The Professional Services (PS) Professional Athlete certification may help you on your way.
Everyone wants to be more personally effective, productive and accomplish their goals at work.
In speaking with friends, listening to podcasts, reading business blogs, everyone seems to have the same questions, ‘How can I increase my productivity at work?’, ‘How can I manage my workday more effectively and have more time?’, ‘How can I build better relationships?’ and ‘How can I advance in the workplace?’ Particularly given the trend towards working from home over the past 2 years, at times optional or enforced, everyone is asking themselves, how can I manage myself to do this better?
Enter stage left, the Professional Services (PS) Professional Athlete certification.
There is a range of literature to help people find answers to these questions and get one step ahead. The PS Professional Athlete course is based on the following books:
- How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age, Dale Carnegie & Associates
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R Covey
- How to be a Productivity Ninja, Graham Allcott
The PS Professional Athlete course takes these 3 popular texts (I’m aware they are popular by the number of holds on them at my local public library when I tried to borrow them) and focuses on a range of strategies to help people maximise their personal effectiveness and productivity. Some of these strategies we ignore, even after specifically learning them, but others become ingrained in our way of working.
Some learnings and strategies include;
- Focusing on ‘attention management’ – where you focus your attention rather than your time will dictate how, and how productively, you spend your day
- Scheduling ‘thinking time’ into your day – I have heard this from various TED talks and inspirational leaders, however had never considered how this could apply to my working day
- Considering tasks through Stephen R Covey’s Time Management matrix – it is surprising how many demanding tasks that consumed my time are on consideration both ‘Not Urgent’ and ‘Not Important’
- Understanding core desires to more fully comprehend what people truly want – we all need to build relationships and engage with others to be more effective and find mutually beneficial outcomes. Taking steps to understand what people really want is a step towards these outcomes
- Identifying and focusing on goals – a simple concept but understanding your To Do list in light of your goals and consciously prioritising tasks are essential to get ahead
I read the books, so why did I proceed to obtain the certification?
I obtained the PS Professional Athlete certification last year – Turning a negative into a positive and using the opportunity of additional time that the lockdown provided, I self-studied by downloading the syllabus from the APMG website, read the books and sat the exam directly.
For me, reading with a purpose focuses my attention and provides me the time and mental space to fully consider what is being written and how I can apply the strategies learnt. Note taking and further research are essential aspects of study that help me to keep the lessons front of mind.
Also, I now have a certificate that demonstrates to myself and employers that I am consciously working with strategies to be more personally productive and effective – key professional skills.
