Quality vs. Quantity

Which of the two circus performances most appeal to you:

• A fast-paced performance of many smaller acts. They start quickly, get to the point and then are gone almost as quickly. Your mind races to keep up with all that you are experiencing-and is exhausted after the show.
• A moderately-paced performance that has fewer acts, but that are of significant length and complexity. Your mind is able to evaluate, analyze and reflect on each performance, and the skills of the performers in them. You are still mentally exhausted after the show, but leave with a feeling that you have experienced something meaningful.

The answer, for most of us, is the second performance. Strangely enough, though, we carry out our work days more like the first one. We dart from ring to ring, performing a quick task, and then jumping from that ring to another just long enough to do something else. Quality takes a back seat to sheer quantity.

Imagine your work day more like the second performance. You take more time to strategically plan each task. You aren't as concerned about gettting everything done as much as you are focused on accomplishing the right things. Quality is your main concern.

This dynamic tension of quality vs. quantity is critical for leaders or managers to grasp as well. People can be extremely busy (quantity) but are they really productive (quality)? And if you don't know the answer to that question, it may be time for you to spend a little more time thinking about your role as ringmaster of your department, team or organization.

Satisfy The Audience In Your Head

As a member of an audience you don't like to wait, do you? The longer you have to wait, the more anxious you get about the start of the performance.

You have an audience inside your head-it is called the pituitary gland and hypothalamus. They are waiting to send out cheers called endorphins when you accomplish something of value to you. The longer you wait to perform a difficult task, the longer you deny the audience the chance to give you much needed applause.

For that reason, consider accomplishing the task you are most dreading earlier in the day. That way, you have this audience clapping and cheering you on all day long.

One Of Most Visited Place On Our Training Midway

As you can imagine, one of the workplace distractions that gets the most attention from the participants is around the elephant of email. We are frequently amazed that people see the strategy of "Turning off email notification" or "set specific times to check email" as strong options in handling email. They are a beneficial step on the receiving side of email.

There are also practical steps we can take on the sending side of the equation to help manage the flow and improve response from others. They include:

• If the message is short, put it in the subject line
• Put deadlines in the subject line
• Put action needed in the subject line. Include phrases like "FYI," "Action requested," "No reply needed" or even "Call after reading"
• In the text, start with the action you want them to take-and when. The content following it should provide information to help them choose the course of action to take.

We always welcome your best practices too. Send them to us at info@jugglingelephants.com

Clear The Ring!

You go to a circus and when each act is over, something used in the act is left behind. Mid-way through the circus performance they would have to stop the action to clean out the stuff lying around in the wing.

We do something very similar when we leave read emails in our inbox. Each time we go to manage our inbox, a portion of our focus or attention is always drawn back to those emails sitting idly by. We mentally trip over them while trying to really focus on our new acts.

Why not create some rules for incoming emails or better yet, create some rules for what you do with an email once you read it? An old acronym to guide management of pieces of paper still works for handling email. It is:

T-Trash

R-Refer

A-Act

F-File

Remember, the goal is to have your mental "ring" clear to be able to focus on the act at hand-and not trip over it.

Elephants NOT To Juggle

We so often focus on the acts that should be in our lineup. Recently in Inc. magazine there was a list of 10 things we need to stop doing (or NOT put in our lineup) if we want to be happy. The list includes:

• Blaming
• Impressing
• Clinging

While the list is heavy on attitude-type items, there is no question that these mental elephants manifest themselves in activities that are not going to get us standing ovations.

You can read the entire post here.