There will be soon many millions of votes cast and a result, clear or otherwise will be announced. And that pretty much sums up every day in our own working and private lives. Almost everyone has the freedom to vote for, within the usual constraints of money and time, what they are going to do.

Our daily lives are a series of votes, with a variety of candidates available to us… What we are going to do, how we are going to be with others and even to an extent how we are inside ourselves. If reading this comes as a surprise it may be that this voting process has become so habitual that it has become unconscious behaviour. Not a bad thing altogether given our busy lives but an excellent coach will take time out with you to examine your voting habits and patterns.  There may be things you want to change but haven’t had time to notice.

A client recently discovered through the coaching conversation that they were driving themselves to meet standards that exceeded the requirements of the important stakeholders in and out side of their organisation. This realisation did not mean they dropped their standards but did give them more of a choice when undertaking future projects and taking more time over exactly what the stakeholders were requiring from them. This action would then release more time for them choose other activities which they felt were becoming neglected (both in private life and working life).

It is often the way we are at work and the things we do that can slip into unconscious habit. The habit will sometimes produce good results relatively consistently but when the deadlines change or the working environment changes, it can let us down. Being aware that we have a choice in how and what we do at work can bring improvement to the quality of our work  and life in general.

A lack of confidence in the future explains this unintended consequence of government policy and must be frustrating leaders across the globe as they try to reignite their economies.

Governments appear limited in what they can to do boost personal confidence. However confidence in your own future is an inevitable outcome of excellent coaching. Fundamentals in coaching confidence are:

• Self belief – the client believes that they have the personal resources to achieve their goals. An excellent coach helps the client focus on these resources and how best to use them.
• Responsibility – the client believes that they are responsible for their own outcomes. They may also seek  the support of others , and acknowledge the influence of the environment of  which they are a part,  but ultimately they will look to their own actions and behaviours as the key to moving forward.
• Solutions focus – excellent coaching works with clients to generate solutions to the feedback and issues that naturally arise as we go forward with our personal plans. Self awareness and awareness of the world around us is also a critical and more reflective part of the coaching process but finding solutions , trying them out , and seeing them work is fundamental to growing confidence.

A strong self-confidence is really just a good habit borne from repeatedly doing the things that work for us and noticing when we can make improvements or just need to change something altogether (aka Learning). It is only when we stop noticing the environment around us and no longer learn from the feedback that is always there – it is then that we can be vulnerable to the shock of the unexpected and the loss of confidence that can go with it.

Private  and public individuals , at home and at work, may well have lost their confidence now. Ccnfidence can be regained but ultimately this will be by our own actions. Good employers can find good coaches for their managers and leaders who will use their regained confidence to help them take their teams and the enterprise forward. This can be done without a coach but its just easier not to do it without one. If you want to try rebuilding your confidence on your own you can:

• ask friends and colleagues what they think your strongest abilities are
• choose a personal project (work or personal, important to you) that will exploit some of these abilities
• identify the some goals that will be the first steps and easy to achieve
• each day reflect on what you did well, what can you improve. Next day try out the improvement and repeat the step
• when you reach the first set of goals move on to the next probably  more challenging goals
• this time start seeking feedback from others. Share with them your progress. Include their feedback in the daily review.
• when the daily review becomes easier, notice  how raised your confidence levels are and use the same process in some of the more regular activities in your life.

When this habit has become an unconscious competence ( as in when you no longer remember yourself doing it) you may find yourself pushing the boundary of your life even further and trying out things you didn’t think were “you” at all. And if you want to stop there – thats your choice -just keep up the confidence habit.

Value coaching is not just about value for money although that is critical for a coach company as any other business. Values form a central part of many coaching sessions. Value coaching is an exploration of the value (s) central to a client’s business and way of living and working. Always useful, Value coaching is particularly helpful when:

• you want to refocus on what truly matters to you
• there are difficult decisions to make and you want to be sure that you are being true to your own values
• you are changing direction and you want to ensure the steps you take are appropriate to yourself and those that will make it happen

In short, the more external stresses we face, its important to reduce our internal stresses, and we can achieve this by doing things that align with our deeply held values. Too often by ignoring our values, or assuming that we have to violate our values when doing difficult things ( a limiting belief which can be challenged with good coaching), we perform less well at a time when we want to be at our peak.

As for Positive Intent value coaching has other meanings. For smaller businesses we will consider alternative ways of reflecting our value – if client funds are strictly limited during the coaching period we will offer payment via future profit as an alternative. This approach reflects a very important value to us – being loyal and available to our clients over the longer term.

“Yes we can” underpins all good coaching conversations. It is the solutions focus and self belief that are such important foundation stones of a productive coaching relationship. When I listened to Obama over the last few months it was sometimes as if he was ‘championing’ the US electorate – bringing out in them their own innate self-confidence as a nation, and belief in themselves as individuals to bring about change.

‘Championing’ is another skill available to a good coach – even the chiefest of chief executives benefit from some targetted external championing, particularly when the business challenges are forming a not so orderly queue at their door.

Voting

Political elections are not daily events but Voting is something we all do all the time. Writing this blog is something I voted to do (rather than get on with paperwork for the VAT return!), and in business life executives are constantly voting on how best to use their own time and resources. A coach will help you identify how you are voting with the time, resources and options available to you. Sometimes we vote for something because we’ve always voted for it, its become a habit. These habits are often worth identifying and challenging and there are techniques to change your voting habits but more of that another day…