It breaks my heart….
I am often called in to work one on one with executives in organisations on Excel spreadsheets. In most, cases the executives are experts in their industry (hospitality, medical, finance, motor vehicles) but their Excel skills aren’t where they need to be to effectively fulfil their management role. Some may have had executive support in a past role that handled anything with Excel, but many have simply gotten by with the limited knowledge they have but often at the cost of eating into their down time. It breaks my heart when executives don’t get the support they need to have …
It will take more than 5 minutes!
One of the challenges with being a professional speaker, trainer and educator in the field of productivity with everyday technology is managing expectations. I’ve lost track of the number of presentations where at the end someone comes up and says, “I just have a [quick/simple/easy/or insert other related word] question.” Most of them want to explain their document or spreadsheet to me. What it is doing or not doing and want me to tell them in that exact moment how to fix it. When I tell them I need to ask questions or require more information, they are often disappointed. Some will even say, I “Googled it, …
Pet Peeves
One of my pet peeves is people or organisations that “hide” behind email or text messaging to avoid difficult conversations. If I’ve decided I don’t want to work with someone, I pick up the phone, let them know and give them feedback as to why. If I mess up, I also prefer to pick up the phone and explain myself rather than send an email. If someone else has messed up, I prefer to chat with them, let them know that things happen and focus on what we are going to do to fix or rectify the situation. When we …
Interruptions
One of the challenges associated with presenting to your colleagues, clients or even at a conference is the interruption of late arrivals. For some it may be a matter of course or culture, ie everyone is always late to meetings, it could be they went to the wrong venue, lost track of time or were caught in traffic. It’s safe to assume in almost all instances it has NOTHING to do with you. When people are late to my programs, I am always welcoming and if there is any participation coming up, I use that time to check in that …
Optimisation
Optimisation Nelson Mandela once said “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” At the start of the week, it often seems like we have so much to do, but often it just “feels” that way. One easy way to get what needs to be done out of your head is to do a simple brain dump. Take a blank piece of paper (or utilise the task feature in your email program) and simply jot down all the things you need to do. It doesn’t matter if they are business or personal, just get it all out! Once you’ve got it …
Brain Dump
With so many tasks, expectations and deadlines it is easy for things to fall through the proverbial gaps if you don’t have a strategy for collecting, sorting and categorising the importance of tasks to be done. When you don’t have a strategy, or it is very loose, the results can vary, from missing important deadlines, being unprepared for meetings or worse, feeling anxious and stress resulting in grumpiness when you get home or trouble sleeping. Whilst working with a global brand we explored the concept of a brain dump. A brain dump is simply an allocated block of time where …
Less is More
Don’t be tempted to put every single word you plan to say on the slide or a sheet of paper. When presenting to your colleagues, a board or at a conference, the audience want to hear what YOU have to say not read a screen or document. Too often because we know too much about our subject we A Overwhelm our audience with too much information so they remember very little B Sensory overload them with data or images in on screen presentations that distract or do not support what you are saying C Talk too fast Sometimes less is …
The Gift of Attention
Motivational Speaker and author Jim Rohn is quoted with saying “Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.” In a world where a majority of people are constantly shifting from one task to another, where two minute noodles take is too long to cook, the art of presence and attention is often lost in amongst the “ticking” off of to-do items. Whilst multi-tasking may make you feel like you are getting more done without the gift of attention you may miss the one thing that could have made a difference. A difference to …
Asset vs Liability
Awhile ago, recruitment company Hays said it can cost up to 2 1/2 times an employee’s salary to replace them when they leave an organisation. Now sometimes you can stop people from leaving because maybe there was something missing that they were looking for in the organisation and that’s the only reason that they’re leaving. However, in a lot of instances, organisations tend to look at their staff as a liability rather than an asset. Realistically human capital is the most expensive thing in a business today. Sure you can have equipment, but equipment you can “rely” on in general …
The Main Thing
One of my favourite quotes comes from Stephen Covey, author of classic productivity book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It is to remind ourselves to keep the main thing the main thing. Which simply means when you are overwhelmed with things, noise, tasks, projects, and stuff to be done, take some time to work out the main thing you need to focus on right now. If your inbox is full of emails, your desk covered in papers and your voicemail bursting with messages, give yourself some time out and think what is the main thing you need to …
