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Stress test

Diana Jervis Read 2014-12-08

With local government workers being asked to take on ever-growing workloads in the face of demoralising cuts, performance coach Diana Jervis Read offers her advice on identifying and addressing the signs of stress.

As a business coach specialising in stress and productivity, I see common threads to dealing with stress, whatever the setting.

I have more experience than I should have in low morale staff being asked to take on ever-greater workloads that overwhelm them. The very nature of this situation makes them feel isolated, even abandoned, so they are in the worst possible place to draw support when it’s most needed, share the problem and workload, and often appear cold, detached and even angry so that they seem less approachable than normal – when communication is their lifeline.

Thus it important to undertake an honest conversation when the first signs of stress manifest themselves, asking plenty of open questions that can’t be answered by a monosyllable, and paraphrasing or summarising the conversation regularly to be sure of complete understanding. I have seen at first-hand how if I listen without once interrupting, some clients are able to vent and shed the emotion, see the bald facts for what they are and come to their own conclusion – without me saying a word.

The most discernible signs of stress are likely to be a mixture of any of the following:

Frequent headaches and/or difficulty in sleeping.
Diminished immune system.
Quick to anger.
Suspicious attitude.
Chronic fatigue and bad concentration.
Self criticism.
Cynicism, negativity, irritability.
Emotions quickly out of control.
Heads of departments can also help alleviate stress by instituting the following best practices:

Clarify employees’ work priorities and roles, ensuring non-conflicting roles. A lack of prioritisation lies at the root of a lot of workplace stress. Research shows that a sense of progress is motivating, the antithesis of stress, and this progress cannot be achieved if an end point isn’t envisaged. I encourage clients to use Covey’s Quadrant – which divides jobs into four quadrants based on their importance and/or urgency – as a prioritisation tool and share it with their teams. An individual or their manager can quickly see if the priorities have been correctly judged or whether there are simply too many urgent tasks to fit into one person’s working week.

Promote positive working relationships to avoid conflict, and engaging the support and resources of line management and colleagues to assist stressed individuals.

Rotate repetitive jobs.

Facilitate time off to replenish and recharge.

Ensure people know how important they are. I’ve yet to meet a stressed individual who feels they get enough recognition for a job well done. The most motivating praise is specific to the job done and reinforces the person’s identity. Likewise, the most constructive criticism takes care not to destroying identity, eg “you are still the gifted manager you were this morning…”.

Good communication, especially of organisational change and how it will benefit the organisation (and ideally the individual too). While some people embrace change, others need to experience it in small, incremental modifications.

Healthy and supportive delegation without micromanagement where possible, varying the level of support according to the individual’s competence and attitude. An under-confident but proficient employee needs more personal support to believe he/she is up to the task, whereas a less skilled but confident individual needs more experience-based guidance. Where possible, consider the task together, co-inventing the solution to a challenge so that the individual takes ownership rather than feeling used or abandoned.

Understand teams’ personal priorities outside of the workplace.

Finally, train managers in stress management, including the necessary sensitivity after a life-changing event happens to an individual.
There are also plenty of tailored techniques that can be directly taught to individuals to increase their prioritisation and delegation, control over their day, clear communication and ability to push back, collaboration and more.

See Diana’s recently launched one-hour online course on managing time and workload-related stress available at half price (£20), to friends of LGE. Click here.

Diana Jervis Read is an accredited coach with the Coaching Academy, specialising in productivity and stress, and has been consulting for over 20 years.

 

 

 

In Changing Careers magazine, July 2015.

Success without stress – how to make more time available

Who wouldn’t welcome more hours in their week to finish their priorities, and have more non work time –not to mention to speed up progress on a new career move? I coach time management 60% of my time – and the rest I concentrate on barriers and opportunities for individuals’ and companies’ growth. If you feel the pain – and lack of motivation that ensues – of being time poor, read on to see the techniques my clients have found most useful, some of which have never graced a text book!

1. Covey’s quadrant.

stephen-coveys-quadrant

Click image for enlarged version

Covey’s grid divides your task list into important and urgent, and is the most useful tool to help you focus on what is important but not deadlined and often such a huge undertaking (like embarking on a job change) that it’s easy to postpone or neglect in favour of more interesting jobs, quick fixes and ‘decluttering’.

Once aware of how much time you are spending in Quadrants 3 and 4, you can take steps to reduce it. Covey argues the more time you spend in the ‘important and urgent’ quadrant, the more time you spend sucked into Q4 – eg Facebook, messaging, personal emails taking longer than they need etc.

Simply by dividing your task list into the 4 quadrants, makes it easy to see the tasks which will make most difference to your productivity and personal success and to get through the urgent and important duties as fast as possible to make inroads into the most important of these Quadrant 2 activities.

priorities-chart

Click image for enlarged version

2. Priorities chart.
I have a client who describes herself as having ‘several planes in the air, but none of them landing’ which means she doesn’t get the sense of satisfaction of progress and indeed completion. She – and many others who are easily distracted or procrastinators – have found this priorities chart invaluable to slice overwhelming must-dos into achievable chunks. By giving yourself a score out of 10, and revisiting the score weekly or so, you can feel your progress and keep on track. By listing the possible barriers to success, you can work out how to overcome them in advance, and so on.

As Abraham Lincoln said, ‘A goal properly set is half way reached’.

3. Everyone can stand to gain from ‘eating a frog for breakfast’, a philosophy and book by Brian Tracy: ‘Eat that frog’. The idea is that if you do the thing of most value to you, however much you may want to resist, ‘the rest of your day will be wonderful’ as you work up a head of steam. It’s a great discipline for procrastinators and individuals who are quickly bored or easily distracted who need to push themselves to do (and finish) the most important things rather than the new project that beckons. Even if the frog is to spend just half an hour on a huge undertaking that never gets going in favour of easier tasks, the sense of wellbeing when done is tangible!

cartoon-man-png4. Calendars, peak and slump times
Free spirits who are resistant to spending more time on planning than absolutely necessary benefit from using their calendar so that all their top priorities are in one place, with a reasonable amount of time allocated to it. This gives them peace of mind that nothing important will slip, and makes sure the priorities are not overlooked in favour of more appealing assignments.

The calendar can be colour coded so that meetings that cannot be juggled are in a different colour from those that can.

I also urge clients to think about their peak and slump times and organise the calendar accordingly. Protect the time you are most decisive, problem solving or creative by ensuring you spend that time of day on projects that need maximum clarity of mind. Then diarise activities that you can do standing on your head for when you dip in concentration, such as meetings, emails etc.

5. Delegation help-man-png
How much of your job list could be done by someone else? Why isn’t it being done by them? Are there tasks that you hang onto because you have such high standards that you fear no-one will do the task quite like you would? By learning to judge at the outset which undertakings should involve others, and asking for each task ‘is this something I can delegate’, you can achieve so much more and concentrate on the things that really need you and you alone. It’s worth starting by delegating the items that will repeat themselves most or those that need least explanation. It’s surprising how often people relish the learning curve of undertaking the projects that bring others down!

But few people enjoy being micromanaged – important instead to give a good brief with clear objectives and all the support that is needed.

6. Other tips in brief
– A lot of time is lost by people who are people pleasers and thus suffer from a lack of clear boundaries. The word ‘no’ (diplomatically put) is the biggest time saver! The key to this is preparation: planning ahead what needs to be said and what they would find acceptable if delivered to them.
– Others suffer from not knowing when a job is ‘fit for purpose’ and spending more time than necessary of which the last half hour or so actually adds nothing more to the job’s value. These people can benefit from considering Pareto’s law also known as the 80/20 rule: where 20% of your actions generate 80% of your results. Work out what your 20% is! Perhaps also estimate how long something should take and time yourself to get into the habit of stopping earlier.

Others are helped by only allowing themselves to spend say half an hour on each task before moving onto the next, so that all their priorities move forward rather than some perfect and some late.

– The same people also often suffer from slow decision making, needing to see every fact and figure before making a conclusion. It helps to limit yourself to top line data for less important decisions, and take small risks that will quickly be caught, rather than delaying other work by getting bogged down in details.

diana-cover-small
About Diana Jervis Read
Diana is an accredited and leading coach with the Coaching Academy and the government’s GrowthAccelerator service and has been consulting for over 20 yrs. She has just launched her 1-hour time management course online which is available for free to the first 10 readers to use the coupon: https://www.udemy.com/productivity-time-management-techniques-tips-skills-strategies-hacks/?couponCode=ChangingCareersFree Everyone else can subscribe for £21 – 50% of its special launch price – via https://www.udemy.com/productivity-time-management-techniques-tips-skills-strategies-hacks/?couponCode=ChangingCareers The course owes its success to giving viewers free psychometric profiling then tailoring the techniques to how each viewer thinks and feels, their personal ‘DNA’. You can do the course in chapters of 5 minutes or so and at the end you will receive a certificate of completion.

 

 

 

inSHE for Health and Safety Professionals

• Workplace Stress

Best practice communication underpins the alleviation of most work related stress

Diana Jervis Read 19 July 2014 12:38:55

It’s important for employees to be aware of their company’s mental wellbeing support available, and for some companies Diana is part of that offering and is a resource offered to staff so that they can talk to someone objective, confidentially, and be supported and challenged to find their best personal solution in times of stress. In this blog Diana shares the approaches and tools that have worked best for her clients from different sectors and industries.

The symptoms are normally a mixture of any of the following:

– frequent headaches and/or difficulty in sleeping
– diminished immune system
– quick to anger
– suspicious attitude
– chronic fatigue and bad concentration
– self criticism
– cynicism, negativity, irritability
– emotions quickly out of control.

The very nature of these symptoms makes them feel isolated, even abandoned, so they are in the worst possible place to draw support when it’s most needed, share the problem and workload, and often appear cold, detached and even angry so that they seem less approachable than normal.

Much of Diana’sr coaching is by phone and it is surprising how many of her clients actually just need to express their woes and feel properly listened to, to feel a whole lot better – even though they’ve never met me and I can’t even make them a cup of tea or provide a tissue! Some even get to the solution with me doing nothing more than asking relevant open questions and wind up saying something like ‘I know what I need to do…’. The solution can be obvious once the anxiety, anger or fear that blocks emotional intelligence, is vented.

At other times, it’s often about training the stressed individual to communicate better. Just as one person’s natural modus operandi is to say ‘it’s hardly life or death if I lose this customer’, another will say in the same situation ‘it’s the end of the world…’ Diana uses DISC psychometric profiling to ascertain whether an individual’s communication issues are likely to be about being people pleasers with a possible lack of boundaries and inability to diplomatically push back or say ‘no’. Others may suffer from a lack of assertiveness, oversensitivity or inability to properly address constructive criticism or conflict. All these skills can be learnt.

Sometimes her role is to achieve some ‘quick fixes’ so that the stressed person can return to better productivity as soon as possible. For example, this may be about monitoring time spent and introducing strategies or tweaking behaviours to gradually reduce the time lost anguishing. Meditation and decision making skills can contribute.

The profiling also helps to address stress relating to toxic office relationships, understanding others’ motivations, drivers and fears and to communicate with them, according to their preferences, for best results. Understanding Kilman’s styles for dealing with conflict along with some role playing can be life changing.

A lack of prioritisation lies at the root of a lot of workplace stress. Employees can be helped by knowing the company vision as well as working out their personal vision. Research shows that a sense of progress is motivating, the antithesis of stress, and this progress cannot be achieved if an end point isn’t envisaged. I encourage clients to use Covey’s Quadrant as a prioritisation tool and share it with their teams. An individual (or manager) can quickly see if the priorities have been correctly judged, or whether there are simply too many urgent tasks to fit into one person’s working week.

Where stress is an anxiety about the future, individuals can be taught how to focus on their area of influence only and let go of the rest. This allows them to come up with a specific, plan and focus on the present, achieving the plan, which removes the overwhelming nature of the problem. Many people are helped by establishing a clear, timelined ‘Priorities Chart’: breaking down the workload into up to 6 Vital Few specific goals, a short journey goal, barriers that may hinder progress, and key actions for the week ahead. A load is lifted off their shoulders by simply slicing overwhelming must-dos into achievable chunks. And by scoring themselves out of 10, and revisiting the score weekly or so, they can feel motivating progress and keep on track. As Abraham Lincoln said, ‘A goal properly set is half way reached’.

A by-product of stress is not being able to see the wood for the trees, so having all one’s priorities ‘chunked down’ onto one sheet of paper returns clarity, and decision making ability, as well as a sense of purpose. These people can benefit from considering Pareto’s law also known as the 80/20 rule: where 20% of your actions generate 80% of your results. It can be liberating to know what your 20% is.

Best practice delegation can also be learned. Often people are working untenable hours rather than putting somebody else in the same situation. They need to be helped to see how much of their job list could be done by someone else and why they are hanging onto tasks – perhaps because they have such high standards that they fear no-one will do the task quite like they would? They can learn to judge at the outset which undertakings should involve others, and to ask for each task ‘is this something I can delegate’, and can thus achieve so much more and concentrate on the things that really need them. By starting by delegating the items that will repeat themselves most or those that need least explanation, the ‘delegation muscle’ quickly tones up!

The most useful actions undertaken by Health and Safety Managers and HRs to alleviate the problem for my clients seem to be:

– Clarifying employees’ business priorities and roles, ensuring non conflicting roles
– Promoting positive working relationships to avoid conflict, and engaging the support and resources of line management and colleagues to assist stressed individuals
– Rotating repetitive jobs
– Facilitating time off to replenish and recharge
– Ensuring people know how important they are
– Honest conversations when the first signs of stress manifest themselves
– Finally, training managers not only in stress management, including sensitivity after long leaver from work after a life changing event. Also relevant is good communication especially of organisational change; healthy and supportive delegation without micromanagement where possible; understanding their teams’ personal priorities; the importance of co-invention in delegation; and delivering specific feedback: the best praise reinforces a sense of identity when delivered, and criticism avoids destroying identity when negative. Diana says she’s yet to meet a stressed individual who feels they get enough recognition for a job well done!

About the author

Diana is a business growth coach, specialising in stress and productivity , the majority of her clients present with problems of work overload (perceived or actual), anxiety inducing deadlines and communication issues.

Her newly launched 1-hour online course on managing time and workload related stress is available at half price (£20) to friends of HealthandSafetyZone via the link: https://www.udemy.com/productivity-time-management-techniques-tips-skills-strategies-hacks/?couponCode=HealthandSafetyZone. The course owes its success to giving viewers free psychometric profiling then tailoring the techniques to how each viewer thinks and feels, their personal ‘DNA’.

 

 

 

Lessons from Steve Radcliffe’s ‘Leadership Plain and Simple’

by Diana Jervis Read

In his inspiring book, Steve Radcliffe simplifies the principles of leadership into three simple concepts: Future, Engage and Deliver. Here are my top learnings from the best book I have read on the subject.

Future

1. The best leaders have a clear vision of the future they want, and are guided by it daily.
“If there is only one idea you take from this book, my request is that you make it this one. Leadership is not about your competencies, skills and personality. It’s first and foremost about being in touch with what you care about and then going for it.”

2. The first question to ask yourself is ‘What do you care about?’ What matters to you, what’s important to you, what your value most or what you have most passion for. You can only be a great leader for things you care about. If the answer doesn’t give you an energy boost, by tapping into your energy of passion, pride and possibility, you haven’t got to the real issue yet.

3. The second question is ‘What do you want to lead for?’ to work out what you want to actually make happen that relates to what you care about. For many, this will open up exciting possibilities, others may want to consider a coaching session to provide the right questions to come up with a compelling vision that excites them as well as their significant others. Until you get to that point of commitment, hesitancy and ineffectiveness are always in the background.

It makes sense that to communicate as an authentic leader, you have to find themes that resonate personally with you.

4. Use your answers to the questions above to give you a powerful lens through which to consider current reality. Compare what exists now with how you want it to be. How big is the gap between the two? What’s missing from today or last week that you want to see in the future? Where do you need to work to move fastest to the future you want, starting today?

5. Use your vision to give you clarity and the power to bounce back on bad days. When you are beset with limiting beliefs, or are feeling powerless, trapped or ineffective, think about what you are like at your best, as Radcliffe says ‘when you’re being just who you want to be’ and write it down, leaving no room for modesty. ‘Imagine if you were that way now, what you would do, how you would feel, how you would speak. Allow yourself to be uplifted by being connected to who you are when you’re at your best…This is one of the most powerful practices I can suggest to you’.

Engage

6. Radcliffe points out that not enough people realise the fundamental difference between engage and communicate or tell. He quotes Neil Tichy: ‘Leaders focus on how they make people feel after each interaction’ (my italics).

Think of the characteristics of people you’ve been engaged by, or how you are at your engaging best and practice them authentically. They may well include enthusiasm, listening to opinions, a hook or a point of interest for the individual being addressed, and a request to do something.

7. Radcliffe separates the different aspects to engaging. It starts with Relationships which have to be strong enough to get the job done. You will be most engaging ‘if people feel listened to by you, feel that their opinion matters to you, believe that you actively want them involved and get acknowledged by you’. He quotes Dick Brown: ‘Leaders get the behaviour they exhibit and tolerate’.

8. Possibilities are next on the agenda, and the single best way to share your vision in a way that sparks possibilities in others is by co-invention – rather than presenting them with the logical solutions, invite them to co-invent the possibilities and build their sense of ownership.

Relationships and possibilities dictate whether engagement stands or fails. It is then honed by agreement on the specific opportunities and priorities to be concentrated on.

The final prerequisite is for the leader to deliver big requests of others to elicit promises to take action. It is important to be crystal clear on what you want, or if not, invite others in to co-invent it. And it’s easy to be clear on what you want but miss whether everybody else is, so check!

Deliver

9 The key issue on delivering is how well you deliver through others, not personally. It means your first thought should be about who you want to engage and what request you want to make, and it helps to keep practicing making big requests of others.

If you have done the right job in Future and Engage, you will excel in Deliver. This is captured in the story of two stone carvers. One explains he is ‘carving stone’, the more motivated second one says ‘I’m building a cathedral’.

10. To counteract people’s distractions, mistakes, underperformance or discouragement it is essential for the leader to be resiliently focussed on the future and the big picture. You need to bring urgency and conviction to your requests, follow up on what you’ve asked for and address non delivery as soon as you see it.

I think that a reluctance to confront underperformance quickly costs many of the companies I mentor more than any other weakness. It is vital to clearly communicate the consequences of continued under-delivery as soon as it is evident, yet in an energising way for the underperformer.

Questions to keep asking include ‘What’s our overall purpose here? What does glorious success look like?’ Have high expectations and set high standards and plan practical milestones, processes including update procedures and timetables to ensure targets are reached on time. Include in this a safe space to make it easier for people to tell you of setbacks.

11. To excel at delivering more long term, of course you will need to develop others as leaders in turn, and take them through the stages above.

The book continues to consider other important areas of leadership, including how to engage people’s emotions as well as their intellect and team performance. If the above speaks to you, I can only urge you to read it in its entirety, it is the simplest communication of deep ideas for excellent leadership I have found.

 

Article by Diana Jervis Read in PersonnelZone.com

Article by Diana Jervis Read in PersonnelZone.com

AnMaralysis for H&S Professionals
Article by Diana Jervis Read in PersonnelZone.com

Article by Diana Jervis Read in PersonnelZone.com

How to guarantee time management improvement with the aid of psychometric profiling – Diana Jervis Read                                                                                                                                                             March 2013


There are very few employees who wouldn’t welcome more hours in their day – not just to be more motivated, in control and profitable, and less stressed – but also to spend more quality time outside the workplace.

The benefits of actually achieving one’s daily or weekly goals, having control over more of the day, knowing the most important tasks have been tackled and leaving work as planned hugely affects individuals’ enthusiasm, drive and job satisfaction and thus has a part to play in the new ‘gross national welbeing’ that is on the agenda of so many governments these days.

Clearly there is no ‘one size fits all’ when training individuals in time management techniques, but there are fast results that ‘stick’ for the long term by relating tools to people’s personal profiles.

Take DISC profiling for example. With apologies to its inventor, Dr William Marston for the necessarily brief summaries, people can normally share the characteristics of 1, 2 or 3 of the following types:

D stands for dominant, driver, demanding. People with this profile are normally decisive, direct, strong willed, outgoing, good problem solvers, risk takers, have a strong ego and may be quick to anger. They tend to be goal oriented self-starters, preferring to lead than to follow. They are often outgoing and task oriented.

I stands for inspiring, influencing. They tend towards being talkative, persuasive and good negotiators, sociable, impulsive, optimistic – even overly trusting – and enthusiastic. Not surprisingly they are normally outgoing and people oriented.

S stands for stable, steady and more people are predominantly S than any other profile. They are likely to be patient, diplomatic, good listeners and organisers, practical, loyal team workers and kind. They are apt to be reserved and people oriented.

C stands for compliant, correct, cautious as Cs are analytical, precise individuals who love gathering facts, and have high attention to detail. They lean towards being logical, systematic thinkers who play by the rules, err on the critical side and are reserved and task focussed.

Of course some people have more than one profile in their make-up, having two or even three of the above profiles, which means some characteristics are muted by conflicting profiles or indeed magnified (eg low in D would reinforce the S’s attributes).

Psychometric profiling style grid

Psychometric profiling style grid

Copyright 2012 Transform People International Ltd

In time management terms,’ D’s are likely to be productive and good delegators but on the downside suffer from a short attention span, no interest in detail or repetitive tasks.

‘D’s normally benefit hugely from focussing on ‘active listening’, perhaps even paraphrasing what is being said to them to ensure they have correctly understood and are giving their colleague the feeling of being properly listened to.

Although everyone can stand to gain from ‘eating a frog for breakfast’, a philosophy and book by Brian Tracy, in my experience ‘D’s report the biggest gains. The idea is that if you do the thing of most value to you, however much you may want to resist, ‘the rest of your day will be wonderful’ as you work up a head of steam. I think ‘D’s particularly respond to this – and to Covey’s quadrant – as many are often quickly bored and need to push themselves to do (and finish) the most important things rather than the new problem interests them. See http://www.businessballs.com/timemanagement.htmfor Covey’s quadrant and other tips. Again, everyone has something to learn from Covey’s quadrant, but if my clients are representative, ‘D’s benefit the most as they are liable to be dynamic and so often prefer to deal with a new problem rather than follow through on the one they are tiring of. One ‘D’ client thought that coaching, and these techniques in particular, had saved him from a certain mental breakdown.

Junior ‘D’s who are not in a position to delegate, stand to benefit from repetitive jobs being rotated.

The implications of the ‘I’ personality on time managementis that, because loss of popularity or rejection is likely to be their biggest fear, they tend to be ‘people pleasers’, with a lack of boundaries – and thus often learning to say ‘no’ can be their biggest time saver. They therefore seem to profit more than the others by choosing ahead of the impending conversation a wording that they would accept happily if delivered to them by someone else, in order to re-educate their colleagues and customers and cut down on the amount of time they risk spending on other people’s problems.

Most also report great results as a result of getting into the habit of only allowing themselves to focus on only one (or a minimum) of jobs at a time. Until they invest in self improvement, many ‘I’s risk being easily distracted, lacking in follow through, discipline and organisation and thus benefit hugely from new habits that encourage daily priority lists, daily emptying of email inboxes, and computer and desk filing systems that save time and physical mess.

More ‘I’s come to me with time management issues than any other profile. Most are helped by using their calendars more – to include, ideally colour coded, not only meetings but everything that must not be forgotten so that they can enjoy a new sense of control and the confidence of having remembered all their priorities.

Meanwhile the ‘S’ profile is predisposed to being procedural in time management, preferring to finish one job at a time without interruptions. Whilst likely to be organised, they risk having difficulty establishing priorities and being slow to start until they have completely got their mind round the ‘how’ question. Many find it hugely helpful to work with a simple template that breaks their priorities down into the following, all time defined: the end goal, their score out of 10 as to how close to completion the project is, the first journey goal, the first actions and also, depending on the individual, their strengths that will ensure success and the likely obstacles. A single chart can hold the details for say their 6 key projects and once having broken it down into these ‘bite-size’ chunks, speed up delivery. Once started, the ‘S’ profile is likely to show great follow through.

The ‘S’ style also tends to avoid confrontation, seeking acceptance whatever the cost, which means time may well be wasted in inner turmoil when the best route would have been to speak honestly about what is bothering them. Finally, as a general rule it often works well for them to be more critical at the outset as to which jobs they should genuinely take ownership of and which are really other people’s agendas – the typical S is such a supportive, caring person that he/she risks taking on other people’s responsibilities.

Finally ‘C’s are often in danger of being so organised and meticulous that they suffer from ‘paralysis of analysis’ when they get bogged down in details. They can risk being over careful, needing to see every fact and figure before deciding and taking no chances, and thus may spending longer than their project necessarily needs – whilst another project is delayed as a result.

‘C’s seem to have the most trouble delegating, perhaps because they have such high standards that they fear no-one will do the task quite like they would. By learning to judge at the outset which tasks should involve others, and asking for each task ‘is this something I can delegate’, they can achieve so much more. For those who find it hardest to delegate, let them first of all hand over to another high ‘C’ who will more than likely share their perfectionist traits! And let ‘C’s beware of micromanaging – important instead to give a good brief with clear objectives and all the support that is needed.

Rather than do the present task to a standard higher than is really necessary, at the risk of delaying another, it makes sense for perfectionists to try giving themselves a specific amount of time, say half an hour per project before moving onto the next one. It can also be useful to apply the 80/20 rule: ie focus on the 20% of your time in the last week/month/term that yielded 80% of the results.

Of course any coaching or training must also take into account techniques that work equally well for all profiles: such as adopting a ‘one touch’ approach to emails, and filling out a time log of time spent for a week. And naturally any of the profiles can be procrastinators and they need to employ a couple of the tools on offer to address this.

By matching time management tools to the personalities of individuals, the art of bespoke time management is more quickly learnt and is less likely to drop away in times of stress, giving a satisfying sense of productivity and fulfilment.

 

About the Author 

Diana Jervis Read is widely respected as a leading coach in time management and leadership who overlays all her coaching and events with profiling. As a presenter, mentor and coach she is passionate about improving the profitability of companies and raising individuals’ job satisfaction. She ran 2 award winning PR consultancies for over 20 years and was a board director of the largest global marketing group of the early 90s, FKB.

 

 

How Charlie Sheen can us teach to harness maverick staff

Mar 31, 2011

By Diana Jervis Read, executive coach and PR mentor at JR Performance Coaching 

Hot-wired mavericks like Charlie Sheen are not uncommon in the marketing and creative world.  The quandary is how can you possibly convert that wild talent into well-directed energy, sustained effort and some kind of loyalty, rather than an irretrievable meltdown that in Sheen’s case has cost him everything, and others tens of millions?
Here’s what a few executive coaching sessions could do to bring demotivated and self-destructive individuals back into the fold – a much more cost effective solution in a recession than replacing them.

To create a fundamental and sustainable change, you have to change their thinking. That means you have to penetrate their psyche showing them insight and revelation.  To succeed, however, the person cannot be dependent on drugs or alcohol and they must be receptive, even welcoming to coaching if success is to ensue.
In the first session build on the cornerstones to job satisfaction – inspiration, growth, value and community.  People need to feel that they are motivated and challenged, continuing to develop and learn, and that they are an appreciated member of an interacting group.

Tip: talk with your team and get them to rate each cornerstone out of ten. Then see what that tells you about what they need and what you need to do.  Set them challenging (but not overwhelming) goals and focus these goals to increase commitment and determination for achievement. Break the goals into achievable milestones, and perhaps offer rewards as each mile marker is reached.  It’s important to have more than one goal –  Charlie Sheen has probably achieved his and feels he has no more to strive for.

The second session could focus on self-awareness.  An important part of emotional intelligence is understanding your key drivers and limiting fears, how you adapt under stress, and how you process and learn from past behaviours. Do the same things and you will always get the same result.  Really good leaders know what their team values and can prompt them accordingly.  When you know your boss is concerned about you, you will care for the company all the more.

Tip: a SWOT analysis carried out by members of your team focuses on where they are smart and where they have weaknesses so that they can react and respond accordingly and learn how to value their experiences.  Many observers would say that Charlie Sheen, like many self-saboteurs, never believed he was worthy of the success he had achieved.

The third conversation might address teamwork involving all team members.  It is so important for everyone to share their aspirations, barriers to progress and helpful processes and identify common points – and it’s even more useful if you carry out the exercise for the whole team together, on both client and agency side.  From this platform they can push forward with an agreed consensus to which everyone is committed.

Tip: Coaches use an ice-breaker where each team member, including the boss, takes a turn in the ‘hot seat’ while other members cover things they would like the individual to stop doing; start doing; and continue doing. It’s a revelation in honesty!

The fourth session could focus on recognising your allies.  Throughout the ages man has needed confidantes who will accept him just the way he is, but challenge him when needed.  We all need first-rate personal or business advice in some areas, but need to come to our own conclusions.  It is important to recognise who is hindering your progress and who is genuinely putting your interests first.

Tip: When setting goals, discuss the individual’s resources to achieve them, agree colleagues who can help and how, and name the barriers that are likely to get in the way of progress while working out strategies to overcome them.

The fifth session could be about spotting limiting beliefs.  More often than not, it is these that prevent people from reaching their highest potential.  Such beliefs as: “I’ll never be able to stop smoking” are defeatist states of mind that need no proof to contribute to a mindset that then dictates resultantly indulgent behaviour patterns.

Tip: When you see a team member’s attitude blocking success, drill down to the core belief that makes them think they are not up to the job.  Ask them to note down the evidence that supports their thinking, followed by your evidence that does not.  Get them onto the front foot, not backing away, shying away, or trying to shuffle sideways.

Fundamentally, it would appear that Charlie Sheen has lost his real passion.  He’s lost sight of what once made him a respected and sought after star. Without healthy and genuine passion to keep us driving forward, none of us would succeed.  In business, the lack of passion manifests itself in high levels of absence, apathy, poor task and project control and frequently missed deadlines.

Tip: The whole team needs to share a passion and where passion is missing; probing questions need to be asked to set a ‘wow’ goal that translates into a journey of challenge and excitement.  Get to know what trips each member’s blind spots and what will light their passion with raging ambition.

All business problems are people problems, and I believe passion and purpose are subjects that need to be openly discussed and thoroughly examined in every office to bring about increasing levels of impressively high returns.

And it’s real, honest communication skills that underpin every step of the whole trip.