Monthly Archives: February 2016

TNF #022: Still checking your emails or already smoking pot?

Welcome Professionals…

…This week, a colleague of mine complained about the newest version of Microsoft Outlook. It seems that the mail notification feature disappeared. She was referring to the preview window that opened in the bottom right corner with every new mail coming in and then faded after a few seconds. If this is true, then Microsoft has rendered an invaluable service to the business world just by removing this standard feature!

This reminded me of a scientific study of King’s College in 2005. They observed three groups performing an IQ test. The first one as a neutral reference group, one group smoking marijuana while doing the test, and another one distracted by email. The group with distractions suffered a loss in IQ more than twice that found in the pot smoking group! I think this was a funny setup, that is probably the reason why I can still recall it.

So, how do you shut down distractions? What is your best recipe for staying concentrated?

Looking forward to receiving your comments!

Malte

Thursday Night Flight is brought to you by Malte Müller Professionals. Sharing best practices for top management consultants on topics like communication, client handling, problem solving, appearance, and fitness. Check out www.mm-professionals.com for more material and free resources!

TNF #021: You are what you eat

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Welcome Professionals…

…we want to be the best we can be and we want to bring the best to our clients. To achieve this, it is essential on which fuel we are running. Our food determines our performance. This is why we need to pay attention to healthy, good quality, and regular meals.

Of course, there are many special diets to choose from. I find them confusing and most of the time much too complicated to fit them into my busy schedule. What is more, there seem to be fashionable diets that appear and are being hyped until they are disproved by scientists and the next hype begins.

Instead, I have a single principle that helps me making the right choices for me. You are what you eat! I have a clear picture of who I am and who I want to be. Applying the statement: you are what you eat, leads to further derivatives for me:

Healthy
Natural
High quality
No ideology
Diversity

It is such a simple statement, but it works really well for me to make the day to day choices. Am I the apple or am I the chocolate bar? Do I want to be the steak or the pizza? You are what you eat! There is nothing wrong with any of these foods. I personally like all of them from time to time. You are what you eat just helps me to choose the right option in each situation.

What are your diet principles? Let me know,

Malte

TNF #020: The beauty of progress reports

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Welcome Professionals…

…Do your clients know what you are working on?

Of course, they will know what you are supposed to do. But do your clients know what you are actually doing until date of delivery? When did you send your last progress report?

I don’t know any consultant who likes to write progress reports. Yet this is such a powerful tool to generate trust.

For most consulting work, the end product is hard to judge. The final presentation of results may meet the expectations or it may bring a surprise. One good indicator for high quality results is the effort that was put into them.

On day of delivery though, your client will most likely not have the patience to listen to stories about all the effort you undertook. On the other hand, explaining the effort after the executive summary will rather sound defensive.

Regular progress reports do the trick. They deliver the right messages to your client:

“I am thinking of you”
“I am doing what you expect me to do”
“I am going through ups and downs to achieve results for you”

Such a report does not need to require much work in itself. It can be just a few lines in an email or a two minute phone call. Take your clients through the process and they will value the work even more!

Try to share some progress just now, I’d love to hear from you!

Malte

TNF #019: Mindset of the athlete

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Welcome Professionals…

…how do you think of yourself?

In my first year of consulting, a colleague who was just 3 months longer in the business than I made the following metaphoric expression. “We consultants are just like prostitutes. We are selling our brains to our clients.” I thought that was disgusting.

I rather like to think of consultants as athletes. Everyday prepared and dedicated to highest performance, creating the highest value for our clients. The mindset of the athlete also embraces the need for continuous training, good nutrition, fair amount of sleep and mental preparation for the big competition. This picture serves best from my point of view. It combines a high performing craft with caring for physical and psychological health and fitness.

What do you think? Any other ideas?

Malte