This week I ran a process with my clients in my coaching program around getting really clear on the key focus points that they need to work on in the next 4 to 6 weeks to really make the biggest difference. 

My coaching framework is built around three core pillars being – 

Attract - meaning business development, winning work and attracting new clients.

Perform - being the performance of your team, the performance of yourself as a leader and developing amazing key client relationships.

Grow - meaning focusing on the activities that will grow your team, grow your business and elevate yourself into a truly strategic leadership role. 

So 3 x 3 works out to be nine core areas that are key focus points for helping my clients win in these core pillars of Attract, Perform & Grow.

The activity that I ran with my clients this week was looking at these nine core areas and scoring themselves honestly out of 10 as to how they’re going in these nine areas. 

A score of 0 to 4 means they are do...

 Today I want to explore with you a super interesting concept that I’ve been playing around with in my own life and in my own business. 

It’s called the 80 / 20 rule for getting ‘stuff’ done. 

This concept is all about being conscious, being intentional and accessing the appropriate energy and emotions within yourself to get done what you need to get done. 

Let me explain. 

You see most of us go about our days and our weeks not been hugely intentional with the energy, the state and the emotions that we’re in in order to get things done. Most of us stay in fairly comfortable emotions and a fairly comfortable state of being, acting, operating and behaving. We like being this way because it’s familiar to us.

And most of us, if we really analyse the energy and the emotions that we operate out of every day - it’s one of being nice to others, it’s one of been quite laid-back, it’s one of not wanting to do things that rock the boat and being fairly calm and considered. 

And to be honest...

Are you a perfectionist? Do you have perfectionist traits?

Engineers by nature have a deep desire to get things 100% correct and perfect. And don't get me wrong, this personality trait is completely functional and needed when it comes to de-risking a project, system or process. In fact the general population who use or are affected by the things you design and create WANT you to use your perfectionist so that nothing goes wrong! 

However, sometimes this perfectionist trait can cause friction within yourself as well as your clients and your team.

Let me explain. 

Have you ever had a client call you up and ask you to get your deliverables done more quickly? Or a client bring forward a project deadline by a week just because they can? Have you ever had a team member get frustrated with you that you're taking too long on the element that you're working on and it's delaying them getting started?

And when this happened, did you FEEL yourself getting frustrated, overwhelmed and maybe eve...

I hope you’re having an amazing day. 

In my last couple of posts I’ve been talking a lot about strategy and strategic actions that you could be taking to grow your team and grow your business. 

Today I want to talk to you about something slightly different. And that’s the importance of managing your energy. 

You see, if you’re like most leaders and business owners in the engineering and construction industry at the moment, you’re super busy! There’s a fair bit of work on at the moment and everyone is scrambling and doing their best to deliver for their clients as well as generating new business and making hay while the sun shines - so to speak.

At the moment, there is a huge sense of overwhelm and a huge amount of busyness happening. 

This period at the moment is ripe for burnout. 

So today I want to talk to you about the importance of managing your day, managing your tasks and managing your energy. 

Right now, there is a tendency to just be running hard. To not be taking breaks...

This week I ran a really simple but effective exercise with my clients in my coaching programs. 

Now the exercise only took about 20 minutes, but it was incredibly powerful and gave my clients some key insights into how to build, develop and deepen their relationships with their key clients. 

Let me explain.

You see, everyone is so busy at the moment. Most people I’m talking to have work coming out of their ears!!

The big opportunity I see right now is developing your key client relationships. 

All of us are working on projects with key clients. All of us have key client relationships that we are honestly not nurturing properly at the moment. 

So, as I said, this exercise is really simple and I want to walk you through it right now.

The first step is to look at what it’s like right now for you and your key client relationships.

What are your clients pain points? What are they frustrated about right now? What are the things that are annoying them and the things that they’re stru...

Hope you’re well. 

This week I was talking with a client who is super frustrated about how their team just aren't performing. 

They were really frustrated about the fact that their team members and the people around them are taking way longer to do things, are not hitting their deadlines and are just generally quite slow and not responsive.

They were their wits end. 

So if this is you, today I want to look at how do you take a team that's not performing well and build a team of high performing people around you.

The main concept I want to explore with you today is making sure that you’re leading your team and managing them in a way that suits their personality style. 

Let me explain. 

You see all of us have a unique personality style. Are unique set of personality traits. We all have ways that we like to be communicated to. We all have ways we like to be delegated to. We have strengths. We have weaknesses. We have types of work that we like doing and we have types of work that w...

This week I was talking with a client who was struggling with feelings of overwhelm and feeling like they just didn’t have the time in their days and weeks to get everything done.

As we started to explore this, it became super evident that:

• They were trying to do EVERYTHING themselves.
• They were worried about what their team would think of them if they asked for help. 

Sound familiar? 

As we dug further into this sense of overwhelm, we uncovered that they were really worried that if they asked for help their team around them:

• Would think less of them.
• Would judge them for admitting they needed help with something.
• Would think they weren’t technically competent is they were asking questions or asking for help.

Here’s the thing - as my business coach Taki says:

“If you want to go fast - go alone. If you want to go far - go together.”

Meaning - sure, you can do things on your own, never asking for help and doing the lone wolf thing. And sure - you might be able to go fa...

Procrastination is single-handedly the biggest productivity and goal achieving killer. 

Do you find yourself regularly doing things that you KNOW aren’t really that important? 

Do you even catch yourself, acknowledge what you're doing isn’t that important - but keep doing it anyway??!! 

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself: 

 "I know this isn't that important - so why am I doing it?"

 "What's the REAL reason I'm procrastinating here?"

This week I explored with my clients on our coaching call the real and underlying reasons why you ACTUALLY procrastinate. 

Think about it for yourself - what do you do when you're procrastinating? 

Some of the answers from my clients on the coaching call to this question:

• Eating / snacking.
• Getting another coffee.
• Mindlessly responding to or cleaning up emails.
• Talking to colleagues about things that just aren’t important.
• Surfing carsales.com!!

Then we got to the heart of what is REALLY going on when I asked WHY? 

Some of the response...

This week on our group coaching call, one of my clients asked the question: 

"I'm going into a meeting with a client this afternoon and I know he is going to ask me to cut my fees - what should I do?".....

.....who else has been in a similar situation here?? 

Off the back of this question, we had a great discussion with the whole coaching group as this is an incredibly common occurrence in our industry. 

Everyone left the call with a lot to think about!

Here is a summary of the main issues with you cutting your fees:

1) Lost Opportunity Cost

Before you agree to drop your fees or your project costs and do the project for love and no profit margin at all.....

Ask yourself - "What’s my lost opportunity cost here?"

Meaning, if I say yes and do this project for cheap and take up my time and my teams time on a project that's not going to make any money at all - what else could I or my team be working on that could actually make more money or create a better opportunity? 

Ask yourse...

Do you feel like you are constantly missing the mark with your clients? 

Do you always feel on the back foot even when you think you've done a good job? 

In today's video I would like to walk you through the concept of expectation vs. reality. 

Today I want help you address this issue and help you turn your clients into raving fans of you, your team and your business! 

Click Here  to watch now.

Josh ‘Expectation vs Reality’ Stone

PS: If you’re interested, here are 4 ways I can help you right now:

1. Join the Leaders In Engineering community designed specifically for engineering leaders and business owners
   It’s our new Facebook community where engineering leaders and business owners are learning the strategies and leadership skills to step up and thrive right now – Click Here to join

2. Download our FREE PDF guide – “How To Build A High Performing & Highly Profitable Engineering Team”
   Learn the skills to get the most out of the people around you. Build a high performing engineerin
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