Decisiveness and Decision-Making

How are you at making decisions? Quick?  Slow?  Or do you procrastinate making a decision?  Do you see-saw back and forth, unsure of what to decide?  Decisiveness is the ability to make clear-cut and timely decisions with the appropriate amount of information.  And decision-making is the ability to efficiently and thoughtfully select one option among different choices.   This is a critically important skill for most jobs.  But not everyone is good at making decisions.  This cognitive ability is one of a dozen or so Executive Functions of the human mind.  For some, it comes easier than for others.  Why is that? Research shows that the brain works like a muscle.  It is strongest when it is rested and well fed.  But, when depleted, it becomes less effective.  This is true of many cognitive functions, but especially focus and decision making.  This should be taken into consideration when making decisions.

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Shifting / Adaptability

A very important executive function that individuals must master to be successful is adaptability.  Adaptability is the ability to modify or adjust one’s thoughts and behaviors to new, changing, and unexpected situations.  Today, one might call it the ability to ‘pivot’ when an unforeseen situation arises. Continue reading →

Planning and Prioritizing

How Do You Eat an Elephant?

The old joke asks, how do you eat an elephant? Answer: one bite at a time.  People are told this when they have a huge project to tackle or their schedule is overflowing with too many tasks.  At the heart of this is the challenge of planning and prioritizing. Everyone knows the feeling of being stuck on a big project. It can be overwhelming when we are presented with a task so immense that we anguish over how to tackle it…or procrastinate because it is so overwhelming.  Most people also know the feeling of having to juggle too many tasks at the same time and not being sure how to keep it all going simultaneously. Continue reading →

Planning and Prioritizing

IQ is not the biggest driver of success.  We give very little thought to “how” we think, but it is our cognitive processes that makes us productive, not IQ.  Executive Function skills are self-management skills used to achieve goals.  It’s how we manage our emotions and attention, reflect upon and revise our tactics as circumstances change, and organize and plan our work and time.  These skills are critical for being productive and meeting the challenges of our professional lives.  That is the key distinction between Executive Functions and intellect or IQ.  A person with a high IQ can understand and discuss complex concepts and yet not be able to write an essay, solve problems, or complete a report.  It’s not because they lack intellect.  It’s because they can’t effectively marshal their efforts toward a specific goal. Continue reading →

In his Ted Talk discussing how working memory allows us to make sense of what’s happening right now, educational psychologist Peter Doolittle put it succinctly when he said, “Life comes at us very quickly, and what we need to do is take that amorphous flow of experience and somehow extract meaning from it.”  That is what working memory allows us to do.  Working memory is essential for logic, reasoning, reading, and IQ.  It also plays a crucial role in learning new things, mastering new skills, and generally following directions.  Working memory is also essential for practically any job.  We use working memory to focus our attention, conduct mental math, solve problems, follow directions or instructions, encode and retrieve information into and out of our own long term memory, maintain stamina during complex tasks, and take notes while listening to a presentation or at a meeting. Continue reading →

Working Memory and Success

Behavior is the big, broad term for everything we do.  It’s just a fancy word for action.  And, for most adults, action equals work.  Most people aren’t paid to just think.  They are paid to do.  To act.  So the mental processes we use to control our behaviors or actions are key to the work we produce.  And we control our behaviors in large part through eight major cognitive processes collectively known as Executive Functions.

We use Executive Functions to regulate our own behavior in a multitude of ways.  Make snap decisions.  Ruthlessly prioritize tasks to make better use of time.  Work late on a project even when hungry and tired.  Color-code or organize items in a particular way in a work area.  Stay focused on a task for several hours.  Handle a major setback calmly.  Saving money toward retirement.  These are all examples of people exercising their Executive Functions in controlling their actions. Continue reading →

Impulsivity and Self Control

Executive Functions are a set of eight cognitive processes that are needed for self-regulating our own behaviors.  Executive Functions make it possible to mentally play with ideas; take the time to think before acting; stop an action that isn’t appropriate for a situation; adapting to an unexpected change; meet novel, unanticipated challenges and make quick decisions; resist temptations; and stay focused. Continue reading →

Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, once said “There is only one boss. The customer ― and he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”  That reflected Walton’s understanding that the key is to keep customers happy.  It was that kind of thinking that grew Walmart from a single department store in 1950 in Bentonville, Arkansas to 24 stores in Arkansas by 1967, and 125 stores in dozens of states with over 7,500 sales associates and $340 million in sales by 1975.  Today, of course, Walmart has 11,000 stores in 27 countries.  It started by delivering great service and low prices.  But, ironically, Walmart’s customer service has declined to the point where it now is ranked among companies known for poor service. Continue reading →

Maya Angelou once said “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”  This is true in life and it is true in business.  Connecting with people on an emotional, personal level has always been the best way to win customers, keep customers and convert customers into raving fans.  But business gurus keep looking for a new approach to customer service.

In the 1980s and 90s, the focus was on customer care… showing customers how much they were valued and appreciated.  Think giveaways and concierge service.  By the 2000s, the focus shifted to customer engagement… finding new ways to connect and dialogue with customers in order to give them what they want.   Think blogs, email, live chat, mobile apps, and call-me-now.  And in the last decade, as companies gained a better understanding of the connection between brand identity and customer relationships, businesses sought to achieve customer entanglement… a mix of connection, trust and brand love.  Think corporate responsibility, social impact, social messaging, and a sense of kinship. Continue reading →

The Zellennial generation includes those born roughly between 2001 and 2016.  The oldest Zs just turned 21 this year and are legally allowed to do everything adults can do in the U.S. including drive, vote, and drink.  They are the first generation born and raised in the 21st century.  And we know most are either in college and/or starting to work.  But, if they are so young, why do we need to study them now, and how much can we really say with certainty about who they are and will become? Continue reading →