Archivi delle categorie:Personal Development

Creativity: the skill of the future

Creativity is among the top three skills of the future.  I try to clarify this concept and give you more resources to explore it further.

We often associate creativity with artistic or innovational abilities, that only certain special people have. Those people are supposed to live a life of free expression and to produce ingenious works of arts or invent something useful for the human kind.

However, according to creativity expert, Sir Ken Robinson, this view of creativity is erroneous. Robinson, whose talk on this subject remains the most viewed video on Ted.com, states that:

  • creativity is essential for all spheres of work and life, not just the arts,
  • we are all born creative, but grow out of it,
  • creativity does not require freedom from boundaries and usually takes place within a given framework,
  • creativity is a process, rather than an event, and consequently,
  • it can be learned by all.

Creativity is closely linked to, but different from imagination and innovation. This definition of the concept identifies two phases of the creative process:

  1. generating ideas,
  2. making judgements (evaluating the value of those ideas).

This helps explain why so many different factors may be conducive to creativity, such as intellectual abilities, knowledge, styles of thinking, motivation, certain personality traits and environment.

Even though there is limited scientifically sound conclusions on how to become more creative, a number of techniques may help:

There are a lot of resources available on the Internet that will help you boosting your capacity to create original and useful work:

Have fun!

Personal Agility

One interpretation of personal agility is that it is a self-management concept consisting of three main attributes: adaptability, proactivity and resilience.  The profile of an agile person, then, is someone who is:

1. Adaptive – able to adjust to different organisational conditions (new equipment, new ways of working, projects, teams);

2. Proactive – able to respond promptly and to look for opportunities in the changed environment, and

3. Resilient – able to cope under changing or unknown conditions or when facing difficulty or failure.

 How does one develop personal agility? Adopting these behaviours can help:

1. Expect change to happen

2. Embrace ambiguity

3. Learn to reframe your thoughts 

4. Accept failure and learn from mistakes

5. Be curious

6. Develop a can-do attitude

7. Distinguish between two main groups of stressors: those that are out of your control and those that you can confront

Being agile does not mean saying ‘yes’ to everything. On the contrary. And while this may be a self-management concept, whether one is agile or not will be influenced by the organisational context. 

Nevertheless, there is plenty we can do to become more agile. We have gathered some resources for you below. In addition, find inspiration in those, who more easily adopt an agile mindset, like children.

Choosing the right means of communication

It happens to all of us. We draft an important message and broadcast it to the world to only find out that the world “did not get it”.

The email was misunderstood; the news announcement jumped to second page too fast; the videoconference connection got interrupted; the meeting was too long, people got distracted and missed the critical info right at the end. Effective communication is demanding. It is influenced by organisational factors such as the workplace culture and norms, the level of communication skills of senders and recipients, the engagement of employees, to name a few.

But there are also elements within our control that can help us communicate more effectively. Choosing the right means or channel for communication is one. Here we share with you some tips and resources on this topic. Deciding on ‘how’ you are going to communicate entails first reflecting on your communication objectives, audience and content.

Think about your communication objective

Why are you communicating? Are you providing general information, sharing knowledge or asking for a decision? Is your objective ambitious and you are attempting to change behaviours?

Know your target audience

Knowing your stakeholders includes understanding their communication needs and preferences. How do they like to stay informed? Will they have questions? How would they prefer to give feedback?

Consider your content

Sensitive or conflictual information is best given in person (even if there is a written follow-up). On the other hand, if your content is more informal, for example, if you are sharing useful resources, you can use social media, which will allow you to label and store the content properly.

Know the strengths and weaknesses of each communication channel

We easily fall into habits and start to rely too much on a single communication channel (I think email is abused nowadays). It is important to consider the most efficient and effective channel for each message. Getting acquainted and comfortable with using different channels is a priority.

 

 

September, going back to the routine

Summer is not over yet, but we are back to work. It’s hard, I know. We miss the beautiful days spent on vacation, wherever it was. I miss the beautiful sea of Sardinia, the fantastic boat trips we took and the genuine food we ate there.

Here are three tips I would like to give you to boost your morale:

  1. follow your rhythm – it may seem simple but it’s not always like that. Try to follow what your body tells your. You need to stretch, take five minutes and do it. You feel like walking, go out of the office for five minutes and walk. You would like to eat chocolate, eat it! And if you are an early bird, don’t start your morning by reading your emails, leave it for later, when you will be a bit tired.
  2. manage your time – learn how to prioritise your activities not only day by day but week by week. Try to establish a couple of objectives you would like to achieve by the end of your week, prepare a step-by-step plan and follow it up.
  3. learn to say NO – It seems that nobody cares about the fact that you just came back from holidays. Then, make them understand by saying no. If your boss asks you something that it goes beyond your competence, let her know and ask for help. If your partner asks you something that you disagree on, tell her and try to negotiate. If one of your friends asks you to do some jogging with her and you don’t want it, just let her know that you don’t feel like to.

Being Assertive

To communicate with confidence you should be assertive. What is assertiveness? The Dorland’s Medical Dictionary defines it as a form of behavior characterized by a confident declaration or affirmation of a statement without need of proof; this affirms the person’s rights or point of view without either aggressively threatening the rights of another (assuming a position of dominance) or submissively permitting another to ignore or deny one’s rights or point of view.

If you would like to know your level of being assertive, fill in the questionnaire!

Then, check the results. If you would like to improve your communication skills by being more assertive, or change your communication style, schedule an appointment with me by clicking here!

Becoming Resilient

What is resilience? Resilience is the capability to recover quickly from difficulties and withstand stress and catastrophe. Resilient people have the optimistic belief that failures can be opportunities to learn, develop new skills, ideas or career options. You can read further on what it means to be resilient here.

According to psychologists, you can develop resilience in several ways. First, exercise regularly and get enough sleep, so that you can control stress more easily. The stronger you feel physically and emotionally, the easier it is for you to overcome challenges. Then, focus on thinking positively, and try to learn from past experiences. Build strong relationships with colleagues and friends, so that you have a support network to fall back on. Set specific and achievable personal goals that match your values and will drive you to achieve your purpose. Work on building your self-confidence.

Have a look at those stories of individuals who have shown resilience to overcome failure and achieve success:

famous entrepreneur stories

23 Incredibly Successful People Who Failed At First

Would you like to learn how to respond to the challenges of your daily lives in a more balanced and sustainable way?

Would you like to understand your own personal feelings, needs and limitations?

Would you like to start thinking positively and to be creative?

Get in touch with me, I will help you to get there!