As we get stuck into a new year, I want to share with you something I have really been focusing on intently recently...which is the type of language I use every day.

Let me explain. 

The language you use has a tone - either positive or negative. It can be uplifting or it can bring you (and others) down. 

The tone of the language you use regularly absolutely has an impact on yourself, your mood, your energy and your psychology. 

It also has a really big impact on those around you - your clients, your team, your family - and how they perceive you, interact with you and feel about you. 

This morning as I was getting ready I had a thought as I looked at my watch - "I better hurry up here otherwise I'll miss my train". 

Immediately I caught my thoughts and recognised it was negative and centred around the fact that I was going to miss my train - so I changed the dialogue with myself. 

"I better hurry up here so I can catch my train" 

It may not seem like much of a shift to you - but...

Wow, what a super interesting year! Right?!

If you're like a lot of the engineering and construction industry right now you're still madly running around trying to get things finished and wrapped up before the Christmas break. 

Things work wise are likely to be quite intense and busy right up until Christmas this year and then you'll be jumping right into family get togethers, parties and the holidays which also can be quite full on.

Today I'd like to remind you that it's incredibly important for you to create some space in all of the craziness and intensity of work and life to really reflect and evaluate the year you've just had. 

Before you can look to 2021 and the year ahead, it is so important to evaluate the year that’s just gone - including its successes, failures, lessons and themes - before you think about next year and your goals and how you want things to be different. 

You really want to understand what happened this year, why it happened and how to improve for next yea...

This week I went live on LinkedIn and talked about the steps to building resilience.

If you'd like to check out the recording on LinkedIn - Click Here  

At the moment your team, your business and the industry in general needs leaders who are resilient. 

We need leaders who can stay calm, focused and rational in moments of crisis and in prolonged periods of uncertainty.

Mental resilience isn't something that we obtain overnight or by hanging out in a cave by ourselves for 2 years. It's something we build over time and it's absolutely a skills we can learn. 

Here are the 4 steps I covered in my live video to building resilience and mental toughness: 

1. Lean In
   Instead of running, hiding or shying away from difficult or uncomfortable situations or situations that require effort and energy - do the opposite. Lean in! Look at them as opportunities to learn something new, grow as a person and develop yourself as a leader. 

2. Stay Present & Conscious
   When you're in the midst of difficu
...

One of the areas that a lot of my clients struggle with is building themselves into a purely strategic and high level leadership role, whereby they are the orchestra conductor of their team and business.

Successfully building yourself into this role means that you are responsible for the high level and long term vision of your team and your business. You are responsible for where you want to be taking your team and business and how you want to get there. 

To be truly successful in this role, you need to:

• Have a really good handle on where the market sector that you play in is going in 6, 12 and 18 months’ time.
• Be creating the time and space in your day to think creativity and strategically about your vision for the future of your team and business (hint - this can't happen at your desk or in the office).
• Be talking to and connecting with existing customers and future potential customers that support you having a good solid pipeline of work in 6, 12 and 18 months’ time.

To be...

At what point did we stop seeing ourselves as a work in progress?

As kids we were constantly trying new things, failing, falling, picking ourselves up again and learning in the process. We viewed the world and the experiences in at as an opportunity to teach us new things and to learn and grow. This is natural human evolution.

But as adults, at some point along the way we decided that we were done with growing, done with pushing the boundaries and limits of what we currently know and the skills that we currently have and that this [insert selfie] is simply the 'finished product'.

Today I want to explore with you why we stop learning and growing and why it is imperative that you get comfortable with growth, moving outside of your comfort zone and 'upgrading your shell' if you truly want to build a successful and profitable team and business.

I get it - failing is scary. 

Learning something new can be overwhelming. 

Moving outside of your comfort zone can be daunting.

All of these...

Today I want to debunk the myth that you have to do it all on your own.

A lot of the team leaders, a lot of the market leaders, a lot of the engineering business owners that I work with are really stressed out. They're burnt out. They're overwhelmed. They’ve got so many things to do and they wear so many different hats in the business. You know - winning the work, delivering that work, ensuring the team's performing well and then growing the team if possible. 

And so, when you talk to them about delegation or passing off some of their workload, they're like – “I can't do that”. And when you start to coach them and work with them around this, there's a couple of key elements that can really help them shift this to ultimately increase their profit and performance.

And that’s what I want to explore with you right now… 

WATCH THE VIDEO:

OR LISTEN TO THE AUDIO:

OR READ THE TRANSCRIPT:

Hi, everyone - Josh here. Hope you're having an incredible day. 

Now in today's video, I ...

Now in this post I’m not necessarily talking about sailing around the world on a boat for a year or living on a mountain top with not a single care or responsibility in the world - although these may be aspirations you have!

 In this post I’m talking about in your day to day. In your role or in your business.

Would you like to have the ability to be in a true leadership role, where your team largely look after the day to day and you focus on the strategy and direction of the team?

Would you like to focus on client relationships whilst your team focuses on delivery?

Would you like to actually be able to get out of the office and create the space to think strategically about the direction of your team and where the next big client is coming from without your phone ringing a hundred times?

All of these represent freedom too. The freedom and ability to choose where you are directing your efforts and energy. The freedom to operate largely in your zone of genius and to delegate the rest...

Today I want to explore with you why you might be letting go of and not spending enough time in the strategic, big picture thinking parts of your personality and sacrificing this to spend time in the ‘business-as-usual’ day to day activities.

My challenge to my clients who are engineering team leaders, business owners and the big picture thinkers in these organisations, is if you're not consciously creating the space and the time for you to get out of the office or to go somewhere to think big picture and to think strategically, what do you think that's going to do to the pipeline of work? What do you think that's going to do to the team underneath you? Are you ensuring that all of those people have jobs or have work to go on with in six or 12 months’ time?

And when you can reframe it like that, they're like, “Oh, yeah, I get it.”

WATCH THE VIDEO:

OR LISTEN TO THE AUDIO:

OR READ THE TRANSCRIPT:

Hi everyone, Josh here.

Now today in today's video, I want to explore with you wh...