Nicholas Bate

The Surgery Is Open: It Simply Isn't Working

It took me ages to get to the stage that I would actually finally get fit: maybe a whole year of procrastinating and rationalising. I'll accept all that. But what is now really, really bugging me is that it simply isn't working. I go to the gym and it hurts. I  run on the treadmill and I feel terrible. And week-end football with the kids seems no easier at all.

Well done: you've got over the first hurdle. Starting the change. But you now have a bigger problem: what strategy will execute the change? There are different ways to get fit, give up smoking, write a book, make a million. You have to find the strategy which works for you. Unfortunately we often don't make fully conscious decisions about that strategy; we assume it. "I guess people who write books do this...". "I guess to get fit I need to do this...". So: make this your quest: find the 'get fit' strategy which works for your body type, your personality  and your lifestyle. And how do you do that? You say you are going to a gym. There should be someone on the staff who can have that very discussion with you and in fact will be pleased to do so. Good luck. Once the right approach for you is discovered, you'll be well on your way.

The Surgery is Open: The New Boss

Dear Surgery.
I'm going to be reporting to a new VP imminently. How do I get off on the right foot with a new boss?  They will be coming into a new organisation and I've been there ten years. in particular:
-What to look out for?
-How to be?
-Tips for beginning a positive and stable (and long) working relationship?

Great question and one which touches a situation we have all been in and will certainly be in again. A few thoughts:
1. Most new bosses want to 'make their mark', so they will be looking to do something new/implement a change.. Help them do this constructively. There is a temptation to want 'no change' for comfort or because everything seems perfect. No-there is something which could do with a bit of kaizen. Identify it and feed it to the new boss.
2. Suggest you have a process conversation i.e a converstaion which is about getting to know each other and agreeing ways of working. Often we go into 'content' conversation far too quickly and then the problems occur.
3. Be yourself; if you can't, you can't be the best version of you and that means ultimately you will not be happy in a role.
4. This is fantastic opportunity to practise Steven Covey's Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood. It has been said that it is the deepest human desire to be understood.

I hope those help. Thanks for visiting the surgery.

The Surgery is Open: Post vacation blues.

I've noticed-certainly the last three years-that when I get back from the annual vacation it is a real struggle getting back into 'work mode'. It's a little similar to the feeling I get on a Sunday prior to work on a Monday. I know colleagues get it as well. Is there any way to avoid it?

The quick answering on 'avoiding it' is to lessen the shock between vacation and work by having a bit of transition time i.e. a few days at home just being 'around the place' to begin to 'wind up'. The same might be helpful at the start of a holiday period. For most of us our work is so intense, so 'full on', to suddenly change to holiday mode can be surprisingly un-settling.

The longer answer is to realise that maybe, just maybe the period of 'down-time' has allowed your mind to do some thinking and maybe, just maybe, it's time for a change. What we enjoyed once, we may no longer enjoy or we might want a shift in direction. So take those post-vacation blues and ask: what the heck are they telling me? And maybe you'll get some clues about future career direction.

The Surgery is Open: Wellness

So: what the heck is going on? It's been a really tough first quarter, we'll just about hit plan and at long last I got a week-end where I could spend some 'down' time. And what do I do? Feel ill, really ill. And it happens too often to me: when I stop, I fall ill. How does that work?

You have a body which is pretty smart and which is trying to protect you from over-work. When you work too hard the body assumes there's a reason (fight or flight etc) and will do it's best to support you (only up to a certain point of course). But once you stop it will try and use that time for recovery. At it's simplest that might display itself as exhaustion or possibly as illness as the body goes through a healing crisis.

Bottom line: your body is telling you to slow down. Before it is too late.

Negotiation Skills: The surgery is open

I want to negotiate myself a higher salary-how do I do it?

One thing we can easily forget is that you can't negotiate until you have sold. There is no little trick that will catapult you to a higher salary until they really want you. So as in any negotiation, sell first. Which in this instance means spend six months doing a fantastic job. Then walk into the negotiation room with confidence. Don't let them mess you about and ask for more money. But don't even think about it until they really want you. And they will-but you need to give it a bit of attention first.

Same with any negotiation: sell first, then trade.

The Presentation Surgery is Open

Yeah-the reason I'm back is I've been following the 'less PowerPoint' mantra and YES I'm enjoying it more and YES people are clearly more engaged in what I am saying but now I have problem with those who want a complete record of what I say....in the 'old days' I could just give them a copy of my PowerPoint slides. What do I do?

Firstly-good news on breaking out of PowerPoint and glad to see that broadly the new approach is working. Let's step back a minute. When you present you actually need to provide for three variants on the main stream of communication:
Variant 1=what you are going to say. Effectively your notes, not for public display.
Variant 2=what you will show to the world e.g. a slide, a prop.
Variant 3=your handouts. The record you might like them to take anway.
And of course that is why many people use PowerPoint-it does all three of these functions in one-but badly.

A suggestion. Write your 'script', then turn it into your public presentation. Then create an 'executive summary' in say word and make it available at the end of the presentation either as a hand-out or perhaps a down-load via your blog. Hope that helps.

The Productivity Surgery is Open

So-tell me. I've got the most advanced uber super-cool time management sytem and I still can't get everything done! What the heck am I missing?

No system can get it all done. You live in an exciting world of amazing opportunities, tremendous choices and staggering potential: but you can't do it all. You've got to choose and no piece of software is clever enough to do that for you. Remember: (1) You can do anything but you can't do everything (2) Less is More (3) If you are too efficient you are probably not being effective. It seems that you have a brilliant system: it captures everything for you. You now need to choose. You need to let some stuff go. You need to break the metric that says doing everything is the only measure of success.

The Productivity Surgery is Open

So: tell me? It's now February and every one of my New Year's resolutions including getting fit, learning Italian and finding a new job is in tatters? Is it me? Or what?

It's a common experience. And after a while it can become self-fulfilling: 'oh, goal-setting never works!' Here are few practical suggestions:
1. Write down all the resolutions, again.
2. Prioritise them against desire i.e. which one would you like most?
3. Concentrate on this one and forget the rest for the moment.
4. Break this one down into micro, tiny, brain-friendly even-a-baby could do steps.
5. Do one step a day.
6. It will work!
7. Good luck.

The surgery will be open again later in the week.

The Presentations Surgery is Open

If another person tells me not to use so many PowerPoint slides I'll go mad: I know! I'm not that happy with them either. It's just that when I sit down to prepare my material, I use PowerPoint and before I know where I am, I've got a set of slides...

I sympathise. But don't touch PowerPoint until you have prepared your presentation! Does that sound odd? PowerPoint is a resource you might use in your presentation-not the presentation itself. So: a suggestion, next time you need to present for say 45 minutes, grab an A4 sheet of paper. Divide it into say 9 boxes ( 1 per 5 minutes) and now create your storyboard. How will you end? How will you start? How will you grab their attention back in the middle? Think stories, exercises, questions and props. And then 1 or 2 slides. Give it a go: you'll love it!

The surgery will be open again later this week.

The Productivity Surgery is Open

The thing is..and I don't know whether you have come across anyone else with this..disease? Is it a disease? I hope not. Anyway I hope you can help me, the thing is I want to be productive but I just keep looking for new systems. And some of them I even set them up and then I'm off onto something else and I never actually seem to get anything real done. Can it be cured?

You are suffering from TM:MQS or Time Management: Methodology Quest Syndrome or the relentless search for the perfect time management system. It's an addiction and it can eventually be managed although you will probably never feel fully free of it. The main symptoms are a strong inner urge to find a new 'better' system and also a delight in setting up a new system only to abandon it at the slightest hint of something better. How can you manage it? Three powerful tips which have worked for others with this challenge:

1.State each morning: "There is no perfect system, only a system which works well for me, at this time"
2.Work with each system-however good/bad it may seem initially-for 4 weeks before any changes.
3. Remember that true productivity is a feeling of 'oneness' with what is happening around you so if any system after being road-tested (see 2) is not feeling 'right', it is probably not for you.

The surgery will be open again later this week.