Jo Sandhu - Leadership Coaching

Gold Medal Career

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:45:00 +0000

I had the pleasure of attending a presentation given by Sally Gunnell last night. The event was organised by Women In Technology and held at BP's headquarters in London. Women In Technology is a leading online job board and networking forum for women working in the technology profession in the UK and they provide many events throughout the year to inspire and encourage so an opportunity to hear Sally Gunnell was one not to be missed. The topic of Sally's presentation was Rising to the challenge: how to achieve a 'gold medal career' and I have to say, it was undoubtedly one of the best presentations I've ever seen or heard.

For those of you who may not be familiar with the name, Sally is one of Britain's best female athletes of all time and is the only woman in history to hold all four major track titles concurrently - Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth - plus the 400 metres hurdles world record. Sally has now retired from athletics and uses her experiences to inspire others achieve their true potential at events such as this one.

These days we're all used to speakers on stage with PowerPoint slides full of bullet points and text which are a hindering crutch for the speaker and a distraction for the listener. Sally however spoke without any prompts, slides or cue-cards for almost an hour - a commendable feat in itself! During that time she told her story. A story that started back in 1978 watching the Olympic games on TV and deciding there and then that she wanted to win Olympic gold!

And so the journey began. The way she guided us through her journey was full of passion and emotion - and delivered in a way that everyone in the room could relate what she was saying even though none of us had ever won an Olympic gold medal. She spoke of the highs of winning a first gold medal at the Commonwealth Games followed by frustration and disappointment with injuries or results that didn't go her way. A key learning point for Sally during these times was to use the things that go wrong, learn from them and use them in a positive way to move on. That message certainly resonated amongst the audience.

She also spoke of the 'gremlin', the little voice inside her head (plus some real voices of people around her) that told her she couldn't do it. Sally explained the techniques she adopted to quieten those voices and the need to replace them with something much more positive and empowering instead. As she said "who controls the voice is a sign of a true champion" - how right she is. In the years building up to the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 she realised that in order to have the best possible chance of success, she would need to have a team around her, all experts in their own field but as a sum of the parts would be a winning combination.

I want to highlight two of the team members as their input can be used by all of us to assist in us getting our gold medal career. The first of these experts was a nutritionist, because everyone knows that what you put into your body is what you get out. Naturally Sally wanted to eat the right foods to keep her on top form, sharp and alert and as injury-free as possible. We also know, usually from past experience, that over-indulging in the wrong food (or drink) can and does impact our performance. So eating well ensures we take care of ourselves on the inside and builds our physical and mental strength.

The second key member of her team was a sports psychologist, David Hemery, a gold-medal winner at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. His key technique for Sally was visualisation - imagining the final in her mind over and over again many times a day, anticipating issues that she might experience during the race and dealing with them in her mind and being so focused and clear on the race that when the actual day came, it was almost like operating on auto-pilot because the preparation had been so thorough. She knew exactly what she had to do from start to finish, ignore everything that was outside of her control (e.g. other competitors) and just do what she had to do. By focusing on achieving our own goals we build our mental muscle - that rich picture of success in glorious technicolour - using all our senses; sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing to build the layers in our mind makes the journey to success so much easier.

The climax to Sally's talk was the day of the 400m final at the 1992 Olympics. We laughed as we heard how she took 2 hours to get ready (hair, make up, nails - all the essentials for her to be at her most confident and assured). Then Sally then played us the actual TV clip of the race which resulted in a huge round of applause as she crossed the finish line in first place. I know Sally must have seen that footage hundreds of times but she still gets goosebumps from watching it. So did we.

Of course, Sally's journey didn't end there. She's continued to set new goals and targets since that day in Barcelona. It's about sustaining excellence because otherwise we'd all just take our foot off the pedal as soon as we achieved a goal and then sat back never to challenge ourselves again. Planning is essential, looking ahead and deciding what the next goal is going to be and if it's something big, then having lots of smaller interim goals along the way to give us confidence and reassurance that we're going in the right direction. As Sally says, 70% of what she achieved that day was due to mental strength and attitude - having self-belief and knowing in her mind that she could do it.

It was a fabulous presentation and one which will stay in my mind for a long time - maybe reinforced all the more because Sally brought that famous gold medal with her and passed it around for the audience to touch. Just holding that medal in my hands really served to strengthen my desire to spread the word on leadership coaching: the importance of setting goals, learning more about who you are along the way, handling challenges and celebrating success on a personal and professional level has got to be the way forward for future leaders. Sally Gunnell is definitely an inspiration and role model!

Breaking glass: strategies for tomorrow's leaders

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 09:47:00 +0000

I've recently received a flurry of emails from female readers of my blog who want to change career. In some cases, they're already at the top of their game, whilst others are feeling unfulfilled and unable to shine where they are.

So it's timely that a really interesting report conducted by CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) came my way this morning. The report "Breaking glass: strategies for tomorrow's leaders" and although the content is mainly aimed at women, the hints and tips are equally applicable to men as well.

Great leadership is vital in any organisation or industry, it just happens that the accountancy world has produced this report. I'd encourage any visitor to this page to read the report. There's a particularly useful Action Plan towards the end.

CanDo Sandhu Spirit!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 12:21:00 +0000

I have 2 key beliefs:

1. Everything happens for a reason
2. There are opportunities everywhere, you just have to open your eyes to see them

Never were these beliefs more important than when Sat, my husband, and I lost our jobs in March 2009. Losing one earner in a household is bad, both was unthinkable. On the plus side, we'd known a few months in advance that this was going to happen so we'd had time to work through the various emotional states - "why me?", "what are we going to do now?", "how are we going to pay the mortgage?", etc, etc. Lingering in this state wasn't going to help us, we had to figure out Plan B, and get on with it. Time for the CanDo Sandhu spirit to spring into action!

Plan B actually formed in our minds very early on and quickly snowballed. "Let's take a year out and go travelling!". It was an audacious idea since we had no income and a millstone known as a mortgage. The state of the job market was at rock bottom - 12 months would give us time out to discover the world and let the market pick up in the meantime. But what about the mortgage? Selling wasn't an option so we opted to let it out - which we managed to do.

We worked out an itinerary and booked our tickets. By mid-April 2009 we were on a plane to India to stay with Sat's parents for 3 months. Full details of our travels can be found at CanDo Sandhu blog. During the planning stage we knew there were things we wanted to see, experience and achieve. Most important for Sat was to write his first book. A fantasy fiction novel was something he'd been preparing in his mind for over 10 years but had never focused on it enough to make it a reality. A summer in the Punjab gave him that time to focus. Once he'd worked out an overview of the structure and written the prologue, he started to produce several chapters each week, tapping away on his laptop and wouldn't be satisfied until he'd found just the right wording for a particular battle scene or a character's facial expression.

He'd set himself a target of Christmas 2009 to finish the book. This challenging timescale was achieved in spite of 2 month-long trips back to the UK for family events, a month trekking in Nepal and 6 weeks travelling through South-East Asia! Stage one accomplished. Then came the task of proof-reading and finding a literary agent and publisher. When you consider there are over 3500 new books published every day then it's clear this is a very competitve market so the chances of being 'discovered' as the latest Tolkein or J K Rowling are fairly slim.

Brandishing the finished work he sent off emails, letters and manuscripts to the key players in his genre of fantasy fiction. We waited with excited anticipation for the responses. Some replied, others didn't. The disappointment was immense. However, Sat's belief in his book is beyond question. He knows what readers enjoy, what presses their buttons and he's delivered something that is sure to exceed their expectations.

Determined to be in print, he investigated the self-publishing route. It's becoming a more popular option for budding authors these days as it can be done pretty easily through companies such as Amazon. In this age of social media marketing through sites like twitter, Facebook and Linked In, the reach is truly global if you get the message pitched just right.

With his CanDo Sandhu attitude, his first book, Spirit (Dragon Crown Series) is available today (3rd November 2010) to buy on Amazon Kindle. The paperback version is just days away. Our travelling was the physical journey but there have been so many parallel journeys for us in the time we were away. Sat's journey was one of drive and determination to write and publish his book and is clear proof that you can get where you want to go when you focus on it. Of course, his ultimate destination on this journey is to become a NY Times Best Selling Author. He's so far along this track already, I've every faith in him that he'll get there. CanDo Sandhu Spirit rocks!

We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:18:00 +0000

Last Tuesday evening we went to a comedy club in Shoreditch called the Comedy Cafe . It was always going to be a great night as the tickets were free but the comedy was absolutely brilliant.
One particular segment was based on improvisation or "improv" where a partnership of 2 comedians created a funny story by going backwards and forwards between themselves just saying one word each and building on what the other had just said. Since neither had any idea what the other was going to say, they had to accept what was presented, blend their input with it and this created a whole new story. The end result was hilarious which, of course, was the intention but at the outset neither comedian had any idea of the direction of the story they'd weave together.

Breakin' Convention

We spent the weekend in Cardiff with Sat's sister, Am. We hadn't been over there for since we'd been back from our travels so a visit was long overdue. Obviously a 10 mile walk in the Welsh hills on Saturday morning wasn't enough entertainment for us, so in the evening Am had got tickets for a hip hop dance theatre show called Breakin Convention. The show presented hip hop acts from around the world as well as some local groups from the Cardiff area. I'd never been to anything like this before and I wasn't too sure what to expect. All I can say it that the choreography was breath-taking, the energy levels were phenomenal and the passion displayed by all the artists involved was exceptional.

The comedy club and the hip hop event really made it clear to me that when people put their heart and soul into the things that they really love doing, they're far more likely to succeed and do well because their energy is channelled into something they really enjoy and believe in. Because they enjoy it, they have confidence in what they do. Confidence provides the foundation to enhance creativity which in turn enables learning and growth.

My ponder question today for you is...what could you really channel your energy into that would make a difference in your life?

Career Acceleration Now - free 30 minute coaching session for the first 5 replies!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 09:05:00 +0000

Want to get your career into top gear? Want to get that dream job? Perhaps you've always wanted your own business? Maybe there's a promotion that you've got your sights on? Or maybe you just don't like your current job?

The first 5 people to respond to this posting will get a free 30 min "Career Acceleration Now" coaching session 1 on 1 with Jo Sandhu by simply completing their details on the 'Contact Me' page.

From this free session you can expect the following:

written positive goals for your career
a new awareness of what is causing many of the challenges for your career right now
a renewed sense of energy and motivation for your career
a next-step action plan for taking your career to the next level

What are you waiting for? Click on 'Contact Me' now!

This offer is available to only the first 5 people to respond to this posting.

Sorry - all free sessions have been taken. If you'd like to be added to the waiting list fill in your details on the contact page.

The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:50:00 +0000

Think of a time in your life when felt successful or fulfilled, perhaps it was a promotion at work, buying a house or having a family. There could be numerous things which spring to mind, or even just one or two key events. Now focus on what the factors were that ensured success for you? You probably had a clear view of what the end point looked like, you may have had a good idea of the steps you had to take to get there and you also called on your own strengths to tackle any challenges that you may have encountered along the way. Characteristics such as determination, drive and focus likely feature quite highly.

By focusing on what you want, you ignite your desire to achieve it. Conversely, if you focus on what you don't want, then it's a sure fire way to ignite your fear.

Sometimes my clients don't know what they want. Their vision or ideal is vague or fuzzy and so during our coaching sessions we spend time getting clarity around what they want to achieve professionally or in their personal life, often it involves both. You can be pretty sure that if something is going very well in one aspect of our life, there may be other aspects which, if left unattended for a long time, may suffer as a result. I've had many clients who work long hours and feel they just don't have the time to enjoy their free-time - they come to me seeking to address their work:life balance. In fact it isn't about a work:life balance, it's actually a life balance full stop. Work is just a part of what we do, along with all the other things like finances, relationships, health, spirituality and learning. The coaching process empowers my clients to gain a deeper understanding of their priorities, their habits and where they're spending their time and enables them to question and address areas which need attention. It's about closing the gap between where my clients are today and where they want to be.

Here's a useful technique I've used successfully with my clients: What if you were to see yourself as the CEO of your own corporation? "Your name here" Ltd? Most large companies have a finance department, operations department, personnel/human resources, etc. This company is all about being successful for its shareholders and being the best that it can be. So what if you saw yourself in the same way? You have income and expenditure (finances), you have your daily routines (operations), you deal with other people (HR), etc? And YOU are the CEO of this company! What's possible for you now? What would it enable you to do that's holding you back right now?

It's a pretty powerful tool which can have immediate impact. Now would be a good time to give this a go. Why not give try it and share your comments here with other readers.

Race for life!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 09:53:00 +0000

This weekend Sat and I are going up to my hometown, Wigan, for a very special occasion. My dad is competing in his first ever 5km race. A great achievement in itself since he's 68 years of age and only started running around 18 months ago.

My parents haven't always been the athletic type, in fact my dad hadn't done any form of exercise at all since a broken leg ended his hopes of becoming a professional footballer at the age of 18 and my mum was never a big sports fan at all, even watching it never mind doing it! So what changed? Well, that's an interesting question.

Sat and I must accept some responsibility since we got the running bug in 2006 when we ran the London Marathon and then 2 years later completed the TransRockies Run (check out the CanDoSandhu blog for full details). At this point, my parents just thought we were a couple of nutters who liked nothing more than jumping out of bed at 5am and running a half marathon before work - it'd never be something they'd consider doing. But as time drew closer for dad to retire, he started to wonder how he was going to spend his days without going to the office - he decided running might just be the answer.

Within a few weeks both mum and dad had started jogging. Sometimes separately, sometimes together. We even got them kitted out with proper running shoes on a visit to London courtesy of Runners Need where they do full gait analysis on a treadmill. I still tease them about that first time on a treadmill - Dad lifting his knees way too high, mum worrying that it'd be too fast!

Over the weeks and months they got into different routines but each of them became very focused on improving their own health and vitality. Mum was walking to work every day and dad was jogging twice a week. Both of them started having a much more well balanced diet with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. That combination of exercise and good diet meant they had much more energy and they wanted to do something positive with it. At a Wigan Athletic home game dad heard that the Rotary Club of Wigan was holding a Run 4 A Life race to raise money for the Everyman Campaign which specialises in research into male cancers. If Roberto Martinez thought it was a good idea, then dad didn't need much persuading to enter! He's been training ever since and regularly texts me when he's achieved a new personal best time. I think he's about to become a bit of a celebrity since the local paper has interviewed him and are coming round to take a photo too!

Mum on the other hand, has lost around 20kgs with her new regime and is looking fantastic. A renewed zest for life, enhanced confidence and self-belief has done wonders for her. She's taking cardio and toning classes and also has her first race scheduled for next month - something which even a few months ago she would never had thought possible.

I can tell you just how far they've come on this journey because when I spoke to them last weekend they had been watching coverage of the Great North Run on the TV. Mum had an instant affection for Haile Gebrselassie in his post-race interview saying wasn't he "a nice man" and "didn't he make it look easy!" There's even a rumour that she's beginning to consider running it herself next year. - WOW!

The secret to success is in the little steps we make on a consistent basis - these make the biggest difference. This is a perfect example and my parents' determination and dedication to consistently set and achieve bigger and better goals. It also demonstrates that age is no barrier to anything if you want it enough. It's rewarding for them and gives me a great sense of pride. A pride I know we'll all share on Sunday when we cheer my dad over the finishing line.

Every Second Counts

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 09:11:00 +0000

Time is the most precious commodity we have. Yet all too often in our day to day lives we find we don't have enough hours in the day to do all the things we have to do, let alone the things we want to do.

Here's a game for you to think about:

Imagine that you had won the following prize in a contest: Each morning your bank would deposit £86,400.00 into your private account for your use.

However, this prize has rules, just as any game has certain rules. The first set of rules would be:

Everything that you didn’t spend during each day would be taken away from you.
You may not simply transfer money into some other account.
You may only spend it. Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another £86,400.00 for that day.

The second set of rules:

The bank can end the game without warning; at any time it can say, It's over, the game is over!
It can close the account and you will not receive a new one.

What would you personally do with the money? You would buy anything and everything you wanted to? Not only for yourself, but for all people you love, yes? Even for people you don’t know, because you couldn’t possibly spend it all on yourself, yes? You would try to spend every penny, and use it all, yes?

ACTUALLY This GAME is REALITY! Each of us is in possession of such a magical bank. We just can’t seem to see it. The MAGICAL BANK is TIME! Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life, and when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is NOT credited to us. What we haven’t lived up that day is forever lost. Yesterday is forever gone. Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time….WITHOUT WARNING.

SO, what will YOU do with your 86,400 seconds? Those seconds are worth so much more than the same amount in £. Think about that, and always think of this: Enjoy every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than you think.

So take care of yourself and enjoy life! Start spending!!!

Credit for this goes to http://www.life-coaching.co.za/

Shift that paradigm!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 09:15:00 +0000

One of my favourite Tony Robbins phrases is "if you do what you've always done, you'll get what you always got". Basically if we don't change what we do, then we can't expect the end result to change - makes perfect sense. Yes?

Of course sometimes these things are easier said than done. We have habits and routines in all aspects of our lives and often don't take the time to think about what we're doing or why we're doing it. Sometimes though we'll have a 'eureka' moment when something different occurs and we wonder why we didn't think of it before. I experienced a great example of this just today when I was out for a morning jog with my good friend, Claudia.
Claudia's fairly new to running (after a few off-putting experiences in the past) and we've been going out for a jog 2 or 3 times a week for around the past month. She's been making notable progress each week from a combination of jogging and walking to a point where she can now easily jog the whole route. More importantly, she's loving it! Our current route takes us along the river Thames from Tower Bridge to London Bridge and there are a couple of places where there are quite a number of steps. After reaching the top of the steps today, Claudia turned to me and said "I never thought I would consider walking up the stairs as a time to rest!" I had to laugh as it showed what great strides (pardon the pun!) she's made in just a few short weeks and how her thinking has shifted - what previously had been a bit of a challenge (the stairs) had now provided her with the opportunity to regulate her breathing and gather her strength and determination to continue on the run. And just to prove how good she was feeling, she finished the last 200 metres with a sprint.

The lesson for Claudia was that a different way of thinking helped her to better handle a challenging situation. So here's something to think about: What kind of a positive change you could make in your work environment or life in general just by looking at things differently?

Shift that paradigm!

Welcome to CanDoSandhu Coaching!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 09:58:00 +0000

Welcome!

My name's Jo Sandhu and I offer leadership and personal development coaching - also known as CanDoSandhu coaching! If you're wondering what coaching is and what kind of a difference it can make to your life then please have a look at the Frequently Asked Questions section and if that leaves you wanting to know more then either get in touch using the Contact page or subscribe to follow these posts.

My coaching journey began over 4 years when I had my own coach who supported and challenged me to unlock my own true potential and since then I've never looked back. Having someone who truly believed in me, heard what I said (and what I didn't say) and encouraged my every effort whether I was successful or not had a profound impact on my life. I've been learning and growing ever since and this website is the place where I will share that learning with you and encourage you to unlock your own true potential.

"Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Life is a gift, that's why it's called the present."