Grow Your Position In Three Small Steps.

Sometimes we feel trapped at work. Doing the same thing day after day. Handling the same issues, the same malcontents and ultimately getting nowhere. What can you do to move forward?

When I work with teams, I have them perform a lot of teamwork, but I also refocus them on a series of simple exercises to help them grow their position.

I call it Change-Grow-Help. Simply, take a step back and look at what you do all day and think about what three things you can do to make it bigger, better, and more engaging.

CHANGE

What's one thing can I change in my day-to-day work to make it more streamlined, more efficient and effective?

Why CHANGE? Because we get stale. We end up doing things that are easy, familiar, and comfortable. To move forward, we need to mix it up and see where we can make subtle modifications to do things faster and better.

Examples - Kill a meeting, come in a bit earlier, delete that weekly report no one reads, meet with your boss for 5 minutes every morning, streamline your email, etc.

GROW

What's one thing can I do to grow me as an individual who can offer more, perform better, and make more-informed positions?

Why GROW? Because we should be always growing. The attitude of 'I know all I need to know" is a 20th Century behavior. You're going to be left behind VERY QUICKLY. What books, resources, classes can I access to grow myself?

Examples - Take a class, read a book, listen to a podcast/audiobook, meet new people, network, join a club, check out Toastmasters or Dale Carnegie, or (hire a coach).

HELP

What's one thing can I do to help my team, the department, or organization? How can I branch out and make a difference?

Why HELP? If you don't step out of your little cubicle hovel and start making a difference in other parts of the company, you'll stay an unknown and ultimately be forgotten, laid off, or fired.

Examples - Join a committee, start an organization, hold a learning lunch, advertise to your team and visit a conference, start a blood drive, etc.

Image: Royalty-Free License from Dollar Photo Club 2014.

How's Business? You Need A Business Coach.

You've got a business. It might be doing well — it might not be doing so well. If you hire a business coach, they tend to focus on a specific area of your business — your marketing, your financials, your staff, etc. They focus in on your 'pain point' because it's their specialty. If you go to an ear/nose/throat specialist, they will pinpoint your sickness within your ear, nose, or throat. But what you really need is someone who brings it all together. Who can help you view your entire business and help fix what really needs fixing.

That's what I do. The other day, I ran a cool program called Wordle, a free web program which takes a paragraph/page of writing and transforms it into a word cloud. I took a combination of my web bio and my business acceleration page and developed my first word cloud found at the top of this page.

What words immediately stand out?

• LOVE
• BUSINESS
• PEOPLE
• CLIENTS
• HELP
• FUN

I love what I do. I've been a coach for almost 14 years. As a FULL-TIME coach, I work with many businesses to help them figure out what their next steps will be. In fact, I just celebrated 10,000+ hours coaching — if you want to see what that means, click HERE.

I am a business coach. Not a 'life' coach, or a 'financial' coach, or a 'marketing' coach. I am a business/career coach who helps people with their business life. If you want a blankie to keep you warm, look elsewhere.

I am people- and client-oriented. I am not off running multi-marketing junkets — I coach people. Serious people. I spend time with my clients to ensure they succeed. Ask me about Lifeline calls — my clients love them.

I'm here to help. I worked in corporate for over 20 years and found my direct affect on impacting people in a positive way was diminishing. So I refocused it on directly helping people by coaching. I've been put on this earth to help as many people as I can.

Finally, I want to have fun with my clients. Too many things in life are boring and too serious — I want to make the process more fun.

The One Phrase That Will Make You Millions.

And that phrase is: "How Can I Help You?" Stick with me here. If you aren't saying this phrase daily on the job, you are not:

• Delivering excellent service.
• Pushing yourself to new heights.
• Connecting with as many people and growing your network.
• Allowing yourself to be as successful as you can be.

You are not opening yourself up to the universe of opportunity. Okay, I might sound a bit 'out there', but it's true.

We all know the basic tenet of business is service. Whether it is a product, offering, communication, or something else, you need to connect with your clients and customers to deliver optimum service. That's a given.

But to grow from where you are now, you need to transcend the basics and open yourself up to new potentials. One way to do this is to ask: "How Can I Help You?".

Now you might be saying, "Rich, you're crazy." or "I already know that." I totally understand. But here's my point — you need to embrace this phrase and say it to different people EVERY DAY. Don't just hold it in your back pocket and let it out when it best suits you — you need to open yourself up to unforeseen unknowns — and reach out.

I've used this phrase for years with almost everyone I meet (I do have to be slightly selective - some will take advantage of you). Where should you use it?

• Ask your boss if they need any help on a tough project. Tell them you have a little time and can spend it helping them with the more mundane areas of a special project. They will LOVE you.
• Ask everyone you network with how you can help them. It will knock them for a loop. Not only does it catch their attention, it immediately telegraphs that you are a serious professional that wants to get things done.
• Ask each member of your team how you can help them. Tell them if they had to choose one area where you can help them, what would it be? Also tell them that they in turn need to begin asking this question too.
• Extra credit: Ask your family how you can help them. This one will truly throw them for a loop. Be serious — you will not only make their day, you will deepen your relationship with each one. By the way, with your kids, you're teaching them a valuable lesson.

I promise you — if you work this phrase into everything you do in business (and personal life), you will be infinitely more successful, happy, fulfilled, and rich than you ever would be if you didn't say it.

Have you ever actively asked this question? What were the results?