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This morning I listened to a tele-seminar by Debbie Bermont from Outrageous Business Growth (it was great to hear all of the other Aussies on the call with me).

The thing that jumped out at me was a useful definition of when a business is in alignment and when it isn’t.

When your business is not aligned it feels like you are walking through mud. You have lost the passion for your business, you work long hours and have no time for fun or your family. You may have health issues and don’t have real clarity about what you are trying to achieve. You have cash-flow problems with your business and feel like you have to work hard to get anywhere. You get overwhelmed by information and all that you need to do – but don’t know where to start. There is drama everywhere around you – and you are hit hard by economic changes. You think you have to “do it alone”.

When your business is aligned you come from a space of “yes” – where you are confident you will get what you want – even if it may turn out slightly differently than you imagined. You have time to pursue your outside interests and passions. You feel energised at the end of each day – and when challenges come you can easily deal with them. You have a great supportive team around you that work together to create solutions.

Today compare your business to this list. Is your business aligned or not aligned? Is everything flowing smoothly or does it feel you are crawling over boulders each day? Notice which areas in particular feel more “out of whack” than others.

If your business is not aligned you are doing it a lot tougher than you need to do. Friction is holding you in place.

Just for today focus on what is going right for your business – focus on the things that are flowing smoothly. Focus on the positive experiences.

Focus on gaining clarity about your business direction and purpose – and communicate this direction and purpose to your employees and your customers. Start to bring your business more into alignment and reduce your business hassle.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

I have just discovered a great blog – My New Shiny Shoes. It is an online shopping guide for Australian shoppers. It is great to see Australian companies happy to source local products.

The post that particularly caught my eye were two enterprising companies that send Australian care packs to people o/s including Tim Tams, Polly Waffles, Milo and other goodies.

It takes G’day LA to a whole new level! What about sending some Aussie gift baskets for your overseas clients or customers instead of the traditional boring ones for your next promotion or thank-you?

It’s funny how what is regular and mainstream to us can be interesting and novel to others. Have a look at your business through new eyes and see where you may be interesting to others (but boring to yourself).

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

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Today my kids go back to school after a long summer break. Last night as we lay talking about their hopes and fears for the year it became clear one fear was quite strong – “would they make a mistake and be embarrassed in front of everyone”?

The fear of embarrassment is a fear for people no matter their age. The fear that you will make a mistake and people will laugh at you can paralyse you from doing anything.

How can you break that fear? Telling it to go away won’t cut it. Sometimes you just need to laugh at the fear and learn from others who have had the very experience you fear the most (and survived).

As a leader – sometimes you have to be the one who shares your experiences to your team, to allow yourself to be open and vulnerable to help others to grow. So here is the story of my worst embarrassment – and how I survived.

Picture a tall, gangly, pimply 12 year old (me). I had just started a catholic high school in the fringes of Sydney and knew no one at the school when I started. It was about 2 months into the school year – still warm as I was enjoying sitting on the bench outside my classroom in the sunshine.

Our classroom had windows that opened up and out and I was sitting beneath one of the open windows. A girl popped her head out of the window and started teasing me – I took it silently for a few minutes before I reached up and started to shut the window to silence her words. The only problem was the girl just at that moment leant even further forward, so the window smashed onto her head – and the glass shattered.

I was marched to the office in tears and fear and told by the principal (a very stern nun) that I was to inform my parents that night what I had done and return the next morning with a letter from my parents about what they would do about my error.

Fast forward a few hours – I used to catch the bus down to the local library after school. One of the boys at the library from the boys school near us handed me a note. It was a typical teenage love note all full of how much he liked me and asking me to be his girlfriend. The day wasn’t a total loss after all!

That night I copped a hiding from my parents and was handed a letter to give to the Principal in the morning saying what had been done at home and how they were going to pay for the broken window.

The next day I walked with wobbly legs and dry mouth into the Principal’s office. I handed the Principal the note – watched her read it and then with growing horror realised that I had given her the note from the boy and not my parents. My heart sank beneath my feet and I grabbed the note and ran out of the office.

I wanted to curl up and die from embarassment. … But I didn’t. The Principal never mentioned it again. My parents had a great laugh about it and my friends helped me through it.

I didn’t die. The world moved on. In a few short weeks it was old news in the school.

If you have ever stuffed up ask yourself – what will this really matter in a few weeks time. Will this really make a difference to the world? Yes, there will be times when you are embarrassed – but if you don’t stuff up every now and again you aren’t human.

How do you deal with a team member or colleague that has made a mistake? Do you make it easy on them or do you make their embarrassment harder to deal with?

Do you share your stories with your team? Love to hear your thoughts.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

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I was doing some research for a client this morning when I found this brilliant article by Beth Banning and Neill Gibson on how to change your thoughts away from negative emotion laden words (like money) and towards more positive, fun strategies.Their theory goes whenever you hear the word money (and feel yourself closing up inside) – replace the word with the most ridiculous word you can think of. In their article they used the word underpants. Here’s a few examples they gave to get you started …

• “I’d like to have a new car, but I don’t have enough underpants.”
• “Invest in THAT? No way! It’s too risky. I could lose all my underpants.”
• “Do you think underpants grow on trees?”
• “I like the job but the underpants are awful.”
• “Underpants can’t buy happiness.”

This is one I think the kids can happily join in on (and of course your team members).

You can of course change the concept to apply to pretty much anything that is causing stress in your workplace.

In Queensland many local council employees are finding the council amalgamations quite challenging at present. They could easily change the words “council amalgamations” to something silly in their team like “baggy blue trousers” or “bottom burps”. This could lead to conversations such as “I wonder if any of our work colleagues will lose their jobs because of bottom burps”. It certainly takes the sting out the topic – reduces stress and gives a chance to deal with the issue without emotional baggage.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

Heart Harmony

How do you deal with leaving your business and retiring? Leaving something you have sweated blood and tears over to have grown to be something spectacular?
Every business owner faces this dilemma at some stage. When Bill Gates retired recently he had precisely the same issues. I love his video of his last day on the job at Microsoft – thinking through what he may do now.

Aside from the humour, it shows that you are now free to create exactly who you would like to be in the world.

But why wait until you retire? Everyone can benefit from stopping and thinking if they are following their heart. If you could do anything – what would you do?

As you watch Bill, think about you.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

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It is nearly Australia Day – and a great time to reflect on what it means to be an Australian and living in Australia.

I was looking through some friends posts and came across Rainbow Designs post – where she commented you know you are in Australia when you look out your door and see a koala in your gum tree.

For me being Australian is celebrating the great diversity in the landscape, nature and the people. It is diversity that makes Australia a special place to be.

It is the freedom – freedom of thought, freedom to debate, freedom to try new ideas and the freedom to fail or succeed on your merits. I look around and I see freedom in every small business, every person and every idea.

It is the friendliness and willingness to lend a hand. Businesses and people helping other businesses and people to overcome adversity and succeed. We have seen this with the recent floods in Queensland.

On a personal note I have been privileged to have been on the receiving end of this support lately. I have had a rough December and January and I am truly grateful for Uellan from Emerging Health and Leigh from Kayleigh Dowsing in particular for their support and healing on my really crappy days.

So what does it mean to be Australian? It means mates helping mates. It means falling down and getting back up again and it means being proud and grateful to be living in Australia. I am proud to be an Aussie.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

Heart Harmony

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