The Key Ponderer

Thinkering Minds

Workplace tip#1 – Reading Corporate Broadcast Emails

We’re all busy at work tapping away on our keyboards and clicking away at all the links we come across jumping from one hyperlink to another like monkeys from one tree to another… (no wonder we’re imagined as their descendants).

The next time you receive a broadcast corporate email announcement in your job from your CEO or any other top executive, start reading it from the bottom, from the very last paragraph.

Every email from a leader (especially the emails that are titled ‘From the desk of ….”) follows the CMC components embedded in an email to cater to the mass audience’s perception –

  1. It provides Context first,
  2. then it delivers the core Message, and
  3. finally Concludes the action item or showers gratitude for someone, or something, or anticipates a future event.

It thus saves you time in understanding the intent of the email as they either summarize OR give thanks for a certain action or an event in the last paragraph(s).

You can always read the complete email if you have time in your hands but for busy Homo Sapiens like us, this technique will save time and we can then successfully jump to another tree err… hyperlink.

 

Cheers and good luck!

Arun

Power of Compounding

Here’s one of my favorite maths:

We run with our chores everyday with so much focus(?) that we tend to forget the ground rules of life.

Hard work always pays.

But then some say smart work beats that.

Agreed, but these phrases cannot be ‘blanket’ applied on everything in life.

Some demand hard and deep work, while the other needs smartness. The real ‘smartness’ lies in finding the difference and necessity for efforts.

This poster is a reminder that when we work more than what we can in tiny bits every day, consistently, the result is something that goes off the charts.

Books I recommend on these thoughts:

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  1. The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
  2. The One Thing by Gary Keller
  3. Atomic Habits by James Clear

4 Proven Techniques to be More Comfortable at Parties

Social anxiety is in all the Home Sapiens’ DNA.

Nobody can escape that! I am with you on that.

But, imagine, learning few techniques to overcome this social anxiety, and become more confident in social situations.

How would you feel? Maybe, like a Super Man, or a Wonder Woman, with new techniques to ace your next social gathering!

That’s exactly what we will learn in this short and useful article.

I learned this great technique from a book called, The Art of Mingling, written by Jeanne Martinet.

Here are those 4 techniques that you can learn now, so you can rock your next social gathering !!

Fake it till you make it! This is that age-old philosophy, but it still works like a magic charm. This is not just having a positive attitude, but the real feeling in our nerves, thoughts, hands, legs, guts, so we act confident. This is important to remember because this forms the platform on which our next techniques will work seamlessly. This is to simulate self-assurance, at least for just 10 minutes. Then an amazing thing will start to happen – you’ll actually begin to feel that way.

  1. The Naked Room: although I didn’t like the way it’s called, this technique is an analogy to imagine that everyone in the room (at your gathering) is with just simple clothing or shabby shy-like-clothing. Not to say that you make fun of them, but just imagine and carry the amusing smile to bring your confidence to face, and body.
  2. The Invisible Man: imagine you are invisible. Not seen at all and you get to walk around the room, studying everyone, the furniture, and the overall energy in the room. Nobody is looking at you, everyone is too busy worrying about themselves. This way, you get some time to get used to the situation, the surroundings, and the kind of people there is.
  3. The buddy system: now, how would you feel if you went to the party with your best buddy. He/she is looking and hearing everything you have to say, give you feedback, help check your dress, see if anything is stuck in your teeth, etc. This kind of safeguarding and motivating buddy, while imagining that friend is with you, makes you feel confident. Remember, not to talk loudly to that imaginary friend, though.
  4. Celebrity magic: be someone else until you muster the courage to speak up and mingle. Someone whose posture, personality, and charm you admire. This is the best of all these 4 techniques.

There you have it. Simple but effective tricks to bringing your confidence in any social gathering.

I admit, this blog post alone might not help to a great extent, but the book, The Art of Mingling, has loads of such ideas and clearly explained techniques you can learn.