Gilly Chater From Effortful to Effortless Living.........
Most of my business weeks are a mixture of meetings, conference presentations, coaching sessions and workshops
with space to write, plan and make new contacts. By the end of the week there have been changes that include
additions, cancellations and sometimes a no show. Does that sound familiar?
All those changes interfere with our productivity and performance. For some people it means even earlier starts, while
others find themselves working late into the night or long before dawn to catch up on emails or similar.
During winter in New Zealand, an early morning walk along the beach in the dark doesn’t excite me, so I look for
opportunities later in the day. That doesn’t happen so often because of client commitments. One day I had a meeting
just ten minutes away from my office. As the day dawned I could see how clear it was and decided that a walk before
the meeting would be perfect. Then a client called me for some assistance and so I cancelled my walk!
I arrived a little early at the café for my meeting and sensed my client may have forgotten. I called her and I could hear
the stress in her voice. She was a long way from the café and so I suggested we reschedule to meet later that day. I
could hear her relief. As I drove back to my office with my coffee I decided to drive down to the beach. The day was
stunning, the sky brilliant blue, as was the sea. I quietly thanked my client for forgetting our meeting.
I used the meeting time as reflective time for me. Within minutes the creative juices were flowing. I had some insights,
and ideas started to flow as I sat on a bench and embraced life. I thought about why we make mistakes, forget
appointments or ignore them, as I did with myself earlier in the day. Life is sometimes like being in a pressure cooker.
We live in a world of fast, quick, instant – NOW! Pressure cooking is efficient; however, I know that lamb shanks
cooked slowly in a casserole have a much more intense flavour and texture than in the pressure cooker. The old saying
of ‘putting it on the back burner’ is useful to remember. When we leave something alone it is not uncommon for a
new idea, solution or brilliant insight to occur. It feels effortless.
If we are always demanding immediate answers from our clients or staff, we may not get the best quality ones and it
feels effortful. The quality of thinking is not available until the person is aware that they just need to slow down their
minds for a moment and create the head space for insights to occur.
I did not waste the ‘no show’ time and the rest of the day was highly productive. The rescheduled meeting with the
busy business owner was beside an open fire at a local hotel. We had a deep conversation of getting her staff in virtual
offices to take personal responsibility. I listened to her talking about the challenges she has and her dreams for her
business and as I offered her some ways we could work together she was grateful, relaxed and it felt effortless. In just
thirty minutes her world had started to look different.
The shift from feeling EFFORTFUL to EFFORTLESS...some tips for you in 2014....
Slowing down can mean less mistakes and being much more productive.
Listen to employees, ask good questions, rather than telling them what to do.
Time for reflection is valuable for me and business.
Gilly Chater speaks, facilitates, writes and coaches leaders to become more insightful,
more productive and to create healthy high performance cultures. An award winning
President of the Auckland Chapter of the National Speakers Association of New
Zealand 2012 to 2013, Gilly was voted by industry peers as ‘2012 Inspirational Speaker
of the Year’. Contact her at [email protected] or http://www.gillychater.com
or phone +64 9 425 4540