Half a mind is all you need in the workplace

By Lisa Earle McLeod 
www.forgetperfect.com

Do you ever forget to take your brain to work?

Or maybe you’ve got one of those jobs that only takes half your brain to do.

I still shudder at the memory of the smoke-infested summer I spent in a darkened cocktail lounge serving over-priced bourbon and waters. As I counted down the hours every night until 2 a.m., my mind wandered between cursing my evil boss for making us wear high heels and calculating how much more money I still needed for next year’s tuition.

I’m also a bit embarrassed to admit how many hours I’ve clocked on the “mom job” without being fully present, either. My body was serving chicken nuggets, but my mind was somewhere else altogether.

However, while some might accuse the daydreamers amongst us of being less than focused on the tasks at hand, to say that we’re making a half-brained effort would be actually be a compliment. It turns out, most of us aren’t even cracking 50 percent.

Best-selling author and meditation teacher John Selby (www.JohnSelby.com) says, “Most people are operating at 20 to 25 percent awareness.” That means 75 percent of your thoughts are not about what you’re doing at the moment.

And in a work situation, it’s often even worse. Referring to what he calls the “awareness or attentive variable,” Selby suggests that “at any given moment, an employee can be at 10 to 20 percent awareness.” Thank gawd I wasn’t only getting 10 to 20 percent of my paycheck.

Your awareness is basically what your mind chooses to consciously pay attention to, or, more accurately, where you consciously choose to direct it.

Selby, whose latest book is “Take Charge of Your Mind: Core Skills to Enhance Your Performance, Well Being and Integrity at Work” (Hampton Roads, 2006), says, “The people who succeed at work best are those who succeed in focusing in the present moment.”

So while MBA programs may teach the art of strategic planning and business analysis, worrying about the future and ruminating about the past won’t improve your performance one iota. It doesn’t matter whether you’re managing or mommying, the only way to get really good at it is to keep a big chunk of your brain in the present moment.

As someone who has made a good bit of her living teaching people how to sell everything from widgets to waffle irons, I observed firsthand what a difference the awareness factor can make in someone’s performance,

As part of a consulting project, I recently shadowed a group of biotech sales people. After days of watching them butter up receptionists, hand out free pens and chase doctors down the hall, I realized there’s something distinctly different going on inside the minds of top performers. The best people aren’t thinking more thoughts at work, they were actually thinking less.

The average distracted Joe or Jane has multiple thought tracks running through his or her head all the time. “Did I remember to bring the right handout?” “I wonder if our health insurance will cover my wart removal?” “Did I forget to turn the stove off?” “I think cute little Alex in accounting was giving me the eye this morning.”

But high-performing people have no such filters; they’re totally focused on the person in front of them and the task at hand.

So, the good news is if you want to get better at your job — or anything else you’re applying your time and talents to — you don’t have to work any harder. All you have to do is flip the switch in your head to “on,” or at least just turn up the dimmer a bit. 

Or course, you’ll probably never get yourself up to 100 percent, but even a half-lit bulb will outshine the rest of us dim wits.

Copyright © 2006 by Lisa Earle McLeod. All Rights reserved.

Lisa Earle McLeod is a nationally recognized speaker and the author of “Forget Perfect: Finding Joy, Meaning, and Satisfaction in the Life You’ve Already Got and the YOU You Already Are.” She has been seen on “Good Morning America” and featured in Lifetime, Glamour and The New York Times. Contact her at www.ForgetPerfect.com.

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