HELLO fellow pharmacists and welcome to the tenth article in the 5W2 series, Five Ways to Create Successful Outcomes.
This 5W2 series is a selection of short articles on strategies and techniques to support our emotional development within our professional roles. Previous articles are as follows:
Introduction to the “5W2” seriesFive Ways to Manage StressFive Ways to Use MindfulnessFive Ways to Self CoachFive Ways to Maintain your Energy LevelsFive Ways to be more ResilientFive Ways to Deal with BullyingFive Ways to Manage your State of MindFive Ways to Enhance your Communication.
If anyone would like to read any of the above articles please click on the following link which will take you to the articles page on my website https://www.leading2solutions.co.uk/articles
I think most of us would agree that experiencing successful outcomes in our personal and professional life is good for our self esteem, our confidence and for those we interact with. This article will focus on practical preparation strategies that allow us to invest our time wisely to create the most successful outcomes in our professional lives.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe” Abraham Lincoln
On most occasions creating successful outcomes is achieved by making the choice to focus on our “circle of influence” (the things we can make a direct impact on) rather than our “circle of concern” (the things we have no direct impact on).
Here are 5 practical preparation strategies to allow you to have a direct impact on the success of your outcomes.
1 Model Building
2 Overcoming “Overwhelmedness”
3 Managing Risks and Creating Contingencies
4 The GROW Model
5 “Be do be do be”
1. Model Building
Investing time up front in building a Model week, month, quarter or year is a sure way to create efficiency and successful outcomes. Lets create a Model month by way of an example:
- Write down/record all tasks that have to be achieved once a month
- Write down/record which week of the month 1,2,3 or 4 that each task needs to be completed in
- Create a master monthly planner with all tasks spread out over 4 separate weeks
- Use a copy of this monthly planner every month as a checklist or lift each weeks’ tasks into a diary/ planner for that particular week.
Taking this approach in your professional role can help with delegation, things running well when you are not there and managing bigger things like Validation in bite size chunks. In your personal life it can help plan time for the things that become a huge task if not done regularly like claiming expenses or making sure important things like 1-2-1 time with family are planned in each month.
2. Overcoming “Overwhelmedness”
I see many clients who are overwhelmed with life and all the stuff they have to deal with. They have lost their sense of balance and the following practical strategy has helped them regain balance and allowed them to move forward. I start by asking them to write down the “thing” that is causing them to feel overwhelmed. eg Life in general, a major project, dealing with a challenging person or a huge workload. Once they have admitted to themselves what it is that is causing the overwhelmed feeling I ask them to take the following 6 steps:
1. Create your chunks (all the things you feel you need to do to deal with your “thing”)
2. Time your chunks (write down the time you will take to deal with each chunk)
3. Prioritise each chunk (if 6 chunks then give a priority from 1 to 6 to each chunk)
4. Plan the chunks (physically plan each chunk with the time required in a type of diary)
5. Do the chunks (at the time they are planned – stick to the plan!)
6. Review the chunks (and celebrate your achievement in some way)
3. Managing Risks and Creating Contingencies
When we are working on a particular project or initiative the ideal split of our time should be 30% Planning , 40% Doing and 30% Reviewing. Ideally part of the planning stage is to look at the risks involved in the project/initiative and create contingencies. I experienced the following practical technique on the Clinical Leadership in Pharmacy programme (CLIP), which has allowed me to plan more effectively and anticipate problems that could impact on the outcome.
List each Risk
Decide whether the Likelihood and Impact of each Risk is High, Medium or Low
Multiply Likelihood by Impact to find the level of Exposure
From the example below from my Emotional Development project I did earlier this year, the greatest exposure in delivering a successful outcome was the interviews taking too long so I ensured the number of questions I asked were reduced and each question was very specific.
4. The GROW Model
The GROW model is a coaching model that you can use to coach yourself, others or groups. It was originally developed in the 1980’s as a way to achieve goals and solve problems. Here is a brief overview.
- G is for GOAL: What do you want to achieve? How do you want to be? What do you want to think? Why do you want to have this goal? What will it give you? What will it mean for you? How will you know you have achieved it?
- R is for REALITY: What does it look like, sound like and feel like in your current reality/situation?
- O is for OPTIONS: What options do you have to achieve your goal? What are the pro’s and con’s of each option?
- W is for WHAT and WHEN: What will you do next? When will you do it by?
As a coach and a pharmacist I use the GROW model regularly to self coach, help clients increase their self awareness and achieve their potential as well as with patients when discussing lifestyle changes.
5. “ Be do be do be”
This last strategy is the simplest and can have the greatest impact on creating successful outcomes on a regular basis.
I read a book called “Think Happy” by Karen Salmansohn and she describes how Frank Sinatra got it wrong when he sang “ Do be do be do” because the “be” should always come before the “do”.
Put simply, for you to create the outcomes you want you have to focus on the being first then the doing.
For example you might be thinking I want to start a Travel clinic but to achieve this goal you have to be organized, confident and enthusiastic.
So pause before you write your daily “to do” list and write a “to be” list first which includes the qualities you want to develop eg to be confident or to be calmer or to be kinder. As Karen Salamansohn says “to grow your success, grow who you are”.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read Five Ways to Create Successful Outcomes.
The next article in the 5W2 series is Five Ways to be more Confident and will be with you soon, but in the meantime, if anyone wants to find out more about anything in this article or has any comments please get in touch via the details below.
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