Each day, about 39.7 billion person-to-person e-mails & 40.5 billion pieces of spam (un-solicited commercial emails) are sent worldwide. The average white-collar worker in Australia receives around 150 emails a day!  What’s even scarier is that taking into account most people check their emails at least 9 times a day, and that it takes us 4 minutes to re-focus our mind on on a task after being distracted by email, then on average we are losing over half an hour every day through this one habit alone!

My productivity tip for you this week – DECLARE EMAIL FREE FRIDAYS. On Fridays, make it a rule that you simply pick up the phone or walk across the corridor to your colleague’s office and meet with them face to face.  Not only will you have more time to focus and problem solve for your clients you will also increase the quality of your connections and build more trust and intimacy in your working relationships.  Imagine what would happen if everyone in your team or organisation implemented this single idea!

Lastly, if you don’t have a system to manage your emails and would like to, or the thought of deleting your entire inbox and starting again terrifies you, give us a call for a Free Spark Assessment.  Email overload is a curable disorder

Cheering you on to greater productivity & performance

Kendra

I was contemplating this quote in relation to my own troubled marriage recently and had a profound insight.

Our character is who we are behind closed doors when no-one is watching, while our personality is simply how we generate ourselves to the world around us.  I have come to realise that within this difference lies the secret to a long lasting and loving relationship.

When my husband and I met we were two very different people to who we are today. I met a self confident and cheeky man just back from a 6 month yachting adventure & he met a vivacious, slightly naive country girl excited to be moving to the Big Smoke.  We wooed each other with travel stories & shared interests and when I (the abandoned only child) discovered the easygoing & fun-loving father to three gorgeous picture perfect children I was gone – hook line and sinker.

Now we did better than most with 10 years of marital blended family bliss before the cracks began to appear.  Looking back I can see that these cracks were our ‘inner selves’ emerging from hyper-sleep, bit by bit as our comfort grew.  When we finally stood naked in the harsh light of day we met one another’s characters for the first time.  Those aspects of ourselves that we didn’t like and had unconsciously locked away for fear of rejection.  Not only were we meeting one another for the first time we were also meeting ourselves for the first time – as adults.  Dishonesty, selfishness, jealousy and resentment are just a few of the qualities that showed up for us to examine and accept.

The reason I think many people fail in their marriage is not that they don’t love their spouse, its that they don’t love themselves.  While everyone else in their life is like a mirror that reflects their personality, their spouse is the mirror that reflects their character – in all it’s imperfection.  Some people just don’t like what they see and often choose to leave the relationship or be with someone else rather than allowing, loving and being with their whole self.

If the unexamined life is not worth living than the unaccepted self is not worth loving.  The secret to a lasting marriage- embrace your character and celebrate it with your spouse, for only then will you feel you are worth loving.

Cheering you on to a life time of happiness

Kendra

My question to you is; how could you embrace the qualities of the dragon this year?  I myself intend to love, live and lead as fearlessly as a dragon in 2012.  To become an authority on the neuroscience and biology of wholehearted living.  What is your intention for the year ahead?

Remember that everything in life happens twice; first as a thought and then as a reality.  When you fail to set an intention you open the door to fear and stagnation.  Creating a powerful intention focuses all of your energy on a single point which influences the very nature of every activity you undertake.  You will send out a clear pulse that attracts experiences, opportunities and connections that are in alignment with who you are and what you want to achieve.

In order to create a powerful intention follow these 3 simple steps;

Step 1:  Connect to your heart energy.

Step 2:  Clarify your focus point by creating a specific and succinct statement e.g. I will become an action taker, I will master my finances, I will speak my truth…

Step 3:  Commit your intention to paper and speak it often.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Kendra

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Remember this the next time your partner thoughtlessly does something that pisses you off.  Instead of engaging your inner critic, stop and choose to refocus your attention on something else that exists in the present moment, for just 10 seconds e.g. the colour of their eyes, the air flowing into your nostrils the various sounds you can hear around you.  This will move you into a state of ‘direct experience’ and disentangle you from the narrative allowing you to choose your response rather than react habitually. Practicing this mindfulness technique before you need it will support you to develop the discipline of veto power.

One thing to note is that using your minds braking system requires a lot of energy and resources (glucose and oxygen).  If you are tired, hungry or unwell your capacity will be dramatically reduced.  Ensuring you take care of your work life balance is essential for effective thinking.
To your success

Kendra

Great advice from a great man! But where do we start? I would suggest the perfect place to begin is to spend some time bringing your vision to life.  One way you can do this is the ‘letter from the future’ exercise.

Step One: Imagine your future self writing a letter to you and describing in vivid detail where they are now and the journey that was. Pour as much detail and sensory expression as possible into this letter. Describe how you changed as a person, the winning strategies you used, the team that assembled and how you have impacted the lives of others & the environment.  Allow yourself to truly ‘dream big’.

The key to ensuring this exercise is powerful is to set aside a generous block of time (I recommend at least 2 hours) and to complete it at a location that inspires you.

Step two (for the bold and the impatient): share your vision with as many people as possible. It is not until we speak our vision and inspire others that it becomes tangible and lives in the real world. Unspoken it remains simply a dream.

Your wing woman

Kendra

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SEE CLEARLY, THINK DIFFERENTLY & ACT DECISIVELY!

I often get asked to give colleagues & business owners feedback on their presentations.  Over the years I have observed 3 common areas for development amongst the majority presenters, even experienced presenters.

1)  Overuse of power-point: If you must use a power-point, please include no more than 3 points on each slide.  Consider combining pictures, sound and symbols as a way to engage with your audience and bring what you are speaking about to life (rather than to inform you what you are speaking about next).  There is nothing that puts an audience to sleep faster than a stack of words on a slide being read out to them – “death by powerpoint”.

2)  Not beginning a presentation from the centre of the room & re-connecting with your audience: By holding the silence for a few seconds first, you immediately send the message that you are in control of the room and an authority on your topic.  How you start is critical in determining how your audience will listen to you.

You will notice that I said ‘reconnecting’ and not ‘connecting’.  This is because prior to being at the front of the room, you should take the time to meet as many of your listeners as possible.  Consider making yourself available to welcome each person as they arrive, introducing yourself and shaking their hand.  By the time they see you centre stage, they have already formed a relationship with you.

3)  Not finishing a presentation with a clear call to action:  People need to know what to do with the information you have just given them & how they can get more.  Not finishing with a specific call to action robs your audience of the integration of the information you have just shared with them.

If you would like to polish your presentation skills or learn how to WOW an audience, we run a one day master class in Sydney 3 times a year.  The next one is on Thursday 8th of December.  Please contact us for more details.

Cheering you on

Kendra

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It seems it certainly helps to be the first born or only child in your family. Numerous studies have found that first born children & only children are extremely over represented amongst British and Australian Prime Ministers, American Presidents & world leaders e.g. Oprah, Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods & Winston Churchill. This suggests that sole parental attention & shouldering the weight of high expectations plays a large part in the creation of leadership traits. Interestingly, world class comedians are far more likely to be last born children e.g. Jim Carrey, Billy Crystal, Steve Martin, Cameron Diaz and Rosie O’Donnell.

Have you ever noticed that when someone else yawns, you yawn too? It seems imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery. A study published in 2007 by William Maddux saw dozens of MBA students paired together and given the roles of interviewing employer and job candidate & their task was to negotiate employment contracts. Half the candidates were told to mimic their employer’s mannerisms. The effects of mimicry were most impressive. Students who mimicked achieved far more of their negotiation targets and were rated more trustworthy & influential than average people.

We are all mimics naturally. To be in rapport with another person means that you have triggered for them the unconscious recognition of similarity; this person’s like me. Our brains are hardwired to seek to connect with members of our own or similar tribes. We receive a positive chemical boost of oxytocin (the key ingredient in the date rape drug) from your brain every time you achieve ‘rapport’ with another human being.

A word of caution, please take care if testing this out to make sure that the other person does not detect what you are doing. Perhaps leave a delay of a few seconds before adopting postural changes and begin with matching breathing rate which is far less overt (and faster impacting).

Cheering you on

Kendra

You don’t know everything! Now I may be stating the obvious here, but it is amazing how many business owners, managers & executives I come across that have forgotten this fact. Is it because they are so use to doing everything on their own that their perceived sense of control is limiting their thinking and preventing them from even asking for help?

The most successful & influential people in the world; Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki, Richard Branson & Eckhart Tolle all have a key strategy in common; they have all enlisted the guidance and support of a coach or mentor – many in fact. They set out to learn as much as they could from each person and feverishly sought to continue to grow and learn even more. Their key to success; they simply mastered the art & discipline of personal growth.

I believe to truly reach our potential in business & life we need to adopt an attitude of curiosity. The willingness to seek to extract the juice from the resources we have available such as; books, seminars and conversations with those that are further ahead in their journey’s. To simply listen, challenge our own limited thinking and follow through by applying some of what we learn. It is this final step that the majority neglects. They are inspired to acquire the knowledge but then don’t actually put it into action. The reason; lack of accountability. This is where external support will make all the difference.

Consider that very few successful businesses operate exactly the same way they did 5 years ago. Why would people be any different?

Cheering you on

Kendra

It seems our brains are wired to hit the ‘pause’ button before they will create magic of their own. Research now tells us that unless we are able to create the quiet conditions necessary it is virtually impossible for our brain to generate an insight and for us to experience an ‘ah ha’ moment.

Four things need to be present in order for your brain to connect previously unrelated circuits: a quietening of overall brain activity, a slightly positive emotional state, an internal focus and to not actually be focusing on a problem. Your brain prefers to resolve disconnects in a non-linear way, which is completely the opposite to the way we work most of the time. It suddenly dawned on me why I think of my best ideas in the shower & feel like I learn more on the days I exercise! It seems that we could learn a thing or two from those day dreamers that our teachers told; ‘would never amount to anything‘.

Happy mind wandering

Kendra

Strengths
Attention to detail
Broad business knowledge/expertise
Results driven/focused

Areas for development
Time management
Inability to delegate
Difficulty managing people

I then ask them to explore the relationship between these two lists and tell me what they see.  Usually, they will stare at the page for a few moments and then ask me to explain.  Rarely will they notice that their weaknesses are actually the mirror image of their strengths.  Essentially they are flip sides of the same coin.

All behaviours have a positive intention, even those that we perceive as weaknesses.  For example the habit of avoidance actually highlights the core strength of personal resilience, which is typically an area most high achievers struggle to manage effectively.  I meet a lot of managers who having received praise and recognition in the past, have continued to rely on and further hone key strengths to the point where they become out of balance and create a flaw. Unfortunately, this can completely derail a career and cause doubt and confusion.

Personal awareness, reappraisal and balanced intention are essential skills for leaders to explore in order to achieve their personal best.

Cheering you on,
Kendra