Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

Multitasking Pitfalls

A growing body of scientific research shows one of jugglers' favorite time-saving techniques, multitasking, can actually make you less efficient and, well, stupider.  Trying to do two or three things at once or in quick succession can take longer overall than doing them one at a time, and may leave you with reduced brainpower to perform each task.

Among the many distractions faced by car drivers is the multitasking done with cellphones and other wireless devices that have contributed to the most crashes and near-crashes.  Compared to driving without talking on a cellphone (where the driver spends 70% of time looking ahead), drivers looked at the road ahead less while dialing manually (40% of the time) and hands-free dialing (50%).  While talking, drivers became less aware of their surrounding situation; instead looking straight ahead most of the time (90% of time for hand-held phones and 77% of time for hands-free devices, compared to 70% in normal driving). 

'When tasks are performed, and especially multiple tasks,' David E. Meyer, a mathematical and cognitive psychologist at the University of Michigan, says, 'decisions have to be made by your mind's CEO about which of the resources are going to get used.'  Driving while using a cellular phone is a dangerous example of multitasking, he adds, because it requires 'too many of exactly the same resources, mental and physical.'  Seconds lost switching between tasks could be the time needed to avoid danger.

Though the research has been applied mostly to the debate over driving with cellphones, it has quality of life implications too.  Here are a few findings:

People who multitask are actually less efficient than those who focus on one project at a time, according to a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

The process of switching back immediately to a task you've just performed, as many multitaskers try to do, takes longer than switching after a bit more time has passed, say findings published by researchers from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Managing two mental tasks at once reduces the brainpower available for either task, according to a study published in the journal NeuroImage.

These findings don't mean that you can't do several things at the same time but you are kidding yourself if you think you can do them without cost.

For more on why you don't want to integrate everything, go to: http://home.att.net/~coachthee/Archives/integrateeverything.html 

John G. Agno, certified executive & business coach, www.MentoringandCoaching.com

Outrunning your shadow?

Our own shadow is formed from the parts of our being that we experience as unacceptable. 

Our families and culture let us know early on which human qualities are valued and which are frowned upon.  We want to be accepted and loved, so we try to fashion and present a "self" that will attract others and secure our sense of belonging.  But inevitably, our natural aggression, need, or fear are expressed, and the significant people in our lives react.  Whether we are mildly scolded, ignored, or traumatically rejected, on some level we are hurt and pushed away.

The shadow becomes a force in our psyches as we exile the emotions that could elicit rejection.  Our shadows are rooted in shame, bound by our sense of being basically defective.  The more deeply we feel flawed and unlovable, the more desperately we run from the shadow.  Yet running from what we fear deepens the inner darkness.

Underneath "I shouldn't get so angry" lies "There's something wrong with me if I do." Like being stuck in quicksand, our frantic efforts to escape our badness sink us deeper.  As we strive to avoid the shadow, we solidify our identity as a fearful, deficient self.

When we learn to face the fear and shame we habitually avoid, we begin to awaken from a trance.  By pausing and accepting our experience, we free ourselves to respond to our circumstances in ways that bring genuine peace and happiness.

Source: Excerpted and adapted from "Radical Acceptance:Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha" by Tara Brach, Ph.D. (Bantam Books a division of Random House, Inc).

Business Savvy; Get It

How people conceive the purpose and direction of their business matters.

Any plan for a business has to answer three questions: What's the nature of the game we're in?  Where is it going?  How do we make money in it? 

These questions go to the heart of what business is all about; they are fundamentals of business thinking.  Three fundamental components determine business success or failure: the environment it operates in, the financial targets it needs to meet, and the internal activities and capabilities that it depends on, in the given environment, to meet the financial targets.

The strategic plans of most companies don't work.  A key reason why is that little time is spent harmonizing the facts of the external environment, the financial targets that are set and the internal capabilities of the business so that these discrete activities work together.

People with a well-developed sense of business savvy seldom have a strategy ahead of time.  Instead, they devise their strategies as a means of meeting their financial targets, not the other way around.  Business savvy is the art of understanding the fundamentals driving your business and the connections among them.

The structural changes in today's global economy have the potential to obliterate your business....or....to take it to an entirely new level.  Which will it be? 

Will you confront reality by recognizing the world as it is---not as you wish it to be?

Source: Confronting Reality : Doing What Matters to Get Things Right by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan (Crown Business)

Five Principles of Exemplary Leadership

An effective leader leads followers with dignity, and inspires them toward achievement.  That means that leadership is a means to an end--the mission it serves is the end.

1.  Model the Way: Modeling the way is essentially about earning the right and the respect to lead through direct individual involvement and action.  People first follow the person, then the plan. Titles are granted but it is behavior that wins respect.

2.  Inspire a Shared Vision: Leaders have visions and dreams of what could be.  They have an absolute and total personal belief in those dreams, and they are confident in their abilities to make extraordinary things happen.  Every organization, every social movement, begins with a dream.  The dream or vision is the force that invents the future.

3.  Challenge the Process:  Leaders are not the only creators or originators of new products, services, or processes.  In fact, it is more likely that innovation comes from customers, clients, vendors, people in labs, and people on the front lines. The leader's primary contribution is in the recognition of good ideas, the support of these ideas, and the willingness to challenge the system to get new ideas adopted.

4.  Enable Others to Act: Grand dreams do not become significant realities through the actions of a single person.  Exemplary leaders enable others to act. They foster collaboration and build trust. This sense of teamwork goes far beyond a few direct reports or close confidants. They engage all those who must make the project work — and in some way, all who must live with the results.

5.  Encourage the Heart: It is part of a leader's job to show appreciation for people's contributions and to create a culture of celebration.  Exemplary leaders encourage the heart of their constituents to carry on with genuine acts of caring.  Encouragement is curiously serious business.  It is how leaders visibly and behaviorally link rewards with performance.  

Source: James M. Kouzes: The Leadership Challenge, Third Edition

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NBA Finals Coaching Tip

Basketball is an intricate, high-speed game filled with split-second, spontaneous decisions.  But that spontaneity is possible only when everyone first engages in hours of highly repetitive and structured practice and agrees to play a carefully defined role on the court. 

Great basketball coaches, military commanders and business leaders know that practice of the rules of engagement coupled with split-second decisions in execution by their team can make the difference between winning and losing. 

Malcolm Gladwell, in his bestseller, "blink" (Little Brown), tells us that great leaders know that if you can create the right framework (by everyone knowing the rules and practicing them), when it comes time to perform, your players will engage in fluid, effortless, spur-of-the-moment dialogue and action.  The leader provides the overall guidance and intent to the team, coaches them in mastering tools and general techniques through practice and then allows them to use their own initiative and be innovative as they move forward.

Placing a lot of trust in your subordinates has an overwhelming advantage:

Allowing people to operate without having to explain themselves within the rules of engagement, focuses their energy and opens the possibility for extraordinary leaps of insight and instinct in decision-making.   When the team is "in the flow," split-second decisions are unconscious flashes of insight that drive extraordinary performance on the basketball court, battlefield or shopfloor.

It is the leader's job to keep the momentum going; so as not to lose the flow.  Insight is not a lightbulb that goes off inside our heads.  It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out by external means.  Know that these kinds of fluid, intuitive, nonverbal experiences are vulnerable...and...your players can drop out of the "zone" or "flow" when you, as the leader, start to become reflective about this rapid cognition process.

For more information on the importance of our "adaptive unconscious," click here.

John G. Agno, Certified Executive & Business Coach, www.MentoringandCoaching.com

2005 corporate strategy & tactical adjustments

In an April survey of 308 worldwide executives focusing on strategy execution, 29% responded that the 'economic climate or corporate budget' got in their way.  Another 23% saw the 'company culture' and 20% observed 'the way we work together' slowed the execution of a strategy.

57% reported using new tactics and the same strategy while 7% said they were executing both the previous tactics and strategies.  With 36% of the executives implementing new strategies in 2005, the need for proper alignment of corporate employees with the new strategy matters.  Yet, 35% of the executives surveyed saw 'past habits' getting in the way of strategy execution.

Since a new strategy requires proper execution to win in today's highly competitive global economy, having more than 1/3 of executives surveyed struggling with issues surrounding implementation demonstrates the need for more effective leadership in the workplace.

For leadership tips, go to: www.LeadershipTips.info 

John G. Agno, Certified Executive & Business Coach, www.MentoringandCoaching.com 

Source: Leadership Pulse April 2005 research by eePulse, Inc. www.eepulse.com

Paid Internet Search

North American advertisers spent about $4 billion on paid-search marketing in 2004, according to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization.

$3.3 billion was spent on keyword auctions and other paid-placement efforts.

Advertisers plan to increase their search-engine marketing budgets by 41% on average this year.  Keyword prices are up 26% in the past 12 months but companies say they could pay as much as 33% more for keywords and remain profitable in online transactions.

Source: Fortune Small Business, June 2005

What we think, we become

People who solve any serious challenge are the ones who change the way they think about themselves.  They convince themselves that they can change, and they do change.  Believing comes first, then change, not the other way around.

One way we can change our consciousness is by changing our self-talk.  Using affirmations that reflect positive choices is an excellent way to do that.  Reading the affirmation aloud adds power to this method.

Another effective method for changing consciousness is visualization.  Close your eyes and begin to picture yourself when you have achieved your goal.  What will you look like?  How will you feel? What will people be saying to you?  Visualize only positive experiences, feelings and responses from others.  Make the pictures as vivid as possible.  You want to create powerful images that will stimulate your brain to work on the challenge.

Prayer is also an effective tool for positive and lasting change.  The true purpose of spiritual mind treatment is to create a shift in consciousness that will allow our desires to manifest.

For information on living your life with passion, go to: www.LifeSignature.com 

Source: Forever Free by Patricia Noble, Science of Mind, June 2003

Tips to help people remember

To assist people in remembering what you tell them, try one or both of these two techniques:

Acronyms:

Turn key points of what you say into an acronym (using only the first letter of each word or phrase) to help ensure that they get and retain them. This technique was likely used to help you learn much of the information you were exposed to in school.

Whenever possible, use familiar acronyms to help participants remember complex terms, titles, or elements in your presentation.  The following are examples of well known acronyms:

NATO: North American Treaty Organization, NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA: United States of America, NFL: National Football League

Rhymes:

Developing phrases or words that sound similar or organizing into a little song-like process can also help retention of information.  For example, in order to remember which way to turn your clock when daylight savings time begins and ends, you may have learned, "Spring forward; Fall back."

To remember how many days there are in each month- "Thirty days hath September, April, June and November, all others have thirty one, except February with twenty-eight, and twenty-nine in leap year."

Source: The Creative Training Idea Book-Inspired Tips and Techniques for Engaging and Effective Learning by Robert W. Lucas

Getting good salespeople?

A recent study by Sibson Consulting (www.sibson.com) found that 80% of the 65 North American companies polled plan to grow revenues and 77% are hiring more field sales people to make that happen.

55% of employers say they need to do better at hiring salespeople and help them hone their skills to excel.  Getting good sales employees versus good actors begins by having job candidates take a Sales Indicator self assessment to determine their ability to sell before they are hired or promoted to sales work.  Once they are hired, making them top performers requires sound sales training along with consistent coaching and mentoring.

For more information on assessing sales ability, go to the Self Assessment Center at www.SelfAssessmentCenter.com

John G. Agno, certified executive & business coach, www.MentoringandCoaching.com