This question was posed to me when I had just accepted a consulting position with a charity, a not-for-profit organisation. I had made a comment about how yes, I could and would bring my arsenal of business skills but that in terms of the not-for-profit sector would have a steep learning curve. The question was asked and I hesitated and said two years? Thinking about skiing, public speaking and the like, but once the words had escaped my mouth, I immediately realised how long that seemed.

What a momentous day in the life of Australia; one minute we had Kevin Rudd as PM, the next he's deposed by his party and lost the top job to Julia Gillard! Over the next days, weeks and months, we will learn more about exactly why, but the picture emerging is of a Prime Minister who had trouble delegating and trusting his ministers to do their jobs with the result being a deeply discontented team who felt alienated from their boss.

For someone who earns my living by coaching leadership skills, this got me thinking: If your company or team was a political party, would you survive? If they had the power to topple you, would they? Would you have your own faction or any defenders? Or would it be unanimous? Or are you so well liked, admired and inspirational a leader that no one could have a hope of ever toppling you? I suspect you know the answer already in your heart of hearts, so if the answer is that you wouldn't survive, then what are you going to do, to prevent this from happening? Because you may not be sacked or deposed but people can leave your employ or they can just leave you in spirit and not attribute any  leadership qualities to you.

Think about what you need to learn to be a great leader NOW. It's not the 80's anymore where you could bully people into doing things; now people want to be consulted, nurtured and valued. Are you doing that or could people do a "Gillard" on you?

A little while back, I promised myself that if I see a person selling "The Big Issue", I will always buy one. Some of you may know that The Big Issue magazine is sold by people who have fallen on hard times and that they personally receive half of the magazine price for every issue they sell. This way, they get to earn their own money and keep their dignity while connecting with people in the process.

Anyway this is not about The Big Issue as such but about the encounter I had last Thursday with a seller outside Wynyard station. I asked him how his day had been and his reply was:"good, I've reached my quota for today and can knock off early". Well it was only 1pm and I said that's pretty good going. He said normally he would have to work till 3pm, so that was definitely a very good day!

See this got me thinking about how so many work, work and work without knowing what their daily quotas are to reach their goals. Do you know how many calls you have to make to reach your sales target, how many sales you have to make to grow your business or are you so busy working away that you have lost sight of your goal and your milestones to get there?

Again I found myself being inspired by seller of The Big Issue just as I do when I read the magazine. So what is your goal and what are your quotas to get there??

I have dealt with my accountant Frank for around  20 years. I started with my personal tax returns and over the years it's evolved into my personal stuff and my business stuff. When I asked them for a quote for my new business tax return, I didn't receive a quote. This new business Younique Business is owned with my business partner Yee Wah, so I thought it was the prudent thing to do as I wanted to do the right thing by her. Admittedly we were late, very late so my accountant's staff member told me that lodgement was due the very next day. I asked again for a quote but she asked me to forward all the paperwork so she could get started, which I did. Only that afternoon I received a quote after asking again. This quote was around 3-4 times what Yee Wah said her accountant would charge. I did the only right thing which was to inform Yee Wah,who then suggested that we use her accountant instead. I rang mine to tell them of this decision. They informed me that that was fine but that they had worked on the file all afternoon! When I heard this, I asked if there was something we could do. But I was assured that all was fine and I could take that job elsewhere. Later that afternon I received an email stating the file had been deleted! Meanwhile I had been waiting to get in touch with the Principal Frank but to no avail so in my mind nothing could be salvaged as all the work done had been deleted!

The next morning Frank called. I told him about what had transpired with his staff and the deleted file and that I had phoned the other accountant as I figured there was no road back from there. He was very concerned but we agreed after a couple of phone calls to move forward. Now I want to continue dealing with Frank. He's good, I trust him and he knows my financial situation. Like I said to him after 20 years we have both invested a lot into the emotional bank account. Looking back it is crystal clear to me all the points where things went wrong.

When I asked for a quote (for the first time in 20 years), they...

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My clients are reporting that business started to pick up at the end of Dec and continues to look strong for year ahead. I have certainly noticed an increase in my own activities and the offers landing on my desk! It's great but I have also noticed the diversity of things people have asked me to do e.g. writing (which of course I love), copywriting which I haven't tried, coaching, training and speaking. Wow and in between I also want to write at least one if not two books this year. So it's up to me to be really clear on what I want to achieve this year and for me to say "NO" to the things that don't fit into the fulfillment of those goals.

What are your 2010 goals, have you set them or are you just relieved that we seem to be emerging from the doom and gloom mindset of the GFC ? You know it's already week 7 and as we all have the same 52 weeks this year, it's much more likely you will reach your goals if you're aware of them and have a plan. Think about Olympic Champions, they always have longterm goals e.g. a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics but this goal will have training goals or milestones, so they know they are working towards the medal at a steady pace.

Whatever goal you have this year, if it's something different from last year, then expect to do something different, oherwise you may end up exactly the same place.

I am truly inspired by my clients who have come to me with their goals and the deep felt desire to change and grow. I know they are all doing something different than before and they seem to be having fun along the way because you know it's exhilirating to conquer something new!

I wouldn't say I've conquered skiing but I certainly think I got over the "hump" last month in Austria. From being unsure and slightly terrified to enjoying it and even thinking I'm not too bad at this at all. Have you noticed that if you persevere and get over the "hump", usually there is exhiliration on the other side?

Which "hump" are you going to get over this year? Which goals do you...

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I am so incredibly lucky to meet people who inspire me to create a better life. In the course of interviewing people for my book on grief, one of my interviewees, whose husband died from cancer, told me about a residential trip they had to Ian Gawler's health retreat. This is a place where cancer patients and their families can come to learn about meditation, diet and many other helpful things to cope with illness, recovery and death, whichever might be the most appropriate.

They also give the cancer patients this exercise that goes something like this; if you knew you only had three months to live and you would be in good health in that time, what are the ten things you want to do? Unsurprisingly most things on most people's list have little to do wih their work. Yet when you look around many people rush around in the name of work often to the detriment of their relationships, their familes, their friendships, their health, their finances and I guess you get the picture. While the list will vary depending on each individual; ask yourself the hypothetical and see which ten things you come up with.

Can we not as humans learn from other people's experiences? Must we face death ourselves to appreciate life? It seems like a high price to pay and also somewhat ironic that we cannot smell the roses until we look into the jaws of death.

What are your ten things? And what's stopping you from doing them right now?

I'm back! Due to technical difficulties I haven't been sharing my thoughts with you lately and they are soooo prolific... I wanted to share with you the story of my step Mum's retirement. She's just turned 60 and having been a hairdresser since she was 14, she decided that it was time to hang up her scissors. On her last day, she had a reception where customers were invited to drinks and nibblies. Imagine the scene; one of the 'best' salons in Denmark, customers were literally lining up to say good-bye and hand over their gifts, but more than gifts most had written personal letters and cards on what she had meant to them! Sure she's one of the best hairdressers in Denmark as evidenced by her membership of Intercoiffure (invited members only) but more importantly it's been her presence when they came in to have their hair done that made them come in droves and also why she has been cutting up to 3 generations in the same families.

Imagine how her own car couldn't transport all the presents she received. They had to hire an extra car just for the presents! I think, she has enough books and wine to last a couple of years. This story made me think how you get what you put in according to karmic rule, so imagine how your retirement might look. Will people be lining up to thank you? Will you have made a difference to anyone's life? It seems to me that whatever we do, we can make a difference, if only we practise presence which is probably one of the best types of 'giving' there is. So this brings me to the question: what are you creating every single moment/day of your life?

I don't watch a lot of Tv due to time, quality of programs and so on. Recently I watched the Biggest Loser with my children and became quite captivated, yet conflicted. I am still conflicted. You see my gut reaction was; why are these overweight people agreeing to be tortured by skinny people on national television? So this made me feel uneasy about watching; yet as a coach I had to admire the way these people had set themselves goals and set about achieving them albeit often whilst being humiliated on tele. I mean, do you really need to make them crawl thru mud and have them yelled at, for them to achieve their goals? Or is that just for the viewers to create better television and we secretly think "thank god it's not me" just like when people crane their necks to catch a glimpse of a car crash?

Undoubtedly the contestants achieved phenomenal goals and they all seemed to have gained or regained their self esteem. Without wanting to be a naysayer; will it last or was the lure of the 15 minutes of fame the driving factor? Now I am fascinated about the so-called "reality tv" genre. What will be next? As my 9 year old said maybe it's 100 kids and who is the best at licking a lollipop. Masterchef, some renovation program is also coming up. Is this to do with our own lives being boring and instead of working on our own goals, we watch others fail/achieve theirs? Whilst I am full of admiration for the contestants on Biggest Loser, I am still conflicted. You know when you get that uncomfortable feeling inside?

When my husband died suddenly 5 years ago from a heart attack that was an event that would trigger many emotions and events for me. One of the less appealing ones was the fact that when we joined Australian Scholarship Group in 2004 to save up for our children's education, we had no idea that my husband would literally drop dead 3 weeks later.

A key feature of ASG's selling artillery was that in the event of a parent dying, the surviving parent would no longer have to contribute to the fund. The fund would contribute on the member's behalf and the children would still receive full benefits of membership to help pay for secondary and tertiary studies. When I advised ASG that my husband had passed on, I was surprised and frankly underwhelmed by them reneging on the original contract. ASG claimed that the feature, their rep had so fervnetly sold would only preserve part of the benefit; not the full benefit. After a few letters back and forth, I didn't pursue it which is what I suspect ASG relies on. Let me tell you when your husband dies and you are in the unwanted and unchartered role of being a sole parent to two young boys ASG is the least of your concerns.

As fate would have it I read an article in the Sydney Morning Herald on Feb 4th this year where they wrote about this alleged unique feature of ASG's product that would preserve the children's benefits should a parent die. It was a gift to me this article. First it reignited my desire to not let this matter rest out of principle. Interestingly I apparently have 6 years to bring a claim against ASG under contract law. The journalist at SMH has been assured that this feature really exists now, but that it didn't when we joined despite the fact that it says so in ASG's PDS from Jan 1st, 2004 and that their rep sold us on it at the time! My question now is when did it not apply? My friends signed up back in 1994 & were told the same thing which their rep confirmed. Interestingly their rep had less to say to my friends when they asked her  in relation...

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