When it comes to making major changes to increase the impact of your life, Steven Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, takes the prize. In that book Covey takes each of the seven habits and writes a whole chapter on each to explain the importance that habit plays in making you effective. He also provides some tools to make each habit take hold.
Now, when it comes to everyday living, I find that people often are oblivious to little things that they can do to make their life more efficient and also of those around them, in turn. The difference between being effective and being efficient has to do with creating an impact and creating it with the least effort, respectively. In nature there is that principle of least action, which posits that nature always takes a path to completing an action that takes the least effort, ergo it creates the biggest impact from the available resources in any action that involve natural forces. In deference to this principle if you want someone to do something for you it behooves you to apply that principle outwardly!
As a career and life coach I encounter behaviors others exhibit that leave me scratching my head. I think that they stem from unconscious incompetence (blind ignorance) rather than deliberate acts to frustrate those around them. So, in this blog I decided to make a partial list of my favorites to remind others that simple changes in your habits can help you make more efficient by making others’ jobs easier when you rely on them to get you what you need:
- When you send someone an urgent—or even normal—email asking them to call you make sure that you have your phone # in that email, even when you know they have it.
- When you leave a voice mail leave your phone number (the most important part of that message) both at the beginning and at the end of your short message. State your name clearly and fully (not, hi John, this is Jim). With increasing use of mobile devices chunks of messages get dropped and it is difficult to decipher critical messages when that happens.
- Make sure your voicemail greeting has your name in your own voice. People often call from their mobile devices when on the move. This increases the chance of misdialing. About 10% of the population is also dyslexic, making it easy for them to switch digits. Merely announcing your phone number in a strange robotic voice can leave the caller puzzled, wondering if they dialed correctly. Besides, people often forget what they just dialed. You may also come across as too lazy to personalize your greeting; not a professional image.
- Use “Reply All” sparingly in all outgoing emails.
- Have your full name at the bottom of your email (with a phone number if possible), not just your nickname or first name, and your email address next to it. Use the exact same name in your email signatures, public profiles (LinkedIn, if not Facebook), and voice-mail greetings. This makes it easier for people to find you. If possible have the link to your LinkedIn Profile at the bottom of your signature.
- If you’re reconnecting with someone after a long hiatus (sometimes even a month) first jog their memory with your last encounter with them and then start speaking about your needs. Reorienting one’s mind in an interrupted task takes more than a few seconds and those precious blank seconds, while the called party is searching their memory bank, can cost you their “inattention.”
- When someone does you a favor or goes out of their way to help you, be sure to thank them in a way they will remember. Having a template “Thank you” at the end of your email is often not enough in most cases. It is even more sincere when you are specific about how their help was useful.
- In all business emails have specific and clear Subject Lines. If you want the reader to take action or to provide you something, summarize and itemize that at the top of the email body. Create a fresh Subject Line when an old one has played out.
- When you get an email with an urgent request for action, but are unable to provide speedy response they’re looking for, simply acknowledge that email with alacrity, notifying them of the time when the response will be sent. Then beat that clock.
- If someone at work has gone out of their way to give you new ideas do not take credit for that idea. Acknowledge the person and their idea and then take credit for successfully executing that idea.
This is just a sampling of simple tips that can make your life and those around you much more efficient. Just try it and see!
Good luck!
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