Lesson Six focused on the Art of Getting Heard. This lesson changes gears from a focus on how to communicate your brand to how to manage your brand.
As a medieval catholic monk Thomas à Kempis put it so eloquently:
“If you can win complete mastery over self, you will easily master all else. To triumph over self is the perfect victory.”
In my executive coaching work I regularly come across clients who have issues with self-management. Their managers’ characterise them as having a reputation (read personal brand) associated with being hard to work with, “difficult” chaotic, undisciplined or unmotivated.
Effective self-management, in relation to brand includes:
- keeping your ego or negative self talk (whichever applies to you) in check so you maintain an accurate picture of yourself and your capabilities
- trusting and backing yourself and your ideas
- handling yourself gracefully under pressure
- managing your moods and the impact you have on others
- taking sustained and focused action to achieve your goals
- taking responsibility for your own self care so that you are able to perform at your best
At the core of effective self-management are the daily habits that enable you to be at your most calm and productive. These are different for everyone but may include: creating space in your day without interruptions so you can get important tasks completed, taking time out to do nothing for a few minutes every day to regroup and refocus, or counting to ten before responding in certain situations.
How effective are you at self-management? Better at some things than others? Need to develop some habits to better support you?
Different approaches to sorting out self-management work for different people. The three books below are a good place to start. All books are linked to Amazon with Affiliate links.
1. Hard Core Commitment
The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loer an Tony Schwartz. The authors come from the perspective of performance psychology and the book is based on a sporting model. They believe that managing energy not time should be the focus and have some practically suggestions for developing the daily rituals that support high energy.
Best suited for those familiar and comfortable with sports approaches.
2. Been there done that
The Power of Less by Leo Babuta is based on the author’s own experience of experimenting and applying his six principles to improve his own results. In many ways the recommendations are not new but the emphasis on paring down to the essential and then focusing on it are helpful.
Best suited for those looking for a gentler approach more philosophical approach.
3. Burned out and overloaded
One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer is a distillation of Maurer’s observations as a psychologist about why people do and don’t succeed at sustaining changes in their lives. The basic premise is that if you make the changes small enough you’ll fool yourself that you’re not changing and therefore be successful.
Best suited for those that just can’t handle anymore things to do.
If you’ve discovered a particularly effective approach to self-management leave a comment and share it with us so we might learn. ☺
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