INTHEBLACK May 2022 - Magazine - Page 63
“Be strategic. Consider where you are
uniquely placed to add value and
whether that aligns with what you are
being asked to do in any collaboration.”
DR AMANTHA IMBER, INVENTIUM
“No”, says Dr Amantha Imber, founder of organisational
consultancy Inventium.
“The tendency to be a people-pleaser who ends up
saying ‘Yes’ to everything is common,” says Imber. “But
when you’re overloaded, you’re not going to do a great
job.”
She recommends some self-analysis – recognising
when a desire to help, a desire to boost your status or
even a fear of missing out result in your taking on too
much work.
“Be strategic,” Imber suggests. “Consider where you
are uniquely placed to add value and whether that
aligns with what you are being asked to do in any
collaboration.”
Ask the questions many people don’t: namely, how
does this cross over with my individual goals, the team
goals or the organisation’s goals?
SMART NETWORKS
“Instead of a two-minute conversation you may have
in the corridor, you have to sit down and have a formal
meeting,” he says. Easeful conversation and office
gossip suffer as the result, with people more guarded
about what they contribute in this more structured
environment, and conversations are more above-board,
says Jackson.
“Employees also have so many IT platforms they feel
the need to watch to stay in the loop. It’s not just email
– there can be Slack, Zoom, Facebook and Google
group chats. Messages are coming from different
directions, and it is time-consuming keeping up,” says
Jackson.
BE STRATEGIC
The feeling of being overwhelmed by the pressure to
collaborate often comes down to our inability to say
Cross acknowledges that networks are crucial to good
work performance and happiness in today’s hyperconnected world, but he argues that having a large
network is a recipe for disaster, professionally and
personally.
“The most successful people outperform through a
well-invested set of connections,” says Cross.
Leveraging network diversity in the early stages of a
project or a problem-solving effort can produce more
impactful outcomes among high-achievers, he says.
Being proactive in reducing the micro-stressors that
leave you exhausted by the end of the day is another
key tip. Forbes estimated that an average employee
spends more than 10 hours a week on email.
To shift focus onto more impactful work, Cross says
you should get agreement with your team on norms
around emails or IMs, while Imber suggests only
focusing on emails for an hour every day.
When you feel like you are being pulled in multiple
directions, Imber suggests following the advice of Adam
Grant, management professor at the University of
Pennsylvania, who says: “I like to start a week by asking
myself, what are three things I want to accomplish, and
who are three people that I want to help, or three ways I
want to be helpful.”
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