Multi-Taxi

I just spent the last two and a half days in a Hilton Grand Vacations Club (HGVC) timeshare unit right on Ocean Blvd in Miami Beach.  My goal was to pull myself away from the distractions of life and focus on writing some articles and working on “bigger picture” projects.  Why Miami Beach?  I had timeshare points to use and thought it would be a good place to balance “sequestering” myself with easy-access amenities.

It was a great place to achieve my goal.  The beach was right across the street for when I wanted to get some fresh air, stretch my legs and re-connect to nature.  There were tons of restaurants and convenience stores around to meet my every culinary need.  I could even order room service, allowing food to come to me so I could stay focused on my work.  The timeshare unit was fabulous – spacious enough to allow thinking without feeling cramped, nice kitchenette with full refrigerator/freezer, microwave and blender.

The building had a roof-top terrace with a Jacuzzi, so again I could escape and “change my scenery” quite easily to refresh.

So, did I achieve my goals?  Not a chance.  I am my worst enemy.  I was thrilled to have high-speed internet access; then, I spent ridiculous amounts of time responding to emails, checking Facebook, and looking things up online.  While I did accomplish some important work, my productivity was quite low due to my multi-tasking.

This morning I was contemplating this challenge and my need for more self-discipline while I was riding to the airport in a taxi.  I couldn’t help but notice the epidemic (multi-tasking) is everywhere.  In the short 20-minute ride to the airport, my drive was constantly either talking on his cell phone or on the cab’s radio system.  For the brief moments he wasn’t talking, he was searching for phone numbers (or who knows what) on his cell phone.  I couldn’t see the details, but I could see the scrolling. 

Then, of course, there were the times that he was taking notes in a small notebook – propped on the steering wheel, while he was talking on either the phone or the radio.  All while driving up to about 65 mph or so.

I didn’t feel safe in the back seat, but I didn’t know what to do.  I couldn’t help but think how pervasive and second nature multi-tasking and electronic obsession has become in today’s society.  Brain research and short, practical exercises prove that multi-tasking, while possibly improving “efficiency,” seriously decreases accuracy and effectiveness.  Our brains are not wired to multi-task.

If we are doing simple tasks, we can manage it.  It cripples us when doing more complex tasks however.  Hm.  Driving a taxi and writing leadership and workplace learning and performance articles?  I’m thinking those are complex tasks.

How do you keep from giving in to the obsession of multi-tasking?  What tricks can you share?  I’m looking forward to us all increasing our Personal Excellence and Organizational Performance by managing our digital world instead of it managing us!

For more info about online disc profile services and product visit at our online shop -   http://store.developpeople.com/

What word are you?

Recently we attended my daughter’s high school band’s annual banquet. It is a time for celebrating the accomplishments of the year and honoring the band students. The band instructor has created a tradition of assigning “adjectives” to each child as they come up to receive their pin, letter, or whatever other award they have earned that year. This is a sweet gesture to demonstrate the impressions the kids have made on her.

The challenge is, of course, that some of the adjectives she chooses aren’t always met with warm reception by the teenagers (or their parents).  For example, one child was deemed extraordinary.  He felt pretty good about that one, albeit perhaps a bit embarassed.  His parents were beaming.

Another child, however, was deemed shy.  The year before she had been given naive.  She wasn’t too tickled with those descriptors.  That girl wasn’t at the banquet, so the moment my daughter heard the word she bust out laughing and texted the new adjective to her friend.  I can imagine the rolling of eyes when the girl read it. When her mother received her pin on the girl’s behalf, she clearly stated, “my daughter said she is not shy!”   Another parent commented privately how “at least this year’s word for my son was better than last year’s.”

The teacher meant no harm.  Her intentions were pure.  She sincerely enjoys these kids and wants to build a strong community in the band and with the associated families.  I think perhaps she just doesn’t realize that sometimes her adjectives are interpreted differently by other people.  The words.  The darned words.  People get caught up in the words used to describe them.  The words may be well-intentioned, well-researched, well-spoken, but they sometimes cause angst, confusion, or downright anger or insult.

In my work as a leadership consultant and people development professional, I frequently use the DiSC, MBTI, Birkman Method or other personality profiles.  These personality assessments help clients understand themselves better, including how others perceive them.  All of these start with an assessment where respondents are instructed to choose which adjectives (words) describe them best.

The tools then result in reports that describe the person’s personality, behavioral style, strengths, opportunities for improvement, potential motivators, stressors, etc.  The Everything DiSC reports that I am certified in also go so far as to suggest how others may interpret you based on your style.  More words.

In my experience, by far the majority of people LOVE these assessments and are amazed at how accurate the results are.  I’ll often hear the comment “it’s like you’ve been following me around with a clipboard observing my behavior.”  There are times, however, where people take exception to the front-end assessment or the resulting report.  The words.  They’ll argue that they aren’t really that way.  They’ll be dismayed that they had to choose from words which they felt none described them well.  Or, conversely, they don’t like choosing words when they all describe them well.  Sometimes they are offended that a report might suggest someone might perceive them as “bossy,” “demanding,” “overly analytical,” “overly talkative” …

The main line of reports I distribute and work with are from Inscape Publishing.  I know the team at Inscape, they are competent, smart and compassionate people.  They go to great pains to thoroughly research, analyze and choose the right words for the assessments and the resulting reports.  Collectively, we go to great strides to emphasize that these are strengths-based assessments and that the reports suggest “possible” behavior, “potential” perceptions.  And sometimes the words still sting.

So, what word(s) best describe you?  None of us can be summed up in a single word.  Our behavior is not singular.  It is flexible, adaptable, ranging, and variable moment by moment, situation by situation.  Can sets of words describe you?  Well, yes, typically we all have a pattern of behavior that will evoke a certain set of descriptors, used by ourselves and hopefully, if we are self-aware and manage ourselves well, used by others as well.  There will be positive words, and yes, Virginia, there will be some words with a bit of sting probably too as we all have a opportunities for growth.

The key is not to be offended by the words.  Don’t reject them.  Don’t wholesale “buy” them either.  Think about your words.  Think about what that word means to you.  Consider why someone else may apply that adjective to you.  Then consider, as Dr. Phil says, how’s that working for you?  If you don’t like the word.

Don’t be offended.  Do something to change it.  If you do like the word.  Excellent!  Celebrate that and do more of it!  We can all be whichever words we want.

Maybe the question isn’t “what word are you?”  Maybe, instead it is “what word do you want or need to be, today, tomorrow, in the meeting, with your family, at any given moment.”  My word for right now is “finished.”

For more info about online disc profile services and product visit at our online shop -   http://store.developpeople.com/

Least Stressful Jobs

In preparation for my Organizational Behavior class I’m teaching at Washington University in St. Louis tonight, I’m doing some research on organizational change and job stress.  Our Robbins Organizational Behavior text pointed me to an article about low stress jobs.  Imagine my surprise when it listed Education/Training Consultant as the number one least stressful jobs!

Some days I believe that is true – I love what I do, I love the flexibility I have, I love helping people learn and grow … Other days, though, I have to be honest.  I’m pretty darn stressed out!  Deadlines to meet, clients to satisfy, preparation, preparation, preparation … making sure I know my stuff, have the timing nailed, look the part, etc.

So what do you think?  Workplace learning and performance professionals – do we have some of the least stressful jobs out there?  Please share your thoughts!  Also, please share your best techniques for managing your stress and taking advantage of the flexibility we have and the wonderful opportunities to make people’s lives better.  Thanks!

For more info about online disc profile services and product visit at our online shop -   http://store.developpeople.com/

Finding mecca in Gmail Premier, Solve 360, GQueues

I am a student of productivity. I’ve been working for years to determine the besttools, systems, tricks and approaches for enabling me to work effectively and with meaning, and then helping others learn how as well.

I’ve long been a fan of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and his related “First Things First” approach. I love the idea of having all of my work flow from my personal and professional mission statement and relate to my values and key roles in life. The challenge for me has always been translating that to every day – how do I get the long list of ToDo’s done and stay focused on not only my highest priorities, but also dealing with the minutiae of daily life?

I’ve been living the 7 Habits (or at least attempting to) since 1995 and still struggle with conquering Habit 3 from the organization and execution standpoint. Being a certified facilitator of the Covey 7 Habits and other leadership programs helps, as we always learn more when we teach others, but it is still a challenge for me.

Enter David Allen and his Getting Things Done (GTD) approach. I was first introduced to GTD back in 1999. I didn’t realize at the time that it was still a relatively new approach. I had the honor of attending a workshop taught by David himself and then working with an implementation coach to incorporate the approach in to my life.   GTD totally handles the big and little stuff in work and in life overall.

The “Someday Maybe” list was an amazing revelation for me and continues to be ridiculously long as I tend to be very creative and come up with many ideas for “things to do, learn, read, experience …” on an ongoing basis.  Thus the challenge of staying on top of my lists and focused on what REALLY needs to be done NOW vs what would be nice to do someday.
I began to marry the two methods – 7 Habits and GTD – and for the last decade have played with many tools and systems to try to make it all work. While still in Corporate America I was limited to Microsoft Outlook. It was partially there, but better with the FranklinCovey PlanPlus add-on. I began working with those two when I started Wings of Success LLC in 2002.

As my business grew, I was wanting a more robust Client Relationship Manager and Project Management tool to integrate with my ToDo list and Calendar. Outlook wasn’t quite cutting it for me, even though they were beefing up their Business Contacts Manager. At the advice of my IT guy, I switched to TimeMatters by LexisNexis. That made for an interesting several years! While the product was very robust and capable of far more than I’d ever use (it was ACT! on steroids), it was just too much for a small business like mine.

I spent 1000′s of hours and dollars (no exaggeration here – a steep price for an already too busy small business owner) trying to customize the system, streamline it and get my IT infrastructure stable enough to handle it. What a frustrating experience. The whole time I struggled to stay on top of the growing demands on my productivity and to provide the strategic vision and guidance for my business and life.

One valuable lesson I learned in this phase is that I HAVE TO HAVE the “trusted system” David Allen talks about for tracking all of my “open loops” and commitments. TimeMatters wasn’t a trusted system for me, and it continued to stress my productivity and frazzle me.

Finally, in late 2009/early 2010 I cried “uncle.” I had switched my email platform to Gmail (after the IT storm cloud I lived under had caused my other email provider to basically flip such that all spam was going in the inbox and all real email was going in spam). What a blessing!! I immediately saw productivity gains just by leaving Outlook and my other provider behind and using Gmail. I then began heavily researching Google Apps and the emerging Marketplace to find Gmail solutions that could fill my other needs.

I am pleased to say I am finally stabilizing on a solution set that I think will finally be that long sought-after GTD Trusted System, and also enable me to still sprinkle in enough of the Covey 7 Habits approach to make it meaningful. My new happy productivity place is guided by 4 main pieces: Gmail, Google Calendar, Solve360, and GQueues (all built on my Google Apps premier subscription for my business).

How sweet it is to finally feel like my contact list is under control and being updated regularly (Solve360), I know the key projects I am working on, who they involve, what their status’ are and the next steps (Solve360), I have a calendar that plays nicely with my tasks and appointments (Google Calendar), and FINALLY, AT LONG LAST, THE MISSING PIECE – I have a ToDo/Next Action management system that is straight-forward, simple to use, yet robust enough to manage all of my immediate next actions as well as the agendas and someday maybes, big and small, near or future (GQueues).  Oh, I shouldn’t forget one other piece – Solve360 just allowed me to push slightly under 1000 contacts into MailChimp in just a couple minutes to send a Thanksgiving greeting to valuable clients and colleagues!

And, the beautiful thing – all of this is cloud-computing and works seamlessly with my Android Samsung Moment, so wherever I am, in the office, on the run, as long as I am “online,” I’m connected and able to process and stay on top of my life! There are so few times I’m not “connected” that I don’t worry too much about having off-line access, but Google Connector does allow me to sync down to Outlook (it still lurks on my computers) and GQueues has an off-line version coming once HTML5 becomes the new standard.
It feels so good to finally have the system in place again after months (years!) of struggle and anxiety about what I might be forgetting and how my productivity was suffering. Thank you Google, Norada (Solve360) and Cameron (GQueues)! You are making my life immensely better! Stephen Covey and David Allen would be proud!

For more info about online disc profile services and product visit at our online shop -  http://store.developpeople.com/

Value Of Networking + Informational Interviewing Tips

I recently facilitated the ASTD Training Certificate Program sponsored by the ASTD Ft. Worth, TX chapter.  One of my participants was a gal named Eileen from California.  Eileen is transitioning from Sales Management in the Pharmaceutical industry in to training and development.  Eileen will be fabulous – she has excellent business acumen, in-depth industry experience, a natural energy and zest for learning, and great facilitation skills.  She was a joy to have in our session!

As I mentioned, Eileen is transitioning into the workplace learning and perfromance/training and development profession.  She’s asking the right questions to gather the information and perspective she needs to be successful.

Eileen just wrote me today with a networking update:

“… speaking of networking, I have just learned the valuable lesson of always getting your job search message out complete with your professional objective.

Monday night while sitting around after playing a tennis match, the other members of the team asked about my class that I had taken through ASTD.   I raved on about the class and about you.   One of the players whom I don’t know very well sat listening intently and then asked a few more questions about what type of job I was looking to transition into.   I provided a recap of my past employment, my skills and my goals about breaking into the training and development industry.

She then says to me, “You know, you should speak with my mother-in-law, she OWNS a training and development company” !!!    Amazing, huh?”

So Eileen is on the right track to make her transition successful!  She now has an informational interview set up with the owner of the training company.  Eileen asked me for suggestions on questions that she should not miss asking.

Below are some thoughts I shared.  Read on, and then let me know what powerful questions you recommend for information interviews?

• What do you recommend I do to prepare for a position In your company/department should one become available?”  Take good notes, then if you are really interested in that company/department, start doing what they suggest!
• What concerns would you have about hiring me?”  or some variation … the goal is to ferret out information that may be holding you back without you being aware of it.
• Similarly, ask “if you had a position available, why would you hire me?” or some variation – try to discover what the person you are talking with sees as your strengths that you may not recognize (or to reinforce what you know to be true about yourself and to help them see it as well).
• Be sure to find out about the types of clients they work with, the type of work they do … “Describe a typical day in your job for me.”  They likely won’t have a “typical” day, but you want to get a feel for the variety of activities and responsibilities in their work.  Of course, if you are talking to the owner of a company that has people/trainers working for them, you may want to modify to “a typical day for your trainers” or whichever position you are interested in.
• It is always good to ask about the pleasures and frustrations they experience in their role/company.  This will help you be realistic about future positions you may land in.
• I’d also recommend asking the person you are talking with to describe her perfect client, her company culture … all things to help you get a feel for if you’d want to work there or to help you narrow down the type of work you want to do and the type of environment in which to do it.

I hope these questions help Eileen. As I said, she is well on her way to a successful transition into my beloved profession.

We all need a little help from our friends via networking, informational interviews, and thoughts on how to prepare. What tips do you have for informational interviews?

For more info about online disc profile services and product visit at our online shop -   http://store.developpeople.com/