Are you good at Time Management?

Today's Monday Moment focused on Urgent items vs. Important items and how to tell the difference.

Also, shared with me later today was a quote: "In America, we tend to prioritze our lists instead of listing our priorities."

Whether this is true or not, what remains clearly evidenced in our culture is that we confuse the terms. What is urgent is not the same as what is important. Urgent items are those associated with a timeline or deadline. Important items are more value based and are deemed important based on what is important to you, and not necessarily important to others. Sometimes the two words apply to the same item, but not always. For example, a bleeding child is urgent and important, particularly if the child is yours. In contrary, clearing out your inbox may be important to you, but not as urgent as the obsessive compulsive person might think. (ha! not that only OCD individuals like to have a clear inbox!)

Take a look at your list for today and determine those items that are urgent and those that are important and consciously which one is which. If everything on your list is an A or 1 then you will likely set yourself up for failure and find yourself dissappointed at the end of the day.

Are you good at Time Management? It all depends on how you manage your list and the labels for the tasks that make up that list.

If you wish you would have heard this morning's Monday Moment, sign up to receive them from now on. Go to www.monicawofford.com and register for Contagious Commentary. This will also allow you to receive the Monday Moment audio broadcasts.

Enjoy and stay Contagious!
www.contagiouscompanies.com
"... catch what counts!"

Is Coaching a Need or a Want?

The research conducted by developers of the CORE Profile show that 92% of the population of our nation do not know themselves well enough to accurately self report their own behavior.

Add to that the 70% of our coaching clients alone who are surprised that they see themselves differently than they actually behave. Add to that the number of our clients who are deeply affected by the breakthroughs they feel and expereince in the first month of coaching with the CORE tool ... and yes, I would say coaching is a NEED.

What happens to many of us is that we experience discomfort of a lack of congruence in our behavior for so long that we no longer notice. That pain in our shoulders becomes normal. That reaction that we have to a trigger becomes "just who we are". Yet, the reality is that there is a great deal of information that we no longer consciously pay attention to. This is what a coach can help with.

Is coaching a need that is greater than your mortgage payment? No. But is it possible that if you knew yourself better, knew where to get your energy from, and were able to manage and monitor your own behavior, that you could get a better job, make stronger relationships, and end up with more money (Through a new job and bigger network) in your pocket to PAY the mortgage - 100% absolutely yes!

Coaching is a need because:
- we are too close to our own issues to address them effectively
- we do not accurately see - positive OR negative - what others see in us and judge us on
- we are creatures of habit who do what is comfortable, and not always what is best
- the very premises upon which we make decisions are sometimes flawed and we don't see it
- much like you can see where others can improve, a coach sees more clearly where you can improve and is paid to help you through it with minimal discomfort

Much like you would take a pain reliever for a headache, Coaching is the pain reliever for the areas that have hurt for years and you have not been able to make go away, get better, or stop hurting.

We're here to help,
Monica

Your Business is Not Always About Earning Money

This question came up just recently with one of my clients "What if I am not looking to make more money as a result of your coahcing? Will your coaching services still help me?"

It's a great question and though a large percentage of our clients are focused on making more money and building their business, many are also working on more specific non-revenue producing activities or accomplishing dreams. Coaching isn't merely about making more money, it's about you being more successful in the area of your choice. Those areas might include:

• helping you stay on track
• keeping you accountable
• giving you tools to overcome your own barriers
• providing you with a sounding board
• uncovering and resolving obstacles you didn't know existed
• increasing your own confidence
• improving your skills and resources to accomplish your dreams

and one that is often overlooked in goal oriented clients:
UNABASHEDLY CELEBRATING YOUR SUCCESS WHEN YOU REACH YOUR GOAL!

Contagious Coaching isn't always all about helping you make a return on your monetary investment for the service. It also inclues helping you find an ROI for your own investment of time, effort, and energy spent on dreaming those dreams that you've always wanted, but maybe haven't been able to acheive for some reason.

We're here to help whether you're working on dreams, dollars, business, or merely building a better you.

Stay Contagious!
Monica

Girlfriends make poor coaches...

We all have great girlfriends who will take the time to listen to our woes on life, leisure issues, men and career. They will listen intently and empathize and share, but do they challenge us and are they invested enough to give us homework, see us through it and hold us accountable? Most of the time, no. There are exceptions, but they are rare and that is where coaching can become invaluable.

When you hire a coach, they have specific times to meet with you, there are guidelines and a structure, there is usually homework and they hold you accountable to completing it. Girlfriends have their own life and because friendships are give and take, it is innately difficult for a girlfriend to treat you like a client and for you to treat her like a coach.

When you need therapy, you hire a therapist. When you need medical care, you hire a doctor. When you need business guidance or accountability to keep you on track with your success plan, you hire a coach. It is an investment in you and your future success. You want to get well, you go to a doctor or someone with a great deal of expertise in what ails you. You want to DO well, you go to a business coach or someone with a great deal of expertise in what you need, who also is willing to share, willing to help, knows and can articulate the steps you need to get there, and usually charges a fee for such services. Otherwise, the advice from a girlfriend will be kind, help you feel better, but likely will not challenge you to do what you might be fearful of or unable to make happen on your own.

If the above thoughts resonate with you, Contagious Coaching is a service that may be right for you. Now is the time to get ahead so that when the world turns around a bit and the economy is operating even more in our favor, you will be ready to take on the world on your terms. Check out www.contagiouscoaching.com for more information.

Stay contagious!
Monica

How to Keep From Being Your Own Barrier

Why is it that when there are orange cones and Bob’s Barricade signs on the highway, everyone slows to a crawl as if the lane is barely wide enough for them to pass through? Don't we do the same in our own lives - let the smallest of changes or road blocks shut us down or at the very least slow down our progress. You've got to keep moving and avoid being your own worst barrier.

I have seen semi-trucks pass through an automated toll booth faster than most drivers will traverse a highway lane decked out in orange doo-dads. Maybe there is a difference in truck drivers and mere humans; they are on a mission for which they are going to get paid usually by the hour. Hmmm...truck drivers also have guides - a connection to their home office and a GPS. Do you have a guide or some kind of navigation system for your journey? Maybe it's time to consider one as you try to navigate the barriers in your life and work right now.

Well, we are in a nation that is under construction right now and the lanes on all sides of the information, marketing, and industry highway are paved with orange cones. Are you slowing down to go cautious and skeptical of what may lie ahead or are you on a mission for which you are going to get paid? (literally or figuratively)

One simple drive down any city highway these days will remind you of the lessons we can learn from life "on the road" Whether it is "Be Prepared to Stop", "No U-Turn", "Uneven Road Ahead", or "Take Detour", they all apply.

Are you paying attention to them or are you insisting that slow and cautious is the best way to navigate through the construction zones of your world. Drive through a construction zone on the way home tomorrow and remind yourself that you are the one who is in total control of keeping you from being your own worst barrier. Those who prefer to stay in their own way are looking for company – remember the whole misery loves company thing? – and they may tell you to remain cautious and remain slow and stay where you are until the market turns. Maybe they are the drivers that I keep running into.

I thought you were more like those semi truck folks who are on a mission and had an income to earn and business to run. Or maybe you are at just the right place where a contagious coach could be a good guide, a good navigator to help you chart a new course?

Let's talk and if you are in that place, check out: www.contagiouscoaching.com.
Stay contagious!
Monica

Coaching 101

Coaching is a skill and a gift...
you cannot be a coach by instincts alone.
Coaching is about your client and not about you the coach...
you must focus on the needs of the client you serve.
Coaching is designed to help the person learn to fish...
as opposed to giving them the fish and making them rely on the coach forever..
Coaching can be for business or personal purposes...
which is why it is often hard to implement a cookie cutter process.
Coaching is a service for which one pays for help in the areas they need to grow...
which means you may want to have an idea of what results you are looking for first.
Coaching is not a magic bullet nor therapy...
and those who tell you it is are setting unrealistic expectations.
Coaching is contagious!

What we do and say and direct others to do as a coach rubs off on our clients and those they work with. Our goal is to help you pay for the coaching service in the course of the coaching time frame by helping you build more revenue. Contagious Coaching focuses on you, your needs for lead generation, lead conversion, and business improvement, as well as your own sense of confidence - your fear of success, failure, or achievement.

What can Contagious Coaching do for you? Change your whole attitude, achievement, and results. Have you thought about having a coach? Those who expereince the most success, know when to ask for help and get guidance.

Stay contagious!
Monica

Resume Networking - if you are back in the job market

Let's spend some Contagious Coaching time on Resume Networking today. If you are back in the job market, for whatever reason... things have changed a bit in the way you network and get your resume out there. In fact, when you are networking your resume, you have to remember to be SAVVY about what you are doing. SAVVY stands for:

1. Stay consistent in your efforts
One or two subtle mentions of your job search needs probably won't cut it. people's attention spans are much shorter than they used to be and their workload is certainly more. You may have to make many mentions to many people to help get the word out and find what you are looking for. Also, look for the "big mouths" in your world who naturally talk to others and help make connections. Also, look at social media, but remember one tweet isn't going to light everyone's fire and send them into action.

2. Accept no and move to the next one
When something doesn't pan out, try not to pine over it. Remember that some will, some won't, so what, and move on. It's an old sales adage, but in this case you are selling you and the saying above remains true. You are not rejected from an opporutnity you didn't have in the first place when someone says no - you've just been given the gift of feedback that this was not hte direction for you.

3. Venture out of your comfort zone
If you still think that Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com are the primary ways to job search, or heaven forbid -the classifieds, then my guess is you still use carrier pigeons and smoke signals, too. Venture into the land of the 21st century. Create a beautiful and informative profile on one of or many of the following: Linked IN, Plaxo, Facebook, Twitter, Squidoo... and then contribute value. Don't just talk about you. For example: on Linked In, go and answer some quesitons that others have that will allow you to show your expertise rather than talk about just what you need. Social Media is a place where you can contribute as well as ask for things and those who contribute seem to have higher rankings and response rates.

4. Value, seek, and maintain clarity
Do you even know what you are looking for? This sounds like a silly one, but one really needs to know what you are looking for. Do you know what salary you want? Do you know what kind of position you want? Are you looking for something completely different? If you are not sure what you are looking for or what you think would provide you with fulfillment, this may be an opportunity for you to look into coaching to help develop that awareness about you and what would work best for you. You may even check into www.contagiouscoaching.com.

5. Yelp less, do more
Those who whine about not having a job beyond a socially acceptable time period for grief or mourning, begin to sound like the small yappy dogs that make a lot of noise and yet don't have what it takes to back it up. Whining, yelping, griping, moaning, groaning, etc ... do not help your cause, they hinder it. They do not help your situation, they prolong it and they do not help you lead yourself in the right direction, but instead help you stay STUCK. Oh wait, that is another acronym. check out our blog archives for that one.

Resume networking involves working your job search like you would work a room. Make connections, contribute value, act with and share credibility and be interested in the needs of others, all the while making sure you know what you are looking for. Persist consistently.

Stay Contagious and best of success,
Monica

Are you stuck?

I'm hearing the word STUCK a lot lately and it concerns me as a coach who can help. But more importantly, I've felt STUCK before and the truth is, it's no fun. If you are STUCK (see below for what that really means).. maybe it's time to get UN-STUCK and make progress.

STUCK means:
Still
Trying to
Unsuccessfully
Clear
Key issues

If you have been working on the same habits, the same issues, the same road blocks, and doing all of this in the same ways or even worse, all by yourself - then it's time to get some help. It is far easier to see the issues of someone else than it is to work on your own dilemmas. Having a coach can help you not only get Un Stuck, it can help you:
- lose the fear of failure
- lose the fear of success
- gain some valuable ground on your goals
- take action and make rapid progress

"So often, we are the ones in own way more so than any other barrier that might exist outside of our own head." Monica Wofford

Are you your own barrier? If so, how's that working for you? Ready for that to be done yet? Read to get Un STUCK?

You know you've succeeded as a coach when...

Had a great conversation with a fantastic coaching client this evening. She is completly engaged in each of our sessions and is an active learner. We've been working together for a few months now and we've grown close, but also I have had the privilege of watching her grow and blossom and make so much wonderful progress.

Tonight, we had many giggles when at the end of our call, she began telling me what her homework was for this next week. I had to laugh and shared with her as well, "that you know you have done a good job as a coach when your client begins to tell YOU what her homework will be, instead of the other way around!" When we both stopped laughing, she shared her awareness at how much more accountable to herself she had become. That's one of the ways you know you've succeeded as a coach...

Stay contagious!
Monica
www.contagiouscoaching.com

Overwhelmed? Struggling? How?

When you own a business, run a business, or work period... there will be times when you are struggling, not striving, and frankly so overwhelmed you might just deck the next person who says "you should do.....". It's true.

Man or woman, owner or employee.. we all have days in which we have piled on too many things, tried to do too much, or said yes one or fifty too many times. Yet, it's what you do when that happens that determines how long you stay in that overwhelmed state. Here are some things to ask yourself:

Are you coachable?
Are you able to accept responsibility for your own actions and the consequences of them?
Are you confident you can do what you want to do?
Are you willing to make the sacrifices that it will take to get there?
Do you have the support you need and if not, how can you go get them? Where are they?
Do you know what you want and if not, how can you figure that out?

Note the questions... they are not begun with the word WHY. Why is this happening to me? Why am I so tired? Why can't I make it all work? Why can't I get my list done today? Why can't... why... why... why? If you ask those kinds of why questions, you will get answers, but those answers won't serve you well.

Instead, as yourself HOW, WHEN, and WHERE so that your mind begins to propel you forward into an arena of answers that may actually provide stepping stones to solutions. Of course, you can stay overwhelmed and struggling for as long as you need. For however long that serves it's purpose. But, when you can look forward instead of down and see light at the end of the tunnel instead of a blackhole ... you may just find that the overwhelmed feelings are coming from your own lack of clarity or lack of direction or lack of belief in you. YOU can do this.. if you want to. The real question is do you want it bad enough and are you willing to do what it takes to make it happen?

I believe in ya!
Stay Contagious,
Monica

But, what if you don't have time to coach?

Leaders often know that coaching is a part of their responsibility, but they struggle to find the time. In fact, they have so much to do and so much on their plate, that coaching becomes that one thing that they always mean to get back to. Over time, that lack of coaching turns into underdeveloped employees who are need of coaching, but can't get it from their leader.

This can create a truckload of problems that may include:

• employee job dissatisfaction
• employees feeling undervalued at work
• employees quitting but forgetting to tell their boss
• employess and leaders failing to reach their full potential
• an overall feeling of being overwhelmed, under valued, and without satisfaction

All those feelings and no coach to share them with: problematic. All those feelings building up over time: potentially traumatic. Having a coach whose objective, who always has time for you, and who won't tell your boss what you say about him or her... priceless.

Check out www.contagiouscoaching.com for more information.

Job Fit Insurance

In a meeting with two fellow CORE coaches this week, we talked about providing JOB FIT INSURANCE to companies. More and more companies are needing an assurance, a guarantee, or insurance, in a sense, that says what they are spending on your services will actually work.

Coaches and coaching programs abound and yet how do you know which one is credible, which one is someone who just got laid off and decided to be a coach, and which ones will resolve the problem YOU are having (either personally or with someone you work with). That can be tricky and most of the time those decisions are made on instinct as the facts can be hard to obtain.

Here are a few suggestions when seeking this kind of assurance that your money will be well spent:
- Does the coaching organization have a track record of results?
- Do they offer a guarantee?
- Are they more than a one person show? (not an imperative, but often shows credibility)
-What credentials do the coaches or the company they work with have?
-What results can be proven from the coaching entity your looking to work with?
- Do they have references you can check?

Coaching can be as much about personal fit as it is about professional results. There is a lot to be said for needing to "click" with someone you are working with. However, there is also a need to know that you're not investing money in something that will not serve you. The same is true for training. Can the company prove the results they have had in the past? Ask as many quesitons as you can and listen, really listen for the results. In organizations, results are even more important in proving ROI.. can you guarantee that the service you are paying company for will reap the results promised. If you or the company you seek to do business with does not offer than guarantee... might be worth doing some more investigation.

Stay Contagious!

Are you playing small?

I read a book recently: The Celebrity Experience by Donna Cutting.
It's focus is on Giving Red Carpet Treatment to Your Customers.
Giving them a Celebrity Experience.
And it got me thinking:
How often do we give ourselves a Celebrity Experience? How often do we treat ourselves as well as we would our best customer?

We treat our best clients with kid gloves. We give them more than what they've asked for, help them in any way that we can, and truly provide them with top notch service because we not only value their business, but because we care. Donna mentions these things in her book and rightly so, because at its core, customer service of any kind, requires that you care about your customers.

You are your own customer, too, though aren't you? You give yourself more than what you promised, top notch service, and the best of treatment, too, right? Well, maybe. But the reality is so often we put ourselves dead last - even after those customers that might be less than your favorites.

Why is that? When I am working with coaching clients and i see them do this, I will remind them to treat themselves as well as they would their best customers for two reasons:

1. If you are not taking care of you, there won't be much of you left to share with your customsers.
2. Putting yourself last, particularly if you are an Entertainer or Relater, will a type of stress that makes it difficult for you to perform at your best. This stress will come out in your tone, your expressions, your actions, and everything else you do. How can you take care of customers in a way they will value when you are stressed out and everyone can see it.

Make sure you are giving yourself a Celebrity Experience as it is one of the best ways to ensure you will be able to share such a high level of service consistently with your own customers. :)

Stay Contagious!

M