Personal Effectiveness

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Micro-learning: Mastering Meetings and Groups
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Micro-learning: Leading with Stories
Critical Thinking
Micro-learning: Critical Thinking
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Micro-learning: Natural Networking
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Micro-learning: Influencing Well
If Then New
Design (and share) your If > Then statements, for a purposefully prompt towards action
Catherine Allison
How to influence decisions and boost gravitas with your voice
Video
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Upping your gravitas by silencing your inner critic and amplifying your inner coach
Video
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How to check your writing for clarity
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Bennew
Using the 'Rule of Three' to communicate memorable ideas
Video
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How to pause when presenting
Video
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Working with eye contact
Video
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The power of plain language in presentations
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The power of 'You' in writing
Video
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What designers need to know about microcopy
Video
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Skills and mindsets for making mentoring meaningful
Video
RG
Setting mentoring relationships up for success
Video
Liz
The impact of coaching, and it's distinction from mentoring
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Practical pointers for authentic leadership
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Hilary
Coaching, and creating coaching cultures
Video
Ingrid1
Vocal confidence warm up exercises
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Vocal techniques for clearer articulation
Video
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Growth Mindset Mantras
Tool
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How to command an on-screen presence
Video
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How to start writing
Video
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The secret to a successful Tone of Voice
Video
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How to write with authority for brands
Video
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Keep it simple. Quick and effortless copywriting
Video
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Writing in the active voice
Video
NO
Course Pack: The art of saying No (and how to say Yes)
Presenting
Course Pack: Purposeful presenting
Behave
Course Pack: Behavioural Insights
Charm
Course Pack: Charm School
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eCourse: Go with the GROW model
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eCourse: Are you listening?
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eCourse: Meaningful Mentoring
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eCourse: Leadership Styles, a primer
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eCourse: Charm School
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eCourse: Owning Feedback
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eCourse: Practicing a Coaching Approach
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eCourse: Get SET with your Goals
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eCourse: Time Management and Prioritisation
eCourse
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eCourse: Mastering Delegation
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eCourse: Strengths to Influence
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Better Briefing: A bitesize guide from Baxter & Bailey
Tool
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Clear and simple copy
Video
MBT
Get your team talking to each other with a practical take on the Myers-Briggs personality test
Tool
Talking
Knowing me, knowing you
Tool
Tony
Course Pack: Decision Lab
Microicon
Course Pack: Micro-Habits
Mup
Course Pack: Managing Up
Feedback
Course Pack: Owning Feedback
ARC
Course Pack: Effective 1-1s
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What's your team's CAMPS score? Get a snapshot of engagement levels.
Tool
Listenup
Course Pack: Are you Listening?
Tension
And-But-Therefore — Try out a tested storytelling technique
Tool
Groups
Course Pack: Mastering Meetings & Groups
Page tosothat
To.... So That. A snappy structure to define the purpose of any meeting
Tool
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The voice in your head, and how to harness it — with psychologist Ethan Kross.
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TA
Think Again, by Adam Grant
Book
The Art of Gathering, by Priya Parker
Book
RSB
Root, Stem, Branch — An organic approach for telling your own story
Tool
Diff
Never Split the Difference, by Chris Voss — Key ideas and takeaways from the best-selling-book on negotiation skills.
Book
Daniel
Mastering (Virtual) Presence, coach and facilitator Mike Sagun in conversation for the Conversation Factory
Audio
Circlesheila
Decoding Difficult Conversations — Sheila Heen unpacks the layers within those conversations you're probably avoiding.
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Course Pack: The Business Model Canvas
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Course Pack: Delegation. Done
Albert
Course Pack: Defining Problems
Conflict
Course Pack: Constructive Conflict and Difficult Conversations
Inf
Course Pack: Influence IRL
Gravitas
Course Pack: Presence and Gravitas
Chatter Bottom
Chatter: Practical tools to apply, and harness the voice in your head
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eCourse: A Brand called You
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Course Pack: A Brand called You
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MOM
Mitchell on Meetings — What we learned and where it led
Conf
Course Pack: Building Confidence
Scaling
Experiment with a 'Scaling Question' to better connect, learn and influence
WW
Course Pack: Writing Well
Cuddy Dog
Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shares powerful, actionable insights on the impact of our body language
TFF
Watch Sheila Heen explain why we need to be regularly asking for feedback, and what stops us from doing so.
Diff
Listen to former hostage Chris Voss share practical insights on better negotiation.
Time Tool
Experiment with Timeboxing for more focus and productivity
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Build your time awareness, and reveal ways to boost productivity, with an Activity Log
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Time in tomatoes: build productivity and focus with the Pomodoro technique
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Six practical tools for building confidence and self-belief, shared by brain expert Ian Robertson
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Great questions to ask in coaching conversations, 1-1's and other curious contexts
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Course Pack: Navigating Negotiation
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Course Pack: Making Time
Orange
Practice the principles of persuasion from 'Godfather of Influence,' Robert Cialdini.
Circlestwo
How to be a meaningful mentor, insights from a purposeful podcast
Breathman
Mindful breathing — the foundation of focus and flow
Setback
Smarten your approach to setbacks, by trying out a Setback Story
To Think
Don't forget to diarise thinking time — experiment with a 'To Think' list
Silent Meeting
Make your next meeting a Silent Meeting
Can If Go
Immediately build your confidence, with a 'Can-If' statement
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Build belief by recognising small wins — Try a 'Done List'
Friction
Add some friction to your most common distractions
Fly
Channel that fly on the wall. Try some purposeful self talk to mitigate moments of doubt
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Micro-learning: Keeping a coaching mindset
Rest
Micro-learning: Setting Better Boundaries
Breathman
Micro-learning: Building Confidence
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Micro-learning: Feedback fundamentals
Presenting Head
Micro-learning: Purposeful Presenting
Time Team
Micro-learning: Finding Focus and Flow
Newpencils
Micro-learning: Writing Well
Coaching Criticism
Find the Coaching in Criticism. Things to try when feedback doesn't quite land
N Ngrab
Course Pack: Natural Networking
LWS
Course Pack: Storytelling
Spring
Experiment with a Springboard Story to communicate your change idea, and take people with you towards it.
Mentorsqarer
Evolve your 'inner mentor' — a short reflective exercise to focus your development, and the ways you can better support others
Do Story
Practical storytelling principles from Bobette Buster's book — Do: Story
Homework
Homework for Life: A ten-second daily ritual for noticing, capturing and practicing stories
Hear
Try this deep listening exercise for deeper connection and better conversations
5
Discover the impact a five minute favour can have on your relationships, and network building
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Experiment with the BRAIN model for confident decision making and problem solving
VCR
Course Pack: Voice Gym. Building your vocal confidence
22
A three minute mindset exercise, to support a coaching approach
Good Qs
Smart ways to frame questions in your next mentoring session
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Try out the CAR technique, and upgrade your understanding when interviewing someone.
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Five powerful questions for adding impact and insight to your next interview.
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Five tactics for influencing those more senior
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Micro-learning: Getting into a Growth Mindset
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Solve problems before they happen with pre-mortems
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A checklist for checklists — five things to tick off when developing a checklist
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Share genuinely useful feedback with the BID model
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Seven things to avoid when writing at work
Meetings
Finding fortitude, and follow on experiments
Confidence Ecourse
eCourse: Confidence Mastery
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Time Blocking, and bringing some colour into your calendar
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Kas's reflections on listening and questioning well
Video
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Matteo's coaching reflections
Video
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eCourse: Difficult Conversations
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Worksheet: Owning Feedback
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Worksheet: Time Blocking
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Raul Aparici on mitigating impostor syndrome
Video
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Book Club: New Methods for Women — With Sharmadean Reid MBE
Audio

Build your time awareness, and reveal ways to boost productivity, with an Activity Log

Experimenting with an Activity Log enables us to simply and intentionally keep track of track of your time, and create powerful reflections and revelations towards greater prioritisation, focus and getting more done. It's also a really useful tool to run in teams; driving conversation around becoming more effective and energised together. Follow the steps below, and give the tool a go.
Time Home New
Artwork by Leon Elder

How much time do you spend at work doing jobs that don't contribute to your most valuable tasks? How long do you think the top three items on your to-do list will take to get done? What percentage of your day do you spend checking for new emails?

Challenging questions to answer right?

We all struggle to make the most of the finite time on the clock each day, but in our experience the managers and team-members who feel consistently productive are those that can become 'time aware,' and empower those around them with a sense of that awareness.

If you'd like to become more time aware, an Activity Log is a good place to start. And the good news? It's simple and time-light to get going with.

What's an Activity Log?

Activity Logs make our time visible in the same way that an expenses spreadsheet or a sleep tracker does. Best run for a one week period, Activity Logs help us spot patterns, recognise where we're being proactive and reactive and what's giving us energy (as well as what's taking it away) — providing us with invaluable insights into the opportunities to optimise our efforts.

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Activity Logs

1
Set up your Activity Log

There are lots of clever apps out there, but a simple spreadsheet or Miro board will do just fine. You might even opt for a piece of paper. Either way, you'll need the following column headings.

Time — Try and be as accurate as possible with the slot and the activity that happened within it.

Activity — Briefly describe what you did in the time.

Planned or Reactive — Was this a scheduled activity, or in response to something unplanned?

Energy — An interesting, quick sense-check on where your energy levels are at the end of this period of time.

2
Complete your Activity Log over a working day

Carry out your day as you would any other, but note down exactly what you did, and when, as you go — noting the nature of the activity and where it left your energy as a result. Be as honest and as specific as you can. The more information you capture to reflect on the better.

3
Reflect on your Activity Log

You might choose to run the exercise for just one day, for a series of consecutive days or intermittently. Irrespective, reflection will be key to identifying and taking out valuable nuggets of insight.

Here are some useful reflection prompts, shared by fans of the Activity Log tool:

• What patterns are you noticing?
• What times of day are you feeling most energised?
• What tasks are taking away your energy?
• What activities should you be proactively making time for?
• What surprised you in doing the activity?
• What feels like it could be delegated?
• What feedback could you share with colleagues from this exercise?
• What can you change in your working day for greater productivity?

"To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom,"
Socrates

Activity Logs: Quick wins and watchouts

Keeping an Activity Log for a week (or more), reflecting, experimenting and changing the patterns of our work can have a big impact on our focus and productivity. If you're keen to give the tool a go, here are some things to keep in mind:

• Keep it simple. Don't spend hours describing your activities, that would certainly defeat the point of the exercise.

• If you're a manager planning to run this exercise with your team, be sure to frame it in a way that doesn't make it come across as micro-managing. This isn't a Big Brother, it's an open attempt to spark some reflection and conversation about how we can be working more productively as a group.

• Be open to it exposing problems, and use good questioning and feedback as a way of digging into them, and discovering ways to mitigate them.

Good to know...

Keen to further improve your time management and productivity skills? You'll find bitesize live sessions on Making Time, Micro-Habits and the Art of Saying No — led by coach and productivity obsessive Caroline Laycock — in the Courses section throughout the year.