4 Secrets To Connecting With An Audience

How To Stand Out From The Herd And Be Heard!

by: Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE

What makes the difference between an average presentation and one that rocks your world? What makes the difference between a memorable speech and one that fades into oblivion as soon as the presenter steps off the stage? The answer sits in four building blocks that are essential for crafting a speech into a work of art rather than hum-drum blather.

Building Block Number One: Add context to your content.

Every word we utter, every gesture we make take its nuance and meaning from the context of the moment. Consider context to be the background or the stage setting for what is being spoken. Small wonder that Congress recoiled with the Big Three Automakers arrived in individual corporate jets to ask for money. The context made their mode of travel ludicrous.

If Astronaut Neil Armstrong had said, “One small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind” while standing on the 16th hole of Pebble Beach with a #3 wood in his hand, that statement would have been destined for locker room chatter rather than heard as a defining moment in placing the U.S. on the moon. Context is everything.

While this is a rather silly scenario, every speaker faces an audience with a background that brings them together. To connect with an audience, a speaker must state the context for the gathering, the context for the message. If President Obama had failed to summarize the concern, anger, and frustration of the average American as a preamble to his major addresses given during the long election process, he might very well have never been chosen to lead this nation. When a speaker sets the stage by providing a context for his words, the audience settles in to listen, believing “Ah. He understands what I am going through.”

Often, the speaker can put into words what the audience has been experiencing yet is unable-for political or personal reasons-to express. In one keynote address, I summarized the anxiety and uncertainty the group faced with an unprecedented spinoff. Being able to put a humorous twist by way of an analogy also got the group laughing and nodding. Now, we can get down to business!

Building Block Number Two: Remember facts tell but emotion sells.

Statistics, flow charts, and diagrams belong in handouts. What brings data to life is the emotion behind the information. If Martin Luther King had given his “I have a dream speech” but recited all the facts and figures behind segregation, the audience would have gone to sleep. Instead, he painted a picture and portrayed his own emotion about seeing races sitting beside each other. You saw and felt his intensity.

If you think this only belongs in political or religious arenas, think again. Rita Davenport, president of one of the most profitable direct sales organizations in the world, Arbonne, never addresses her audience in terms of dollars and cents. She talks about individuals and what happened in their lives as a result of having their own business. I’ve watched this petite and very funny woman bring crowds to their feet because she captured the emotion of success-not the facts.

Imagine the buy-in when an executive stands up, relays her story about what it is like to be a female executive in an 98% male organization. Facts about organizational life? Yes. But also plenty of emotion that captured the attention of everyone at the conference. Big stuff.

Building Block Number Three: Share what’s behind the curtain.

In The Wizard of Oz, the little wizard created a persona that was basically a sham. He projected a larger-than-life image on a curtain that both awed and scared the folks in the Emerald City.

He thought that in order to lead others, he had to be something he was not. In the end, the curtain was pulled away and we saw him manipulating an image of himself. In truth, by ripping aside the curtain, the wizard turned out to be a wise man with keen powers of observation and the “audience” of Dorothy and her friends ended up listening to him.

What was an incident of fiction is exactly what Pine and Gilmore, authors of The Authentic Economy, insist is the exactly what consumers and employees are looking for: authentic people! We’re tired of phony baloneys. We’re tired of slick and silly. We’re tired of speakers who act as if they have all the answers and then behave off stage in a manner totally opposite to their presentation. We are hungry for REAL people.

If a presenter can build in personal examples of failure and success, or emotional high and lows-as fitting the topic-the audience also relaxes into a listening mode. One of the best-and shortest speeches-I ever heard would have had 300 people up in a standing ovation were it not for the fact we were held fast by seatbelts.

United Flight 1180 left Denver for New Orleans. Denver was snowbound. De-icing was easy. New Orleans — another matter as huge thunderstorms kept rolling in from the Gulf of Mexico. Diversion and diversion. All the while the pilot kept us updated on our progress. We learned that he had been a pilot in Vietnam. And when he finally announced after many futile attempts to land, “I am an old pilot. Not a bold pilot,” the cabin erupted in cheers. He shared what was behind the curtain and in the end, we knew he didn’t like the situation any more than we did.

Building Block Number Four: Practice storytelling instead of telling.

“Man cannot live without story any more than he can live without bread.”

- Dr. Warren Bennis

Since ancient times when humanity gathered around a fire ring, painted on cave walls, marked tombs, or wrote on hides and papyrus, we’ve been enamored by the stories these drawings tell. The drawings captured what our ear can no longer hear.

All of human history has, at some point, been summarized through stories that reveal everything from creation mythology to Biblical lessons to exploits in outer space.

We just plain love story. We like detail, action, and words what SHOW us what happens rather than TELLS us what happens. In coaching executives for presentations, our challenge is to constantly ask “what story would show this point?” When I want to make a point about the potential downfall of knee jerk reactions, I tell the story (and act out) cutting down the WRONG fire alarm from the ceiling. I wiped out a perfectly good piece of equipment because I did not stop to THINK!

That story captures the imagination, makes the point, and becomes memorable because it also shares what’s behind the curtain. We’ve all made the too-fast-dumb move. So now, we also have an emotional response as well!

By incorporating these four building blocks into a presentation, you’ll not only be heard but remembered. This makes you stand out from the herd. And that’s no bull!

Source

Robert Recommends...

• The Ten Key Competencies of Personal Productivity


• A Rare Interview with Director Nemour Seiss


• Happy Halloween!


• Exploring the Life of Mark Twain


• Six Benefits of Owning Rental Property


• What’s Your Vision Statement?

The post 4 Secrets To Connecting With An Audience appeared first on Robert JR Graham.

The Ten Key Competencies of Personal Productivity

by: Laura M. Stack, MBA, CSP

Mike M. was a senior manager for one of my large corporate clients, but you wouldn’t know he was on the fast track if you looked at his office. He worked long hours, felt pressured, and was always playing catch up. Mike was unresponsive to requests and missed key deadlines. His company’s upper management had reached the end of its patience, so I was called in to help Mike with his productivity. It didn’t occur to him that he could lose his job; he thought his past successes would carry him through. It took us three months to turn a potential disaster into a triumph. It’s three years later, and Mike still sends me a thank you note each year on the anniversary of our turnaround sessions.

This situation is not uncommon. I work with hundreds of companies and thousands of individuals every year. My hands-on coaching experience-plus thousands of interviews and email surveys-has enabled me to identify the ten main factors affecting personal productivity in the workplace. The first letter of each factor spells the word “PRODUCTIVE”:

1. P reparation-This competency relates to how well you’ve planned and laid the foundation for your daily activities. If you excel in this competency, you are PROACTIVE, rather than REACTIVE. Most people don’t have well-articulated goals. Perhaps you don’t know how to set them. Perhaps writing goals down seems like too much effort, or you simply haven’t taken the time to write them. It’s worth the work to create a plan, because the goals you set will provide direction for your life and focus your activities. You must translate your lofty, long-term goals into actionable tasks you can work on today.

2. R eduction-This competency has to do with how well you eliminate time wasters in your daily activities. If you excel in this competency, you are ASSERTIVE, rather than PASSIVE in allowing people to dictate your schedule. With a finite amount of time available, if you wanted to get more done, the temptation is to go faster and work more hours. However, productivity is not about squeezing more into your days. You must reduce “speed bumps”-things that waste your time. Speed bumps exist at organizational, departmental, and individual levels. They could include administration, too many meetings, unnecessary levels of bureaucracy, too much red tape, or unclear priorities. YOU can also be a speed bump-the causal factor in wasting precious time. You must eliminate speed bumps, so you can create the space to accomplish the important.

3. O rder-This competency relates to your level of organization. If you excel in this competency, you have SYSTEMS, rather than PILES. You can find what you want, when you want it, in thirty seconds or less. How well do you control the paper, email, reading material, and inputs into and out of your office? Order is your ability to sort, filter, and process this information effectively. It’s how tidy your work areas look, inside and out. Being organized will give you more control over your life and time. You must find the time and the self-control to start achieving more of the things you want to do through proper systems.

4. D iscipline-This competency refers to your ability to maintain consistent, productive behavior. If you excel in this competency, you complete what you MUST do, rather than what you WANT to do. Are you persistent in completing your high priority tasks, without getting sidelined by menial activities? Do you put your nose to the grindstone each day, or do you only work hard when you’re in the mood? Do you have a set of “rules” for yourself that govern your behavior and activity? Everyone has an “off day.” But if you’re self-disciplined, you exhibit consistent focus in your day-to-day work. Learn to do what needs to be done and exercise restraint over your own impulses, emotions, and desires. Sometimes working on the right thing doesn’t mean doing the fun thing. You must focus on high-value output, as defined by your job requirements, and learn to stop procrastinating.

5. U nease-This competency refers to your ability to handle stress well, so that it doesn’t impact your performance and productivity. If you excel in this competency, you focus on VALUE, rather than VELOCITY. You’re not running around in a harried frenzy all the time. According to nationwide office productivity study conducted by Xerox and Harris Interactive in 2003, most people work over 60 hours a week total, and over 33 percent work on weekends. The “faster, cheaper, do more with nothing” approach has created a workplace where workers are always in high gear. This work style reduces productivity and increases stress. Stress is also a known factor in 70 percent of all diseases, so people must learn to reduce tension. You must be familiar with stress-reduction strategies, so you can recover when pushed to the limit every day.

6. C oncentration-This competency refers to your ability to stay on target and focus on the task at hand. If you excel in this competency, you are PURPOSEFUL, rather than DISTRACTED. As a child, I remember sitting for hours at a time, absorbed in my favorite books. My mother would enter the living room asking, “Didn’t you hear me call you?” I would look at her, confused, as I came back to reality, and answer honestly, “No, mommy I didn’ t.” And that was the complete truth! That level of concentration is very hard to achieve today. With noise, interruptions, instant messages, and email, so many things competing for our attention in the workplace that it’s often very difficult to concentrate. You must be able to achieve a state of “flow” and work without breaking focus.

7. T ime Mastery-This competency relates to how well you manage your activities throughout the day. If you excel in this competency, you focus on QUALITY of your activities, rather than the QUANTITY. Some people spend more time planning their vacations than their time. With good time management comes the rewards of results, recognition, free time, clarify, and focus. Effective time management brings purpose in life, structure to your day, direction, reduced frustration, and a sense of accomplishment. In addition, it reduces stress, since it gives you much more control over your day. You must run your life, rather than allowing your life to run you.

8. I nformation Management-This competency relates to how well you handle all the information coming at you. If you excel in this competency, you are DECISIVE, rather than TENTATIVE. We’ve become dependent upon computers, email, voicemail, the Internet, Blackberries, PDAs, cell phones, and pagers. These devices connect us to the world of work. Today, you must be technologically savvy and make choices quickly. You also must choose the best method and medium of communication for the particular message you want to convey. Technology can undoubtedly improve your productivity, but it can make you LESS productive if you’re not careful. You must use the latest technologies to your advantage, without letting technology take advantage of you.

9. V itality-This competency refers to your wellness. If you excel in this competency, you TAKE CARE of yourself, rather than IGNORING your physiological needs. How healthy are you? How much energy do you have throughout the day to accomplish the things you want to do? Do you sleep enough? You have the potential to dramatically impact our productivity by paying closer attention to our behaviors around health. In other words, we eat too much, drink too much, don’t exercise enough, work too much, and don’ t sleep enough. No wonder some people can’t be productive! Some studies suggest that upwards of 70 percent of doctor visits are prompted by our own choices in these areas. You must practice proper self-care, so that are physically capable of performing at your matchless best.

10. E quilibrium-This competency refers to the proper mix of activities in your life. If you excel in this competency, you feel BALANCED, rather than UNBALANCED. Balance is tough to achieve, because you have a real commitment to your job and to your family. You love your work life and your personal lives, often with equal vigor, and don’t want to give either one up. Professionals find it difficult to participate fully in one arena without sacrificing the other, but successful people know high performance depends on both personal satisfaction and professional achievement. You must practice lifestyle tactics and make the proper choices that help you to work at a realistic level.

The more solidly you feel you demonstrate each one of these competencies, the better the chances that your habits support personal productivity:

• If you said a resounding, “That’s me!” after each one, you’re probably a Productivity PRO!

• If you can identify with some but not all of the traits, you may be a “middle of the road” employee, which means you’re not the most productive person, but you’re not the worst. Ouch! Who wants to be average? Really work on kicking it up a notch!

• If you just shook your head, select one competency every three weeks and work on systematically improving your productivity. If you are low in a particular area, reading the corresponding chapter in my book Leave the Office Earlier will give you specific tools and exercises to improve in that competency.

Make it a productive day! ™

Source

Related articles

• When the Going Gets Tough…


• 7 Things Confident Leaders Don’t Do


• How to Manage Your Time and Be More Productive


• Stress: Coping with it and leading a more balanced life


• A to Z of Employability


• Mayer abolishes work-at-home policy – Economic Times


• Want Higher Productivity? Stop Treating Employees Like Children


• Chaos to calm: Building a mindful workplace


• Want Higher Productivity? Stop Treating Employees Like Children

Robert Recommends...

• The Pressures of Time


• Stress Management


• Effectively Remove Stress


• Have You Lost Your Focus?


• Creating High Performance Teams


• Stop Multi-Tasking Now!

The post The Ten Key Competencies of Personal Productivity appeared first on Robert JR Graham.

4 Secrets To Connecting With An Audience

How To Stand Out From The Herd And Be Heard!

by: Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE

What makes the difference between an average presentation and one that rocks your world? What makes the difference between a memorable speech and one that fades into oblivion as soon as the presenter steps off the stage? The answer sits in four building blocks that are essential for crafting a speech into a work of art rather than hum-drum blather.

Building Block Number One: Add context to your content.

Every word we utter, every gesture we make take its nuance and meaning from the context of the moment. Consider context to be the background or the stage setting for what is being spoken. Small wonder that Congress recoiled with the Big Three Automakers arrived in individual corporate jets to ask for money. The context made their mode of travel ludicrous.

If Astronaut Neil Armstrong had said, “One small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind” while standing on the 16th hole of Pebble Beach with a #3 wood in his hand, that statement would have been destined for locker room chatter rather than heard as a defining moment in placing the U.S. on the moon. Context is everything.

While this is a rather silly scenario, every speaker faces an audience with a background that brings them together. To connect with an audience, a speaker must state the context for the gathering, the context for the message. If President Obama had failed to summarize the concern, anger, and frustration of the average American as a preamble to his major addresses given during the long election process, he might very well have never been chosen to lead this nation. When a speaker sets the stage by providing a context for his words, the audience settles in to listen, believing “Ah. He understands what I am going through.”

Often, the speaker can put into words what the audience has been experiencing yet is unable-for political or personal reasons-to express. In one keynote address, I summarized the anxiety and uncertainty the group faced with an unprecedented spinoff. Being able to put a humorous twist by way of an analogy also got the group laughing and nodding. Now, we can get down to business!

Building Block Number Two: Remember facts tell but emotion sells.

Statistics, flow charts, and diagrams belong in handouts. What brings data to life is the emotion behind the information. If Martin Luther King had given his “I have a dream speech” but recited all the facts and figures behind segregation, the audience would have gone to sleep. Instead, he painted a picture and portrayed his own emotion about seeing races sitting beside each other. You saw and felt his intensity.

If you think this only belongs in political or religious arenas, think again. Rita Davenport, president of one of the most profitable direct sales organizations in the world, Arbonne, never addresses her audience in terms of dollars and cents. She talks about individuals and what happened in their lives as a result of having their own business. I’ve watched this petite and very funny woman bring crowds to their feet because she captured the emotion of success-not the facts.

Imagine the buy-in when an executive stands up, relays her story about what it is like to be a female executive in an 98% male organization. Facts about organizational life? Yes. But also plenty of emotion that captured the attention of everyone at the conference. Big stuff.

Building Block Number Three: Share what’s behind the curtain.

In The Wizard of Oz, the little wizard created a persona that was basically a sham. He projected a larger-than-life image on a curtain that both awed and scared the folks in the Emerald City.

He thought that in order to lead others, he had to be something he was not. In the end, the curtain was pulled away and we saw him manipulating an image of himself. In truth, by ripping aside the curtain, the wizard turned out to be a wise man with keen powers of observation and the “audience” of Dorothy and her friends ended up listening to him.

What was an incident of fiction is exactly what Pine and Gilmore, authors of The Authentic Economy, insist is the exactly what consumers and employees are looking for: authentic people! We’re tired of phony baloneys. We’re tired of slick and silly. We’re tired of speakers who act as if they have all the answers and then behave off stage in a manner totally opposite to their presentation. We are hungry for REAL people.

If a presenter can build in personal examples of failure and success, or emotional high and lows-as fitting the topic-the audience also relaxes into a listening mode. One of the best-and shortest speeches-I ever heard would have had 300 people up in a standing ovation were it not for the fact we were held fast by seatbelts.

United Flight 1180 left Denver for New Orleans. Denver was snowbound. De-icing was easy. New Orleans — another matter as huge thunderstorms kept rolling in from the Gulf of Mexico. Diversion and diversion. All the while the pilot kept us updated on our progress. We learned that he had been a pilot in Vietnam. And when he finally announced after many futile attempts to land, “I am an old pilot. Not a bold pilot,” the cabin erupted in cheers. He shared what was behind the curtain and in the end, we knew he didn’t like the situation any more than we did.

Building Block Number Four: Practice storytelling instead of telling.

“Man cannot live without story any more than he can live without bread.”

- Dr. Warren Bennis

Since ancient times when humanity gathered around a fire ring, painted on cave walls, marked tombs, or wrote on hides and papyrus, we’ve been enamored by the stories these drawings tell. The drawings captured what our ear can no longer hear.

All of human history has, at some point, been summarized through stories that reveal everything from creation mythology to Biblical lessons to exploits in outer space.

We just plain love story. We like detail, action, and words what SHOW us what happens rather than TELLS us what happens. In coaching executives for presentations, our challenge is to constantly ask “what story would show this point?” When I want to make a point about the potential downfall of knee jerk reactions, I tell the story (and act out) cutting down the WRONG fire alarm from the ceiling. I wiped out a perfectly good piece of equipment because I did not stop to THINK!

That story captures the imagination, makes the point, and becomes memorable because it also shares what’s behind the curtain. We’ve all made the too-fast-dumb move. So now, we also have an emotional response as well!

By incorporating these four building blocks into a presentation, you’ll not only be heard but remembered. This makes you stand out from the herd. And that’s no bull!

Source

Robert Recommends...

• The Ten Key Competencies of Personal Productivity


• A Rare Interview with Director Nemour Seiss


• Exploring the Life of Mark Twain


• Happy Halloween!


• Six Benefits of Owning Rental Property


• What’s Your Vision Statement?

The post 4 Secrets To Connecting With An Audience appeared first on Robert JR Graham.

The Ten Key Competencies of Personal Productivity

by: Laura M. Stack, MBA, CSP

Mike M. was a senior manager for one of my large corporate clients, but you wouldn’t know he was on the fast track if you looked at his office. He worked long hours, felt pressured, and was always playing catch up. Mike was unresponsive to requests and missed key deadlines. His company’s upper management had reached the end of its patience, so I was called in to help Mike with his productivity. It didn’t occur to him that he could lose his job; he thought his past successes would carry him through. It took us three months to turn a potential disaster into a triumph. It’s three years later, and Mike still sends me a thank you note each year on the anniversary of our turnaround sessions.

This situation is not uncommon. I work with hundreds of companies and thousands of individuals every year. My hands-on coaching experience-plus thousands of interviews and email surveys-has enabled me to identify the ten main factors affecting personal productivity in the workplace. The first letter of each factor spells the word “PRODUCTIVE”:

1. P reparation-This competency relates to how well you’ve planned and laid the foundation for your daily activities. If you excel in this competency, you are PROACTIVE, rather than REACTIVE. Most people don’t have well-articulated goals. Perhaps you don’t know how to set them. Perhaps writing goals down seems like too much effort, or you simply haven’t taken the time to write them. It’s worth the work to create a plan, because the goals you set will provide direction for your life and focus your activities. You must translate your lofty, long-term goals into actionable tasks you can work on today.

2. R eduction-This competency has to do with how well you eliminate time wasters in your daily activities. If you excel in this competency, you are ASSERTIVE, rather than PASSIVE in allowing people to dictate your schedule. With a finite amount of time available, if you wanted to get more done, the temptation is to go faster and work more hours. However, productivity is not about squeezing more into your days. You must reduce “speed bumps”-things that waste your time. Speed bumps exist at organizational, departmental, and individual levels. They could include administration, too many meetings, unnecessary levels of bureaucracy, too much red tape, or unclear priorities. YOU can also be a speed bump-the causal factor in wasting precious time. You must eliminate speed bumps, so you can create the space to accomplish the important.

3. O rder-This competency relates to your level of organization. If you excel in this competency, you have SYSTEMS, rather than PILES. You can find what you want, when you want it, in thirty seconds or less. How well do you control the paper, email, reading material, and inputs into and out of your office? Order is your ability to sort, filter, and process this information effectively. It’s how tidy your work areas look, inside and out. Being organized will give you more control over your life and time. You must find the time and the self-control to start achieving more of the things you want to do through proper systems.

4. D iscipline-This competency refers to your ability to maintain consistent, productive behavior. If you excel in this competency, you complete what you MUST do, rather than what you WANT to do. Are you persistent in completing your high priority tasks, without getting sidelined by menial activities? Do you put your nose to the grindstone each day, or do you only work hard when you’re in the mood? Do you have a set of “rules” for yourself that govern your behavior and activity? Everyone has an “off day.” But if you’re self-disciplined, you exhibit consistent focus in your day-to-day work. Learn to do what needs to be done and exercise restraint over your own impulses, emotions, and desires. Sometimes working on the right thing doesn’t mean doing the fun thing. You must focus on high-value output, as defined by your job requirements, and learn to stop procrastinating.

5. U nease-This competency refers to your ability to handle stress well, so that it doesn’t impact your performance and productivity. If you excel in this competency, you focus on VALUE, rather than VELOCITY. You’re not running around in a harried frenzy all the time. According to nationwide office productivity study conducted by Xerox and Harris Interactive in 2003, most people work over 60 hours a week total, and over 33 percent work on weekends. The “faster, cheaper, do more with nothing” approach has created a workplace where workers are always in high gear. This work style reduces productivity and increases stress. Stress is also a known factor in 70 percent of all diseases, so people must learn to reduce tension. You must be familiar with stress-reduction strategies, so you can recover when pushed to the limit every day.

6. C oncentration-This competency refers to your ability to stay on target and focus on the task at hand. If you excel in this competency, you are PURPOSEFUL, rather than DISTRACTED. As a child, I remember sitting for hours at a time, absorbed in my favorite books. My mother would enter the living room asking, “Didn’t you hear me call you?” I would look at her, confused, as I came back to reality, and answer honestly, “No, mommy I didn’ t.” And that was the complete truth! That level of concentration is very hard to achieve today. With noise, interruptions, instant messages, and email, so many things competing for our attention in the workplace that it’s often very difficult to concentrate. You must be able to achieve a state of “flow” and work without breaking focus.

7. T ime Mastery-This competency relates to how well you manage your activities throughout the day. If you excel in this competency, you focus on QUALITY of your activities, rather than the QUANTITY. Some people spend more time planning their vacations than their time. With good time management comes the rewards of results, recognition, free time, clarify, and focus. Effective time management brings purpose in life, structure to your day, direction, reduced frustration, and a sense of accomplishment. In addition, it reduces stress, since it gives you much more control over your day. You must run your life, rather than allowing your life to run you.

8. I nformation Management-This competency relates to how well you handle all the information coming at you. If you excel in this competency, you are DECISIVE, rather than TENTATIVE. We’ve become dependent upon computers, email, voicemail, the Internet, Blackberries, PDAs, cell phones, and pagers. These devices connect us to the world of work. Today, you must be technologically savvy and make choices quickly. You also must choose the best method and medium of communication for the particular message you want to convey. Technology can undoubtedly improve your productivity, but it can make you LESS productive if you’re not careful. You must use the latest technologies to your advantage, without letting technology take advantage of you.

9. V itality-This competency refers to your wellness. If you excel in this competency, you TAKE CARE of yourself, rather than IGNORING your physiological needs. How healthy are you? How much energy do you have throughout the day to accomplish the things you want to do? Do you sleep enough? You have the potential to dramatically impact our productivity by paying closer attention to our behaviors around health. In other words, we eat too much, drink too much, don’t exercise enough, work too much, and don’ t sleep enough. No wonder some people can’t be productive! Some studies suggest that upwards of 70 percent of doctor visits are prompted by our own choices in these areas. You must practice proper self-care, so that are physically capable of performing at your matchless best.

10. E quilibrium-This competency refers to the proper mix of activities in your life. If you excel in this competency, you feel BALANCED, rather than UNBALANCED. Balance is tough to achieve, because you have a real commitment to your job and to your family. You love your work life and your personal lives, often with equal vigor, and don’t want to give either one up. Professionals find it difficult to participate fully in one arena without sacrificing the other, but successful people know high performance depends on both personal satisfaction and professional achievement. You must practice lifestyle tactics and make the proper choices that help you to work at a realistic level.

The more solidly you feel you demonstrate each one of these competencies, the better the chances that your habits support personal productivity:

• If you said a resounding, “That’s me!” after each one, you’re probably a Productivity PRO!

• If you can identify with some but not all of the traits, you may be a “middle of the road” employee, which means you’re not the most productive person, but you’re not the worst. Ouch! Who wants to be average? Really work on kicking it up a notch!

• If you just shook your head, select one competency every three weeks and work on systematically improving your productivity. If you are low in a particular area, reading the corresponding chapter in my book Leave the Office Earlier will give you specific tools and exercises to improve in that competency.

Make it a productive day! ™

Source

Related articles

• When the Going Gets Tough…


• 7 Things Confident Leaders Don’t Do


• How to Manage Your Time and Be More Productive


• Stress: Coping with it and leading a more balanced life


• A to Z of Employability


• Mayer abolishes work-at-home policy – Economic Times


• Want Higher Productivity? Stop Treating Employees Like Children


• Chaos to calm: Building a mindful workplace


• Want Higher Productivity? Stop Treating Employees Like Children

Robert Recommends...

• The Pressures of Time


• Stress Management


• Effectively Remove Stress


• Have You Lost Your Focus?


• Creating High Performance Teams


• Stop Multi-Tasking Now!

The post The Ten Key Competencies of Personal Productivity appeared first on Robert JR Graham.

The Ten Key Competencies of Personal Productivity

by: Laura M. Stack, MBA, CSP

Mike M. was a senior manager for one of my large corporate clients, but you wouldn’t know he was on the fast track if you looked at his office. He worked long hours, felt pressured, and was always playing catch up. Mike was unresponsive to requests and missed key deadlines. His company’s upper management had reached the end of its patience, so I was called in to help Mike with his productivity. It didn’t occur to him that he could lose his job; he thought his past successes would carry him through. It took us three months to turn a potential disaster into a triumph. It’s three years later, and Mike still sends me a thank you note each year on the anniversary of our turnaround sessions.

This situation is not uncommon. I work with hundreds of companies and thousands of individuals every year. My hands-on coaching experience-plus thousands of interviews and email surveys-has enabled me to identify the ten main factors affecting personal productivity in the workplace. The first letter of each factor spells the word “PRODUCTIVE”:

1. P reparation-This competency relates to how well you’ve planned and laid the foundation for your daily activities. If you excel in this competency, you are PROACTIVE, rather than REACTIVE. Most people don’t have well-articulated goals. Perhaps you don’t know how to set them. Perhaps writing goals down seems like too much effort, or you simply haven’t taken the time to write them. It’s worth the work to create a plan, because the goals you set will provide direction for your life and focus your activities. You must translate your lofty, long-term goals into actionable tasks you can work on today.

2. R eduction-This competency has to do with how well you eliminate time wasters in your daily activities. If you excel in this competency, you are ASSERTIVE, rather than PASSIVE in allowing people to dictate your schedule. With a finite amount of time available, if you wanted to get more done, the temptation is to go faster and work more hours. However, productivity is not about squeezing more into your days. You must reduce “speed bumps”-things that waste your time. Speed bumps exist at organizational, departmental, and individual levels. They could include administration, too many meetings, unnecessary levels of bureaucracy, too much red tape, or unclear priorities. YOU can also be a speed bump-the causal factor in wasting precious time. You must eliminate speed bumps, so you can create the space to accomplish the important.

3. O rder-This competency relates to your level of organization. If you excel in this competency, you have SYSTEMS, rather than PILES. You can find what you want, when you want it, in thirty seconds or less. How well do you control the paper, email, reading material, and inputs into and out of your office? Order is your ability to sort, filter, and process this information effectively. It’s how tidy your work areas look, inside and out. Being organized will give you more control over your life and time. You must find the time and the self-control to start achieving more of the things you want to do through proper systems.

4. D iscipline-This competency refers to your ability to maintain consistent, productive behavior. If you excel in this competency, you complete what you MUST do, rather than what you WANT to do. Are you persistent in completing your high priority tasks, without getting sidelined by menial activities? Do you put your nose to the grindstone each day, or do you only work hard when you’re in the mood? Do you have a set of “rules” for yourself that govern your behavior and activity? Everyone has an “off day.” But if you’re self-disciplined, you exhibit consistent focus in your day-to-day work. Learn to do what needs to be done and exercise restraint over your own impulses, emotions, and desires. Sometimes working on the right thing doesn’t mean doing the fun thing. You must focus on high-value output, as defined by your job requirements, and learn to stop procrastinating.

5. U nease-This competency refers to your ability to handle stress well, so that it doesn’t impact your performance and productivity. If you excel in this competency, you focus on VALUE, rather than VELOCITY. You’re not running around in a harried frenzy all the time. According to nationwide office productivity study conducted by Xerox and Harris Interactive in 2003, most people work over 60 hours a week total, and over 33 percent work on weekends. The “faster, cheaper, do more with nothing” approach has created a workplace where workers are always in high gear. This work style reduces productivity and increases stress. Stress is also a known factor in 70 percent of all diseases, so people must learn to reduce tension. You must be familiar with stress-reduction strategies, so you can recover when pushed to the limit every day.

6. C oncentration-This competency refers to your ability to stay on target and focus on the task at hand. If you excel in this competency, you are PURPOSEFUL, rather than DISTRACTED. As a child, I remember sitting for hours at a time, absorbed in my favorite books. My mother would enter the living room asking, “Didn’t you hear me call you?” I would look at her, confused, as I came back to reality, and answer honestly, “No, mommy I didn’ t.” And that was the complete truth! That level of concentration is very hard to achieve today. With noise, interruptions, instant messages, and email, so many things competing for our attention in the workplace that it’s often very difficult to concentrate. You must be able to achieve a state of “flow” and work without breaking focus.

7. T ime Mastery-This competency relates to how well you manage your activities throughout the day. If you excel in this competency, you focus on QUALITY of your activities, rather than the QUANTITY. Some people spend more time planning their vacations than their time. With good time management comes the rewards of results, recognition, free time, clarify, and focus. Effective time management brings purpose in life, structure to your day, direction, reduced frustration, and a sense of accomplishment. In addition, it reduces stress, since it gives you much more control over your day. You must run your life, rather than allowing your life to run you.

8. I nformation Management-This competency relates to how well you handle all the information coming at you. If you excel in this competency, you are DECISIVE, rather than TENTATIVE. We’ve become dependent upon computers, email, voicemail, the Internet, Blackberries, PDAs, cell phones, and pagers. These devices connect us to the world of work. Today, you must be technologically savvy and make choices quickly. You also must choose the best method and medium of communication for the particular message you want to convey. Technology can undoubtedly improve your productivity, but it can make you LESS productive if you’re not careful. You must use the latest technologies to your advantage, without letting technology take advantage of you.

9. V itality-This competency refers to your wellness. If you excel in this competency, you TAKE CARE of yourself, rather than IGNORING your physiological needs. How healthy are you? How much energy do you have throughout the day to accomplish the things you want to do? Do you sleep enough? You have the potential to dramatically impact our productivity by paying closer attention to our behaviors around health. In other words, we eat too much, drink too much, don’t exercise enough, work too much, and don’ t sleep enough. No wonder some people can’t be productive! Some studies suggest that upwards of 70 percent of doctor visits are prompted by our own choices in these areas. You must practice proper self-care, so that are physically capable of performing at your matchless best.

10. E quilibrium-This competency refers to the proper mix of activities in your life. If you excel in this competency, you feel BALANCED, rather than UNBALANCED. Balance is tough to achieve, because you have a real commitment to your job and to your family. You love your work life and your personal lives, often with equal vigor, and don’t want to give either one up. Professionals find it difficult to participate fully in one arena without sacrificing the other, but successful people know high performance depends on both personal satisfaction and professional achievement. You must practice lifestyle tactics and make the proper choices that help you to work at a realistic level.

The more solidly you feel you demonstrate each one of these competencies, the better the chances that your habits support personal productivity:

• If you said a resounding, “That’s me!” after each one, you’re probably a Productivity PRO!

• If you can identify with some but not all of the traits, you may be a “middle of the road” employee, which means you’re not the most productive person, but you’re not the worst. Ouch! Who wants to be average? Really work on kicking it up a notch!

• If you just shook your head, select one competency every three weeks and work on systematically improving your productivity. If you are low in a particular area, reading the corresponding chapter in my book Leave the Office Earlier will give you specific tools and exercises to improve in that competency.

Make it a productive day! ™

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