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...

How do you want this year to play out for you, your team and your business? 

Who do you want to become this year?

When you get to the end of this year and look back – what will you have achieved? How will you have achieved it? Will you be proud of the person you have become? 

Last year had us all playing defensively. 

We have an incredible opportunity now at the start of a new year to get on the front foot and play offensively.

In today’s video I walk you through how to put solid strategies in place for how you can grow yourself, your team and your business this year. 

I want you looking back on 2021 and the things that you have done and achieved with pride, joy, contentment and a real sense of satisfaction. 

If you want to learn more on this topic, follow the link below to watch the video.

Click Here  to watch now.

Josh ‘Front Foot’ 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...

Happy New Year!! Wishing you and your family an incredible 2021!! 

If you’re like most people – you’re eager and excited to get stuck into the new year. You’ve left last year behind you, you’ve had a relaxing break, you’ve done your goal setting for the year and your raring to go! 

But goal setting is only the first part of the equation if you want to succeed this year.

By the time February comes around, most people have forgotten about their goals and are back to old patterns, old values and old ways of thinking, operating and behaving. 

In today’s video I walk you through a really simple concept and process called ‘6 Week Sprints’ that ensures you are consistently taking meaningful action towards your goals and your vision and ensures that you are incredibly intentional about the results you want to create in 2021. 

If you want to learn more on this topic, follow the link below to watch the video. 

Click Here  to watch now. 

Josh ‘6 Week Sprints’ Stone

PS: If you’re intereste...

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...

In last week’s webinar - Your Best Year Yet - we explored the importance of confidently positioning yourself, your team or your business strongly in the marketplace to allow you to win more work and attract the best talent into your team or business. 

Click Here  to check out the webinar recording if you couldn't attend live.

There were a couple of statements that we explored with the group from a mindset and thought process point of view that are really important when it comes to elite level positioning. 

“It’s OK for me to put myself out there and be seen as an expert and a thought leader”

“It’s OK for me to position myself in the marketplace as ELITE – the best of the best” 

You see, one of the biggest blocks I see with leaders and business owners in the engineering and construction industry when it comes to positioning their team or business as elite, the best of the best, in their chosen field or area of expertise - is them! 

It's their own mind, their thoughts and their bel...

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 e...

Well here we go - we're into the run into Christmas! What a year!

What I notice at this time of the year is that leaders and business owners start to get complacent and take their foot off the pedal. 

It’s been a hard and full on year - I know. But if you want to finish this year strong AND set the start of your 2021 up right - then you have to keep going. 

This is where consistency matters. 

It’s the little things you do every day that really matter and allow you to build momentum - and momentum generates results!

Watch and listen for those little voices in your head that tell you things like:

• It's been a hard year - just take the rest of the year slowly.
• Don't worry about following up that client / proposal / opportunity - leave it until the new year.
• I can't be bothered having that hard conversation with a team member or client - I'm tired and don't want the angst. 

Use your calendar to your advantage here. This way you are physically creating the time and the space in ...

This week I ran a webinar called Clients By Christmas where we explored strategies to help win work and increase revenue by Christmas. 

I ran an interesting exercise towards the end of the webinar where I asked the group to tell me the first thing that came to mind in response to this statement: 

"Marketing, sales & business development is....."

The range of responses was SUPER interesting! Here's some:

• Hard
• Painful
• Enjoyable
• One of my KPI's
• Difficult 

You get the point. 

The really interesting thing for me was the differing range of responses with respect to such a critical and important element of running and growing a team or business. 

For those people whose default response was - enjoyable - take a guess at how they will apply themselves to marketing, sales & business development? You got it - Joy! Fun! Curiosity! 

For those people whose default response was - hard or painful or difficult - take a guess at how successful they will be when it comes to marketing, sal...

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
...

Something I am noticing more and more - particularly since the whole Covid thing started - is the tendency for wanting to hide until this whole thing is over. 

I get it. This is unchartered territory.

No-one really knows how the rest of this year and into next year will play out. 

This fear of the unknown and not knowing how things will work out is causing people to want to hide, shy away, not take action and just generally procrastinate. 

At the moment - the whole leadership piece is really real. It's actually needed more than ever.

Your team and your business need you to be charting the ship and steering them into calmer waters. They need you to be guiding them, making decisions, speaking your mind and making things happen.

.....and you can't do this through in-action and procrastination. 

A big fear in a lot of my clients that I'm working with at the moment is not wanting to stand out and make a decision for fear of making the wrong one.

I completely understand this logic - ...