Author Archive
Time Management
Posted by: | CommentsNew managers and experienced managers all face at least one common challenge – time management in the workplace.
A meeting here, an employee crisis there, another meeting, terminating an employee, answering questions from the team, chatting with co-workers who stop by… before you know it, your work day is gone and you feel like you’ve accomplished nothing substantial or tangible.
You can feel like you are in a maze with no way out and no idea where you are going.
Before being able to effectively manage your day, you need to be aware of time-suckers. These can come to you as legitimate aspects of your job or extraneous, non work-related time leeches.
Learning how to identify and manage time suckers will add productivity to your day and make your manager wonder how you get so much done.
Track Your Day
Spend a week tracking everything you do in a day. If you have an informal hallway meeting with your boss for 15 minutes, log it. If you take a quick smoke break, log it. If you answer four phone calls from your family, log them.
This will open your eyes to just how much time is spent on non-productive tasks and identify to you those which are the worst offenders. And you might be surprised to know which really take the most time.
The higher level of manager you are and the more employees you manage, the more your time needs to flow, so tracking down every thing won’t work. You may need to take notes at the end of the day and look at time robbers then.
The other thing you need to do is analyze what has to be done vs. what doesn’t. As a manager one of your primary duties is to protect time.
As I always told my team, “Time is my only non-renewable resource.”
You must be considerate of your team’s time if you have any hope of being successful. There are other factors for time as well. I said this on the another page and I will recommend it again, David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done has many great tips. He talks about removing yourself from distractions, or more importantly getting them out of your way for real productivity.
Mental “clutter” can get in the way of every other kind of productivity. It causes you, as a manager, to miss opportunities and not fully connect with what is going on now. I’ll say it again, you need to know what things aren’t essential to really move the needle on productivity.
Meetings
The larger the company you work for, the more your day may be managed by meetings you’re invited to and expected to attend. Accept only those you really need to attend.
And when it’s your turn to lead meetings, invite only those who are truly necessary (out of respect for their time management) and learn to run an expeditious meeting. It’s not a bad thing to have a reputation for holding short meetings!
Have an agenda and handouts so people can take notes, this will keep the meeting going and help keep everyone focused.
There are exceptions to everything I said above…. IF you are in a dynamic change situation, “turning things around”, building your team or any other number of those types of scenarios, it’s important to have meeting with all personnel that may impact, help, or whatever. I am going to need to information on specific steps for those scenarios because I get questions about those topics all the time.
Chatters
Every workplace has a chatter. Or several chatters. They want to talk about last night’s TV shows, the condition of the economy, and their inconsiderate spouse, children or neighbors. If six people stop you to chat during the day, even for only 10 minutes each, you’ve just lost an hour of work. Are the chatters stopping to talk to your team members? Are the chatters on your team?
While you don’t necessarily want to snub everyone who wants to chat with you, you should be armed with some effective conversation-enders so you can return to the job you’re being paid for.
The further up you move in management the more important it is for you to chat constructively. You have to chat some but you need to make sure you spread it around to everyone.
Another important key is to make sure your employees don’t think you are wasting time. Be aware what is going on. If everyone is under pressure to get things done, you better be right there in the thick of things and not out there “chatting”.
Don’t Do What You Don’t Need To Do
Two ways you can manage your time more effectively are to prioritize your day in a list and to delegate tasks.
Before you start your day, make a list of the tasks you need to accomplish that day. As much as possible, work on that number one task until it’s done, then proceed to the next task. You might want to put the most important task on the top of the list, or you might want to put the task you hate the most on top, just to get it done and off your mind.
Delegation has multiple benefits as well. First, you don’t spend time doing a task someone else can do.
And second, entrusting a task to someone on your team gives them more responsibility, increases their self esteem and lets them become more important to the company because they can do more.
Here are a few tips that will make delegating easier.
- Start small. You need to start with small tasks to get used to it.
- Make sure any task you give to someone matches their experience level.
- Ask the person to repeat back to you what you said. Don’t make it sound like you want to make sure “they” are right, tell them you are making sure you spoke correctly.
- Make sure you tell them where to reach you if they have a question.
- Give a specific timeline.
- Don’t get angry if it turns out wrong, ask what you said to help yourself understand how it went wrong.
There are many ways to help you improve your time management in the workplace. Try several and see which work best for you. You (and your boss) will be glad you did!
How to Improve EQ
Posted by: | CommentsNow that you better understand the theory of emotional intelligence, are you wondering how to improve emotional 
intelligence?
You can, you know.
Because emotional intelligence is your ability to identify and manage your emotions and the emotions of others, this is where you begin to improve – with your emotions.
“We become uncompetitive by not being tolerant of mistakes. The moment you let avoiding failure become your motivator, you’re down the path of inactivity. You can stumble only if you are moving.” Roberto Goizueta – former CEO of Coca-Cola.
Become Self-Aware and Other-Aware
One step in improving emotional intelligence is to develop your emotional self awareness. Can you identify your own emotions as anger, resentment, elation, etc., or do you stuff and ignore them because showing emotions isn’t what you do, especially at work?
Can you identify particular emotions in other people ? Do you understand group dynamics and crowd mentality?
“Lifelong earning demands lifelong learning,” says Jeffery Joseph, Vice President of domestic policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington D.C. “Managing in today’s workplace requires new smarts. All employees are handling more complex jobs which require entrepreneurial drive and the ability to solve problems, communicate ideas and make swift decisions.”
Take Responsibility
Learn to take responsibility for your actions and feelings. If you messed up on a job assignment or reacted inappropriately to a co-worker, take ownership of it rather than blame others or feel entitled to your emotional tirade.
Remember you will have setbacks. You will get discouraged when you are trying to change your behavior. It takes time. Think of some of these points:
- The problem is not just who is involved; the real problem is how I choose to respond.
- The real problem is not just how something happens; the real problem is how I choose to respond.
Exercise Empathy
An old Indian adage states, “Walk a mile in another man’s moccasins before you criticize him”. Learn to look at someone’s actions through their eyes. What colors their reactions at work? Might they have a terminally ill child at home? Are they facing foreclosure because their spouse was laid off? Are they in chronic pain they don’t let others see?
“Empathy is career currency. It allows us to create bonds of trust, it gives us insights into what others may be feeling or thinking; it helps us understand how or why others are reacting to situations, it sharpens our ‘people acumen’ and informs our decisions.” Cynthia Kivland – Career Performance Strategies.
To be empathetic does not mean you need to tear up or feel sorry for someone. Empathy is easily demonstrated (even if you don’t feel anything yourself) by using active listening skills. Is it possible to really be empathetic with every person? Probably not.
Someone may tell you something horrible that you don’t think of as a big deal or you are sitting on an intense deadline that you are going to get screamed at if you don’t get it done and you can’t think of anything else. Just tell them you’re sorry to hear about such-and-such, please let you know what you can do for them, etc. Just give them a few minutes of you focused on them. That is usually enough in a pinch.
Remember that studies have shown that words only account for 7% of the total message people receive, 93% of the message is contained in our tone of voice and body language.
You need to build empathy in the managers that report to you as well. I was never an empathetic person early in my career, it was something that took time to cultivate and practice. I also had to learn that lack of empathy usually means that a person is self critical, hard on oneself. Even then I was never perfect. Practice it. It matters. To your career and the people that work for you.
Exercise Humor
Instead of resorting to anger or rigidity in your dealings with others, use humor to diffuse a situation that would normally anger or frustrate you. For example, if someone bumps you and your coffee spills down your shirt, instead of yelling at that person, what if you chuckled and said, “Oh, man, and that was a good cup of coffee, too!” You’ve just exercised an emotionally intelligent response.
With humor it’s easy to turn it into sarcasm so be sure you use the humor and not the sarcasm. Sarcasm is often a defense mechanism, while it can be funny you are usually not building your credibility as a leader when you use it, no matter how hard it makes everyone laugh so just be wise about when you use it.
Look for the Silver Lining
Bad situations don’t have to be total doom and gloom. Emotionally intelligent people find a silver lining, even if they had to make it themselves.
Let’s say your company of 2000 employees has to lay off 300, where’s the silver lining in that, you ask? Well, first, there are still 1700 people with a job. But because you are emotionally intelligent and empathize for the 300, can you rally any of the 1700 to help the 300 in some way? If 1700 people donate $20 each, the 300 laid off can all buy a cart full of groceries or several tanks of gas while they look for another job.
Improving emotional intelligence has great rewards. You will be a better employee and manager. You will handle difficult employees and diffuse difficult, even dangerous, situations with skill. You will rise further in the company, you will be more satisfied in your job, and you will help those around you to rise to their higher potentials as well.
Importance of EQ
Posted by: | CommentsThe importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace is quickly gaining recognition and reputation. Emotionally 
intelligent people are much more likely to succeed, and successful people, naturally, are who companies want to hire.
In fact, studies over the past decade pinpoint emotional intelligence as possibly the single most important factor contributing to success on the job. Highly emotionally intelligent people are more likely to be stellar performers, regardless of the industry they’re in.
A Feeling
Your emotions are more than feelings.
Researchers agree there are different kinds of emotions/feelings. There are emotions, which are more biologically oriented, and then there are complex emotions that are saturated with thoughts and cognition. A basic emotion would be simple sadness, whereas a more cognitively saturated emotion would be something like guilt, where you learned something in order to feel the guilt.
Emotion has several components to it. It also includes a feeling which is the response part of emotion. Emotion is an “umbrella term” which includes the situation, you interpretation of the situation and the response or feeling related to the interpretation of the situation.
Emotional Flow vs. Emotional Hijacking
All of us have been in flow at some point in our lives. Flow is that place where you are energized, focused, positive and absorbed in an activity in a seemingly effortless and fluid way. Typically we are in a state of flow when we are using our natural talents, preferences and meeting our interpersonal needs. We feel refreshed and content.
Then there is the other side, when we are hijacked. The amygdale is the brain’s emotional memory center. Fresh hurts, injustices or recent feelings are sitting right at the surface of that part of the brain’s “memory center”, you react, over react. Past hurts or insults are projected into the present. You experience worry, anxiety, panic, frustration, anger… Your impulse overrides rational thoughts.
It takes practice and awareness to acknowledge that you control the situation and can retrain your brain. All those positive self help books and classes that are so popular right now? It’s emotional intelligence training, it’s just not being called that.
You control which emotions affect your life the most. You need to ensure you are controlling your reaction and the outcome is what you want. If you are someone who experiences hijacking frequently it will cost you… And your company…
Emotionally Intelligent Managers
Employee turnover is costly to a business in several departments. You have to spend to advertise for the new job, take time to review applications and interview several applicants, you might spend time doing second interviews with a panel of interviewers, and then once hired, time is spent filing new-hire paperwork and training them in their new position. The importance of emotional intelligence just got a little clearer, didn’t it?
Highly emotionally intelligent managers have far less turnover than managers with lower EQ. These managers are good at interpersonal relationships and create an environment employees like to stay in. They’ll often even stay in a lower paying job with a great manager. When people leave jobs, often it is a bad manager they’re leaving, not the job itself.
Managers high on the EQ scale are also good at dealing with difficult employees. If you’re high in EQ, you see the human perspective behind your employee’s behavior. You’re able to put your emotions aside and not take the situation personally. You’re able to deal with the other person as a person. You know how to use humor, even self-deprecating humor, to diffuse a tense situation.
Getting the Job through Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence isn’t something you want to note on your resume, but you do want to show it in the interview.
You have your shiny new MBA and you’re interviewing for a job with 100 other MBAs. How do you stand out?
When the interviewers ask you questions about resolving conflict in the workplace or how much experience you have in dealing with difficult employees, this is where your responses reflect your emotional intelligence – even if the interviewers don’t yet know what EQ is or how it will benefit them.
Keeping the Job through Emotional Intelligence
Even if you’ve identified yourself as a little low on the emotional intelligence scale, that’s good! Now you can learn more about it and how to improve it. You can go to your manager and explain to them what you’re learning and enlist their feedback as you change and grow.
The foresight you display in identifying your weakness and demonstrating a desire to overcome it is a huge step towards becoming more valuable to your employer.
Personality Tests
Posted by: | CommentsBefore you leap towards a new career, do yourself a huge favor and take a career personality test to ensure you’re on a 
career path that will be satisfying and rewarding for years to come.
Not much will burn you out faster than trudging away at a job you dislike and that is ill suited to your personality type. Not only will you feel endlessly stuck, you may even be paying on student loans every month, which make you resent the job even more. Now taking the assessment is not a guarantee that won’t happen… But it will cut down the odds!!
Getting education for a career is expensive in both time and money. Before investing two to four years – or even more – plus tens of thousands of dollars to go to school, it’s wise to take a few career personality tests.
Even if You’re Sure…
Even if you’re absolutely sure what you want to do, spare a few moments to take a career personality test. What you might find is that you’re well suited to a career you’d never even thought about, but now that it’s in your head, you realize it’s something you’d like to explore further. Maybe there are more job opportunities in this other field, or more travel, or more room to work from home.
Taking a career test and contemplating other career choices certainly doesn’t mean you have to follow that path, but it’s wise to explore more options rather than fewer when making an initial career choice or a career change.
A Career Personality Test Will Give You Insight
They will give you a lot of insight. The more complex tests like the Golden Personality Type Profiler and the Meyers-Briggs will have some interesting tendencies. There will be things that vary from the normal type and they usually show those in the results.
One I recommend is Dr. Keirsey’s assessment, it’s really a career test but is gives a detailed report and is free. I’ve had several clients take the assessment and so have I, it’s detailed, free, reputable and you don’t need to worry about them sending you a bunch of spam or putting you on a mailing list. They might send you one follow-up email but that’s it. And no, I’m not getting anything for recommending them.
For example, in my results it shows I am an Extrovert. Introvert is not far behind in my score, that means I typically can move into either role and be comfortable, I adapt to the situation.
Another interesting tidbit I learned from Dr. Golden’s training program is that between ages 30 to 45 people tend to develop their Auxiliary skill which is your second strongest skill.
When used effectively these assessments have been shown to help individuals understand differences, improve productivity, direction, self-esteem and satisfaction. People usually appreciate the difference in others and have stronger relationships.
They also help with succession planning, parenting, relationship counseling. The Golden Personality report is 11 pages plus a summary report and another 6 or 7 pages describing some of the other personality types.
How do They Work?
A career assessment test isn’t painful and you can’t fail it. They don’t even take very long. Career tests ask you a series of questions about your preferences and tendencies, such as:
- Do you make decisions based on feelings or fact?
- Do you prefer to work alone or in groups?
- Do you prefer to start projects or finish projects?
- Do you tend to be punctual or usually running late?
You answer the questions as best you can and that’s it! Next you’ll see a list of potentially well-suited careers.
Realistically, you’re probably leaning towards a career that does suit your personality. Unless you’re only looking at the highest paying or fastest growing jobs, there’s a reason you’re leaning towards the careers you are.
Even if you are only looking at the fastest growing jobs, you’re still going to be drawn to some fast-growing careers over others. A career personality test may not surprise you in confirming that you’re suited to what you’re pursuing, but what it can do is open your eyes to other career options that you have never considered, but might enjoy.
Personality Theories
Posted by: | CommentsThere are many personality theories. Basically, though, personality makes the person. Or it defines the person. Your
personality is the sum of your patterns of thought, behaviors, and feelings. This is what makes you unique.
There are several personality development theories that intend to determine just where your personality comes from. The study of personality is at least 25 centuries old . In 450 B.C., Hippocrates described four temperaments. Galen, in 100 A.D. also described four temperaments. Both scholars differed in their ideas and descriptions.
Personality Theory Differences
Personality Type theories put everyone into one of several “types” of personalities. This could be as simple as Type A and Type B, or one of 16 4-letter personality types such as “INFP” which stands for “Introverted, iNtuative, Feeling, Perceptive”.
Personality Trait theories say personality is genetically based, that your specific collection of internal characteristics comprises your personality.
Psychodynamic personality theories say the unconscious mind influences who we are. Psychologists Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson have contributed greatly to this personality theory.
And then…
In 1911 Carl Jung recognized that personality was “normal, healthy and biological”. In 1937 Gordon Allport identified personality traits are: more than a nominal existence, are more than habits, can be measured.
Gordon Allport (1897-1967) was one of the first psychologists to study personality, human attitudes, prejudices and religious beliefs. His theory of personality, which rejected both Freudian psychology and behaviorism, emphasized the uniqueness of the individual and the need to treat problems in terms of present conditions as opposed to childhood experiences.
The Meyers-Briggs and the Golden Personality Type Profiler are widely used today. Both are complex and founded on years of research. It would be impossible to say one is better than the other. The military has used both and compared them to each other, since the early 2000’s they have been using the Golden Personality Type Profiler.
Where Personality and Careers Collide
The list of different personality characteristics is extensive, but the bottom line when it comes to careers is that your personality makes you better suited for some career choices and ill-fitted for other careers.
For example, an introverted, shy person will most likely struggle as a salesperson, but might make a wonderful copywriter. Likewise an energy-filled people-person will probably be bored to tears sitting in front of a computer all day, writing code. Put them in a sales position, however, or customer service, and they’re more likely to thrive in that kind of job.
Another example of personality and careers colliding that is really common and often misunderstood is the way personality causes one person’s interpretation of reality to be different than another’s.
A classic case of this is often the person who believes in rules and all rules must be followed. Then you have the person who believes rules are a “guideline”. Both people often clash and don’t cooperate, often mistrusting each other, but both just perceive reality different.
There are so many examples of what different personality traits prefer and what they mean it’s really surprising more emphasis is not placed on them in the work place, schools and even preparing for marriage.
Here is an example, I am an ENFA (Extrovert, iNtuative, Feeling, Adapting). In my report it tells me I have a tendency to “change gears” and “when absorbed in your latest project, you think of little else”. So true…
My personality also has draw backs, I dislike routines among a few other things. Wouldn’t it have been beneficial to my previous bosses to know some of my shortcomings? Where they needed to watch for possible re-direction? I was fortunate that most of my bosses were very good at letting me run things as I saw fit.
Career Personality Test
It’s good practice, and even just fun, to take a career personality test every so often. Certainly you want to when you’re deciding upon a college major, but even as the years go by and your ideals and skills change, you might be surprised to see how the results of a personality test changes over time.
There is a slight difference between the career sorters and the personality type quizzes, both are a good guideline. The career quizzes typically are not as detailed in the nuances of personality types but they do a good job at understanding career and personality preferences.
You can take free career aptitude quizzes online that will offer suggestions for careers based upon your personality type. One that I like is the Keirsey Temperment Sorter, Dr. Keirsey is a leader in his field and it’s a really easy report to understand.
Personality Tests in the Interview
When you’re sitting in a job interview, if your interviewer is at all experienced, you will be faced with personality interview questions. These might be in the form of very tough or “no win” questions or they might come at you in the form of role-playing a difficult situation with the interviewers.
Know your strengths and weaknesses going in to the interview. Don’t worry about sharing your personality weaknesses. We all have them and your interviewers want to see if you’re aware of yours and if you have a plan for improving them.
It’s also a good idea to understand your management preferences and what environment you work best in. If you understand your personality you can make sure you are marketing yourself to your potential employer accurately.
