Stephen R. Covey – Institute for Educational Advancement

Executive Skills and How They Translate to Professional Strengths

��Ƶ Staff — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 16:30:50 +0000

by Zadra Rose Ibañez, Director of Operations

Executive skills are those cognitive abilities and habits that allow us to be organized, to plan and implement action. They are essential to being productive and to completing goals and projects. We learn these very early on, from rote (A-B-C’s and colors) helping us to strengthen our memory, to learning to play well with others in the proverbial sandbox. But what do these skills have to do with our success later in life? How do they translate to a professional environment, aka, “Why do I need to learn this?”

A quick survey of professional development experts and their websites tells us that many executive skillsets are common among the differing methodologies. This suggests that improving these functions is precisely what leads to great leadership qualities.

Understood.org¹ lists 8 Key Executive Functions:

Impulse Control

Think before you act, envision the consequences of your actions before the action is taken. Stephen R. Covey, in his seminal work The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People², suggests that we have a choice in how we react to a given situation, and that decision determines the outcome of that experience. This also plays a part in “doing what we want” vs. “doing what we need to.”

Emotional Control

Remain Calm. It helps to separate emotion from experience; learning to take constructive criticism and alter one’s trajectory is a huge growth opportunity. Being able to communicate without excessive emotion helps develop trust. It can be seen in Covey’s tenet, “Think Win-Win,” which allows us to consider a circumstance as an opportunity for all parties to be happy with the outcome, rather than a win-lose mentality.

This is also what allows us to Synergize, to work with others for a result that is stronger than if we each acted alone. This skill is of utmost importance in teamwork.

Flexible Thinking

Being flexible, adaptive, and able to modify course based on new information allows us to capitalize on changes to create the best outcome in a project. It helps to Clarify³ the project’s goals, and then modify as you go based on new information. Another area where being flexible helps one to excel is in listening. Covey recommends that we “Seek First to Understand – then to be Understood.” This enables us to get to the heart of the matter quickly, offering valuable insight for a project’s completion.

Working Memory

Practicing remembering facts, learning new subject matter, and developing mnemonic devices to assist with retention and recall are excellent ways to develop a stronger working memory. In addition, being organized and utilizing tools and methods to help you remember will make it easier to access key information.

Organization

This, in turn will help you organize your thoughts, to be able to effectively communicate an idea or to plan a project. The first step in David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” method is to Capture and then Organize information³.

Planning and Prioritizing

Franklin Covey once published a booklet titled How to Eat an Elephant. The booklet outlined steps for success starting with Covey’s “Begin with the End in Mind.” Being able to envision the end result will help construct a plan for achieving a large or long-range goal. Consider goals and break them down into smaller, bite-sized pieces. Simon Sinek’s Start with Why⁴ and Brian Tracy’s “The Seven Leadership Qualities of Great Leaders”⁵ both speak of Vision. In addition to Strategic Planning, prioritizing and thinking with the big picture in mind, beginning the process with value-based goals helps us Focus on mission-driven decisions, so that our activities will ultimately be effective and satisfying. Covey expresses this by reminding us to “Put First Things First.”

Task Initiation

Once all the pieces are in place, one must actually take action! Allen recommends that we Engage³. Covey recommends that we Be Proactive². Sinek and Tracy state Action is the final necessary ingredient for success. Yvon Choinard, founder of Patagonia said, “There is no difference between a pessimist who says, “oh, it’s hopeless, so don’t bother doing anything,” and an optimist who says, “don’t bother doing anything, it’s going to turn out fine anyway.” Either way, nothing happens.

Self-Monitoring

Allen recommends that we Reflect on the outcome of our activity. Did what we do create the result we expected? Are there ways to be more efficient? Regular, routine check-ins allow us to monitor our progress and decide whether we have met milestones on the way to our goals. Covey also advocates for us to take care of ourselves by Sharpening the Saw, as we cannot provide or contribute if we are not healthy mentally and physically.

Morin, Amanda. “At a Glance: 8 Key Executive Functions.” Understood.org. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.
Covey, Stephen. ” 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” StephenCovey.com. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.
1. https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits.php
Getting Things Done®. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.
1. gettingthingsdone.com
Sinek, Simon. “Start with Why.” StartwithWhy.com. Web. 27 Jan. 2017
Tracy, Brian. “7 Leadership Qualities and Attributes of Great Leaders.” BrianTracy.com. 14 Oct. 2016. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.

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Us and Them

��Ƶ Staff — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 02:08:18 +0000

by Zadra Rose Ibañez, Director of Operations

With elections right around the corner, and the MLB Playoffs in action, I have been thinking about a topic which often intrigues me: Us and Them.

Simon Sinek, in his presentation titled, shares an anecdote.

“How many of you are from New York? Are you friends with everybody in New York? No. But when you go to Los Angeles and you meet someone from New York you’re like, ‘Hey, I’m from New York!’ and you’re best friends. And when you go to France, you’re on the Paris Metro minding your own business and you hear an American accent behind you, you turn around and you say, ‘Hey, where are you from?’ and they say, ‘I’m from Los Angeles,’ and you say, ‘I’m from New York!’ and you’re best friends.”

Sinek shares that, “when you’re surrounded by people who don’t believe what you believe, when you’re in a strange environment where you don’t feel comfortable, you look for anyone who may share some of the same values and beliefs that you have and you start to build a very real bond with them.”

Feeling a sense of belonging is a basic need, according to Maslow’s hierarchy. Rooting for the same sports team is an example of finding a common ground, and creating a sense of belonging. So is joining a club or attending meetings for hobbies.

But what happens when your affiliation creates a polarizing scenario? Or when you are on one side of a controversial issue?

Stephen R. Covey, in his seminal book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People talks about creating Win-Win situations. While this has become an easy catchphrase / joke, the meaning behind it was instrumental in shaping negotiations and arbitration for years. The concept is, rather than approach a topic as “My Way or Your Way,” in which case someone inevitably loses; or as a compromise, in which case BOTH parties lose something in order to gain something; Covey discusses a third possibility which is to approach the problem from the same side. After all, we are all trying to solve something and we are committed to the best for everyone, aren’t we?

This is easy to see in areas such as contract negotiations, discussions on favorite books, and project development, but more difficult with controversial issues such as climate change or civil rights discussions.

It is almost as if we were to draw a Venn Diagram of What I Believe and What You Believe and, somewhere in the middle, we would find areas that we have in common.

It becomes difficult when examining choices that must inform our futures, such as political discussions or whether or not to have children. Religion, gender issues, animal rights, where to build a freeway; these are all topics that require in-depth discussions and cannot be viewed from one side or the other to have any impact. Yet, they are areas where emotions run high and, as humans, we have difficulty putting our “truths” aside to see another point-of-view.

One of my college professors demonstrated this challenge perfectly when she told the story of a standoff between loggers and the local environmentalists. One side said, “Don’t you love trees and breathing and nature?” and the other side said, “don’t you live in houses and buy toilet paper?”

When discussing ideas such as Race, Nation, Ethnic Group, Class, and Ideology in his book, Us and Them, David Berreby says these concepts – mental images of categories that people use to get through their lives. As such, these ideas are like any other thought: they have a birthdate in human history, in a time when they arose for particular reasons, belonging to the people who devised them.”

In another section of The 7 Habits, Covey shares that, in order to feel at peace and to be effective, you must focus on working inside of your Circle of Influence. Unfortunately, most of us focus on our Circle of Concern; a great majority of that area is something we can do nothing about. His advice is to expand our circle of influence to be able to affect our areas of concern, but not to dwell on things we have no control over. Simple, in theory, but something that requires daily practice, especially with media of both the journalistic and social kinds.

So when we’re looking at ways to reach a decision on a tough issue, such as who to vote for or steps to take to alleviate our impact on the environment, it might be useful to put aside existing opinions of each side and try to see where the other person is coming from, just for a moment, and look for any common ground.

Unless it’s the World Series. In which case, “Go Cubs.”

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