Professional Services Professional: Personal Athlete

Essentials of engagement

• Burying boomerangs, being mindful not to criticise, condemn or complain
• Getting to know people well enough to affirm what really matters to them
• Connecting with core desires in order to find out what people truly want

Lasting impressions

• Becoming genuinely interested in other people rather than trying to get people interested in you
• Smiling and using people’s names to create rapport and memorable encounters
• Listening in order to demonstrate that you understand what matters to others

Merit and maintaining trust

• Seeking collaboration rather than personal victories by never saying ‘you’re wrong’
• Sharing your journey and surrendering the credit to others
• Beginning all interactions with a warm smile and firm handshake, and using creativity to replicate it in electronic and written media

Personal victories

• Being proactive by focusing effort on those things you can do something about and enlarging your circle of influence
• Beginning with the end in mind, making decisions based on principles defined in a personal mission statement
• Putting first things first and saying ‘no’ to unimportant tasks

Public victories

• Using courage and consideration to seek mutually beneficial agreements and solutions
• Using empathic listening to first understand before seeking to be understood
• Recognising and valuing others’ opinions, viewpoints and perspectives

Choosing your ninja weapons

• Reviewing your support systems and ensuring that information is not just stored in your head
• Getting your email inbox to zero
• Networking to spot opportunities and threats while they’re still in the distance

Ninja productivity

• Scheduling ‘thinking time’ in your proactive attention period(s)
• Leveraging Pareto’s, Parkinson’s and Hofstadter’s laws
• Reviewing and renegotiating your commitments and not over-committing
• Disconnecting and ‘going dark’ for an hour a day to protect your attention

Attention tension

• Applying the 40-20-40 continuum to a meeting
• Identifying and optimising your attention levels and times
• Scheduling work based on the level of attention required, saving difficult tasks for proactive attention levels

Positive momentum

• Starting each day by doing the worst task on your list of things to do
• Giving yourself permission to be imperfect and delivering substance without the frills
• Identifying conflicts and having courageous conversations