All things pass on a Viking ship

For the next 5 minutes, let’s elevate your career.

In today’s email:

• Empathize with your future self

• Destination matters more than the journey

• Single touch

• All things pass on a Viking ship

• Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw as career coach

ON YOUR CAREER

Empathize with your future self

We’re more likely to save for our retirement when we imagine our older selves having enough money for good healthcare. We’re empathizing with our future selves. Self-empathy is a powerful way to delay gratification. To make good short-term decisions, to look after our long-term wellbeing.

Self-empathy also works well for our careers. Working hard and smart now sets us up for future success. So does emotional self-control. There may be times when it’s tempting to deliver a sharp retort to a customer who’s being rude. Or to a colleague who’s frustrating us. Our future relations benefit from diplomacy and friendliness.

Imagine how you want to be known at work in 5 years. What will be the virtues you’re proud of? By cultivating empathy for your future self, you can transform self-discipline from a struggle to an act of self-compassion. When faced with choices, ask how your future self would want you to act.

COMMUNICATION

Destination matters more than the journey

We’re persuasive when we succinctly communicate ideas. Busy people want to know what we think is materially important. No waffle. When we’re presenting recommendations in meetings, go to the destination upfront. Too many people first take us on a journey of administration, obstacles, and tangents in how they arrived at their recommendations. This frustrates colleagues and clients. We can succinctly share the journey if it’s useful. But bookend it with clarity on the destination.

PRODUCTIVITY

Single touch

Brian Tracy said, ‘You can increase the amount of time needed to complete a task by 500 percent… simply by picking it up and putting it down over and over again rather than simply starting the task and disciplining yourself to stay at it until it’s a hundred percent complete’.

So true!

We are much more productive when we complete tasks with a single touch. Losing our flow wastes time. It’s also frustrating. Tracy said a single touch approach also combats procrastination.

With email, decide immediately whether to:

• Respond if it takes less than 5 minutes

• Delegate the task

• Schedule it to your calendar for later action

With larger, multi-step tasks:

• Chunk larger tasks to smaller, manageable tasks

• Schedule time blocks focused on specific tasks

1 MINUTE TO LESS STRESS

All things pass on a Viking ship

I attended a dinner with Brian Tracy as the guest speaker. It was in the GFC and people were concerned about the economy. Tracy said all things pass.

Tracy also said that the Vikings became stronger by rowing in adverse conditions. Strength through adversity.

Tracy’s encouragement was to worry less and row hard.

GET SMARTER

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (1953 — ) was born in Bangalore and completed a BSc in Zoology (Bangalore) and earned a Master Brewer qualification in Australia. She faced gender discrimination when she sought work in India’s brewing industry. This led to her pursuing biotechnology.

Mazumdar-Shaw founded Biocon India in 1978 in her garage with 2 employees and about $120. Biocon has become India’s largest biopharmaceutical company, specializing in affordable drugs for chronic diseases.

Mazumdar-Shaw is now a billionaire and has served on the boards of MIT and the Indian School of Business. She’s been named among TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people and won EY World Entrepreneur. Some of Mazumdar-Shaw’s wisdom: