Solutions

411: Workplace Answers 911:Revelations For Workplace Challenges and Firefights

Lynne Curry

• Publisher: Publication Consultants
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781594334870
• eBook ISBN: 9781594334887
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management

Solutions offers you strategies, insights, answers and revelations Some are simple, others innovative and surprising—and all ones that can change your work life for the better. Solutions offers you sixty of the best real-life dramas—and enlightening answers from Dr. Lynne Curry's three decade weekly newspaper column run in multiple newspapers. Written by a successful management consultant and coach, Solutions offers you your personal workplace 411/911 written in Curry's warm, personal, enlightening and fun style.You Need a Solution When: You face a problem or challenge that doesn't solve easilyYour work life is good—you want it to be greatYou want excellence or more than what comes easilyYou can't see past your blind spotYou need an answer—and nowYou feel stuck—and want to move forwardYou're in a workplace firefight

Chapter 1

THE WORK LIFE YOU WANT TO LIVE

Seven Strategies for Remembering Names, Information & Passwords

Stress Junky

Is Your Job Meeting Your Needs?

Make Your Dreams a Reality

Seven Strategies for Remembering Names, Information and Passwords

You’re walking down the street and meet someone whose name you SHOULD remember but don’t. You can’t even put the person in the right setting; is he a friend from several years ago or one of the new hires in your company? You try to get by with a warm greeting, but a friend joins you and asks to be introduced. An awkward silence ensues and you realize you can’t fake it any more. The other person remembers your name, yet you’ve forgotten his.

On another day, you’re sitting at your desk trying to remember the phone number you just called and it eludes you. You try a wrong number and finally google the organization’s number.

Then just this morning, your boss gave you instructions rapid-fire—too quickly for you to write them down. You tried to commit what she said to memory and then jotted down what you remembered after she left. You know you forgot something but you can’t remember what.

Sound familiar? If you need a memory that works well under pressure, and that quickly recalls names, phone numbers, instructions and other bits of information, try these seven strategies.

Look at the person when you hear their name

When you meet a person, you often pay more attention to his or her face or to distractions than to the name. If a third person introduces you, you normally look at the person doing the introduction. If you meet a customer or have just come into a room full of people at a party and get introduced to others, your attention focuses on how you look or on the situation. As a result, you “miss” the names. Because memory is highly associative (one thing links with another), looking at a person when you first meet enables you to link the sound of the name with the face. Then, when you later look at the face, you more easily remember the name.

Make sure you hear the name clearly

Those who make introductions and instructions often rush, thus names may be mumbled or slurred. Similarly, rapid-fire instructions may be delivered in non-logical order. If this happens, ask the person to repeat his or her name or the instructions. If you hear only a mumbled name, or the instructions move too quickly, you’ll only remember a portion of the name or information. If you realize several minutes into a conversation or project that you were too distracted or rushed to fully retain the name or information, ask for the name or instructions again. You can’t memorize what you haven’t heard.

When you hear the name, repeat it at once inside your own head

Repeating a name increases your chances of remembering a name by 30 percent. If you remember repeating poems in grade school until you memorized them, you realize that repetition works. While something repeated once a day for eight days can generally be remembered for months, something heard only once may be forgotten by the end of the first day. If you want to remember a name, repeat the name in your head when you first hear it and then again aloud in conversation.

If the name is unusual or hard to remember, ask the person to spell it or spell it silently yourself

Because it is easier to remember visual rather than auditory information, we often take a mental snapshot of a person’s name without realizing it. When you meet a person named Joe or Mary, your mind quickly “sees” “Joe” or “Mary” as an automatic and helpful “snapshot.”

Unfortunately, when you meet a person with an unusual name such as “Tanzeem,” and you quickly think “what an unusual name,” this thought replaces the automatic spelling, and you later remember not the name but that the name was “different.” If you want to remember unusual names, spell them and while the sound of the name may vanish into the reaches of memory, the spelling remains.

Write the name, instructions, or other information

Visual memory imprints more strongly than auditory or verbal memory. As an experiment, think of your living room couch. If you quickly “saw” it in your brain and then described it to yourself, you demonstrated the primacy of visual memory. If you’ve ever made a list of items to buy at the store and left the list at home, you probably noticed you could recall all or most of the items on the list.

Given the power of visual memory, if you write a name and then look at it, you increase your chance of remembering the name. Similarly, writing multipart instructions helps you retain the information. Additionally, your writing cues the person giving the instructions to slow down and gives you a set of instructions to guide you later.

Say the person’s name out loud early in the conversation

When you meet someone, you probably say “hello,” and then give your own name. If you first repeat the person’s name, as in “Hello, Ben Swann, I’m Lynne Curry,” you increase your chances of remembering the person’s name by 50 percent. Out loud repetition proves even more effective than silent repetition because it more actively works your memory.

Use the name in conversation

Using a person’s name in the first three minutes after meeting them increases your chance of remembering the name when you next meet. The repetition reinforces the linkage between the person’s face and their name. Also, most people like hearing their own name.

Use the name when exiting the conversation

If you use the person’s name one last time as you end a conversation with them, for example, “It was good to meet you, Jenny,” you capture their name in memory for weeks.

Turn your memory on by motivation

If you’ve raised teenagers, you know many of them forget to do things you ask, but can remember the names of everyone in a music group or the batting average of every player on their favorite team. We remember what we want to remember and what’s important to us.

As an experiment, look around the room you’re in and notice everything red, paying careful attention to the near reds such as pink, burgundy, and even orange. Now turn back to the book and remember everything you saw in the room that was green or blue. If you can’t remember many items, that’s because when you focused on red, you overlooked green and blue.

The more attention you “give,” and the more you actively focus on what’s happening around you, the more you can keep in memory.

Give memory a chance

When you meet a person weeks after you last met them or want to remember a phone number or another piece of information, give your memory a chance. You expect your memory to be instant. When you first see a person or want to remember something, you expect the name or information to immediately flash across your mind.

Because so much information is in memory, it takes several seconds for your mind to process many associations and come up with the right name or information. If you expect instant remembrance, you often get impatient, and the resulting anxiety forms a sure-fire barrier that blocks memory. As another example, remember what happens when you stand up to give a presentation and instantly freeze. You draw a blank because you’re unexpectedly put on the spot and temporarily forget everything.

So, give your memory a chance. Unfreeze your memory by relaxing and thinking about anything you can remember about the person, number or other information. Relaxation and the remembrance of associated events helps the mental sorting process needed for memory retrieval. You can buy yourself time by clearing your throat or taking a deep breath.

Remember

Would you like to be able to remember the names of the people you meet, the phone numbers you call frequently, and the information you receive?

If so, look at a person when you first meet them so you’ll be able to later link the sound of their name to their face. Make sure you hear new names or information clearly—you can’t memorize what you can’t clearly hear. Take notes to help remember instructions or numbers. Say the name out loud in greeting and in conversation if you can. If not, mentally repeat the name to yourself. If the name is unusual, try to spell it. If you really want to remember something, give it your full attention. Finally—give your memory a chance—let it work and exercise it daily.

Stress Junky

If your work pace resembles a jet stream, you’ve probably heard all that advice about relaxing. Forget those critics—what do they know? Go for maximum stress. Stress hormones, particularly adrenaline, give you the cheapest biochemical high legally available without a prescription. Drug addicts take speed to get the same kick you can get, legally, by wiring yourself to the max and working 50 to 90 hours a week at warp speed.

If you’ve told your coworkers or employees that vacations and three-day weekends are for sissies, right on. Don’t let anyone tell you that you need to take time off. If circumstances force you to take a vacation, make sure you carry your cell phone, pager and iPad with you. Better yet, take your laptop and install new software while on the beach. That way, you can spend your beach time waiting hours on hold for technical help and worrying about what’s happening in the office. If your employees, customers, or coworkers don’t call you, call them.

To keep a real adrenaline rush flowing, avoid prioritizing and delegating. Schedule more each day than you can possibly get done. Why decide to cut things out when keeping too many projects going at once gives you an adrenaline high so intense your teeth grit? In fact, train yourself to put all major projects off indefinitely or until the deadline is NOW. Tell yourself that you work better that way.

Similarly, avoid any activities that might give you perspective. Don’t go for walks, lunch with friends, spend time with your kids, book a night at a hotel with your mate, or just sit by the fire with a good book. Leave perspective to those who study art.

Instead, worry about everything you can’t control. Commit yourself to perfectionism by setting impossibly high personal and professional standards for yourself and others. Beat yourself up when you don’t meet your expectations. And, if unremitting overwork and pressure begin to get to you, get nasty with others. Stir things up and you can achieve a stress high so extreme that you carry yourself and those around you to new adrenaline highs.

Meanwhile, don’t confuse yourself with exercise or nutrition. You don’t need toned muscles, an improved cardiovascular system, or the glow that comes from having done something for yourself. Remember—exercise costs you a minimum of two stress “fixes” a day. And then there’s nutrition—what’s wrong with mainlining coffee and donuts? Nothing keeps you going like a sugar high.

Finally, take all criticism to heart. If a coworker, employee, or supervisor criticizes you and says they’re really talking about what you’ve done and not you, don’t believe them. Take any comments as direct personal attacks. Don’t be a wuss and clarify what you could do to improve. Instead, get offended and attack back.

Remember, you can either enjoy relaxation, a balanced life, and a sense of humor or you can thrive on unremitting stress. The choice is yours. Staying stressed is no laughing matter. Why risk losing the edge that keeps you wired to the max?

Is Your Job Meeting Your Needs?

If you’re like most good employees, you keep a strong focus on meeting your job’s needs. What about your own needs? Is your job doing for you what you want it to do?

You could ignore this question—and many of us do. After all, if we start asking ourselves unsettling questions about how well our job suits us, we may not like the answers. If we don’t ask the questions, however, we live the answers.

The alternative? Ask yourself seven questions, and use what you learn to decide how to grow your psychological work paycheck.

Question #1: What motivates you?

What motivates you to work? If you had the opportunity to choose between two jobs offered you, what would lead you to chose one over the other? Is money more or less important to you than interesting work? Is social contact more or less essential to you than the chance to advance? Would you choose a job offering the opportunity to make challenging decisions over one offering greater security—or would you rather not make hard decisions?

Question #2: What excites you?

What daily events excite you at work? Do you enjoy getting to the end of your in-basket, or do you look more forward to starting new projects than to completing old ones? If you could choose, would you rather write reports or assist customers? Do you more enjoy the days during which you have a lot of people interaction, or do you cherish the rare days when you get a chance to complete projects requiring concentration?

Question #3: What doesn’t?

What do you do because you have to? Are you the firm’s resident computer guru, do you take care of everyone’s questions—but give up the chance to get your own work done or job satisfaction in return? Do you negotiate on behalf of your company even though the process shreds your patience? Does filing send you over the job satisfaction cliff?

Question #4: What fits?

How does work fit into your life? Do you have time for the things you need to do most? Are you making enough money, or are you making more than you really need? What do you want to accomplish in life? How does your job mesh with this—or does it get in the way?

Question #5: If you could…

If you could change your job, what aspect would you change first? Do you need more authority to balance your responsibility? Would you like to do exactly the same kind of work, but become your own boss?

Question #6: Are you growing?

Is your job growing you? Are you working to your full potential? Does your job contain victories that enhance your self-esteem or disappointments that erode your sense of self? What growth or professional development do you need, and are you getting it?

Question #7: What does your gut say?

If you knew then what you know now, would you have launched into the career or taken the job you now have? If your best friend asked, “Would I like your job?” what would you say? Do you enjoy getting up and going to work?

The Answer:

Now that you’ve asked the questions, what do your answers reveal? Does your job meet your needs? If not, yet your job comes close to matching what you want from work, how can you fix the areas of near miss? And if your job doesn’t meet your needs, what do you plan to change? You can ignore this final question—and many do—and simply live the answers. ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• What Solutions Offers You
• Contents
• Chapter 1: The Work Life You Want to Live
• Chapter 2: Communication and Conflict Skills that Really Work
• Chapter 3: Coworker Dilemmas
• Chapter 4: Taking Control
• Chapter 5: Leadership Strategies
• Chapter 6: Gain and Maintain Your Dream Job