As an effectiveness coach, my personal motivation comes from hearing the impact I’ve had on the lives of my coachees. My ambition is to change the life of each person I interact with. It may sound ambitious, but this is what drives me. Comments such as, ‘You have changed my life,’ or ‘I feel so much more in control and happy with my job,’ or ‘My performance has dramatically increased since I have worked with you,’ are my best rewards.
I will never forget the first person who gave me this feedback. It was the last session with one of our first clients, a group of managers from a bank. I was asking each participant for their feedback, for the changes they had made throughout the four months’ journey we had undertaken, and the impact of those changes.
The feedback from the team was terrific. The journey had had an amazing impact on their work habits and they were all very positive about it. And then Marnie stood up and explained the impact for her. She mentioned that as a result of this journey, she felt much more organised, her desk was cleaner, she was on top of her emails, she was much more focused. As a result she had no doubt she would over-achieve her KPIs (key performance indicators), and that she would achieve her business goals for this year.
And then Marnie made an amazing comment. She said that this was not the big win for her; that this was not the most important thing. I was intrigued. What Marnie had mentioned so far sounded great and I was pleased she had achieved so much throughout the program.
Marnie said something I will never forget: ‘The big win for me is that I sleep at night.’ I was not expecting this and asked Marnie what she meant. She then explained, ‘I have a challenging job. I love it, but for many years I have brought my stress home. I have found myself waking up in the middle of the night with ideas of things I should do or should have done, of things I had forgotten or let slip. I had to sleep with a note pad on my bedside table to write all this down.
‘For the first time for many years, I sleep well at night. When I leave the office, I feel in control, I feel I have achieved what I need to. Even my husband is seeing the difference. This journey has changed my life.’
I was nearly in tears. This was one of those moments when you realise why you are doing what you are doing. This became the focus and vision for me, something that drives me forward — ‘changing lives’. Since then ‘changing lives’ has become the mission of my business, Primary Asset Consulting. A very ambitious mission, indeed. But if you do not aim high, you are unlikely to achieve great things or to bring great value.
I hope this book will help you to be more effective, to perform better at work and feel more in control of both your professional and personal life. Ultimately my goal and hope is that this book changes your life.
Efficiency versus effectiveness
When I mention in the corporate world that the focus of my business is to increase performance by challenging people’s work habits, I am often met with doubt.
Performance is a well-worn word, used in all industries and for whatever is being sold. What a company does or purchases is ultimately aimed at improving its bottom line and performance. Performance means so many different things that I sometimes feel the word has lost its power because of misuse and over-use.
When we deal with a sales team, performance is usually quite easy to define. It can be measured, for example, by the number of meetings or the amount of revenue and profit. When we deal with a legal team, performance is more difficult to measure. In some law firms it is measured in billable hours per day. Other legal teams link performance to internal feedback and satisfaction. Or a combination of both.
When we work with a marketing team or a senior executive, performance has yet another meaning. In this case performance can be linked to the revenue generated from marketing activities, to indicators such as improved brand recognition or client satisfaction, or to the delivery of specific projects.
However there are often two criteria that influence performance. Let’s take a few examples. When you discuss performance with a sales team, you will hear success measured using these factors:
On one hand you can be a great sales person, have a very good understanding of your products, target the right clients, and have a very good sales approach (quality). However, if you do not make any phone calls and have no meetings (quantity), it will be hard to perform.
On the other hand you can be a dynamic sales person, make lots of phone calls and have lots of meetings (quantity); if you do not target the right prospects, if you do not know your products well and have poor sales skills (quality), it will be hard to perform.
When we think about people management, we often hear about two different skills: management skills and leadership skills.
You can be a great manager, have clearly defined KPIs for your team, have organised regular one-on-ones, team meetings and reviews, and you spend lots of time with your team; but if you are leading them in the wrong direction, if you do not have the right vision and strategy, it will be very hard for you and your team to perform.
You can have a great vision for your team and have clear strategies in your head to make your team successful but if you do not communicate with them, if they are unclear on this vision, if you do not define clearly the role of each and monitor and coach them on a regular basis, it will also be hard to be successful.
In terms of personal productivity, there are two critical skills that impact personal performance: efficiency and effectiveness.
Quantity, management and efficiency are all linked to ‘how’ you do things. When you are given a task or a project, how well do you do it? Do you carry it out as requested, do you respect the budget, do you pay attention to detail, do you do it on time and respect deadlines? Efficiency can be defined by doing things right.
Quality, leadership and effectiveness are all linked to ‘what’ you are doing. Are you focusing on the few crucial things which will be key for your performance? Effectiveness can be defined by doing the right things.
To be more in control of your workload, to work smarter rather than harder, I will discuss these two skills: efficiency (doing things right, i.e. the ‘how’) and effectiveness (doing the right things, i.e. the ‘what’).
I will start with the ‘how’. Are your work habits slowing your performance? Do you have an efficient filing system? Do you manage as efficiently as possible the flow of information and tasks you receive on a daily basis?
I will then discuss a great efficiency tool: Microsoft Outlook*. To be both efficient and effective, you need a tool to manage your time, your tasks, your focus. In the business world, most people are using Outlook, while some are using Lotus® Notes and a few are using other systems such as GroupWise, a device such as a smartphone, BlackBerry® or iPad, or even a paper tool. The principles we will discuss are equally relevant for Outlook, Lotus® or whatever system you are using. Because most people use Outlook, I will use this tool as an example.
Then I will focus on effectiveness, what I call personal leadership. This is more the ‘what’.
Although I start with efficiency principles, the most important principles are the effectiveness principles. For many years, time management books and seminars have been focusing on saving time, on doing things quickly. Saving time is important but is almost irrelevant if you are not clear on what you want to achieve, if you are not clear on what is important for you.