While I encourage you to follow your parents direction and always use please and thank you as they are greatly appreciated by all, these are not the words I reference in the title of todays post. The words that Ill share with you in the text that follows are not used nearly often enough and when used correctly can make a dramatic difference in raising your productivity to new heights. Lets start with the word that will help you clear the decks to focus on highest and best use activities. The word is no Most achievement oriented professionals want to take on the world and as such have a propensity to bite-off more than they can chew. Being over committed will suck the life out of those who possess even the greatest amounts of energy. Saying no doesnt come easy to many as it is counter intuitive to wanting to help others succeed. The fact is that by saying no more often youll help others develop their skill sets faster by not being overly dependant upon your expertise. It is critical to remember that by solving others problems or fixing their mistakes you are neither being productive or a good leader. When someone asks you to bail them out you should tell them that you would be happy to support them by coaching them through the issue, but that theyll have to resolve it on their own accord. This is leading by mentoring and educating not by being a doormat. By learning to say no to things that do not constitute highest and best use activities you will find that you have much more time to focus on priorities and youll notice an immediate boost in productivity. Additionally with appropriate use of the word no you will start to build some bench strength by training people to resolve conflict and problem solve on their own. My other favorite word is why No other word can cut through ambiguity, force justification of positioning, control a conversation, surface flawed logic or stimulate refined thinking like the proper use of why. The skillful application of why can also serve to test the depth and breadth of someones commitment or subject matter expertise. My favorite use of why kills two birds with one stoneit allows me to gain an insight into how people think by having them step through their thought process while at the same time using the exercise as a teaching tool. By continuing to drill down on a subject with the appropriate use of why I have watched individuals take what was little more than a raw concept and within a matter of minutes refine it into a well fleshed-out plan. Use these two words and watch your productivity soar |
