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Welcome to Mind Tools' October Newsletter!
This newsletter keeps you up-to-date on what’s new at Mind Tools and lets you know about new career skills on the Mind Tools website.
In this edition, you will find articles on project planning and management, and we take a look at decision-making techniques and, in particular, the highly-important decision tree analysis tool.
It's fair to say that many of the tools on the Mind Tools site are "left brain" skills - structured, quantitative tools that give you simple, logical ways of achieving excellent results. The Decision Tree Analysis technique later in this issue is an excellent example of this type of tool.
Whilst this approach is correct in very many areas, in others "softer skills" are important. In a world where power is being spread ever-wider, leaders have to work hard to keep the best members of their teams: this means learning the soft skills which compliment the essential analytical tools that create vision.
In this and future issues of this newsletter, we will start to cover some of the softer skills that you will need to succeed in your career.
As we approach the holiday season, stress can increase substantially. We therefore include two articles on stress management, one on yoga and another on relaxation, as we work to provide you with additional tools that will serve to bring about positive change in your life, while simultaneously helping you to be the very best you can be.
We are also very proud to announce an exciting new tool that we hope will enhance your enjoyment and understanding of the Mind Tools site. As newsletter readers, you are the first to know about our new Audio Guide, which takes Mind Tools website visitors on a guided tour through the most important tools on the Mind Tools website. As such, it is a quick, focused way of learning many of the essential skills you need for an excellent career. The Audio Guide is a free service provided to the growing Mind Tools family as we work hand-in-hand with you to develop skills that ensure your success.
Speaking on downloading, don’t forget that all of the tools found on the Mind Tools website are downloadable in PDF format. Downloading the tools means that you can refer to them at any time.
We hope you enjoy these changes and find the new information we have included useful. We encourage you to let us know what you think and to continue to share with us any products, services or books you wish to see reviewed, as well as tools you wish to see added to the Mind Tools sites. Please continue to contact us at mailto:Suggestions@mindtools.com.
More than this, if you have enjoyed this issue, we would really appreciate it if you emailed it on to your friends and co-workers. If you think they would benefit from the skills we teach, please pass this on!
In the meantime, enjoy using http://www.mindtools.com and its sister site, http://stress.mindtools.com!
New on Mind Tools:
The Mind Tools Audio
Guide
As a newsletter subscriber, you already know that the Mind Tools website is continually growing and evolving in response to our visitors’ needs. Because we are always adding new tools and updating our information, the Mind Tools site seems to get bigger and bigger, making it a challenge to navigate through quickly.
Given this, and that we understand that many of our viewers are in a hurry, we are pleased to give you our new Audio Guide to the Mind Tools site. The Audio Guide highlights the tools that we (and our readers) have found to be the most useful and able to make the biggest difference.
We are pleased to give you, as a newsletter reader, exclusive access to the guide for the next 14 days - we will launch it to the general public on November 12.
It provides a comprehensive audio map, steering through each of the different sections of the site, helping you to learn essential skills in less time.
As we offer it to you, please understand that this is a new technology for us, and we won't know whether it works well with many simultaneous users until this newsletter goes out. Please try it out at your convenience, and let us know (at audioguide@mindtools.com) if you experience any problems.
Life Tools for
Health - Mind, Body and Spirit: Yoga
by Kellie Fowler
Many people turn to yoga for simple reasons, perhaps they just enjoy it, perhaps they find it relieves stress, maybe yoga helps them to better cope with life’s ups and downs, or perhaps it's because a physician has prescribed it. Regardless of the reason for participating in yoga, the result is almost always a more fulfilled life.
If you have tried yoga, you already know that it can help you achieve your goals with a clearer head, a more in-tune body and a renewed spirit.
Advertorial:
When You're at the Top and You Need to Succeed
By Jim Jenkins, Certified professional coach, Owner of Creative
Visions
Consulting, and co-founder of Innovative
Play LLC.
In today's rapid-fire business environment, executives have little time to hone their leadership skills. As a result, many latch onto quick solutions that rarely work.
Many executives turn to management books for help. They often select titles based on length - reading as many pages as possible on a plane ride rather than real instructional value. Often, executives are left frustrated after consuming these books. The solutions are superficial and don’t lead to the exact results most executives expect.
The fact is, management takes more than "one minute," and figuring out where "the cheese" is doesn't explain complex organizational dynamics. If intricate business issues could be solved in 100 pages or less, why do so many leaders struggle to become tops in their field? And what can they do, given their tremendous day-to-day job pressures?
One solution for an executive seeking long-lasting change: Engage a qualified "executive coach."
What is coaching?
In the past few years, coaching has emerged as one of the most effective ways to cultivate professional and personal skill sets for both teams and individuals. Typically, someone other than the executive's supervisor does the coaching. This allows for greater objectivity and the freedom to experience learning on a person’s own terms.
"Executive coaching" is the term used to describe coaching for senior business leaders. There is a collaborative, individualized relationship between an executive and a coach. The goal is to inspire sustained behavioral change and to transform the quality of the executive's work and professional life. Even though executive coaching focuses on work situations, coaching can often result in significant personal transformation as well.
Some areas in which executive coaches can help include:
- Developing interpersonal and communication skills;
- Managing time;
- Balancing work and life issues;
- Dealing with conflict;
- Thinking strategically for business planning;
- Improving customer service.
A 2001 study by Manchester Inc. showed that coaching brings about major changes in developing leadership and management skills. Coaching also fosters personal growth, business agility, and enhanced communication skills, all of which can significantly impact a company’s bottom line.
Coaching is a conversation. It's a dialogue between a coach and a client that focuses on achieving results. Whether it’s learning how to communicate better, balancing multiple priorities, or making effective presentations, coaching helps people access the things they know.
Coaching is also learning. The coach is not a teacher and isn't always considered an expert in the fields of those they're working with. But a coach can observe behavior, assess what the client isn't seeing, and create ways for the client to act in a new way.
How coaching works
Coaching involves listening, reflecting, asking questions, providing self-observations, and doing exercises. The coach creates an environment where the client ultimately becomes self-correcting (learning how to correct the behavior themselves) and self-generating (creating their own questions and answers).
Coaches must ask the right questions. A coach engages in a collaborative alliance with the individual to establish and clarify a purpose and goals, and then develops an action plan.
Sometimes a coach will get permission to ask others about someone's job performance and present the findings to the client. This often creates an opportunity to gather genuine, anonymous feedback about a supervisor's management skills without putting employees at risk.
Change and transformation are also key. Coaches enable the individual to grow and generate new behaviors, striving for long-term performance.
Behavior patterns are tough to change. But a coach observes the habits and opens up new possibilities, providing support during the difficult process of change.
Coaching in action
Tracey, a training director for a technology firm, would try over and over to get organized. She went to Franklin Covey training and purchased a Palm Pilot, but she was still losing many hours of productivity trying to organize her multiple projects and deadlines. After attending four different workshops on time management and using several software packages, Tracey found she still could not get organized.
Her next move: Hire an executive coach.
The coach helped Tracey realize that she was trying to fit into systems that didn't support her work style. Tracey was a highly visual person who needed to see things in order to find them. So, her coach worked with her to design a large wall rack so she could see her projects and folders every day. This small change had an immediate positive impact on her work.
Almost overnight, Tracey became more organized. She even found time to start writing a book, a project she never had time for before. Within a year, Tracey's job performance not only improved, she found that she was more organized in managing her finances when she applied the same approach at home.
Return on Investment
Coaching offers a very attractive return on the initial investment, or ROI. This is one of coaching's most significant benefits, as a developmental tool.
The most widely cited research on coaching comes from a 2001 study by Manchester Consulting. One hundred coaching subjects were asked to estimate the monetary value of their coaching experience. From there, Manchester developed a "conservative ROI" estimate of the coaching. The study determined that coaching returned more than five dollars for every dollar spent.
Executives who engage coaches understand that a behavior does not simply change overnight. They understand that no book speed-read will transform their careers. Coaching involves a real commitment to deeply understanding the changes that are needed to increase an executive's effectiveness. And by going beyond the bullet points in a 100-page management booklet, clients of coaches have given themselves a competitive career advantage.
Several months ago, we shared with you a six-step relaxation technique that is quick, easy and most importantly, effective. At Mind Tools, we regularly rely on this tool and thought we would take this opportunity to share it with our newsletter readers once again.
It is from an older book called “The Relaxation Response,” by Dr. Herbert Benson. Based on studies in Boston (including at Harvard Medical School), Dr. Benson’s quick and easy relaxation techniques have immense physical benefits, from lowering blood pressure to a reduction in heart disease.
This book explains how anyone can benefit from learning and perfecting simple relaxation techniques. In doing so, Dr. Benson created a book that is relied on by healthcare professionals and authorities to treat the negative effects of stress.
By learning to invoke the relaxation response once or twice a day for just ten minutes at a sitting, one can effectively lower blood pressure and gain tranquility in their emotional life, making them more successful both in the workplace and at home.
Try the following 6-step relaxation response the next time you feel anxiety or stress:
- Sit quietly in a comfortable position.
- Close your eyes.
- Deeply relax all of your muscles, beginning at your feet and progressing up to your face. Keep your muscles relaxed.
- Breathe through your nose. Become aware of your breathing. As you breathe out, say the word, “ONE”, silently to yourself. For example: breathe IN…OUT, “ONE”, -IN…OUT, “ONE”, etc. Breathe easily and naturally.
- Continue for 10 to 20 minutes (depending on your schedule). When you finish, sit quietly for several minutes, at first with your eyes closed, then with your eyes opened. Do not stand up for a few minutes.
- If distracted, simply return to repeating “ONE.”
And, as we told you before, you can often use this technique to help get you to sleep at night, especially after a long, hard day or before a tough next day. It’s simple, you can easily fit it into your workdays when and where needed, it is fast, reliable and most importantly, it works!
The Relaxation Response is just one of the Tools explained in our Stress Management Masterclass - click here to find out more...
Personal Coaching Tools: Project Planning and Management
In this section of the newsletter, we take a look at one of the many strong tools on the Mind Tools website. In this edition, we discuss Project Planning and Management and share with you the skills that are needed to oversee projects successfully. These skills are important, because as you progress in your career you will need to manage more and more complex projects. And if your project management skills are weak, then you will only progress so far before your career stalls. To see our project management articles, click here.
As you will see, successful Project Planning and Management calls for skills in both scheduling (for which you can rely on the Gantt Charts and Critical Path Analysis tools found on the Mind Tools site), and overall project planning following The Planning Cycle.
The Project Planning and Management section of the Mind Tools website shows you exactly how to plan and schedule projects of various sizes, while staying on schedule and within budget. This section also shows you how to prioritize tasks and which deadlines are most important to meet.
Of particular importance is the information on how to decide when to take remedial action and how to bring a straying project back on track.
You can rely on the Project Planning and Management section to
provide you with the following information:
- How to win support for your projects
- How to estimate project time accurately
- Time planning for small and medium-sized projects (Gantt Charts)
- Time planning for middle-sized project (The Planning Cycle)
- Time planning for large, complex projects, including how to
use
important planning and management methodologies
- Critical Path Analysis and PERT
Click here to visit the Mind Tools Project Management section.
Mind Tools “Old
Favorites”
Decision Tree Analysis
This section of the newsletter is here to refresh your memory of some of the most powerful techniques featured on the Mind Tools site. In this edition, we take a look at Decision Tree Analysis, an excellent tool for helping you choose between different courses of action. Click here to see this article.
Decision Trees help you make decisions where you have several alternatives and multiple possible outcomes. They help you map out and understand the decision you need to make, and evaluate the best solution. They are particularly powerful in making complex financial decisions.
While it may be best to refer to the Decision Tress Analysis diagram on the Mind Tools website for a complete understanding of how this tool works, you can start the process now by simply pondering the decision you need to make. Now, draw a small square that represents this decision on the left-hand side of a large piece of paper.
From this box, draw out lines towards the right for each possible choice you could make. Now, write a description of the choice on the appropriate line. Keep as much distance between the lines as possible as you will need this space to write more about each of the possible solutions.
At the end of each of the solution lines, consider the results. Of course, the result may be one of a number outcomes where you have little or no control over that outcome. If this is the case, draw a small circle.
If the result is another decision that will need to be made, draw another square.
As you will quickly see, squares represent decisions and circles represent uncertain outcomes.Now, take time to write the decision or factor above the square or circle.
If you have completed the solution at the end of the line, just leave it blank.
Starting from the new decision squares on your diagram, draw out lines representing the new choices that you could make. From the circles, draw lines representing possible outcomes. Again, make a short note on each line saying what it means.
Keep on doing this until you have drawn out as many of the possible outcomes and choices as you can see leading on from the original decisions.
For more information, or to see how to evaluate a financial decision tree, visit the decision trees page.
Undoubtedly, you will find this tool as addictive as it is useful and effective. And, with a little practice, it becomes quick and easy to use, making it a must for any busy professional who is dedicated to considering the options before making a final decision.
Final note from James…
As the busy holiday season approaches, it occurs to me that relaxation is something we all need to integrate into our busy daily lives. I hope the information we have provided on relaxation and yoga help you to do this. We will continue to provide you with similar information in upcoming newsletters, striving to help each of you bring a harmonious balance to your life.
And as we said earlier, if you have enjoyed this issue, we would really appreciate it if you emailed it on to your friends and co-workers. If you think they would benefit from the skills we teach, please pass this on! And if you have your own website, please feel welcome to post this newsletter to it (see the bottom of this email for more information).
As a final point, you will see that we've had quite a number of launches in the last few newsletters. Just letting you know that this will continue. We've got a wonderful new service coming up in the next newsletter that I just can't wait to tell you about!
Best wishes, thank you for reading, and have a great month!
James
James Manktelow
Click here to email
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Essential Skills for an Excellent Career!
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