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by Rick Baker
On Sep 29, 2010
As mentioned in prior blogs, when you boil it down people only do 3 things:
- Good Habits,
- Bad Habits, &
- New Things.
At least, that's a simple way to sort out how our time is spent.
Many people believe they waste time. Many people feel they do not have enough time.
We feel time is precious and we are annoyed when we feel it is lost and wasted.
Many people consume even more time, stewing over the time they know they have wasted.
That means they must be troubled by their Bad Habits or by trying New Things that did not work.
Some expert advice should help reduce this problem.
Brian Tracy wrote a book, 'Time Power', to help people make the best use of their time.
Here are Brian Tracy’s 7 Action Exercises to Improve Your Time Management
- Select one area where you would like to improve your time management. Start to work on it immediately.
- Think back to a situation where you performed at your best. Replay this in your mind when you face new tasks.
- Talk to yourself positively all the time, repeating affirmations such as "I always use my time wisely".
- Imagine everyone around you is looking up to you as a role model for personal efficiency.
- Think about teaching a time-management course to your friends and colleagues. What would be the most important lessons?
- Think about the areas of your work that give you the most satisfaction and resolve to be even more productive in those areas.
- Resolve today to act to become one of the most efficient, effective, and productive people in your field. Take action immediately.
NOTE #1: Brian Tracy and other experts, for example Jim Estill, believe Time Management/Leadership is the key place to start to develop the skills a leader must possess to be successful. Brian Tracy states that clearly at the beginning of ‘Time Power’.
NOTE #2: All time management/leadership experts are emphatic about the value of setting clear Goals. I have never read expert advice stating we should not set clear Goals. Experts are saying we need to set clear Time Management/Leadership Goals.
NOTE #3: Experts have differing views on positive affirmations as described by Brian Tracy in Exercise #3 above, which overlaps other Exercises including #2 and #4, probably #5, maybe others. The value of positive affirmations is becoming a contentious topic.
by Rick Baker
On Aug 11, 2010
We should reduce and control negative thinking and negative action. If we make it clear we are working to stamp out negativity then that will help breed passion at our workplaces.
As we stamp out negativity we will promote self-control and consideration of others. These are good things.
Why should we make conscious efforts to stamp out negativity?
Our performance is the consequence of our thoughts and actions...or the lack of them. And, human nature is such that negative thoughts and negative actions are often more powerful and more contagious than their positive counterparts.
When the contagion of negative thought or negative action enters the situation it has the ability to immediately affect and infect each person in the situation. Body language and voice tone, for example, register immediately. Many people are under-equipped to resist the contagion of negativity. And, many people have difficulty coping with negative situations.
Even if the people 'in the situation' have thick enough skin to resist the contagions, negative thoughts and negative actions tend to stall others and create the need for follow up by others. The 'stalls' may be as small as wondering why so-and-so is in such a bad mood today. The 'actions' may be as large as drawn-out slugfest battles. These workplace ‘stalls’ are inefficient. Inefficiency costs money.
So, there is an economic argument to support the reduction and control of negativity.
In addition there is the benefit of paving the path for workplace passion. If cost control is our desire then we need to work hard at keeping our thoughts and actions on the positive side of centre.
If passion for success is our desire then we need to work hard at keeping our thoughts and actions on the positive side of centre.
by Rick Baker
On Aug 4, 2010
…the following set of suggestions caught my attention:
How a leader can help to change people's attitudes and behaviour
- Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
- Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.
- Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
- Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
- Let the other person save face.
- Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.
- Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
- Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
- Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.
Point 6 includes a recommendation Dale Carnegie repeats frequently:
Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.
Now, well into the 21st Century, numerous folks teach this sort of advice. So, sets of suggestions such as those above probably do not stand out as particularly innovative or novel. However, when we consider Dale Carnegie was adventuring into this territory during the first quarter of the 20th Century…it is interesting to wonder how this sort of advice was received when he first provided it.
So, we don’t have to wonder if people bought the book…but, how readily did those who bought the book practice what Carnegie recommended?
by Rick Baker
On Jun 29, 2010
Dale Carnegie, in The 5 Essential People Skills, educated us about assertive curiosity. Assertive curiosity is a multi-faceted concept, described in 10 elements. www.DaleCarnegie.com
If we want to summarize these 10 elements in a single word then that single word would be ‘passion’.
You may recall, I was asked, “How can we build passion into our workplace?”
Here is another answer: building a culture of assertive curiosity is a way to build passion.
Dale Carnegie Trainingsuggests 10 elements for building assertive curiosity at our workplace:
- Remember assertive curiosity is an emotional as well as an intellectual experience. Assertive curiosity is more about passion than about gathering facts. It is about teaching ourselves how to learn in ways that are meaningful, memorable, and effective. It is about conveying to your co-workers an excitement about learning.
- See yourself as both a student and a purveyor of real knowledge. Gather information from within and outside your field, striving to have leading-edge knowledge. Be dynamic about it, bridging the gap between theory and practice. Become an authority. Be comfortable saying, “I don’t know” [which is a mark of true authority] and couple that with an intention to find out.
- The operational/interactive component of assertive curiosity involves listening, questioning, being responsive, and remembering each human being is different from every other. Find the best in people. Ask the right questions and want to hear the answers. Seek the opinions of others. Find out what people think.
- Assertive curiosity involves being curios about and interactive with people without having a fixed agenda. Adjust to accommodate others’ interests. Be confident enough to understand other people’s ideas may be better than your own. Be a patient teacher. Share information about yourself in order to inspire others to share their personal information. Share your dreams.
- Work at having an appealing personal style. Be theatrical. Be interesting.
- Develop a fine sense of self-deprecating humour…to attract and engage others. Remember, both curiosity and humour thrive on the pleasure of surprise.
- Recognize what other people want to learn and also what they need to learn. Then, be creative as you work to spark their curiosity. But, be sure to have no agenda and have no expectation.
- Your company culture, as a whole, must support assertive curiosity. You must have visionary leadership coupled with tangible resources throughout you organization.
- Assertive curiosity should be mentored by senior management. Make curiosity a factor in employee performance appraisals. Provide training about curiosity. Reward curiosity.
- Build fun into your workplace.
If we work on these 10 things then we will ignite passion at our workplace.
by Rick Baker
On Jun 10, 2010
Too busy to be great at what you do?
Are you really busy at work?
Too busy?
Are you too busy to be great at what you do?
If you feel that way once in a while then that’s to be expected…that’s not a problem.
If you feel you are too busy most of the time then that is a problem…not good for you, not good for your employer.
If you feel you are too busy most of the time then you have some choices:
- Keep doing what you are doing and hope the feeling goes away
[the ‘procrastination’ option]
- Quit and get a new job
[the ‘change my job’ option]
- Change the way you go about your job so the feeling goes away permanently
[the ‘change the way I work’ option]
Most people make an effort to change the way they work. They make changes like working extra hours, taking a time-management course, reading a self-help book, asking others for advice, etc. But, more often than not their effort to change the way they work is short-lived and they move into the procrastination mode. They feel overworked yet they continue and carry on.
Sometimes people who feel they overwork but underperform free up enough time to find a new job. Other times their employers pave the path for that by terminating their employment.
Question: how many people do you know who felt overworked [while underperforming], made some changes in the way they went about their business, and lived happily ever after? I mean, how many people made permanent changes for the better?
I have ideas. We should compare notes on this and create a list of How To strategies and tactics.
Things You Can Do To Overcome The Feeling You Are Too Busy To Be Great At Your Job:
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Five to ten suggestions ought to give people a good start at it…
by Rick Baker
On May 18, 2010
This year, 2010, Chip Heath and Dan Heath published their book, `SWITCH – How to Make Change When Change is Hard` www.heathbrothers.com
This book by the Heath brothers builds on the analogy set by Haidt: that is, the rider, the elephant, and their path.
For Dr Haidt, the way humans go about things brought to mind a rider on an elephant. The rider represents our logical side and the elephant represents our emotional side. Our logical side is constantly struggling to control our emotional side.
The choice of elephant bangs home the point we are often under the control of our emotions rather than vice-versa.
The Heath brothers provide many examples of how we can use the Rider-Elephant-Path analogy to understand how to bring about positive change.
The Heath brothers recommend a 3-part frameworkto guide you when you need to change behaviour:
- What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem
So, we must Shape the Path
- What looks like laziness is often exhaustion
So we must Motivate the Elephant
- What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity
So, we must Direct the Rider
The Heaths provide a convincing argument…we should consider all three factors – the rider, the elephant, and their path – when we work to create positive change. And, there are several strategies and tactics for helping people with each of these three factors.
We can build the Haidt-Heath thinking into our methods for creating positive change.
More on creating positive change in future blogs…
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