Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Monday, July 30, 2018
Create Summer Strategies to Pay Attention to Business
Does your business slowdown in the summer? If so, summer strategies can create ways to pay attention to your team and your business during slower months. The summer is a wonderful time to take business outside, to meet clients outside when possible. This is a great way to mix up otherwise mundane workdays and create an exciting change of pace for everyone.
The first thing I would suggest is to take advantage of the weather. If there are opportunities to meet your clients outdoors, make the most of it. If you have a patio or a facility for team members to take their lunch outside, make the most of it.
Next, consider using this time to review where you’re at in the business. The six-month mark is a great time to review your business plan, to review your marketing plan and do a quick health check of the team you have in place. The results you’re getting, the productivity you’re enjoying, the sales you’re making, this is a really good time to dedicate time to actually do a review at the six-month mark.
Another idea would include doing a summer clean. For me and my team, this is a really good time for us to update policies, procedures, operations manuals, logistics, it’s a great time to just take a breath and have a look at how do we want to complete the next six months.
Also consider, this is a brilliant time of year to focus on your personal development. There might be conferences you can attend, put on by your industry, where you can develop your skills or maybe send some of your team. It’s a really great time to catch up on your summer reading. Hint, hint, if you haven’t read Attention Pays, great summer reading. There are so many books I recommend. You can find additional details on my blog.
But it’s also a brilliant time to invest in your team. Is there an activity you can all do together? Is there something fun you could plan, maybe you leave early on a Friday and you do something together. Maybe there’s a volunteering opportunity for a charity that you want to support.
The summer is a great time to review where you’re at as a six-month strategy. It’s a great time to do a summer clean and focus on your personal development and do something for the team. What would you add? I’d love to hear your ideas.
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Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Neen James Share Attention Pays Strategies with Virtuoso Travel
We are facing an attention deficit crisis within our businesses today. Professionals are feeling overtired, overwhelmed and overstressed. Everyone is trying to accomplish a productive day of work while facing a barrage of never-ending interruptions and distractions.
Before our time together in Las Vegas, I wanted to take a moment to share with you some tips for boosting your productivity by leveraging your focus. Let’s start with 5 common issues the Virtuoso team of professionals have shared as being their biggest challenge to focused attention.
#1. Overwhelming noise competes for your attention.
We are living in the age of over information. We struggle to get the attention of clients because they are inundated with requests for their time and attention, as are you. As leaders, we get wrapped up in working on other people’s priorities and not always our own. We try to clear our inbox as soon as messages arrive, attend meetings at everyone’s request, focusing on development and multitasking on webinars. The overwhelm from constant noise and demands for our time hurts our ability to focus on the right things that truly matter.
We must learn to prioritize the demands on our attention. When we try to work on projects of importance, we need to be intentional with silencing the other distractions that compete for our attention. For instance, use technology to help you avoid it.
The Freedom App: Allows you to block websites that are tempting to hop on but suck valuable time away from the day. If you find yourself going down rabbit holes wasting too much time on Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and more, use this app to force better habits on yourself.
#2. A never-ending to-do list is frustrating.
When did we start living in the world of ‘crazy busy?’ Everyone we talk to is ‘crazy busy’ and barely keeping their heads above water. Why? Have our lives really ramped up to an unachievable pace of errands, tasks and chores each day? Answer is: NO. Professionals have fooled ourselves into believing everything is of the utmost importance and needs to be done right away. That’s just not the case.
We can tackle this challenge by changing the way we define priorities. Start each day jotting down three non-negotiable priorities on a post-it note. Place it on your computer as a reminder that my day is not complete until these non-negotiables are accomplished. Intentionally set aside time on your calendar first thing in the morning and honor it as if it were a meeting with a client. During that time, turn off your devices and silence alerts to give your concentrated focus to these non-negotiables. Once they are complete, I achieve a sense of accomplishment and feeling of satisfaction that boosts my productivity for the rest of the day. This also provides enough time in the rest of the day to handle any pressing issues that do truly require time and attention. As a result, you’ll end each day feeling like you’ve tackled what mattered most.
#3. There isn’t enough time in the day.
Many of us are guilty of allowing issues that pop up last minute dictate the flow and time within our day. Meetings require much time, as do phone calls, appointments, emails and more. While none of us can evade these responsibilities, we can get smarter with the way we manage our attention toward them.
I’m an advocate of time-blocking. Time-blocking is where you set aside chunks of time on your calendar to allow for specific activities. For instance, set aside time first thing in the morning to address your three non-negotiable priorities for the day. You can use this same principle to block off time for making phone calls, working on special projects and checking emails. As a result, you’ll be able to accomplish more of one task type than hop around from task to task. You will be able to complete more phone calls, respond to more emails and accomplish more on your special projects than if you were going back and forth or trying to split your focus.
#4. Clients rarely have the same sense of urgency.
When you’re working in a service industry, often the clients on a different timetable than you. Either they want what they want immediately, or they’ll take their time getting back to you when it becomes a priority for them.
One way to tackle this challenge is to talk time. Throughout your phone conversations with clients, recap how long you’ve talked and what’s been committed by when. Establish deadlines and reiterate them throughout the conversation. For instance, say to a customer, “In the 18 minutes we’ve been together, here’s some things we’ve talked about…” When discussing deadlines and needs you must complete their requests, say things such as “It sounds like you would require some proposal information by Thursday, if I get that to you by 4:00 East Coast time, will that work for you?”
This helps because they start registering an expectation. If they say, “No, no, no, my family’s meeting Wednesday night, I need everything for a family meeting on Wednesday,” then you now know what their sense of urgency is.
#5. Procrastination is crippling my productivity.
Procrastination is a self-inflicted paint point we bring upon ourselves for a variety of reasons. Either we don’t feel the project is important enough; or, we dread the mindpower it will take. As a result, we allow other priorities to come before whatever is on our plate.
Thing is, we are ALL guilty of it. It’s human nature to procrastinate. If we feel the habit is far too easy to fall back on, then we must start changing our patterns and self-expectations.
One trick is to go back to your trusty calendar and let it do the heavy lifting. If there are three pressing projects needing your time, block off time on your calendar to do them. Here are some rules of thumb to follow when it comes to determining how:
- Projects that require creative thinking and brain power need to be scheduled during your most productive work time of day. If your a professional who does your best thinking in the morning, mindfully schedule projects in need of your attention first thing.
- If it’s a project requiring a significant amount of time, tackle it in 15-minute increments. These types of projects tempt us to procrastinate because of the sheer volume of time and attention they demand. We put them off for a time we think we can accomplish it in one sitting. What winds up happening is we get super stressed and overwhelmed trying to finish it in the last minute. Try working in 15-minute increments. Set aside 15 minutes a day to work toward the project. Little by little, you’ll start to get through the project without feeling like you’ve invested a lifetime into it.
- Those items you put off merely because you dread them and the toughest to tackle. It’s not that they take a ton of brain power or time, they’re just not fun. These are projects that require accountability. Schedule a non-negotiable date on your calendar to work on the project – make it your own personal deadline. If you feel that’s too tempting to bail on, get an accountability buddy to help force you to finish. Knowing you have someone committed to your accountability is a great way to motivate you to do it.
I can’t wait see you in Las Vegas and make the most of our time together. If you’d like more ideas in the meantime, visit my blog at www.neenjames.com/blog and subscribe to my bi-weekly ezine. Connect with me on social media on YouTube, Facebook or Twitter with @NeenJames.
The post Neen James Share Attention Pays Strategies with Virtuoso Travel appeared first on Neen James.
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Monday, July 16, 2018
Pay Attention to Peer Departments
What are you doing to pay attention to other departments? That’s right. In today’s organizations, we have so many different business models, we have matrix organizations. Whereas a leader you might have virtual relationships with you, that don’t have a direct line to you but maybe they have responsibilities that impact your team. Or maybe you have other departments who have to get work done before you can touch it in order for you to proceed. We need to pay attention to other departments. So, today, what I would like to consider is how do we have that profession attention commitment to other departments?
The first step is an obvious one and that’s about building relationships. Now, building relationships sounds so easy but how are you doing it? Are you inviting people to your team meeting so that they can get an insight into what your team’s talking about? Are you shadowing people to understand what’s going on in their business?
One of my clients is a major media company, and they have an advertising and sales decision. Now in advertising and ad is called a “spot”, so what I was able to do was to follow a spot. Like a day in the life of a spot from the moment they sold the ad to the client all the way through until it was placed on television. What as fascinating about that was working with all the different departments to understand how everything impacts something else.
When was the last time you developed department relationships by reviewing end-to-end processes for efficiencies? What relationships could grow? What policies could you update?
The first step in truly paying attention to other departments is build relationships. This can often happen through things like affinity groups. Another one of my clients has major affinity groups for all kinds of different reasons that people meet. Can you build relationships through affinity groups?
The second strategy is to share success. That’s right. So what does that mean? Understanding objectives of other departments is really important because you can know how to celebrate when they get some great things happening. But in the same way, if another department has an implication, has and impact is probably a better word, on what you do, then share with them when that goes well. Share the successes and not just the challenges. Too often we only reach out to another department when somethings gone wrong.
Wouldn’t it be cool to proactively pay attention to celebrate success together? Share new stories, share customer experiences, testimonials, emails that are great. Share success stories with other departments, so they have a greater appreciation of what they’re doing and how it impacts you and vice versa.
The third strategy is to invite collaboration. When you have someone who comes into your team from another department, they have a very different perspective. They might look at the world more creatively. They might have a great idea so ask for their input, encourage them to share, openly, about anything they see that might improve the way you do things, might enhance the client experience.
I have one client where they do regular Lunch and Learns for other departments. It’s a great way for them to meet other people, to share success stories about what’s going on but also, to be able to collaborate on how they can perform better as a company overall.
Three ways that you can pay attention to other departments. Build relationships, share success and invite collaboration. What would you add?
You see I believe that when we truly pay attention to others, attention comes back over and repeatedly. You’ve heard me say it before and in our book, “Attention Pays”, that when you pay attention, attention pays, right?
What are some additional ways that you can really pay professional attention and commit to other departments? Other departments impact your success as a leader. Inspire other leaders to do the same by sharing this video with them and decide, as a leadership team, to prioritize each other’s departments. Recognize and reward.
Like I said, “When you pay attention, attention pays.”
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Tuesday, July 10, 2018
Book Review: Pay Attention to ‘A Friend of a Friend’ by David Burkus
I have always believed attention is about connection.
Networking is connecting.
David has shared powerful advice in a more meaningful and intentional way and I love how he backs up his social science with practical, implementable strategies to leverage our networks.
His differences between weak, dormant and strong ties were enlightening. The book is filled with examples of unique perspectives on how to successfully tap into hidden networks. I loved this line in the book ‘the bottom line is who you know affects how you think and it affects which friend of a friend you’re likely to meet”
I resonated with his super-connector information and will be sharing this book with my clients and colleagues – pick up your copy, read it and then share it with a team member or friend. A Friend of a Friend is a great addition to every business leader’s collection.
Check out this video review to learn more about how this book can help you increase your network and grow your business.
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Monday, July 09, 2018
Pay Attention to Support Staff
Giving Behind-the-Scenes Staff the Attention they Deserve.
What’s your commitment to your staff? Are you giving your support staff of employees who are behind the scenes as much attention and recognition they deserve? I’d like to give you five ways that you can pay even better attention to your behind-the-scenes employees, and show them how committed you are to their success.
I’ve been privileged to work with my Maria for over 12 years. Now, my Maria is affectionately called the “Queen of Neen” by all of my clients. I could never do what I do without my Maria. I have a position where I am so fortunate to have several people who work with me on my team. Now, notice that they work with me, not for me. These talented team members need to be acknowledged and recognized for the value that they deliver. So, how are you doing that with your support team? Here are five ways I’d like you to consider where you can be even more professionally attentive and committed to your support staff as much as your front line of support.
#1. Train. First of all, training employees on your mission, vision and values is as important as policy and procedure and the protocols, but in your mission, vision and values. Send them to conferences and development seminars to help them in their daily work. Encourage them, and provide for them, industry and position-related books that will help develop them. Share TED Talks and blogs. Training your support staff and committing to their development makes them better at their job and makes your life even easier.
#2. Meet. Maria and I have regularly scheduled one-on-ones, and the reason this is important is not just for me to share with her things I need to be done. It’s for us to talk about her development, our strategy, review all of these things. She drives the agenda, not me. Can you schedule one-on-one so that your support team gets that individual attention from you? Maybe it’s by phone, face time or Zoom. Maybe they actually get to be in your office, but can you meet regularly with your support staff?
#3. Seek. Seek their feedback and input because they get an unusual view of the world that maybe you don’t get to see. You see, support staff talk to other support staff. People who know me well know that I often say that, “Assistants rule the world,” and assistants do business with other assistants. When you are looking at your process, procedures, sales, and protocols, can you seek their input too? Furthermore, seek their feedback on your ideas and how they may be perceived by others outside of customer-facing teams. Ask them if there’s a better way to do something, a more clever, a more productive way because they look at the world differently to you and their perspective is so valuable.
#4. Review. Now, review in our world means that every summer we take time to review the way the business is going. We look at all of the ways that we organize things for a checklist, for travel, for client work, for invoicing. The team and I review everything coming up in the next six months, operations manual, and more. The summer is better for us because it’s a quieter time for me when many of my corporate clients are on vacation. But review processes do you have in place to truly pay attention and commit to your support staff? We want to always make sure that we are delivering the best value for our clients, and so for us, that means we have to constantly be in review.
#5. Celebrate. Finally, celebrate with your support staff when you’ve had a great win or a fantastic year or closed a sale. For instance, when we released my book, Attention Pays, we were so excited that it was number one best new release on Amazon. We were super excited that it became the number one bestseller for 800 CEO-READ that month. Now, that was a huge team effort, and my Maria who has been with me for a long time, she and I went out that night and we celebrated. Celebrate your wins with your team too; because they work so hard to help you do what you do.
In conclusion, ask yourself: How are you paying attention to your support staff? What are you doing to recognize and acknowledge the work that they do? For some, it might be just a handwritten thank you note. Others may need a shout-out at the team meeting. It might be tickets to their favorite concert or sending them to a conference or maybe sending them some great books to review. Either way, it’s time to pay attention to those you depend on, your support staff.
Need more inspiration? First, watch this video and share it with other department leaders. Then, join together and commit to shed light on top-performing employees. Take a look, share and then subscribe to my YouTube channel.
The post Pay Attention to Support Staff appeared first on Neen James.
Monday, July 02, 2018
Put Your Phone Down – WARNING: Attention Fireworks Rant Ahead
If you know anything about me, you will know my most favorite thing in the world, besides my honey, is fireworks. I mean I love them, I’m totally captivated by them.
And what you may also know about me is as an Australian, the only night that I get super homesick for Sydney is New Year’s Eve, because if you know anything about Sydney and New Year’s Eve, it’s summer, and I used to live on the harbor and I had an apartment that looked at the Harbor Bridge. So, can you imagine the fireworks display?
Every year when I’m freezing cold on the East Coast, I get homesick. So, one year my honey and I decided to go back to New Year’s Eve in Sydney, so that I could fix my homesickness. Just recently, I celebrated New Year’s Eve in Turks and Caicos, what a beautiful place.
But let me tell what happened that totally made me crazy. First, you should know, I’m little. I’m four ten and a half. I have to work hard to see above the heads of others in a packed crowd. Can you imagine my horror when I looked up in the sky, only to have my view blocked by people’s outstretched arms holding up their cell phones? Every single person all around me pulled out their stupid devices in a crazy attempt to record the display.
It’s not just that it made me crazy because I couldn’t see, it made me crazy realizing they weren’t being present in that moment. There they were in the presence of the most magnificent fireworks display. I mean in Sydney it was incredible, and this year in Turks and Caicos it was right above me and spectacular. Yet all people did was record it on their cell phones, which, by the way they will probably never watch. And I asked my honey why on earth are they doing this, his response surprised me. “They just want to post it on social media and show off to their friends.” Sad, yes, and likely true.
I mean seriously, this has got to stop. This is crazy. We need to make the most of every moment. Start by putting away devices, be present and make the most of the moment.
So, if you ever watch fireworks with me I warn you now, put away your cell phone. I just want to be with you and experience the joy and the magic of the captivating fireworks. So, this year I challenge you, start paying attention. Join me in the attention revolution and realize distraction decays, but attention pays.
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