C-Suite Network™

Menu
Search
Close this search box.

Category: Health and Wellness

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!

Categories
Accounting Best Practices Economics Entrepreneurship Health and Wellness Human Resources Industries Investing Management Marketing News and Politics Skills Taxes Technology Women In Business

Don’t Play With Your Emotions

“Exerting greater control over your emotions will allow you to exercise greater control of your life.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

 When you engage in life, don’t play with your emotions. Anytime you’re unsure of which path you should take, don’t play with your emotions. That doesn’t mean that you should consider options devoid of your emotions, it means, attempt to think of your options without the emotional attachment that might saddle itself to those options.

By eliminating the emotional aspect that might go into your decision-making process, you allow your thought process to be driven by logic. After you’ve assessed a situation from a purely logical perspective, you can test your sense of direction by considering the emotions that might be the co-pilot of your decision.

Sometimes people allow their emotions to lead their actions. They toss logic aside. Allowing your actions to be driven by emotions alone can lead you into dangerous situations; “I don’t know why I did it; I must have been temporarily insane.” Those may be the afterthoughts you have if you don’t control your emotions before delving into a situation.

To maintain greater control of your life and those that surround you, always seek to control your emotions. Don’t play with them! Once you learn to have greater control of your emotions, you’ll have greater control of the environments you engage in. You’ll also find that your emotions serve you better. So, always seek to keep your emotions in check … and everything will be right with the world.

What does this have to do with negotiations?

In every negotiation (you’re always negotiating), emotions dictate how you’ll engage in the negotiation. Thus, your emotions will drive your actions if you don’t curb them. It may not be very easy to control your emotions at times when negotiating, but if the opposing negotiator senses that he can control you by controlling your emotions, he’ll play you like a drum. You’ll dance to any tune he decides to play.

Before entering into a negotiation, know the hot points that may cause you to lose control of your emotions; your hot points are also called triggers. Being aware of the triggers that may provoke different emotional reactions in you, allows you to prepare the demeanor you wish to display, versus one that would hijack your real-time display of emotions. Such displays can cause you to lose control of the negotiation. By not displaying a demeanor the other negotiator expected, you’ll initiate doubt within him about the strategy he’s employing in invoking such triggers to maneuver you.

Suffice it to say, controlling your emotions allows you to have greater control of yourself and the other negotiator, and everyone knows, he who controls the negotiation has a greater chance of controlling the outcome of the negotiation.

 

What are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free 5-minute video on reading body language or to sign up for the “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

Remember, you’re always negotiating.

#HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions #Psychology

Categories
Accounting Best Practices Economics Entrepreneurship Health and Wellness Human Resources Industries Investing Management Marketing News and Politics Skills Taxes Technology Women In Business

Don’t Hurt the Leader’s Position

“A leader is someone that possesses the ability to successfully lead others from the front or the rear. Always know the position of your leader.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

When someone is serving as the leader of your team and you’ve agreed to give them your support, follow their lead; don’t hurt them or your team by engaging in intended or unintended subterfuge.

In the daily activities of everyone’s life, everyone follows someone. Thus, those that you follow have influence by the fact that you anoint them as someone to lead you. You embolden them with that privilege by the fact that you follow their edict/mandate/suggestions. That being the case, don’t undermine the leader by:

  1. Going off-point per a strategy that has been discussed and agreed upon (e.g. going around the leader to gain attention for yourself, etc.)

 

  1. Engaging with outside sources that have not been agreed upon – make sure the leader knows what you’re planning to do

 

  1. Creating ad-hoc strategies when you’re in the midst of interactions with those that are not on your team/group

When you subvert the direction of the lead that you’ve granted to someone, you forgo potential opportunities, and diminish your team’s ability to implement the plan that’s been agreed upon; that can be costly in time and opportunities. You may also be cloaking into darkness the light of opportunities that may have shown themselves to you in the future (i.e. if you prove not to be a team player, no one will want you on their team.)

If you’re going to be a team player, play follow the leader by supporting the person that you’ve chosen to follow. Do so to the degree that such returns are beneficial to you and the team. Once you decide that you no longer wish to engage, inform the leader of your intent and disengage. Don’t just drop out without any communication. If you restrict the flow of communications, you don’t know what potential door(s) you’ll close that might have offered opportunities that could lead you to higher heights.

As long as you’ve decided to follow the leader, don’t hurt her. You’ve made a conscious decision to allow her to lead. So, follow her lead as long as it serves you and her … and everything will be right with the world.

What does this have to do with negotiations?

In a team negotiation environment, the leader of the team can position and pose as any of its members; it doesn’t have to be the person that projects the image of a leader at the negotiation table. Depending on the strategy chosen by the team, the leader may pose as someone that’s in a strategic position for a particular negotiation. He may also be positioned as someone that a senior person on the team can replace once the negotiation has reached a certain point.

The point is, once you have a strategy in place, don’t undermine it by undermining the person that’s the lead for the negotiation. Not only will you be weakening her, you’ll also be weakening your team’s negotiation position and the perspective beneficial outcome of the negotiation for all of you.

 

What are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free 5-minute video on reading body language or to  sign up for the “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

Remember, you’re always negotiating.

#HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #Leadership

Categories
Entrepreneurship Health and Wellness Human Resources Management Women In Business

Distractions Decay. Attention Pays

Everywhere I look there are people staring at their phones – walking down the street and through airports, at restaurants and coffee shops, networking events and family gatherings. I believe we are so distracted that we are losing the ability to connect with each other and our surroundings.

We go through the motions of day-to-day life while failing to invest any real concentrated effort into any of it. We drive from place to place, often not remembering how we got there because we are tuned out, lost in our heads, distracted with technology and suffering from mental fatigue. We finish the workday exhausted while feeling we’ve accomplish nothing of any real value. We participate in conversations and fail to remember more than a quarter of it.

Our society is overlooking what important and failing to honor what matters most. We sacrifice time with our families and friends to answer emails and messages. We give up necessary sleep to check alerts and texts. We lose lives because drivers focus their attention on a screen and not on the road.

When do we say enough?

We do we recognize technology as a tool, not as a life source?

At what point do we commit to changing our habits and realize our distractions decay and attention pays?

I believe when we commit to focusing our attention on what matters most, everything in our lives flourish. Relationships are fed, tasks are completed, profits are boosted, productivity increases and accountability is restored.  When organizational leaders commit to avoiding interruptions in order to engage in a conversation and truly connect with their employees, morale increases and profits soar. When coworkers remove daily distractions, they have time to focus on important tasks and achieve deadlines. When families commit to each other, their relationships grow and their need for superficial technological fulfillment decreases. When we as individuals realize we cannot operate in a 24×7 world and that we require rest and recovery to be our best selves, our productivity improves.

Are you ready to make a change? Are you ready to admit you’re distracted? Are you ready to recognize it’s time to pay attention to what matters most? Join me as I embark on an #AttentionRevolution where we change our habits and behaviors so our distractions no longer decay and our attention pays.