Debra Kasowski

Amanda Knight

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For over 12 years Amanda has been working with leaders in corporations and small to medium-sized businesses to help them raise their personal performance. Prior to that she had an early corporate career in marketing.

For the last 7 years she has also been teaching and training fellow coaches and trainers in applied emotional intelligence and transpersonal concepts, tools and techniques.

 Amanda has co-developed a transformational coaching tool called the Individual Potential Accelerator (iPA). The full profile comes with an optional 360 report and requires feedback by an accredited coach.

When speaking, writing and facilitating leadership development, Amanda likes to ask the question: “Why would anyone follow you or buy from you?” What impact do you have on others? And how do you know? Are you getting the results you want from your interactions with others?

Amanda helps business executives to enhance their relationship management skills to become inspiring, authentic leaders rather than frustrated or disempowered managers.

  Amanda helps business owners to get real clarity about where they are heading with their business, and help them to become open to new ways of perceiving, making decisions, and showing up so that they accelerate their progress towards their inspired goals.

And if you are a coach or trainer, Amanda can help you to enhance your understanding and application of emotional intelligence and transpersonal concepts within your own work. So if you are looking for a programme and / or qualification that will enhance your trusted authority as a people developer, then Amanda’s UK university accredited emotional intelligence mastery program may well fit the bill!

Please go to www.minds4success.co.uk for more information.

What Do You Mean You Can’t Teach Effort?

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Today I was waiting at the deli and one employee was busy serving customers and the other was standing with her back toward the customers staring at the clock for a good 3-5 minutes. The other employee asked the girl if she was okay and if she was could she please help serve the awaiting customers. She proceeded to put on the plastic gloves and with a big sigh she said, “I guess so”. Wow, that took the cake! As she started to serve me, she had a long drawn out conversation with her fellow employee saying that if she did not eat right away that she would die. Oh my goodness. I was ready to start laughing as the same girl did the same thing last week when there was a line up of customers. Her colleagues had to ask her to help and she reluctantly did. But this being the second time, I decided that perhaps this person needed some coaching, especially since her fellow employee was mouthing apologies to me on her behalf. I went to speak to one of the supervisors and they knew exactly who I was speaking about.

 What coaching do you think she needed? From my perspective,  she needed to:

        1.        Gain a greater awareness of how her behaviour was affecting  her colleagues and the customers.

        2.       Understand that her role was to serve others.

        3.       Prepare and eat before her shift.

        4.       Understand how important her role was to the store.

Number #4 is the most crucial one! Each person from the janitor to the CEO carries importance to an organization. Imagine what would happen if they were not there…garbage would pile up, no direction or delegation would occur, and no one would be served. If you do not believe your role is important, you are wasting your gifts and talents. The biggest disservice is to you.

You might say to yourself, “I do not have the natural ability that the other person has.” You may not but can you learn the skill? Can you improve over time? Can you work hard and give your best effort? The person, who gets noticed and remembered in the long run, is the person who puts in the effort consistently and gives their best at the time they do a task. Sometimes those with the natural ability – do not produce consistent results, they do not try to improve, and they do not give their best effort because they know they can get by. You cannot teach effort to another person. You can role model it but the pure desire needs to come from within. The intrinsic desire to give your best will get you to your prize faster than anything else. What you do is important!

 

Is Your Dream Too Small?

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Someone said something to me today that took me by surprise. I had shared with a colleague that my goal of giving out 1000 shoeboxes for The Spirit of Christmas Shoebox Campaign filled with treasures would probably be met 1 year in advance and also be met by almost 150%. She looked at me and said, “You know, I thought your goal was too low.”

 Wow, when I started with 120 boxes 3 years ago 1000 seemed like a huge accomplishment and it still is. What amazes me most is when people see the bigger vision – the vision of being part of something bigger than another person ever thought possible. Her comment reminded me that people see things in you that you cannot yet see. I know this because I see qualities and potential in others all the time but sometimes I fail to look at me for the same. Maybe we cannot see it because we live it and we are so close to see ourselves for who we really are. They know what you are capable of and they feel your passion and desire to achieve your goal. Even though, I consider myself a big dreamer – I often get reminded that I could be dreaming a bigger dream.

Maybe my dream was too small. Yet at the same time it is as large as life. That is where the fun begins. When you set your goal,  write it down. Now, what if you stretched your goal just a little bit bigger, what could you really accomplish? One of my favorite things to do is brainstorming the “how”. How can you accomplish what you set out to do? For me and maybe for you, it is all about setting goals that can be manageable not only in resources but also the time it takes to achieve it. Having milestones along the process is like have a self check in, to see where you are at. Be careful not to limit yourself from dreaming bigger and achieving bigger.Find out how much your dream really costs. You may be surprised to find out it may not cost as much as you think. 

My friend Kim and her family rent a yacht for 2 weeks every summer. I had never even thought about renting one. Yet how cool is that? When I shared with others that they too could rent a yacht, they said, “Yah, right. When I win the lottery!” I cannot remember the price she paid but I remember that it was a lot more reasonable than I originally thought. Isn’t funny in how we can trick our minds into thinking something is unattainable? Many people may talk about their dreams, never write them down, and dismiss them as being in impossible. The people who actually take the impossible and turn it into possible find out what it takes to achieve their dream, write down their goals, and make manageable actions steps. The action steps are the key to unlocking your dream. The greatest way to achieve you dreams is to S.H.A.R.E.

S– Stretch into a bigger dream

H – Help others dream a bigger dream from what you see in them

A– Ask others to help support your dream and let them know how they can help you

R-Recognize your milestones or accomplishments along the way

E-Enjoy the journey!

In following these steps, my family, friends, and colleagues and even members of the public have made this dream explode into something bigger and better. Dreams come true when you engage others in the process. I am so impressed by the generous spirit of the people in our community. Families, teams, businesses, and schools are gathering together like a chain to help build a stronger community. Amazing what happens when we all work together in making dreams come true. In just a couple weeks, children’s faces with be filled with happiness and joy by a simple gift of a shoebox placed before them.  Start dreaming a bigger dream, you could be dreaming small. Dream do come true!

Building Confidence

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Are there times that you wish you felt more confident when you walk a room? If you look around that room, do you think everyone is 100% all the time? Tell you what, everybody lacks confidence in one area in their life or another, especially when they are trying out new things. Instead of worrying about that someone is so much better than you and comparing yourself. Look at the areas in your life that you are confident in, you feel completely in control in. You already ARE and HAVE confidence in many areas of your life…maybe just not in the area you are hoping to right now.

Do you want to know the biggest secret?

“You increase your confidence every time you take action toward your goal that you are trying to reach. ” – Debra Kasowski

As you get practice, you might make mistakes, fall down, you get up, and you keep perserving – you reflect, and learn whatever lessons that that brought you. I guarantee you soon enough, you will also have confidence in those areas too. Then you will have a new area you will have to practice.

Get up and know that you have confidence in other areas of your life right now. You might just need to learn more lessons right now to make you more confident where you are right now and where you are heading.

 

 

Sometimes You Just Need to Put the Blinders On

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This post seems so appropriate since Rodeo Week is just around the corner. In a recent a late night phone conversation with a friend of mine,  I was asking her if she checked out some of the things that others were doing in her industry. She mentioned she did not. I am quite a curious cat so I asked “Why?” “Well” she said, ” If I look at what others are doing, I may have the tendency to compare what they are doing to what I am doing.” How many of you can relate? Sometimes this comparison can downright pull you down if you are coming from a place of “She is so much better than me.” or “I do not have what she has.: or even “She’s been a this longer than I have.”  I have also noticed that sometimes people can start copying the person they are comparing themselves to without even realizing it. Whoa there! 

 

First of all, if you are looking at the others in the industry, look for what appeals to you and what seems to be working for them. Huge warning…you do not want to adopt or align with beliefs or ideas that do not resonate with you. Be YOU! People want to work with people who are true to who they are. Secondly, you are already enough and you have what it takes. Do not downplay what you have accomplished. You need to do it your way! People are attracted to doing business and forming relationships with others based on synergy and a feeling of connection. Thirdly, do not forget – you are brilliant and you have tons of ideas that need to be put into action. You may feel uncomfortable when you put the ideas into action. I even get nervous when I am trying new things. No I am not kidding depending on what it is. It is a mix of nervousness and excitement and then a sense of, “I can do this. I have stretched before and I can do it again.” The results I have gotten better and better every time. As my motto goes, “Do not let your greatest regret in life be that you never took action.”

Be strategic. Learn from others but remember to value the talents and skills you bring forth. After all, there is only one you and no one can do things your way!

Put your blinders on. Focus on how your ideas are going to make a difference in the world and say, “Giddy Up! I am on the track. I am going to win this one!”