How Coaches Can Use Neuroscience To Improve Coaching Results

/0 Comments/in , , , /by
Post Views = 4011
image_pdfimage_print

Executive coaching on a worldwide level has picked up steam as a valuable element of leadership development, and neuroscience provides us with a better understanding of the inner workings of our brain. Neuroscience studies the nervous system, the brain, the sensory nerve cells, and the neurons throughout the body. What are some things coaches can do to improve brain power in clients?

Reframe The Problem To Gain A New Perspective

Sometimes we underestimate the power of reframing an obstacle through conversation, clarification or a challenging question. All of this will reflect that crucial “Aha” moment where you respond to a situation in a new light because you have been informed.

When a client experiences stress and strong emotions, it can reduce the processing power of the brain. Instead, use reframing to unhook your client from the emotional triggers so that they can respond more appropriately and resolve the problem.

Matt Liberman, a professor and social cognitive neuroscience lab director at UCLA, calls this the braking system of the brain. You activate it to reduce the intensity in the brain. Studies have shown the best way to power up the braking system is through the labeling of an emotion with simple words. When you try to suppress the emotion, it has the opposite effect of strengthening it.

Improve Concentration: Juggle or Workout

Have a client who is struggling with concentration? Several studies suggest aerobic exercise improves the generation of new neurons within the hippocampus of the brain. This process is known as neurogenesis and improves a person’s memory.

Juggling is one of the few aerobic exercises you can do in a small space. Research has proven juggling increases the gray matter within the brain, and one study even showed it could make you smarter in just seven days. Along with toning your body and strengthening your core, you are also improving your mind through problem solving skills.

Exercise, both aerobic workout and strength training, has also been known to amplify the neurochemicals to promote differentiation, growth, survival and repair of brain cells. Neurochemicals serve a quintessential role in both mood and mental health.

Juggling sharpens your concentration because you can’t just throw the balls up and keep the flow going. To truly succeed, you have to stay concentrated, and this raw focus of your mind can permeate into other areas of your life.

Increase Brain Power With Puzzles

How to increase brain power can be done via a variety of different means, but puzzles have been a perfect way to increase your brainpower. Puzzles strengthen the connections between the brain cells, and these connections will later be used for improved thinking speed, and are great for short-term memory. A challenging puzzle is great because it forces both coaches and their clients to think in new and creative ways. It trains the mind to work in original ways, and you have to experiment and apply the process of elimination to unlock the mystery of a puzzle.

Different parts of the brain will work together in a whole brain approach to resolve the puzzle problem. Educators will also tell you how they have found that a whole brain approach has been effective for a deeper and longer lasting memory. Coaches could use that knowledge to make their clients more effective at their work. With a puzzle you can do anywhere like a soma cube, you and your client can use spare time to make the brain more effective. Soma cube is a solid dissection puzzle where you assemble 3x3x3 cubes to make a number of different 3-D shapes.

Get Vitamin D

When Vitamin D receptors activate, they increase nerve growth in the brain, and researchers have found metabolic pathways for Vitamin D within both the cerebellum and the hippocampus. Adults with low Vitamin D have shown poor brain function. The most common way to get Vitamin D is through activity in the sun.

One of the best ways a coach can improve their client’s brain power is through the constant challenge of their potential. You have to keep pushing them, and this will improve both the size and the structure of the neurons. Learning has proven to be a powerful way of igniting brain power and getting to the next level of cognitive thinking.

About the Author:

Yazi Jepson is an inspired writer who enjoys writing about personal growth, self-help tips, and women’s lifestyle. She sometimes writes for Streeterlaw,  a firm that helps their clients resolve disputes, preserve and protect their legal rights. In her parallel life, she loves reading and finding her own way to balance her time between writing, baking cakes, and personal training.

A Freelancer’s Guide to Managing Job Uncertainty During the COVID-19 Crisis

/0 Comments/in , , /by
Post Views = 2458
image_pdfimage_print
Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/serious-young-multiracial-women-standing-on-street-with-tablet-and-laptop-in-hands-5965610/

A freelancer’s troubles never seem to end, does it? From the start of work till closing, you’re faced with everything from complex client acquisitions to impossibly short deadlines and unreasonable clients. All of these seem to be the air and water of the freelance work practice.

And while normal life comes bagged and tagged with unavoidable uncertainties, the overwhelm of the freelance work practice takes on a life of its own, getting worse (or better) with every change in social and cultural trends.

In recent times, the persisting COVID-19 pandemic has been one of such crises that have dictated the increasing job uncertainty, melancholic mood, deteriorating mental health, and the general feeling of bleakness that has plagued freelancers.

This article seeks to offer a practical guide to freelancers (no matter their industry) on how to navigate job uncertainty during this COVID-19 crisis.

Regroup and Reprioritize

It’s easy to get lost in the myriad of questions that come with freelancing. Your degree certificate is barely cold when the questions hit: Is freelancing safe? Did I make the right choice? How do I guarantee a steady income flow? Where do good clients come from?

With the pandemic affecting how people consume information and products, it’s inevitable that you also have begun to catch yourself up at night, badgering Google for answers while trying in vain to stop the fear rising at the back of your throat.

But first things first, turn away from your computer. Now would be a good time to remind yourself of the reasons you began to freelance in the first place. Stop and smell your victories and progress (even if it’s just a degree you’ve gotten). Take a good look at your core skills, strengths, and gaps that still need work (this would come in handy soon).

Also, take time to readjust any misplaced priorities, e.g., remember that your present income level (or lack of it thereof) doesn’t define you.

Know your net worth

Next comes the not so fun but essential part: Know your net worth! Yes, we admit, this is a tough one to do for a freelancer, but it isn’t impossible. Your net wealth is described as the total cash amount of your assets minus the total cash amount of your liabilities.

For a freelancer, this may not be easy to ascertain, but you can start with a general understanding of your present financial state. Knowing an average of your income, recurring expenses, and debts would go a long way to alert you to how much gap there is between your present financial state and your future financial aspirations.

Invest in new skills

Remember that earlier stock-taking session?

Yes?

Great!

This is where your findings begin to come together. Your skill gaps (and maybe even ethics gap) should be obvious to you from the deductions you’ve made. And that is an excellent thing.

The pandemic has blessed us with more time on our hands, and there aren’t many things that can compete with learning as being a great use of time.

Invest in a couple of online courses that are relevant to your industry, career, and niche. Subscribe to blogs and newsletters that provide valuable content in your field. Watch YouTube videos, read books, attend virtual conferences. Any method that works for you without putting you under unhealthy pressures is fine. Just keep learning and improving yourself.

Diversify

The phrase, adapt or die has never been more true for the freelancer than now. As we all seek to adjust to the new realities of COVID-19 (face mask-wearing, social distancing, and teleworking), the freelancer must reinvent and equip himself/herself with relevant skills to these new realities.

For example, the world of journalism has experienced a sharp decline in the news that isn’t necessarily COVID-related while upping its demand for pandemic related information. This means an average freelancer may need to become a master of more than one trade.

Evolution has always favored the fluid, not necessarily the strongest. This isn’t to say that you need to become a master of all. You just need to reassess your skills in light of what is relevant in your industry and actively begin honing new skills and perspectives. You may also need to enlist external help like time daily tasks reporting timesheet to help you and your team become more effective/productive.

Innovate

It’s almost unnecessary to say that digital is the future. You’re a freelancer, so you probably understand this reality more than most full contract workers.

But what does this new reality mean for you as a freelancer? For starters, we’ll take a guess that you already run as a business organization. Maybe you even have a team of freelancers who work with you (this is a great place to begin if you haven’t begun to function this way).

All over the world, small businesses are finding creative ways to provide relevant products and services for their consumers despite the odds of the pandemic. This may mean creating a new product or improving on your existing services.

In the future, the most obvious path would be to make your systems, processes, and services digitally friendly. Creating digital products is a great place to begin.

Network more

This has got to be the oldest trick in the book, leveraging the human truth that we’re social beings. These times have served to remind most of us of the actual use and value of Social media.

Networking platforms (physical or virtual) can serve as a medium to connect with contemporaries and experts alike. It can become a treasure mine for mutually beneficial and long-lasting professional relationships.

No matter the industry, the benefits of networking can be astounding, serving to do more in the area of publicity, authority building, ideas banking, etc.

This doesn’t just apply to conferences held in your niches or connections with people in your industry. As a business, networking with your customers can help you gain repeat customers and enjoy customer loyalty (a great way to do this is by setting up an email marketing list).

A word of caution, it pays to be deliberate about who and why you’re making a connection. Avoid irrelevant connections to avoid information and relationships that feel spammy.

Bottom line

Although the COVID-19 crisis has exponentially increased job uncertainty for the freelancer, it has also presented an immense opportunity for growth and possibilities.

Applying all that you’ve learned in this guideline will undoubtedly give you a clear handle on managing these times with grace and confidence, wouldn’t you agree? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments.

Author’s BIO: Lori Wade is a journalist from Louisville. She is a content writer who has experience in small editions, Lori is now engaged in news and conceptual articles on the topic of business. If you are interested in an entrepreneur or lifestyle, you can find her onTwitter &LinkedIn. She has good experience and knowledge in the field. 

5 Stress Management Strategies to Bust Your Stress

/2 Comments/in , , /by
Post Views = 7053
image_pdfimage_print

Stress is one of the greatest threats we face. The need to change our relationship with change (3Q) and develop simple effective strategies to manage stress is critical. Nip stress in the bud and start to develop a new relationship with change.

Happy to host this guest post by Yazi Jepson on stress management for coaches and their clients. Excellent actionable advice!

There is a reason why medical experts have nicknamed stress “the killer disease.” It really is that serious.

Since there is no one on this planet (except perhaps a meditating monk in a cave somewhere) who can escape from feeling stressed, the key is to learn how to manage it. Here, there actually is such a thing as “good stress.” But it is only good if you know how to recognize in stress itself your opportunity to learn new ways to deal with stress.

If you are a career or life coach working in the field, you can probably think of one or many clients you have right now who are oh-so-stressed. In fact, thinking about this probably makes you feel stressed out too.

In this post, you will learn strategies you can use to alleviate and manage your own stress that you can then teach to your clients in turn. Welcome to your less-stressed, more productive and peaceful world!

De-Stress Strategies That Really Work

These proven stress management strategies will help you and your clients learn how to deal with stress on the spot.

Strategy 1: First name your stress, then address it.

At its core, the experience of “feeling stress” comes from the activity in the most ancient part of our brain. This part is called the limbic system, and we share it with most other creatures on this planet.

In this way, stress is the way your survival instinct communicates with you to let you know there is a survival threat on the horizon.

What to do: Your first step in addressing stress is to name the threat. Here, you might find out your stress is linked to insufficient sleep the night before. Or it could be witnessing your boss go storming down the hall. Or it might be “good” stress – like the type you get when you propose to your love and they say ‘yes!’ Once you know what the threat is, or if it is even a threat, then you can deal with it appropriately.

Strategy 2: Identify your personal stress tolerance limits and your go-to coping strategies.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), different age categories manage and process stress in different ways. Each age category, from Mature to Boomer to GenX to Millenials, also has their “go-to” stress management strategies.

In general, the younger you are, the more you are likely to feel challenged to manage your stress. You are also more likely to use less healthy coping strategies (drinking, smoking, over-eating), whereas your older peers are more likely to take a walk or head for a faith service.

The better able you are to identify when your personal stress tolerance limits are getting stretched, the more control you will have over your response to your stress and the coping strategies you choose.

What to do: It can really help here to create a list of stress triggers and go-to coping strategies you can turn to before you just hit your stress limit and automatically turn to something you swore you would not do again.

Strategy 3: Learn to turn stress to your advantage.

Interestingly, stress can be useful to us as more than just a fight-or-flight early alert system. Stress in its purest and most primal form is the energy of e-motion.

You can see this at work in the performance of elite military forces and professional athletes. Those who become most successful in their chosen careers are the ones who can sense and harness the emotional energy of stress to produce their desired outcomes.

What to do: Welcome the e-motional energy of stress as a tool you can use to achieve your goals. Unharnessed, stress energy shoots around like a water hose without a nozzle. Harnessed, you put a nozzle on that hose and direct the stream exactly where you want and need it to go!

By learning and practicing these three ways of dealing with stress, you can feel more centered and self-connected during your client sessions and then teach your clients how to duplicate your successful results.

About the Author: Yazi is an inspired writer who enjoys writing about personal growth, self-help tips, and women’s lifestyle. She sometimes writes for Streeterlaw,  a firm that helps their clients resolve disputes, preserve and protect their legal rights. In her parallel life, she loves reading and finding her own way to balance her time between writing, baking cakes, and personal training.

Bust stress NOW. Recharge-refocus-repower!
Click here to learn about our 1-hour stressbuster sessions and other fast-fix tools. You will be glad you did

More? You Betcha.
100 Stress-busters
Turn Stress Around
12 Ways to Turn Overwhelm Around

!