Master-Minds Daily

This kind of synergy occurs when we interact with other people but it rests upon us building a strong “internal base.” We build this “internal base” by learning and using habits 1-3 that apply to our own personal development (being proactive, beginning with the end in mind and putting first things first). Value the difference This is the toughest part of habit #6. Covey wants us to  value  other people’s  opposing  opinions. He mentions early in the book that we all have different frames of reference. To obtain synergy in our endeavours we need to seek out frames of reference that  differ  from ours and embrace them. The problem with this is it means well and truly parking your ego. That means having true control over your emotions. You are going to be in situations where you are really sure you have the correct answer but other people say you don’t. Can you embrace their point of view? Can you keep your emotions under control to understand before being understood? Embrace cr

Listening levels Many people do not listen well. They do not listen to understand. They are listening and preparing their response for when it’s their turn to speak. They are either speaking, or preparing to speak, but  not  listening. Typically we are listening at one of four levels: Ignoring : We’re not listening at all. Pretending : We say “uh-huh, right” but we’re not really tuned in. Selective listening : We hear  part  of what the person says but the rest of the time we’re distracted (maybe looking at our smartphone) or listening to the voice in our head (we all have one). Attentive listening : We’re actively listening, paying attention but not taking our listening to the ultimate level…empathetic listening. Uh-huh, what’s this empathetic listening then? Covey defines empathetic listening as listening with the  intent to understand , to really understand. In order to really understand he says you need to get inside another person’s  frame of reference . You need t

The Time Management Matrix is also known as the Eisenhower Matrix. It was created by Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, and was later popularized by Stephen Covey in his book,  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People . Using The Time Management Matrix, our daily activities can be broken down into 4 Quadrants, sorted by urgency and importance: 4 Quadrants of the Time Management Matrix along with examples (Image ©  Personal Excellence ) Quadrant 1: Quadrant of Necessity You will find your crises or emergencies here. Quadrant 1 screams for our attention because of its urgent and consequential nature. However, many people fall into the trap of getting caught up in Q1. By spending all our time here, we become  consumed with firefighting every day  instead of crisis prevention. Side effects include stress, burnout, constant firefighting, and resolving problems instead of preventing them in the first place. We often see working level employees, advert

When we begin with the end in mind, we have a personal direction to guide our daily activities, without which we will accomplish little toward our own goals. Beginning with the end in mind is part of the process of personal leadership, taking control of our own lives. All things are created twice. We create them first in our minds, and then we work to bring them into physical existence. By taking control of our own first creation, we can write or re-write our own scripts, thus taking some control and responsibility for the outcome. We write or re-write our scripts using our imagination and conscience. There are three major aspects of our personal and business management. First is  leadership  - what do I/we want to accomplish? Second is  management  - how can I best accomplish it? Third is  productivity  - doing it. According to Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis, "Management is doing things right; Leadership is doing the right things." A starting point in beginning with

“Be Proactive” is habit #1 from Steve Covey’s   The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People . Being proactive means taking conscious control over your life, setting goals and working to achieve them. Instead of reacting to events and waiting for opportunities, you go out and create your own events and opportunities . Being proactive means that instead of merely reacting to events as they happen, you consciously engineer your own events. Most people think reactively. And reacting to certain events is all well and good. But it becomes a problem when that’s all there is to a person’s life — nothing more than instinctively reacting to stimuli. Steve Covey points out that there’s a gap between stimulus and response, and within that gap lies the potential for us to choose our response. Four special human endowments give us this power: Self-awareness  – the understanding that you do have a choice between stimulus and response. If someone insults you, you can choose not to become angry.

"Life's not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain." - Vivian Greene Resilient people understand that pain, misfortune and failure are not end points. They understand that although Americans are given the right to the pursuit of happiness, there is absolutely no guarantee of happiness; and if we happen to be blessed with happiness, it is just one of many positive  and negative emotions  that we will experience. It is a feeling; a mood. Not a destination. Below are 5 tips to boost resilience: Find Meaning in Adversity.  Every pain contains a lesson. Find a lesson that makes you feel better and align with it. Build a Community of Support.  Equally important, decide that the support you're currently getting is good enough. Be grateful for it. Be Hopeful.  Hope, like hopelessness, is actually a choice. We all periodically feel hopeless. Resilient people know who they are ~ and they do not define themselves by their mo

Here are two daily habits that will consistently help you increase your belief in yourself and shatter all self-imposed limitations. Count your wins. As human beings we naturally have the tendency to get stuck on the negative and think about all of our losses for the day, instead of counting our wins and finding all of the good that took place. I use my gratitude journal to capture all of my wins at the end of each day. This can be the wins from today, last week, last month or even last year. It doesn’t really matter when, but the key is to just get in the habit of capturing all of your wins. This will bring you a complete sense of joy that will let you know that you have done some incredible things in the past and remind you that even bigger things can happen in the future.  Whether big or small, it doesn’t matter -- just count your wins!  Talk to yourself like a champion. Bestselling author Jon Gordon always says, "Talk to yourself more than you listen to yourself.

1. Know where you struggle Start by writing down what you do in a day. Then, reflect on what you value and ask yourself whether your behaviors uphold those values. There are likely a few things you’re doing each day that don’t honor those values (hey, we’re only human -- we’ve all got a few). During the identification phase, it’s helpful to ask for feedback from the colleagues, mentors, and family who know us best. See if there’s overlap between how others see your actions and how you’ve self-identified your weaknesses. Once you’ve honed in on a few areas to improve, put together a plan of attack, such as, “ One of my weaknesses is to procrastinate calling prospects until it’s too late in the day. This puts me behind for the rest of the week and makes it tough to meet quota. Tomorrow, I’m going to make X calls first thing when I get to the office.” 2. Know how you succeed Greeting your coworkers and asking about their evenings. A trip to the kitchen for coffee. Team lunch.

By James Manktelow  10. Developing Emotional Intelligence (recommended by 72.1 percent of managers surveyed). All managers need emotional intelligence to be effective. This means having the self-awareness, self-control, motivation, empathy, and social skills needed to behave in a mature, wise, empathic way. It’s a joy to work for emotionally intelligent managers, and that’s why they attract and retain the best people. Fortunately, all of these great qualities can be learned, and you can develop them  here . 9. Building Trust within Your Team (73.3 percent). Team members who don’t trust one another waste a huge amount of time politicking and covering their own backs. People in trusting teams work efficiently and well, and they can deliver wonderful results. To build trust, you need to lead by example, communicate honestly and openly, avoid blame, and discourage behaviours  that breach trust. Our article,  Building Trust in Your Team , helps you to do this, and you can u