Category: stories

Contrary to how people may see themselves, their personal effectiveness at the tasks they are doing is usually already quite impressive. The trick does not lie in jumping from a supposed situation of full-on ineffectiveness to a mythical state of effectiveness. Instead making smaller adaptations to further increase your effectiveness on a daily basis can have great effects. Feeling more comfortable and in control  can greatly contribute to your own personal effectiveness.

Some of these steps that can be taken to improve your personal effectiveness include more effectively managing your workflow, as well as coping with and potentially avoiding interruptions. Avoiding procrastination, as well as more effectively managing the precious resource that is your time are also part of this process. It can even include such mundane but nonetheless crucial things as more effectively managing your inbox. In doing all this you will become more in control and comfortable with yourself and your workflow and will also appear more in control to the outside world.

Who is Katie?

Katie Challans is one of our key trainers at AIM & Associés. She delivers the Personal Effectiveness course at the European School of Administration, as well as its online version. She can help you master your day as well as your outlook on things ;).

Understanding our own process of thinking and the principle behind divergent thinking can be extremely valuable for your mental well-being. It is worth asking ourselves: do our thoughts control us or do we control our thoughts? To do this taking a step back and stripping a situation of all the drama attached to it. Out of the box tools are given, such as divergent thinking that can generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions.

By making use of this toolbox a situation can be effectively reframed and thus dedramatised. In doing this you will also gain greater insight into your own process of thinking, which is an immensely valuable asset.

Sharing this with your co-workers, as well as them sharing their thought processes with you, can further help to approach a given situation with greater regard for everyone’s mental well-being. This does not just improve your relationship with them, but also allows you to take a step back in the case of stressful situations. The pure act of thinking something along the lines of “I want/have/can do this task” can even have a noticeable influence on other aspects than our mental well-being, such as our physical well-being.

By looking into your process of thoughts and your mental well-being as well as by practising techniques such as divergent thinking you can get have a great impact on an interconnected system of well-being.

Who is Iulia?

Iulia Grosman is our key R&D specialist and researcher at AIM & Associés. Researcher and trainer, she provides training on Unleashing your memory and somatic education through Physical Well-being Pillars and Teleworking! You still have a body. As a trainer she works on all preverbal content, the movements within our body. As a speech scientist, she work on all verbal and musical content. Her passion is to bring both together.

To many people public presentations can be very stressful events.  Luckily, there are many things you can do both before and during your presentation to minimise your stress levels and maximise the success of your presentation.

A first crucial point is to know your audience: There are vast differences between talking to an audience consisting of several dozen journalists or to a group of students. You will want to change your presentation, style and preparation accordingly. In order to facilitate this, it is important to ask several questions to the organiser of the event you will be speaking at. Such questions may include the size and composition of the group, as well as the prior knowledge and general expectations of which.

Now that you have the knowledge you need the next key element is to ensure proper preparation. To effectively communicate your message, you need to be keenly aware of what your main objective is, and what your specific key messages are. Key messages are best kept limited to about three or four to not dilute your presentation too much and to allow you to remain focused. It is also worthwhile to spend some time thinking about how to introduce yourself and think about how to make a link between your experience, the topic and the audience during your introduction.

With all the preparation done, the final moment of your actual public presentation is now dawning. You will also want to manage your stress levels on D-Day itself. An important first thing to realise is that contrary to what people often tell themselves, nobody in the audience wants you to fail. If you remember to keep on breathing and to keep your feet on the ground, things will go a lot smoother than you can imagine. Another helpful tip is to establish a connection with the audience in the early stages of your presentation, for example by actively asking questions to the audience, can be a great way. If you keep these simple tips into account, your presentation itself should also be smooth sailing.

Knowing your audience and ensuring proper preparation will allow you to manage your stress levels

Who is Jean-François?

Jean-François Bertholet founded AIM & Associés in 2000. He supports participants’ intercultural competencies with the topic at stake and the organisational culture of the context they live in. He delivers the Oral Communication at the European School of Administration, as well as Client Friendliness and Induction Training courses for the European Institutions, agencies and bodies.

We can all benefit from getting a dedicated space for becoming aware and sharing the tomes of our emotional wellbeing and existence. Determining that the needs behind our felt emotions are can be surprisingly hard. When identifying our emotions and trying to express these it becomes apparent that for many of us out vocabulary when it comes to expressing emotions is sorely lacking. Expanding this vocabulary, thus gaining the ability to talk about them more openly and effectively can be a greatly beneficial to our emotional well-being.

Taking some concrete examples of situations where emotions played a role, as well as talking about these with a colleague can be very helpful in giving these emotions a place. You may also wonder whether your response to these situations has perhaps changed over time: are the emotions still just as intense as initially? Do I allow my emotions to manifest themselves?

A final interesting point is the fact that often the visual signs of our emotions can be interpreted (sometimes vastly) different from what we are actually feeling, or what we intend to come across. Learning how to pay attention and analyse subtleties can help you to better analyse the needs behind felt emotions and improve your emotional wellbeing.

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 Pillars for Emotional Wellbeing at the European School of Administration, as well as many intercultural competence building training courses for the European Institutions, agencies and bodies.

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.