What are the benefits of collaborating?
This was a question I asked myself 9 months ago when I entered into a joint venture with Jo Outram - Financial Fitness Instructor to work with 10 other women in business to share their inspirational and fabulous stories about how they have overcome challenges by facing their fears, being courageous and adding value to others in their pursuit of happiness. 

Reasons to Collaborate

Share the workload 
Whether you are employed or self employed it's far easier to achieve the deadlines, goals or vision if you work with others. Sometimes a project or task can appear so big that working on your own means that you procrastinate, miss the deadline or in some cases, don't even start and hope that by burying your head in the sand the task or project will just disappear! By working as part of a team others can support, encourage and inspire which in turn increases motivation to get the job done.
Play to strengths 
We all have different strengths and weaknesses and our confidence is inspired when we do more of the things that we are good at. Whilst I am a big believer in the importance of stepping outside our comfort zones to develop our weaknesses and grow, we should also seek to exploit our expertise especially when working towards a tight deadline or project.
Increase your skills and knowledge 
When we work with others we identify our own strengths and weaknesses as well as others. If we work with someone whose strengths are our weaknesses, then we can learn from them by developing our knowledge and then implementing the learning to develop our skills. If we are a subject matter expert then what better way than to showcase skills and knowledge to engage, empower and inspire others.
Improve communication 
Working as a team means that we have to think about the intent and impact of our actions whether this be verbally, face to face or written via email. We have to consider the needs of others and how they like to receive information. This was a particular learning curve for Jo & I when we were working together, needless to say the number of times we picked up the phone to talk increased rather than bombarding each other with email ping ping
Increase emotional wellbeing
Working on your own can be a lonely place where you are consumed by your own thoughts, feelings and emotions. This can be healthy if those thoughts are positive, encouraging and empowering, however if you have that self doubt that creeps in and the little voice inside your head continues to tell you that good is not good enough then you can very quickly head into a downward spiral. It's good to talk and share your feelings so don't bottle them up. Build healthy relationships based on know, like and trust. 

What's the most important reason why you should collaborate rather than compete?

Together
Everyone
Achieves
More

A few weeks ago I facilitated a discussion with a group of leaders and asked them to share with me who their inspirational leader was and why in their opinion they are legendary. I asked them 2 questions
1. What makes them special?
2. What have they done that makes them legendary?
I had a variety of names on my flipchart which included Geoff Boycott, Sun Tzu, Britney Spears, Beyone, Sir Alex Ferguson and their best boss! It was encouraging to get someone who wasn't famous, but whom had made a positive impact on someones career.
What I found interesting about all of these people, despite all of the different backgrounds from sports personalities, pop stars and a chinese military general, was the fact that they all shared similar traits. I'm sure when you read these you will be able to think of your own legendary leader and be able to identify the traits. I sure did when I thought about mine!
Top 10 traits of legendary leaders
1. Action Plan - Make sure you know what you want your team to achieve, let them know how they will achieve and if something isn't working, be quick to change it. Think about Sir Alex Ferguson, he briefed his team before the match, observed throughout the match, made substitutions, took stock at half time, continued to observe, continued to make substitutions and debriefed his team at the end of the match.
2. Learn from mistakes - It's OK to make mistakes as long as you don't continue to make the same mistakes and you learn from them. View it as an opportunity rather than a threat. Some of the most famous leaders have nearly become bankrupt, however rather than viewing this as a failure they view it as a lesson. Take Simon Cowell for example, he came close to losing everything and now he is one of the most successful record producers and encourages others to succeed and learn from his mistakes in business
3. Role model behaviour - Don't ask someone to do something that you wouldn't be prepared to do yourself. Make sure you are your brilliant best on a daily basis demonstrating how to behave from the language you talk and the way you walk. 
4. Communicate Effectively - The best leaders are great story tellers, they have an inspiring vision and are able to change their language to suit their audience. They listen to what others say, they are naturally curious with their questioning and they engage people by bringing them on the journey. Think about how Barak Obama won his presidency campaign with his "fired up, ready to go" chant
5. Celebrate Success - Whether its winning a cricket tournament, becoming number 1 in the UK hit parade, winning the Premiership league or standing on the podium to receive an Olympic medal every legendary leader has shaken the champagne bottle and had their moment of glory. It's important in business to celebrate the quick wins too because this keeps the momentum going especially when the going gets tough
6. Reward & Recognise - Everyone is motivated by different things and what legendary leaders do is "know their people" and know "how" to recognise their achievements. Some will be quite happy with a pat on the back and a simple well done and thank you. What's key here is that you keep filling the emotional bank account with lots of positive reenforcement
7. Play to Strengths - If your going to WIN, why would you get a defender to score goals and a striker to defend, you wouldn't so it's important that a leader knows how to get the best out of their team and put them in positions where they will shine and grow. This in return will move them from good to great and from ordinary to extraordinary. 
8. Stretch Goals - Imagine if you kept doing the same thing over & over again and getting the same results, there would be no room for improvement. Every athlete that I can think of stretches themselves everyday they train so that when they compete they are at their brilliant best and believe they can achieve those stretched goals. They feel challenged and motivated.
9. Stand out from the crowd - If you were to walk into your normal environment would the leaders stand out or would they mingle in the crowd? A leaders image is a key to success. They should have an aura about them which others want to follow. Thinking about Britney Spears, Beyonce, Victoria Beckham, they all have a personal branding and image that makes them unique and special. They stand out in a crowd and get noticed
10. - Respect - This is earned through making the right decisions which will not always be popular. I hear the phrase "harsh, but fair", "not afraid to have challenging and tough conversations", "they may not always be liked, but they are respected through their honesty and transparency"
Thinking about yourself and taking a look at yourself in a mirror

• What do you see, feel & hear?
• How are you already like these inspirational leaders?
• What do you need to do differently to become one of these inspirational leaders?
• What will be your legacy?

Write it down, dream, believe, achieve and make it happen!

​When I started my coaching journey with The Coaching Academy 5 years ago, little did I know just how much my life would change let alone those lives around me. The lyrics of the song: "I'm starting with the man in the mirror, I'm asking him to change his ways and no message could have been any clearer, if you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make that change".
This is exactly what I did and I never looked back from the moment that decision was made.
Change can be scary and you may well go through a range of emotions whilst on the journey…

Step 1. Identify your biggest fear? 

It is often said that FEAR stands for False Evidence that Appears Real and this can hold you back from achieving your goal. Some people may have a fear of failure whilst others fear success. Whatever your fear is make sure you work to recognise it. My motto is that “failure is not an option”.  The reason is I believe this is because until you stop trying, the reality is you haven’t failed, you have just learnt from your mistakes along the way.  You go through, around or over the obstacles that are in front of you. People who fear success generally self sabotage just at the point they are going to take the podium position. One thing that I remember from my childhood is my Dad telling me “unless you are going to win there is no point in entering the race”. This belief created my competitive nature and over time I have changed that belief and recognise that there are 3 places on a podium and everyone on that podium is a winner having their successful moment. It’s there for the taking so embrace the challenge. 

2. Understand the beliefs you hold when experiencing change?
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This depends on where you are on the change curve. John Fisher explains this on his transition curve.

•    Anxiety – “Can I cope?”
•    Happiness – “At last, somethings going to change!”
•    Fear – “What impact will this have?” “How will it affect me?”
•    Threat – “This is bigger than I thought”
•    Denial – “Change, what change?”
•    Guilt – “Did I really do that?”
•    Depression – “Who am I?”
•    Disillusionment – “I’m off, this isn’t for me!”
•    Hostility – “I’ll make this work if it kills me!!”
•    Gradual Acceptance – “I can see myself in the future”
•    Moving Forward – “This can work and be good”

3. Responding to change

How you respond to the change is first being able to understand yourself, recognise the thoughts and feelings that are triggering your behaviour. Start to work on an action plan to improve your thoughts, feelings and behaviour so that you continue to move forward.  When working with my clients I ask them to plot themselves on the transition curve at the start of the journey, midway and at the end. I find that this is a great visual tool to measure the success of the clients coaching journey and remember to celebrate success along the way. 

4. Identify your strengths?

When going through change, it’s empowering to focus on your strengths, the things that you are good at. An excellent tool you can use is a SWOT analysis. Make a list under the following headings and ask yourself these questions.

• Strengths – What are you good at? What skills do you have? How do you know this to be true? What evidence have you got? What would others say your strengths are?
• Weaknesses – What skills do you need to develop? What do you need to improve? How will this benefit you by taking action to improve? In what situations, do you need to develop or change? What would other’s say you need to develop?
• Opportunities – What opportunities are within these four walls? What opportunities are outside these four walls? Who do I need to connect with? What further help or support do I need? Where could I get the additional help & support? Think outside of the box. No matter how obscure, capture it!
• Threats – Who or what will prevent you from achieving success? If you stand in your own way, then make sure your name is on the list

Once you know what you are good at, what you are passionate about, consider how you can use this new-found knowledge to start to see obstacles as opportunities. Think about how you can move around them, over them and through them. By developing these opportunities, notice how you grow. Suddenly your flame has been ignited and the change is coming from within. 

Remember change comes from within and begins with the man or woman in the mirror, decide to create your own handbook to success. I did and you can too! Coaching can be the catalyst to change. Let me know what changes you have decided to make in the comments below