The definition of 'effective' is: 'successful in producing a desired or intended result'. What's the result you want to get to? If being effective means getting to it, it is important to know what it is. What is your mission? Why do you get up in the morning? It often helps to write it down. And write it again if it does not reflect what you have in mind. Every word counts. Once you know, there are some habits that are renowned to be important to adopt for you to get there. 7 habits to be precise. There's a fantastic book that talks about them which we recommend: 'The 7 habits of highly effective people'. So, what do highly effective people do? They:
- Are proactive and not reactive. This is because they know what their mission is and strive to get there according to their values and principles.
- Begin with the end in mind. They have a vision and never lose focus on that.
- Put first things first: being able to prioritise is key so that they don't follow someone else's agenda.
- Think win-win which means they think 'we' and not 'me' always looking at building trusting relationships with others.
- Seek first to understand and then to be understood. In other terms, they listen to listen rather than to reply. Then, they state their point of view.
- Find synergies with others: it is probably the third way, not 'my' way or 'your' way. It's the solution that celebrates each other differences.
- Renew themselves in four areas of life: physical, emotional/social, mental and spiritual.
We will dive deeper into some of these themes in our next posts.