Expectations

"X is meant to be tough, but not so tough that you're set up to fail."

Last night I said the above to my son, with "x" being replaced with "school," when he was complaining about having too many quizes to study for. I obviously agreed with him in this instance.

But the "x" could be just as easily replaced with any number of words, including "work" and "life." And saying this to my ten-year-old got me thinking about expectations.

There is a fine line between a "stretch goal" and being set up to fail. If the goal is self-imposed, it's up to you to know your strengths, limits, and what's tough but achievable.

But what if it's set by your boss and you realize it's just not doable? Hopefully you don't feel that you're intentionally being set up to fail; if you are, that's another issue and can be dealt with in another post. Chances are, your boss just isn't aware because she hasn't done your job, so if you make a strong case, backed up by hard facts, she'll hopefully see the light. If she doesn't, clearly document your progress, bottlenecks, conflicts, issues, etc. so that you have a documented case to prove that you accomplished as much as was possible.

And if you're going into a new situation, whether at work or home, take the time to have your and the other party's expectations spelled out at the onset of the relationship. You know what they say about assuming...

Time Management and Focus

Content may be king, but its cousin Information has gone slumming and is now available to all.

Having too much to do has become the norm, so how do you contend with that in addition to the information overload? Constant e-mails, meetings, tweets, blog posts, etc.--all necessary for you to stay on top of your job/industry and all vying for the limited time you have. How is one to manage?

Contrary to common belief, multitasking is not the way to go; focusing on one task at a time is. If you try to do everything, you will invariably make mistakes and not do anything to the best of your ability. Instead, choose a system of prioritizing and devote x amount of time to a given task. For example, if you have to read a long report for a meeting the next day, spend an uninterrupted half an hour; or better yet, pick a natural stopping point. When you get to that point, take a break and quickly check e-mail then go back to the report until the next stopping point. This will allow you to be more efficient and thorough in your task since you will not be dealing with distractions.

So similar to my previous post where I advised, based on reading StandOut, that it's best to focus on your strengths and not try to be good at everything, I am now advising to focus on your present task and not try to do everything. What does the common theme mean? Although our world may be getting more technologically able and automated, we as humans are still programmed to focus and until someone can figure out how to reprogram our DNA, we may as well make the best of it instead of fighting it--and failing.

Playing to Your Strengths

I've mentioned Marcus Buckingham and his books in previous posts. The book he co-authored with Curt Coffman, First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently is what first introduced me to the Strengths Revolution and what inspired me to stay true to myself and my strengths at a difficult time in my life.

This weekend I read his latest book, StandOut, after taking the latest strength assessment. After 25 minutes in which you respond to scenarios, you get your top two strengths and a full report on what this means to you. (If you're interested in taking the assessment without purchasing the book, it's available for $15 at http://standout.tmbc.com/gui/individualAssessment.)

The book was the usual combination of inspiring plus informative, but there were a few things that it either reiterated or introduced that I want to briefly mention here:

1. To succeed at a job, it has to play to your strengths and/or allow you to alter it so that it does so; otherwise the job will drain you while you try to excel at something you're not programmed to be good at.
2. Your strengths are where you can contribute the most so it's best to focus on them as opposed to trying to be good at everything.
3. Everyone will put their own spin on tasks based on their strengths and this is a good thing.

If you don't know what your strengths are, I recommend you take this or some other self-assessment test so that this knowledge can inform your decisions. If you do know what you're good at, then hold on to that even when things are difficult because only when you utilize your strengths can you really shine, excel--and be happy.