Are effective people born or made? From the hand of the artisan consultant Antonio José Masiá we review what the ‘cracks’ of what he calls “efficient effectiveness” have in common, that is, achieving objectives with the resources within reach. Do you also want to be one of them? Well, here is a decalogue of attitudes that you can cultivate in your day-to-day work.
By Antonio José Masiá
@ajmasia
In a highly liquid paradigm, we cannot afford to let anything potentially useful slip through the cracks, because what may seem absurd today may be valuable tomorrow. How do we achieve this? By recording everything that catches our attention in a totally reliable system. Effective people do not trust their minds, which is why they externalise everything that catches their attention because they consider it to be of real value.
Our current reality means that we have to deal with more workload than we can really handle. How do we solve this? By choosing the best options at all times. This implies that we must first define our work and then choose what is the best thing to do. Peter Drucker said that in knowledge work, the task cannot be assumed but has to be determined.
Everything in the universe tends towards disorder unless we do something about it. There is no point in knowing everything you want or have to do if you don't review it periodically, both to set yourself in motion and to know how your path to the future is progressing.
Are you sure that what you are doing is getting you to or closer to the results you are aiming for? Effectiveness is directly related to this aspect. Effective people walk unhurriedly, taking steady steps with their eyes on the horizon. This is only possible with control and perspective.
Separating our personal things from our professional things only contributes to the imbalance of our own life since, indirectly, we will start to prioritise, with the strictly personal things probably taking a back seat. We only have one mind and it must be able to make decisions about what is best for us uniquely.
How? Simply by giving it the importance it has, i.e. none. We can only decide on what is really objective and depends on us. The rest is out of our control and should not condition our results, hence our effectiveness.
In order to achieve what we set out to do, we must have autonomy. Otherwise, the path becomes more complicated and narrower, with fewer options for action, which often leads to demotivation.
This implies that they are in control of what they do and experience mastery of their skills. This fact helps them to constantly increase their effectiveness through the improvement that comes with relentless practice.
It is difficult to get anywhere if you walk aimlessly. Effective people act on purpose, they are aware of why they do things.
In the 21st century, the concept of productivity no longer makes sense. It is now about efficient effectiveness, i.e., achieving the results we want by optimising our resources in the best way possible. The main resource to take into account is our attention, that is, where we focus at any given moment.
Artisan consultant and coach, Antonio José Masía is the author of the blog Changing Beliefs, in which he talks about how to develop value in people and organisations by improving their effectiveness. His career began as a technical architect, but his reinvention came through coaching. Since then, this restless Cadiz native has been in a constant process of personal and professional development.
