posted at 14:32:42
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
Psychology/Body Language

Tuesdays are Psychology and body language days at FlippingHeck.com

Sometimes, even though we can be organised (or we like to think we are!) we can sometimes take too much on. This leads to a form of procratination I like to term "Rabbit in the headlights"; you know the one - where you get paralysed with fear at the piles of stuff that's mounting up around you even if you are delegating, actioning, filing and generally getting things done.

There's an enormous amount of pressure on us during our every day lives to be a "yes man", turning something down at work is seen as a weakness and could mean you miss that next promotion - or at least we think that's what's going to happen. I think this is why the likes of "Getting Things Doneand "Four Hour Work Week" are becomi....

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Aug

28th
2007

Psychology Tuesday: Motivate Yourself

posted at 10:56:08
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
Psychology/Body Language

Tuesdays are Psychology and Body Language Days at FlippingHeck.com

Last week I wrote Motivating your Manager and it seems a little unfair to lay all of the blame at the bosses feet! So, to balance things out this week I thought we'd take a little (light-hearted) look at motivating ourselves.

Do you need motivating? I sure as heck do sometimes. You know the feeling (particuarly Mondays in my case), you get out of bed and think "Urgh. Here we go again." Not good eh? So, how do we get out of this rut and start motivating ourselves?

Think positive - Start the day thinking "Hey, today's going to be a good day" and do you know what? It probably will be.
Set a goal - Have something to aim for (no matter how small) today.
Pat yourself on the back - Done a good job? Reward yourself for it.
Get the worst task out of the way first - Then reward yourself with a task you know you'll enjoy.
Be realistic - It's demotivating to set your sights too high. Keep yourself grounded.
Be honest - Honesty is the best policy. Don't lie about why you're not doing something embrace it and you can conquer that feeling.
Be your own drill seargant - Sometimes we need to be shouted at to s....

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Aug

21st
2007

Motivating your Manager

posted at 14:17:30
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
Psychology/Body Language

Tuesdays are Psychology and Body Language Days at FlippingHeck.com

I've written previously about how to Manage your Manager, but how about motivating them?

If you read management (or productivity) weblogs - see here for my enormo list of recommended reading - then you'll probably have noticed that anything to do with motivation in the workplace seems to be on a personal level or about motivating staff that work under you. But what if your manager's about as useful as a chocolate fireguard? Ah Ha! That's where psychology comes in.

Empathise - Make you manager feel as though you understand what they're going through (even if you don't). If they feel you have something in common they'll be more responsive to your suggestions.
Assist - Offer to take work off their hands. That way it'll get done the way that you want it to. This is really good if it's quite high-profile and you get proper credit.
Lead - Yup, sometimes you do have to Manage your....

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Aug

14th
2007

Psychology Tuesday: Hand Signals

posted at 16:35:36
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
Psychology/Body Language

Tuesdays are Psychology Days at FlippingHeck.com.

A huge amount of communication is non-verbal. From hand gestures to eye movements, we all unconciously takes these messages in abd adapt our attitudes to the speaker accordingly.

This week, we'll look at Hands.

The first thing to remember is not to over-exaggerate your hand movements (i.e. big wavy arms), for a start it's distracting, you make take someone's eye out and it's almost a "Look at Me! Look at Me!" sign. If a gesture is exaggerated, it usually means the opposite what what the person is trying to convey.
Use hand movements to punctuate and enforce the points your making and you'll seem more confident - apparently this type of behaviour indicates "complex thinking".
Sticking your hands in your pockets is a sign of insecurity, keep them relaxed in your lap or resting on the desk.
When you're making hand movements when standing, make sure they're above the waist. Making hand gestures around your groin shows a "fight or flight" mentality - basically you're protecting the family jewels!
Again, if you're standing, don't stand with your hands on your waist it's seen as an agressive posture, as if you're squaring up for a fight.
When shaking hands, do so with the palm facing upwards, this shows honesty and integrity.

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Aug

7th
2007

Body Language: 9 Ways to spot a liar

posted at 17:18:56
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
Psychology/Body Language

Tuedays are (from now) Pysychology Days here at Flipping Heck where I'll be discussing all sorts of aspects of psychology and body language. Today we have a look at "How to spot a liar"

Why would you want to spot a liar? Surely you'd love to know whether the report Arnie promised you really was lost from his PC after it was hit by lightning or that your boss believed little white lie about your being late for work because you had a flat tyre?

You might think that you're the worlds best liar, after all your best friend doesn't know that her new haircut makes her look like she's been electocuted but remember this:

Everyone has a "tell" when they lie

A "tell" is a poker term that gives away what a player is thinking or the cards that they're holding in their hands and a liar does the same thing - even experienced ones!

These tells can be huge or hardly noticeable. But, if you know what you're looking for you'll be able to spot them a mile off. So, let's take a slightly lighthearted look at some of the signs:

The "Um" and "....." Tell
This is when people, er, like, um...... pause and stumble through a sentence (the "ums" and "ers" are known as filler pauses). The reason? They're trying to think what to say next as they're making it up as they go along and they fill the gaps in order to maintai....

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