What is Okay? What is not Okay?

Posted on June 19, 2020 by Steve

There is something I do know. The two most important concepts for a civil, peaceful society to function are to have a clear definition of “what is okay” and “what is not okay.

In your own life you determine “what is okay” and “what is not okay.” For society, “What is okay” has laws, customs and guidelines. “What is not okay” creates its own law, which in truth is the rule of men and their decisions at the moment as to “what is okay,” not law, along with their own special customs and guidelines. When “what is okay,” is not enforced, then “what is not okay” takes over. This is when lawlessness becomes the law. Fear sets in.

Problem or Predicament?

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Steve

Over the past few weeks, the coronavirus has changed all of our lives significantly. We have never seen something like this. The medical impact can be frightening. And the economic impact, remains to be seen, but it could be disastrous.

Instead of writing about personal development, self-improvement, personal growth and leadership which are areas in which I collaborate with others in my personal business coaching practice, I believe it is best to share some thoughts that may support you as we go through a time where in many cases, and you can include me, our lives have been turned upside down. A time where fear and panic, the two horsemen of relationship and societal destruction are running wild.

Group Culture Is a Powerful Force

Posted on February 26, 2019 by Steve

As a personal business coach in Houston I have the opportunity to work with teams in corporations. In my personal business coaching in The Woodlands, I get to work with small businesses and the teams within the businesses.

Whether the organization is large or small there is a desire to have good culture. It has been shown in studies that a strong culture can increase income by several hundred percent! We know that a good culture works. We are generally not sure why it works. Read more →

How the Kindergarteners Won

Posted on February 19, 2019 by Steve

In the previous post I related an experiment that was done to highlight aspects that create a good culture in which teams can be productive. As a self-improvement business coach in the Woodlands one of the areas of focus in corporations and small businesses that I collaborate with has been regarding culture and how culture impacts not only a team’s efficiency but effectiveness.

The kindergarteners in the experiment won against teams of business students. They also carried the experiment to other groups. The kindergarteners defeated lawyers and CEOs. So, what was going on that created this unexpected result? Read more →

Culture: When One Plus One Equals Five

Posted on February 5, 2019 by Steve

I have observed in my in my practice of personal business coaching in the Woodlands and also in business coaching in Houston that certain concepts become the major focus of the time. Time management was big and coming into its own in the 1980’s and 1990’s. You just weren’t with it if you hadn’t taken a time management course. And, time management is still just as important today as it was back then.

Today, much of what I encounter has to do with company culture and how it is either helping or hindering a company. Culture comes from the Latin word cultus, which means care. Culture at its highest level has a clear purpose as expressed in the vision and more importantly, the vision statements.

These statements are more than just words. They define a purpose and a way to get there that is bigger than any one person. It gives the individual something to belong to and helps form a sense of team and cohesiveness. Culture sends a number of signals of how we belong to something. And when we belong to something as a teamwe can do greater things than if we siloed ourselves off and did it alone.

This is where one plus one equals five. This is where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. When it comes to culture, I become more of a personal development business coach in the Woodlands with an emphasis on self-improvement business coaching.

In order to have a geometric progression in growth, efficiency and effectiveness a team must feel safe. This allows them to be creative. The members of the team must feel like they belong. And, the individuals in the team must focus on their personal development or self-improvement. Why? Seldom will whatever we want to achieve individually or as a team exceed our personal development.

How to Have Your Best Year Yet- Part 1

Posted on January 9, 2019 by Steve

When you come to the end of a calendar year, it is a wonderful time to reflect on our past year. What did you accomplish? What were our disappointments? What did you learn? These are a few questions that can get you started on reflecting and evaluating.

I have learned over the years in my personal business coaching in The Woodlands and surrounding areas, that this reflection is good to do annually, yet if you truly want to stay on track with your goals, it works even better to do a quarterly evaluation. If you are getting off track, you can more easily alter your course to refocus on your goals. If you get too far off, the difficulty and energy required to get back on track is much greater.

In a way, your life is like a football game. If you divide your year into quarters, you can see how you are doing at the end of each quarter and make the necessary adjustments to win, to achieve your goals. That’s what football coaches do.

At times, a large part of what I do when I collaborate with clients has to do with their personal development in their business. Yes, we find ways to improve processes, hire better people, streamline operations for efficiency, be more effective in our communication in the teams we have, create and execute a better marketing plan and the list can go on and on. To achieve these things, the client has to embrace the idea that self-improvement business coaching will accelerate the process of his or her successful performance.

Quite simply, you and your business will only rise to the level of your self-improvement, which in essence is your personal development. Fortunately, the clients in The Woodlands I have collaborated with over the years understand this. They understand that something has to change on the inside before it will manifest itself on the outside in attaining their goals both business and personal.

To start on your path to having your best year yet ask yourself these three questions as regards your business and life. Why look at your business and life? As a personal business coach in the Woodlands, or anywhere for that matter, I see that there is always a dynamic link between your personal and business life. If you achieve a goal on the personal side, it may have a great effect on the business side and vice versa. Once you have your answers to the following questions, write them down. Writing down your answers increases the odds of taking the necessary actions to have your best year yet. Here are:

1. What did I accomplish in the past year? Or what did I accomplish in the last 12 months? You can start having your best year yet at any time.

2. What were my major disappointments?

3. What did I learn?

Those three questions will get you started. In the next post I will give you three more questions to accelerate your process of having your best year yet!

Definitions: Part 6-What a Personal Business Coach May Look at for Your Self-Improvement

Posted on October 16, 2018 by Steve

In the last post we looked at the terms symptoms, motivation and vision. When understood all three can provide the fuel for the engine of your self-improvement. In this post, we will look at tolerations, tolerations, strategy, strategize and attraction.These four terms will conclude our discussion on definitions that are central to the success of a personal business coach or a personal development coach and his or her client.

Tolerations:This, in my opinion, is a big one. All of us have things we tolerate. Over the years, in my life and the lives of others I have worked with I have seen the negative effect of tolerations.

To tolerate means to allow the existence of something, to permit or endure something, to put up with something. This implies that the something (or someone) is less than desirable, less than the ideal, and tends to drain a person’s energy. Let me add, that tolerations will also take you off course and can cause you to lose your focus.

A toleration is a situation, a condition, an influence of any kind that is allowed to exist, is put up with, that is less than ideal. A toleration is often a hindering influence.

Tolerations must be vigilantly managed. In fact, tolerations are like weeds. They must be yanked out at the roots. If you have a client with some serious tolerations it is going to be extremely challenging to find a good path to self-improvement.

Tolerations can sabotage the best of self-improvement business coaching. Wherever possible, get rid of your tolerations.
Strategy: A strategy is simply a plan or a method for achieving a specific goal. Referring back to the definition of vision which is about your goals for the future, a strategy creates a road to accomplish your goals.

A strategy can be anything from a way to accomplish a simple task to a way to live life more fully. Strategies generally have several ways they identify and track the goal-seeking process. A good strategy is one that makes use of all available resources.

As a personal business coach finding or discovering a workable strategy for your client is essential for his or her success. This leads us to the next term that I will define.

Strategizing: To develop a strategy, plan, or method for achieving goals. To be of value to your clients as a personal development business coach you must be strategizing with them. And once you have a strategy, continuously review it and alter it as progress is made and circumstances change.

Attraction: The last term we will define is attraction. Attraction is to be drawn to something. Or, I might add, to have something drawn to you. In coaching, attraction is the power and ability to draw people or circumstances to oneself. Being open to acting on one’s intuition allows a person to attract the right clients for the right fit. Likewise, if you are looking for a coach attraction, acting on your intuition will guide you to selecting a coach who is more in alignment with who you are and what you wish to accomplish.

The Power of Wisdom

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Steve

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”-Jalal Rumi. Wisdom comes when you arrive at the understanding that the power to shape your life belongs to you and to no one else.

The power to shape your life is yours. Yes, all of us can be and are affected by circumstances, people and things. It is up to you as to how you choose to be affected and to the extent you let these things impact you. With a strong internal compass of morals and values to guide you there will be two good things that will happen.

First, you will be tipped off to opportunities that were not visible before. Secondly, you will be made aware of dangers that are not readily apparent. You will now have the wisdom to make better decisions. Read more →

Success In Business And Life: Attitude Determines Your Input, Output And Reward

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Steve

Self Improvement Tips At twelve years old I didn’t have a good attitude. I didn’t understand input, output and reward. On this particular day I had a bad attitude. It was normal for this day every year. As a young boy who loved to play there were other things I would rather be doing. Work around the house was not for me.

Every Spring my Dad and I would go out on our half acre and clean up the property after the Winter storms. There were always many tree limbs and sometimes fallen trees. We did not have a chain saw and I had to chop all the limbs and trees with an axe. Read more →