Attention - most scarce resource facing leaders today!

In a world of 24/7 activity where there appears to be very little, if any, time to switch off it’s no wonder that we feel overwhelmed and overloaded with information. We can find out almost anything at the press of a button.

I was recently reading an article from McKinsey claiming the scarce resource leaders have to manage today is their attention. The article goes on to lay out a set of capabilities about how to organise work to allow people to think. If you want to read more you can find the article here:

However, in this blog I’m hoping to provide you with some insight into what you can do to change this. What can you do to take control of your attention and help your team to do the same? 

Training your brain

Being overloaded with information leads to distractedness, confusion and poor decision making. We become paralysed by analysis and endless debate resulting in inefficient and sometimes ‘bad’ decisions and a feeling of standing still or worse being stuck!

Because your attention is fragmented you don’t quite know where to put your focus first. Your brain is flooded with data.

The thing is our brains are not designed to do more than one thing at once. As soon as it becomes overloaded it slows down and uses more of our energy (glucose and oxygen). Prioritising is actually one of the brains most energy hungry processes!

Your best quality thinking lasts for a limited amount of time, which is why at certain times it’s harder to concentrate, or even think straight.

So, how can you organise yourself so that you do your best quality thinking at the right time and deliver better results?

 Managing your attention

Here are my top 5 tips to help you manage your attention and as a consequence your energy.

•   Make a list

As one of my coaches used to say ‘Your brain is a thinking device not a storage device’. If you’re one of those people who prides themselves on being able to remember everything, bear in mind you are using a lot of your brains thinking capacity to do this. If you’ve things ‘to do’ write them down and get them out of your head so you can use your brain for it’s best work: planning, problem solving and communicating.

•   Breathe

Take a long deep breath (or two). Breathe from your diaphragm and loosen your jaw. You can do this as you are walking and if you do you may notice you slow down a little. This is OK! What this action initiates is a kick start for your parasympathetic nervous system. This calms you down and helps you think more clearly. There is a lot more science behind this but this will do for now.

•  Decide when your best thinking time is

I’m a morning person and I know this is when I do my best thinking, so if I have some important thinking to be done this is when I schedule it. Determine what works for you and allocate your meetings that require your best thinking, or attention rich tasks, to these times of the day. An example of this would be anything that requires new concepts or anything you haven’t experienced before - picturing something you haven’t seen before takes a lot more effort from your brain.

I know scheduling these things to your best thinking time isn’t always possible and if you know you’re out of sync you can prepare yourself in a different way.

•  Embed repetitive tasks where you can

Thinking about problems when it relates to things we have experienced before or seen is easy. So if there is anything that you can make a routine – do it! This helps it become ingrained in your brain (and your body) requiring less “thinking capacity”.

•      Remove distractions

Distractions simply add to the information and data in your brain that will send you into overload. You need to become really good at setting boundaries and saying no, or no not now. This may seem harsh, or selfish, and people will get used to it and it is about you operating at your best, so it will be a win/win on all sides in the long run.

Next steps

If you are feeling overwhelmed and know that you are not being as attentive as you know you can be try this out for two or three weeks and let me know how you get on.

If you know, like world class athletes, that additional support helps you become more aware, effective and impactful send me an email to set up a discovery call and we can explore your needs and how I may be able to help you.

"In every day, there are 1,440 minutes. That means we have 1,440 daily opportunities to make a positive impact." 

Les Brown 

4 Keys to managing your energy

How often do you feel there just aren’t enough hours in the day?

Your to do list seems to just keep growing – at home as well as work!

We all have moments and sometimes weeks or months like this and, if you are like me, you work harder thinking that’s the answer. You may well get through it but at what cost?

Tony Schwartz would argue that most of us are chasing the wrong resource – hours in the day rather than our own personal energy. Time is a finite resource where as your energy can be renewed and we can have more flexibility if we learn to manage it well. It is therefore the key to productivity and stamina.

In his report he looks at 4 areas of energy that we can manage:

Physical energy – are you healthy? Are you getting enough sleep, exercise and the right nutrition?

Emotional energy – are you happy? Do you diffuse negative emotions and infuse positive emotions? How do you look at challenges?

Mental energy – how well do you focus on something? Do you set aside specific times in the day to respond to emails and voicemails? Do you manage interruptions and have clear priorities for each day?

Spiritual energy – why are you here? What is your purpose?

Our opportunity is to reflect on our current patterns of work and behaviour and begin to make adjustments.

Are you heading for an energy crisis?

If you want to get a quick ‘heads up’ on how you are doing the following questions are included in the report here, you’ll also get some tips on where to focus.

Body

• I don’t regularly get at least seven to eight hours of sleep, and I often wake up feeling tired.
• I frequently skip breakfast, or I settle for something that isn’t nutritious.
• I don’t work out enough (meaning cardiovascular training at least three times a week and strength training at least once a week).
• I don’t take regular breaks during the day to truly renew and recharge, or I often eat lunch at my desk, if I eat it at all.

Emotions

• I frequently find myself feeling irritable, impatient, or anxious at work, especially when work is demanding.
• I don’t have enough time with my family and loved ones, and when I’m with them, I’m not always really with them.
• I have too little time for the activities that I most deeply enjoy.
• I don’t stop frequently enough to express my appreciation to others or to savour my accomplishments and blessings.

Mind

• I have difficulty focusing on one thing at a time, and I am easily distracted during the day, especially by email.
• I spend much of my day reacting to immediate crises and demands rather than focusing on activities with longer-term value and high leverage.
• I don’t take enough time for reflection, strategising, and creative thinking.
• I work in the evenings or on weekends, and I almost never take an email–free vacation. 

Spirit

• I don’t spend enough time at work doing what I do best and enjoy most.
• There are significant gaps between what I say is most important to me in my life and how I actually allocate my time and energy.
• My decisions at work are more often influenced by external demands than by a strong, clear sense of my own purpose.
• I don’t invest enough time and energy in making a positive difference to others or to the world. 

Next Steps

It’s been a while since I read this report and I’ve found it useful to review it. It’s certainly helped me refocus and identify where things have been a little out of kilter…

What one thing can you do to begin to redress the balance?

Drop me a line to let me know.

‘Manage your energy not your time’

Tony Schwartz

Riding the Waves of Change – 3 Coping Strategies

We all know that change is ever present in our work and daily lives and it may

feel like there is very little restpite between one change piece and another. The more senior you are in an organisation the more frequent the waves occur it’s just the scale that may be different.

The art and skill for us all is how to best manage this ‘ride’ with relative ease.

Sadly, there is no silver bullet. If only……. There is, however, some things we can all do to manage ourselves as we address each day. If you can manage yourself you will be in an even better position to manage what is happening around you.

Here are my top 3 tips:

Breathe

Breathing is something we all take for granted. It happens automatically. However, when we are ‘stressed’ or under pressure it’s one of the first things that will change. It becomes shallower and higher up in our chest.

So, take a deep breath. In fact you may need to take several deep breaths and breath from your diaphragm. This helps you slow down and think a bit more clearly and be more present in the moment.

Observe

Lift your head up. This may sound a little strange, but I see so many people walking around looking at the floor ahead of them, or these days walking a reading their texts! You can’t observe what’s happening around you when you are looking down.

As a leader your role is to set direction and lead people in that direction.

Lifting your head up (literally and metaphorically) allows you to make sure you are heading in the right direction and can also see what is coming your way. Is the sea calm ahead or do you need to prepare for a storm? There may be times when you need to adjust your route and with your head raised you can see which route may be more appropriate.

Observing the landscape will also give you a better handle on how your people are performing:

• Who around you is coping and open to the change? How can you best utilise them?

• Who is the most vulnerable and how are they coping?

• Who is the most emotional and what exactly are they emotional about?Do you have people in the optimum position?

Being a great observer allows you to see what is actually happening and adapt your approach accordingly.

Be Open

When I talk about being open I mean be open on three levels:

1. Have an open mind – be open to others ideas and ways of doing things. Don’t try and predict what will happen next. 
2. Be open about what you think and feel – this may mean you saying that you don’t have an answer, that you’ve made a mistake as well as how motivated, excited or disappointed you might feel. 
3. By open physically – this links to lifting your head, as lifting your head will help you appear more open and approachable. In addition, consider how you are sitting or standing. Are you slouched? If you are, to others you won’t look open to ideas or approachable.  Be grounded and centred and face the direction of travel with confidence. People are more likely to follow you this way. 

Try them out. See how you get on and let me know how they work for you.

"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment."

Buddha

Enjoying Weekdays as much as Weekends?

If your answer to the question is no – read on, you may be able to identify what you can begin to do to change that.

Even if your answer is yes there may be some areas of your life you could enhance to be even better…

I very recently revisited Wellbeing – The Five Essential Elements by Tom Rath and Jim Harter and it spurred me to re visit how I live my life holistically against their 5 elements.

If you have the book and haven’t revisited it for a while I’d encourage you to do so, and if you don’t have the book here is a thumbnail sketch of the key themes.

The Five Essential Elements

Founded on comprehensive research they found there are five interconnected elements that shape our lives and wellbeing:

• Career Wellbeing: how you occupy your time, or liking what you do every day.
• Social Wellbeing: Having strong relations and love in your life.
• Financial Wellbeing: Effectively managing your economic life.
• Physical Wellbeing: Having good health and enough energy to get things done on a daily basis.
• Community Wellbeing: The sense of engagement you have with the area where you live.

They describe wellbeing as:

“the combination of our love for what we do each day, the quality of our relationships, the security of our finances, the vibrancy of our physical health, and he pride we take in what we have contributed to our communities…. It’s about how these five elements interconnect.”

From their research they found 66% of people are doing well in at least one area, only 7% were thriving in all five. I’m not sure if I’m one of the 7% however, my results were pretty good. If you’re interested the website address is: www.wbfinder.com. If you are one of the 7% I’d love to hear from you.

We’re our own worst enemy

We tend to get in our own way of succeeding in all five areas through in the moment decisions like, having the extra portion of food when you know you shouldn’t, deciding not to get up and go to the gym today, spending money on something you don’t really need.

The book is full of hints and tips to improve your life in each area such as:

1. Use your strengths everyday
2. Spend 6 hours a day socialising – this includes work, email and phone communication
3. Spend on others instead of on material possessions
4. Sleep enough to feel well rested (7-8 hours)
5. Opt in to a community group or event

What one thing can you start to do regularly that will improve your wellbeing?

Post your comments below.

“Those who can’t change their minds can’t change anything.”

George Bernard Shaw

Mind Full or Mindful? How present are you in your Leadership?

How often are you actually present?

By this I mean in the moment, 100% here, now both physically and mentally. Simply being present, in your body, immersing myself in the here and now, and suspending any habitual ways of thinking,

• More than 50% of the time?
• Less than 50% of the time?

Being in the moment is more than being there in person. It’s about truly bringing your whole self into the room: mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. It’s about clearing your mind and not being distracted by your own thoughts and stories and being ‘still’.

In this way you are more open to observe any situation from a position of objectivity. To observe feelings and actions being transmitted and picking up on what may not be being transmitted. For me this is about being really centred and grounded so you can truly connect with the person or people you are working with.

It’s about being engaged in the relationship, connecting and then noticing what comes up.

When you are really present you:

1. Are more flexible giving you the ability to ‘ebb and flow’ in the moment. Because   you are not pre-occupied with your own thoughts you are more able to respond (as opposed to react) to what is happening.
2. Are more able to access your own intuition and “trust your gut." Your mind is clear and therefore you are able pay more attention to what is going on in your body and how you feel.
3. Are more open to not knowing and exploring what might be. 
4. See more options to work with those around you and choose, in the moment, what is most effective. 
5. Can shift perspectives and experiment with new possibilities.
6. Will be more confident in working with strong emotions without being    overpowered by other's emotions. 

 But how do you do it?

You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s an intellectual process. It’s not; it’s a physical process. It’s about bringing the whole of you to the room and to the moment – each and every moment.

This requires you to let go of your conscious thought, to be comfortable with not knowing and trusting the wisdom of your whole body.  It also means letting go of all those models that we may hold onto in our head to find a solution or make a decision.

By paying attention to your whole body you are more likely to tap into your intuition. When you are truly present you are able to attune to EVERYTHING that is going on: emotions, mood, physiology, concerns and yearnings of those around you.

Listening to your intuition and ‘inner knowing’ you can choose the moment to act. This may mean taking a risk and shifting the perspective of your audience.

So how do we get good at it?

Mindfulness practices help as they will help you quieten the mind, for example, meditation, yoga, tai chi, relaxing and paying attention to the breath. For those without one of these mindfulness practices I would suggest practicing getting grounded and centred every day. This is how I started and I promise you it works!

I have found practicing the more I practice the easier it gets.

You can practice in many situations and I encourage people to find moments in the day to be really present e.g. walking down the street, on the train or tube, shopping, in the shower, putting your children to bed. There are endless opportunities when you start to think about them.

If being present is a challenge for you give me a call and we can explore this further to determine what action you can take. I believe everyone can do it. It just takes practice.

“There is more to life than increasing its speed.”

Gandhi

Sitting with Stress

It's the start of Summer. A time when most people take some well earned time off to slow down and rest. However, in the modern day we'd be lucky to slow down for a season and not feel the internal bubbling of stress and daily demands. We all know the spacious experience of days that flow as we move from one task to another, and yet other times the pressure lands when jobs are stacked breathlessly.

You may have heard the saying that you should ‘sit silently’ for at least an hour a day, unless you are too busy, in which case you should sit for two. Well the irony of stress is that it does not enjoy considering its antidote. But it is much simpler than we could think.

Whether you're sitting at an office desk, commuting or even standing in a queue what I'd like to offer you here is a simple technique to feel more physical space and hence restore and relax. If you allow five minutes it may feel timeless. Over years of facilitating physical embodiment I notice the most simple techniques can shift a person from doing, to being. My invitation is to read and try - closing your eyes after each instruction - and taking time to feel before opening eyes and progressing to the next. So when you're ready let's start.

With a breath, in or out, form a gentle fist. Notice the touch of your fingers against your palm. 

On another breath, open the fist slowly, fully, and pause to notice the space between your fingers. 

We're going to repeat with simple attention, so again with breath, take time to gently close the fist and feel the sensations of the full journey from open hand to closed fist.

When you next open your hand try a breath through your mouth and notice how your jaw hinge releases a little. 

Try this again, a breath through your mouth while the hand opens and notice your jaw.

Now you know what we're doing, continue to offer you attention, closed eyes if you're comfortable and notice how your opening and closing hand fits with the rhythm of your breath for you. See what changes. 

When you feel complete, I encourage you to stand and take a walk around, with attention to breath and an increased sense of space. 

You'll see for yourself that this exercise can apply to any movement that opens or closes body parts, even say, raising your toes up from the ground while sitting. Simple encouragement to breath is what many stressed bodies are crying out for in our society. So if this exercise is relaxing for you I encourage you to try it through your day. And seeing as it takes only five minutes, not an hour, it really is possible to include double on stressed days.

Leela Fisk is a conscious movement practitioner who teaches Soul Motion™ dance practice to adults and children interested in embodiment practice www.leeladance.com

Overwhelm – What is your capacity?

How often do you feel you are being inundated with ‘stuff’?

How often do you feel you are drowning?

How often are you faced with something that causes a strong emotional effect on you?

These are all moments of overwhelm and the question is not how do you stop them happening but how do you build your capacity to handle them effectively. So take a moment to assess your current level of capacity. What happens to you mentally, physically and emotionally when you are overwhelmed?

If these situations happen everyday then you have a great opportunity to start today to build your capacity. If they don’t happen that often then you have a very well developed capacity or, maybe you are coasting.

It happens to us all at different stages in our life. It may be caused by a new promotion, an increase in responsibility, taking on a new project or committing to something you haven’t done before. When you are faced with it how do you respond? My guess is it’s more of an Oh *@*@! Moment than a WOW this is fabulous! Moment.

Choice

We always have choice. Doing nothing is a choice we make, whether consciously or unconsciously, and often doing nothing is an unconscious choice we make. Until of course we realise it……

Which of these do you do when overwhelmed?

1.    Retreat: This may be you backing off and relinquishing your responsibility, handing it over to someone else. It may involve you not facing reality, in the hope that it will go away. Often this results in the situation just getting ‘bigger’. This may be real or perceived and the resultant situation is one of stress and may involve you working harder and/or longer.

2.    Invest: You decide that the only way to overcome this is to learn more about it – it being the topic you are faced with. It may be that you invest in resource, someone who knows how to deal with this or simply ‘throw bodies at it’. After all there is safety in numbers! You may decide to reorganise the work or streamline things or re prioritise what needs to be done.

3.    Reflect: This is often the most difficult thing to do, to consciously step back from the situation and ask yourself some searching questions:

a.    How did I/we get here?

b.    Does this support my/our longer-term goals?

c.     Is this an invitation for me to personally grow? How do I build my capacity in these situations?

d.    How can I lead this differently?

Opportunities for growth

These situations are always opportunities for personal growth and I know my own initial reaction is – I don’t know anything about this!!!! However, I also know when I stop and reflect I begin to recognise what I do know. I then begin to notice what I can do in the situation and where the real opportunities may be for me to learn, practice and grow.

So where are your opportunities for growth?

“ Play for more than you can afford to lose, and you’ll learn the game.”

Winston Churchill

Time Management for the 21st Century

We’re mortal, our time is limited and there are endless distractions from our true purpose, this is as true now as ever before. On top of this the 21st century offers some new challenges to people interested in what has become known as time management. Distraction is now technologically enhanced, the pace of life has speeded up and more choice than ever does not set us free.

First, let’s clear something up - “time management” is not time management. You, me and the Queen all have 24 hours a day and this can’t be changed, so what then is “managed”?

Energy Management and Perspective

The limited resource is not so much time but how much energy we have to do what we need to do. This is not some magic and abstract notion of “energy” but one dictated by our physical, social and spiritual health. Physically we need to  exercise and rest, eat well and not take-on too many toxins (including caffeine and alcohol), socially we need play, touch and support and spiritually we need to stay connected to the bigger purpose of what we are doing and who we are serving. If this last one sounds irrelevant think of the Mandela or Gandhi’s of this world - they did not have a problem getting up early for their work. Breaking projects down into small enough actionable items to avoid procrastination is also vital. To “feel like” doing things we have to know what the concrete next steps are.

Attention Management

We live in attention and intention deficit times and having trained these things - though meditation for example - is a huge help. The environment we are in, and create online is also responsible for the amount of distraction we have. Is the internet always on? Does every new e-mail “pop-up” and make a sound? Where are you icons placed? This is how we set-up our “choice architecture” making some decisions - e.g. to go on Facebook or not - easier or harder. Addiction and self-honesty is an issue here too as people fool themselves they need to check their e-nail 50 times a day for example, but really they are just “scratching an itch”.

Forgetting and Reminders

One of the great benefits of the modern age is that we can set intrusive electronic inputs (e.g. I phone alarms or Outlook) to remind us to do something. Assume you will forget everything and outsource your memory into trusted systems.

Commitment Management

You are as busy as what you have said yes to. When I work with people with “time management” issues and get to know them I inevitably find the problem is that they have a embodied and socially conditioned tendency to undermine themselves and this is the route of the problem. Commonly they find it hard to say no or ask for help for example so they are overwhelmed and all the lists and cool apps won’t help. Time management is really the art of self leadership and impeccable coordination with others.

On Systems, Flow and Personality

A lot of time management in the past has focused on rigid systems and planning and can not respond to either the ever changing nature of modern work of the reality of the organic, spontaneous human being. Whatever system you use - and I recommend having some kind of system - it must take these two factors into account. If you are able to work with what is most alive in you a lot can be accomplished in a short space of time. There are also personality differences here (e.g. “J” and “P” on MBTI) and half the population need more structure and the other half sometimes need less. It’s all about balance.

Tips for 21st Century “Time Management”

So given the above what can we do?

-  Take care of the basics of well-being - you can’t cheat this fundamental system

-  Stay inspired by keeping the big picture of what you are doing to mind and heart and break things down to make them easily doable

-  Manage your “choice architecture” on your computer - e.g. removing the “red blob of doom” on Outlook which says how many e-nail you have (and invites you to keep checking them rather than doing this in more efficient batches).

-  Meditate to train your attention

-  Set electronic reminder nudges

-  Watch what commitments you make and be impeccable with your word

-  Have a system AND go with the flow

  

Mark Walsh leads business training providers Integration Training - based in Brighton, London and Birmingham UK. Specialising in working with emotions, the body and spirituality at work they help organisations get more done without going insane (stress and time management), coordinate action more effectively (team building and communication training) and help leaders build impact, influence and presence (leadership training). Clients include Unilever, The Sierra Leonian Army and the University of Sussex. He is the most followed trainer on Twitter and Youtube and has the Google no.2 ranked management training blog. Offline, Mark dances, meditates and practices martial arts. His ambition is to help make it OK to be a human being at work.