7 Ways to Improve Your Personal Effectiveness Skills
If you are someone who strives to achieve your goals in both your personal and professional life, you want all of your efforts to be effective. Sometimes, there is a struggle between what we are doing and what we hope to have happen as an end result.
Even though the tasks you are pursuing may seem logical, you may not be going about it the right way. You may need to improve your personal effectiveness skills so that you are a better communicator, more competent with your tasks, and successful with your attempts at getting things done the way you want.
Personal effectiveness isn’t something most people consider on a regular basis. You may not have even heard this phrase before. But it’s what happens when you take your actions and goals and perfect them with a mindset and strategy that brings it all to the next level, ensuring you hit the target every time.
Below, you will find seven easy-to-implement methods you can use in your work and home life to enhance relationships, improve productivity and build upon your success with momentum.
1 – Have a Healthy Self-Perception with a Life Plan in Place
Self-perception is the view you have of yourself. You can look back on your own behavior and thoughts and form an opinion about the kind of person that you are. Ideally, you want to be pleased with who you are, and not constantly shaming or berating yourself.
It’s important that you foster a healthy self-perception so that you go into each day feeling competent and capable of achieving your goals. If you’re your own worst enemy, you’ll hold yourself back from great achievements.
Even if you have messed up in the past, it’s important that you show some compassion for yourself and understand that everyone makes mistakes. You are not a perfect being, and neither is anyone else on earth.
You want to focus on the strengths that you have and not your weaknesses. It’s helpful if you develop a life plan that is not unrealistic, which will only set you up for failure and disappointment.
If you have toxic people in your life, who are always bringing you down, it’s important that you limit the amount of time you spend around these people, absorbing their influence and negativity.
2 – Show Respect to Those Trying to Communicate with You
One way you can improve your personal effectiveness is to become a good communicator. This involves both listening and talking, not one or the other. It’s important that the person you are communicating with feels respected by you, so you never want to respond in a way that is hurtful or argumentative.
Start by learning how to listen without interruption. You want to pay attention to the other person and use nonverbal cues that show you are understanding what they say. This can include simply nodding your head or looking them in the eye.
When they have finished speaking, you may want to restate what they have said in summary so that they know you have listened to them, and you get to clarify that you are understanding them correctly.
When you communicate with the other person, try to be empathetic to their perspective, and don’t veer off into other directions when you are trying to make a point. It’s important that you are open to other viewpoints, and that you are capable of strongly sharing your own as well.
3 – Work Diligently with Goals and Milestones
One way you can be more effective personally is to become diligent about pursuing your goals and the individual milestones that will help you achieve them. Many people are all over the place when it comes to work.
They don’t have any specific goals, no plan on how to get there. They may be unorganized or constantly doing something other than work to avoid being productive. If you can eliminate distractions and manage your time correctly, you will be able to achieve anything you set your mind to.
Being well organized, and coming up with a plan that includes detailed steps of what needs to be done, along with timelines or deadlines, it can help you finish the projects and goals that you have set for yourself.
Whether you are looking at your personal life, or your professional one, you want to make very specific goals that are measurable and achievable and relevant to what you consider a priority in your life, and achieve them in a timely manner. These are also known as S.M.A.R.T. goals.
4 – Fuel and Use Your Energy Stores Wisely
If you are operating on a low level of energy, not only will you slack off on the tasks that you need to accomplish each day, but others will recognize this trait about you, and it can negatively affect you in many ways.
You want to fuel your body and mind so that they both have enough energy to support you in what you want to achieve each day. This includes focusing on getting enough sleep, eating a diet rich in the nutrients your body needs, and even exercising to get the blood and oxygen pumping through your body.
Instead of relying on sugary foods and caffeine for a boost of energy, you can implement smart life habits such as sleep, nutrition and exercise that will keep your energy stores filled to the brim.
5 – Manage Your Stress to Project Positive Leadership Qualities
If you have ever worked underneath a manager or boss who was constantly frazzled, you will know that it can be a very frustrating situation. When you are dealing with someone who is highly stressed, it affects everyone around them.
You need to be involved in managing your own stress so that you can communicate clearly with others, and they will feel at ease coming to you with their concerns or problems.
The best way to manage your stress is to practice self-care. This could involve anything from giving yourself breaks when you need them to indulging in a massage or even practicing deep breathing techniques.
6 – Be Persistent in Your Problem-Solving Efforts
People who are problem solvers are the ones who everyone else can turn to with confidence, knowing that they will meet their needs. If you don’t yet consider yourself a good problem solver, you may just need to be a little more persistent or consistent in your efforts.
It’s important that you learn how to focus on the problem and not give up in frustration. Good problem solvers are not only very creative in thinking outside of the box, but they are open minded to solutions that they may not have considered before.
Don’t be too proud to seek help or get input from others when taking on the role of a problem solver. This is often the best route in getting things accomplished easier and faster than simply struggling on your own.
7 – Own Your Life without Blame and Negligence
We live in a world where everyone loves to point fingers and blame others whenever anything goes wrong. The people who shoulder the blame when they are responsible for it, are the ones who create a fulfilling life for themselves.
If you are the type of person who can never accept responsibility when things go wrong, then you can also never claim responsibility when things go right. It’s important that you learn how to humbly acknowledge your mistakes and make an effort to make things right.
By knowing how and when to step up and claim responsibility to something, or not be negligent about things that need to be accomplished, you will achieve the level of personal effectiveness that others can only dream of experiencing.
Personal effectiveness is not something you’re born with or that is granted to you. You have to cultivate it on your own, practicing healthy mental and physical habits as well as implementing strategic success tasks into your life.