As a reminder, a common definition of effective is doing the right things at the right time to get the best results. However, in this post, I’d like to expand our thinking around the concept of being effective.

I believe increasing our “effectiveness” is more important than ever in creating and maintaining value to our organizations. It’s a must have and do career strategy.

An Expanded View
Consider effectiveness to not only be getting the right things done at the right time, but additionally identifying and  addressing needs, identifying potential solutions, and getting high-impact results.  In essence, effectiveness is beyond just executing tasks.

If this expanded view of being effective is to be realized, then what’s needed in order for this new version to occur?

Consider the following:
1.    Broader knowledge of the players involved in key situations, their roles, their strengths and weaknesses.
2.    A clear understanding of the core needs of the company.
3.    Identification and laser focus on the core needs of internal and external customers and how your role (and that of your team or department) addresses and impacts those core needs.
4.    How does the specifics of your job description contribute to the above.

Compiling the information to the above will craft a bigger picture from which to work to develop and increase your effectiveness. In fact, you may need to volunteer to tweak your job description.  There are a lot of job descriptions out there that are not “value based” job descriptions (meaning they are more about being busy than get high-impact results).

From this big picture access how you go about your work week, what you do with your time and how the tangible results of the day impact this big picture.  If you’re a manager, do the same with your team.

Then ask yourself this question, “Am I getting things done or am I getting things done that also impact the bigger picture.”   Getting things done that impact the greater picture are high impact results.

The irony of productivity is we can go a full work week, get things done and yet have little to no activity that significantly address the big picture.

Coaching Tip: Plan and work with the big picture in mind. Make sure to track and language your performance with this in mind. This is a beneficial strategy in performance reviews.  You can communicate and show how you’ve demonstrated results with more value.

Career Management Bonus Tip: This is also a great strategy for how to communicate your experience in a job interview.

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As companies continue to invest in the training of their employees there still seems to be some key elements missing to insure there is a meaningful return on investment. The key employee training component that impacts several other key components is this – a learning rhythm.

Consider the definition of rhythm: a regularly recurrent quantitative change. Rhythm implies ongoing, consistent, and reliable.

In reflecting on these three qualities, ask yourself does your own professional learning include those qualities?  Additionally, does any employee training or management training contain those qualities?  The answer for many companies is no!

Professional development to be truly effective, to get real results must have these components.  Here are some practical considerations:

1. At the beginning of each week, decide on your focus for the week.

2. Determine what resource(s) you will use to add to your current knowledge around the area of focus. A resource could be a book, audio, blog post, or article.

3. Set aside and commit to a certain time each day (this a secondary rhythm) that you give attention to the area.  The good news, it doesn’t have to be that much time.  Even 5 minutes is useful.

4. In that time, take in new information and think about times, ways, situations to which you can apply what you’re learning. You can also decide on key information that you repeatedly review everyday. Repetition, particularly spaced repetition is also a necessary component in adult learning and employee training.

5. Keep a learning notebook.  There is something about writing that helps to reinforce the learning experience.

So why is rhythm necessary and powerful?  Rhythm helps to engage the brain in such a way as to create a complete sensory experience engaging us mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically.  That repeated multiple sensory experience begins to build sensory memory which accelerates development towards the desire behavior change. This ultimately builds a habit.  A habit, as we know, is permanent behavior change and isn’t that what training is really all about?….turning knowledge into know how?… and isn’t know how tangible behavior?

Coaching Question: Can you identify tangible outcomes from the learning your experiencing?  Whether it’s from a book or seminar how are you practically integrating what you’re learning into your real time experience?

Two areas of changes to look for: change in thought and/or change in behavior – one precedes the other.

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Expand Your Understanding of This Post – you can access additional learning bites at the links provided.

1. Thought impacts behavior – http://joanncorleyspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/11/tfb.html

2. The Power of Focus – focus-article

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Start Where You Can

This success tip impacts your personal productivity, your success as a manager,  and the overall building of a successful career.

I have the great opportunity to meet people from all over the country. In many of my seminars ideas and solutions are presented that each person has the opportunity to take back to their organization for implementation.

At the beginning of each seminar I make the point that for some, it will take courage to try to implement something they’ve learned.

And then…there is the thought, “ Well what about this or that….”  My response?…”For the moment, just focus on what you can influence or control.”

For many of us in challenging work environments, who work in company cultures that are not ideal, it’s easy to get distracted by all that is not working or the many things that are wrong.

In any environment, to build professional success the key is to start where you can and maintain strategic focus. Direct your focus and all of your personal resources on the areas in which you do have influence and/or control.

In fact, check out Webster’s definition of control:
Control – to exercise restraining or directing influence over : regulate – to have power over : rule

I believe there is a lot of time and energy wasted giving attention to situations and circumstances that we may not be able to do anything about for the time being. So the key is  – focus…and maintain your focus on that which you can control and/or influence.

Power Tip: Make your piece of the world great!  Start with what’s happening at your desk. Then if you’re a manager, your team, your department, etc.

Key point: Perhaps what is happening in our piece of the world is good or only adequate, because our critical resources, (time, attention, motivation, energy) bleeds into things that will suck up those valuable resources all to no benefit.

Coaching Tip: Increase your awareness regarding what you give your energy to….any adjustments need to be made?

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Every so often a lesson will be posted in this blog for you to sample. This lesson is in the Sample Library, which you can access here: Sample Lessons

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Have you ever considered the definition of success?  It’s a very popular word in our culture today.  And yet, it’s a tricky word as well.  You know I’ve discovered over the years in doing personal coaching that people are very confused about success in their own lives.  In fact, I think that we have attached a very narrow usage and view of success. A critical success strategy and key to success then is giving it our own definition.

Commonly, we would look at someone and say, “Oh, that person’s successful if they…” own a nice car, have a huge house, and have a lot of money in the bank.  And perhaps, on some level, that’s true.

But I would like to suggest to you, as food for thought, that success is much broader than those limited definitions.  In fact, Webster’s dictionary defines success as getting the outcomes that you want.  That’s right, getting the outcomes that you want.  And therein lies my challenge.

I would like to encourage you to take the time to define what success means to you.  Ask yourself, what outcomes would I like to have in my life, both in my professional life and in my personal life?

You know, I had a conversation with my neighbor who very much wants to be a great dad.  His being able to become a great dad is an outcome he purposes from his heart and that when achieved in his mind will make him a successful person.

I know another person who has a dream of having a small house out in the country.  Now, by someone else’s view, that might not be deemed successful.  And yet, to that person, to achieve that outcome, that would be great success.

I see many people today living out other people’s views of success because they’ve not taken the time to define their own.  I believe that people would be much happier and have deeper levels of life satisfaction if they would take the time to define their own success. I also believe that without success planning, they will stay on the hamster wheel of life.

Let me encourage you to take time in the next week or two, take an hour or a weekend and jot out what that is.  Now, as your life changes and evolves, I believe that list might evolve and change, too.  However, at each stage of the journey, you’ll have continual life satisfaction, continual success as you move throughout your life.

I wish you great success! JoAnn

Final Note: If you need some assistance or advice with that planning, don’t hestiate to contact me: joann@joanncorley.com

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Here’s a great time management tip or time management activity that can really save you time!

Overwhelmed by a large project? Having a hard time getting motivated? Finding yourself procrastinating?

Ever heard the expression or question, “how do you eat an elephant? “ The answer? – one bite at a time.  Well that same principle applies when you’re feeling overwhelmed by a project, procrastinating, or having a hard time getting motivated.  You’ve got to break it down into small manageable action steps.

Usually looking at, focusing on one step and one step only allows emotional space for you to become motivated and see the light of getting something done. Once you write out actionable, reasonable steps your emotions become diffused and your brain begins saying…”hey, I can do that.”

In fact something additionally I employ is something called, “the one minute challenge.”  I challenge myself to work on one little thing, task, etc. for only one minute.  I even use a kitchen timer.

The result?…I get focused on the “thing” enough to generate motivation to keep going.  If it’s not enough, I say, “ok…just one more minute.”  It’s like tricking yourself into gaining motivation in a fun way!

Coaching Tip: Break it down, focus on the first small step and give yourself the one minute challenge!

If you need a time management seminar or training brought to your organization – learn more here

Or …ever considered “time management coaching” – to learn more about coaching, click here.

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There are 3 core components of managing a project: the process, the tools we use, and how we manage the human side of it.

What’s the human side?….how you manage yourself and the team members you’re working with.  As I said in a previous post, professional success is all about effectively managing the critical components of any endeavor…we are all managers.  Here’s the link if you’ve not read that post: post title – A New Way of Looking at Management.

I ran across a post on a project management blog entitled Integrity in Project Management.  I found this so curious.  The post addressed how one relates to those involved in the project with a spirit of integrity in the following 3 ways:

Be Impartial, Be Thorough, Be Focused on the End Business Results.

I would like to suggest an additional component to this list and that is… in managing the human side of project management and what should be included in every project management training is understanding and the honoring the work style of each team member.

The reality is each team member will have a different relationship to how they work with people, information, technology, and tasks.  Some will work with each of these with much more ease than another. If you want to build and maintain an effective rapport with each member, knowing and honoring their natural work style is critical!

Also included in the natural work style and an essential element to know is the natural decision making style. There are 4 common styles: decisive, methodical, spontaneous, inclusive.  How each team members works with information, works towards deadlines, their style of collaboration is influenced by their natural decision making orientation.

So here’s your coaching tip: Take the time to observe the behavior and assess your team members work styles and ask yourself these questions:

– What’s their natural orientation in relation to working with people, tasks, information, and technology?

– What do you observe about their decision making style

–Make a plan on how to incorporate this knowledge to increase your effectiveness.

If you need any advice or help, don’t hesitate to contact me.  You can go to my Management Life Line and get free advice there.

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Additionally, a follow up report highlighted the wellness program that President Obama has touted run by Safeway Grocery Stores, that has been very successful in lowering health premiums and increasing the overall wellness of it’s employees.  You can learn more at their website: http://www.safeway.com/IFL/Grocery/About-Us

What occurred to me as I was reading this is VERY IMPORTANT in our career management and employability.  Here’s the thought:

With more focus on health, health care and employer paid plans.  Will there be a heightened focus on the perceived health of potential employees during the hiring process? Would knowing this influence or change the way you currently handle your own health and wellness?

In recent previous posts, I shared current job search strategies being used to get a “leg up” in the job search or in the office….one of which was altering their appearance. Read that post here

In posts to come, as a additional component of effectively managing one’s career, we’ll examine how health plays a role in work productivity-performance.  For now, consider the question posed above.

Blogging for your success,

JoAnn

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Change for many can be a great source of stress, even positive change can create “negative” stress. As a coach, I work with helping navigate stress in constructive, advantageous ways.  My attitude, “Don’t just survive change, but thrive on change.”

So I’ll be periodically posting stress management techniques and strategies I share with my clients. Please pass these on to those you care about.  I’m going to guess we could all use a little stress relief from time to time.

Stress Management Tip #1: Write A Gratitude List (this is my favorite)…
When you’re feeling stress, when possible stop and take a moment and begin to recount the things that you are grateful for. In fact challenge yourself to a considerably long list.

The great thing about this list…you can do this anywhere. You’ll get the maximum effect of this power tip if you’re writing down what you’re recounting. However, I’ve this is standing in line, in the bathroom, while driving.

Once it was late winter in Detroit and due to a flight delay ended up waiting for a rental car in the snow, knowing I had to drive 2 1/2hours to another town. I challenged myself to 100…by number 25, my mood had changed. Alright I had to start again while driving in the know to my next location.

Here’s a twist on the above tip:
I think there are things on a list or a similar list call  The Little Things I’m Grateful For…this is really a cool because it makes this list much more personal. I bet if I asked 10 people what’s on their gratitude list they would all say, health, family..etc…and rightly so. Now ask someone what’s on their Little Things list…and variety would abound.

Here’s a few of mine:
A garage…I finally have a garage for my car…even though I moved from Chicago to Georgia.

A neighbor that’s aware. Newly moved in, I wasn’t in the habit of pulling in my garbage can. One day I came home to find it pulled up against my garage and my drive is not that short. How thoughtful and watchful. As someone who travels alot, that’s comforting.

Free food…my sister owns a very successful restaurant in the area where I live. When I don’t feel like cooking, which admittedly is often, I can always swing over there for a free awesome meal! (See what I mean by personalized?…it’s the little things.)

Tip: Make your “little things” list….have fun with it….and challenge your friends to do the same!

To your happiness!  JoAnn

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This is great habit-practice to increase your results significantly. What’s the habit?… the “morning mindest”….read on..

The Magic Moment – The Power of the Morning Mindset and Taking Five
Category: Personal Productivity
Wc: 346

I woke up this morning after being up rather late and knew that it was a crunch day. Within the next 24 hours I’d need to hop on a plane and be out of the office for the next few days.

In those few moments I felt slightly pressured and overwhelmed which lead to a bit of emotional and mental confusion, (by the way, I call this “brain fog”). What should I work on first?….what could wait until Monday?

I could have just barreled in, but time was precious I needed to work on what was most crucial. I realized I couldn’t let the pressure “pressure” me into the wrong decision. So, I decided to take a 5 minute mind clearing break.

I gave myself permission to step away from my desk, move into a physical space where I could clear my mind. Ah….a break through! Just giving myself permission to “take 5” and step away helped my mind to calm down and my emotions to come to neutral.

In the clarity of that moment, I was able to get a better view of what was crucial and what was not.

Honestly, I have days where I didn’t do that first thing in the morning and ended up working on the wrong things at the wrong time. In those cases, a few critical things fell through the cracks; it wasn’t pretty.

What I’m describing is the power of a moment…a moment you take in the morning to gain clarity on the day that could make all the difference. I’m calling it the Morning Mindset.

You know it’s just harder to work in a fog; it takes more energy and the quality of your work may suffer.

So let me recommend creating the practice of “The Morning Mindset.”

Additionally, this principle of “taking five” is not reserved for the morning. Anytime, you’re feeling confused for what ever the reason, give yourself permission to take five…that practice could make all the difference!

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