Three Ways to Improve your Personal Effectiveness
Three ways to improve your personal effectiveness
You may be thinking about how you might be able to improve your personal effectiveness.
Your personal effectiveness is a measure of your ability to make rapid progress towards your own goals or the goals that have been assigned to you.
If John is working hard, but he is not making rapid progress towards his stated goals then we can safely say that John does not have a high degree of personal effectiveness.
On the other hand, if John is working steadily, and at the same time, is making rapid progress towards his stated goals, then we can say that John is personally effective.
Personal effectiveness includes the following subset elements:
- Knowledge
- Skill
- Self-discipline
1. Personal effectiveness requires more knowledge
It is said that knowledge is power.
That is true, but only if that knowledge is specialised knowledge.
Specialised knowledge that is organised and then put to work towards the attainment of a valuable, long range goal, is power.
That is what the phrase really means.
Your personal power is enhanced by gaining additional specialised knowledge that you then organise and put to work towards the attainment of your valuable, long range goal.
So my first recommendation to you is this: In order to improve your personal effectiveness: study, read and learn more about the technical aspects of your profession.
Read. Study. And learn.
2. Personal effectiveness requires more skill
Skill may be defined, in our context as: the proper application of knowledge.
Knowledge is not enough!
You have to be able to DO, what you know.
Skill is the application of knowledge.
Skills development is based on the following three principles.
- Practice
- Perfect and
- Repeat
For example, I am currently learning to play, "The heart will go on": (The theme to Titanic), on the guitar.
It is true that I do know that piece of music, meaning, I intellectually understand it.
But understanding the music score is NOT the same as being able to play it.
Developing the skill of being able to play the same piece of music, at the right speed, without too many errors or omissions, takes hour, upon hour of practice.
Skill development requires practice, practice, practice.
And not just mindless practice, but thoughtful practice, when you are trying to improve the quality, speed and spirit of the performance.
This is the act of taking knowledge and turning it into skill.
My second recommendation is this.
Practice, perfect and repeat:
- Practice your knowledge.
- Perfect your performance.
- Repeat it again and again until your knowledge becomes a semi-automatic response.
3. Personal effectiveness requires self-discipline
In order to engage in the act of studying and skills acquisition, you will almost certainly, need to practice on days that you don't really feel like practicing.
You will almost certainly need to study at times that you don't really feel like studying.
And at those times, you will be faced with the choice:
To be, or not to be. That is the question.
To be studying and practising when I don't feel like it, or not to be. That is the question.
- NON effective people don't work, when they are not in the mood.
- Effective people will work, even when they are not in the mood.
A gold medallist contender IS a gold medallist contender only because you can see her, out on the track practising and perfecting her skills, and repeating them over and over, and learning. And she is doing all this in the rain, on a day that she would rather be at home, watching TV.
A NON effective person thought about training today, but said, "I can't go training today. It's raining." And there is some good sport on TV today. I'll watch that instead and get inspired!"
Personal effectiveness requires that you develop self-discipline.
Self discipline may be defined as the ability to make yourself do what you need to do, even when you don't feel like it.
If you do only those things, for which you are in the mood, then, you will never actualise your full potential.
If John only does those things, for which he is in the mood, then, he will never actualise his full potential. And if John never actualizes his full potential, then he will lose in the race to the person who did.
My third recommendation is:
Develop your capacity to make yourself do what you need to do, even at the times, when you don't feel like it.
Develop your self-discipline.
Summary
Your personal effectiveness is a measure of your ability to make rapid progress towards your own goals or the goals that have been assigned to you.
Three ways to develop your personal effectiveness:
- Study, read and learn more about the technical aspects of your profession.
- Practice, perfect and repeat.
- Develop your capacity to make yourself do what you need to do, even at the times, when you don't feel like it.
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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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