It’s time that we all start asking a different question than “How can I improve personal effectiveness?” If you are familiar with EDSI, you may think it’s hard to believe those words are coming from us. If you aren’t very familiar with us and our programs, then thank you for taking the time to read this post.

At Employee Development Systems, Inc. Employee Development Systems, Inc. (EDSI) we have been resolving employee development, leadership, generational, professional presence, and personal effectiveness issues for over 30 years. Our most popular programs are Professional Presence in a Casual World, Increasing Personal Effectiveness and Communicating to Manage Performance.

So how can we be telling people to stop asking how to increast personal effectiveness?

Here’s how. Concentrating on the behaviors that are going to get you there will have the impact you are looking for. If we take the pressure off the gas pedal on increasing personal effectiveness and shift our focus to the habits that will get us there, we’re more likely to have long-term success. Here are the practical ways you can do start to live the life of an increasingly effective person. Before you know it, you’ll realize that you’ve already arrived at the personal and professional level you have been working toward for years.

1. Use checklists. Research has proven that checklists are an effective way to organize, stay focused, and accomplish your goals. In the words of author, Atul Gawande, “Good checklists are precise. They are efficient, to the point, and easy to use even in the most difficult situations. They do not try to spell out everything–a checklist cannot fly a plane. Instead, they provide reminders of only the most critical and important steps–the ones that even the highly skilled professional using them could miss. Good checklists are, above all, practical.” 

The most successful leaders use checklists to make sure their brains are not overwhelmed with the details and projects that they are working on. Empty your bucket every day to so you hvae the mental bandwidth you need, to be the most effective leader you can be.

2. Learn the huge impact of changing tiny habits. Researcher, BJ Fogg, has found that successful habit changes occur at the intersection of these three things: Motivation, Ability, and Trigger. We all may have motivation to complete our projects more efficiently or reply to the emails that have been waiting in our inbox. We also have the ability to do it. So what’s missing? Why are you stuck in a personal and professional development rut? Because you don’t have a trigger. Try this experiment to see why. Start a new habit AFTER another habit has completed.

For example, let’s take that boring project that has been on the back burner, and never gets done. You know what it is. We all have them. It may be brought up at monthly meetings, and you always defer to how busy you are, the unexpected problems in your current projects, or other reasons. Yes, those reasons are valid, but you can still get that lagging project completed by tacking on one component of that project every time you work on the most exciting project in your current work load.

So remember, AFTER you click “Save” on your favorite project, that’s the TRIGGER for doing ONE THING that will help you reach completion on that lagging project. Just do one thing. If you do one thing many times, that project will be finished, and you’ll be the hero on your team, and the star player that others come to, when they really want to get something done.

3. Decide when. Here’s the bottom line. If you don’t put something in your schedule, it’s not getting done. Why isn’t it on the schedule? When it’s not on your calendar, you will spend much more time being bogged down mentally by your efforts at putting it off and dreading it. Give yourself back that energy by putting on your calendar, and sticking to your plans. Havev you tried this and it still never gets done? Then take if off your calendar and off your plans, entirely. It means that you don’t really plan to get it done. You may as well let the other people involved know that it isn’t a high enough priority for you rght now, and politely get get your name off of the project team list. You’ll be relieved, and you also will see your personal effectiveness and professional presence increase in other parts of your job, becuase you aren’t weighed down anymore.

Increase your personal effectiveness and professional presence by putting all of your thoughts and tasks on a checklist, instilling tiny habits with the all-important TRIGGER, and deciding WHEN something will be completed or else scratching it from your career or life entirely.

Employee Development Systems (EDSI) is a mission-driven company. We know that we can increase engagement, impact, and productivity with our hallmark programs. We invite you to learn more about our programs and connect with us.