“I Heard You Twice the First Time”

Don’t you just love that expression? I learned it from Joanne, who participated in a management offsite that I facilitated. We had been discussing the need to “over communicate,” especially given enormous information overload. Her comment made a great impression on everyone around the table.

People become frustrated when their colleagues or co-workers don’t recall what they said. The fact is, people cram in so much information that some things just don’t get processed.

Connect the Dots

Your employees go through a maze of “dots” every day that are directly related to how they can and will perform on the job. Unfortunately, rarely are they equipped to find the answers on their own. To set the stage, here are some examples:

+ People begin a new job and it’s up to them to figure out how to navigate through the firm’s unique culture.

Exit the Scramble Spectrum

The timing of Thanksgiving was a week earlier than usual, and it feels like we have an “extra” week before the onslaught of the December holidays. Even if you haven’t thought about this, it’s not too late to take advantage of it.

Many of my clients are on some part of what I call the “scramble spectrum.” If your work reaches a crescendo at year end, then you’re definitely somewhere on this continuum. Let’s take a brief quiz:

Rebalancing

Have you ever had a “Murphy’s Law” day where everything seems to go wrong….and then something unexpected happens that gives you a burst of energy?

Nearly everyone has experienced something like this. The event that triggers the burst of energy is amplified because it happens when you least expected it.

Listen and Ask

I’m a student of the art of asking questions. My experience is that the quality of the questions you ask can make an amazing difference in your professional (and personal) discussions.

Leaders who ask great questions have more interactive dialogue with their team members and hopefully create an environment where questioning and curiosity becomes the norm, not the exception.

The Home Stretch

It’s the beginning of November, and in honor of the recent World Series, let’s call this the home stretch. It’s a good time to review what you wanted to achieve this year, your actual accomplishments, and a realistic assessment of what you can do in the next 45 days.

I’ve talked to a few people recently who are ready to “write off” their results for this year for various reasons. I’m always surprised to hear such comments but have no doubt that their results will reflect this attitude.

Bright Shiny Object Syndrome

I’ve worked with some very successful intelligent and creative people. I’ve also worked with intelligent and creative people who aspire to success, but don’t quite make it. One of the important things that differentiates the two groups is “the secret sauce,” that is, implementation.

The creative or entrepreneurial mind becomes excited and stimulated by bright, shiny objects, which often leads to new ideas and inspiration. Here’s the challenge: if new ideas distract your attention and you forget to implement what you’re already working on, overall, your results will be weaker.

May I Have Your Attention…Please?

Recently, CBS Sunday Morning featured a story on our shrinking attention span. Obviously, this is not a new topic; in fact I’ve been writing about it for years. That said, were a few takeaways and reminders worth highlighting.

Psychologist and attention span researcher, Dr. Gloria Mark, provided an interesting statistic. When her team researched attention spans two decades ago, on average the people in the study shifted attention every two and a half minutes.

Transcending Constant Change

Do you ever long for simpler times when change occurred only occasionally? Do you even remember times like that?

Those days are long gone, but strong managers need to know how to deal with tumultuous change for themselves as well as in leading their people.

The Power of One Strong Goal

It’s that time of the year where you’re wondering what the heck happened to the year…how did it go by so quickly…. and … how am I going to complete everything that I committed to do in 2023?

Well, there are about 80 days left in this year. The biggest challenge is falling into the trap of trying to do everything that you didn’t accomplish all year. If you turn into a whirlwind, you might make a little progress on several things, but may end up feeling dissatisfied because you didn’t get a great result on an important initiative.