By Magdalena Bak-Maier
All too often clients waste time and energy on activities that weigh them down. But how do we make the best use of our time when time is so limited? Magdalena Bak-Maier uses three lenses, diamond, gold and lead, to help clients work out where to target their focus
Time is limited. We all have the same 24 hours and yet some of us are so much better at focusing action towards notable outcomes and creating results. So why do others struggle?
Focus and clarity about what’s important are at the heart of personal and organisational effectiveness. Both individuals and companies that can do this well consistently outperform others. Coaching clients to work out key priorities saves time, decreases stress and helps create results.
We’ve all been there: having a two-page to-do list and lots of goals, yet feeling as if we are not making significant progress. Many of my clients seek coaching because they realise they are “capable of far more than what they are achieving”, are confused about how they lost track, or feel disheartened by their lack of progress.
Often, clients feel overwhelmed or fed up because they expend lots of energy without clear results. Time for valuable activities such as formulating strategies, planning, career management, or even rest, seem a luxury.
The cost of this varies from mild tiredness and dissatisfaction to disengagement, loss of motivation, discouragement, even a sense of failure.
Having clear priorities and a system for reviewing them on a regular basis is key in today’s busy world of work and personal lives where technology, social interactions and sheer variety of tasks and communication can easily force one into coping instead of living.
When we find it hard to work out what to do, the brain experiences increased stress as we become aware of it, leading to even further stress. Coaches are not immune. Many also struggle with time management. A simple system for reviewing one’s energy states and existing activities can help deal with stress, increase wellbeing and get the client back to a resourceful state of focus and purposeful, creative action.
Follow this simple technique to achieve it:
1 Personal wellbeing
A lot has been said about personal wellbeing, yet often I see people who do not understand the concept or know how to make use of it.
To be effective, first we need to have energy. I like to divide energy into four types
- Physical Can I run another mile?
- Mental Is my brain in the best state to think about this?
- Spiritual Am I in alignment with my values and what’s important to me?
- Emotional Am I experiencing emotions that are draining my overall state or nurturing it?
I call these energy types: the four cylinders. Depletion in any area will affect one’s overall wellbeing, the results the person creates, or how long they can sustain a consistent performance. Being able to develop self-awareness about the state of these four energies and helping clients develop resourcefulness to replenish them, will help ensure the client is in the best state to take action.
Make it work
- Explain the four energies and how their relative importance might look for the client and their issue. A clear awareness is often all that’s needed to precipitate corrective action, determine what is possible or even to reassure that current actions are good.
- Ask the client to identify their current level using a scale of 1-10. Explore with the client what a 10 looks and/or feels like to help them establish a clear benchmark. You may also want to explore the results the client obtains when all energies are high versus when some are low.
- Brainstorm ideas for simple actions the client has taken in the past or can take to replenish each energy source.
Fatal flaws
- Failing to link energies to the issues presented by the client.
- Downplaying the importance of one or more of these energy types as a short-term means of achieving results without creating action plans to correct it.
2 Where to focus energy – diamonds, gold and lead
Our busy lives make it easy to lose oneself in activity. It can be hard to examine what matters most and what no longer makes sense. Whether it’s career goals or working out key strategies and activities, bringing conscious awareness to ‘what is’ allows for clarification. This helps focus action where it counts most.
Make it work
Ask the client to identify their existing activities/tasks and to classify each one as: Diamond, Gold or Lead.
– Diamond represents the most worthwhile activities – rare opportunities and leaps forward
– Gold is activities that create stability and continue to build solid foundations
– Lead is activities that weigh the person down or consume time without yielding worthwhile results.
You may also wish to explore the factors that contribute to their assessment.
Explore where the client focuses their energy at the moment across the three categories. Often diamonds get little energy and clients are surprised at the amount of time they devote to lead.
Help the client create action plans that reflect their diamonds, gold and lead, and will best contribute towards creating positive results.
Fatal flaws
Ignoring obvious gold-like physical wellbeing, specific relationships and resources or values the client already honours or has in their life.
Failing to acknowledge and explore how activities can shift from one state to another. Changes in life priorities, even the passage of time, will affect where something is.
Not following through with the client to review actions and results.
Back to basics
Getting things done is simple, yet hard. In my own practice, helping clients make time count, as well as in my own life, I am forever conscious of how easy it is to get swept up in the busyness of life.
These simple yet powerful techniques focus on raising awareness that is fundamental to coaching and
to one’s effectiveness. Awareness combined with action creates
powerful results.
About the author
Magdalena Bak-Maier is a performance and leadership coach working with visionaries in science, arts and business. She is also author of Get Productive!: Boosting Your Productivity and Getting Things Done, Wiley: Capstone, due summer 2012.