103. Stop Fixing Weaknesses + Overcoming Distractions

Transcript – Episode 103: Stop Fixing Weaknesses + Overcoming Distractions

Joe:
You know, all that time and effort you spend trying to help team members improve on their weaknesses, it may be a waste of time. Plus, the settings you need to change on your computer to accomplish more, suffer less, and stay sane. That’s what’s ahead now on Boss Better Now.

Suzanne:
You’re listening to Boss Better Now. This show is sponsored by Joe Mull & Associates. Now here’s your host, speaker, and author Joe Mull.

Joe:
Welcome back, BossHeroes to the show that hopes to inspire, that hopes to encourage, that hopes to be food for the boss’ soul. We’ve been at this for a couple of years now, and we’re always thrilled when you join us each week for a little bit of advice and knowledge, and chatter. And I am so excited by something that we have coming down the pipe, Suzanne. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back to the show, HR Advisor and executive coach, Suzanne Malausky. Suzanne, I am so excited because we have decided that we not only are going to do our first live episode for a VIP audience, of just a couple of attendees but tell everybody how we’ve decided to record this that we’ve never done before.

Suzanne:
Well, I know, I’m so excited too. And after I know back-and-forth emails and chats, we decided that we’re going to do it absolutely together in this same spot. So instead of separate from my office and Joe’s sitting in his, we’re gonna do it together in the same room. So, cool.

Joe:
I am super excited about this. So, if you watch our episodes on YouTube, like we’ve got the two zoom windows side by side, right? We’re two kind of Brady Bunch boxes. I’ve dated myself with that reference <laugh> you know, two, two heads floating heads on the screen. But we are going to engineer this in such a way where Suzanne and I are going to be in the room together. And if you haven’t listened to one of our episodes lately this live event is gonna take place on Tuesday, April 25th, 2023. And a handful of lucky listeners are gonna get to join us for a live Zoom Q and A. That is also, we are gonna turn into an episode of this show. So, if you’ve ever wanted to ask us questions directly, this is your chance. If you’ve ever wanted to see what it’s like to record one of these episodes, or – you know – just get a glimpse behind the scenes. You can be one of 10 lucky listeners that are gonna get invited to this intimate VIP private Zoom recording of our show. And to enter, all you have to do is pre-order two copies of my forthcoming book, Employalty, and then just email proof of purchase to hello@joemull.com. And so, what’s really cool, I think, is that you don’t just have one chance to win. You have 10 chances to win. And we’ve got just a couple of days left to enter that. So, Suzanne, what are you most looking forward to for this live – in person – episode?

Suzanne:
Hmm. Well, of course, being next to you, Joe, that’s always something to look forward to <laugh>, but I’m looking for the energy from the group, right? Yeah. I’m looking for the spontaneous questions or just the opportunity to really meet people where they are, whatever their needs are, whatever’s on their mind, we’ll be able to address it. So that’s super exciting to me.

Joe:
And just so we’re clear, we’re not requiring them to be in the room with us, right? We expect people from all over the world are gonna enter this <laugh>. I’m sorry. Is that a disappointment, my friend?

Suzanne:
No, it’s okay too.

Joe:
<Laugh>, yes. Suzanne and I are gonna be in a room together. You all will be joining us virtually from wherever you are. But you’re right. I think that the energy of the show is gonna be great, especially because we’re actually gonna get to have a reciprocal conversation, right? We don’t always get to do that when we, when we talk that’s about the topics and the questions that we get. It’s hard to know or hear what, you know, what people think of that. And we’re actually gonna have flesh and blood people on the other end. And I think that’s gonna lead for lead to a really exciting conversation.

Suzanne:
Yes, I think so too, Joe.

Joe:
Well, let’s get to our agenda for today. And you have heard me say in the opening preview that all that time and effort you spend on trying to help team members improve on their weaknesses might be a waste of time. And that is really because of what we have learned and what we know about strengths and about how important it is to align people’s jobs to their strengths. Two of the biggest questions I get asked constantly and have for years as a leadership and employee engagement trainer are these, number one, how do I motivate employees? And number two, what do we need to do to keep good people? And what we know is that one of the core experiences people must consistently have at work is that they get to do work that aligns with their strengths. And so, in the new book that’s coming out, I got an entire chapter about this, and I’m gonna read to you some of what we found when we dove into the research on this.

Joe:
Despite a significant body of research that suggests orienting a person’s job to their strengths can produce desirable results, many organizations take employee strengths for granted. Instead, leaders have traditionally emphasized improving deficits. It’s far more common for employees to be asked to grow in the areas of their greatest weaknesses than to zero in on their gifts or talents. In this way, companies are chasing across-the-board mediocrity, over-calculated targeted excellence. Put simply when we spend most of our time laboring to improve what we’re not good at and don’t enjoy motivation decreases while minimizing weaknesses can prevent failure. Research suggests that it cannot inspire excellence. In the most exhaustive literature review ever conducted on strengths use in the workplace, one outcome was demonstrably clear. Investing in people’s strengths is a far more effective path to commitment at work than managing weaknesses. Employees who are actively encouraged to use their strengths at work handle their workload more effectively, show lower levels of absenteeism, and describe higher job satisfaction.

Joe:
They also experience more flow, vitality, and energy on the job and report higher overall well-being. Outside of work. There is a correlation between these outcomes and the amount of time employees get to operate from their strengths. The more hours a day adults believe they use their strengths, the more they report having ample energy, feeling well rested, being happy, smiling or laughing a lot, learning something interesting, and being treated with respect. Employees who get to use their strengths every day are three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life and six times as likely to be engaged at work. As a result, organizations that prioritize employee strengths see a wide array of measurable benefits. Back in 2016, Gallup completed the most extensive study of work groups using strengths-based interventions ever conducted across 50,000 business units with 1.2 million employees in 45 countries. Prioritizing strengths produced profound results and work groups where employees said their manager focused on strengths.

Joe:
70% of employees were engaged in groups where managers didn’t focus on strengths. The percentage of engaged workers was a staggering 2%. Even more stunningly. 90% of the workgroups using strengths-based interventions had increases in sales profit, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement. This is the mutual commitment that is at the heart of employee. This is how we move away from trying to find the best person for the job and instead create the best job for the person.

Joe:
Okay. So that was a couple of paragraphs that I wrote in the book, and I wanted to share that with you here to kind of lay the research foundation around the conversation, Suzanne, that I want you and ha, you and I to have about why it’s so important that people don’t just zero in on weaknesses, but that they actually pivot a little bit to zeroing in on strengths and then how we do that. So let me toss it over to you. Where do you wanna start?

Suzanne:
Sure. Well, I’ve been a believer in the strengths movement for a very, very long time. It just aligns with, well, how I think my philosophy, but to see this research put out here, the way that it has Joe, it’s undeniable, right? Yeah. It’s, we’re fooling ourselves if we don’t spend the time figuring out how to leverage this maybe secret for many organizations that lie behind employee engagement. Yeah. I believe it. From a personal perspective, I know when I’m sitting doing work that it’s, that is comes naturally to me that I get energy from, I’m more likely to stick with it. I’m more likely to continue to work it to make sure it’s even better as opposed to those times where I’ve looked at work that I’ve done where maybe, maybe I’ve failed or maybe I just didn’t reach the level of expectations of somebody else, or even myself. And it was probably because I’m doing something that isn’t naturally part of who I am. Yeah. Or a natural gift. It’s not to say that we have to be good at everything, or I’m only gonna sit in a space where I’m doing things that bring me energy that’s not right. But it’s like being mindful of it and making sure it’s part of the conversation and part of the work assignments and the job design for individuals. It’s not easy necessarily, but it’s absolutely, you know, indisputable from the evidence that you’ve presented.

Joe:
So, I’m so glad you said what you just said about that. This doesn’t mean that we are giving people license to say, well, I don’t like doing that, or I’m not good at that, so I’m never gonna do it again. Right. That’s not realistic. And, and this also doesn’t mean that we accept failure or that we accept poor performance. Right? What, what absolutely we understand about the role of strengths is that if we spend a considerable amount of time asking people to raise their game from something that they’re just okay at in the hopes that they get great at it, that’s actually not the most valuable use of our time as leaders. So, a more valuable use of our time as leaders is to key on the key in on the handful of things that people seem to do really well and get fired up about, and have a lot of conviction and talent and creativity around, and then create opportunities for them to do that more. Right. Right. And so, I, I think this is a really important distinction to make because when you talk about strengths-based leadership, a lot of folks go back to work and they think, am I just supposed to not talk to my employees anymore about the things where I want them to step up a little bit? And of course, that’s not the case, but how do we pick and choose how, how do we spend that time and, and the ratios of that time in the most effective manner possible?

Suzanne:
Yeah. And I, I think it’s important, again, just to reiterate, we’re not talking about lowering, lowering expectations for performance standards. You know, that’s chasing mediocrity, we’re not, we don’t want that. Right? But if you wanna raise the bar, then it’s talking to people about their strengths. And what if I feel it does require conversation cuz it could be a learning curve for both the leader and the follower or the team member?  Because I might not be aware of my strengths. So, someone talks to me about how they see me, how they see me light up, or how they see my contributions as being valuable to the team. I may have a blind spot. And so, if they’re telling me this and I’m like, oh yeah, maybe it fills me up, helps with my self-awareness, helps me understand where, where I’m needed and where I’m valued, that’s engaging to me. Yes. That’s motivating. What do you count on me for? And if I’m coaching people and I talk about trying to get ahold of your strengths, I say that you need to articulate them, right? Know what they are, be able to talk about them. But sometimes getting that information means asking other people. And looking at the clues, who do, who do, who comes to you, what do they come to you for? Yes. Typically, those, that’s a good idea of where your strengths are. But I was, I, I joke because one of my best, biggest strengths was called out as a negative thing early on in my life.

Joe:
Interesting.

Suzanne:
Yes, Mrs. Burns, my first-grade teacher put talks too much on my report card. <Laugh> <laugh>.

Suzanne:
But I’m like, I’m gonna own this. So yeah, I had to learn when I’m not supposed to talk, but I did learn that talking was a gift and a strength and how do I foster that? Right. How do I feed that? How do I embrace that as I grew up and into my career? I can’t say I was that astute about it in first grade. Yeah. I’m just saying upon reflection. Right. So, we have to recognize too that some things we were getting demerits for or getting negative feedback, how do we turn that around and find the situations where that thing that someone thought wasn’t so great actually has a space to be great?

Joe:
You know, first of all, take that Mrs. Burns. Okay. Because look at, look at her now, right — podcaster, HR advisor, executive coach, author, speaker extraordinaire. Ha-ha, you tried to step on my childhood dreams, <laugh> and it didn’t work. No. But you just landed on such an important point around this conversation, which is really twofold for me. And the first is, one person’s weakness is another person’s strength.  And, and we have people on our teams right now who have gotten feedback from other leaders or other peers that, no, you shouldn’t try ho so hard at that. Or know you shouldn’t spend time on that because we don’t value that, or we see it as a negative when the truth is, if we can create a safe place for people to test drive their skills and talents and strengths, you may reveal someone having an asset or a gift or ideas or knowledge that are gonna be of tremendous value to you and to your organization. And then the other piece that is so important to articulate that, that you just hit on so well, Suzanne, is this idea that people don’t always know what their talents and gifts are, and it takes others around them to notice it. Right. And so, when we talk, when I talk about this from the stage, and I wrote about this in the book, that helping people create have the experience where their job aligns with their strengths, really starts with observation and then conversation. I’m willing to bet that every leader listening to this podcast right now potentially got into a leadership role because somebody else noticed that they maybe had potential to lead and maybe pulled them aside and said, have you ever thought about being a manager? Or have you ever thought about applying for one of these leadership roles here? Someone fed that into you.

Joe:
Someone noticed that. And so, sitting across from someone and saying, hey, I noticed you’re really good at diffusing these sort of high-stress situations at work, or I noticed you’re really good at, at creating these materials that people really like or respond to mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, when you notice people’s gifts and point it out to them, you’re actually tweaking around the edges of their job to align with their strengths. And then if you give them more of an opportunity to do the things that you notice that they’re good at, you are quite literally creating the conditions for them to thrive.

Suzanne:
And the message that’s so true, and the message is, leaders need to lead in a way that each individual can follow. Yes. Right. Be the leader that that person needs. So, I have a, I wonder, Joe, what your thoughts are on the leader or the new manager who’s up and coming, they may be stuck in the mindset that they want more people just like them. You know, I got to this role because I do this very well, I want everyone else to be like me. Do you run into people like that, and what do you say, how do we work on that?

Joe:
Yeah. So, I run into that, especially among younger and newer leaders. Okay. because when I meet a lot of younger and newer leaders and we ask about what, what, what does leadership mean to you? And what, what is, what informs the kind of leader that you want to be? One of the, the most common answers I get back is, well, I’ve had some really bad bosses, so I know what not to do mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And it’s interesting to me that there’s this framework of I am not gonna treat you the way that the bad boss treated me. I’m gonna treat you the way that I wished my boss would’ve treated me. Well, that’s great, but that still assumes that the people you’re leading are like you. Right. I think really what’s at the heart of being successful in any leadership role is recognizing that you are going to have to flex your style to meet people where they are. And that very few people on your team are going to be just like you. They’re gonna, they’re not necessarily gonna wanna receive feedback the same way you receive feedback. They’re not necessarily gonna get the same thrill or joy out of their areas of their work that you do. They’re not gonna have the same values, the same priorities, the same goals. And so, really working as a leader to plug in and understand what those differences are, and to work to flex your style to meet people where they are is much different than I’m gonna treat people the way that I would wanna be treated.

Suzanne:
I like that example. Yeah. Thanks for that. And that it really is the hard work of leadership, isn’t it? Yes. Truly is.

Joe:
So just to put a bow on this around strengths. Yeah. I want to invite everyone who’s listening today, if you wanted to do an interesting little exercise around this, take a piece of paper and put a line down the middle of it. And on the left side of the paper, paper, write the first name of each of the direct reports on your team. And on the right side of that line, write one or two talents or gifts that first spring to mind when you get to each person on this list. And for some people that might be hard, right? You may have that one person on your team.

Suzanne:
Right. It’s deeper.

Joe:
Yeah. Oh, Shelly. Okay. Well, what am I gonna say about Shelly? Great shoes. Shelly wears great shoes. That’s not really a talent. I don’t know. But try to seek out in your mind at least one thing that you know each person is good at. And then you start to think about, how can I endeavor to give this person the opportunity to do that more often in their job? Or even if you don’t get that far, maybe I’m just gonna make a point to give voice to this the next time I see that person. That when you see Shelly, hey, I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this, Shelly, but you’ve got a real eye for graphic design on some of these papers that you’ve put together. And I think it’s a real talent of yours. I don’t know if anybody’s ever told you that, but I wanted to make sure that I did because I noticed it. And it, and it seems like it’s a gift, might open the door to a really interesting conversation with that person about where they are, what they love doing, and where they want to go.

Suzanne:
For sure.

Joe:
It’s an important way to align with strengths. Alright, Suzanne. So that is a conversation that I thought was important to have, especially because we don’t talk about this a lot, right? When it, when it comes to creating environments for people to thrive. Few people go to work and say, boy, as a leader, I need to really focus on strengths more. But we have a ton of research that tells us that that is something that we do. And, I wrote about it extensively in the book.

Joe:
And speaking of the book, let’s actually do that segment now. Why don’t you tell everyone about our temporary Behind-the-Book segment?

Suzanne:
Absolutely. Joe. So, you all may remember that Joe has promised to periodically take us behind the scenes of what’s happening to bring this book out into the world. So, each week he’s going to share a little story or update that you won’t hear anywhere else. So, tell us, Joe, what’s behind the book? <Laugh>

Joe:
You know what? That was the wrong sound cue. I hit the button because we <laugh> you know, we’re not even gonna edit this. Okay. We’re gonna leave it cuz this is authentic, this is real. So, when Suzanne said to tell us, Joe, what’s behind the book? I was supposed to push this button. (Drum flourish) There’s much more gravitas to that. Much better. Wouldn’t you agree?

Suzanne:
Different part of the drum. I do. Yes, I do agree.

Joe:
Well, that’s what happens when you do it live. And that’s really funny cuz it’s a good segue to what I was gonna talk about, which was TV interviews. So, I have started doing a couple of TV interviews as part of the publicity for the book. And I have a confession, Suzanne, which is that for years I have avoided TV interviews and it might seem like a strange thing cuz I get up and talk for a living and I do training and I do keynoting and you work without a net. Right? But there was something about TV interviews that really intimidated me. I, I’m pretty verbose and you can’t be on tv. You’ve gotta be really tight and sound biteish. Ah, and really kind of targeted. And I realized for years I was avoiding TV interviews and then a couple of months ago I heard a quote from Dwayne Wade, who is a former NBA player.

Joe:
He’s won a couple of championships. I think he won an MVP award in there somewhere. And he said something, Suzanne, that really stuck with me, I have it right here. He said in big moments, you know, you’re not gonna be perfect, but if you’re not afraid of it, you’ll all right. And it really stuck with me, I thought, wow, what a great way to think about it. Right? We all sometimes have to step into the arena of moments that are nerve-wracking or bigger than we are. And if you just, if you give yourself permission to not be perfect, but you just focus on not being scared boy, there’s something about that, that really cut through me. And so, I thought, you just need to start doing this TV stuff, man. And just not be afraid of it okay? And not worry about perfect.

Joe:
So, I’ve done a couple of TV interviews, <laugh> on the four-day workweek. We’ve been sharing them on Instagram and on my LinkedIn profile. And honestly, they’ve been a lot of fun because it’s been, it’s been a neat little challenge to figure out how do I compartmentalize my ideas. And the TV interviews are funny because you’ve never met the people you’re talking to before, but you need to act like you’re lifelong friends. Right. You know, they’re like, we’ve got Joe Mull with us today. And I’m like, Brian and Erin, thank you so much, it’s great to be with you. And then they have this whole conversation and I’m such a, a, like a, a feedback monster. Every time I finish something I’m like, how’d it go? What do you think? Like, how can I improve? What can I do better?

Joe:
And you get none of that in a TV interview because they literally hang up on you when you’re done. Like, they’re like, all right. Hey. Yes. Like, and you know, so I was talking about the four-day work week on one of these interviews, and this guy was like, all right Joe, thank you so much. And hey man, I’m about to call my boss and ask him if I can be on a four-day workweek after this interview, can you help me out? Like, if can you swoop in and give him some of that knowledge and research? And I was like, absolutely, man, I got your back. He’s like, awesome. And then he hung up on me.

Suzanne:
<Laugh>, click.

Joe:
Click, right? I’m like, all right, great to be with you. Thanks so much for having me. So go ahead.

Suzanne:
I have a question. Can I ask a question?

Joe:
Please.

Suzanne:
So, so I know sometimes in your kits you send them questions that like prepared questions. Yes. Yes. And then some people just don’t get it and they ask you random questions or questions that are like, wait a minute. Yeah, sure. That’s coming from, so has that happened or…

Joe:
A little bit? Yes. That’s happened more on radio interviews. So, on radio interviews where it’s more of like a 10-minute segment. I’ve done a 30-minute interview on the radio. Wow. That was, that was intense. But yeah, they just kind of ask what they want to ask and connect the dots that they want to connect. And I kind of go into these with five or six nuggets, right? Little kind of mental sound bites that I want to share when it’s appropriate to answer the question that way so that I’m not caught completely flatfooted. But at the same time, I’m just telling myself, don’t be afraid of it. Say what you think and you’re gonna do just fine. TV’s different because they actually want you to almost lay out exactly what the segment’s gonna be. Okay. Here’s the three questions you’re, we’re gonna ask. Here’s the three or four big ideas you’re gonna answer with. We know it’s gonna be this long. And actually, the more specific you are about what the segment is gonna look like, the better chance you have of it getting picked up. Because these folks have to create content every, they don’t have time every day, all the time. Right. They don’t have time. Yep.

Suzanne:
They’re not thinking through your stuff. I like that. I think the answer though for radio when they go random is like any politician, you just turn their question in the question you wanted them to answer anyway. That’s right. I mean, to ask anyway. And you give them that answer. Right?

Joe:
<Laugh>, and I’m still working on that because I’m such a, like, I can be fully present in the moment with this person <laugh>. And I’m like, nope. There’s a gazillion people listening. And you’ve got 30 seconds. So, Pivot man. Pivot. You know.

Suzanne:
<Laugh> Figure it out now. Yeah.

Joe:
That’s right. That’s right. Well thanks for giving me, you’re doing great. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And I’m, from what I’ve seen, thank you. I’m having a good time with it and I’m just, I’m kind of proud of myself for making me do something that was intimidating.

Suzanne:
Well, we’re proud of you too, Joe.

Joe:
Thank you. And everybody else should, should do that too. Remember what Dwayne Wade said, right? You don’t have to be perfect. That’s right. Just don’t be afraid of it. So that’s what is going on behind the book. 

Joe:
I pushed the right sound button that time. Good job for our good job, our timpani roll. Applause. Thank you. Thank you so much. Alright.

Joe:
And well, speaking of catchy music, that brings us to our Camaraderie Question of the Week. Suzanne, as our listeners know by now, bosses build camaraderie on teams by making it easier for people to find things in common with each other. That’s why every week here on our show, we give you a question that you can use at meetings to facilitate connection and build camaraderie. This week’s question is as follows, if you could live one day as one other person, who would it be and why? I have one of those two answer answers today. Suzanne, what about you?

Suzanne:
I just, I just have one, and this is another great, great question. Where do you come up with them? <Laugh> and I went through a lot of different choices. I that nah, it could be hurt. No, how about him? And you’re not gonna may not believe what I, I landed on. Okay. And I have to be careful cuz he’s in the room, but I think it’s my husband.

Joe:
What a cool answer. Tell me more.

Suzanne:
Well, because I think when we love somebody and we wanna build a strong relationship, we have to understand them. And sometimes, you know, I don’t but anyway, but just ha if I lived today in his shoes <laugh>, I, I think I’d understand how his brain works sometimes, what he struggles with. What perhaps could be frustrating about living with me. <Laugh>. Wow. That might be good information to know or what I do, you know, that makes him laugh or excites him or gives him joy. I could know more of that. So that is my answer, Joe.

Joe:
What a great answer. My goodness. And it’s a great answer cuz first of all, it’s a really selfless answer and it’s a very loving answer. That, that just tells us so much about who you are, Suzanne. Aw. And you know, wouldn’t it be neat in some ways to see ourselves through the eyes of the people who love us the most, right? Yes. Wouldn’t that give us maybe a confidence boost or something?

Suzanne:
Well, I hope so. <Laugh> that would be the idea. It’s completely frightening. <Laugh>.

Joe:
I love that answer. That is a much more altruistic answer than my answer.

Suzanne:
<Laugh>. Okay. Beat that, Joe.

Joe:
No, I can’t beat it. I feel like my plan’s a little more shallow now, but that’s okay. Well, I had two answers cuz I couldn’t decide. And so, my first answer was, I would love to pick a Broadway actor or a specific Broadway role to be in for one night. Right. I go get to go play Jean Valjean in Les Mis for one night. Or get to go play Hamilton on Broadway for one night.

Suzanne:
Oh, that’s perfect for you.

Joe:
That’d be amazing. Oh my gosh. But I think it would, it would probably end up creating a lot of grief, right? Because if you get to live that day and then you love it, you kind of come outta that going, oh man, like, I want to, I wanna do that more. And, and me, maybe it sparks something, but I think it would be a really complex emotional experience. Right. the other answer that I had was astronaut, right? We’ve talked on the show. I’m a little bit of a space nut. I think. Like I would want to be an astronaut who’s blasting off to space, right? Because I think if you’re an astronaut and you’ve got all that training, you probably have a little less fear than a normal person on the street. Yes. You would enjoy it more and it would be just marvelous in a way that’s hard to put your finger on.

Suzanne:
It’s something that you would’ve, it’s something you’ve worked really hard to get to do. I mean, just imagine that that’s

Joe:
Absolutely. You have to wait years.

Suzanne:
Yeah. Yeah.

Joe:
So, I think that’d be an experience.

Suzanne:
Okay. I thought of a more shallow one. Okay. Just to balance out my answers. Okay. Could I go, could I just be someone who’s very rich and transfer their money to me?

Joe:
Yeah. <laugh>. 

Suzanne:
I’m just wondering <laugh>. 

Joe:
That’s right. You come back into your own body with a killer Swiss bank account. I see the plan there. That’s smart. Exactly. Excellent. That’s right. Okay. Yeah. And really none of these answers are shallow. Right? It’s just you led with such a thoughtful answer. I was like, oh, I wanna be an… I wanna be an astronaut.

Suzanne:
Oh, <laugh>. They’re all good. They’re all great. That’s the whole idea of these exercises. No judgment.

Joe:
I love it. All good. I love this one. As, as a fun — this is a pretty lighthearted question Yes. That you could use in team environments. And you could do this, you could even do this as a tabletop thing. If you’re pulling a larger group of people together and you put a question on a card in the middle of the table and you wanted the people at the table to start to chat a little bit and connect this feels like a good question that you could use for something like that.

Suzanne:
For sure. Good one.

Joe:
And that’s the Camaraderie Question of the Week.

Joe:
All right folks. Well, we are at the third and final segment of the show this week. And this is pretty cool I think, and I hope we’ll be of help to our listeners. So, our wonderful and devoted producer, Jamie sent me an article recently from Psychology Today. And it was How to Clear Your Computer of Focus Draining Distraction. And we’re gonna link to this full article in the transcript for the episode over at bossbetternowpodcast.com. But there was so much in this article that I thought was worth sharing with our listeners. So how many of you listening to this are guilty of having those gazillion files on your desktop? You know what I’m talking about? You open up your computer, it boots up and it’s the, it’s covered in like Word documents and file folders. You can’t even see whatever picture is there anymore.

Joe:
Or how many of you are guilty of having dozens of open browser tabs while you’re doing work online? How many of you are guilty of bouncing in and out of email dozens of times a day? So, this article was really interesting because what it did was it outlined that all of these habits of computer clutter actually create cognitive costs. Right? they basically took the psychology of how we use our energy and attention and focus. And they said that if, if you have disorganization in your field of vision, it cos us into less important tasks. It demands more of our cognitive function than we need to give. And, and it just zaps our mental resources. And so, the, the article goes on to give some advice. But before I get into that, Suzanne, are you guilty of any of the above?

Suzanne:
No.

Joe:
No, you are not. 

Suzanne:
No, I have a very, now I have a very clean desktop. Okay. I suppose I’m, I, but I am so easily distracted. Okay. But it’s usually by other things, like the commercials popping up on the article when I was trying to read it, like, oh, ah, like they will catch my eye and they know they’ll bring up shoes or a cool outfit. So I am, I can, I’m easily distracted, but it’s interesting, I, I learned that I’m spatial in case you didn’t know I am spatial <laugh> and that’s, it’s not special with a southern accent. It’s actually spatial meaning what surrounds me is important to me. So usually what’s in my field of vision are positive things or things with color. So, I’ve, I’ve always kept my, for some reason yeah. My desktop. Neat. Now I do have piles of paper here and there. There’s certainly other things, but I can just honestly say for that little space in my life, I, I keep it neat, but I, I’m so distracted by other things. I had to laugh. I probably got up outta my seat three times before I finished the actual article.

Joe:
Oh, that’s funny. So, what, what, got you outta your seat?

Suzanne:
I don’t just, I can’t sit here any longer and the article is great. I, I just have a hard time. So, it’s more of a focus issue than a Yeah. Distraction issue. I don’t know if that makes sense. I don’t understand that. It does. I can understand that. Yeah. How the brain works. But you know it was very interesting to read it and you know, you’ve, I love the angle, Joe, because we’ve, we’ve read articles on you are not capable of multitasking like you tried to think you are and it’s almost like a different dimension of, of the, what it’s doing to it. And I love the word digital detritus.

Joe:
Ooh…

Suzanne:
Yes. I had to look that up.

Joe:
Detritus. Is it detritus?

Suzanne:
Well I looked it up, but it said detritus. It said with a long i. Okay. But maybe that’s the British pronunciation. I don’t know. But it was a…

Joe:
Cool, I’m going with the Western Pennsylvania pronunciation. 

Suzanne:
And, and, and I had read an article years and years ago, remember Jack Canfield?

Joe:
Yeah. Oh yeah.

Suzanne:
Chicken Soup for the Soul. Right. And he, one lesson, I don’t know why is that even if your closets and junk drawers, that even if they’re outta sight, they are taking up room and energy in your brain because things aren’t together. Yeah. Now I’ve never gotten to the point of having all those figured out and clean, but it was just made it almost a metaphor of things are messy. Yeah. Even out of sight, it takes energy away from your brain in focus. Yes. So, this is the modern-day version. Cuz there weren’t desktops probably when he wrote that <laugh>. Right. So,

Joe:
Well, but to that point though, so yeah, we’ve, you, and I both are familiar with the Myers-Briggs type indicator as an assessment Yes. In a, as a tool to understand some naturally occurring differences that we all have in our innate personality. And one of the things that you learn when you do that work is that we all have places and spaces in our life where we prefer order mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And we all have places and spaces in our life where we are less attentive to, for lack of a better word, organization, but where those are has a lot to do with some of the orientations of how we prefer to move through our days and lives. Like for example, some people are quite organized in their public spaces and places, but in their private, like if you go into their closet or their garage, it’s a mess.

Joe:
That’s me <laugh>. Whereas other people appear disorganized on the outside, their desk is chaos. But if you go into their closet, their private spaces, like all the shirts are ordered and orderly. And there, there are reasons for that. There are psychological innate preferences that we have. But I think what’s interesting is to what degree do we allow that disorganization to grow and ultimately sap us of resources. And so, a couple of the pieces of advice in this article I thought were really fantastic. I am guilty of one of the things that I listed and that is I leave my email open all day when I’m doing other work and I’m constantly kind of popping in and okay, I’ll respond to this. And it absolutely does. And I will remind myself, no close it — schedule two or three times a day when you go, okay, open it the first time of the day, open it for a few minutes midday, and then batch and process some email at the end of the day and that’ll keep you sane.

Joe:
And that’s one of the pieces of advice from this article that is great advice. Yeah. Don’t leave it open. Schedule time and then use time at the end of the day to batch email. Right. There’s a kind of do it, delegate it or delete it mentality with email or schedule it if there’s something you need to schedule. There are pieces of advice for all those open tabs. If someone listening, if you are an open-tabs person, right. You’ve got the gazillion open browser tabs check out an online platform called Pocket. It is free. I use this on my phone all the time. It’s an app you can put on your phone and you can add a little button, a little widget to your web browser where anytime you have a, an online website or an article that you want to come back to later, you just click the little pocket button and it adds it to your pocket account and then you can close it and then whenever you wanna find it again, you just go back into your pocket account and you can find it.

Joe:
And it, did I say that it’s free cuz it’s free. It’s amazing. It’s free. So, pocket’s a great way to, to do that. If you are a desktop minefield of files everywhere even just creating a folder and dumping all of it in the folder and just clearing the view of all of those things apparently has a positive impact on your mental resources. So, if you could come up with a simple organization system within there, you can organize those things more carefully or just set aside time at the end of each day to clean your desktop off. Those are small habits and tricks you can embrace. But if nothing else, just dump it into a folder and make it look less chaotic is actually positive for your brain. Here’s the other thing that it said that I thought was really interesting, Suzanne. Is in addition to sapping our mental resources, having all of these files and browser tabs open actually zaps your computer’s resources. Hmm. Right. Yeah. I think your computer slows down. It takes longer to work and process. So close that stuff out and you’ll not only be more efficient, but so too will your machine. So, was there any other advice that you picked up on in that article that I didn’t mention?

Suzanne:
No, I don’t think so. I think the extreme example was keeping everything open until your, your Mac crashes, and then you just restart. I’m like, yeah, don’t get to that point. That’s okay. I like the oh, the do not disturb tip in there. Yes. To keep things from popping up. I like, I like that one. And I think we’re kidding ourselves if we don’t recognize that it’s, it’s truly the visual distraction. It’s, it may be not so much the disorganization of it, cuz you may argue, oh my desktop maybe full, but it’s organized. Yeah. It’s not really the point. The point was that it’s not drawing the eye or distracting your brain in a way subconsciously while you’re trying to work on something else. Cuz, he had just the gray space. Right. Just slate gray. Yes. up there was his example and just making it simple. I

Joe:
I think that’s, and I think the idea, the article, the psychology behind it was…If you’ve got that desktop up and you’ve got all those icons everywhere, it’s a signal to you that you are constantly busy. And I have a lot of things to think about. Yeah. Right. Versus

Suzanne:
Oh, it keeps you in angst at some point.

Joe:
Yes. Yes. There, there was something about that that was to it. So again, we’re gonna link this article Yes. Or if you just want to Google it. It’s called How to Clear Your Computer Focus Draining Distractions. It was on Psychology Today and worthwhile article to check out. All right friends, that’s our show this week. Don’t forget to enter to win a seat at our upcoming live recording of Boss Better Now on Tuesday, April 25th, just pre-ordered two copies of Employalty and send proof of purchase to hello@joemull.com and you could win one of those 10 seats to this exclusive event. In the meantime, thank you for listening, friends, and thank you for all that you do to care for so many.

Suzanne:
This show is sponsored by Joe Mull and Associates. Remember, commitment comes from better bosses. Visit joemull.com today.