High turnover?


Is your organizational performance not of a high standard?

Talented staff, but not sure how to inspire them?

The charted institute for personnel & development recently stated in their publication ‘Becoming an employee of choice’ that ‘70% of people leave their employer and not their job.’ When employees feel inspired and engaged by their manager they will contribute more, take fewer sick days and focus more on satisfying customers.

Engaged employees make a difference to your organizations performance both today and in the future. With our free seminar you can learn to deliver creative and powerful messages to those individuals who can help your organization the most. Develop inspiring ideas to engage your talent staff and engage those individuals in your business who can make a difference.

The Engaging Talent Seminar on Thursday 2nd August, 8:45am - 10:45am plans to be thee FREE seminar event of the year.

Join today, to guarantee your seat for the most engaging event you have been too. For more information please don’t hesitate to contact us on 02073794323

Employment means winning the hearts as well as the minds of employees.

What's your motivation?

I don’t know about you but I love setting myself little goals to complete (or not so little if you include a house renovation). Sometimes it’s about saving money for that holiday, losing weight to get into THAT dress or collecting £xxx from our customers per month.

But sometimes we may falter along the way and find that we don’t want to refuse that big piece of chocolate cake at the restaurant, or simply that we have lost our motivation.

So here are some tips to keep on going if you are finding it tough:

Once you’ve set yourself a deadline make a conscious effort to review your progress a third of the way through or sooner if possible. Look at how it’s going and if there is anything you are struggling with.

Look at what isn’t working and why?

Are there any patterns to why it isn’t working?

Make a small change to what you are doing to get yourself back on track. For instance if you aren’t saving up for that holiday as quickly as you would like is there anything else you can cut back on to save money? If your customers are not paying as quickly as they promised, can you get the sales team involved in talking to the client?

Don’t give up! If you want to get into THAT dress, go look at it, imagine yourself in it. If you want to go on holiday, imagine yourself lying on that sunlounger or taking in the city’s delights. And if you have a project at work that isn’t going as smoothly as you would like, talk to your boss and explain your situation. Ask for help and assistance to get back on track. Discuss the deadline and see if it’s realistic.

Once you made some changes, set yourself another review date, preferably half way through, to see if the changes you have made are working. And when you have reached that goal, don’t forget to reward yourself, even if it’s a cup of tea with a slice of cake.

Helen Mills

POT LUCK

I have just experienced my first Thanksgiving meal. This lunch time we partook in something called Pot Luck. If like me you are unfamiliar with this term, please let me explain… but just before I do I’ll give you a little back story as to how Thanksgiving found its way into our office in London. Recently a young lady (Stacey) joined the team. She hails from the good ole US of A and she suggested that for lunch everybody brings some food in and we all eat together.

That’s what pot luck is, it is as simple as that. I am lucky enough to belong to a team that are close and we share a common vision to ensure that each of us and the business as a whole is successful and yet our lunch seems to be a rather more private affair. Normally, everyone takes an each to their own approach when it comes to that midday meal.

However, today we managed to fashion a smorgasbord of epic proportions. Needless to say the pot luck approach went down really well with the whole team. We had a really great time, eating, talking laughing and listening to Jose’s (Our Special One), let’s just say eclectic mix of music.

We didn't manage to get through all the food but we were efficient in cleaning up and getting back to work. The rest of the day seemed to fly by and everyone seemed a little bit chirpier.

It did make me reflect that something so simple can create such a great atmosphere in the office.

Someone senior in the organization told me when I first started in the company that people support a world they help create. Well, today through the guidance of Stace we created a Thanksgiving feast and were all better for it.

Regardless of your position within your organisation, why don’t you try something to see if you can also increase the level of engagement of your colleagues?

I am really looking forward to the festive period as it approaches and am really excited about Christmas. Maybe if I’m lucky enough the team will rally around and soon we will be having POT LUCK PART DEUX.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Amar Garcha

You're Fired!

At least one contestant on The Apprentice hears these words each week as over 7 million of us view in to watch the challenges and triumphs they endure.

Last week the teams were split into boys verses girls and were given a list of ten items, a budget and a day to hunt them all down for the best price.

Those of us who love watching human behaviour will have noticed that the boys more or less hit the streets straight away with their Project Managers words of ‘offer them at least 70% less than what they want’ ringing in their ears, whilst the girls sat down with the telephone directories and located the majority of the items before hitting the streets some two hours later.

The outcome was that the boys managed to buy 7/10 items and the girls located and bought all 10. However, even with the hefty fines the boys were given for not getting everything on the list, they still won! Why? Because they negotiated better and some may say harder than the girls!

Negotiation is the most important part of the sales role and can be the hardest, and here are four tips to help you with that process:

There should be three stages of every negotiation.
Learning the other person’s goals and establishing what you want will direct the flow of the discussion. Gather information on the other person and his or her needs by doing your homework. The goal should be to reach a compromise. And both parties should leave the negotiation satisfied.

Work with, not against, others in determining neutrally beneficial solutions.
Try to create a win-win situation. Your customer should feel good about the transaction and you should walk away happy about your sale. Never attempt an offer too quickly; you don’t want to think you could have done better twenty minutes later, nor would you want to leave anything out.

Finalize all agreements.
Don’t depend on working out all the details later. Time pressures cause us to be vulnerable to compromise and human errors as well as the customer backing out later claiming certain points were not discussed. Offer to write up the agreement, if possible. There are always small points that are unclear. When you write the agreement, you define those points.

Follow through.
Do what you said you would do and do it when you said you would do it. Make sure the customer follows through on their end of the agreement.

If you would like further tips then why not come along to our free Sales Advantage session on 6th January. A perfect time to kick start your New Year.

Helen Mills
Financial Controller
http://www.london.dalecarnegie.com/

A happy ending

None of us could have missed the amazing news this week that all 33 miners who had been trapped under ground for weeks on end, had been rescued and brought safely to the surface.

They had spent ten weeks, trapped 2,041 feet under the desert in Chile. When the mine collapsed on August 5th they had no idea whether they could be saved. Living off meagre rations until they had been found alive seventeen days later, they faced and conquered something incomprehensible to most of us.

Whilst the country worked out a rescue plan, they coped and survived underground. No one can imagine what that could be like, whether arguments happened, or how they worked together to get through such a horrible event. As their stories come out in the following weeks, I am sure we will learn a lot more.

The leader of the miners, Luis Urzua carried his duty through to the end and was the last man to leave the mine, making sure all his men were safely rescued before allowing himself to be winched up. Chile’s President, Sebastian Pinera hailed Urzua for seeing off all his men before ‘leaving last like the ship’s captain’.

The rescue operation took weeks and the drilling to free the men veered off course twice, before a successful third time. I can only imagine what the leader(s) of the rescue workers must have been going through each time the drilling failed. Leading such a team on a life and death rescue attempt would have been challenging and stressful to say the least, so when the third drill was triumphant, euphoria must have followed.

This event was extraordinary and one which has captured the world. We all face stress, although hopefully nothing as awful as what the miners have been through. It can affect us in the workplace and our personal life. Stress has no boundaries and all of us at some point in our life, have it thrust upon us. But what can we do. Here are a few tips on taking charge of stress:

~ Get all the facts
~ Weigh all the facts then come to a decision
~ Once a decision is reached, act!
~ Answer these questions:
What is the problem?
What are the courses of the problem?
What are the possible solutions?
What is the best possible solution?

~ How to face trouble – ask yourself:
What is the worst that can possibly happen?
Prepare to accept the worse
Try to improve the worse

Dale Carnegie wrote the book ‘How to stop worrying and start living’ and if you are interested in finding out more, why not come along to our preview on 4th November.

In the meantime, it's nice to see a happy ending......

Helen Mills
Financial Controller
www.london.dalecarnegie.com

Handling Stress and Worry on the Big Stage

The 18th Fifa world cup, the biggest sporting event in the world, is now in full flight, the South African economy is enjoying an estimated boost of $2.85 Billion (US) thanks to healthy sponsorship and fresh stamps in the passports of some 330,000 football fans who will be curtailed by some 41000 police officers deployed specifically to deal with them.

Impressive stats to a spectator, but to a player they mean pressure, stress and worry. The media scrutinizes the every move of the players, so much could of, should have, would have.
Much is written about the players who find the pressure too much, having the physical ability to deliver but not the psychological ability to do so in the big game. The media is then so damming that it is a downward confidence spiral for the player, at the end of the day they are only human and doing their job.

Whilst researching for this blog I was looking at pressure and stress on sports professionals and who of the top performers embody the Dale Carnegie principles. Kelly Slater, the 9 times surfing world champion, who has had 22 years in the worlds top 44 and boasts a higher winning average than any other sportsman. He wins on average 76% of the time he enters in the water at the highest level of competition, the ASP world tour, where at age 38 he is currently ranked #1. To put this in perspective, the more well known winning machine, Tiger Woods, has a PGA record of 29.3% win rate which is the highest ever on the PGA.

Kelly Slater states the majority of his preparation is mental. Before a heat he prepares himself to win and what that will feel like for him, interestingly, he also prepares himself to loose, thinking what that will feel like, how he will react and how his opponent will react. He goes on to explain in his latest documentary ‘Letting Go’ that he only focuses on one heat at a time and if he focuses on the overall competition win, he gets stressed and increases his chances of bowing out in the early rounds.

What does this have to do with Dale Carnegie’s fundamental principles for overcoming worry?

1. Live in “day tight compartments” in this example each heat of competition is a compartment for Kelly, as is each game for the world cup favorites, who cant afford to be focusing energy on the final before they get there.
2. Ask yourself, A) “what is the worst that can possibly happen?” Kelly does this as his pre heat preparation every time, lets hope English goal keeper Robert Green used this principle before the USA match!
B) Prepare to accept the worst, again Kelly routinely does this.
C) Try to improve from the worst, it must work for the 9 time world champion, as 76% of the time he does!

Overcoming the worry and stress allows athletes like Kelly to perform at their very best – consistently. Whilst we cant all be elite athletes, we can apply these simple, yet extremely effective principles to any area of our life which is causing worry and stress.

Angus Firth

Performance Consultant
Dale Carnegie Training London

Actions and values

So there we were in a taxi, when Darrell happened to say down the phone those immediately recognised words "Dale Carnegie". Up to this point our taxi driver was a very chatty and knowledgeable individual who just loved to share everything about the day and the fair city of Dublin. On hearing the words "Dale Carnegie" our cabbie immediately said "one - run, two - zoo..." and quoted ebulliently other snatches from the Dale Carnegie Course. His hitherto animated manner shot into overdrive as he regaled us with stories of his experience on the course in 1982. As always he remembered his trainer, who was the local franchisee.

Well now Darrell and I have a friend in Dublin and Martin Shaughnessy will always be remembered. Not just for his ravings about what the Dale Carnegie Course had done for him and how he has consistently followed the principles and aimed to enthuse others as well. No, not just that, but for something rather more profound. Please forgive the possibility of offence but allow this reportage. Firstly, he said about stress and referring to the trappings and possessions of life - "what does it all matter, we only have the lend of it". How very true! And then, and this one operates only at the deeper level of meaning, "Every cripple has their own way of walking".

This is what he is suggesting - that we all have our own way of getting through life - it does not make any of us the owner of the right way AND it also suggests that we all malfunction in some way and get unconsciously lost in that being the only way.

Allow our actions be a true reflection of our values.

David Pickering
Trainer and Sales Consultant

www.London.dalecarnegie.com

Motivation is What You Need!

‘To succeed......you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.’ Tony Dorsett

The difference between achieving a goal and not achieving a goal depends on the motivation and inspiration you have driving you forward.

This week the England football team have travelled to South Africa in preparation for the start of the World Cup. They are fully motivated and hungry to win, they will have envisioned themselves lifting the trophy to a huge cheer from the crowd and then returning home to receive a winners welcome from the English fans. When you set yourself a goal imagine what life will be like when you have achieved this goal, picture it in your mind – set yourself a vision for the future.

Create a Vision

Nothing is more personally motivating than creating a compelling vision. Visualize yourself succeeding as a result of the goals you set and achieve. Imagine the benefits of growing as a result of the changes you make -- creating new opportunities, building a more exciting and dynamic future and opening up new opportunities for success.

Inspiration is also an important factor when it comes to succeeding. We are usually motivated to work at achieving something when we have seen someone we respect achieve something similar; someone whose values and beliefs we admire. We can also be inspired by the way someone motivates us to achieve our goals, they can appeal to us in such a way as to make us think and act differently.

The England squad will take their inspiration from the 1966 England football team who achieved their ultimate goal by winning the World Cup and were able to lift the trophy and receive the respect and reward that comes from succeeding. They will also be inspired by their manager Fabio Capello who will give them pep talks before each game and keep reminding them that they can win the matches

Be Inspired

Think of someone who you admire and who really inspires you and whenever you are struggling and feeling de-motivated picture that person in you mind and remember what you admire in them and this will help you to get back on track and succeed. Surround yourself with positive people that will be enthusiastic and help to drive you towards success.

Good luck with your goals and visions for the future and good luck to the England team next week!

If you would like to find out more about setting your vision for the future then please attend our preview of Strictly Business: The Dale Carnegie Immersion Seminar on 10th June – Click here to register.

Sophie Whittall
Marketing & Admin Co-ordinator

www.London.dalecarnegie.com

Communicate to Persuade

One of the most common types of business communication is communicating to persuade. From sales representatives persuading customers to mid-level managers persuading workers and upper management, we spend almost every business day involved in some form of persuasive communication. No matter our role, improving our ability to persuade others is vital to our career growth. Effectively communicating to persuade requires us to be adequately prepared, clear on the action we want our listener to take, and able to provide a compelling reason to take the action we desire. Dale Carnegie recommended a simple three-step structure that can significantly improve our ability to persuade a listener. The formula provides the structure to capture attention, build credibility, eliminate nervousness and call others to action, and it increases the likelihood that we will get results with others. The formula is as follows:

Incident: Relive a vivid, personal experience relevant to the point. Aristotle said, "The speaker's character is one of his most effective agents of persuasion." We must be credible in our example and evidence. We must have earned the right to share our example or give direction. A personal incident is a sure-fire way to grab favourable attention: It pulls people in, opens them up to persuasion and provides evidence as to why our idea is worth considering. In persuasive communication, we spend most of our time providing the situation and evidence before asking the listener to do something.

Action: Call on the listener to take a single, specific action. Too often we assume our listeners will know what to do once we have presented them with evidence to change their thinking or direction. We fail to persuade them if we don't clearly explain what we want them to do. Other times, we may give a clear action but may ask them to do several things -- leaving them unsure about which action should be the priority. Effective persuasion requires us to simplify the message and recommend one clear action for listeners to take.

Benefit: Clearly emphasize how the listener will benefit from taking the recommended action. Again, this portion of the communication must be clear, specific and direct. It must also be based in reality. If the benefit we provide sounds too good to be true, the listener will doubt us. If what we are recommending benefits us more than the listener, the persuasion will seem manipulative and self-serving. So consider the listener's point of view to be sure the recommendation is truly in his or her best interest. This balanced approach will be appreciated and will allow the listener to be more open to what we suggest.

Communicating to persuade is a critical skill to master in our daily business interaction. Dale Carnegie Training's three-step process -- Incident, Action and Benefit -- provides an opportunity to gain the results we desire from others.

By demonstrating that we have earned the right to give direction and are communicating from a position of solid character, not only will we be persuasive, but we also will be compelling. These two factors are a winning combination in our ability to communicate to persuade.

To learn more about how to use Dale Carnegie's three part process and to practice it in a classroom environment sign up for the Dale Carnegie Course: Effective Communications and Human Relations.

To find out more Click here.

Dedicating Time to Time Management

An interesting thought in our busy day to day grind, actually dedicating time to time management, it sounds like the age old question, what came first, the chicken or the egg?
Taking the time to evaluate, then focus on what’s really important can be the best 15 minutes of your day.

We all know the modern working world can be a very distracting place, for example last year globally there were 90 Trillion emails sent, 360 billion photos uploaded to facebook, along with an overall 18% rise in internet usage. The stats keep going, but it can be hard to keep up just thinking about it, making it very easy to waste time!

Before we get pulled away into cyberspace, consider these 2 simple techniques for time management.

1) Do your to do list the night before so you can hit the ground running when you arrive the next day.

2) Create time logs. For a 3 day period, record every little thing you do, update it every 15 minutes and analyze where you are currently spending your time. Once this is done, focus on the import tasks which bring you results! Review after 2/3 months again for a 3 day period to note improvements.

Haven't been making time for time management? Want to know more techniques? Join us on the 15th of June for a free interactive session focused on Time Management, one thing I can guarantee is it will be an effective use of your time!!

Angus Firth
Performance Consultant

www.London.dalecarnegie.com

Always look on the bright side of life!

The volcanic ash fallout obliterated many people’s hopes of travel, either for business or for a well earned holiday. Suffice to say I was affected by this. My dream trip to the Bahama’s was suddenly pie in the sky as the air space closed and passengers were stuck in foreign countries looking for ingenious ways to get home.

To say I was disappointed was an understatement but there was nothing I could really do about it, other than be grateful that I wasn’t waiting hours at an airport desperately trying to get home. The key to this was acceptance. Accepting what had happened and then trying to make the best out of a bad situation. After some calls to hotels, I was all geared up for a holiday in Cornwall where I would still be able to take some time out and relax.

So what do you do when things just don’t go to plan? Here are five tips that may help.:

• Acceptance – this really is the key to most things in life...once you have accepted the situation then your mind is free to move on to look at your options


• Avoid dwelling on the situation – by churning the disappointment over and over I wouldn’t gain anything other than the continued feeling of disappointment


• Be willing to compromise – a trip in the UK wasn’t what I had looked forward to, but it was still a holiday


• Focus on the positive – the fact that I wasn’t stranded in a country without somewhere to stay and little money was a relief


• Keep your sense of humour – a little light-heartedness goes along way and really helps your body fight stress and anxiety

Needless to say the break was wonderful and although it wasn’t the Bahama’s I was grateful I could still get away.

Helen Mills
Financial Controller

www.London.dalecarnegie.com

Certainty in Uncertain Times

It’s certainly been an interesting 24 hours on the political stage but what are we to make of a potential hung parliament and how it will affect us at home and our businesses?

If you’re interest in politics is the same as mine then perhaps you were also sitting watching the results come in at 4am this morning. Having followed the polls over the past few weeks, I set my alarm for 3.30 am in the expectation of seeing David Cameron taking the stage and forming a government with a small majority. However, as 4am became 5 am there was still no result! So what are we to read into this leadership battle and how can we draw from that experience into our own businesses.

It seems that the big surprise of the night was the lack of gains from the Liberal Democrats. There was talk of gains to perhaps 100 Liberal Democrat ministers and as the night drew on it looks like the party despite good coverage in the press has not moved from its 2005 position. Without question Nick Clegg had the common touch as it came to the leadership debates. He talked to the audience and used questioner’s names in a sincere fashion, he often drew the others back to the question asked and sought to answer it directly. He also did a great job of driving his point home to camera ... the debate around our office was who had trained him in presentation skills.

All that done but no real gains when the votes were cast! So what can we learn?

As has happened in many past elections the word ‘Change’ has been bandied around by most of the parties. Certainly it has been the theme of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat campaigns. Based on the results in so far it would seem that as a nation we have more trust in David Cameron than Nick Clegg to bring change to our country. As leaders in business we are often called upon to lead our teams through change so what can we learn from the experience of the past 24 hours.

I can only speculate what was in peoples’ minds as they cast their votes .... Therefore the points below are my own thoughts and how they might relate to us in business.

1.Perhaps in times of uncertainty people value experience higher than new ideas .... Therefore when leading a team through change make sure we take the time to demonstrate our competence as well as our passion.

2.Did Nick Clegg miss the mark on matters of immigration and national security? We should perhaps remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs when it comes to winning people to our way of thinking. Maslow talked about ‘Security’ as one of the base drivers. Remember how important security is to people when leading change.

3.Think about the importance of Charisma when you think about leading your team or business. Labour it seems were the biggest loser on the night. Was that based on track record of the party in power or lack of Charisma from their top man? Who knows?

It’s certainly going to be an interesting few days and hopefully through democracy we’ll find some certainty as we head into next week. From my experience of helping teams and businesses deal with change it’s the uncertainty not the change itself that scares us and stops us making decisions.

Therefore set a clear direction and move your team towards it..... Hopefully our government will do the same!

David Anderson
Managing Director

www.London.dalecarnegie.com

Ready...Steady....Go!

The sun is shining and the air is filled with the sounds of cheers and whistles. The roads are clear of cars and there are people lining both sides of the street, crammed together and craning their necks to catch a glimpse of the runners. I’m at the London 2010 marathon.

The atmosphere is electric and everyone around me is happy and excited, everyone is here for the same reason to cheer on the people brave enough (or you could say mad enough!) to run 26 miles around London. Most of the people running are doing it to raise money for their chosen charity, their commitment and enthusiasm is inspiring – some are even going that bit further and running it in fancy dress as camels or chickens.

The crowd of on-lookers are not only here to support their loved ones but to support absolutely everyone who is running and they are a great example of Dale Carnegie’s principles for becoming a friendlier person. I have never been anywhere where everyone is so kind, generous and friendly to complete strangers; on marathon day London is the friendliest city you will ever go to!

Principle 3 – Arouse in the other person an eager want.

If the crowd saw someone struggling they would shout to egg them on and give them a pat on the back as they ran by.

Principle 6 – Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest most important sound in any langauge.

Lots of the runners had their names written on their tops and the crowd shouted out their names with words of encouragment – ‘Come on Sue, your over half way.’ This made the runners feel important almost like they were famous and gave them that extra bit of adrenelin to keep on running.

Priniciple 5 – Smile

It may seem like such a small thing but just a smile from a stranger can really help to keep someone going as they reach mile 20 and begin to hit the pain barrier.

Why not try using these principles all the time and perhaps we can make London feel like its marathon day everyday!

Sophie Whittall
Marketing & Admin Co-ordinator
www.London.dalecarnegie.com

Play Win Win

Volcanic ash, its dominated the news and sent major disruptions to travelers worldwide, clearly the biggest event to rock aviation since 911. During the airport standstill, I was curious to see how companies directly involved were handling the pressure from their customers, so I rang the British Airways customer service line. Immediately a voice prompt informed me that the call centre was experiencing immense volumes of calls and if my enquiry was not urgent, to call back at a later time or visit the website, I waited a few minutes and thought I would try my experiment on a different airline (one not quite as heavily affected by the crisis).
So I rang Qantas, again, the same voice prompt, high volumes, visit the website, but this time I waited and was connected. I opened the conversation by being as nice and friendly as possible, I spoke to “Vicky”, I asked her how the past week had been for her. She was surprised by my first question and said she had been working around the clock dealing with calls, trying to help people who were stuck all around the globe. Realizing I needed a reason for my call, I enquired about a flight for later in the year. She didn’t dismiss my enquiry even though it clearly wasn’t urgent and at the end of our 3 minute conversation I had got the quote I was looking for, thanked her for her help, and she said, “thank you so much for being appreciative… By the way, that is the very best deal you will get at that time of year and if you want to get a good seat best do it on the phone so we can help you if there is an upgrade available”.

I understand my situation is different to those that were stuck all over the world who have missed weddings, holidays etc, however, taking it out on people like Vicky wont help their cause – I know for a fact she didn’t want the volcano to erupt, but it did.
There are things we can control and things we cant. The Volcano is clearly out of our control, how we deal with what it brings it is purely our choice. Taking the call centre as an example, I used two of Dale Carnegies principles and put them to the test, which got me a positive result.

Principle 13: Begin in a Friendly Way.
I began by asking her how she was, sympathizing, then agreeing it has been a crazy time in her industry. How many people before me had started the conversation with: “Look, I am stuck in Geneva and have had it up to here with your company”. This puts Vicky offside and ultimately hinders your chance of getting what you want.

Principle 17: Try Honestly to See Things From the Other Persons Point of View.
I doubt Vicky wants people to be stuck in Geneva missing their families and friends, I also highly doubt she wants to be working around the clock dealing with a crisis. Both these things are out of her control, but what is in her control is that she can help you get a better seat or bonus frequent flyers in the future, my point is, always aim for win win.

Next time you are about to call a customer service line out of frustration, first think about what you ultimately want to get from the call, then think how you can play win win to get the result!

Angus Firth
Performance Consultant

http://www.London.dalecarnegie.com/

Spring Cleaning!

It is that time of year when we yearn to ferret out the dirt lurking in the normally unseen and/or awkward places of our homes. Perhaps we could extend this to our lives and work; here are four ideas.

Use of time - we are all blessed with 24 hours a day. Frequently our time is high jacked by other people; they will not mean to disrupt our day but will just have to talk to us about something that is bothering them, often at great length. We need to take control. Give them a clear space for them and stick to the arrangement, giving total attention at the right time.

File management - there are mysteries lurking within our filing cabinet drawers and computer folders. The golden rule of filing: it is not where we put something that is important, but how we find it. How many times have we tidied up our folders and discovered documents and material that would have been really useful: if only we had known. There is no shame in keeping a piece of information because we think it will be useful; we just need to remap our system of files and computer folders to reflect our life.

Clearing mess – there is an ancient art called Feng Shui, which positively channels energy flows by using rules of Chinese philosophy that govern spatial arrangement and orientation – so there you are! We often experience Feng Shui in a negative sense: looking around our work place we feel overwhelmed by the clutter. So buy some cupboards, get a skip, be ruthless – it will feel like losing 5kgs of excess weight!

Relationships - some people energise and inspire us, others exhaust us – we know where we would love to spend more time! The trouble is our great friends and relatives do not berate us for our neglect so they often lose out and so do we. It is time to make that call and fill up the diary with people who we love to be with so we are genuinely too busy for the moaners.

So a bit of Spring Cleaning to support the way we want to be, the person we are and the quality of life we desire.

Jane Kustner
Trainer

www.London.dalecarnegie.com

Direct Engagement

Confirmation at last. The General Election will be held on 6th May.

Have you already decided how to vote? Have you always known which party you support? Or are you going to wait for the TV debates. Or perhaps you want to find out what is promised in the manifestos.

Regardless of whether you've made your mind up, one effective way politicians always gain followers is through face to face canvassing. In these times where technology has paved a way to effortless communication, why do they decide to promote themselves directly? Well because it works. The level of engagement you have with a person face to face can not compare with an email or a flyer.

So why not adopt this with your business! Contact your clients and meet them face to face! I am sure it will positively impact the outcomes of any business transaction.

Corina Balaneanu
Sales Consultant

www.london.dalecarnegie.com

Humph!! - so I might as well be positive

On returning to work this week after a wonderful visit to Ireland it was clearly perceptible how positive people are becoming. Whether it is the prospect of a change in Government or better economics, personally and in society in general or perhaps just because the sun is shining - well almost.

Ireland is a beautiful country and life passes at about 1/10th of the frenetic pace we follow in London. Surrounded by so much natural beauty one would think it is hard to get depressed.
One evening I was chatting with some locals over a couple of pints of the black stuff and we were comparing the two countries from a number of perspectives. They were interested to know how bad things were over here and I felt like they were seeking re-assurance that we were all in the same boat. As a result I have to say that my heart goes out to Walter in Dublin.
Well the craic ended up with a whimsical view from Sean "as long as we have our health and a pint in our hand it cannot be all bad".
And, you know, I think that is how we must view life and to engage with it in a way that provides for the reality or the metaphor of what Sean said.
Sláinte

David Pickering
Consultant

www.london.dalecarnegie.com

The power of team work!

It’s true that as individuals we can achieve a lot both in life and in business and when one looks towards the realm of personal development we’re often asking the question how can I achieve more. An experience over the past few months that culminated in a lot of running this past Sunday has reminded me of the importance of team work as well as individual achievement.

Towards the end of last summer we at Dale Carnegie committed ourselves to run in a Half Marathon in honour of our colleague Clive Thompson who was diagnosed with a blood cancer last year and therefore we chose to run in aid of Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research. I’m delighted to say that as a team we’ve raised so far over £1300 towards that cause. This past Sunday the team competed in both the Fleet and Reading Half Marathons .... some people running the whole way and others as part of a relay. Fun was had and medals and a few blisters were earned!

My advice to you is twofold:

Firstly when looking to tackle something in business and life look to the people around you and draw on the strengths of your team. It’s amazing how much more you can achieve by focusing energy on recruiting a team to solve a problem, than it is focusing on worrying about how you’re going to do it on your own.

Secondly It’s great for team moral in a work environment to have a goal outside the business that does good for the community at large and continues to pull you together as a team. We’ve decided to make Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research our charity of the year and will be looking for another team event in the autumn.

Please look to those around you and focus energy on building the right team and see what results are possible.

By David Anderson
Managing Director

www.London.dalecarnegie.com

I challenge you to a duel!

Laying down a challenge is a concept that has been around for years and years and is something that we still do today, we may not challenge each other to a duel but we lay down challenges for ourselves and others that we set out to tackle all the time. If we didn’t take on these challenges life would be very boring!

By setting ourselves challenges we push ourselves out of our comfort zone and force ourselves to try new things. This helps us to flourish and grow instead of always staying in the same spot and going round in circles. As Dale Carnegie said ‘Take a chance! All life is a chance, the man who goes furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.’

Here at Dale Carnegie we have set ourselves the challenge of running a half marathon to raise money for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. After training for three months and going through the highs and the lows, the big day is almost upon us - Sunday 21st March. We are all very excited and looking forward to taking part in this challenge and feeling the sense of achievement (and glory!) as we cross the finish line. Who knows what our next challenge will be once we have completed this one, the london marathon perhaps or maybe a triathlon...I’ll leave this thought with my team mates!

By setting ourselves challenges we achieve things we never thought we could and with each challenge we complete we feel we have progessed in an area of our life and feel proud of what we have acheived, this is what life is about.

So today I challenge you to set yourself a challenge!

• The challenge may seem daunting so set yourself mini goals that will help you reach the end result.


• Put enthusiasm into what you are doing.


• Do the very best you can.


• Push yourself out of your comfort zone.


• Enjoy what you are doing.

Good luck with whatever you set out to achieve.
For more advice and help with your challenges and goals, please visit our Knowledge Centre.

Sophie Whittall
Marketing & Admin Co-ordinator

www.london.dalecarnegie.com

Masters of Our Fate, Captains of Our Soul!

When the English Poet William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) wrote the lines: 'I am the Master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul', he could have told us the reason for this is because we have the power to control our own thoughts. He could have also told us that our brains become magnetised with the dominating thoughts we hold in our minds!

So as Session 1 of the Dale Carnegie Course: Effective Communications and Human Relations Skills kicked off on Tuesday the 9th of March with a room full of up to 40 amazing people, one of the elements of the evening involved awakening and creating a vision for ourselves in our professional and personal lives that is somewhat outside of where and who we are right now.

Whether you are one of the delegates on the current programme, a graduate, a potential delegate, a surfer through our website or like us all, a human being interested in simply living a fulfilled, successful and peaceful life for ourselves and for all those around us at work and at home, here are some tips for when you embark upon creating your own compelling vision:

1. Write down your own vision and be definite - let your heart and inner desires flow freely.

2. Imagine you are already in possession of what you want or who you are, whether it's material or emotional.

3. Establish a definite date by when you intend to achieve it.

4. Share your vision with as many people as possible!

5. Read it aloud every morning when you first awake and last thing at night before you fall asleep.

6. Be alert, awake and alive and live each moment - focused on your vision - yet DETACHED from the outcome.

7. Be grateful and smile :)

Lizzie Thomas
Trainer

www.london@dalecarnegie.com