Self-Management | Tom Watkins Coaching

Choose how you respond to pressure, disruption and uncertainty | Tom Watkins

April 28, 2017 By Tom Watkins

Struggling to accept what we are sometimes faced with is a normal part of being alive, like a tax on being human works-in-progress. Our battles with reality are usually won, in the end, by reality. But have you noticed that for very many people, reality increasingly involves relentless pressure and frenzy? Three inescapable societal trends are behind this. Being overwhelmed by them is optional. Within the next twelve months you'll experience increasing pressure, disruption and uncertainty in … [Read more...]

The best and simplest goal: get better

November 2, 2016 By Tom Watkins

Can most of us, with enough persistent effort, get pretty good at anything? Probably. Effort, as psychologist Angela Duckworth has shown, counts twice: talent x effort = skill, and skill x effort = achievement. And though both talent and our willingness to exert persistent effort may be at least partially genetic, only a minority of our personality is inherited. High performers don’t rely on either nature or nurture, but on a combination of the two — and they are really good at … [Read more...]

Sharpen-up priority management (1)

October 5, 2016 By Tom Watkins

The foundation of effective priority management is the ability to clarify purpose and hold our focus on it. Both steps can be challenging. The first, because purpose is easily confused with current activities, dealing with agenda or completing to-do lists. The second, because we get caught up in our attitudinal compulsions (to be constantly busy or needing to be liked by others, for example), and effortless distraction is almost always a nanosecond away. There's no perfect approach to getting … [Read more...]

First, step off the treadmill

September 9, 2016 By Tom Watkins

If we paused regularly and often enough to reflect on how we approach what we do, we'd soon improve our efforts and their results. That's a self-management no-brainer. But how and when can we get off the workplace treadmill for this? For many people, that's a serious dilemma. Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful. [Margaret J. Wheatley] When I first ask coaching clients to add periodic self-reflection … [Read more...]

Like a clock during a thunderstorm

August 30, 2016 By Tom Watkins

We are shaped by what gains our attention and occupies our thoughts. To limit unhelpful fight, flight or freeze reactions to adversity, we must develop some voluntary mind-control over our attention. We should know how to put it where we want it, whenever we need to. Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm. [Robert Louis Stevenson] Acquiring this ability should never become a matter of … [Read more...]

The very common denominator

August 18, 2016 By Tom Watkins

When the Operations Manager, my mentoring client Julia, met two of her team to address a complex performance incident, I was present in an observer role. She'd estimated the meeting would take 15 to 20 minutes. Ben and Allen (no actual names used here) responded well enough to Julia's genuine curiosity, her clarifying questions and occasional paraphrasing to test and demonstrate her understanding. 10 out of 10 for that: she'd been working with me to improve those practices and was doing … [Read more...]

Got a minute?

July 28, 2016 By Tom Watkins

“Yes, of course . . “, is the usually anticipated and almost automatic response when someone comes by with a query, a problem or a story introduced by that question. And why not? A refusal might be seen as inconsiderate, or result in missing some vital or titillating information. Why not? Because to do so is often a small sign of bigger problems. Reacting to this kind of everyday stimulus automatically, either from FOMO (fear of missing out ) or anxiety about how others might view us, is an … [Read more...]

Emotional Agility

July 14, 2016 By Tom Watkins

To have a decent shot at developing our personal character, we must bring the mind itself under control. For this . . . We should prepare for a lifetime of challenge, as there is no more difficult task in life. [1] One test of progress is how calm we remain under provocation. On what does our ability to do that depend and how might we enhance it? Mountaineering over a molehill I offered to support a colleague, but during the exchange he offloaded irritation in my direction. It was a simple … [Read more...]

It’s Terrible! Let’s Co-ruminate.

June 9, 2016 By Tom Watkins

Three sharply-dressed passengers sitting nearby on an early morning flight were sufficiently loud, articulate and interesting for me to overhear their conversation. Mid-level managers in a high-tech industry, I figured. Over the next 50 minutes they repeatedly agreed they'd be more effective and happier if their staff, colleagues, senior executives and clients would behave better, just get out of their way, or be different people. Definitely a co-ruminating group: regurgitating and re-heating … [Read more...]

Facing Reality

May 26, 2016 By Tom Watkins

Searching for easy simplicity, freedom from problems and constant stability in our lives is as futile as buying and keeping goldfish on the basis that they won't die. Dying randomly and inexplicably is what goldfish do best. Life is a series of problems to which there are no easy answers. If we want everything resolved and stable, we'll increasingly become victims of change as the world changes rapidly around us. Despite repeated awakenings from the fantasy that life should be otherwise, … [Read more...]

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