Plus Delta's Principal Jeremy Lurey recently interviewed Linda Feinholz, an Executive Consultant with the firm. As a professional consultant, coach, speaker, author, and publisher, Linda has extensive experience in the areas of leadership development, executive coaching, and team effectiveness. For the past 20 years, she has supported domestic and international clients who faced complex business challenges. Linda is a skilled facilitator who brings an MBA-background and keen understanding of business operations together with an intensely intuitive approach to understanding group dynamics and working with teams to help them improve performance.

The reason we chose to interview Linda and share some of her powerful approaches with our clients, colleagues, and alliance partners now is because she makes a tremendous difference with everyone she coaches in a very short amount of time. We're sure you'll be glad you read this month's feature article with "Your High Payoff Catalyst" because it will likely help you get further, faster, and easier in the year ahead. By the way, our complete interview with Linda is available on Plus Delta's Presentations page at http://www.plusdelta.net/presentations.htm if you would like to hear it in its entirety.



JSL: Before we get started, can you first share a little bit about your background with our listeners and tell us about the types of people you typically work with? Also, I'm curious to hear what it means to be a "high payoff catalyst".

LF: My clients are actually the ones who gave me the High Payoff Catalyst title. They've told me for years, since my early employers when I worked with fast growing tech companies and again in consumer products like Avon, that I have a gift for quickly cutting through the chaos and confusion and

Managing Your Attention for Better Business Results continued here:

complexity and diversions to get everyone's attention and efforts on the activities that create high payoff results. It's those 3 steps each time.

Today, I use them to help business owners and key decision makers build and grow their businesses further, faster, and easier. The type of people I typically work with have a vision for where they believe the business should be headed, and a sense that it ought to work better, but they don't know how to create the changes.

JSL: I know that consciousness, intention, and beliefs are very important to you.  Can you explain to us what you have learned about these concepts, and how does that affect your ability to succeed? And in particular, how it affects your ability to help others succeed?

LF: One of the most challenging elements for each of us as we go about our days is to understand that we experience the results of the actions we take, and we choose those actions based on the choices we believe we have.

Imagine for a moment that you're trying to drive across Los Angeles at rush hour - ugh! Some folks are sitting at 5 miles an hour staring at the brake lights in front of them, and they are certain it's the only way to get to their destination. Some people choose to expand their options by shifting their hours of travel. Still others understand that Los Angeles is laid out like a grid. So even at rush hour, I have the choice of getting off the freeway and making use of surface streets and side streets and actually traveling as much as 25 miles an hour. This change in action will get me to my destination in half the time.

So there are options and trade offs that come when we broaden our belief in our choices and step into using them. Our beliefs are usually based on our personal experience, plus our information from others. In my coaching with my clients, I spend a substantial portion of my time adding new ideas to broaden their personal menu.

JSL: Linda, tell me a little about the vision for "Your High Payoff Catalyst".  And how are you going about achieving this vision?  I'm guessing that we can all learn a lot just by listening to and following your model for achieving your own vision for greatness!

LF: In a nutshell, I believe people can set their vision for what they want to achieve, set crystal clear goals, learn how to get their distractions cleared out, and design and stay focused on high payoff activities. My goal is to systematically teach the simple steps for this to my clients so that they become expert at using them to create the business and life they dream of.

For myself, that means taking the work I do into the growing arena of working with even more folks than I can work with when I'm doing my organizational consulting. I'm giving more people access to these tools by offering them the opportunity to join my telephone-based Master Mind groups and other programs where they can learn how to do this for themselves along with other like-minded professionals.

Those programs are very structured - 60-90- minutes per call for discussing a specific topic, and other calls that are for Q & A. Participants can join the calls live or listen to the recordings or read the transcripts later if they cannot make it to a particular call.

I also share my thoughts and tips on many aspects of personal vision, productivity, leadership, management, delegation, and so on in a weekly newsletter.

JSL: Let's talk a little bit about your 10-step process for achieving high payoff success. What are the most important things for being successful, and what key steps do you recommend to those just getting started?

LF: One of the most important keys for being successful is NOT time management, but attention management. When you take control over how you use your attention, then blocking off time on your calendar to work uninterrupted, preparing and using agendas for meetings, and bringing each discussion back to the question "What does this mean for the business?", it becomes very easy.

A second key is the first step of the day I teach all my clients. First, write down everything rattling around in your mind, so it gets said and is out of your mind for the rest of the day. Then, write down 3 and only 3 key results you want to achieve, that depend on you, that are YOUR focus of action for the day. Everything else, you'll calendar for another time OR delegate to someone else to get done.

JSL: We probably only have time for this one last question, and it may actually be the most important one I've wanted to ask you all day! As "Your High Payoff Catalyst", how do you help your clients get further, faster, easier?

LH: I've learned over and over again with my clients that using all our relationships and tools and systems and processes and ideas successfully depends on each of us owning and managing our attention. In order to accelerate their results, I teach my clients very simple, specific ways to focus, to get their distractions clearly identified and dealt with rapidly so they're out of the way, and then use high payoff actions to move their business to the vision they're holding.

JSL: Linda, thanks again for sharing all your insights and recommendations with us this afternoon.

Note: This feature was originally published and distributed in Plus Delta Consulting’s e-newsletter in February 2008.