Dalunara

Bosses always want to improve morale, improve staff communication and ultimately increase productivity, so why don’t more companies send their staff to take part in team development events?

Is it because some of these courses can suffer because they conjure up negative thoughts – many connected to the humorous events shown on television?

Certainly, the words and wisdom of David Brent from television’s “The Office” have forced middle managers to consider themselves and wonder if that’s who they resemble.

Among Brent’s many, now well-known, quotes the one that best shows his thinking about working as a team reads: “There may be no ‘I’ in team, but there’s a ‘ME’ if you look hard enough”.

If you watched the show, you may remember the funny show in which a team development expert visited their offices. Brent rapidly took over, and transformed the meeting into essentially a celebration of himself, including an interpretation of his seminal 1980s pop ballad “Free Love on the Freelove Freeway” on acoustic guitar.

Yet, team development events in real life are nothing like the cringeworthy and soul-destroying nightmare depicted in the programme.

Numerous organisations across the country now offer businesses the chance to take their staff out of the office and out on a team building day.

Team building allows employees to learn and develop the tools and skills required to push business growth plus sustain development and improvement.

And despite worldwide economies being in the midst of a recession, staff development remains essential to business growth. In fact, it is even more important, as when the recession stops there will certainly be opportunities for the best-managed businesses to take advantage of the developing marketplace.

Team development can take many forms, from in-house education to getting out into the wilderness and undertaking adventure courses, high ropes trails and personal challenges – which will certainly inspire and be memorable for employees taking part.

All of these activities are fashioned to encourage staff – regardless of age or background – to work as part of a team for the common good of your company, and they all add to the common long-term goals of your organisation.

That’s why team development events are crucial to business growth. Just don’t follow the example of David Brent, a man whose policy for hiring new staff was simple: “Avoid employing unlucky people – throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them”.

I never considered that I would suffer from hair loss, even though my father had a receding hairline. My hairline began receding shortly before my thirtieth birthday. I was terrified and in denial that I was losing my hair. I even started balding on the back of my head.

It was the first time in my life I felt old. I felt like the best years of my life were behind me. I even stopped seeing girls. My love life was non-existent. There was one girl I had been dating casually and even though I liked her, I just stopped returning her calls. I figured that I hadn’t found the woman of my dreams with a full head of hair so there was no way I was going to find someone with my growing bald spot. I was too deflated to even try having a loving kinship.

Hair loss transformed me from a confident, extroverted guy into a demoralized loner. I was very assured to address the issue and get the problem fixed. I tried lots of hair loss treatments that are available over the counter. Nothing that I found from the pharmacy worked and trust me, I tried them all. After many failures, I decided to stop trying for a while. It was a real low point in my life. I even stopped going out with my friends, I was so gloomy.

Fortunately, one night a close friend dragged me out of the house for a few drinks. The first thing he noticed about me was my mood, he knew that the hair loss has affected how I felt. He mentioned to me about the hair loss studio in the city. My friend had gone there for hair loss treatments and had been impressed with the results. I was even more impressed. I wouldn’t have thought that he had suffered from hair loss, he had a full head of hair. He made me promise to give them a shot and I agreed.

I could not have been happier with the hair loss studio recommended to me. After just a few hair loss treatments, I had a full head of hair again. The hair loss studio not only helped me regained my hair but also my self-confidence.

Not that I bottle things up inside, because without a date, I get pretty lonely. Here’s the scoup, yesterday I devoured what seemed like a pound of bacon. To ease the pain that comes from being alone, of course. I pretend to be ashamed about it. What does this mean? Well, that’s when I honestly considered getting out to date in my area.

No problem. I’ll ease back into dating thru Great Expectations Denver. Definitely never sounded better. Prolly wouldn’t be an issue, but it is. I was at Julie’s soccer finals in Denver last night, my sister asked me if I’ve bumped into the woman I’m going to marry. They sure have nerve. I didn’t want to answer, but then laughed, “that’s none of your business.”

Even Cousin Terry chimed in on the topic of true relationships. I leveled to the family gang: “Seriously, my romantic destiny is right over there!”

Guess what? Everyone looked away and giggled. Perturbed, I emailed my astrologist to put my dating woes behind me. But I couldn’t get it out of my head! It was more useful listening to my dad, which is never the case. My cousin, who was just deployed on military commission offered his opinion that I browse the singles profiles at Great Expectations. I said, “That’s what I was going to do.” Should have thought of it myself. I especially enjoy this Dallas dating service.

When I started, meeting new singles through dating services was new as I am a simple guy. I’d never done anything like this before, so much so that I got a little queasy. A mere slip up couldn’t stop the evening. That night I enjoyed was bursting with excitement. The gems of the occasion had to be the many enjoyable people I met, all available singles.

Appearing at these glorious Great Expectations Denver singles events, I got in touch with quite a few winners who I could tell share a parallel understanding for how dating should be done. Now I can stop letting anyone give their two cents about being single. Wonderfully enough, doing things the Great Expectations way is my pleasure and like a dream come true.

Ted

Believe in People

Improve Your Life! How to Hire A Coach.

A reader writes, “I do not know how or where to contact a coach here. What kind of background should a good coach have?”

Perhaps others of you wondered the same thing. Hiring a coach takes some investigation on your part but according to the February issue of “Fast Company” magazine there are 20,000 coaches in the world so locating one isn’t going to be difficult. (See below for a link to the Fast Company article.) If you want a coach in your country that is definitely possible since coaching is a worldwide profession. That said however many coaches coach on the telephone so you are not limited to coaches in your country.

Where do you look for a coach? My favorite way of finding anything I need is to ask others who have had experience with it. So to find a coach I would ask my friends who their coach is. If that doesn’t work then there are directories of coaches on the web. A few such websites are: <http://www.coachu.com> and <http://www.coachfederation.com>.

You will need to have some search criteria to find the coach that is right for you. If your issues are work related you might want a business coach, a career coach, an executive coach or a corporate coach. If you have personal issues, you might want a personal coach, a life coach or a relationship coach. Another search criteria might be your country if you prefer to be coached by someone there.

The International Coach Federation, an association for coaches, suggests that people interview at least 3 coaches before deciding on one coach. That said I think what is most important is your trust and connection with your coach. If you call one coach and your intuition tells you this is the coach for you, then hire him or her. The one thing I do know is that you must believe that the coach can help you for the coaching to work. It is the coaching relationship that is most important.

Before you decide on which coaches to interview, go to their website if they have one and get a feel for the coach. Subscribe to his/her newsletter or read articles in the archives of the website. It will help you to understand where the coach is coming from and if his/her values align with yours. Finally many coaches give Teleclasses. This is a great way to “put your toe in the water” without a huge financial commitment.

Coaches come from many diverse backgrounds. There are former therapists, educators, and business people. Depending on your need one background may be more appropriate for you.

Some coaches have additional training as a coach. Rather than telling the client what to do, the coach’s role is to help the client to find his/her own path. Coach training programs give the coach the tools and resources to guide and motivate the client without pushing him/her. The advantage of having a trained coach is that he/she has no agenda other than to help you succeed.

For the interview you will want a list of questions that will help you to decide if this is the coach for you. (See below for a way to receive a list of questions to ask.) Let the coaches know your expectations and needs so that they can have a chance to tell you if they can meet them.

Finally be sure to discuss the fee with the coach. You must feel that the benefit of coaching is worth the cost of the coach and that you can easily afford that fee without cutting back on necessities.

Take Action

1. Ask friends about coaches they or any of their acquaintances use.

2. Search <http://www.coachu.com> and http://www.coachfederation.org for names of coaches to interview.

3. What kind of help are you looking for? Make a list of questions you would like to ask the coach. I have a list of questions that used to be on the CoachU website. If you would like the list, send an email to with “Coach Questions” as the subject.

4. Interview the coaches and let me know the result!

5. Read “Are You Being Coached?” from this month’s Fast Company magazine <http://www.fastcompany.com/subscr/91/open_playbook.html>

Alvah Parker is a Business and Career Coach as well as publisher of Parker’s Points, an email tip list and Road to Success, an ezine. Parker specializes in helping professionals create a career that is fun, fulfilling and profitable. Alvah is found on the web at http://www.asparker.com. She may also be reached at 781-598-0388.