How to Help Your People Become Unconsciously Competent

We all want our people to do good, competent work. We also want them to work quickly, without having to think extensively each time about what it is that they’re doing. In other words, we want them to develop to a level of unconscious competence.

Researchers have identified four stages that people progress through as they develop their skills in various areas. Initially (stage 1,) individuals are unaware of how little they know about their knowledge or skill deficits. They are unconscious of the scope of their incompetence and are consequently unlikely to take meaningful action to increase their capacity.

Preserving you: Preventing teacher burnout

Think of the first time you encountered teacher burnout. Where you were. What was going on at the time. The feelings. The experiences. The surroundings.

I'll tell you what it was for me. I was a new teacher in an Orthodox Jewish independent high school. I was fresh. I was idealistic. And I was going to change the world.

Each morning, my colleagues and I would convene in the teacher's lounge. On occasion, we would play a game.

Typically speaking, one doesn’t think of teacher lounges and games; there were no chess or Scrabble boards to be found. The game that we played had no name. I have named it in arrears the “make the calendar disappear” game.

Leading for maximal productivity

Since rolling out my “four-step” productivity plan, I have seen the need to include an added step that focuses on leadership. After all, if we are going to get more from our people, we need to use our leadership position to motivate others, create a healthy work environment and engage others in meaningful work.

The five components of this final step (step No. 5, and I do mean final this time) are:

Build workplace passion
Manage stress
Understand and leverage your leadership style
Set them up for success
Lead from the values up

Stay positive and be grateful

It's so easy to get down. 😟

To focus on what's not working and what we're missing. 📉

Especially with the utter disruption and pain that is #covid19. 😷

All of us do it, at least on some level.

Sustaining for maximal productivity

The next and final step (step No. 4) towards increased productivity is to aim to ensure that our new productivity process is sustainable and doesn’t quickly fizzle out. So often, we get excited about a new process but lack the tools, commitment and/or mindset to see it to completion and long-term integration.

The goal of this post is to empower you to keep going in the face of expected setbacks and maintain the requisite level of well-being required for succeeding over the long haul.

The five components of this step are:

Decline/question as many non-critical meetings and tasks as possible; learn to say no
Focus on excellence, not perfection
Break often but briefly
Self-care (sharpen saw) -- sleep, exercise, nutrition
Use your commute wisely; read often

Becoming the New Sales Boss

New sales leaders face a unique challenge. They rise from the ranks of top salespeople — the ones making the sales — to then be the one who must coach others to close more sales. They also pivot from being part of a group — often having five to 50 peers — to a more rarified air with fewer peers and no same-level colleagues to lean on.

Often, this shift occurs with little-to-no formal training, with the only insight on proper protocol being that which the previous leader did or failed to do. From metrics to staffing to accountability, the upwards move to sales leader is unlike anything these sales professionals have ever done.

You say it, but do they understand it?

Yesterday, as I was getting my skis 🎿 on, an instructor tells me "TGIF!"

But he didn't mean THAT #tgif.

He was telling me, "Toes Go In First." 💡

But that wasn't what I heard.

And for a Sunday, his #fridaytalk sounded strange.

Doing For Maximal Productivity

It is critical that you go all in on specific tasks and avoid multitasking like the plague. Multitasking has become popular with those who see it as a way to kill multiple birds simultaneously. For example, we try to return calls or listen to messages while reviewing and editing reports. Research has clearly shown that not only do you get less done than you might think, the divergence of mental focus will often lead to poorer job performance and a feeling from others that you’re not sufficiently focused.

To help my clients address this important issue, I have divided the path to increased productivity into 5 steps:

Sharing For Maximal Productivity

Workplace productivity is a huge challenge for nearly every company, business and organization. Leaders struggle to get their own work done (and do the RIGHT work,) while also guiding, empowering and motivating their people to achieve maximal productivity. While the projections vary, estimates suggest that businesses worldwide lose hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars annually due to underproduction.

To help my clients address this important issue, I have divided the path to increased productivity into 5 steps:

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