How often do you step outside your comfort zone?
On the radio this week the DJs were discussing music they didn’t like. They all agreed to step outside of their comfort zones and give the music they didn’t like a try. They listened to a few tracks on air and decided whether or not they like it.
It made me think – how often do I step outside my comfort zone?
When I think of ‘stepping outside your comfort zone’ I usually imagine exhilarating challenges such as bungee jumping, white water rafting or confronting phobias – arachnophobes having spiders put on them for example. The type of experiences that really make you ‘feel the fear’ – and the sort of things that I’ve never done. These are often seen as positive, life affirming experiences once someone has done them, but how much do they really learn from them?
When we experience extreme stress or panic our rational thought processes are overridden by the adrenaline being pumped around our body. This affects decision making which means that although we feel exhilarated doing scary things we are unlikely to learn much from it.
Stepping outside your comfort zone does not have to be scary. It can be as simple as listening to music you wouldn’t normally listen to. The DJs tried to forget their feelings about the music and approach it with an open mind. Even if afterwards they still did not like the music, they experienced something they never normally would have – and they now KNEW they didn’t like it rather than thinking they didn’t.
I find I do this a lot. I like to challenge how I think and feel – so I’ll watch a type of film or read a book that I wouldn’t normally like. It means I learn about something and sometimes my preconceived opinions completely change. It may not be as exciting as abseiling down the side of a mountain, but it is just as effective for personal development.
What do you do to step outside your comfort zone?
By Emma Webb
Bad Language
I recently read a blog about how we need to eliminate Twitterspeak and other forms of butchering the English language from our lexicon. Ok yes it’s true that these terms are often silly, hard to understand and often just plain annoying, but I don’t agree that they need to be eliminated altogether.
The worry is that we are destroying our language, dumbing it down, making it unintelligible – and making ourselves look stupid for using it. And it’s true that telling the CEO of the company that his new idea is ‘totes amazeballs’ is never going to go down well (unless he happens to have a REALLY good sense of humour).
But languages constantly evolve and I think terms like the ones in Mashable’s list although sometimes ridiculous, show the creativity and humour in language. And in the right context using completely new, colourful and funny language can be very effective. For example humour and a relaxed attitude to language can brighten up dull presentations and make them much more memorable – and personal. I often found the university lectures that were the most engaging and memorable were the ones in which the lecturers didn’t just read out notes written in proper English, but who improvised, used the language as they would do talking normally and who used humour.
The trick to making it really effective is to choose your language to suit the audience. It’s about reading and understanding people and the best way to communicate with them. There is a lot of research into how mirroring someone’s actions makes them more relaxed and willing to open up, and the same can be said for mirroring the way someone talks to you.
It is not about being weak or easily influenced. It’s about being flexible and willing to evolve just as language itself evolves. And this is something that applies to all aspects of leadership – not just communication. A part of being a great leader is being able to take on ideas from other people, and constantly learn and update your ways of thinking.
I often come across the view that our language is being destroyed, and that modern technology and mass media are dumbing people down. Personally I think language is more creative, interesting and humorous than it’s ever been. So whilst we need to make sure we hold onto the quality and heritage of our language we should also embrace the change and use it to our advantage.
By Emma Webb
We Need a Clean Off Your Desk Day
I recently discovered that America has a ‘National clean off your desk day’ which is the second Monday of the year. As national holidays go it is one of the more obscure ones but I think it should be more widely celebrated!
A while ago we attempted a filing day in the Farscape office – which quickly turned into half a day after all the other more urgent tasks were completed. Ever since my desk has been more cluttered than when I started with filing and shredding piles that I know I won’t have the time to tackle again for ages.
You know what they say – ‘Tidy desk, tidy mind’ and in my experience it is true. Looking at the clutter is distracting and I start thinking about tidying it away, or fiddling with things rather than focusing on the task at hand. And when I had particularly difficult uni assignments I would only be able to concentrate properly if my desk, and in fact whole room, were completely tidy.
Of course not everyone works the same. Some people like clutter, or perhaps are able to focus despite it. But even if it has nothing to do with concentration a tidy and well organised work space will at least increase efficiency. Last year on ‘Clean Off Your Desk Day’ the LA Times reported that office workers lose a week every year looking for equipment and documents.
But with increasing workloads tasks such as tidying take a back seat. Where do you find the time?
A day where everyone gets to down tools, forget about the normal workloads and focus purely on tidying and organising their work area is something much needed. Not only would we all become much more productive, it could also have huge impact on mental attitudes. Perhaps I’d better go and clean my desk!
By Emma Webb
Setting Myself Up For Failure
I love making New Year’s resolutions – mainly because I enjoy making lists and then getting to cross things off them.
Here are SOME of the things I have said I would do this year:
1. Move home
2. Join a gym
3. Have ice skating lessons (I blame Dancing on Ice for this one)
4. Have climbing lessons
5. Attend a woodwork workshop
6. Have piano lessons (Buy a piano first)
7. Teach myself to play guitar
8. Read the huge pile of books I started at university and never finished
9. Snack less at my desk
10. Make more effort to see the friends I have not seen in years…
Believe it or not the list goes on! And it includes things I said I would do last year but didn’t get round to doing.
Realistically I know I will not have the time, will power (or money) to do all of it. So why add it to the list? It seems I am setting myself up for failure.
It’s something I have found myself doing in work too. My to-do list will be full of the things I would like to get done that day, but realistically I don’t know where I will find the time, so inevitably some things always get pushed back. So I rarely leave work feeling completely satisfied with what I have achieved that day.
It is important to be realistic and honest when setting yourself goals. Rather than adding things to an already full list, thinking you will find the time to do it somewhere, carefully consider how long all the other tasks will take. If it’s not urgent then plan it for another day – and therefore avoid disappointment. And be honest with yourself about the tasks you want to do. There will always be tasks that need completing that you don’t enjoy, but if it’s something you really enjoy you are likely to complete it quicker – and to a better standard. Equally don’t just do the things you enjoy – the tasks that you don’t like are also important!
So I am making sure I stop setting myself up for failure and cutting out the things I know I won’t complete. I think I’ll start with cutting out ‘snack less at my desk’… not too worried about that one!
By Emma Webb
Spread Some Christmas Cheer
Christmas is only a couple of days away and for the first time in 8 years I don’t have to worry about working either side of it. I can fully relax and enjoy myself – and have as much wine with my turkey as I please! I am determined to make this one of the best Christmases I have had in a long time.
The problem is, not everyone shares my positive attitude.
This year has seen its fair amount of stress – there’s the fear of a double-dip recession, the Eurozone debt crisis and record numbers of job cuts and unemployment. TV seems gloomy this year with programmes like a ‘Grumpy Guide to Christmas’ to remind us all of everything we dislike about the holidays. And then there’s the fact that my family just aren’t really ‘in’ to
Christmas and don’t seem to want to enjoy it at all. It’s easy to let it all get you down.
The important thing is to choose your attitude. Negative attitudes have a way of passing on to everyone else in a group, creating a spiral of bad feeling. This often leads to conflict (especially common as families get together at this time!). But positive feeling is also contagious. No matter how bad my day has been, if I come home to a friendly and relaxed atmosphere my mood immediately lifts.
And sometimes it just takes one person to change the whole atmosphere.
So this Christmas – even if everyone else isn’t – choose to be merry! You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to spread some festive cheer.
By Emma Webb
Don’t Let Your Strengths Become Weaknesses
I have learnt something very important about myself this week. I don’t ask for help enough.
I was given a project to work on recently and after reading the information I’d been given I felt that, although I was a little unclear about what I needed to do, I had enough of an understanding to be able to give it a go. I decided rather than burdening people with endless questions I could research the bits I didn’t understand when I got to them.
It meant that I spent a lot of time researching and trying to get my head around it before realising that I actually had no clearer idea about what I needed to do and the deadline was fast approaching! So I finally asked for help. And after a 30 second chat in which the task was explained in a slightly different way, all the pieces fell into place in my mind and the weight that had been on my shoulders for days miraculously lifted. If only I had asked sooner!
We use a communication tool called the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) in a lot of our courses. And this is what is referred to by the SDI as an ‘overdone strength’. It is where our greatest strengths become our greatest weaknesses. The fact that I am willing to take learning into my own hands and try to solve a problem before relying on others is, I think, a great strength to have. However, I realise now that time constraints mean I can’t always research something as much as I need to. And that by thinking critically about the information I have and considering whether I need to have it explained to me in a different way, I can dramatically speed things up.
Basically I need to recognise when to ask for help.
So what are your overdone strengths? And what can you do to resolve them?
By Emma Webb
The Place of Technology in L&D
New reports show that the automotive sector is increasing its spending on new learning and development technologies, embracing mobile learning, virtual classrooms and social media. It raises a question for me – how effective can technology be when it comes to building high performance in companies?
Now don’t get me wrong; I am in no way a technophobe. I can certainly see the advantages of holding virtual classroom sessions when communicating across remote teams, or using social media to connect to a huge amount of people you would never normally have time to speak to in person. And having information streamed directly to your mobile can make learning instantaneous and fit completely around your lifestyle.
But I worry that the easier it becomes to communicate through technology, the less people will feel the need to connect face-to-face. The media reports an increase in divorce rates because people are disappearing off into virtual worlds and developing relationships with people’s online personalities. Because online you can be anyone you want to be. One of my friends even refused to leave his computer for a night out because he didn’t believe that he could meet anyone as appealing as those perfect images online. It seems relying solely on technology to communicate can create a distance from the real world, and even a fear of engaging in it.
But of course it is in the real world, not the virtual, that we have to function. To manage a team, leaders need to be able to effectively communicate with their people. And it is much easier to build relationships and the trust needed to be a great leader by spending time with people and really getting to know them. Through sharing experiences you learn how to read people and understand how they react to situations, helping leaders to lead much more effectively. And this sort of knowledge can only be gained through the personal approach, not through technology.
By Emma Webb
Two Ways To Think More Critically
It can be so easy to get consumed by ever increasing workloads that often the quickest and easiest way to cope is to follow the orders you are given without thinking critically about the task at hand. How often do we challenge the process?
I usually expect ideas to just come to me. I will get on with the job as I have been told to do it and hope that fresh ideas on making the process better will just formulate in my head. And sometimes it works. Understanding the system already in place allows me to then build on it. But as I get busier and have a lot more to think about the ideas stop coming. There is just no room in my head to formulate new ideas!
So I have discovered two things that seem to make me think a lot more critically:
- Not having too much information – I was struck recently in a meeting by how differently everybody interpreted the questions in the meeting agenda. Enough information was given to get everybody thinking about the right topics – but that was it. And it led to a lot of new ideas. It is important not to lead people into all coming to your conclusion, but to allow them to formulate ones of their own.
- Making time – I used to be dubious about setting time aside to think critically and creatively. Surely it’s something that just comes to you? It cannot be forced? Well it turns out it can! Whether it’s 1 minute after a phone call to review how it could have gone better, or an hour to prepare for a meeting in which I know I want to come up with some good ideas – if I set the time aside I will always come up with something better than if I don’t.
Simple I know, but these are two things that make a huge difference to me! What ideas do you have about how to think more critically?
By Emma Webb
Eating My Frog
‘I’m going to eat the frog’ is a phrase that has been used a lot in our office this week. It was a concept mentioned in passing by my manager and it has really caught on. And that because it’s a simple but brilliant idea!
Mark Twain said “Eat a live frog in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day”. This idea was picked up on by Learning and Development guru Brian Tracy in his book Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time. The ‘frog’ is your biggest, most important task and the one the one you are most likely to put off. It is also the one which will have ‘greatest positive impact on your life’. In order to be more productive and more successful these should be the first tasks you do each day.
Of course that’s easier said than done. My ‘frog’ is phones. I don’t like them. I’ve never enjoyed using them – you can’t see the person you are talking to, can’t read their body language and pick up on positive or negative signals. And there’s the issue of poor lines, not being able to hear probably and missing important information. So I put any phone-based tasks off – usually justifying it with ‘Well it’s early, I’ll let them get settled first’; then ‘Oh its lunch, I doubt they are at their desk’ and finally ‘Ah it’s too late now, they’ve probably gone home’. It’s so easy to put things off. But I know that overcoming this will have a massive impact on my career development.
So I am giving it a go – eating my frog. And the (few) times I’ve tried it I have noticed what a positive impact it has on my day – and to how I view the task. Getting it done straight away means I cannot build it up into an issue. Now the trick is to do it consistently…
By Emma Webb
Reduce Stress – Communicate!
The CIPD has reported that 42% of staff in the UK are under ‘excessive pressure’. As companies face job cuts or are unable to take on more people, extra workload falls to the remaining employees. And in some cases they are being pushed to breaking point.
Take, for example, my mum. Working in a very busy office for the NHS she goes home every night extremely tired and stressed. As paperwork gets dumped on her desk she worries she will never get through all of it. The work is piling up and lack of funds means they cannot take on anyone new to relieve the pressure. But most of her frustration comes from lack of communication. Line managers are often not available or too busy to listen to problems. Work relationships are strained as the stress makes everyone irritable so they end up ignoring each other; making it impossible to delegate tasks. And if they do organise meetings to discuss how to better the situation, they rarely end up talking about how to move forward but go over old issues. Nothing improves this way.
Effective communication can significantly decrease stress levels – after all, you know what they say about a problem shared! I find that as I take on more work a really simple tool for keeping me focused and productive (and not running around like a headless chicken) is to tell someone the one thing I need to achieve that week. Saying it aloud means I am more likely to do it – mostly so I don’t look a fool. And it is something that can be used in meetings. If everyone knows what they need to achieve, and who will be doing it, then it is easier to delegate tasks, easier to know who to ask about specific problems and everyone will be much more productive.
Obviously this will not cure the problems in organisations where people are overloaded or understaffed; however by encouraging a culture of openness, work life can be made much more bearable.
By Emma Webb
