Use These 3 C’s to Engage More Effectively

Who doesn’t want to use their time and utilize their skills to the best of their ability?

As you think about working more effectively – whether it’s for yourself, your peers, your customers or partners — you can use these 3 C’s to think a bit more strategically and tactically about your how to want to engage. There is no wrong answer for engaging with others. However, we are all limited to the same 24 hours, the same 86,400 seconds, every day. Use them wisely.

Communicate, Curate and Commit

These may be mixed and matched to suit your personal style. However, I encourage you to take a few minutes to read about each point, think about how you can apply them to your daily workloads, and then put a plan in place and start executing today.

Communicate

Everyone communicates all the time. Even when they think they aren’t. The challenge is to get your point across with minimal fluff and ideally no pomp and circumstance. Here are three old school styles of communication that never go out of style.

• PUP (Pick Up Phone) – This is a simple, yet effective way to communicate. Sure, it’s a bit old school. But, if you want to get to the crux of an issue … Pick Up (the) Phone and talk it out. This is especially true if an email conversation starts to go beyond 2 or 3 iterations. Just PUP.
• Walk Over to Their Desk (drive or fly if needed) – Another older style of communication is to get with the person … in person. Whether it means walking over to their desk, taking them out for coffee or hopping on a plane to see them. The impact of Face-to-Face communications cannot be overstated or over-rated. You can see the reactions, you can get the nuance, you can often get more done in less time.
• Thank You Letters – Have a stack of thank you cards at the ready. You will be pleasantly surprised at the reaction you receive from the recipients of your hand written notes. Take the time. Make the Commitment.

Curate

Curate – cu·rate ^– ˈkyo͝orət,ˈkyo͝oˌrāt/ noun – To Select, Organize and Present.

•  Cull the Herd – It’s time to think about who adds value. Yes, this is a hard thing to do and something that may cause some angst and anguish. Monitor your friends list on all the social media channels you use see which ones add value which one to communicate with you which ones communicate to you … Consider culling the rest
• Cleaning Up – Your workspace, your file systems, your car (if needed). Take the time to clear out the unnecessary stuff that is likely causing distractions. If you can’t bear to get rid of it yet. Move it off the side and out of the way. Ideally in a box where you can’t see it. Then, after 30 days (or 90 if you need that long) get rid of it. If someone else can make use of it (whatever IT is) give it to them or donate it. You won’t miss it.
• Clear Out Email Clutter – You know those emails you don’t even read? The ones you click on delete without even giving them a second thought? Open the next one you receive. Scroll to the bottom and click Unsubscribe. The feeling will be liberating for you and for your inbox.

Commit

Make the time to take the time for yourself. No one else will do this for you. Schedule your time accordingly. Yes, we all get busy and have to slide things around on our schedule. But, as mentioned above, you need to Commit to Control Your 86,400.

If it’s meant to be, it is up to me.
~Unknown

• Exercise – No one needs a study to know that exercise is good for you. Make a plan and make it so.
• Find a Mentor / Be a Mentor – I have to admit. I have been somewhat slacking in my mentor / mentee’ing these past few months. I will fix that and so can you. If you don’t have a current Mentor … find one. If you aren’t currently mentoring anyone … why not? For a little guidance see my post about Mentors and Inspirators.
• Plan It Out — Create an Editorial Calendar for your activities. Call it an Activity Calendar if you like. The main this is that you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard or some combination of both. Then to insure you do it … share it with someone else. Ask them to help keep you accountable.

What Gets Measured Gets Done.
~ Tom Peters

• • Ideally do this for the whole year. If you cannot wrap your head around a whole year consider breaking it in bite sized chunks. Just make sure there is enough time to allow these activities to become a habit. Habits take at least 21 days to stick.
  • Mentoring (from both sides) and Exercise Require REGULAR discipline. They need to be done regularly to have the desired impact.

Three Simple Words

It’s easy to say and write these three simple words — Communicate, Curate and Commit.

It’s much harder to put them into play. Those that do will Stand Out in their Career. They will be able to get more done and make deeper connections because of them. And, because of the exercise regimen combined with the Thank You cards you will likely live longer and have a far reaching network of contacts that will help you go to places you never imagined possible.

Most people will not put these ideas into play. Those that do will find the effort and the results rewarding. Can you do it? Can you Communicate, Curate and Commit? Drop a comment here and let me know how you are making Communication, Curation and Commitments work for you.