter

Here are a few of my interesting tweets - why not check them out? And why not 'follow me' on twitter or book mark this link so you can keep up to date with interesting short links

http://twitter.com/amazingpeople

• The 50 best albums of 2009, includes The Big Pink, Horrors and more - http://bit.ly/8izWDF
• Say no to negative thoughts, they will interfere with your success
• Research indicates that British shoppers wasted £1.7billion on unwanted Christmas presents this year: http://bit.ly/8BROy0
• Interested in Psychology? January edition of The Psychologist is online for free access: http://bit.ly/6fyReI
• Be wary when posting your CV online – have a cyber safe CV: http://bit.ly/7ZcILV
• Doodling boosts our memory and concentration - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acp.1561
• There is no such thing as unrealistic goals, only unrealistic time frames
• Don't let age stop you - have you seen 75 year old Sarah dance? http://bit.ly/87hQCo - amazing!

What Denise did last month

• Undertook 25 client sessions, including using web 2.0, small business coaching and taking clients through career programmes
• Wrote 16 entries on my blog
• Wrote lots of Tweets
• Completed a government publication - Parent Motivators
• Saw Primal Scream
• Completed a tele-discussion which was recorded and will be part of a wider programme, more details to follow
• Met with one of the Directors of Zoom Interviews to discuss joint ventures
• Lots of radio interviews!!

In the Blog

http://www.amazingpeople.co.uk/blog/

You can subscribe to the feed using this link:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/AmazingPeopleBlog

Here's a selection from what was on the Blog in December

• A new year – a time to look back and look forward
• Goal Setting – Denise is going to get fit and healthy, week 13
• Getting things done – Denise’s story
• Be wary when posting your CV online – have a cyber safe CV
• Top tips for getting a job
• Goal setting – if you want to set a goal why put it off – get started today
• Graduate Talent Pool, helping unemployed graduates get effective work experience
• Over 50? Thought about working for yourself?