There’s an ancient proverb that tells us “like a city whose walls are broken through, is a person who lacks self-control”. The picture is of the fortified city, which protects its inhabitants from all kinds of trouble. The walls keep the people safe by ensuring both dangerous animals and enemy peoples are kept at bay.
I wouldn’t say that I am avoiding commitment, but I wouldn’t say that I’m not! It’s new year and the news has been full of naysayers suggesting new gym or diet practices are bound to be short lived. Well for what it’s worth, I rather like the idea of new year new starts.
The skill of influencing has to be up there as one of the most valuable things to get right. We start working out what works when we are about 2 years old, pushing and bending our parents will through any means possible. Back then, we didn’t even care what others thought of us; we would happily throw a wobbly in the shopping line without the slightest concern for our reputation, all in the name of braking our parents resolve and securing whatever it was that we wanted.
The ability to change our behaviour is a gift, sometimes however we forget to use it! It’s easy for every one of us to get very comfortable with a whole range of behaviours that become well worn and frankly predictable. That’s of course OK when those behaviours bring the best out of me and others, but not nearly as good when they just serve to ‘get me by’ and even make life more difficult for others.
In this growing age of the digital nomad, there are many perceived benefits associated with being a remote worker. Many of these benefits are genuine, tangible things like not having to spend two or more hours of the day commuting too and from work.
With a blog title like ‘If there was just one thing that would make you highly effective, what would it be?’ I should probably start by defining what it is to be highly effective! Truth is, the answer to that question alone could be longer than the blog itself.
One of our 4 C’s of being a high functioning team is ‘Competence’. It’s the domain expertise, skill element of the team. It’s something we all need, the manager, but also every single member of the team. However for the manager there is something really important to understand; no matter how brilliant you are, how great your competence, if your team isn’t up to the required competence then two things become very evident: You can’t go and have lunch because your people will be addicted to you, and you will never be able to empower your people with confidence.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the advent of self directed learning - in other words creating the environment where staff take control of their own learning, often supported by the organisation. I’ve nothing against this approach, it’s great if people take charge of their own development, however my word of caution is concerned with this becoming the only approach.
For much of my management career I was under the impression that one of the requirements of a good manager was to motivate their team members. In recent years I’ve begun to wonder if that’s altogether the wrong thing! My doubt first manifested itself when reading Prof Steve Peters suggesting that motivation was worthless - WORTHLESS! Yes, really, the British Olympic cycling teams psychologist tells his athletes to forget it, it’s a waste of time.
We have given the most incredible gift of communication. Our ability to interact orally is utterly unique compared to any other creature on the planet. We are good at it too. We read subtle nuance, micro gestures across the lyric, song and dance of our discussions.
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I'm Bob Bannister, owner, and trainer at iManage Performance, the specialists in training for remote workers and managers with over 20 years of experience in this sector.
As the UK has rapidly shifted towards working from home, this challenges the norms in which we work and manage We can help to fast track your remote management or team skills. Speak to us about our training options today.
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