You can choose from three ‘packages’, each meeting different needs.
- 3 hours in one month: typically it clears your desk and your mind
- 6 hours over 3 months: typically it establishes a change to your system
- 12 hours over 6 months: typically brings a major project to fruition
What will you achieve?
- A clearer mind
- Focus on what is important
- The right balance between all roles
- Increased energy at work: more motivated, happier
A cost-effective solution, which will put you back on track with managing your time effectively and allowing you to stay on top. If you think you’re someone who ‘knows how to manage time’, if only they had the time, then this is for you! Typically:
- your desk has become ‘messy’, important things get lost, or are forgotten or you’re missing deadlines
- you’ve been working too many evenings / weekends recently
- you’re worried you’re getting behind or things are starting to get out of control
What will you achieve?
- An understanding of how things have occurred, to avoid it happening again
- A clear mind, and things exactly as you want them to be
- A short term action plan to give you the energy to succeed in getting back on track and staying on top
Case Study:
Wendy is a one-person business owner, who helps individuals by offering her particular expert knowledge to any individual with specific health issues. She had many projects, some in progress, and some in mind, in order to keep her business and personal development in balance, particularly to maintain and grow her expertise. She felt disorganised: too much to do, with cluttered office and desk.
Here is her testimonial after Desk Coach LITE:
“Shirley offered to give me guidance on how to manage my office, filing and time and after a couple of hours in the office with me, had already helped me to adopt a much more structured and purposeful means of coping with the backlog of work and ‘tasks’. As far as time management is concerned, I feel much more in control of tasks and projects, which I had always planned to undertake, but never seemed to start, and have now adopted a system of managing work both current and future, which seems to save me very precious time. Shirley was very quickly able to assess my priorities as well as my strengths and weaknesses, and follow up was very encouraging without being invasive. I always felt able to contact her should I need further advice. I would certainly recommend her services, to the professional who just has so many outstanding tasks, that they don’t know where or how to begin”
This is the most popular package, and will help you to change a negatively habitual way of working. Accountability to review and adjust to new methods each month provides insight into what really works for you. Typically:
- You’re working hard but not achieving the success required, and don’t know why
- You’ve too many things to be juggled in the time allowed and you’re not sure you’re prioritising the right ones
- You have a nagging feeling that things are not right at work
Similar to LITE, but additionally:
- Goals are agreed and set, progress is monitored and assessed, and methods for effectiveness chosen to suit your style
- Tasks are clearly understood and on target to meet completion deadlines.
- Time is recorded then reviewed against intention.
The monthly opportunity to review progress and find out what is working and what is not, means you can perfect your action plan. Also the extra time allows you to analyse the systems and methods you are using and work on improving them.
Case Study
Ian is a business entrepreneur with lots of activities.
1. He was not making enough progress on his main business venture. Things kept ‘getting in the way’. He ideally wanted to spend 3-4 days each week on this main activity, yet it was not happening.
2. He was disorganised and needed to find ways of working smarter.
When we listed all the activities the client had to achieve each week, it was clear that he had many projects in progress, and wanted to spend certain amounts of time on other things too. Fitting everything into his week was a big challenge.
In fact at the start of our conversations, there were 3 main businesses, one of which was sold within the first month, also a significant amount of time spent on business networking, which was curtailed and house building changes: a new conservatory in progress and garden office plan.
Over 3 months we monitored a list of project activities and a list of items that needed regular time spent each week, alongside how he actually spent his time. After 3 attempts to plan a weekly diary allocating the main activities to particular days of the week, it became clear that the client didn’t respond easily to the discipline. When he was supposed to be working on one project, it seemed acceptable to take up other opportunities; in fact it was one activity that repeatedly took his time. Eureka! This was what he really wanted to work on. The breakthrough happened at a meeting with the client and his wife, who was also frustrated by the lack of specific goals and things not happening. They were meeting regularly to review progress and now jointly have a much better goals and direction, sharing responsibilities differently, and using their respective skills to best advantage
At the end of the 3-month programme, the client had completely turned around how he spent his time; his main business venture is now the one that kept interrupting before. It gets 3 days a week and the original business gets 1 day a week. He now expects that and plans accordingly; he is less frustrated and more focused.
Although, along the way, there was focus to reorganise the office, Shirley never actually saw the office, and all issues were addressed using telephone coaching. (The client was familiar with ‘Getting Things Done’ by David Allen and enjoyed the reminder of its principles.)
Testimonial:
"On meeting Shirley, I immediately felt a rapport and that she was very approachable, calm, considerate, and was always ready to listen. I haven't been disappointed at all over the period that she has coached me, for she's always captured and focussed on the essence of the problems, or sticking points in my business. A stickler for detail makes a good coach an even better one, for it's the very detail that one may have overlooked, and is why one's business is in the shape it's in. Her coaching style is very logical and analytical, and her neutral stance of great importance when getting to grips with sometimes difficult areas. These are more often personal challenges that translate into business ones; so Shirley had very much to wear two hats: her psychological, personal one as well as her business hat. Marrying them together is a skill in itself. Over the 3-month coaching period I was able to get to the bottom of what was holding back my business, in that she would highlight things and make you question why you'd do what you do. It did force me to think in another way, which had many beneficial spin-offs, for this kind of coaching ends up helping in one's relationships too!"
Strongly recommended for those with a large project to manage. The aim is to support those who are out of their comfort zone, and arm them with the resources to become successful and effective. Typically:
- You want to follow a new business direction, to run parallel with existing business activities.
- You’d like more confidence in a current role (e.g. when moving to new role)
- You want to fulfil a dream, and need the benefit of an independent sounding board to explore potential success mechanisms to realise the dream.
Similar to XPRESS, but additionally:
- You benefit from a Motivational Map, to ensure understanding of key motivating factors
- Focus is on processes and projects, and the ability to successfully improve your skills.
- Time spent in correlating priorities and meaningful progress
Optional benefit of migration from PLUS to additional ad-hoc consultations. To stay on track, a 6 month performance review is strongly recommended.
Case Study
Simon is an expert in his field but somehow it did not seem enough. He wanted more recognition and remuneration for his skill. He was nervous about working with other people, because he couldn’t trust them to do the job as well as he could do it. Yet, to give himself some time, he needed to build trust to move forward. To command the rates he charged, he continually had to do the work himself, to keep customers happy, so a way shared working with customers had to be found.
We used coaching sessions to explore options of what the client could do, and what percentage of time to spend on each activity. I was also mentored in the work, to help the client understand his successful process, which he found very exciting because he hadn’t before realised how he did what he does. This led to running his very first workshop, from which he began to formulate his ideal target market for training.
Over 6 months the client moved from working on his own, to working in partnership, where he is the recognised expert and continues to develop his process with bigger customers.
Testimonial
“ Shirley has made my dream come true. Her questions challenged my values and beliefs, and my expertise, and I now really understand how to mould others to use the same skills.”