Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

Get out of your own way at work

I just finished reading one of the best “coach in a book” type of books I’ve read in a very long time.  The book is Mark Goulston’s, “Get Out of Your Own Way at Work...And Help Others Do the Same: Conquer Self-Defeating Behavior on the Job.”

This book provides very clear guidance on 40 different problem areas that can limit your success at work, each covered in a separate chapter.  index_goyowaw The topics covered include

  • Being Competent but Out of Touch
  • Procrastinating
  • Being Afraid to Fire People
  • Quitting Too Soon
  • Not Forgiving
  • Expecting Your Boss To Appreciate You

and many more (you can see the entire table of contents which includes all the topics in Amazon’s preview of the book).

Chock full of goodness

Each section provides a clear description of how each of the self-defeating behaviors might manifest itself, some specifics about the “damage” the behavior can cause, great quotes, and many of the sections include stories from Goulston’s research to further illustrate the point.

The things I liked best were:

  • “Usable Insight” observations sprinkled into the text (example: “You have more control over trying or quitting than you do over succeeding or failing”).
  • The specific, usable “Action Steps” at the end of each of the 40 chapters that provide real (not idealistic or unrealistic) steps you can take to try to improve.

It’s like self-service coaching

I think anyone can benefit from this book.  When I read through all of the sections, I definitely recognized quite a few areas where I could improve and the advice in the book felt just like it was coming from a wise business coach.  Not bad for a book that costs around 10 bucks.

Go check out the topics in the table of contents.  If any of them sound familiar (and you want to improve in any of those areas), then pick up a copy of this book.

You can also find some good information and inspiration at Dr. Mark Goulston’s excellent blog.

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DIY with expert guidance

My wife and I are having some remodeling done to make our house more hospitable for her father, who can no longer deal with stairs.  We’ve had some excellent assistance from a contractor for “big stuff” like adding a shower on the ground floor. 

In addition, we’re taking the opportunity to perform some other maintenance and updates, but are doing those ourselves to try to save some money.  One of the projects was to repair or replace a pocket door in one of our rooms, and it wasn’t obvious to me just how to do the job.

In the process of researching the topic, I came across “Ron Hazelton’s HouseCalls” site.  This is an excellent resource for do-it-yourself home repair jobs.  I started with “How to Repair and Replace a Pocket Door,” but you can search the site and there are tons of relevant, practical tutorials from Ron.

Each one has very clear, step-by-step instructions (with pictures), tells you what tools you’ll need, and offers printable instructions.  Most of the topics even include videos you can watch online to see how things ought to be done.

This resource is a real time saver and confidence builder.  If you’ve got home repairs that you want to tackle on your own, check out Ron’s site.

What about you – any favorite DIY resources to share?

iPhone Productivity Apps

There is a great list of 20 iPhone productivity on the Web Design Schools site that should help you weed through the many choices you have on Apples App Store.jottiphone

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I used one of the 3G iPhones for a while and I think they are awesome devices – and part of the allure is the robust (and growing) set of choices for applications.  I used some of the apps mentioned in this article but many were new to me, and they may be new to you, as well.

Why am I not using the iPhone any more?

A friend of mine reminded me yesterday that I never wrote anything here about why I dropped my iPhone 3G and went to a Blackberry (I’m now using a Blackberry Bold, which I really like).

Here is the short reason:  Many of the business-oriented tasks I perform frequently were very difficult to achieve on the iPhone since it’s not tailored for business use.  Here are my top 3:

  • I couldn’t cut & paste.  I often send excerpts from articles, emails, etc. from my mobile device so this was very inconvenient.  This is very easy on my Blackberry.
  • I couldn’t invite others to appointments (i.e. initiate meeting requests).  Sure I could create an appointment, respond to calendar invites, and such on the iPhone but I could not invite others to meetings.  In contrast, on the Blackberry I can do all of this and I can click a button to find the next available time slot in which all of my invitees are available.
  • I couldn’t attach / forward contact information to others.  I often need to send virtual business card information (mine and others’) to people and this couldn’t be done on my iPhone.  This is a long-time function on Blackberry devices.

So that’s the short scoop on why I no longer use an iPhone.  I can still use many of the cool apps, by the way.  I upgraded my iPod Touch to the latest firmware which allows me to use any app in the App Store that isn’t exclusively for the iPhone.

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The Encore Effect

“The Encore Effect” is subtitled, “How to Achieve Remarkable Performance in Anything You Do.”EncoreEffectCover   A pretty tall order, eh?  Well, I must say that author Mark Sanborn has put together a very solid set of techniques that really can help you achieve noteworthy results in what you do.

The name comes from the notion that, if you deliver remarkable performance it’ll be like at the end of a great concert; others will applaud and call you back for more.

To achieve this effect, Sanborn offers a “formula” that centers around Passion, Discipline, and Action.  According to Sanborn, these three elements combine to drive the excellence that leave the crowd wanting more.  Each of these critical elements is covered in a separate section of the book.

Create the magic

“I simply set myself on fire and people come to watch me burn.” – John Wesley

It’s one thing to have passion, but quite another to be able to direct that passion toward a goal.  In the section on Passion, Sanborn talk about a number of techniques you can use to amplify your passion but, more importantly, he follows that up with a lot of coaching on how you can increase your chances of success through Preparation, Practice, Performance (engaging your audience), Polish (paying attention to the details), and how to anticipate and respond to Pitfalls.

Each aspect is dealt with in a concise chapter with advice that feels “right on the mark” to me, based on my experience.

Share your magic

Once you’ve mastered the art of producing encore-worthy performances, Sanborn encourages you to inspire, coach, and encourage others to achieve their own remarkable performances.  He offers some useful advice on how to cultivate the pursuit of excellence in others and I enjoyed reading his counsel.

If you’re feeling like you’re stuck in a humdrum, lackluster world and want to add some “wow” to your performance, I suggest you check out “The Encore Effect.”  It’s short and easy to read, but beneath its simplicity there is a lot of advice you can really use to be more awesome.

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New Year, New Focus

Happy new year, everyone!  After an enjoyable break the week and a half or so, I’m jumping into the new year which, for me, means lots of reflecting and planning for the future.

I’ve read a couple of awesome books in the past couple of weeks and will be posting reviews here in the next week.  Meanwhile, if you’re prone to setting goals at this time of year, here are a few randomly selected resources to get your juices flowing:

  1. If you’ve written your resolutions but are concerned about keeping them, you owe it to yourself to read the (always insightful) Gretchen Rubin’s post on the magic formula for keeping your New Year’s resolutions.
  2. If becoming more physically fit is on your list, you can get a free (and equipment-free) regimen that is just excellent at the “hundred pushups” site.
  3. In the only post I wrote during my absence, I have an idea for how to make two lists to increase your productive focus in 2009.  It’s over on Joyful Jubilant Learning.
  4. Finally, you’ve procrastinated this long (or are just prolonging the experience) there are some “best practices” for setting resolutions at Persistence Unlimited that may help.

Here’s to an awesome 2009!

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