Forever Young

Welcome to Forever Young. 

Forever Young is for people who want to live life to the full and have fun doing it.  We provide products and services to people who want to improve all aspects of their life.

Our founder, Julie Ashton is a Master Success Coach, Trainer, Facilitator and Author.  Here is what Julie has to say:

I love to work with people of all ages to identify the career path to suit their individual needs.  Coming from a small country town, I found career choices were limited and resources were unavailable to realize my dream job.  I was an outsider at school and was never part of the “popular” crowd so I didn’t really have friends to support me in following my dreams.  I then followed the advice of other people to pursue a career that left me feeling depressed, unsatisfied and very, very unhappy.

I will help you choose the career path early in life that suits you using some simple strategies and tools to identify your personal needs so that you too can have a rewarding, personally satisfying career and create the success you truly want.

It took 20 years for me to find a career that gave me the passion, satisfaction and rewards I craved.  I now spend my working hours improving the lives of others, have plenty of time to spend with my family and friends, operate 3 businesses, take at least 3 holidays a year to exotic locations and of course have loads of energy as a bonus!

Goal Setting and Planning.

One of the characteristics of an effective leader is the ability to focus. Successful leaders focus on what they want to achieve. They set goals for themselves and work to achieve these goals. Great leaders are always growing and expanding into new areas. They know what they want, and they devise ways to get it. The secret to their success is their ability to set and achieve specific goals. A goal is a specific objective you and your team must achieve.

A plan is a blueprint for achieving these goals. The abilities to set clear goals and plan how to achieve them are important leadership skills. If you cannot identify and communicate goals and plan how to achieve them, you will have difficulty fulfilling other leadership responsibilities. Involve team members in setting goals.

People increase commitment to goals when they are involved in setting them. They develop a sense of ownership and will take responsibility for results since they have a personal stake in them. For best results, write each goal. This will make a goal easier to remember. It also will be easier to track your progress towards it. Once you have written a goal, consider what you must do to achieve it.

• What challenges could you encounter? By identifying and resolving potential conflicts now, you will be able to focus on the goal. Regularly review progress toward the goal.
• Are you where you should be in accomplishing it? If so great! If not, determine the reason for the delay, then take action. For example, if you have a sales goal to meet for the year, you need to be tracking your progress daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly. If you are not meeting your milestones, you need to determine why not and establish what actions you can take to meet them. If your Business is in a poor location for attracting “walk in traffic” what can you do to increase local awareness of your location?

Planning Process:

A plan describes how a goal will be achieved. It provides the structure needed to accomplish daily organisational activities. A plan outlines the necessary activities, the resources to be allocated and how the work will be assigned. It gives guidance and direction to everyone involved in achieving the goal. A plan ensures the objective will be achieved efficiently and effectively.

• Planning makes leaders more future-oriented.
• Planning enables leaders to coordinate decisions.
• Planning reinforces goals.
• Planning ensures efficient use of resources.

Once goals rare determined, the planning process can be broken down into five easy steps:

• Establish Strategies: Identify how you will achieve the goal. List the specific steps that must be taken to move toward the goal.
• Set a Timetable: Priorities and scheduling are critical to planning. Make a list of tasks according to their priority and establish specific deadlines for their completion.
• Assign Responsibilities: Delegate tasks to the team, matching the task to the person best suited for it. Your team’s success depends on every member fulfilling their responsibilities. Be sure that each team member commits to completing his or her assigned duties.
• Anticipate Challenges: Good leaders anticipate challenges. 
• Modify the Plan as Necessary: Even leaders with fantastic imaginations cannot possibly imagine all of the challenges that may occur as a team strives to achieve its goals. Leaders must be flexible and change plans as needed.

As in setting goals, you should involve team members in the planning process. Participation allows them to exercise their creativity and problem solving skills and will increase their commitment to achieving the established goals.

Summary

Careful goal setting and planning are the keys to achieving results and to making you a successful leader. By using the information we discussed today, you will be able to set goals and develop plans that will result in achieving those goals. It is important to remember that while planning is an essential key to success, some people spend their whole lives planning and not doing! It is a matter of maintaining balance by prioritising where to spend your time. Obviously a customer sale would take priority over taking time out to plan how to get more sales!

Feedback: “Information given to one or more team members concerning their behaviour, attitude, relationships, and progress toward the achievement or non achievement of objectives”. Effective leaders motivate achievement by providing feedback, support and recognition and by resolving conflict. One of the biggest challenges of a leader is to be able to give feedback to others on their performance. Feedback involves praising people to reinforce their outstanding performance and critiquing people to improve their performance. Often leaders are uncomfortable giving feedback. If team members are to perform to their potential, they need to know what they are doing well, what they are not doing well, and how they can improve. Giving performance feedback successfully is a critical leadership skill. If you want to improve your team’s performance, you must be able to comfortably offer feedback to team members. By giving feedback effectively, you will help both the individual and the team achieve their goals. You will also build the team’s confidence and pride. Remember that people like to be successful and feedback is a way to help them be successful. Five step process: 1. Ask permission It is critical to ask permission of the person to whom you give feedback before opening up a discussion on their performance without them knowing what the discussion is about, especially if the feedback is aimed at improving performance! Offering feedback for performance improvement without permission can be very demoralizing for the person and destructive to the team. 2. Set clear and objective goals Team members will find it easier to perform if they have been given clear goals, objectives and performance expectations. Likewise, you will find it easier to give feedback to someone if you have established clear goals, objectives and performance expectations and communicated them to the team. This gives you a standard against which to measure team members performance and on which to base your feedback 3. Observe team members performance Carefully note what a team member is doing well and what does not meet agreed objectives and expectations. Too often, we focus on criticizing performance and do not remember to acknowledge and reward good performance. 4. Provide immediate feedback Don’t wait for days and months to praise or bring poor performance to a team members attention. The passage of time diminishes the effectiveness of your praise or criticism. 5. Recognise positive performance Too often the only people who receive recognition are the outstanding performers. Outstanding performers receive recognition for the good things they do. Poor performers are recognized by being reprimanded. Other team members who perform to expectations or just simple improve their performance often don’t receive praise. Make a point to recognize everyone who performs to expectations or at least shows they are giving their best to their performance. Giving constructive Feedback: Most leaders find it easier to give praise than to criticize someone’s performance. Being able to directly discuss team members inadequate performance is vital. Allowing an ineffective team member to continue his or her behaviour can prevent a team from meeting its goals and lower the morale and motivation of those team members who are performing. Tips for giving Constructive feedback: 1. Be Specific If your feedback is general; or unclear, your message can be misinterpreted. As a result, your message may be ognored and no improvement will occur. 2. Speak for yourself Offer comments form your own experience or point of view. Avoid saying “everyone thinks…” or “People are saying…” Instead say “I saw…” or “I am concerned…” 3. Be sincere Tell the team member how a specific action of theirs makes you feel. 4. Emphasise how actions affect the team Too often team members don’t realize how their actions and behaviours affect others. A leader is responsible for explaining to the person causing the disruption the impact of that person’s actions on others. Use the “I” technique When speaking to someone, avoid saying “you”. This can put the team member on the defensive. Instead focus on yourself. Say for example, “When I see someone interrupting other team members and criticizing the staff, I am very disappointed. Our business will successful only if each of us is considerate and strives to maintain a positive, friendly environment.” Be open to receiving feedback Most leaders are willing to provide feedback to team members to enhance performance and are not always prepared to receive feedback in return. A good leader leads by example, and this includes being open to feedback form their team. By being open to receiving feedback, your are setting an example for the team to follow while improving morale and building a trusting relationship with your team members. End on a positive note Conclude the feedback discussion with a statement of appreciation or praise. Express confidence in the team member. Say for example, “John, you are an incredibly loyal and hardworking team member. I value your contributions and I know you want the best for our business.” Recognise improvement Observe the team members performance after the feedback session. If improvement occurs, be sure to praise the team member. If improvement doesn’t occur, offer feedback again or coach the person. Establish a joint agreement together on how to correct the issue. Discuss in private Always address the issues in private. Addressing them in front of others can embarrass or humiliate the person and make others uncomfortable. Recognise Positive Performance As mentioned, feedback also involves recognizing those who perform well. If you hope to promote continuous improvement in team members, recognize them for their accomplishments. Positive feedback can motivate people to perform even better. When you offer positive feedback, remember to: § Be specific § Express your appreciation § Encourage more of the same By providing meaningful feedback to team members, you will reinforce outstanding performance and encourage others to improve their performance. When everyone on your team is working to their fullest potential, the team will meet and possibly exceed its goals.