Tara Rodden Robinson :: The Productivity Maven

Do I really want to do this? An Interview with an Offer

In a recent blog post, Steve Demaio gave some great advice about figuring out if you should say yes (or no) to assignments that come your way. His first point was “interview the offer, not just the person making it.” This was such great advice that I decided to take him up on it, and I invited an offer in for a conversation. Here’s the transcript.

Me: Hi, Recent Offer, thanks so much for coming in!

RO: You’re welcome! I’m excited about what we’re going to do together.

Me: That’s what I want to talk to you about, actually. Before I say yes, I’ve got some questions for you.

RO (looking surprised): Oh. Okay. I didn’t know you’d have questions. I mean, really, I’m a hot offer. I expected you’d say yes right away.

Me: I just want to make sure we’re a good fit.

RO: Sure, I understand. I already know you’re right for me and I want you to be happy, too. Fire away!

Me: What would working with you be like?

RO: I have to admit, I’m pretty demanding. You’d have to put me first. Sometimes, people tell me I don’t play well with others.

Me: Oh? How’s that?

RO: I tend to push other projects off to the side. I’m really competitive. And I like to be first.

Me: What about objectives?

RO: Well, those aren’t well defined. I have a tendency to get easily distracted. You know, chasing those bright shiny objects!

Me: Are you saying that the target moves?

RO: Well, I prefer to call it being responsive and flexible.

Me: Got it. How much time would we be spending together?

RO: Lots! Days, nights, weekends.

Me: Hmmm...this isn’t sounding so good to me.

RO: The good news is you’ll get to learn a lot. New skills, new technologies. And I’m all about helping people. You’ll get to help people.

Me: I like helping people, that’s true, but I’m not sure I have the bandwidth for you. Would I be able to delegate?

RO: Uh, no, not really.

Me: I see. What about compensation?

RO: Well, I can’t really compensate you for what you’re worth. But you’ll get tons of valuable experience! Money can’t really buy that!

Me: Well, Recent Offer, you’re very tempting. But I don’t think this is going to work out between us. You’re a great offer. I think you’re going to be highly successful. With someone else.

RO (stunned): I can’t believe it! You’re turning me down?

Me: Yes, I am.

RO (crestfallen): Wow, this doesn’t happen to me very often. Most people say yes right away. They’re always afraid I won’t come back around. Of course, that’s not true. There are lots of other offers. Truth is, we’re a dime a dozen.

Me: Thanks again for dropping by. Anything else I can help you with?

RO: Sure--can you refer me to one of your friends?

As you can see, interviewing an offer can be really revealing. You may uncover new information that makes the offer irresistible, or you may find that the offer isn’t so great after all. The next time you have a chance, interview your own offer and see what you learn. Just a short conversation may save both of you a lot of headaches.

What does "under control" look like?

It’s been a particularly good week. Part of the reason that things turned out so well was that I treated myself like I treat my clients. I coached me.

My self-coaching session began with looking into what was my desired outcome. On Wednesday, I wanted mostly to feel “in control.” That meant knowing what I was supposed to be doing and doing it. One thing I know about myself is that when I exercise first thing in the morning, it takes the edginess off and improves my ability to focus as well as boosting my mood (particularly after listening to this song). On dark days, light therapy helps, too. I combined getting light with journaling and by the end of my Morning Pages, I identified three or four top priorities for the day.

From there, I knocked off the things that felt important and then focused on clearing some stale, nagging incompletions. I cranked widgets and the reduction in stress was amazing. Just taking these items off my list gave me a sense of freedom. I reminded myself that if it’s on the list, I deemed it important enough to do. No more excuses, then, about not having time or something not being important “right now.” Right now is all I have, so it’s all important. Right now.

One task I took on was one I’ve been resisting: creating my sales forecasts and budget for 2010. By giving myself permission to start in the smallest possible way (open the spreadsheet and quit right there if I pleased; what my clients may recognize as a “brief daily session”), I actually got going and figured out what it was about the whole process that made me feel itchy in the first place. I scratched the itch. With that handled, I was off and running, enjoying the sense of possibility and excitement that looking forward to a new year can bring.

When you find yourself feeling like I did--out of control, spinning your wheels--stop and ask yourself what in control looks like. What do you want to end the day having done? What would make this day a success? Pick three or four actions. Don’t be afraid to be brutally simplistic (e.g., “open the spreadsheet”). Then, just crank those widgets. Your results will amaze you.

Join me, The Productivity Maven, for the first in my new teleclass series on November 5, 2009 at 4 pm Eastern. To register, click here.

Focus, organziation, and being in control

Yesterday, I had a big block of time all to myself. With that amazing abundance came an unexpected side effect, I felt out of control. I spent way more time spinning my wheels than I would have liked: I was distractible, out of kilter, off my game. I finally latched on to one task (a rather big one that had been stalled) and completed it (and you can hear the result here). Whew! The experience left me thinking about what it means to be “in control.”

Focus is the ability to manage your attention in a way that’s appropriate to what you’re doing. When you're driving, for example, your focus is broad--the road ahead, what’s coming up behind, the cars around you, your speed, road conditions, and all the rest occupy a full sort of attention that shifts from one place to another in a flowing sort of way that allows you to be fully present (that is, as long as your not trying to talk on your cell--or god forbid, texting--while driving). The other sort of focus is very tight, narrow, and one-pointed. This is the attention required when you’re working on one task to the exclusion of other stimuli.

Organization is a measure of knowing where things are. “Things” is a deliberately loose term that covers everything from computer files to car keys, the time of your next appointment to your mom’s birthday, what your boss expects from you to what you’re waiting on from your direct reports. Being well organized means you know what the status of your projects is, or you can easily find out, without dithering around too much.

Being in control means mastering both focus and organization. There are times when you need the firm control that allows you to be a happy worker bee: cranking widgets, churning through what needs to be done, nose to the grindstone. When you’re ready for that, make sure you know exactly where everything you’ll need is before you start and practice the narrow sort of focus that doesn’t tolerate interruption.

 Focus and organization are two of the Seven Dimensions of Productivity. Want to learn more? Join The Productivity Maven for the first in her new teleclass series on November 5, 2009 at 4 pm Eastern. To register, click on the button below.

The Productivity Balancing Act

Personal productivity and time management are practically synonymous. Managing your time well is just one aspect of being highly productive, however. Altogether, I’ve identified seven dimensions of productivity: time, focus, organization, reliability, results, strategy, and satisfaction. Taken together, learning how you’re performing with respect to each of these seven dimensions can not only give you specific direction on what and how to improve but can also give you insight into how to balance your efforts across the board. Here’s what I mean.

Say you’re dynamite at managing your time. Your calendar is totally up-to-date, you never overlook a single deadline or appointment, you’re efficient without any wasted motion, you haven’t been late for a deadline in years. But when it comes to taking care of yourself, you’re lousy--you make promises to get fit, take a vacation, or just step away from your desk at lunch. But then the urgency hits or you simply forget. A scenario like this one would suggest that your time management and reliability are out of balance.

I often tell people I don’t believe in work-life balance. There is only life. There is only balance. To be a fully productive person, work on your balance, not just one or two aspects of your performance. When you’re balancing your performance across all seven dimensions, you’ll find yourself enjoying a sense of flow like never before. And that’s highly productive!

Want to learn more about the Seven Dimensions of Productivity? Join The Productivity Maven for the first in her new teleclass series on November 5, 2009 at 4 pm Eastern. Register to attend here. (Join the Maven on her Facebook fan page and you’ll learn how get a chance to win a sleek, new iPod Nano!)

How is your sense of satisfaction?

Part of being highly productive is connecting with a sense of purpose and meaning and deriving enjoyment from what you do. As part of my coaching process, I sometimes ask clients to rate their sense of satisfaction on a scale of  one to ten, with one being the bottom of the barrel and ten being on the tip-top. It’s a way of measuring our progress as we go along, a checkpoint to make sure that they’re getting the desired results from our work together.

In rating your overall sense of satisfaction, you might consider:

• Are you being challenged and stretched in good ways?
• Do you experience growth?
• Can you point to accomplishments that you feel good about?
• How do you feel at the end of the day?
• Is your day to day feeding your soul?

If you find that your rating is lower than you would like, you can increase your score by taking some simple actions.

Connect your higher aspirations with specific actions. This is something that should be part of every weekly review. By creating alignment in actions and purpose, you’ll immediately strengthen your sense of moving in the right direction.

Practice gratitude. I often suggest this simple exercise called Three Good Things. Each day for at least five days in a row, write down three good things that happened and what caused those events to occur. By caused, I mean what did you do that allowed you to experience those three good things. For example, I will beat a deadline today and the cause of that was my willingness to set aside an entire day this week to finish the project ahead of time.

Acknowledge your achievements regularly. It’s often easy to check something off and then rush right past it. However, when you don’t acknowledge what you’ve done, you deny yourself any opportunity to experience satisfaction. During your weekly review, take time to enjoy what you’ve achieved and think about what that achievement makes possible that wasn’t possible before.

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