How many times are you in the middle of something important and you get interrupted by a person, an email, a phone call, or some other request for information?

It breaks our momentum and mental focus. It causes us frustration. And it tests our resolve when it comes to sticking to something more important.

Here are some solutions to this never-ending concern that you face every day.

Interruptions from others:

• Explain you’re busy and set a time to meet later
• Accept the interruption and state the time you have available now. At the end of that time period, tell them you really do have to get on
• Don’t have chairs right next to your desk. If you have room, put two or three chairs in another area of your office. This means people can’t just drop in. They have to interrupt your flow and get you to move away physically form your desk. If it really isn’t that important now, people will wait until it is convenient for you
• Set open and closed-door times, and make them known
• Meet in someone else’s office, so you can control your exit time
• If it’s really important for you to work without interruptions, consider working from home, a conference room or a spare office where it’s obvious you are there for a specific purpose and can’t be interrupted.

Email or instant messaging:

• Don’t keep compulsively checking email. Turn off the audio signal that tells you an email has come through. Allocate times in the day where you deal with email, timed so YOU control it.
• Go offline if you have to. If you’re uninterruptable, prove it.

Information Requests:

• Give people who work for you enough authority and information to deal with these matters for you. Don’t be a hoarder of information so that people have to come to you and only you
• Let your team know you are incommunicado for a time period
• If you make promises, keep them. Then people won’t have to chase you up when you don’t want them to

Phone:

• If you’re in the middle of something, don’t take unscheduled calls. Have set times when people can reach you
• Make a list of calls you are going to make and bunch them together, so you control the time it takes
• Call people at lunch time or before closing time, so conversations are short and to the point
• Ask people who call you what specifically you can do for them, and say ‘I only have ten minutes. Can we get this done in that time?’
• Leave your phone off in the evenings. Interruptions while you’re away from work should be seen as interfering with the rest of your life with people who deserve better. If it’s that important, they will leave a message and you can get back to them when you are free. That way, you control your time

Interruptions are a natural part of your working day, but using these ideas should minimise the effects and help build your productivity.

Thanks again

Sean

By building emotional intelligence, it is possible to decide how to deal with stressful scenarios without losing your self-control. Stress is often something driven from outside influences, so the way to deal with it is often through understanding how you react to stress and deciding what you want from the situation.

Here are some ideas on maintaining control and building mental strength under pressure:

1) Be aware of how you are feeling and commit to keeping cool under that pressure. Your emotional brain will run away from itself if you’re not careful, and the amygdala (the part of our brain that helps control temper) could be bypassed if we allow ourselves to ‘lose it’ for any reason.

2) Stop yourself from jumping to conclusions in any situations before you have understood exactly what has occurred.

3) Determine to get to the root cause of any situation before allowing yourself to make conclusions.

4) Remember that most disagreements are caused by a rules breakdown, that is, you may have guidelines and rules as to how things should be done and everyone else’s rules are different to yours. So don’t jump to hasty conclusions before investigating.

5) Bring any stressful situations to the notice of the people involved so everyone has the opportunity to deal with them openly and honestly.

6) Practice stress-management techniques that have worked for you in the past. Things like a quick walk outside, physical workouts and meditation have proved workable solutions to stressful situations, simply because the emotional connection with the scenario has been disassociated, and the solutions from the logical part of the thinking brain are clearer to see.

7) Discuss various ways of dealing with stress with your team members, so everyone can become pro-active in discussing the way forward if these situations ever occur again.

If you are able to maintain a steady response to stress, you give yourself and your team the chance to deal with problems in a way that can be solution-focused and not problematical.

Thanks again

Sean
Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

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FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

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Organising your working and personal life is not just important these days…it’s vital. You simply cannot manage everything you have to without specific skills, and the most pertinent is how you organise your working day.

One of the biggest challenges managers face is getting jobs done on time. This can lead to poor performance, stagnation, loss of customers and worse. Good organisational skills starts with analysing what jobs need to be done and working to a schedule to complete them.

One of the most effective things you can do is prioritising your priorities. Everything that seems to cross your path doesn’t have to be a priority. Identify what really is vital to be completed today and what isn’t. Set the priorities so that you have a clear view of what needs to be done. Having to deal with overwhelm won’t help you achieve much.

Calculating how much time each piece of work requires takes practice but will be well worth it. If you work better with small chunks of work, then do so. There is no perfect way to approach a big project, but most people seem to feel better if it’s divided up into chunks. Don’t make it appear bigger than it really is. Be aware of how you personally approach tasks, and let them fit into your style, not the other way round.

Learning organisational skills at work is the step towards reaching the pre-determined goal. Mastering organisational skills at work, gives you an opportunity to be more effective and increase your productivity. It gives an edge over the other in your professional life as your manager recognises the potential in you. Organisational skills save you from stress in the workplace and undue pressures of life. Organisational skills are priceless as they show you the value of time and the importance of using it wisely. If you master this specific skill, it will open the way to other areas of development within your company.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

Follow us here on Twitter

Despite what television commercials would have you believe, depression is relatively common. The difference is that the majority of the population experiences some sort of situational depression (due to a relationship, illness, death, job issue, etc) and then works past it. Some need professional help and others do not. Others have hormonal imbalances that cause them to become depressed and, in many cases, seek regular medical attention.

Regardless of the cause, depression in any form is an illness, whether short term or long term. If your employees become depressed they may begin calling out of work, putting out work that is not the same high quality you are used to, or simply stop getting as much done. In the end, depression in the workforce causes organisations money.

People are people. It’s important to think about your employees rather than your bottom line. If you begin to notice the signs of depression in your employees you’ll need to take action. Here are a few things to consider:

• Make sure you educate your team about depression (preferrably before you notice it). Make sure your team members know that they will not be reprimanded or punished if they are diagnosed with a depressive disorder.
• Give your employees access to help. Your organisation may have an in-house physician that can help, or you may want to refer your employee to his own physician. Either way, let him know you’ll work with him (reasonably) while he obtains assistance.
• Know the difference between “burn out” and depression. While burn out may cause depression, it may not be the reason for your employee’s troubles.

With your help, your team members can recover and return to their previously productive selves. Be compassionate and show you care. They’ll always remember the helping hand you gave.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Course

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

As a manager you’re going to find that there are times when you feel a lot more stressed than you do at other times. You might even stop and wonder why you feel more stressed than those around you. The truth is that, as managers, we tend to believe we need to be perfect at everything we do. We need to be in control. We want to be right. We want our jobs done perfectly. In short, we put too much pressure on ourselves.

As you approach the New Year, take the following 5 points into consideration and see if you can begin to make tiny changes, one at a time. Eliminating some of the stress you’re putting on yourself might make your job just a bit easier to accomplish!

5. Stop Expecting Perfection

You are not perfect, nor are the people who work for or with you. If you stop expecting perfection you won’t be disappointed when you don’t achieve it and you’ll be better able to take a strong, objective look at the great results you did achieve after working on a project instead of the minute percentage you think you didn’t.

4. Keep Your Opinions to Yourself

Do you have a tendancy towards giving people your unsolicited opinions or advice? Stop. If people want your help they will ask for it. If you’re working with someone who doesn’t know you well, ask them if you can offer your opinion or advice so that they can get ideas from another vantage point. If you stop forcing your ideas on others they’ll be more willing to work with you.

3. Forget the Past

So you’ve made a few mistakes in the past. Stop letting them eat at you, stressing you out even more. Put them aside and move on. You can’t change the past but you can control what you are doing now and in the future.

2. Analyse Less

Sometimes, when we are given new tasks, we feel like we have to learn as much as possible about the background or procedures before we get started. We end up adding stress and wasting time when we realistically could have just jumped right into the project. Try to spend less time analysing projects – just do them instead.

1. Stop Caring about Who Likes You

The truth is very simple. Not everyone you meet in your life is going to like you. Their reasons may or may not be valid. You don’t need to stress yourself out or care about who likes you and who does not. It doesn’t matter and, to be honest, you can work professionally with people who do not like you as long as you are all respectful.

Ready to reduce the stress in your life? Start by taking a look at yourself and your habits. Once you can do that you’ll be half way home and your relationships with your team members will instantly begin to improve!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Leadership

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”