Kit Prendergast, PCC
Kit brings you a wealth of expertise and experience as well as a wonderful spirit, energy, and a gift for inspiring you to create the life you truly want for yourself.Kit's Tips & Books
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Category Archives: Kit’s Tips
Remembering Names the Easy Way
Remembering people as individuals is the cornerstone to building powerful personal and professional relationships. Start with remembering their name with a word picture. Our minds usually think in pictures. And it helps to exaggerate your picture so you will remember it quickly. Remember this picture is just for you – don’t share it.
Now that you remember someone’s name, let’s have a meaningful conversation with this person. Pretend you are at a business event and you are talking to someone new. Practice on them. Stop any distractions by maintaining good eye content with the person. Listen closely and really hear what they are saying. Be curious and focus, focus, focus!
- Listen for information about these six general areas: where they live, family and friends, paid and community work, travel adventures, unique interest and finally their ideas.
- Ask about any other areas that you are curious about – be interested in them as an individual.
Now create a word picture in your mind to remember what you just heard. Dale Carnegie calls this “conversation links”. Create a picture – the more exaggerated the better- that links together these pieces of information. Dale Carnegie trainers give hysterical examples in the live training. It works! You don’t forget the picture or the individual and their unique story.
Create An Upward Spiral for Yourself
Initiating changes in our lives takes work. And it’s easy to get discouraged if we are striving for a big goal that seems overwhelming to achieve. We may even be tempted to not start in the first place justifying it to ourselves in multiple ways.
But we can be successful in attaining these bigger goals if we are willing to use our time, energy and creativity on a daily basis in a very strategic way. Using the core philosophy of Tom Roth in his newest book Eat, Move, Sleep: How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes we can use the power of choice to build upward momentum. Here’s how . . .
- Clarify one thing that is really important to you right now. For example, physical health may be a priority for you at this time.
- Identify three choices you could make on a daily basis that would complement each other and lead to improved physical health. For example, eating more fruits & vegetables; walking each morning and increasing sleep by 30 minutes each night.
- Commit to doing these three actions each day for one week. Keep a written log or use another accountability system (ex. check-in with a friend) that works for you. Do all three each day giving each equal attention.
How do you feel now? Hopefully, your efforts have had a significant ripple effect all week so that each subsequent day was even better than the day before. It’s amazing how the momentum of one change affects the other changes you are making. You are sleeping better so you feel like walking in the morning and then the exercise helps you chose healthier food throughout the day.
The result is you feel better all day long and into the next day as well. Each choice works together rather than in isolation increasing your success rate substantially.
3 Ways to Retrain Your Brain Each Day!
All through my professional work history as a child abuse social worker, psychotherapist, corporate trainer and career/leadership coach, I have always embraced the power of positive emotional health. It is critical in all areas of our lives. And we as individuals have the responsibility to protect but also strategically develop our emotional well-being each and every day.
Taking care of ourselves in this way has a wonderful positive ripple effect on our families, our work and in our communities. Here are my favorite 3 ways to retrain our brains each day.
- Before you get out of bed in the morning – identify 3 things that you are grateful or thankful for in this new day.
- Do a small act of kindness each day . . . and don’t tell anyone else about it.
- When you go to bed at night – identify 3 things that went well that day (Seligman’s What Went Well exercise).
Do these three things for a full week. What do you notice? How has your thinking shifted? I hope you are noticing less negative thoughts and a few more positive ripples in the chatter we all hear in our heads during the day. Enjoy the change!
Innovative Thinking: Stand In the Middle of the Intersection
Yes, you heard me right. If you’re ready to learn to be more creative, go stand in the middle of an intersection – preferably one that has a crosswalk through the middle as well as from corner to corner. At this crossroads, watch and feel the energy from people from all walks of life using all different kinds of transportation as they merge and pass each other. Give yourself permission to just observe and allow yourself to be curious about the stories that you are seeing.
Sounds simple but this is what true innovators do all the time. They actively seek out opportunities to stand in the intersection and open their minds to the wealth and depth of cultures, ideas and diverse experiences they are seeing. They ask “Why” and “What If?” They question and challenge themselves and others to connect the dots in unique ways. This isn’t new. Look at our world history and see how the birth of the greatest renaissance periods came the intersection of the arts, culture, business and human curiosity.
So here are my favorite three ways to start standing in the middle of the intersection.
- Say “Yes” more often when people ask you to do something new and different.
- Actively seek out people who are different from you (age, culture etc.) for conversation.
- Expand your reading to include books, blogs, magazines that cover subjects new to you.
And finally, allow yourself to simply be in the moment so that you can quiet the chatter in your head to better observe, learn and appreciate the wealth of life in our crossroads of life.
Three Ways to Begin to Influence Others at Work!
Are you ready to have more influence at work? Maybe you are new in your position or maybe you are an “old timer” and now are itching to make some organizational changes that could take your department or company to a new and improved performance level. But are you a person of influence? Do others look to you for clarity on the company’s future and direction on how best to meet performance goals? Are you sought out for your ideas, your wisdom, your ability to manage organizational change and finally to fully engage and motivate others?
You may have some homework to do to become that kind of influential leader. Here are my favorite three ways to start.
- Practice your speaking skills (with individuals, small groups & large audiences)
- Sharpen your writing skills (share your ideas, connect with others)
- Invest in experiences and reading (to expand your awareness, interests & conversation)
And now watch others in your workplace . . . how do they persuade, inspire and influence others? What is it about them that speaks to others in an unique way? You can learn so much from just observing them in action!
Posted in Inspirational Leadership, Kit's Tips
Tagged Career, Leadership, Relationships, strengths, teams
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