A recent report of entrepreneurs found that the characteristic they seek most when investing in someone’s venture startup is the ability to sustain an intense effort.
Michelangelo laid on his back for four years painting the Sistine Chapel. Tim Howard had 16 saves during this year’s World Cup match against Belgium. What are you going to produce today, this week, or this year?
During a GovLoop and NextGen online training on Tuesday, Chaeny Emanavin, IT Specialist Bureau of Indian Affairs, offered advice on how to make you, your team, and anyone you interact with more productive. Emanavin condensed his methods into three M’s: Micro, Macro, and MBTI. Read below for more details on his tips, and click here to watch the full webinar.
Micro: Making YOUR time more productive.
1: Set Realistic Targets/Deadlines: Start backwards by starting with your goal. You can work toward the outcome by breaking the process down into small tasks. This way you can make time for each milestone in the project.
2: Achieve Success in Intervals: Momentum is important. If you stop when you’re bored or tired it becomes habit forming. When you achieve little things during a meeting you feel recharged. Even run an errand or play a video game to recharge; just make sure that it’s something you can finish in less than 20 minutes.
3: You Set Your Own Agenda: Don’t let inability to triage issues sap your productivity. Don’t depend on your email to set your priorities for the day. Begin with a list of goals to get done; treat emails like miscellaneous duties unless they’re related to larger tasks.
Macro: Better meetings help everyone’s productivity.
4: No Free Riders: No one is allowed to just sit. Brainwriting is a great tool for introverts. Your team would be given a question or idea such as “How can we improve sales this quarter?” Everyone writes their answer an paper and passes it to the right. The next person then elaborates on the previous answer for about three turns. Now introverts get the same time and ability to provide feedback.
5: No status reports “At the close of the meeting I want the group to _____” This should be answered before any meeting begins. Too often, we hold arbitrary meetings that suck valuable time away from employees. If a status report absolutely needs to be held then have it be under ten minutes.
6: Ask questions: Questions always spur conversation. Be curious about the meeting’s topic and if you’re leading the meeting make sure to facilitate discussion with participation.
MBTI: Focus on PERSONALITY: The way to understand what motivates you is by knowing your personality type.
7: Improve yourself: This isn’t Zoltan’s Love-O-Meter we’re talking about. The MBTI can help understand what motivates you and your colleagues on a day-to-day basis. Take a free Myers-Briggs test here
8: Compliment yourself: Find people whose traits compliment yours. Starters mesh well with finishers. Colleagues often butt heads because their approaches are too similar. Know your flaws so you can find a partner to strengthen them.
9: Manage Stress: When you’re anxious you go to your inferior traits (ie an ENFP may show characteristics of an ISTJ If you can recognize this change it will be easier to bring yourself back to normal.
To view all of Emanavin’s 21 tips, see the full presentation here
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