Change the question about your performance. August 24, 2006
From:
“Am I good?”
to:
“What am I good at?”
Or in other words, focus on your strengths.
Technorati Tags: Change, Leadership, Learning, Productivity, Psychology, Training
Tips for remembering names July 12, 2006
43 folders has a few methods on how to remember names. Here is another…
This one involves engaging all of your main representational systems (visual, auditory and kinaesthetic) to ensure that if you forget one part, the other 2 will help you remember.
The method is very simple to describe, yet challenging to get right consistently at the start. This is mainly due to being a conscious habit in the beginning, and takes some effort to remember to perform it.
The technique is this: When you meet someone new, write their name on their forehead. Yeah, that sounds a little strange, and may offend some people when you pull out your permanent marker and start signing their name on their forehead.
But there are a few points. No need to pull out a pen, the important kinaesthetic part of the process is to, using small muscle movement, write out their name. This can be done with your hand in your pocket, or as you reach to shake their hand.
As you make those subtle movements, imagine the writing you make with your hand appear on the forehead. At the same time, either state their name to yourself again, or even better hear them saying their name.
This links everything together quite nicely. It links their face to their name, their voice to their name, their written name to their face, and various other combinations. Use it – let me know your results!
Technorati Tags: Business, Communication, Learning, Persuasion, Presenting, Psychology
Two tips that will improve your Memory June 4, 2006
Boosting your memory has many benefits: you improve your ability to respond to problems, are perceived as smarter by others, and get more done in less time. Not to mention never again being embarrassed by forgetting someone’s name, or even your mothers birthday. When I teach someone how to improve their memory, I work on a dual method approach. First I give you a drill to boost your overall memory and recall, and secondly a new memory strategy that automates recall of important events.
The drill is to be done every day. It takes no more than a few minutes when you start, and less than a minute as you get better at it. It will directly improve your memory, even through you may not think it will. If you want to improve your recall, I know of no other exercise or method that will work as well as this. If you happen to know of another that does work as well, or better, please let me know!
The drill is simply this: Remember something you did yesterday. Now remember the thing you did immediately before that thing. Repeat this four or five more times, each time remembering the thing immediately before. Once you’ve done that for yesterday, do the same process for the day before yesterday, then three days before, then four. Do this at least once a day, more if you are so inclined, and you’ll directly boost your memory.
Next is a strategy designed to improve memory of random events. Things like picking up milk on the way home and calling someone at a specific time. It can even be used to improve recall of someone’s name, but I know of a few better ones.
The strategy requires you to imagine the future event where you need to recall something in as much detail as possible. But not the event where you remember what you need to, but the events immediately before.
So, if I’m going to pick up some milk after getting off the train on the way home, I imagine my trip home at the specific part where I need to change my direction to get the milk. I then imagine myself turning right, instead of left, and going to get milk. That’s all there is to it. You’ve now created a hook to hang the memory on. This hook will wait for you in the future, and remind you at the right time.
There is a limitation with this method though. If I don’t reach that imagined event, say I catch a cab home instead of the train, then I won’t run into the hook, and this method won’t help me remember to get milk (though I might remember using a different strategy).
When you start using this method, it might take you 20 seconds or more to set up. With practice you can do it in under a second.
Technorati Tags: Brain, Learning, Productivity, Psychology
Do you know who has delegated your business? May 5, 2006
In a marriage, taking the stereotypical view, the husband mows the lawn and the wife does the cooking. While this specific example does not always hold true, I’m confident that those two jobs are tasked to a specific individual most of the time. Both jobs need to be done. Maybe the wife does both jobs, maybe the husband does both, maybe even the wife calls someone every two weeks to get the lawn mowed.
If you are married or in a long term relationship you will know this. If you are living alone, you need to do everything yourself. Once you share with a partner, you automatically begin to split the jobs. You might like to cook, but hate washing up. Maybe, in a few rare cases, you sat down with a pen and paper and actively split these jobs up. Most of the time you just fall into the stereotype.
Most of the time, we don’t really notice (habits are great things). Not until the other party leaves for a while or the relationship breaks up. Suddenly the pile of dirty dishes clogs the sink, clutters the bench, and begins to attract insects. It’s at those times we suddenly have twice the work, and only 1/2 the requisite skill.
What does this have to do with business? Nothing.
It does prime the pump because this behaviour happens in business – and if you think about it is exactly what business does; Delegate jobs.
So the jobs you do during your day – were they chosen for you, by you, or are you just following the stereotype?
Within in each marrige, relationship and business there is usually a hidden delegator. There are times when the delegators in business make themselves known. Here is a hint: When you run into difficulty and don’t know who can help, where do you go for help?
Technorati Tags: Brain, Business, CEO, Psychology
Social conditioning binding March 25, 2006
Steve Paulina has an interesting write-up about how you can get many benefits in your life by expanding your perspective.
You can read it here.
Interestingly, he does not talk about changing your perspective. Usually the most useful and powerful method to help you sell more, get you out of a depressed state, understand someone else’s motives, relieve stress, reduce performance anxiety, learn new skills and much much more.
I’m working on a nice write up of how to actually change your perspective in a useful and effective way. I’ll put a link up here once it’s finished…
Technorati Tags: Brain, Persuasion, Presenting, Psychology, Stress
Cortext March 17, 2006
The content is Cortex, brain food of your brain. An online journal examining the nervous system and behaviour.
Technorati Tags: Psychology, Brain
Sing the harvard tune March 13, 2006
It is either the easiest course at Harvard, or the most difficult.
The Boston.com News talks about the most popular course at Harvard this semester. The course is about The Psychology of Happiness. I heartily agree with the idea and content, though it is way too late.
Let me explain. If I want to teach a new skier how to ski a black run, I start on a flat piece of snow and build up, not at the top of the black run. Being taught these things will help those that take the class and learn from it, and yet they are already in the box they hope to avoid.
A little while ago I coached a sales manager deal with the stress of his job. He has been in sales for about 25 years, the last 10 as a top level sales manager. The process took some time as we taught him many methods that were only slightly useful. It was not until he learned to apply these tools before becoming stressed did he make progress. He was applying these tools too late, when he was already caught in the situation. He has, after all, at least 10 years of habituated response to overcome. Changing a habit is easy hard, forgetting a habit is the hard way – finding a habit that is better to replacement it with is the easy way.
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