How to Improve your Personal Effectiveness
How to improve your personal effectiveness
Your personal effectiveness is a measure of your ability to add value to yourself and others.
How can you improve your personal effectiveness and thus make yourself produce more valuable work, per day, in less time and effort?
Let us say first that personal effectiveness is the product of:
Doing all the right things, in the right way, at the right time.
The above statements give us three major lines of inquiry.
- What is meant by; doing all the right things?
- What is meant by; doing things in the right way?
- What is meant by; doing things at the right time?
1. What is meant by; doing all the right things?
In order to improve your personal effectiveness, what are the right things for you to be doing?
Answer: Do only those things that are consistent with your goal
Do not do anything that is inconsistent with your goal.
Personal effectiveness implies the achievement of a goal.
You are deemed to be personally effective to the degree to which you are able to achieve the goals that you are given, or those which you set for yourself.
If you are able to achieve goals, then you are deemed to be personally effective.
If you are not able to achieve goals, then you are deemed not to be personally effective.
Therefore, to be effective you must do those things that are consistent with your goals.
That implies two other attributes:
- You must know what the goal is.
- You must be intelligent enough to figure out what actions are necessary to achieve the goal.
Let us assume that you do know what your goal is, and that you are, indeed, intelligent enough to know what actions are necessary to achieve the goal.
Your personal effectiveness, then, is a measure of how much you apply yourself, solely, to those tasks that are connected to your goal and do not allow yourself to become too easily distracted, waylaid, taken off track or enticed off your chosen path.
It means that you stay focused only on those things that are consistent with your goal.
It means that you have the will power to stay committed to the goal and to have sufficient personal initiative to stick with it over an extended period of time.
2. What is meant by; doing things in the right way?
Personal effectiveness requires that you are doing things in the right way.
The right way, in this context, means:
To the required standard or better, and
In the most efficient manner possible
To the required standard or better means that you must do all you can to do the best you can do.
Question: Do you do the best you can do, or not?
Do you have a tendency to do the least you can get away with? Do you use the phrase, ""Oh, that will do. Let's put the kettle on"".
Are you a person who does it right. Or not.
Your personal effectiveness is a partly a measure of your willingness to do your best work.
Your personal ineffectiveness is partly a measure of your willingness to skive off.
In the most efficient manner possible.
The most efficient manner possible means that you are always looking for a better way.
If we assume that technology is always advancing, therefore, the methods of doing any task are always changing. So, for example, if you wanted to send a message to London, in 1800, you had to send a messenger to either run, or ride, to London carrying your message.
In 2013 if you want to send a message to London you could send a runner on a horse with your message or you could send an e mail.
Are you using the most modern and efficient methods to achieve your goals?
For example ten years ago, I used to market my services by means of cold calling on the telephone. Now, I don't. I use internet marketing, because it is easier and more effective.
If you want to be effective then you must strive to keep up with the constant stream of change.
Here is a great phrase from Thomas Edison.
"There is a better way. Find it!"
Make that your maxim.
There is another phrase that is the opposite sentiment.
"If it isn't broke, don't fix it".
This common phrase is used by non-effective people as an argument to resist change.
Indeed, horses are not broke. They run as fast now, as they always did. But you don't send for the pony express to deliver your messages.
Expunge the phrase ""if it isn't broke don't fix it"" and replace it with:
"There is a better way, find it!"
What is meant by; doing things at the right time?
It is important to recognise that not all things can be done simultaneously.
Therefore you must prioritise.
Prioritisation is the art of putting things onto a time line and doing them in the correct order.
The correct order is worked out according to two criteria:
The order of value
The logical order
The order of value means that you do the most important things first and the least important things last.
The logical order means that some things have a strict logical sequence that must be preserved.
- You put the washer on before the nut, not after.
- You put your socks on before your shoes, not after.
- You eat you dinner before your pudding. Usually!
It takes thought to figure out what is the most efficient sequence to any given task.
And your personal effectiveness is the measure of the amount and accuracy of your thought in relation to this issue.
Are you doing the right things, in the right way, in the right order
Yes or no?
For more information about personal effectiveness training visit the Corporate Coach Group website
About the Author: Chris Farmer
Chris Farmer is the founder of the Corporate Coach Group and has many years’ experience in training leaders and managers, in both the public and private sectors, to achieve their organisational goals, especially during tough economic times. He is also well aware of the disciplines and problems associated with running a business.
Over the years, Chris has designed and delivered thousands of training programmes and has coached and motivated many management teams, groups and individuals. His training programmes are both structured and clear, designed to help delegates organise their thinking and, wherever necessary, to improve their techniques and skills.
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