Author: Iulia Grosman

Knowing how to write well and with impact is an essential skill to flourish in the professional world. It can be very helpful to keep several things in mind when writing, as well as to apply a certain level of structure to the writing process. A first thing to keep in mind are the two very foundation stones of good writing. The first of these stones consists of being aware of why you are writing a certain text: what is your goal? The second of these stones comes down to being equally aware of for whom you are writing: who is your audience, and what are their specific needs or characteristics?

Once you have these two founding stones down you can start looking into streamlining the process of writing itself. Though it may be tempting to start typing straight away and to not ‘waste time’ on other things, this is not actually the recommended way of going about things. The process in fact consists of three distinct parts, all of them essential in their own way: planning, drafting, and editing.

By separating these out, rather than haphazardly garbling them together you can make the process significantly more streamlined, less stressful, and even improve your overall results. By keeping the founding stone and overall principles of writing into account, you can save a lot of time and achieve better results. Knowing how to write well and with impact is an essential skill to flourish in the professional world. 

Who is Neil?

Neil Urquhart is a veteran communication skills trainer, coach and facilitator with 20+ years international experience on four continents in Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Brazil, Belgium, Egypt, Sweden, Spain and the UK. He delivers the Writing with Impact training course at the European School of Administration, as well as its online version.He facilitates Develop your Assertive Communication for the European Institutions, agencies and bodies.

In today’s world the ability to explore different points of view and biases, as well as to be as informed and objective as humanly possible is becoming ever more essential. Conversely you do not want to lose your sense of self in what you say and what you write. There are several aspects you can consider when trying to achieve these aims while maintaining clearness of thought.

Firstly, it is important to be aware of your own innate and artificial biases. Where do you for example consume your daily intake of the news from? Might it be a good idea to look at different sources occasionally to shake things up and to broaden your horizon? Once you are aware of your biases you can also act upon them or do something about them.

It is also important to realise that the words you use, and encounter have specific meanings that might be slightly different from the way you interpret and use them. Doing some research into the etymology of words can be very helpful to clear and sharpen your mind.

Finally, it is important to realise that you are not the only one with biases: the rest of the world has them in large supply too. You can use the PQRST tool when analysing information that you receive from the outside. P and Q stand for Preview and Questioning: What is it that you already know or think you know about the author or a specific topic? The next step consists of actually Reading the text, followed by a critical reflection by means of a process of Summary and Testing. You could for example ask yourself the question if the text was as you expected it to be, and whether or not you learned anything from it.

Taking these aspects into consideration in your work and day-to-day life should help you to sharpen your mind and will allow you to be critical without losing yourself. How will you challenge yourself this week?

PQRST Tool

Preview, Questioning, Reading, Summary, Testing!

Who is Nicola?

Nicola Di Pirro is one of our key trainers at AIM & Associés, he provides training activities on the issues of relational skills in a multicultural context and organizational management. He delivers the Critical Thinking at the European School of Administration, as well as many intercultural competence building training courses for the European Institutions, agencies and bodies.

Is it necessarily good to do teamwork? Teamwork can be a great way to bring out the best in a group of people. It can also be an absolutely exasperating way to work. Determining which situations are best suited for effective teamwork can help you and your team be both more effective and harmonious.

A great way to determine the best dynamics in a team setting is to analyse your own natural role in a teamwork situation. What role do you usually play? What are the positives to this role, and what aspects might be open to reengineering? Learning to interpret your own behaviour will make it easier to analyse the behaviour of others around you. It might turn out that something that has been annoying you for a while turns to have its merits. Especially since you now realise what the natural role of this person is. This can remove many layers of judgement and lead to much greater harmony and understanding on when it is good to do teamwork… or not.

Who is Marcello?

Marcello Mereu is one of our key trainers at AIM & Associés. He is interested in issues can be resolved by creating a setting that enables to communicate openly and respectfully. He delivers the Working in Teams at the European School of Administration, as well Prevention of Harassment as for the European Institutions, agencies and bodies.

Your body and the way that you treat it is an integral part of your personal well-being, including your well-being in the workplace. The standard position in which we do out work, sitting or often even slumped down behind a computer at a standard desk is really not conducive for either relaxation or achieving states of high energy. Becoming more aware of the physical aspects of well-being can act to mitigate these conditions.

Very simple things such as the way you breathe, or the way you position your body can make a crucial difference between whether you feel well or rather the opposite. Several concrete tips and tricks can be employed to feel better, and to effectively change your energy levels to either lessen tension or to be better equipped to handle a given workload. These can include such things as simply expanding the chest, breathing differently or just taking a different physical position. Being aware of all this can have a markedly positive impact on your physical well-being and your well-being at work.

Who is Séverine?

Séverine Buyse is an AIM Trainer & Coach, facilitating resilience and wellbeing training for the EU Institutions for the past 10 years. She delivers the Create your own Wellbeing in Times of Crisis at the European School of Administration, as well as Compassionate Communication for the European Institutions, agencies and bodies.

Knowing the dynamics and mechanics of a burnout can be extremely valuable. Burnouts do not come into being from one day to another but are often the effects of a long-term process. It can sometimes take up to ten full years for a burnout that has long been brewing to settle in. Knowing the mechanics of a burnout and being vigilant of the early warning signs can help you to potentially prevent burnouts from happening.

The chief candidates for receiving a burnout are often people with a high professional drive that desire to work and tend to work hard. These simple facts can act to masquerade many of the early signs of a burnout and might prevent anyone from noticing that a burnout is about to set in. Understanding the professional causes and individual characteristics, as well as the behavioural, emotional, and physical warning signs can help you to detect things much earlier and take action.

Who is Anne?

Anne de Wergifosse is one of our key trainers at AIM & Associés, she is passionate about individual and collective support. She delivers the How to Prevent Burnout at the European School of Administration, as well as many tailor-made team buildings for the European Institutions, agencies and bodies.

It can be very tempting to postpone things you do not like doing towards the future. This phenomenon is known as procrastination. There can be a myriad of reasons to procrastinate. Maybe you are missing a certain tool or are missing some data that requires an unpleasant phone call to get a hold of. Whatever your reasons may be, and no matter how natural this behaviour may be, you will still want to avoid falling into this trap.

A convenient mental trick to get yourself to act in a timelier fashion it to give yourself a shot of ‘artificial adrenaline’. You can take a stopwatch and allocate yourself a specific amount of time for a clearly defined specific task. It helps to think of yourself as an expensive consultant: your time is very valuable and wasting it on procrastination is a very expensive proposition that needs to be avoided. Make sure you have all the necessary preparation at hand, start the clock, and get cracking.

With this simple trick of the mind, you should have a much easier time to get yourself to both start and finish a well-defined task in an absolute record time!

Fight Procrastination with Artificial Adrenaline!

Who is Sabine?

Sabine Finzi is one of our key trainers at AIM & Associés, she is passionate systemic coaching. She delivers Facing Change at the European School of Administration, as well as Overwhelmed working at home? Drawing the line between professional and private lives for the European Institutions, agencies and bodies.

Work can be a complex and occasionally frustrating affair, an opportunity to develop your resilience. Just the thought of this can be a rather stressful event. Though it is worth noting that work itself is unlikely to become less complex itself, there are still plenty of things you can do to feel better prepared and more confident about it. Identifying and remaining loyal to the values that guide you in life is a key aspect of this.

Regardless of how crucial and impactful these values are to us we still rarely examine them or actively apply them to situations occurring in our daily work life. Becoming better aware of our values and viewing day to day situations through their lens can help us use them more effectively as guides in our lives. It also helps us to better identify sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction in our daily lives. In that way, they can aid us in becoming more satisfied at work.

Who is Heather?

Heather Nehring is one of our key trainers at AIM & Associés. She delivers the Developing your Resilience at the European School of Administration, as well as many its online version. She facilitates the training course Handling Difficult Situations for the European Institutions, agencies and bodies.

It is a common occurrence: you need to do a lot of writing in a relatively short amount of time. This may seem like a rather daunting and potentially stressful situation. Luckily, the simple act of bringing some organisation into your work can help you a lot in working more effectively and efficiently when a lot of writing needs to be done.

When faced with a massive amount of work it can often help to take a minute in advance to map out what exactly you will be doing. Writing is by no means an exception to this. Questions you can ask yourself include what kind of text you need to produce, for whom, why it needs to be written, as well as when it needs to be done by.

Specifically, we can focus on the what and the who questioned stated above. Knowing what kind of document you need to produce can help you a lot in establishing what exactly needs to be done in terms of writing and selecting information. A short note for example requires significantly fewer details and examples than a more elaborate briefing, let alone a long report. Tracking down and filtering the right information becomes significantly easier once you have determined the nature of the document.

For whom you are writing is also crucial in making your job just a tad bit easier. Putting yourself into your potential reader’s shoes makes it much easier to determine what exactly they need. What is it that they need to know? Are there things you can safely assume them to already be aware of? Only including the relevant information should save both you and your reader valuable time.

Pausing for a moment and asking yourself these very simple questions should give keep you from making many a common mistake.

What? Who? Why? Where? When? How?

Who is Alex?

Alex Townley is one of our key trainer at AIM & Associés. He delivers Writing with Impact and Writing with Impact while Teleworking the European school of administration. He can help you organise your writing when you are under stress, in order to report back to the hierarchy in a more efficient way.