Month: June 2024

Top Performer

In the quest to excel in the workplace, it’s essential to adopt behaviors that distinguish top performers from the rest.

Top Perfotmer

1. Get Sh#t Done

The foundation of top performance is the ability to complete tasks efficiently and effectively. Embrace the Pareto Principle, focusing on the 20% of efforts that yield 80% of results. Avoid getting bogged down by problems; instead, channel your energy into finding solutions and executing tasks promptly.

2. Be Very Self-Aware

Self-awareness is crucial for personal and professional growth. Understand your strengths and weaknesses, and actively work on improving areas where you are less proficient. This continuous self-assessment helps you become a more balanced and capable individual.

3. Show Empathy

Empathy is about understanding and sharing the feelings of others. It involves respecting and valuing other people’s perspectives. By studying the empathy framework, you can better navigate interpersonal relationships, leading to more meaningful and effective communication.

4. Be a Strong Communicator: The SBI Model

Effective communication is a hallmark of top performers. The SBI Model—Situation, Behavior, Impact—is a powerful tool for providing clear, actionable feedback. Here’s a closer look:

Situation: Clearly describe the situation where the behavior occurred. Be specific about the context to avoid ambiguity.
Behavior: Describe the observable behavior without making assumptions about the person’s intentions or thoughts.
Impact: Explain the impact of the behavior on you or others. This helps the person understand the consequences of their actions.

Think of the SBI Model as a traffic light system:

  • Situation (Red Light): Stop and observe the situation carefully. Just as you must stop at a red light to understand your surroundings, clearly define the context in which the behavior occurred.
  • Behavior (Yellow Light): Proceed with caution, focusing only on the behavior. Like the cautionary yellow light, describe what happened without jumping to conclusions or making assumptions about intentions.
  • Impact (Green Light): Go ahead and communicate the impact. Similar to the green light giving you the right to proceed, explain how the behavior affected you or the team, guiding future actions.

By using the SBI Model, you can provide feedback that is constructive, clear, and geared towards positive change.

5. Be Great at Simplifying

Complex problems can be daunting, but top performers excel at breaking them down into simple, manageable parts. The Feynman Technique is an excellent method for this: choose a topic, explain it in simple terms, identify gaps in understanding, and then refine your explanation. This approach ensures a deep, clear understanding of any subject.

6. Have Control Over Your Emotions

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and manage your emotions and those of others. Develop skills to handle stress and remain calm under pressure. By managing emotions effectively, you can make better decisions and maintain healthy relationships.

7. Speak Up Regularly

Top performers don’t shy away from expressing their ideas or concerns. If you want to see positive change, it’s essential to voice your opinions and advocate for yourself and your colleagues. Regularly contributing to discussions ensures that your perspective is heard and valued.

8. Manage Your Time Well

Time management is a critical skill for achieving top performance. The Eisenhower Matrix is a helpful tool for prioritizing tasks:

  • Do: Focus on urgent and important tasks.
  • Schedule: Set aside time for important but not urgent tasks.
  • Delegate: Assign urgent but not important tasks to others.
  • Eliminate: Remove tasks that are neither urgent nor important.

By organizing tasks effectively, you can maximize productivity and ensure that your efforts are aligned with your goals.

9. Enjoy Being Wrong

Embrace the opportunity to learn from mistakes. Being wrong is an integral part of growth and innovation. A growth mindset encourages you to see failures as learning experiences, fostering resilience and continuous improvement.

Adopting these nine behaviors can significantly enhance your performance and professional growth. The SBI Model, in particular, provides a structured approach to communication, ensuring that feedback is constructive and actionable. By implementing these strategies, you can navigate your career path with confidence, empathy, and effectiveness.

How to make a speech By George Plimpton

International Paper asked George Plimpton, who writes books about facing the sports pros (like “Paper Lion” and “Shadow Box”), and who’s in demand to speak about it, to tell you how to face the fear of making a speech.

One of life’s terrors for the uninitiated is to be asked to make a speech.
“Why me?” will probably be your first reaction. “I don’t have anything to say.” It should be reassuring (though it rarely is) that since you were asked, somebody must think you do. The fact is that each one of us has a store of material which should be of interest to others. There is no reason why it should not be adapted to a speech.

Why know how to speak?
Scary as it is, it is important for anyone to be able to speak in front of others, whether twenty around a conference table or a hall filled with a thousand faces.

Being able to speak can mean better grades in any class. It can mean talking the town council out of increasing your property taxes. It can mean talking top management into buying your plan.

How to pick a topic
You were probably asked to speak in the first place in the hope that you would be able to articulate about something that interests you a lot. Still, it helps to find out about your audience first. Who are they? Why are they there? What are they interested in? How much do they already know about your subject? One kind of talk would be appropriate for the Women’s Club of Columbus, Ohio, and quite another for the guests at the Vince Lombardi dinner.

How to plan what to say
Here is where you must do your homework.
The more you sweat in advance, the less you’ll have to sweat once you appear on stage. Research your topic thoroughly. Check the library for facts, quotes, books and timely magazine and newspaper articles on your subject. Get in touch with experts. Write to them, make phone calls, get interviews to help nourish your speech. Rehearse your talk—and learn—for learning means self-confidence. You’ll discover how much confidence that knowledge will inspire.

Now start organizing and writing. Most authorities agree that a good speech breaks down into three basic parts—an introduction, the body of the speech, and the summation.

Introduction: An audience makes up its mind very quickly. Once the mood of an audience is set, it is very hard to change it, which is why introduction is so important. The mood of the introduction is to be lighthearted and enticing. It can start off by telling a good-natured story about yourself.

But be careful of jokes, especially the shaggy-dog variety. For some reason, the joke that convulses guests in a living room tends to suffer as it emerges through the amplifying system into a public gathering place.

Main body: There are four main intents in the body of the well-made speech. These are 1) to entertain, which is probably the hardest; 2) to instruct, which is the easiest if the speaker has done the research and knows the subject; 3) to persuade, which one does at a sales presentation, a political rally, or a town meeting; and finally, 4) to inspire, which is what the speaker is perhaps seeking in the graduation talk, in a sermon, or at the pep rally.

Hurry-Up Yost, who coached Michigan’s football team for twenty-five years, once gave a particularly inspiring talk to the members of a sales force who had come in from all over the country for a dinner. He got carried away and at the final exhortation held his team up by picking the wrong locker-room metaphor. (He urged the sales force to dive into the swimming pool.)

Summation: This should be where you “ask for the order.” In ending should incorporate a sentence or two which sounds like an ending—a short summary of the main points of the speech, perhaps, or the repetition of a phrase that the speaker has hoped to convey. It is valuable to have a fairly clear idea of the last sentence or two as something which might produce applause. Perfectly acceptable phrases are perfectly acceptable. (“And now I would like to signal my conclusion by saying: “In closing…” or “I have one last thing to say…”)

Once done—fully written, or the main

Own your story

Own your story. No body is like you. There will never be one like you. There never has been one like you.

Own your story

From the moment you were born, you were one-of-a-kind. Your genetic makeup, your experiences, your dreams—everything about you is unique. This singularity is not a trivial detail; it is your greatest asset. It is the source of your power, creativity, and resilience.

When you own your story, you embrace this uniqueness. You acknowledge that your path is unlike anyone else’s. This is not a limitation but an incredible opportunity. It means that you have something special to offer the world, something no one else can.

Owning your story requires courage. It means standing tall in your truth, even when it feels uncomfortable. It means celebrating your strengths and acknowledging your weaknesses. It means understanding that your journey is yours alone, and that every twist and turn has shaped you into who you are today.

Consider the heroes in your favorite stories. They are not perfect. They have flaws, they make mistakes, and they face challenges. Yet, it is these very imperfections that make their stories compelling. Your story is no different. It is the sum of your experiences, your triumphs, and your trials that make you extraordinary.

Your life is a tapestry woven with threads of diverse experiences. Each thread, whether bright or dark, adds to the richness of your story. Celebrate every moment—every success and every failure. They are the chapters of your unique narrative.

Reflect on your achievements and how far you’ve come. Recognize the lessons learned from your setbacks. These are not just experiences; they are the building blocks of your character. They are the evidence of your growth and resilience.

When you own your story, you not only empower yourself but also inspire others. Your authenticity can be a beacon of hope for someone struggling to find their own path. By sharing your journey, you offer a reminder that it is okay to be different, that it is okay to forge your own way.

Remember, there are people out there who need your story. They need to see someone like you who has faced challenges and emerged stronger. Your story can be the motivation they need to keep going.

As you move forward, embrace your uniqueness with confidence. Understand that your story is still being written. Every day is a new page, a fresh opportunity to be yourself and to make your mark.

Be unapologetically you. Your story is your power. Own it, cherish it, and let it shine. The world needs your unique light. There never has been, and there never will be another you. And that, in itself, is your greatest gift.

Owning your story is about embracing everything that makes you unique. It’s about understanding that your differences are your strengths. It’s about celebrating your journey and using your experiences to inspire others. So, step into your power, own your story, and remember: nobody is like you. There never has been, and there never will be. And that is your superpower.