C-Suite Network™

Menu

Category: Health and Wellness

Categories
Growth Health and Wellness Management Women In Business

Kill Your “To Do” List Now

Why do you attempt to do the impossible?  How many things are on your “to do” list this week?  Ten?  Twelve? Thirty-two?

As you look at the list are you already in anticipatory fear of what you won’t complete.  Are you stressing if the things you did last we are “good enough?”  Most of us are. This fear, not being in the present moment is killing you and your ability to lead effectively.

This one simple choice, building and attempting to accomplish impossible “to do” lists is hurting your morale, engagement and money.  Make a new choice mindfully reduce your stress monotask today. Stop rewarding yourself for driving, eating, and talking on the phone at the same time.  All this adds up to mind-less-ness.

Admit it you have parked at your office then suddenly realized you do not remember leaving your driveway or any part of the drive to work?  Mindless.

Admit it you look at the clock and wonder where they day has gone with your “to do” list left unchecked.  Mindless.

This week.  Try Mindful mono-tasking.  Yes.  Mindfulness, the practice of being fully present in the moment can meet your “to do” list.  Here’s your practice:

Write a “to complete” list not a “to do” list. 

When I write a “to do” list it gets filled with every single thing I need to do this hour, day week, month, heck even year.  When the “to do” list is filled I look down and realize I’m overwhelmed and do nothing.  My head starts spinning.

A mindful “to complete” list is the 1-3 items that I will complete that day.  Nothing more, nothing less goes on the list.  I look at the list and my calendar to make sure those things are on the calendar.  Looking at this list gets my heart and purpose engaged again.

Once my “to complete list is complete, I breathe and know the things I need to do are on the list and the things not on the list are either not mine to do, or can wait. Then, as a leader, get fully in the present get to your being so the doing can get done also.

When, and only when all those things are done on your” to complete” list can you add something else to the list.

The practice of mindful “mono tasking” takes some practice. Yes I have days that things sneak back on the list, you will also.  You have to trust that the items that do not get on your ‘to complete” list will show up on the date/time that you must complete them.

Over time this activity will help you practice setting firm boundaries of what you will do and what you will not.  You may even hear yourself saying the most powerful complete sentence in our language.  No. When someone approaches you with a task that you cannot complete that day.  You will hear yourself building a more manageable life to lead and expectation for yourself and the culture of your organization.

Mindfulness is the practice of becoming fully present. When you are mindful, you can be your best in the world.  Give mono-tasking a try this week.  Let me know how this expands your good in the world.

Categories
Best Practices Growth Health and Wellness Leadership

What’s Your Cutting Edge?

You know these sayings, “Just do it!!,” No risk, no reward,” “No pain, no gain,” “Just buck up.” Most of us have grown up hearing these bits of advice. They come from the likes of parents, teachers, coaches, the media and get unconsciously registered in our minds as THE TRUTH. In psychology, we call them “Belief Systems.” And whether you’re aware of it or not, they rule our lives by the expectations we set for ourselves because of them.

Since they have such a profound influence on our feelings of self-worth, competency, actions and behaviors, it behooves us to dig a little and examine how to work with them, so we put ourselves consciously in charge of our lives, rather than be ruled by outdated and unwanted mandates.

This is a big topic, but in this article, we’re going to focus on the expectations we have of ourselves and how to realistically pace yourself, so you can actually realize your desired outcome.

In his book, The Warrior Athlete (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd, Toronto, 1079), Dan Millman talks about the principle of “Accommodation,” Briefly, this law states that athletics or life develops what it demands; no demand, no development, improper demand, improper development.

Let’s look at this statement, “Improper demand, improper development.” Depending on what you are asking of yourself, it could be to learn a new skill, manage a team, improve your work/life balance, manage your emotions better, or many of the numerous tasks you want to accomplish.

Many high-achievers make great demands on themselves. As we said, no demand, no development. But how do you judge when it’s too much? What are the signs signals that let you know you’re over the line? And what types of guidelines can you use to answer these questions?

While I was studying to be a Nia (combination of dance, movement and physical exercise) Instructor, we were required to learn dance routines very quickly. Some of us were better at this than others. Lord knows, I wanted to be successful. But I noticed, the more I demanded of myself, the worse I got. Until my teacher said, “You cannot go any faster than your nervous system will allow.”

That was a revelation to me! I expected myself to pick it up right away. But the truth was, I was a beginner at this skill and until I adjusted my expectation to the reality of the situation, I would remain frustrated, my adrenaline would start kicking in and my ability to think clearly would be diminished.

No matter how much you want to succeed, your body and your mind will tell you whether you’re being realistic.

To be sure that your “cutting edge,” sets you up for success, keep these tips in mind:

  1. Your mind and your body have to work in sync.
  2. If you find yourself getting frustrated, ask yourself, “Are my expectations realistic? Am I asking more of myself than I am capable of at this moment in time?”  You may be quite capable, but not in the time frame you are demanding.
  3. Pay attention to the signals your body is giving you. If the nervous system is overloaded, your muscles will get tight and the quality of your thinking will deteriorate.
  4. To find your own personal “cutting edge,” take a tip from Yoga. In order to grow, we’re always looking for that edge of discomfort. This is your “growing edge.”

So, remember; if you ask of yourself as little more than your comfortable with, every day, both your body and your mind will accommodate to the new, higher level. And then, you’ll turn around and say to yourself one day, “Wow, how did that happen?”

If you’d like to learn more about your own level of Peak Performance skills, go to Masteryunderpressure.net and join our Facebook community at https://www.facebook.com/groups/masteryunderpressurecommunity/

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Health and Wellness Human Resources Management Marketing Skills Women In Business

Too Much of A Good Thing? New Strategies to Enjoy Real Work-Life Harmony in the C-Suite

Early morning board meetings, late evening client dinners, conference calls, international travel, a jam-packed family and personal schedule. It’s all good, but it may seem like constant non-stop busyness all the time. Are you doing more, but feeling less satisfied and more frustrated?

Fortunately, there are strategies to increase the real goodness and harmony in your life. Your ability to prioritize and optimize all the abundance you enjoy comes from making the right decisions about what is “important to do” rather than what is simply “nice to do.”

Evaluate and set your criteria. Determine the key professional and personal priorities, causes and activities that are truly aligned with your core values and highest intentions for the short and longer term. Turn inward and evaluate where you are accomplishing the most good and receiving the most personal satisfaction. Are you saying “Yes” more often and “No” less frequently because you are afraid of being left out? Learn to say “No” to the ordinary to be able to say “Yes” to the outstanding. Take a stand for what you really want!

Plan and prioritize. Look at your week and month and list your intentions and commitments. Sort the important from the merely workable. Think of your life in three pillars: career/business, health/family, faith/education/renewal and consider adopting the 8-8-8 model for your daily schedule. Designate eight hours for work and business, eight hours for yourself and your family priorities and eight hours for rest.

Make time for yourself every day. Part of your personal pillar should include some “me time” for peace, quiet, reflection and rejuvenation. Consider rising thirty minutes earlier and starting the day off with some movement, stretching, meditation, self-hypnosis or quiet contemplation. You will feel more successful and grounded versus feeling scattered and off balance.

Be consistent. Make regular deposits into your body’s energy savings and reserves account by eating whole, real food and engaging in regular physical activity and prioritizing restorative sleep. Inevitably you will need to make energy withdrawals when you are involved in challenging projects or are working long hours. With enough reserves, you have enough goodness to draw upon and your energy account will be charged and healthy!

Real work-life harmony takes courage and awareness. Model these traits for yourself, your family and your organization. Your life will be better for it!

Kathleen Caldwell, is CEO of Caldwell Consulting Group, an Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapist, a C-Suite Network Advisor, Women Who Dare Council Member and the founder of the WHEE Leadership Institute ® (Wealthy, Healthy, Energetic Edge) of Woodstock, Illinois. She works with leaders and teams to energetically and enjoyably produce record breaking results. For more information, Caldwell can be reached at www.caldwellconsulting.biz, Kathleen@caldwellconsulting.biz or by phone at 773-562-1061.

Copyright © 2018. Caldwell Consulting Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Categories
Best Practices Growth Health and Wellness Human Resources Management Technology Women In Business

Use Technology to Unplug from Technology

Distractions are everywhere. For a lot of employers – they are killing productivity. A recent study by CareerBuilder offers the top productivity roadblocks in the workplace.

  • Cell Phones/texting
  • The Internet
  • Gossip
  • Social media
  • Email
  • Interruptions from coworkers
  • Meetings
  • Smoke breaks/snack breaks
  • Noisy coworkers
  • Sitting in a cubicle

If you’re ready to increase your daily value and the contributions you bring to the workplace, reduce your stress and contribute to boosting profits? Pay attention to these seven strategies productivity strategies and stop killing time:

Extinguish Email. Too many of us are guilty of allowing email to dictate our daily tasks and priorities. It winds up stealing focus and tempts us to venture down paths that aren’t aligned with the priorities we’ve established necessary for the day. Utilize tools, such as Glip, to minimize the back and forth unnecessary chatter email creates. It cuts down on keystrokes required to draft and send messages, the clutter endless back-and-forth emails generates and helps teams get organized in their communication strategies.

Own it. Be honest with yourself. Consider what you’re allowing to become a distraction, keeping you from remaining focused. Is your phone, with their never-ending barrage of text messages, personal phone calls and messages distracting you? Consider implementing the the Moment app. It tracks just how much you’re on your device and allows you to set time limits so you start to step away from the 24/7 phone attachment and step into the present, productive moment.

Be hyper-conscious to what is on your task list this week and prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. What five things are non-negotiables and absolutely have to be accomplished first? What can you delegate? What is just a time-waster and not vital to your vision? Knock those projects out first. The accomplishment will reduce your stress, give you a sense of completion and allow you to move on to other tasks requiring more time and creativity.

Nix the Internet. If you’re anything like me, it’s easy to put off what needs to be done in exchange for a few moments surfing Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube or checking personal emails. Before you know it, you’ve been sucked into a time warp, sacrificing productivity and valuable time. Take a look at the Freedom app to block certain personal websites (including time-draining social media) and allows you to set controls so you can stay on task.

Time-Block. Use your schedule to work with you. Carve out times for periodic breaks where you can check personal messages, social media, get a stretch or go for a walk. Taking mindful breaks will allow you to maximize your focus when it is time to work.

Be clear. In some of the most productive workspaces I know of, team members get creative about sharing when they are in focus mode. Clearly communicating when you are in “do not disturb” mode is vital. Some have signs up when they are on prospecting calls for example. Others use headsets to buffer the noise around them and signal they are “in the zone”. My organization uses Glip’s feature of indicate when we are not to be disturbed, away or available. Using the tools feature helps share with coworkers when you are ready to chat or when you’re in focus mode.

Be mindful. Getting caught in a trap of office politics, gossip or personal chatter can not only be unproductive to your reputation, it can be a real time suck. Utilize days of the week or hours within the day to work remotely when possible. Capitalize on tools like Glip to stay connected without being physically interrupted and side tracked in your day.

Pay attention to what’s pulling at you. What’s taking you away from bringing your best and brightest self to the workplace. Don’t let daily time killers get the best of you and your ability to accomplish what is necessary for success. Which of these strategies can you put in place today to change how you deal with distractions?

 

Categories
Entrepreneurship Health and Wellness Women In Business

Olympic Performance, Business Performance: One in the Same

I love the Olympics! From the pomp and circumstance of the Opening Ceremonies, to the stories of the individual athletes to the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Given that I’m a “people person,” I’m always wondering about the “back story” of Olympians and their performance.

What’s going on in the mind of the athlete? I’d like to interview each one of them and ask, “What did you do to train your mind? How are you thinking – or are you thinking – during the heat of the competition? How do you talk to yourself when you lose – when the dream passes you by?”

These athletes are people, just like you and me. Let’s look at what sets them apart and see how can you achieve that level of greatness in your life and your work. Perhaps you are at the pinnacle of your career and have mastered a great many of the mental skills that are necessary to be calm in the heat of moment. Or possibly, you are in an enviable professional position, but the stress is taking its toll.

Or you may be on your way towards higher goals, but don’t know how to harness your energy in the manner of a true Olympian. Many highly competitive people like athletes, business leaders and entrepreneurs think that success is about working harder. While you cannot achieve lofty goals without hard work, it’s the mental training that makes the difference.

Here are 3 skills that you can begin to cultivate. Many of them you have heard about before. I frequently say that this information is “common knowledge, but not common
practice.” If you want to upgrade your level of performance under pressure, you will need to take it on with the same level of commitment as with any other skill you want to master.

1. Meditation

Meditation is simply “focused concentration,” Pick a sound, a word, an image, your breath, a candle…anything that you can bring your attention back to every time it wanders. One of the hallmarks of great athletes and great leaders is their ability to assess a situation in a split second. They don’t get flustered under intense pressure; they see possibilities where others don’t.

Meditation works on both the mind and the body in profound ways. When we quiet down the nervous system, we also quiet down the part of the brain that is always chattering. At the same time, we are strengthening the pre-frontal cortex, which is the executive part of the brain that we want onboard in pressured situations. I frequently hear people say, “I can’t meditate. I can’t quiet my mind.” Just remember, that the “monkey mind” is our natural state when the mind is untrained. Meditation is one of the keys to changing that situation.

2. Change Your Thoughts to “Productive Thinking.”

Again, I’m sure you’ve heard that you need to speak to yourself in a positive way, yet the mind is prone to offering us “worst case scenarios.” Just telling yourself to stop thinking in a certain way is easier said than done. Rather than glibly telling myself to think positively (because I don’t always believe it), I ask myself, “Do my thoughts produce something useful for me?” For example, If I’ve inadvertently missed an important appointment, rather than beating myself up, I ask myself in a non-judgmental way, “How did this happen and what can I learn from it?”

3. Commit

Every great achievement starts with a commitment to the self. We can’t know how things will turn out, because in taking big risks, we are subject to many variables that are out of our control. But we can control our thoughts and our actions and make that life-changing decision that we’ll do “whatever it takes” to reach our dreams.

While you’re watching the Olympics and marveling at the thrilling performances of the athletes, just know that you, too, have the potential for greatness. Learn how to harness your mind through peak performance training.

If you’d like to see where you are on the level of peak performance skills, I invite you to take my quiz here.

Categories
Accounting Best Practices Entrepreneurship Health and Wellness Industries Management Marketing Skills Technology Women In Business

Maximize the First 30 Minutes of Each Day

How do you set the tone and maximize productivity at the beginning of each day? Do you give yourself space to map things out or are you more of a wing-it kind of person? I believe how you START your day, sets the intention and momentum for how the rest of the day’s will transpire. When you begin with 30-minutes of focused attention to what really matters most –  that time will pay generous dividends by the end of the day.

Here are strategies maximize productivity and ensure a successful day in the first 30 minutes:

  1. Turn OFF your phones. It’s all right. That magical device that is glued to hands seemingly every waking minute of the day, delivering phone calls, chats, text messages and emails at an often-alarming rate does turn off. So does the desk phone! Take 30 minutes to create space for focus. It will all be there when you turn it back on. It’s just an hour. And there’s voicemail! If it’s important, they’ll leave a message or call back.  If you want to maximize productivity – turn off your phones.
  2. Close your door. If you’ve got one. This sends a signal to your team (or your family if you are a work-from-home entrepreneur) that you are unavailable unless there is an emergency. If you are new to the practice, educate your team what procedures you want to have in place when your door is closed. Once everyone is on board that this is your time to create, get strategic, work a business plan, and map out your day, they’ll recognize the importance. Especially when they see the RESULTS.  If you are forced to work in an open environment, consider headphones. I used this technique in one organization, and people eventually got the idea that when your headphones are in, it’s the equivalent of a do-not-disturb sign.
  3. Use smart time-blocking. My recommendations? Book all meetings to start after 9.00 am. If you’ve always had early morning meetings, this might be a tough change, but if needed, can you start your “clock” an hour earlier to ensure that you have a full 30 minutes to complete your planning?
  4. Start off-site if possible.  Can you complete your 30-minute mindset and strategy session BEFORE you walk through your office doors? That way when you are actually in office – you hit the ground running. Once you’ve mastered this, teach your team. Once they’ve mastered it – your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will go through the roof. A study done by Ctrip shared that remote workers are able to complete 13.5% more than their comparable office workers. How’s that for food for thought.
  5. Quit the clutter. Seriously. Inboxes. Coffee cups. Paperwork piles. These distractions are stealing brain bandwidth and steering your attention away from streamlining your day. Out with them!  Maximize productivity by decreasing visual distractions.
  6. Check off that early morning workout. If you can muster it, get your exercise out of the way first thing. Start small if you have (15-30-minute increments) but do start. You’ll feel like you’ve already checked one big daily goal off your to-do list! Cheers!
  7. Nix the gossip in the bud. Honestly, gossip is one of the biggest time, energy, and productivity drains an organization can have. We Aussies call a gossip a “flibbertigibbet”. Studies show that 39% of workers admit that gossip and workplace chat are their biggest productivity killers. Another study conducted by Equisys also shared that the average employee spends 65 hours a year gossiping in the workplace! Cull this invasive “thief” from your company if you truly want to maximize productivity.

Starting your day in planning mode will help you stay focused, on track, and set the right tone for not just your day – but that of those around you. Lead by example. Pay ATTENTION to the INTENTION you set for each day. Your productivity, profitability, and bottom-line results will reflect your efforts!

Categories
Best Practices Growth Health and Wellness Human Resources Management Women In Business

You Think You’re Paying Attention? You’re NOT! Say NO to Interruptions

Do you remember when you were growing up and your parents would say: “Don’t interrupt when grownups are talking?”

Ever had your parents say “Pay attention to what you are doing?”

Now we ARE the grownups and somehow, we’ve forgotten those very basic rules of engagement.

We cannot pay attention to what we are doing if we are constantly battling interruptions. Better yet, when we interrupt others, we are disrespecting their need for attention. Don’t believe you fit into one of these categories? Think again!

If you have ever:

  • interrupted another person when they were speaking;
  • stopped daily tasks to answer digital demands – text messages, alerts, personal emails or social media;
  • walked into another person’s workspace unannounced or without a scheduled time;
  • checked work email or messages during family time outside of the office;
  • surfed the internet during a task, telephonic or video conference call;
  • answered a text message while driving;
  • interrupted a social event to take a call or answer a message;
  • sent, or responded to, an after-hour message to a coworker or employees;
  • lost your train of thought mid-project or mid-sentence of a conversation;
  • answered a non-critical phone call mid-task,

Then you are living in a world of interruptions and distractions, unable to truly pay attention to what matters most.

You see, I believe distractions decay our ability to think clearly, remain focused and be productive. When we allow for interruptions – or become the interruptions – we are limiting our ability to pay attention to what matters most. As a result, we feel frustrated and stressed from our ‘crazy busy’ lives where we interruptions and distractions are costing us our ability to get anything of any real value accomplished.

I challenge you to pay attention. Become mindful of your daily distractions and interruptions – those you suffer from and those you create. You have the control to change how, when and what you focus on achieving. You have the control to change your demands of other people’s attention as well.

Become an Attention Ambassador in your workplace and demonstrate to others – Attention Pays.

Categories
Best Practices Growth Health and Wellness Human Resources Management Skills Women In Business

Behavior Management in the Workplace

I had the great opportunity to work with Board Certified Behavior Analysts and I learned so much from them. These BCBAs specialize in autism treatment. This field may seem completely irrelevant to the business world but there is a clear correlation. It’s all about behavior management.

For a child on the autism spectrum, therapists use the principles of ABA which is Applied Behavior Analysis. Essentially, it’s about breaking things down into small steps until that target has been mastered. The child learns through errorless teaching (adjusted prompt levels until the child makes the correct response) and their positive behavior is strengthened and maintained through positive reinforcement (using their motivator).

What does this have to do with typical adults in the business world?

As business leaders we need to understand what motivates our people. We recognize that everyone is unique and requires a different approach to get things done. When we understand our people’s motivations, we are able to reward them accordingly, retain top talent and onboard new talent.

Here is a list of motivators in the workplace:

  • Money
  • A sense of belonging
  • The work itself
  • Recognition
  • Career Development

We also know that change management can be challenging, but when we understand the barriers around change we are able are to gain consensus and achieve great results. We do this by breaking things down into small steps and slowly introducing change in a positive way.

Using the principles of ABA we are able to gain an understanding of people’s motivations and effectively manage change.

People are so fascinating. We all have subtle and clear patterns, we all have certain expectations. We all have different perspectives. ABA helps us to get to the root cause of why someone does a certain thing and reacts in a certain way.

ABA is especially effective when we are engaging in negotiations, conflict resolution and improving employee engagement.

Executive coaching is all about being open to learning new ways of thinking and doing in order to achieve goals and solve problems. Using ABA in the workplace is just one example of how we can gain insights by thinking outside the box.

Michelle Nasser, Executive Coach

Teaching you how to make the best decisions for your organization.

www.michellenasser.com

Categories
Entrepreneurship Health and Wellness Human Resources Management Marketing Skills Women In Business

What I Wish I Would Have Known Before I Bought My First Smartphone

Have you ever been so excited about buying something new that you fail to stop long enough to consider how it might impact you in the long run? Let’s face it; rarely do we ever consider the long-term consequences of our purchases and impulsive needs, especially when it comes to technology.

I can still remember my first smartphone purchase – the answer to my productivity needs. The ability to map my destinations, create travel itineraries on a whim, respond to emails in a more timely fashion, take photos and more. I’ve never been one that is a cutting-edge ‘early adopter’ where technology is concerned, but the smartphone was truly that – smart. It was the answer to my overwhelmed, overly committed life.

Never one time did I stop to consider the long term impacts the smartphone would have on my life, let alone on society. Have you ever stopped to contemplate how your life has changed since introducing this device into it? If you knew then what you know now, would you still have made that very first purchase? Or perhaps, would you have introduced it to your life differently?

The following aspects are those I wish I would have – could have – considered before that first smartphone purchase:

Dinner Disruptions:

I wish I would have known that I would rarely see families and friends engaged in a conversation around the dinner table without the distraction of a device. I can’t even recall the last time I sat in a restaurant and witnessed everyone engaged in a non-device disrupting conversation and meal. Far too often I see adults tuned out reading online while kids mindlessly play games and avoid interaction. I watch as young couples engage more on social media than with each other. I wait as servers and staff turn their attention to patrons in need of photos, causing other patrons to sit in wait.

Traveling Challenges:

I wish I would have known that every airport would become a land mine of adults sitting on floors and against walls, hovering near any available power outlet or charging station, handcuffed to their device in a desperate hope it will charge before boarding the flight. Before smartphones, I can’t recall a time it was commonplace to see grown adults holding a small device as if it were their very life support.

Distracted Driving:

I wish I would have known the rate people would crash, or even die, due to distracted drivers. Let’s face it, there are few things more annoying, distracting and dangerous than a smartphone alert going off when you’re behind the wheel of a car. No matter where you keep the phone – your purse, console, glove box or back seat – there is something about the sound of an alert that pulls your focus from the road. Never would I have imagined how many people I would share the road with that would be texting while driving, reading the news, posting online or even live streaming their thoughts in transit. Even when thought I have disciplined myself not to look at the phone while driving, the very thought of what awaits for me competes for my attention more than I would have ever imagined.

Home Life Hindrances:

I wish I would have known how much I would ask my friends and family to pause their thoughts as I answered a self-inflicted obligation to respond to emails after hours. I can remember when I first linked my email to my smartphone and thought how amazing it was to respond to emails after the work day was over. I considered this a productivity win as my response times were cut in half. I had faith that others recognized my diligence and would be appreciative of my timely response. What I didn’t realize is that in time, my enthusiasm for answering after hour emails would turn into a habit and that habit would turn into obligation. Little by little, I had trained those in my circle to expect an immediate response from me. Before I knew it, my 9 to 5 turned into a 24×7 workday. My loved ones became the ones in wait as I took time and attention from them to respond to messages that could have easily waited until morning.

Need for Instant Information:  

I wish I would have known my need for instant information would become a crutch. I’m not sure if you’re like me, and have lost track of the number of times you’ve stopped mid conversation to research facts and figures to prove a point. While having information at our fingertips is amazing, it can also hinder our ability to be free thinkers and engage in healthy debates and judgement without the need to immediately prove who is right.

Social Media Influence:

I wish I would have known how toxic social media would become. If only I could have seen the day I would wish for photos of a friend’s meal to be the topic of social media fodder. Instead, the smartphone has allowed all of us to think, and post, without self-censorship. We’ve entered into a world where what we feel is immediately available for others to read. I would have never guessed the draining effect it would have on my in my daily life, feelings and productivity. Not only has the smartphone increased my accessibility to read social media, it’s made it addictive to the point that a concerted effort has to be made just to tune it out or avoid it all together.

Productivity Nemesis:

I wish I would have known that the very tool I was purchasing to help me become more productive would be the very thing that would challenge my ability to do so. With constant alerts, messages and updates, it’s hard to remain focused on anything of importance. Trying to focus on a task becomes challenging when I know someone has messaged me and is awaiting an immediate response. Now, I have to make a conscious effort to download apps and schedule times of days they work to keep alerts and messages at bay. Never the less, the impulsive need to check my screen for notifications is often more than I can bear. Despite my need for focused thinking, I find my attention challenged in ways I would have never previously imagined.

Talking to Foreheads:

I wish I would have known that the introduction of the smartphone meant learning to carry on conversations with people’s foreheads. If only I had the ability to grab someone by their face and say what my 5 year old friend, Donovan, taught me – “Listen with your eyes.” Put the phone down and pay attention to what is right in front of you, not what can wait. If only I would have known how preconditioned I would become – we would become – to accepting interruptions and someone’s half attention as the norm.

Is there anything you wish you would have known before buying your first smartphone? While technology has helped us in many ways, it challenges our focus and competes for our attention for what is truly important. While I don’t regret having this amazing technology, hind sight is always 20/20. Now that we know the challenges, can we change our habits, or are we doomed to distraction?

I believe attention is our new currency. Attention to what matters most is where we will profit, boost productivity and increase accountability. Paying attention to what is important is a skill we must learn – if not relearn – to help us achieve balance in our lives with technology.

What are your thoughts? I would love to read them. Are you committed to changing your habits and learning how to use the smartphone as a tool and break the dependency you’ve created? If so, subscribe to my ezine to learn tips, techniques and strategies to help you pay attention to what matters most.

Categories
Economics Entrepreneurship Health and Wellness Human Resources Management News and Politics

Thank You Generation Z

I work with “younger” people all the time. My interaction with them comes from work as a business coach / consultant, being involved with several entrepreneurial development programs and in doing interviews for a regional business show I host called Tec Bridge Radio, www.tecbridgepa.org.

Why did I title this article “Thank You Generation Z?”. First reason is, I read a great article in Time Magazine (December 25, 2017 / January 1, 2018 edition) by Katy Steinmetz. Some of the comments were that Gen Z – individuals now in their teens and early 20s – have “grown up during mass disruption” and “now they are entering adulthood with a willingness to experiment.” The article also stated, according to a survey that was part of the research for the article, that 78% of Gen Z-ers say getting a four-year degree no longer makes economic sense, and hundreds of programs, from apprenticeships to boot camps, have cropped up to offer an alternative path.”

Is this good or bad for business in the U.S. around the world? That depends on what we learned from the past and what we do today.

If most of us feel a moral imperative to do what is best for our (all of us on the planet) well-being, in the long run, then everything will be OK! What I mean is, if we can at least spend SOME time on what is healthy for someone other than ourselves and if we are willing to listen to all points of view – and maybe Gen Z and Gen Y are the most important voices to listen to, we can act today to help create healthy people, healthy communities, and healthy businesses.

WE created the disruption, WE created the environment where Gen Zers want to experiment, and WE created the environment that has Gen Zers and many others questioning the value of a four-year college degree. Therefore, WE can be pro-active in our approach to the future.

Some thoughts. Read a hard cover book. Read and listen to different points of view on all topics – especially political topics since they tend to deal with immediate gratification (pleasing constituents NOW, instead of a healthy future). Spend time with your children and grandchildren so you can positively impact their view of their surroundings, and finally CARE about the world the Gen Zers are building – we will be living in it!

FOR BUSINESS OWNERS: get 5 people under 25 and 5 people over 40 in a room together. Have them sit across the table from each other. Then ask them, one at a time “what’s going on in the world today?” Have no specific agenda, other than conversation. Might be interesting! Let me know how that went!